I was in Moscow and St. Petersburg for a
total of 11 days and finally got to see the
“European” part of Russia. Each day that we
spent in these two cities was different, and
we saw a lot of Western Russia. I roke it
down into days, partly so I remember
everything we did, and partly so that you
can follow the action better and get a
better picture of the “two capitals of
Russia”.
Day 1: Arrival in Moscow
We had just flown across Russia, nine and a
half hours from Vladivostok to Vnukovo
Airport in Moscow. When we landed, we found
out that while we had been in the air, there
had been two suicide bombings in the Moscow
metro. Instead of fearing for our safety,
the first thing that we all worried about is
what time our parents back home would be
waking up and seeing that there had been two
explosions in Moscow, the day that we were
supposed to be arriving. We were all okay,
of course, but we wanted to contact home to
make sure that our parents weren’t worrying
about us. After we retrieved all our bags,
we piled into a private bus and drove into
Moscow in the middle of five-o-clock
traffic. We finally made it into the center,
drove around a little, stopping at the main
campus of MGU (Moscow State University). We
then drove to the Arbat (a pedestrian street
with shops that is closed to traffic). We
walked around the Arbat for a while, found a
McDonalds, and ate my first Big Mac since I
left for Russia. We then found an internet
café and were able to use that to email our
parents at home and say that we were okay.
Then we went to the train station, where we
boarded our train for St. Petersburg, which
left at 11PM.
[picture: me, Gabi (US), Margeaux (France),
and Joao (Brazil) at the airport in
Vladivostok]
Day 2: Tired
Our train arrived in St. Petersburg at 6:45
AM. We were all tired, dirty and wanted to
take showers (we had just flown across 7
time zones, and then took a night train ride
with little sleep and no showers). We just
wanted to go to our hotel, but we were told
that we would be going on excursion until
afternoon. The sun was just rising over
Petersburg, and despite my sleepiness, I
couldn’t help noticing the beauty of the
city from out the window of the bus. It has
a lot of low buildings, rivers and canals,
and I couldn’t help comparing it to Paris or
even DC, with all of their historic
architecture. After we ate breakfast, we
went to see the Petropavlovsk Fortress, some
statues and monuments, and an old Russian
battleship anchored in the harbor. We went
to a café, went to the “House of Books” (a
large bookstore), where I bought some books.
We returned to the hostel where we were
staying (located in the middle of St.
Petersburg). We took showers, relaxed, and
bought some food from a nearby supermarket,
which we ate for dinner.
[picture: me standing along the banks of teh
still-frozen Neva river, with the Hermitage
Museum in the background]
Day 3: Peterhof
Today we went to go see Peterhof, which was
a big palace outside of St. Petersburg,
built by the last emperor of Russia. In the
summer, they have amazing fountains that all
run off gravity, but they were still all
covered from the winter. I also found out
from my parents today that Georgetown is
giving us $25,000 in financial aid for next
year! I was so excited when I found out, as
this will help us a lot. Despite my
tiredness, I decided to start a new approach
of always being positive and finding the
bright side of things. Have to walk a long
way? Good exercise. Tired from the flight?
That means I sleep great tonight! I’m in St.
Petersburg with my friends, what more can I
ask for? It’s really nice to be in a good
mood, so I’m going to use it for the rest of
my last three months of exchange so I really
enjoy them.
Day 4: More points of interest
Today we say Yusupov Palace. It was in the
center of the city, and very interesting. I
liked it better than Peterhof, and it was
where Rasputin was killed. We also saw the
Isaac Cathedral. It was Holy Thursday today,
and it was interesting to see. Then we saw
the Church of Spilt Blood. In the evening
all the exchange students went to a Chinese
restaurant together.
[picture: Pachera (thailand), Ethan (US),
and I along a canal in Peter]
Day 5: Hoofing it
Our excursion today was on foot. We walked
along one of the many canals, went to
Kzanskiy Cathedral. Then we went to the
Hermitage Museum. It is a huge museum (one
of the largest in the world). It the square
outside the museum, they have a tall pillar
that stands without foundation of any kind.
It is the only of its kind in the world. For
dinner, we ended up buying food from one of
the local supermarkets and bringing it back
to the hostel. It was cheap, and it was
delicious (especially the lavash –
like a big long tortilla that costs < $1)
[picture: me with lavash]
Day 6: Last day in Peter
In the morning we went to Catherine’s
Palace, and then went to the train station
to drop our bags off at the luggage locker.
Then we had the rest of the day, until 9PM,
free to walk around. I went with Ethan
(American), Pachera (Thailand), and Mauricio
(Columbia) to go walk around. We walked
around Nevskiy Prospect, the main avenue in
St. Petersburg. We watched people. We went
to a music store, McDonalds, and saw all the
expensive cars parked outside the Grand
Hotel of Europe. Basically, we just walked
around for about 7 hours straight. But it
was a great way to spend our last day in
Peter, just walking around the streets,
watching the people. That for me is
sometimes even better than doing a
tour-guided group. We boarded the train, and
set off towards Moscow once again at 11 at
night.
Day 7: Moscow in the Morning
Our train arrived at 6:02 AM. From our
red-eye arrival, we all packed onto a
private bus right away. It was Sunday
morning, the sun was just rising, and it was
still cool and damp in the streets. We drove
through the almost empty Moscow streets
(enjoy it, they said, while you can—Sunday
morning will be the only time that the
streets are this empty). We stopped at
different areas around Moscow to walk around
for 15 minutes at a time and then move on
the next spot. We saw some monuments (see
picture of me with famous Russian actor),
the home of MosFilm (think Russian
Hollywood), Moscow City (a development of
brand-new, high-tech, bright and shiny
office, residential, and shopping
skyscrapers along the bank of the river),
and Victory Park. We went to go eat some
breakfast, and then we went to Red Square.
Red square actually isn’t really red at all,
except for the walls of the Kremlin. The
reason that it’s called “red square” is
because the current Russian word “red”
krasniy, in old Russian meant
“beautiful”, which is now krasiviy.
Anyway, we waited in line for about half an
hour, and then were finally admitted to the
Mausoleum where the (real) mummified corpse
of Lenin is kept. No one really knows if he
is real anymore, or if he is just a wax
dummy. Either way, it was serious business.
You can’t even take electronics into the
mausoleum, you have to go through a metal
detector and security check, and there are
guards that stand on every corner on the
inside, and you are not allowed to stop,
talk, or wear hats. They honestly probably
have better security for this corpse than
they did at the airport on the way here. So
I saw Lenin. He actually looked pretty good
for having been a dead body for almost 90
years, but his complexion was a little,
ahem, waxy.
We finally got back to the hotel, showered,
rested, and then got hungry. All the
restaurants around were expensive, so we
just went to a supermarket and bought food
there to last us the week. We bought
cereals, water, bread, cheese, meat, juice,
snacks, pastries, and other stuff.
Day 8: A cemetery, GUM, and a really
good cheeseburger In
the morning, it was raining a little, and we
went to a beautiful cemetery where famous
Russians like Chekhov, Yeltsin, and Molotov
(who invented the Molotov cocktail) are
buried. After that, we went back to Red
square, went inside the church with the big
colorful spires, and then were free. I went
with Gabi (one of the other Americans) to
GUM, or Glavniy Universalniy Magazin
(Or Main Department Store). It is a
HUGE shopping mall located right on red
square. It is beautiful inside (see
picture), and has a lot of expensive shops
(some were so expensive that they didn’t
even put price tags on their products… if
you have to ask, you can’t afford it). After
being in there for a while, we wandered a
little around the streets and happened to
find a “Steak Café”. Being Americans, and
seeing that they also had hamburgers made
with steak meat, we had to go in and eat
lunch. We were served some of the most
delicious cheeseburgers I have eaten in a
long time (it’s the first real burger I’ve
had since America). And it only cost about
$11 which isn’t bad considering it came with
fries and is right in the middle of Moscow,
where everything is really expensive. That
evening back at the hotel, all of the
exchange students reserved the spa area in
the basement of the hotel. They had a
swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, a sauna, and
billiards. It was a fun and relaxing way to
spend 2 hours.
Day 9: the metro a week after and
the Gulag museum
So today was another walking day, but we
didn’t just walk, we also used the metro.
Some of the students were a little concerned
about using it a week after there were 2
suicide bombers on it, but they reassured us
saying that “you can also die at any time by
a brick falling off a building and hitting
you in the head, so don’t be afraid.” Which
is true. So
we went on the metro, and there was actually
so much security and such that we didn’t
really have to worry. We went inside the
actual Kremlin, and saw the almazniy fond,
where they have a hug collection of
diamonds. There they have the second largest
diamond in the world, and a lot of other
precious stones, gold, and platinum. Then we
walked around inside the Kremlin, saw all
the churches there, and saw the big tsar
bell and tsar cannon. After that, Gabi and I
decided that we wanted to go see the Gulag
history museum. No one else, especially the
Russians, wanted to go with us to see that.
So we went, got lost a little, and finally
found it. It was very interesting, and very
sobering at the same time. There were gulags
all over Russia, including, I found out, in
my host city of Blagoveshchensk. They had
artwork, artifacts, and information. And the
museum only opened a few years ago, so this
is all relatively new. It was a really nice
warm day out (+20 C), and I spent part of
the evening sitting outside in the park near
our hotel without a coat or sweatshirt,
enjoying the nice weather.
[picture: self-explanatory]
Day 10: Tsaritsino and an old
acquaintance
Today, we went to Tsaritsino, which is a
palace/park compound outside the city. The
grounds themselves were very beautiful, and
the palace was as well. The palace had sat
as ruins for about 200 years, and they
finally within the last decade or so decided
to rebuild it. So it was all finished just a
few years ago, so everything inside was new.
When we were back at the hotel, Mauricio,
the Columbian exchange students, was talking
to one of his cousins through Skype. He said
that his cousin had actually been in Ohio a
couple years ago through Rotary youth
exchange. I started talking to him, and
found out that he lived in Sunbury and
Galena, right next to Westerville! I asked
him when he was there, and he said in
2007-2008, which was when I was preparing to
do my short term exchange to France. I asked
him what his name was, and he said “Juan
Pablo”! I knew this guy! We went to all the
exchange weekends together 2 years ago. Of
course, the first thing he asked me was
“what the hell are you doing in Russia?!”
It’s so funny how small the world is
sometimes. That night, I went with all the
exchange students to the Jazz club “BB
King”. It was a fun way to celebrate our
last night in Moscow.
Day 11: Tretyakov Gallery and going
back home (to Vladivostok)
This morning, we packed up everything, left
the hotel, and piled onto a bus. We first
went to the Tretyakov Gallery, a famous art
museum in Moscow. After that, we drove to
the airport, went through security and such,
and then boarded the plane back to
Vladivostok.
It seems like such a long time already since
I stepped onto the train in Belogorsk,
leaving behind Blagoveshchensk, and starting
my journey to Vladivostok, Moscow, and St.
Petersburg. It seems like even my life in
Blagoveshchensk was a lifetime ago, even
though in reality, I started my journey on
March 11.
That morning, I awoke at 3:30 in the
morning, and got in the mini-bus that would
take me and our group of Rotarians to the
train station in Belogorsk 2 hours away, in
order to take the express train to
Vladivostok. "Express", however, is a
relative term, as it took 22 hours to reach
Vladivostok, instead of the 32 hours that it
took me to get to Blagoveshchensk from
Vladivostok back in August. The train ride
was pretty uneventful. I traveled with a
group of local Rotarians, and one other
Rotaract member, Anton, to go to
Vladivostok. Our final destination would be
a small seaside town called Nakhodka, where
the Russian PETS (Presidential Elect
Training Seminar) would be held. On the
train, we slept, ate, played some cards, and
watched some TV. About halfway in our
journey, the train stopped in Khabarovsk for
half an hour, and Anton and I walked out of
the train to see the area around the train
station and stretch our legs. Unfortunately,
we couldn't stay long in the city, but I am
hoping to have a chance to come back to
Khabarovsk to visit, as it is an interesting
city, and I have several friends who live
there and would love to have me come visit.
Our train arrived in Ugolnaya (outside of
Vladivostok) early in the morning, and I
stepped off the train into the cool morning
air. It was cool, but not cold, the first
time that I could walk around outside
without needing a hat. We packed into a
couple of mini-buses and began our 3 hour
drive to Nakhodka. As the sky became
lighter, the earth that I had left six
months earlier revealed itself. I for the
first time in six months saw mountains, saw
the Pacific Ocean crashing wave by wave into
Russia, and smelled the familiar scent of
sea salt in the air. As we drove along the
coast, the thought occurred to me that my
home country, my rodina, was only just on
the other side of this ocean, and then I
felt the closest to home than I had been in
six months.
We arrived in Nakhodka, and right away began
our work at PETS. There were Rotarians from
all over the east of Russia there, and even
a couple Americans (the district governors
on the Alaska side). And the funny thing
was, all of these Rotarians who I had never
met before, already knew me. "So you're the
one from Blagoveshchensk". I already had a
reputation with them, and they already knew
everything about my life in Blagoveshchensk.
There were also Retractors from different
cities in Russia there. The PETS conference
was actually interesting and useful, as I
understood 90% of the information that they
presented at the conference. One of the
nights, I went with the other Retractors to
Partizansk, a city an hour away. I met Laura
Secor, another American exchange student
there. We hung out with the Rotaract group
all night. After the PETS conference was
over, I helped make presentations about
starting new Rotaract and Interact clubs in
Nakhodka and in Partizansk. After our last
presentation, we drove to Vladivostok, where
I met my host family.
For my time in Vladivostok, I am living with
the Rubtsov's in Artyom, which is a city
about 45 minutes outside of Vladivostok. I
am living with Vladimir and Lilia, and a
host brother, Kolya, who is 14. They also
have a daughter who was an exchange student
to the US, and now lives and studies in
Canada. They are really nice, and I really
enjoyed living with them. They live in their
own house there, and they have a German
shepherd and a cat, and they keep chickens
(which means we always have really fresh
eggs).
In Vladivostok, I am going to the lyceum,
which Eleonora Trubnikova (the head of the
youth exchange program) directs. It is
interesting for me, because it is the first
time that I have attended an actual Russian
"high school", taking different classes. In
Vladivostok, I also got to meet up with
Gabi, Torrey, Margeux, and Joao, the other
exchange students. It was really nice to see
them. While I was there, a new exchange
student, Mauricio, from Columbia arrived.
Everything there- the city, the students,
and the new exchange student, reminded me of
when I first arrived in Russia in August,
knowing nothing. And now I am looking at the
very same city, the very same people,
through different eyes, with a new
perspective, with a new understanding.
Before I returned to Vladivostok, I thought
that I would be super glad to see all the
exchange students, whom I hadn't seen for
over six months. But it was funny, when I
first saw them, they only wanted to speak in
English, and I felt myself gravitating
toward the Russians than the Americans. I
only wanted to speak Russian, and it took me
a while to warm up to wanting to speak
English again.
But I saw the city. And what a city it is!
It is a bustling port city, the "San
Francisco of Russia". There is going to be a
big international conference in Vladivostok
in 2012, so the city is going through a lot
of reconstructions, new roads, bridges, and
buildings. It is not a super clean city, but
it is full of life and character. The people
are more active, brighter in outlook, and
more interesting.
During my two week stay in Vladivostok,
there were two major blizzards. The first
one happened on my first day there, and I
was told that I was lucky that it happened,
because it covered up all the dirt which had
been there only one day earlier. Despite the
fact that the blizzard shut down some of the
buses and made the roads slick, I got to see
the city covered in a clean white blanket of
snow. And it was beautiful. I immediately
fell in love with the city, the sights, the
activity, the people.
In Vladivostok, I used the public bus system
extensively. Even in Blagoveshchensk, I
didn't use the real buses; I had always
taken the marshrutki, like vans that drive
around the city. So it was the first time
that I really took the "real" bus system in
my life. Vladivostok is a bigger city than
Blagoveshchensk, and has more foreign brands
and shops. They have a "Subway" there, and
it was the first time that I had eaten at an
American restaurant since I arrived in
Russia.
I spent my days in Vlad split pretty evenly
with both my Russian and foreign friends.
They all wanted to show me the city and hang
out with me, and they all gave me a little
different view of the city, even though some
of the points of interest that they all
showed me sometimes intersected. Even though
I was in Vladivostok for only two weeks in
all, the friendships that I developed with
the exchange students, but especially with
the Russians, are stronger than most of the
friendships that I developed in my six
months in Blagoveshchensk. I can definitely
say that I have good friends in Vladivostok,
and I cannot wait to return to them in June
before I leave for the US.
I also spent some time at the US consulate
in Vladivostok while I was here. The first
day I visited them, I got a small tour of
the inside, and then I went to lunch with
the consul general, and some of the other
officers. The next day, I went to the
consulate again to listen to a speech by a
Russian-born citizen who immigrated to the
US and eventually became an American
citizen. Before she left the Soviet Union,
she had earned a PhD, but when she arrived
in the US, her diploma was not recognized,
and she ended up re-earning her PhD in
American universities. She arrived in the US
with $200, and started working as a cleaning
lady. She ended up re-earning her PhD,
starting a family, and becoming a citizen.
She told her amazing story in Russian, and I
understood 99% of everything which she said.
After the speech, I went out to eat with the
Public Diplomacy Officer and one of the
Russians who work at the consulate. Then, on
Saturday, they invited me and the other
American exchange students to a "Chili cook
off" which they were having at their
townhouses. There were 8 different chili
recipes submitted, along with cornbread,
tortilla chips and salsa, and brownies, all
things that I hadn't even seen for almost
seven months. It was all very delicious, and
I enjoyed the company of all the Americans
who were there. All of these Americans were
there in Vladivostok for different reasons,
but we all shared the commonality that we
are all in Russia, and it was interesting
hearing all the different stories and
backgrounds which all ended up in the same
place... Russia.
I also found out from the consulate that
there is a new spaceport being built in the
Amur Oblast, where Blagoveshchensk is, and
that the mayor of my host city is actively
searching for another city to take part in a
"sister city" agreement, most likely with a
sister city that has connections with the
aerospace industry. I have been talking to
some Rotarians and local politicians back
home in Columbus to see if any one there
would be interested in taking part in a
sister city program with Blagoveshchensk,
since there is already a tie with the Rotary
clubs and through the exchange program.
The last few days of my stay in Vladivostok
I spent at an outbound exchange student
orientation at the "yunga" camp, the same
place where I spent the first few days of my
time in Russia back in August. The foreign
exchange students in eastern Russia and the
Russian outbounds for next year all came to
Vladivostok for Orientation. It was really
fun to see everyone. We made presentations
about our countries, and the Americans told
about our home states, held up an American
flag, and sang the Star Spangled Banner. It
was great. We also had a diskoteka on the
last night and we all danced and had a lot
of fun. That Sunday after the orientations,
Russia moved its clocks forward one hour.
But it was not only Russia's clocks that
moved forward, but the country itself. The
very same morning that Russia moved its
clocks forward, Russian president Dmitri
Medvedev announced that Russia would
consolidate its 11 time zones down to 9 in
an attempt to help better unify and connect
the opposite ends of the country.
On Monday morning, we all gathered at the
Vladivostok International Airport to leave
on our Moscow/St. Petersburg trip. We got
through security fine, and boarded the
plane. We flew with Vladivostok Avia, and
had a nine hour flight to Moscow. I slept a
little, ate Russian airline food, and
watched Russia beneath us, stretching out in
all directions. We arrived at the Vnukovo
airport outside of Moscow. When we landed
and were in the terminal, we learned that
there had been two suicide bombings in the
Moscow metro while we had been in the air.
So the bombings did not affect us, and we
would be spending the first 5-6 days of our
trip in St. Petersburg anyway. But the
events of my trip will all be in my next
post...
Hello All!
I would just like to let you knew of new exciting news. The web
site of the Rotaract and Interact Clubs of Blagoveshchensk is
now on-line at the address
www.actamur.ru !! I designed and wrote all the coding for
this web site. The Rotary club here is paying for the hosting of
the site. It you visit the page, there is a link at the bottom
of the page to "view this site in English". You can click on
that link and be able to read everything on the site. I set up a
blog that displays on the page under "news" that we use to write
about our latest projects and news. The link "photogallery"
links to a picasa web album with pictures from all of our
projects. I hope you enjoy it!
I also just participated in an international conference on
linguistics and foreign language education. I had a research
article that I wrote published in the collection of works from
the proceedings of the conference. I wrote my article in
English, but presented at the conference about my paper in
Russian. There were participants from all over Russia, France,
Germany, Japan, China, and America at the conference. I also met
with the US Consul general from Vladivostok, Tom Armbruster, and
set up valuable connections with several officers from the US
consulate in Vladivostok.
I will be leaving on March 10, to go to the PETS conference in
Nahodka. I will then live in Vladivostok for two weeks before
the outbound exchange student orientation. Right after that, we
will depart for a trip to Moscow and st. Petersburg. I will not
return to Blagoveshchensk until the middle of April.
I hope everything is going well back home, and I will see you in
July!
We just had another article in a local newspaper published about our
most recent project. Our Rotaract and Interact Club went to a
shopping center on Valentines Day. Our project was called "Time to
meet". We offered people the chance to write down what love is to
them, and we also created a sort of telephone number exchange for
young people who wanted to meet someone else. It addition, it was
"time to meet" Rotaract and Interact, and it gave our clubs great PR
not only at the crowded shopping center, but in the newspaper as
well. Enjoy!
Greg
Well, right now, it seems like the only thing in Russia
that isn’t frozen is the time. I have already lived here
in Russia for almost three months, which means that
already I am over a quarter of the way done with my
exchange year. I still have eight months left in Russia,
and a lot left to do and see, but even in these three
short months I have lived here, I have already
accomplished so much. The month of November went by
particularly fast for me because half of the month was
spent without school under quarantine. Although this
slightly slowed my progress with the language, it
allowed me almost three weeks of free time in which to
work on other aspects of my Russian life.
A couple of weeks ago, I started attending the meetings
of one of the many youth service groups in
Blagoveshchensk, called TEMA. This group carries out
various service projects around the city, including
working with children, cleaning the city, and various
other goodwill projects. It is a very friendly,
energetic group of young people. I don’t understand
everything at their meetings, but they help me with the
language and tell me what I need to know. It’s not all
work however. For example, this past Sunday, we all went
ice skating together. This was the first time I have
gone ice skating since I was very young, so I had pretty
much forgotten how to skate. At first I was pretty
unbalanced, but by the end of the night, and several
falls later, I had gotten the hang of it again. I really
like ice skating, and it’s good exercise too, so its
good that I still have all winter in which to go ice
skating.
One of the other things I have been working on is
establishing a Rotaract and an Interact club here in
Blagoveshchensk. For those of you who don’t know,
Rotaract and Interact are both service organizations
which are extensions of Rotary for college students and
high school students, respectfully. One of the Rotaract
members from Khaborovsk emailed me with the idea of
starting a Rotaract club here in Blagoveshchensk and
asked if I would like to help. I, of course, said yes. I
made a speech to my Rotary club (in Russian of course)
about starting a Rotaract club here. There are still
some mixed feelings about it from some of the Rotarians,
but the president of the club supports it, and
everything is already in motion to get the clubs
started. A group of Rotaracters from Khabarovsk is
arriving in Blagoveshchensk on Friday, and we will be
giving presentations at one of the local universities
and schools. We will try to gauge the interest in the
program and look for potential members. There will also
be a training session on Sunday for people who are
interested in becoming officers and leaders in the club.
I have been reading up on the two programs and outlining
ideas for them. This will be an interesting project, and
maybe by helping establish these clubs, I can use some
of my previous experience with Rotary and in Interact
club back home to help these clubs be sustainable and
leave behind a sort of legacy. I am excited to help with
this project.
Last Friday, I also went to the concert of Alexandr
Vikolob, our music teacher at the university. He is a
singer-songwriter, and we listened to him perform some
of his own original music, and some covers of other
songs. It was a great concert and I really enjoyed it.
However, there is an even more interesting story about
my adventure in getting there. The concert was held at
ОКЦ, which is in the center of the city, and a little
under a half an hour bus ride from my current host
family’s apartment. The concert started at 7 PM, and I
was supposed to meet some people there at 6:30, so I
left my apartment at 6:00 to get there on time. Before I
continue, however, let me quickly explain how the buses
in Russia work. Of course there are the normal large
city buses, but there are also маршрутные такси (or
taxis that follow a route). They are basically big vans
that can hold up to 13 passengers. They follow a
specific route, but anywhere along the route, you can
tell the driver to stop. They are faster than normal
busses, and they come usually every 5 or 6 minutes. I
was on the bus, and we were not quite halfway there,
when suddenly the bus driver stopped at one of the bus
stops and made everyone get off, and then drove away.
I’m sure he explained why he did this, but I didn’t
understand him. But no worries, I thought, the next bus
will be here in about five minutes and I’ll just get on
that one. Sure, I might be a little late, but Russians
are usually not really concerned with being exactly on
time, so they probably won’t notice. However, the next
bus that went by was full. While I was waiting for the
third bus to come, of course, a train had to go by and
block the road from where the buses come for five or ten
minutes. I had never seen a train go by there before,
and of course, the first time had to be when I was
already running late. Finally the train went by and the
third bus came—also full, of course. I was beginning to
panic, so I just got on the next bus that came. It was a
different number with a different route that I had never
been on before, but it would take me within a few blocks
of my destination. I was sitting by the door, and at the
stop before I needed to get off, someone didn’t close
the door when they got off, so I closed it. But I guess
I closed it a little too hard, as the door then got
jammed, and the driver started yelling at me in Russian
(which you don’t want to have happen). He took a
crowbar, got out of the bus, and pried the door back
open and shut it again, gently. Usually on the buses,
you can’t get the doors to close all the way, so you
have to close it hard, but I guess I picked the wrong
bus to do that on. Once it was fixed, I apologized to
the driver, and asked him to stop at the next stop.
However, I think he was still mad at me, because he
didn’t stop at the next one, and only stopped at the one
after that because someone else has to get off. By now
it was already past 6:45, so I proceeded to run the
remaining three blocks to ОКЦ. I arrived at five till
seven, out of breath, trying to explain to the others,
who had been waiting for me since they arrived at
precisely 6:30 (of course), why I was late. I think all
they understood from me was something about a bus
driver, a train, full, a different one, a door, and
running. Oh well. I made it to the concert, and they
forgave me. But I think the thing that I will remember
more from that night is not the concert, but the bus
ride there, which seems to remind me of some saying
about “life’s not about the destination, but about the
journey.” Right.
Well, now for the weather report on the 10. Already, it
has reached -25 degrees Celsius (about -13 Fahrenheit
for all you Americans). For those of you who don’t know,
that’s cold. It’s cold enough that you don’t want to
breathe through your mouth, but if you breathe through
your nose, everything in your already-running nose
instantly freezes. It’s an interesting sensation, but
you get used to it after a while. I can’t wait to see
what will happen when it reaches -40… But unlike in
Ohio, where in the winter it snows and then melts,
creating a big slushy mess, here in Russia, when the
snow sticks, its here to stay, probably until the end of
winter. It is constantly below freezing, and unlike in
Ohio, they use sand on the roads instead of salting
them. This means that everything isn’t destroyed by salt
by the end of the winter, but the roads look really
dirty. After our first major snow a few weeks ago, all
of the streets in the city were literally sheets of ice
for at least a week. The condition of the roads would be
enough to shut everything down in Ohio, but here,
nothing changed. Russian drivers may seem to be a little
reckless at times, but they are also very skilled
drivers (for the most part), and even driving on sheets
of ice, managed not to create pile-ups at every
intersection.
Now for my language report. As I said before, my
progress slowed a little bit because we weren’t in
school for a few weeks, but I have still made a lot of
progress since my last report. Even though we weren’t in
school, I was still speaking Russian all the time and
watching Russian TV and whatnot. During our break, I
watched more TV than I usually do. But even now, I am
starting to understand more and more. I like watching
Russian comedy shows when they are on. I am beginning to
understand some of the jokes and laugh at them, which is
a big step in my language progress. One of the things
that I’ve found out is that they like to talk about
Obama a lot, and also Hillary Clinton. Since we are
right across the river from China, we also get a couple
of Chinese channels broadcast. The name of their
channels is “CCTV”, which is kind of interesting, and
slightly ironic, considering the fact that there is
still government censorship of the media in China, and
they named their TV station “Closed Circuit” TV. One of
their channels basically just shows the Chinese military
doing drills and exercises all day. The other channel
has some strange medieval-china soap opera-ish show, and
also a cooking show titled “A Delicious Dish of Dog”.
I’m not kidding. But anyway, back to my language. We are
now back in school again, so I’m getting back into the
swing of that. Also, the daily journal that I have been
keeping since I arrived in Russia, I began to write
completely in Russian, which is a big step and also good
practice for me. I’ve also learned some interesting new
Russian words and “Russian-isms.” For example, the
Russian word for “roller coaster” is американские горки,
which literally translates as “American hills”. Also
they call the “at sign” (@) собака, which means “dog” in
Russian. Some other interesting observations: раб means
“slave” and работа means “work (as in your job)”; the
Russian word мир means both “world” and “peace”; the
verb пытать means “to torture” and the reflexive verb
пытаться means “to try (literally- to torture one’s
self)”. Also in Blagoveshchensk, there is a chain of
malls called Хуафу “Huafu” which is owned by a Chinese
company. I was told by my host mom (who studied Chinese)
that Huafu in Chinese means “The wealth and prosperity
of the Chinese Nation”. It s just kind of funny, because
nobody here knows that they’re shopping at a mall named
after the wealth and prosperity of China. Also, the
three different “Huafus” in the city are named “Big
Huafu”, “little Huafu”, and then, of course, there is
“heavenly Huafu”. I just found this kind of humorous. I
continue to get more comfortable and automatic with the
language every day. I can now have conversations with
people on the phone. I have begun to think in Russian, I
am also now sometimes having dreams with Russian words
and sentences in them.
Everything is still going great here in Russia, and I am
still not homesick. I have been in contact with some of
the other current exchange students from our district,
and who are also in Russia right now, and it is always
fascinating to hear about how their lives are going. We
are still just now entering the beginning of winter, and
I have many cold months ahead of me. But I think that if
I can survive this Siberian winter fine, I’ll be able to
make it through any other challenge in front of me. It
still almost seems surreal that I am actually doing
this. Molly McKinney, who was an exchange student to
Germany last year, told me two days before I left for
Russia, that once I return to the States, the past year
will just seem like a dream. It already is like a dream,
but a good dream, one that I don’t want to wake up
from—at least for another eight months…
PS- today is Thanksgiving! The only reason I remembered
is because on the news this morning it showed Obama
doing his presidential turkey ceremony at the white
house.
I have uploaded new pictures from the past month. I have
created a second picasa album for these as each album
can only hold 500 pictures. You can see these new
pictures by clicking on the slideshow for my first album
and then clicking on the link to view all of my albums.
The second album is titled "russia pictures part 2". I
have also uploaded some more artistic photos.
Well, today, Saturday, the package that my parents sent
to me five weeks ago arrived. Five weeks! But I was
lucky. They said it usually takes about 2 months from
the US. Here in Russia, they don't deliver the package
to your door, but they deliver a notice to your mailbox
that you have to go to the post office to pick it up.
And it is a Russian tradition that whenever you receive
one of these notices that you got a package from home,
you have to dance to get it. So I did a little jig.
Actually picking up the package was surprisingly easy
though. We just went to the closest post office, gave
them the notice, and signed a piece of paper. I havent
opened the package yet, but I think it contains the much
needed autumn warm clothes that I needed a month ago
that will be very useful now that it is sub-zero and
snowing. Haha. But I was really excited to receive the
package. The reason that the government post is so slow
here is that all mail that comes into and leaves the
country has to be processed through Moscow, which is on
the opposite side of Russia. DHL could have had it here
in 2 weeks, but it would have cost about $400 I think.
So it was worth waiting, and now that I know that my
packages wont dissapear into a black hole or fall off
the truck somewhere between Moscow and Blagoveshchensk
on a deserted stretch of siberian highway, I wont have
to worry for five weeks the next time my parents decide
to send me something. Thanks parents! (PS if you send me
another package now, it might arrive by the holidays...)
UPDATE: I opened the package and somehow my parents knew
that it wouldnt arrive until winter so they sent me a
lot of warm winter clothes. I really loved getting the
package and thank you a bunch for sending it! All these
warm clothes will really help.
Quarantine. It's what all of out schools have been
doing for the last 2 and a half weeks. There was a
large breakout of the flu in Blagoveshchesnk, and
therefore, all the schools in the city, including my
university, closed on October 28, and will not
reopen until the 16th of November. At first it was
just the normal flu. Then ther were a few dozen
confirmed cases of swine flu here in my city. So I
have been without school for over two weeks now. But
I havent gotten sick yet, so I guess the quarantine
worked. It was just kind of strange to see everyone
walking around in surgical masks everywhere. But
then I found out that it was strange for the
Russians too, as this is the first time that they
have ever worn surgical masks in public too. But
don't worry, it's quieting down now, and I'll be
starting back at the university on Monday.
Meanwhile, I have been busy, still learning Russian,
celebrating halloween (which still isnt really big
in Russia-- when we walked around in the streets all
dressed up, most people just looked at us funny),
and working on starting a Rotaract club here in
Blagoveshchesnk. So I've been staying busy.
Привет товарищи! It has been almost a full month since
my last blog post, but don't worry-- they haven't sent
me off to Siberia yet... wait a minute... scratch that
last thought. And despite the title of this post,
October hasn't been very red either. That is, except for
the first week of the month. October 11 was Election Day
in Russia, and for that first week, there were
campaigners (including the communist party with all
their red flags) all over the place. It seemed like
everything centered on the election--- all the
billboards, radio and TV ads, and just about anywhere
there was space was covered with political ads. My host
dad ran for the city duma (council) as an independent
candidate, but did not win.
Despite "Red October" not quite living up to its
namesake, the autumn here has been filled with the
brilliant yellow, red and orange colors of the falling
leaves. Autumn here was really beautiful, but even as I
write now, autumn is already over, and old man winter is
waking up. It has already dropped below 0 degrees
Celsius, and we have already had snow that stuck to the
ground. Needless to say, I have found out that our idea
of "winter" clothes is a lot different from the
Russians'. I have been told that in the winter, it will
be in the -20s and 30s Celsius, and even occasionally
dip into the -40s Celsius (-42 degrees is where the
Celsius and Fahrenheit scales meet, so you can get an
idea of how cold it will get). I thought that my wool
pea coat that I brought with me would make a fine winter
coat, but if you want to see something similar to what
we will be wearing for coats in the winter, turn on the
Discovery Channel and take note of what they are wearing
when they show people on an expedition to the South
Pole... So I have been slowly building my winter
wardrobe. One thing that was really nice though, was
that when I went to go buy some winter boots at a shoe
store that one of the Rotarians here owns, he gave me a
3000 ruble ($100) pair of boots for free!! It was so
nice and I was very grateful.
Also at the beginning of the month was the 60th
anniversary of the Peoples' Republic of China. And since
China is right across the river from us, we got to enjoy
their beautiful fireworks display.
I have also now been to several Chinese restaurants
here. The Chinese food here is so much better than the
"Chinese" food we have back in the states. Delicious!
Some of the Rotarians also took me horseback riding last
Sunday. It was the first time that I have ridden, but it
was great... but the next day I was so sore from riding.
There, when we were riding, I met Alexandr Sergeievich,
a young talented musician who plays guitar and piano,
sings, and writes his own songs. He also teaches a music
"class" at BGPU (My university), and when he found out
that I was interested in Music and also played the
piano, he invited me to come. So I went. It is not
really a "class" but more like a lot of students who are
interested in music who come together to play and sing.
So I am now kind of in a choir, and it also gives me a
chance to play piano sometimes. We meet two nights a
week, and so far, it has been really fun. Plus, I think
that singing in Russian will help me improve my language
skills. It’s also fun because sometimes we sing songs in
English, and the other students get a kick out of when I
belt out some Beatles or "Johnny B. Goode" in English.
But it's great.
School: Well some of the Rotarians met with the rector
of the university, and he said that I could continue to
study at the University for free so that's good.
Earlier, I had wanted to transfer to one of the local
secondary schools, primarily I think because I just
wanted to make a large group of Russian friends. But now
I have realized that the University class will be best
for me. I'm basically getting 25-30 hours a week of free
Russian language class. So I think I will stick with the
university.
The past few weeks, the flu has been going around the
university, and a lot of students have been getting
sick. Last week, it was so bad that one day, we only had
three students in the class. Our teacher said that right
now, the hostels are more like hospitals. But I have
remained healthy and flu-free through it all. The only
kind of medical issue I had was that I just yesterday
started wearing my contacts again, after maybe three
weeks without them. My eyes got really red for a while,
and I thought that maybe there was an infection on my
contacts. At home (in the US), every night after I would
take out my contacts, I would rinse them under hot water
before putting them in my contact case with solution.
And when I got to Russia, I continued to do the same
thing. However, the only thing is that they don't drink
their tap water, and it didn’t connect that it probably
wasn’t a good idea to rinse my contacts in that water
either. But I have learned.
This past weekend, I also went on a small excursion with
my Russian language class to a "nature base" 30 km
outside the city. It was me, my Chinese classmates, my
teacher, and her young son and niece. We cooked food,
walked around a pond, hiked through the forest, and
enjoyed the nature. It was really fun and beautiful
there.
One cool thing was that I found Tabasco here in Russia!
It may not sound like a big deal, but I really like
Tobasco, and their pepper sauce here is not spicy
compared to our standards of spicy (It is like that with
their mouthwash too... while ours actually stings when
you use it, theirs is like mint flavored water). I
looked all over for tobasco, and I finally found it one
day at a store, so I had to buy it. And the best part
is, I don't think my host parents like it, so I get the
whole bottle to myself!
Russian: My Russian has improved so much in the last
month. I can now hold actual conversations with people
(on familiar topics). I talk with my host parents all
the time. I can even talk a little bit to strangers and
salespeople now, so I'm not completely helpless. Russian
grammar is hard, but it is like one of those 2000 piece
puzzles that you spend several months putting together.
At first it seems impossible, but then you start
connecting pieces, recognizing patterns, and it starts
coming together. You don't put it together on your own--
that's no fun-- you recruit friends and family to help
you assemble it. And its not likely that you will get
bored of it-- it will keep you busy for a while. And
then when you have finally completed it, you see all
those pieces in a new and beautiful way. That's kind of
like how Russian is. But I have slowly been falling in
love with the Russian language. It is a very intricate,
descriptive, and interesting language. English can not
even come close to the depth of the Russian language,
and I look forward to mastering this language. For
example, in English we have the verb "to go". But in
Russian they have different descriptive motion verbs.
There is "to go by foot" (идти), "to go by conveyance" (ехать),
"to go somewhere and then return on foot" (ходить), "to
go somewhere and return by conveyance" (ездить), "to go
on foot on one specific occasion" (пойти), "to go by
conveyance on one specific occasion" (поехать)... you
get the idea. And there are verbs like that for flying,
swimming, going by boat, and riding too. And then there
are also the Russian words that describe actions and
concepts that we don't have a single word for in
English. Some of my favorites are: слепец (one who fails
to notice the obvious, also "blind person"), замучивать
(to torment the life out of, to bore to death), and my
favorite: добивать (to deal the final blow, kill, finish
off; completely smash). Russian is full of descriptive
words like these. And then there are many words that
have identical or almost identical dictionary meanings,
but mean very different things in different contexts. As
you can see, Russian is like a challenging but fun
puzzle that I am putting together.
Until we meet again! До встречи!
(Check out my new pictures!)
October 2009 Report – Greg Miller (Blagoveshchensk, Russia)
Since my last report I have only made one small trip. I traveled
about 30km out of the city to a nature park on the Zeya River,
with my teacher and students of my Russian as a foreign language
class. This was on Saturday Oct 24. There were eleven of us
total, and we drove there in two cars of two of the students who
drive. Each of us were expected to bring/cook something, so I
made blini and bought nutella to bring along. Each of us
contributed 430 rubles ($13-14) for the cost of all the food. We
went to the nature base and just relaxed and hiked a little
through the woods and up a cliff. It was really fun. My host
parents and the Rotary President approved of this trip as I
asked them in advance.
I
am still living with the Nazaruks, and am having no problems.
They have not had kids before, so they don’t really have a lot
of experience with having a teenager in the house. However, I
found out that my host mom is pregnant and is expecting sometime
in March, and that is probably why my families switched order,
so I wouldn’t be living with them when they are expecting a new
baby. But everything is good. They are really nice and cook
well. I am eating well, but I don’t think I am overeating. I
don’t think I have put on a lot of weight since I arrived, but I
have also been walking everywhere and occasionally going the gym
of my host counselor to work out. And when my host counselor
returns from India on Nov 25, I will start doing yoga again, as
she taught classes, but is now in India learning more yoga. I
still see Victor Patlay, the husband of my host counselor. When
I needed to buy some clothes, he went with me and helped me
shop. Also, we sometimes still eat lunch together, and I
sometimes go to his apartment to play on their old piano when I
feel like it. He said that I am welcome at their home anytime,
and I sometimes just go there after university to relax if I
don’t want to make the trip all the way to my host parent’s
house.
School:
I
am still studying at the university and it is going well. A few
weeks ago, they started asking me for money for my course
because of a misunderstanding, but some of the Rotarians talked
to the rector, and he said I could continue to study for free.
At one point, I wanted to leave the university and go to the
secondary school, mostly because I just wanted more friends.
They say that I can still switch on Dec 1, but now I think that
I will stay at the university. The Russian language program
there is truly good, and now I have started some
“extracurriculars” and I do not feel that I need to go to the
school to satisfy my need for friends.
On
Sunday, October 18, I went horseback riding in the country with
some Rotarians. There was no cost to me. It was really fun, and
it was the first time I have ridden on a horse by myself. One of
the people who came along with us was Alexandr Sergeievich. He
is young, maybe 25 or 27, and he is a talented musician,
singing, playing guitar and piano, and writing his own songs.
Anyway, we were talking and he learned that I was interested in
music, and I found out that he is a teacher now at my
university, and invited me to his “class”. It’s really not a
class, but just a lot of students who come together to do
musical stuff. I am now going to his class every Monday and
Wednesday evening. There, some people play guitar, drums,
violin, and keyboard, but it is mostly like a choir. I have been
singing, and playing a little piano. It is really nice, because
I have met some more Russian friends. I have been learning
Russian songs. It is really fun and cool to hang out with all
these other people who are also interested in music, and they
are also interested in me. So I have started to actually meet
more Russian teenagers like me, instead of always being stuck
with my Chinese group. So that’s good.
I
have gone to all the rotary meetings, but now that I have the
music class on Wednesday evening, I cannot go to the rotary
meetings because they are at the same time. But the club
president said it was ok for me to go to the class instead.
I
also went to the Russian Banya/Sauna once with some of the
Rotarians. It was really relaxing. At first, I thought it would
be uncomfortable, because we would be naked, but then I just
reminded myself not to think like an American, and it was fun
and really relaxing. The Rotarians paid for me for the sauna and
also paid for me when we went to a restaurant afterwards.
My
stipend of 2000 rubles was paid to me this month. That’s about
$60. Since the last report, I have spent about 3500-4000 rubles
(about $115-130). My money has been spent on clothing, a new
textbook, bus fare, new contact solution and random purchases.
Also as it gets colder and colder (it is already in the thirties
and dipping into the twenties (F)), it is necessary to buy more
warm clothes, so I will be making some larger purchases soon. I
thought I was prepared, bringing my wool pea coat, and wool
socks and such, but our idea of warm clothes is different from
theirs. My “thin” pea coat and wool socks will last me only
maybe until November, and then I need to “upgrade” to the
Russian warm clothes. One thing that was really nice though is
that one of the Rotarians here owns a shoe store, and I needed
winter boots, so I went there to go pick some out. After I had
found some really nice and warm winter boots, he then gave them
to me free of charge! And they cost over 3000 rubles (over
$100)!! It was so nice and I was very grateful.
You
all probably know about my “cancer” that I had. I thought that I
had a swollen “mole”, and my parents and their doctor associates
thought it was cancer, and things got out of hand quickly. But
after I called and talked to my mom (the first and only time I
called home since my arrival) we found out that it was only a
“skin tag” and was nothing. But it will give me (and the
Rotarians) a good story. Luckily, only 3 or four of the
Rotarians in Russia found out about it, and not even my host
parents found out, so everything was smoothed over. I also have
not worn my contacts for a couple weeks. The reasons are
twofold. The first is that in America I would always rinse my
contacts under hot water after taking them out every night, and
I did that here too. But it didn’t connect that people don’t
drink the tap water here, and it probably wasn’t a good idea to
rinse my contacts in that water. My eyes got red for a while,
and I might have had a small infection, but I still had some
antibacterial eye drops that I used and now my eyes are back to
normal. However, this week I have not worn tem because a lot of
the Chinese students at school have been sick with the flu, and
I didn’t want to be handling my contacts when everyone was sick.
In Heihe, the Chinese city across the river from
Blagoveshchensk, there have been several dozen confirmed cases
of the swine flu, but I don’t think there have been any in
Blagoveshchensk. However, I just found out on Tuesday Night the
27th, that because so many students are sick they
have shut down all the schools in the city, including my
university, until the 9th of November. So I now have
a week and a half of no class. And then my friends are either
sick or out of town right now. So I will be doing some self
study, working out at the gym, and trying to keep myself busy.
In the words of Sarah Maurer, “Boredom and loneliness are the
enemies of exchange students”. So I will try to stay busy until
school resumes again and I can see my friends again. But don’t
worry, I’ll be fine.
I
am still learning Russian with breakneck speed. In our Russian
class, we are finishing our first textbook and moving on to our
second, which we will finish by the end of September. I am not
yet sure if I will be taking exams or not. But the combination
of the Russian class, and then going home and talking with my
family and friends in Russian, has really helped me learn fast.
I am not only doing our assigned homework, but also doing
self-research in the language, learning vocabulary and grammar.
Every day, while I eat lunch, I turn on the TV and watch Russian
TV. I have watched some Russian movies (or American movies in
Russian) with the Russian subtitles turned on too so I can
listen and read at the same time. I have watched Fight Club, the
Pianist, Sahara, and a Russian movie about vampires in Russian.
One of my friends here is going to give me one of the Harry
Potter books in Russian and in English, so I can read them side
by side and learn that way too. I have had some contact (writing
only in Russian) with some of the other exchange students here,
and I think I am ahead of most of them, judging by the fact that
they usually respond to me in English. But I can’t wait to see
them in the spring when we will all be together for one of the
Rotary district conferences. Now, I have pretty much forgotten
how to speak French and German, as Russian is the first thing
that jumps to my mind. I am starting to think more in Russian. I
don’t think I have dreamt in Russian yet, but I think I have had
Russian words in my dreams. As I learn the language more and
more, the more and more I love it. Russian is such a descriptive
and rich language. It is fun for me because there is always
something new, and I don’t foresee it ever becoming boring. It
is fun learning all the subtle differences between similar
words. Russian is a much more precise language than English, and
with a mastery of the language and how to use it, you can
express complex ideas and emotions, with a wide variety of
different connotations and different contexts. Just as an
example, verbs of motion in Russian are very interesting. In
English there is the one verb “to go”. But in Russian, there are
different verbs that mean “to go by foot in one direction”, “to
go by foot in one direction on one occasion”, “to go somewhere
and return on foot”, “to go somewhere by conveyance in one
direction”, “to go somewhere by conveyance in one direction on
one occasion”, “to go somewhere and return by conveyance”, and
for each of those there is a different verb for going by plane,
boat, foot, car, etc. Almost every verb in Russian has different
forms to express the specific situation of the one action. There
are so many cool examples of subtle changes in meaning with
different words, but I don’t want to bore you with all of them.
But I find it fascinating and very interesting. I finished
reading Crime and Punishment (in English), but I can already not
wait to read it in Russian when I get better. Just after not
even two months of Russian, I was able to pick up in the
translated English, some of the reasons for the way it was
translated, and I was also able to pick up some subtle
connotations, that cannot be expressed in the translated
version, just by knowing what Dostoevsky was trying to say in
Russian. Fascinating!
We
have already had snow and sub zero (Celsius) temperatures.
Autumn is pretty much over and it is almost winter.
I
also found out that my new, year-long visa (valid until 31 Aug
2010), is also multiple entry, which means I will be able to
visit China. I also found out that to visit Heihe, the city
across the river, I will not need a Chinese Visa, but when I go
to Harbin and Beijing in the Spring, I will need one (but the
Rotarians here will help me take care of that). Seeing that my
Visa is valid until august and my medical insurance is valid
until 31 July, I would like to stay here until the end of July,
if my host club agrees with it, and if one of the families is
willing to host me for an extra month. But I don’t need to do
anything about it quite yet. I’m just letting you know of my
intentions.
I
am also updating my blog with a more interesting account of my
last few weeks, and also uploading new pictures (and Mr. Kelly,
I tried to put captions on most of my pictures this time so you
know what you are looking at…)
I
hope everything is going well back in the states. I am still in
good spirits here and haven’t really felt homesick at all. On
October 21, I “celebrated” my 50th day in Russia. I am counting
September 1 as my first day in Russia, as that is when I arrived
in Blagoveshchensk. For all those exchangees to be who are now
making their list of countries, I really recommend that they
consider Russia. Have them read my blog, and if they want a
challenging, but great experience, I would really recommend it.
The language is challenging, but Russia is so cool! It is so
interesting for me, just because I am interested in global
politics, to be living here. Russia has been that “other”
superpower, that seemed so strange because of the language and
former political difference, but once you get past the language,
Russians are pretty similar to Americans, and it is just so cool
to recognize that we really aren’t that different, and that we
share a common bond. Russia is only for the strongest
candidates, not just because it is a more difficult language and
country, but because right now the Youth Exchange program in
Russia isn’t that huge and is still growing. There are maybe
only 10 foreign exchange students in Russia this year with
Rotary, so one bad student or failed exchange makes a big impact
on the Russian program. The Rotarians here are still learning
the ropes, so it is important to have good exchange students.
For example, right now my host city, Blagoveshchensk, can only
accept one student at a time, as they only send one student each
year. This is primarily because they only have enough resources
and families for one student at a time. But one of my goals by
the end of the year is to encourage growth and recruitment in my
host club to help grow the program. The club here is almost 20
years old, but it is still not that big. I look around and see
so many small businesses here, and wonder why there aren’t more
Rotarians. But maybe if I can encourage them to grow, they can
also expand their youth exchange program.
When foreigners come to Russia and comment how majestic and
interesting the Trans-Siberian Railway is, Russians reply:
“Yes, it is – for the first 8 hours…” Indeed it is true.
After 52 hours of flying, three days of orientation, and 32
hours on the Trans-Siberian Railway, I finally arrived in my
host city of Blagoveshchensk on the morning of
Tuesday, September 1, 2009. I was warmly greeted by my host
Rotary club, and then I was taken to the home of my host
counselor, where I promptly fell asleep and subsequently
lived for the first two weeks of my life in Russia.
My journey to Russia was unproblematic but could be
described as one of the longest experiences of my life-
especially the 14 hour, trans-Pacific flight to South Korea.
I left Columbus excited and eager to face the year-long
journey that was ahead of me. When I arrived in Chicago, I
happened to run into MC Bones, who I had previously met at
the Otterbein Outbound Orientation in Westerville. She was
on her way to Croatia and it was nice to have her to talk to
during my several-hour layover there. Once in LA, I met up
with Laura Secor from Oregon, who was also going to Russia.
We flew the rest of the way to Vladivostok together. My first experience landing was interesting, but very
Russian. On the runway, there were people on bikes, and
soldiers with machine guns. They had us get off the plane
and all load into a bus, which took about 10 minutes to get
everyone on. The bus then proceeded to make a right turn,
drive 10 feet, and stop, where we all disembarked.
At the airport, we at first could not find anyone there to
meet us. We stood there for maybe 20 minutes with no one
there to meet us, while taxi drivers kept asking to take us
into the city (in Russian)… finally we found someone there
for us. They didn’t know what we looked like, but they
didn’t seem to be trying very hard to find us either.
We had a three-day orientation at a day camp on the Russian
coast in Vladivostok. The beaches and coastline there are
beautiful. Several local Rotarians and past exchange
students were there for the three days to help. We met each
other, went over rules, and they talked about culture shock
and cultural differences. We spent one day having a picnic
on a Russian island, and the US Consulate General in
Vladivostok also came to talk to us. There were 4 Americans,
a Brazilian, and a French girl. None of us had previously
studied Russian, except for the Brazilian, who had had a
year of study in the language. I was the only one there who
had chosen Russia as their top country.
The Thursday after
I arrived in Blagoveshchensk, I started
my studies at Blagoveshchensk State Pedagogical University.
There, I am studying Russian as a foreign language with the
Chinese students who have come to Russia to study. Language
classes here are different than in the US, as they are only
taught in the foreign language you are learning, so my
Russian teacher speaks only Russian to us. The classes are
going well, and they ar helping me learn the language very
quickly. There are not that many people here who speak
English, so am am picking up the language very fast. It is
kind of funny though, because people always look at me weird
when they walk into my classroom and se me sitting with all
the Chinese students because they think I am Russian.
For the first two weeks, I lived with the Patlays. Larisa
Patlay is my host counselor, so living with them for a
couple weeks allowed me to get to know them well. Then on
September 15, I moved in with the Nazuruks, my first host
family. They live further outside the city, but they are
very nice. They own an advertisement agency here in the
city, and Alexander, my host father, is also running for the
Duma, or city council. Election day is coming up on October
11, so there are a lot of political ads. Two of the major
political parties here are the “Communist Party of the
Russian Federation” and “United Russia”.
Here, I have been walking or taking the bus everywhere, as
they have a very good bus system. On one of the weekends,
the Rotary club took me on a canoe trip on the Zeya river.
We spent all day canoeing, eating, and enjoying the
beautiful Russian countryside. The Russian countryside and
nature is like nothing we have in the US. It is so
beautiful, and even just their normal countryside and
forests are comparable to some of the best national parks we
have in the US.
Russian food is different. They eat a lot of soup, potatoes,
meat, and sour cream, but they also like a lot of fresh and
natural foods. They like blini (dipped in sour cream),
pelmini (dipped in sour cream), soup (with sour cream in
it), and sometimes just sour cream. They also drink a lot of
tea… and I mean a lot. I probably have at least 5 or 6 cups
of tea a day, every day. But the tea here is really good and
I have grown to love it.
When I first started at the university,
I started taking
French as well, but I found it too difficult to study a
foreign language in a different foreign country… plus there
are no English-French dictionaries here. I have Russian
classes at the university 6 days a week, and I study Russian
at the university about 30 hours a week, not including
homework and my own self study. Needless to say, I have been
learning very fast, as when I arrived I could speak almost
no Russian and now I am able to hold short conversations
with people and pick up phrases and sentences when others
are speaking. I am fitting in here very well. All of my
friends and family here are very interested in the US and in
my English. I have been teaching them some English and they
are teaching me Russian. So far, I have gone to the movies,
played billiards, gone shopping, visited a museum, and
walked around the city many times with friends. I have
learned how to cook Blini (like thin pancakes). I feel kind
of… American though when they ask me how long it takes to
walk from one end of my city to the other, and I can only
tell them how long it takes to drive… Luckily, there is not one McDonalds or Starbucks here, but
they still have brands (such as Cadillacs, Reebok, and
Addidas) that we have in America. There are also many malls
and shopping centers, and even a Chinese market where one
can buy stuff directly from “Made in China”. It is strange
as you walk along Lenin Street and across Lenin square (the
two places that seem to be in every Russian city) and can
see China across the river.
In the winter, the river will freeze, as temperatures reach
-30 to -40 degrees Celsius (They laughed at me when they
asked me how cold it was in Ohio in winter and I replied
that -10 (Celsius, about 5 degrees F) is the lowest it gets.
They laughed even harder when after they asked if we get a
lot of snow and I said yes we do, I pointed to somewhere
below my knee indicating how deep our idea of “a lot” of
snow is. Right now at the end of September, it is already
getting cold. In the mornings, it is in the 30s
(Fahrenheit), and there is already front on the ground. The
first day of autumn was just a few days ago, but it is
already starting to feel like winter.
Russians do a lot of things differently. Everyone lives in
apartments, most Russian women wear heels (and are very
beautiful), they don’t wear shoes in the house, and they
hang dry their clothes and don’t use dryers. Some things I
found out the hard way—such as the hot water faucet is on
the right side and not the left, whistling in the house
means that you have no money, and sometimes, they shut off
the hot water supply for the entire city for a week for
“repairs.” (Each building does not have its own hot water
heater like we have in the US, their hot water is piped
throughout the city from the cooling towers of the local
power plant, which means that you get hot water fast, but
you don’t want to drink it…) In addition, I have also found
out that bears do not indeed roam the streets in Russia…
I have only been here a month, but all I can say is that
Russia is amazing! There are things and people that I miss
in the US, but I do not feel homesick. Whenever I start to
feel like I just want to go home, I just remind myself how
cool it is that I am living in Russia, and everything is
fine.
Yes, here in Taiwan
they have two New Years. They also are now entering the great
year of 99!
It is the year of the tiger and so you see people on the street
everywhere advertising things dressed as tigers
So what have I been
up to lately?
I shall now go
through my month of January and part of February because it has
beentruly
spectacular.
1)
Relaxing. I have been to hot springs on numerous times, leading
to me thinking, once again, why don’t we have these back
home? Or maybe we do and I have just never encountered one
because I have lived my life being content with the freezing
cold, pee and chemical filled, pools that we have back home. But
seriously, the idea of goingbackto
thosedisgustingthings
is repulsive. Hot springs are natural water, with happy, naked
people (except for the mandatory hair cap) who just relax and
enjoy life. Better yet? It only costs NTD$40 (about USD$1.25)
for two hours in the public ones. Amazing!
2) Traveling. My
friends and I have been exploring old temples lately because we
found that there is just something super interesting in going to
these beautiful places and meeting people who are perfectly
happy to help you help them perform whatever ritual it is they
want to perform. In other words, I have been living my life to
the fullest, and, though still studying, am also taking the
gorgeous few months I have left to goof off, enjoy everything,
and
best, spend time with everyone. We have gonehiking,
swimming, dancing, to hippie drum circles, and still had time to
go to Chinese class. That is the best multi-tasking I have
accomplished in a long while
( even better than studying for a Spanish test while
rowing, and that was good. I
can still do power 20’s
in Spanish.)
3) Realizing. Things
not only about life, love, and happiness, but also stuff that
really, really
makes sense to me. I have found that, though I
am in Taiwan on an exchange to technically learn about the
people here, how they live, think, feel, and speak, I have
learned more about myself in this short time than in all my life
put together. And that scares me. I know that it is good, nay
GREAT, to grow as a person while on exchange. All of us
exchangers were told to expect it. And though I should be
thrilled that I can even notice
these changes, it makes me think, what about everyone else? Are
the changes even more apparent for them? Will my relationships
with people back home ever be the same again? Or, what if the
changes that I
feel aren’t apparent at all? What
if to everyone who sees me I just look…
Well, one year older? What if I can't survive without my
newfound friends? Because right now that's how it feels.Truly,
we are all going through the same things here and its heart
breaking to know that it will all be over one day.
and, finally,
4) Learning. I am not
only taking the learning up a level ( one hour a day now. I have
no clue how I found the time
)
I am also having my little host sister ( truly my best Taiwanese
friend here. I love her to death <3 ) help me with learning how
to type now that school is out for February. My Chinese is
greatly improving, even though I did plateau there for a while,
I’m
back on it. My host family and I will be taking a trip to Gao
Shung for ten days this Friday ( tomorrow!!). I am super excited
for the chance to use my new learned phrase,
“Gong xi fa tzai, hong bao na lai?”
Which means
“Happy New Year, Where's the red envelope?”
. In these mystical red envelopes is
… CA$H!!! <–
yay!!
ADD: I hope everyone
is well and I’m
sorry that I haven't blogged in a while, I’ve
been super busy and it doesn't help that my host dad decided to
cancel the intranet.. xD Anywho, today is my Birthday (Swet
sixteen!
I’m
legal in Denmark, Holland, and (maybe? the germans arnt sure
what thier laws are because they dont follow them?..) Germany!
Whoot Whoot!!) so even though I love writing stuff for you guys,
I have some other stuff to do
Such as,
C.E.L.E.B.R.A.T.E.!!!!!!!
LOVE YOU ALL!! HAPPY
BDAY TO ME
<3 AND HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEARS!!
Is it just me, or this year is going
extremely fast? I mean, I really only have 7 months left, and
seeing how fast these three have gone by, well that just makes
me push myself even harder to learn the language! So, since I
wrote my last letter a huge number of stuff has happened.
For example I :
Øhave organized a Halloween Party for my class/
school
Øhave gone to an amazing Halloween Party organized
by the Rotex here ( I swear, I want to grow up to be as cool as
they are. Awesome!)
Øhad Chinese medicine practiced on me… pretty
relaxing actually J
Øwent to a hip-hop dance competition (amazing!!)
Østarted learning a taekwondo routine
Øhad school birthday ( super fun! We need this back
home!)
Øraced a 100 m dash competition for my class
J
Ørented a boat at green lake
Øwent to numerous Chinese concerts where my host
mom was performing
Øtried stinky tofu
ØWent hiking with my host dad (he is great :D )
Øwent to hot springs
Øpainted t-shirts
Øparticipated in a ping-pong competition at my
school J
Øhelped write a script for the talent competition
about Harry Potter – in CHINESE
Øbecame and honorary Dutch
Øwent to an international festival for our district
and I was from Holland J
Øwent to a rollercoaster park with my host family
Øwent to the zoo
So, as you can see from the above, my life
here has been about as amazing as can be. I can completely say
that I love my host family and I will be sad to move families (
December 20th ), but it will also be good for me to
experience new things. The most memorable things are probably
hiking, rollercoaster park, and the school birthday. I am super
excited for winter here (they keep telling me it doesn’t snow,
but I cant always hope ;) ) and I can not wait for the school
dance next month for Christmas! This will be my first Christmas
and I am really looking forward to eating cookies and such :D
There are just a few things that would make this year better,
one of them being unlimited space in my bags for going back,
because everything is sooooo cheap here, and so amazing! I
swear, I didn’t like shopping before I came here, and now I
really absolutely completely truly ADORE it! Another thing would
be if I had a bottomless pit for a stomache. The food is
(still!) delicious (yes, even stinky tofu!) and I am super
scared of gaining wait! But then again, its kind of like a
souveneir of Taiwan, right? Haha Anywho, life is truly amazing
and I really advise EVERYONE to at least visit Taiwan, if not
live here!
Tatiana
安妮
Lundström
Happy Monthaversarry!
Yup, that’s right; I have officially been here for one month as of
today. Where is ‘here’ you ask? Well, the great island of Taiwan!
Taiwan is a small island (about 13,800 square miles) and lies off
the southeastern coast of China. Taiwan’s highest point is… who am I
kidding? You can’t tell me that you are really more interested in
geography than you are in hearing about my amazingly awesome time in Taiwan, can you? Didn’t think so
J
Okay, so we shall start at the beginning.
I arrived here on the 19th
of August,
2009 at about 11:30 at night. When we walked through the
exit (I say ‘we’ because there was a big group of us exchangers that
met up in Tokyo airport, about 20 of us arriving at the same time)
we heard this crazy loud cheering start. It turns out that every
host family had come with friends and such so we ended taking up
about half of the airport. The Chens were holding signs for me and
it was just such a relief to see them after about a day of
traveling. We all had to take multiple group pictures and I ended up
getting home at 1! I have three host sisters here, but only one of
them, Sara, was able to come to the airport. Sara, as it turns out
was leaving the next day for her year long exchange to
Canada.
The first week was a blur of learning how to
not get lost on
the MRT, how to find my way home, and how to say simple phrases
(such as ‘excuse me’) in Chinese. My host Mom is great and was
amazed at my excitement over the smallest things. One of the
funniest moments was when I was trying to ask her what the word for
‘that’ was and kept saying “what is ‘that’?” in Chinese. This lead
to some confusion, but we eventually figured it out. My host dad
took me hiking one day and it was excruciatingly hot. When we
finally got to the top, I was ready to drink a few gallons of water,
and was very happy when they offered me a cup of refreshing tea. As
it turns out, it was hot tea. Soooo refreshing. Haha but the
people here are great
J
That weekend we had our Orientation Weekend for my district.
I loved
meeting everyone! We have kids from Brazil, Russia,
Germany,
Hungary, Mexico, and such! I have officially decided that no one
boring ever comes to Taiwan because they are all so interesting and
ready to become fluent in Chinese. They are all so fun and the
weekend was full of dancing and meeting all the Rotarians.
J
On the second week, school started.
I am attending Nanhu Senior
high, and enjoying every moment. The exchange student counselor
(there are three of us at my school) is super nice and has arranged
all these great classes for me. I am now in Chinese class at school
about 7 hours a week, and then have 6 extra hours with a rotary
organized class two times a week. At school I am in cooking class,
music, sports, dancing, and health. I am also in multiple clubs,
including Hip-hop club which was horribly painful on my legs after
the first day. Ouch! But everyone at my school, and everywhere in
Taiwan, is awesome! They are so nice and are just so happy that you
are trying to learn their language, no matter how horrible your
accent is.
I have now gone to night market a number of times and can’t wait for
the next time! My classmates took me last week and we had the best
time just walking and eating for about 4 hours
J
I have yet to try any
horrible food because it’s all just so delicious! The only food I
have said no to has been stinky tofu, just because its smell is so..
stinky? Haha but I will be trying it later today as I promised my
host dad I would. The night markets are so much fun because you can
go there with maybe NT$400 (about $12 US) and get so much food and
play so many games it is ridiculous(ly amazing!)
So far I have gone scootering up a mountain, gone to give a speech
at my rotary club (super awesome!), gone to Taipei 101 (it was
HUGE), gone to night market, gone to the beach (warm ocean water!),
gone to Deaflympics (amazing!!!!), and just had so much fun hanging
out with everyone. Life is so fun here, and even with the horrible
heat it is so beautiful that you can’t stay inside for long.
My favorite part of Taiwan so far is... Well everything
J but the part that has
made the biggest impression is how nice they are. Everyone. I keep
saying this because it is so true. When you are riding the MRT you
can just start talking to someone and within a few minutes they will
be asking you to go out to see some monument or go to night market
with them and it’s just so amazing. I can truly say that I am in
love with Taiwan Thank you Rotary
J
Arriving
Hey everyone! I just got in to Taipei, Taiwan late
last night which was about middle of the day for you. The
flights were fun, and I met up with a total of.. 15 exchange
students on one flight! It was pretty great
My host family is awesome and very very nice.
I actually got to
meet my sister, Sara before she left for Canada this morning,
which was unexpected but great. The will have a past
exchange student from 5 years ago named Scott come here tomorrow
and he will live with us for a week while he looks for an
apartment. It turns out that my host mom's brother (host uncle?)
is sick, so we will drive down to the southern part of Taiwan
sometime next week to visit. It's a 5-6 hour car drive. Also
next week I get a phone! Today, my host mom and I went out for lunch
and tried to find a children's book store so that I could learn
phonetics, so as to be able to write. Tonight I will find out my
Chinese name!!!! :D haha but as it turns out, I am actually not
living in the country as I feared, but in the northern part of
Taiwan's second largest city (Taipei being the first) so it is
pretty amazing. Also, it is super hot. Like, really
really hot And people wear normal clothes! Well I
will be back on the computer in about a month, so just forward
this to whomever you please.
Studying… what to do?!
September 3, 2009
Oh gosh. So life is still
amazing here and I love everything, but
I have one problem:
Chinese. You know, that really hard
language that no one ever seems to try and learn
because it’s just impossible ? Yea, thats
the one. And, not that people don't try and help
here, its just that most of the time (in class I
mean) they have to pay attention and write and learn
stuff, and thats not the problem. The problem is the
stuff that they write and learn and listen to is
Chinese. Yea. So, surprisingly
enough, the easiest classes here are math and
science, not because they are actually easy, but because they have reconisable things like
numbers (1,2,3,4,5…) and diagrams
(cant give an example better than the table of
elements, even though it too is in Chinese). This
may seem bad, but I don't told you about the
amazing people I go to school with
They are nice, kind funny ( even though I don't
always get it) and just so helpful to the poor and
language-needy. I would start naming names, but I
cant really say or spell any of them yet so we will
just stick with the idea that everyone who
goes to Nanhu Senior High is (to my knowledge) some
of the nicest people in the world. I swear. I mean,
would you sit there for an extra hour
after school helping the little forigner
who doesnt really understand it even after you explain it, do her homework?
I know I wouldnt
have the patience. But somehow, all of them do. They
give me tours of the school, show me where the pool
is, how to get home, which uniform (the uniforms
are a whole new story) to wear on which day, ect! So
in conclusion, even though it is a very difficult
language, I have many people trying (in what I
sometimes think of as in vain) to teach me Chinese.
Go Taiwan!
School in Taiwan
September 2, 2009
School. That is a very weird word. It can be a
beginning for some, and an end for others. Though
many students in the U.S. complain about the horrible bordom that can go on, it is nothing
compared to what Taiwanese students go through.
There are so many differences, both good and bad.
Time: U.S. students
Taiwan students
5:30
am still
sleeping getting up and
dressed
5:45 still
sleeping eating breakfast
6:00 lowly waking
up grabbing umbrella & lunch$
6:15 kinda
awake already out the
door
6:30 up and getting
dressed walking in the rain for 10 min
6:45 eating
breakfast on MRT on the way to
school
7:00 grabbed books and
on bus still on MRT for an hour
7:30 at school chatting with
friends at school in class (just started)
Hello again
everyone! It’s
been a long time since I have written my last report - almost
six months! Can you believe it?! I know I can’t…
Time sure does fly here in Argentina. Looking back on the last
five months, it seems my life has been constantly on the go; hot
days by the pool highlighted by memorable moments with dear
friends and amazing journeys to far away lands. I’m
never doing the same thing and I never know what I will be doing
next week or next month. I have grown rather fond of this sort
of existence. An existence where nothing is certain, everything
is exciting, and every day is a new adventure.
First of all, if I
sound unenthusiastic writing this, it’s
because I am. You see, I have pretty much written all of this
once before. This report was after all originally intended to be
my FIVE month report, not my SIX month report. Sadly however, a
bit of bad luck came my way a couple of weeks ago when the
family computer at my previous house was fried by a power surge
of some kind … wiping out the entire hard drive which contained
my nearly complete five month report. More tragically still, I
lost about 3,000 photos that I had taken here in Argentina. So
remember kids! : Always save your stuff on an external hard
drive, or bad luck will kill your memories and your Rotary
reports!
THE LAST FIVE
MONTHS IN A NUTSHELL !!
So after my first
month here, almost immediately after I submitted my last report,
things got a little bit tougher for me. The novelty of a new
life and a new culture began to ware off and I began to become
very homesick and exasperated by my life in Catamarca. I was
running around so much, never stopping to smell the flowers or
to enjoy the moment, that I began to dislike my new life in
Argentina.
It seemed every
day was the same: wake up way too early, eat a boring breakfast
that would make me even hungrier than if I hadn’t
eaten anything at all, rush off to school (late every day),
doodle, throw paper balls, teach my English teacher English,
learn stuff I learned sophomore year of high school, more of
nothing, get picked up by my host mom after school, go home, eat
lunch (one of five meals on a rotating schedule prepared by the
maid), sleep for about an hour if I was lucky, rush off to swim
practice (usually late because of the bus), and use all of my
remaining energy to swim for two and a half hours. This is where
things got tricky, and what led to my depression and fatigue. In
my energy-less state after practice, I had two options: I could
either go home and pass out in front of BBC world news (probably
better for my sanity), or I could stagger, half-asleep, six
blocks south to the center plaza where all of my friends were
hanging out and spend time with them like an exchange student is
supposed to. It was too hard for me to think that all of my
friends were hanging out and having fun and enjoying their
exchanges together without me, so I chose the second –
I chose to kill myself every day and deprive myself of rest. Bad
idea. After a couple weeks of this, I was officially depressed
and annoyed with Argentina. It was just not possible to put
myself through all of that every day, and with so much on my
plate, I was bound to become worn out. I couldn’t seem to choose
what I wanted to do - and I wanted to do everything possible!
Sadly, it was not at all possible. I was burned out. Then, along
came a magical thing that saved me from the darkness and
sadness, THE ROTARY 4815 SOUTH TRIP! I will explain the South
Trip in more detail later on, but in as few words as possible,
it was three weeks traveling on a bus through Patagonia with 60
other exchange students from all over the world! Needless to
say, it was incredible!!
By the end of the
South Trip and upon my return to Catamarca after what seemed
like months, I was rejuvenated and fell back in love with my
city and my life on exchange. I made the crucial decision to
stop swimming, a very difficult decision to make, I switched my
class schedule allowing me to go in to school about an hour
later, and I prioritized all of my social and extracurricular
activities. Finally everything was perfect and balanced. I was
doing everything I wanted and never felt rushed, worn out, or
stressed like before. School continued pretty uneventfully for
about a month after the South Trip, and thus began the greatest
summer of my life; ridiculously long, hot, and full of
adventure. I did a whole lot of sleeping in, a whole lot of
laying out by my pool, and even more traveling! I went to Buenos
Aires, the Atlantic coast, Chile, Cordoba, a whole lot of time
at my family’s summer house in the mountains, and lots more!
TRAVELING: MY NEW
FAVOURITE THING !!
· THE ROTARY 4815
SOUTH TRIP 2009
I could
probably write a book about everything I saw in the south of
Argentina (AKA Patagonia), so I will try to keep this brief.
Traveling a total distance equal to going from Cleveland, Ohio
to Los Angeles, California AND BACK - me along with a group of
58 other exchange students from all over the world, spent three
weeks on a bus visiting some two dozen cities and seeing some
pretty amazing once-in-a-lifetime things. Through 6 Argentine
provinces, we got to see, among many other things, Killer Whales
hunting baby elephant seals in the wild, the world’s only
growing glacier, the world’s southernmost city, and South
America’s lowest point. We climbed on a glacier and drank 10,000
year old water, pet wild penguins, and swam in mineral rich hot
springs. And through all of these things, as if it could not get
better, I was having the time of my life with a great group of
extremely interesting international exchangers. We sled down
hotel stairs on mattresses in Puerto Madryn, had secret roof top
parties in Calafate, had snowball fights in Ushuaia, and ate
world famous chocolate on a boat in Bariloche. All in all, I
highly recommend visiting Patagonia with some good friends in
your lifetime. You will never regret it.
· BUENOS AIRES
Right after school
ended, Rotary informed us of a one week long trip to Buenos
Aires. After a last minute phone call to Rotary the day before
the trip, I managed to reserve a spot for myself... something
which I had forgotten to do earlier! So with that stroke of
luck, I headed east on a rotary bus full of about twenty
exchange students from my district. It was the perfect amount of
people, something which made the trip that much better. It was
not an overwhelming 60 like on the south trip, and it was not a
small boring group either. It was perfect and intimate and we
all really enjoyed each others company!
We made it to
Buenos Aires early on a warm December morning, stopping at a
nature park called Temaiken, just outside the city. We proceeded
to head in to the city and settle in to our hotel. The next day,
we went to a small town north of Buenos Aires called El Tigre.
El Tigre is a town without roads, cars, or shops. It is a maze
of canals with thousands of small islands, filled vacation
houses and boats for as far as the eye can see. It was
definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. Later on in the
day, we headed back in to Buenos Aires, stopping in the famous
Puerto Madero –
the home to most of the city’s
skyscrapers and historic colonial architecture. There, we also
got the change to see a TGI Fridays and a Hooters! (God bless
American imperialism!) We then made it to one of the most
beautiful areas of the city, Recoleta. There, we walked around a
very high class mall and visited the Hard Rock Café where we ate
milkshakes and chocolate chip cookie pie! (note: Argentina is
not equipped to reproduce American milkshakes or cookie pies… so
if you’re
disappointed when you come to Argentina, don’t
be surprised.) Later that night, we got to go to a Tango show on
the Avenido 9 de Julio. It was easily the most exciting thing
from the trip and I was tango-ing for weeks after that! The next
day, we woke up early to return to Recoleta. We went through the
famous Embassy district, which is where many famous colonial
mansions with breathtaking architecture have been turned in to
modern international embassies of countries from all over the
world. One of the most beautiful buildings you may ever see is
the French Embassy in Argentina. If you ever get the chance, I
highly recommend seeing it and seeing a few pictures. You will
value them for years. Of course, the American embassy doesn’t
disappoint. It makes up for in size what it lacks in external
architectural beauty. We proceeded to fly through the week with
visits to such important historical landmarks as La Casa Rosada,
Evita’s grave and the historic cemetery that holds her remains,
the obelisk in the center of the worlds widest avenue, El
Avenido 25 de Mayo, La Boca and much more! It was the perfect
opportunity to see the city for the first time and skim the
surface of a lot of different things. I am really looking
forward to returning and being able to return to the places I
went but with more time and the chance to really meet these
beautiful places rather than just see them.
· THE COAST –
VILLA GESELL, CARILO, PINAMAR, MAR DE LAS PAMPAS !!
One normal
day when I was in my room watching BBC World News in my room, my
host dad enters and informs me that we would be going to the
beach after New Years! SURPRISE! I was shocked and overwhelmed
with excitement! So on the first of January, I arose, half
conscious after the famous Catamarca New Years party, and headed
east with my family towards the coast. Unfortunately, my host
sister couldn’t go with us to the beach, so it was just my host
brother and my host parents in the car for about 11 hours. But
the commute was definitely worth it. We arrived at our beach
house weary from traveling and immediately headed for the water.
It was quite nice to relax and just chill out and do nothing for
two weeks while getting tan and seeing more of this beautiful
country. My host dad’s brothers and hilarious (awkwardly cougar)
aunts popped up and we were set for a big family vacation! Our
house was in Villa Gesell, but we also traveled to such famous
locales as Carilo and Pinamar, the “cheto” (rich snobby) beaches
of Argentina where all of the celebrities go! Everything on the
coast, but especially Carilo, was absolutely beautiful and the
sea food was to die for. I returned to Catamarca refreshed,
relaxed, and most importantly, tanner than all of my friends!
· CHILE
One day, I got an
email from Rotary in Catamarca. It briefly said something like
¨We will be going to Chile for the weekend. Bring your
passports.¨ - with two days notice - but that’s
just how we roll in Argentina!! So thus begins an unforgettable
adventure to Chile!
We left at about 4
a.m. from Catamarca, driving through Catamarca province and
reaching the Catamarca-Chile border about mid day the next day.
Due to the quantity of exchange students and the lax attitude of
the border police, we ended up staying at the border for about
five hours waiting for the paperwork to be filed. It turned out
to be somewhat of a blessing in disguise. We got to sit atop the
Andes mountains, where the air is too thin for plants to grow or
animals to survive, and watch the sun cross the sky at the top
of the world making unforgettable memories and passing the time
with laughter. It was however slightly dangerous - for if you
ran too fast, or even briskly walked, you would pass out due to
a lack of oxygen - AKA what I did. Anyways, we finally made it
across the border, for another five hours of traveling until the
coast. We stopped to eat the most delicious seafood I have had
in almost six months and made our way to a nunnery where we
slept. Late that night, I experienced one of the most
frightening experiences of my life, AN EARTHQUAKE!! The whole
nunnery started to shake and we all ran outside screaming almost
as if in an instant. But luckily it was not very strong and
didn’t last very long and caused almost no damage in the town
where we were staying. It was still extremely disturbing to be
completely powerless against the forces of nature…to have the
whole world shake around you, helpless to do anything about it.
I can only imagine what it must have been like for Sara’s town
and all of the people affected in Chile who experienced the
earthquake some weeks later on the 27th of February…
We spent the next day at the beach (**NOTE: I was on both sides
of South America, at both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans within
two weeks of each other, COOL, NO?!**) and doing the normal
touristy things on the coast before meeting with Chilean Rotary
for lunch and heading back home back through the towering Andes
mountains.
Among other
things, our trip to Chile was a great experience to see how
another South American country works and to compare it to the
country that I have gotten to know so well over the last six
months. It was also a great chance to learn and see first hand
how different two countries can be even though they are fairly
similar. Argentina and Chile share a common language, but the
similarities pretty much stop there. Their cultures, histories,
traditions, and people help to distinctly define them and set
them apart. For example, most Americans might think that Canada
is culturally the same as the states, but once you actually
visit Canada, you realize that it is in reality a very different
place. Some things I noticed that I think were different in
Chile were 1) it was cleaner 2) the food was slightly better 3)
the cars were cooler, and 4) apples were cheaper. Other than
that, Argentina wins in everything else. So I’m going to have to
say that I still prefer Argentina to Chile, SORRY SARA AND
BROOKE!!!
LA FAMILIA VEGA
RAMIREZ Y LA FAMILIA NIÑO: MY HOST FAMILIES !!
One of
the charms (or pains, depending on who you ask) of being an
exchange student is having the chance to live with a bunch of
strangers for a number of months and getting to know each one
intimately like ones real family. There are however, many ups
and downs involved. An exchange student cannot possibly love
absolutely every moment with and everything about their host
family –
for if this is impossible with ones real family, then it can
certainly not be expected when living with a host family. My
first family (I have been in a new house since Friday the fourth
of February), the Vega Ramirez family, was a good example of the
average exchange student experience.
Living with my old
host family was pretty normal, nothing too interesting at all -
just going through the motions really. As I said in my last
report, it felt a lot like I was staying in an empty hotel. They
talked to me, but they rarely talked
with me. It
may be hard to understand this situation as I experienced it, so
imagine living with a roommate in college. You don’t
really feel overwhelming feelings of friendship for them, but
you still engage in the daily polite pillow talk about the
weather, school, and the like. It was much like this in my old
house. My host parents asked me about school, what my plans for
the day were, and … talked about the weather. Not much more.
This is by no means a fun way to exist, especially for me, a boy
coming from a weird family full of people and laughter and
general craziness. Things were made even less enjoyable when my
host brother returned from his exchange year in Denmark to live
with us for two months or so before going to university. Much
like his parents, he does not possess a whole lot of personality
and hardly talked to me. If it were me coming back to my house
after a year abroad and there were an exchange student in my
house, I would smother them with questions about their country,
their exchange, their life in my country etc. I would take them
places, introduce them to my friends, and annoy them with my
overbearing sociability. My host brother on the other hand had
no desire to do any of these things. We are simply very very
different people with very different personalities. Because of
all of these factors, I ended up pretty unhappy by the end of my
time in their house. It wasn’t
all bad though –
it just wasn’t
very fun and certainly not perfect. Another example of me
looking at the glass half full, something which seems a lot
easier sometimes. My first host family was extremely generous
and kind and I think they genuinely cared about me, but we just
didn’t have that real family connection that can be difficult to
find and that I would have hoped for.
My second and
final house (Catamarca Rotary only gives two host families) has
been my home for about a month now. I moved in and immediately
felt at home and I am happy to report that I am extremely happy
with my new house. I live with my host mom, host grandma, and of
course, the corky maid. My host mother is absolutely perfect for
hosting an exchange student. She is open minded, flexible,
generous, and not to mention, extremely hospitable and friendly.
We talk every day for at least a couple of hours (a marked
change from my last host mother) about anything and everything.
She is hilarious, witty, slightly crazy, and always making me
laugh. She always asks me about how I am feeling and tries to
help me out in any way she can, and is constantly telling me
crazy stories, crude jokes, teaching me slang and bad words, and
is simply fun to be around. We also have a little family rivalry
going that makes life much more enjoyable and hilarious. The
director (principal) of my school, also my host mom’s boss
because she works in my school, has become the object of humor
in my house. Due to an ongoing dislike (or even hatred) of the
director on my host mom’s part, we are constantly gossiping
about her and it can be quite enjoyable. I will come home from
school and my host mom will run up to me excitedly to tell me
some gossip she heard and I will tell her about something funny
the director did that day at school and we will giggle and have
a gay old time!! It‘s great!
My new house
itself is fairly perfect as well. I live right smack-dab in the
middle of the center of the city, which may be hard for North
Americans to understand, but in a quadratic South American city,
the closer you live to the center, the better. I am close to
everything. I also switched schools because my old school was
about 20 blocks across the city (walking 40 blocks a day to go
to and from school? No thanks.) and my new school is a half a
block away, perfect, no? My room is big, with a computer (even
though it’s probably from 1996 and is slower than any existing
computer), with air conditioning, and three beds! SLEEP OVERS!!
The maid washes my clothes, irons them, folds them, does the
dishes, cleans my room and makes the beds, and pretty much
everything you can think of … so I might return to Westerville
as a bum and have a hard time surviving in college where I will
have to do everything by myself. Silvia (the maid) is really
corky and friendly and cooks really delicious food whenever I
ask. So as you can see, the second half of my exchange in terms
of my host family, could not be better! IT’S PERFECT!
INTERNATIONAL LOVE
!!
A
short time ago, my good friend from France, another exchange
student in Catamarca, and I thought up the idea to have a party
to raise money for the children’s hospital in Catamarca - a
party to be called “International Love”. We talked with Rotary
in Catamarca and the rest of the exchange students and are now
deep in the planning stages and trying to find business in
Catamarca to sponsor us and to donate money for the party. It is
however a pretty huge job and has taken up a large chunk of my
time in the last month or so. We still have to sell about 500
tickets, print off posters to hang around the city, put
advertisements in the newspapers and on the radio, and spread
the word any way possible. We first succeeded in finding a
location for the party through family connections when the owner
of a community center sort of thing in Catamarca agreed to have
us, only to back out and agree again at the last minute before
the date we had set for the party. Because of this, we had to
scrap our earlier date and move it to some time in May. We are
still planning everything and are looking forward to giving back
a large amount of money on behalf of Rotary to the city that has
hosted us!!
WHAT I HAVE
LEARNED HERE IN ARGENTINA AND HOW I HAVE CHANGED !!
As you
may or may not know, being an exchange student is, among many
other things, an incredible learning experience. All of the
adventure, the beautiful landscapes, the great people that I
meet, and the unforgettable memories that I have made with dear
friends, are all made even sweeter by the fact that while I am
doing all of these things, I am also learning an unthinkable
amount about myself, my country, and the world. Being an
exchange student allows the unique opportunity of viewing ones
own culture and ones own self from the perspective of an
outsider, from the perspective of someone from a different
country and culture. I have been surprised to find that the more
adapted I have become here, or the more Argentine I have become,
the more I have been able to learn about myself and my country.
One of
the most profound and notable ways I have changed is my new
appreciation for my old life back in the states and my new found
patriotism. From my family, to the government, to the sidewalks,
to even the smallest and most insignificant details about life -
I have a new respect for the United States of America and I will
definitely return humbled and more aware and appreciative of the
little things that make life in America so great. I will make
this statement to my own peril and at the risk of upsetting my
European friends as I often do and sounding like an arrogant
American: “There is a reason The United States of America is the
greatest and most powerful country on the planet.” It’s the way
we do things. The way we get things done. The way we are in our
hearts and minds. Americans, just by their nature and their
culture, are, among other things, resilient, hard-working,
adventurous, and innovative. Some of these things are definitely
missing in the mentality of the Argentine people, perhaps a
reason for this country’s difficulties throughout it’s history.
As they say, you don’t really notice something until it’s gone.
But this new found patriotism I fear, now so deeply engrained
within me, might lead me to become an old flag waving redneck
Republican some day. Let’s just hope not.
A FEW THINGS I
MISS MOST ABOUT MY LIFE IN WESTERVILLE !!
-
Donato’s
-
Meijer’s
-
Chipotle
-
Chinese food
-
Giant Eagle
- Alum
Creek Park
-
Westerville North
- BBQ
Lays
- My
friends
- My
family
-
Graeter’s
-
Savannah
- My
car
-
Orange juice
-
Wendy’s
- And
much more… but I’ll be emo if I think about them all L
MORE INTERESTING
OBSERVATIONS OF ARGENTINE CULTURE !!
· There is an old
riddle in Argentina that goes something like this: Why does a
country with so much have so little? A country with so many
natural resources such as rolling plains, vast coasts, perfect
climates, petroleum, natural gas, minerals, rivers, mines, and
much more should be rich and prospering, right? The answer to
this riddle can only be found after an extended amount of time
and first hand experience submerged within Argentine culture.
Argentina always seems to be taking one step forward and two
steps back. This is simply a question of the culture. A culture
that seems to put education to the side to focus on other
things. A culture that advocates putting off what should be done
today for tomorrow. A culture that sleeps after lunch - the most
productive time of the day… and so on. I could go on for a long
time about what I think is wrong with this country and how it
might be able to fix itself, but that would be counterproductive
and pointless. But living in another place with another culture,
one often sees the bad things a lot easier than the good,
something that can be very frustrating and depressing and
something that I have experienced first hand in the last month
or so. Because of all of this, I have been trying to focus on
the positive things about this country to keep myself from
resenting the place where I am living and keeping the desire to
go back to my old life and culture at bay.
· Catholicism is so
entrenched in Argentine culture, even if someone doesn’t believe
in saints, go to mass, or know anything about the religion, they
still claim to be catholic just because it’s a social norm that
can’t be easily broken. Because of this, I am often not first
asked what religion I am, but if I am catholic or not… people
just assume everyone is catholic because that’s the way it is in
their country. When I respond to this surprisingly frequent
question, I am often humorously reminded of the “he don’t eat no
meat!?” scene from “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”… their reactions
are more or less similar.
· Fashion in
Argentina…if you can call it that. Some of the stranger trends
that I have observed: 1) Croc-like shoes with a separate hole
for the big toe and Velcro straps 2) teen boys wearing really
long necklaces of spherical wooden beads 3) men wearing capris
with muscle shirts 4) everyone wearing at least fifty bracelets
on each arm 5) T-shirts with strange and inappropriate English
phrases like “I like girls, beer, and parties”.
· Dishwashers don’t
exist in Argentina and handwasing can be pretty sketch…depending
on who’s doing the washing. My maid for example thinks running a
filthy plate under cold water makes it clean. Not okay.
· Gas stations,
pharmacies, supermarkets, and most any other function quite
differently from The United States… Long story short, they are
surprisingly inefficient and it is pretty shocking that people
function this way without second guessing or questioning the
clumsiness of these institutions. One good example is
pharmacies. First, you have to take a number from the red number
dispenser thing that you rarely see outside of DMVs in The
States. You then wait five to ten minutes to be seen by a person
at the counter (all of the products are behind the counter) who
takes your request, goes to find the desired product, comes back
(if it’s not the exact item you wanted, prepare to wait even
longer) to find the product’s price in the computer (no scanner
involved), and finally, they write your total on a piece of
paper. You then have to go to another station with your piece of
paper while the person at the first counter hand delivers your
items to the second station and wait in another line to pay.
(**Keep in mind, this is all being done with the same amount of
employees as a CVS or Walgreen’s.) So you finally make it to the
paying station only for the cashier to verify the prices in
their computer and ring you up. That’s Argentina for you!
· Argentine’s never
say no. If you ask them for a favor, they will politely and
convincingly say yes, only to not follow through. This obviously
can lead to a lot of frustration and inconveniences.
· The holidays in
Argentina are very different from those in The States. Christmas
consists of eating a family dinner at about one in the morning
and setting off fireworks later to go out dancing with relatives
of your age until the early morning. No presents involved. New
Years was slightly more exciting. Like Christmas, we had a late
family dinner with the whole family, more family than at
Christmas, set off fireworks at midnight along with the rest of
the country, and went out dancing until 8:00am. My host parents
also found it pretty humorous when they asked what we in The
States do to celebrate. I explained that we have dinner and then
go to bed… no fireworks or dancing. They were horrified. “how
can you celebrate Christmas and New Years without fireworks?!” …
Well … considering there’s usually snow on the ground in the
northern hemisphere at that time duhhh.
· Small dogs are the
trend in Argentina in terms of house pets, much more so than the
labs or golden retrievers that I have known my whole life in The
States. In my old house and now in my new house - poodles.
Unfortunately, there are two where I live now, which is possibly
the only the only thing that I don’t like about my new house.
They bark at the drop of a pin, constantly beg for food, jump on
the furniture, and use the restroom wherever their hearts
desire. I “accidentally” step on them some times and one time
even “accidentally” fed them glass with candy flavored poison.
No... Not really. But I fantasize about it most days. There is
also a cat who just had kittens in my house, and I think I might
have to say that I have grown to like cats more than small dogs,
something I never thought could happen.
· Another thing that
can be not only frustrating but also dangerous is the people’s
generally apathy for traffic laws. Few people I know don’t know
someone, a friend or relative, who was killed in a traffic
accident. They run red lights, CONSTANTLY disobey speed limits,
and make risky and stupid maneuvers (AKA what my host dad
constantly did - passing huge trucks at 85 miles per hour on a
two lane road) on a regular basis.
· Bathrooms in
Argentina are ill-equipped to say the least. No soap, no toilet
paper, no paper towels, filthy conditions, and broken toilets
and urinals.
· Argentine people
invite you everywhere, even if you hardly know them or don’t
know them at all…
· Argentine teens
have little if any responsibilities. They don’t have jobs, cars,
or much if any extracurricular activities. Most don’t even have
chores or responsibilities within their houses. When I tell them
that I have been cooking for myself for almost 10 years, they
are shocked and don’t understand why my mother or maid never
cooked for me, because most probably couldn’t even boil an egg.
A shocking and disturbing example would be my host siblings of
20 and 23 years. They both live in an apartment alone in Cordoba
and study in university and their parents pay for them to eat
out at every meal because they are not capable of cooking for
themselves. Furthermore, their parents travel six hours almost
weekly to clean their apartment for them. I am so grateful that
my parents raised me to be so self sufficient and to not have to
depend on them or anyone else.
· People here don’t
see the need to wash fruits and vegetables after they buy them.
Ew?
· If you think The
United States has problems with it’s government and politics,
come to Argentina. The government, as I understand it, basically
doesn’t have a judicial branch. It exists, but it exercises
little if any control over the other two branches. This leads to
the two more powerful branches, especially the executive branch,
to basically do whatever they want without limits. For example;
president Cristina Kirchner recently ordered the dismantlement
of Clarin, an Argentine media giant and what she called a
“monopolizer” of the country’s freedom of speech. In reality,
Clarin was exercising their freedom of speech
by constantly criticizing Cristina’s corrupt and inefficient
government … so what did she do? She had the company dismantled
and sold off to silence her critics - a blatant violation of her
presidential powers. The legislature, controlled by her
political party, of course wasn’t going to say anything and when
a supreme court justice tried to file charges against her for
abusing her powers, she had him removed from his position.
Furthermore, something that I have experienced first hand living
in Catamarca, has been the politics of Argentina. Catamarca
isn’t the poorest province in Argentina for no reason, it’s
actually the fault of the federal government. Catamarca’s
congress, it’s national representatives, and it’s governor are
all of a political party that opposes that ruling national
government - the president and congress. Because of this, the
ruling party actually has the power to restrict federal funds
for schools, utilities, services etc. to the provincial
government, leading to budget and program cuts in all areas in
Catamarca. That’s basically like a Democratically controlled
congress restricting only Texas from federal education funding
for being a Republican state. I’ll take tea-parties, Rush
Limbaugh, Sara Palin, and Dick Chenys over Argentina’s
ridiculous and destructive politics any day!!
· The people are
very warm and loving, something that I will definitely miss
going back to The States. At first, I was shocked and awkward
about the constant cheek kissing, but now I have adapted and
done it without even thinking twice. I imagine returning to my
country and trying to kiss everyone and their strange faces…it
should be interesting.
· TV in Argentina!
Though I don’t
watch a whole lot of TV here in Argentina, I have definitely
made some observations about its differences from American
programming.
1) It is socially
acceptable for male newscasters to check out women on the air.
2) Commercials in
Spanish often employ songs in English, which can be pretty
amusing. The songs don’t
really seem to have anything to do with the product that is
being sold and are usually awkward and inappropriate… to me at
least, the English speaking American. To the Argentine people
however, they are probably catching and fun. Some funny examples
are: A Lady Gaga song for a commercial selling diet juice, a
Kelly Clarkson song for a commercial selling dog food, and a
Spice Girls song for a credit card company etc. etc.
3) Latin American day
time soap operas are really as hilariously cheesy as Saturday
Night Live makes them look –
complete with the exaggerated and generally bad acting, budget
sets and props, bad lighting, and of course, the twisted and
illogical plot lines.
4) Watching shows
supposed to be in English with dubbed Spanish voices is
extremely disappointing for two reasons: 1) If I know the
voices, the one dubbed over in Spanish is nothing like the real
actors voice and it is really awkward and weird, and 2) they
translations are horrible and usually have little in common with
what the person is actually saying. A good example of these
things would be The Simpsons. The beloved voices that Americans
know and love so much are butchered by some poorly cast voice
actor trying too hard. It can make watching TV very upsetting.
5) A similar
phenomenon occurs with Spanish subtitled English movies. Now
that I can pretty much perfectly read and understand everything
in Spanish, I can see every time I watch a movie how poorly
translated the subtitles are with what the person is saying in
English. Who hires the translators for these movies anyways??
6) Now not to sound
like a superficial American … but coming from a country where
newscasters are famously good looking, handsome, and
professional, it strikes me as odd that the news people here are
either ugly old men with bad teeth, or twenty something Hooters
waitresses with man voices. Probably one of my stranger
observations, but notable nonetheless.
· After six months
in Argentina, I have noticed some commonalities in how people
from this country and from other countries view my country. Here
are some interesting stereotypes and questions that seem to be
pretty consistent among non-Americans:
1) ¨America has
everything.¨
- This is pretty
much true, in my opinion –
at least compared to Argentina. America has all of the
technology, industry, medicine, music, culture, and fashion that
the rest of the world aspires to have. For example, only a
couple of my friends have iPods and the large majority have
never even heard of them because Apple simply doesn’t exist in
Argentina.
2) ¨¿Is American high
school really like the movies? ¨
- Absolutely. You
might not think so, like I did before, but it is true. Before
experiencing high school from another country, you have no idea
how different it is and how much the kids from other countries
know about American high school from watching movies. Kids here
are absolutely fascinated by the concepts of lockers, school
gyms, marching bands, and just about everything else from
American high schools. I also try to stress (after being asked a
couple of times) that it is not like High School Musical … with
random dance numbers during school.
3) ¨Everyone in
America has a car¨
- Yes. In Argentina,
and from what I hear from my European friends about their
countries, it’s
rarer for people to own cars. Here and in Europe as well, public
transportation is a lot more practical. There is simply no need
to own a car. People here also are amazed when I tell them that
my family of six has four cars, because here, it is so uncommon.
4) ¨Everyone in
America has prefect teeth.¨
- More or less. In
the states, the appearance of teeth and overall dental health
are SO much more important to the culture than here. In fact,
after observing the culture here, I think it may even be safe to
say that America has an obsession with perfect teeth. This may
be made obvious by the thousands that parents spend on
orthodontia for their children.
5) ¨Everyone in
America is fat and lazy.¨
- This one is harder
to admit. Obviously, not EVERYONE in America is obese and eating
McDonald’s
24/7, BUT there are a substantially higher percentage of fatties
back home. As for the laziness, I think that my country has been
unfairly judged when it comes to this. People in Argentina,
especially the kids my age, are just as lazy if not lazier!!
There are no organized sports like back home, there are few
gyms, and I don’t
think I have ever seen anyone out running. Americans are
actually comparatively, a lot more active.
6) ¨Americans only
eat McDonald’s.¨
- Again, this is
obviously an outrageous overstatement, but it does have some
truth to it. Comparatively, Argentina eats almost NO fast food.
Food here is prepared by hand daily and no one sees the need for
fast food. Even in the big cities like Buenos Aires, McDonald’s
and Burger Kings are viewed as real sit-down restaurants (like
an American Applebee’s
or some other low end sit down restaurant) and do not have
drive-thrus.
LEARNING NEW
LANGUAGES: MY SECRET LOVE AFFAIR !!
To pass the time
in Argentina, I try to do things that I enjoy but that also
stimulate my brain and prevent it from falling off …mostly
because I am obviously not learning a whole lot in school. So I
might as well use my time wisely and learn while I’m
at it, no? Because of this, I have discovered that learning new
languages is something not only constructive, but also something
extremely enjoyable.
First, clearly,
came Spanish. When I arrived, I hit the ground running mixing
the large amount that I already knew about grammar from five
years of high school Spanish with the weird accents and slang
that I listened to and had to learn from scratch. This all
together helped to form the Spanish that I speak today. I would
love to say I’m
currently fluent, but I find that ¨fluency¨ is extremely hard to
define. One day I feel completely fluent, the next, I can’t
understand a thing someone says to me because they are talking
about politics or science or some other technical subject who’s
word are not highly utilized. As of now though, I understand
about 90% of everything spoken or written. The other 10% would
be slang words and expressions that are not often used and
technical nouns and verbs that are also rarely employed. Other
than those things, which can be very frustrating to deal with, I
feel very satisfied with my Spanish at this point and am very
much looking forward to studying it in college next year.
One thing that I
am not very happy with however is my hillbilly accent… SIGH**.
Sadly, the accent that I was earlier so excited about absorbing
has come back to haunt me. Upon my arrival to Catamarca, I was
so enchanted by its ¨country folk¨ simpleton tone that I soaked
it up like a little American sponge. My first host family
speaking like West Virginian miners (or it’s
equivalent in Spanish at least) didn’t
help the situation much and after five months of listening to
this way of speaking, it was thoroughly engrained in my brain.
After I traveled around so much however, and hearing first hand
the more elegant accents of other places in Argentina such as
Córdoba and especially Buenos Aires, I have come to the
realization that there is a reason why people that speak
Catamarqueño in Buenos Aires are looked down upon: BECAUSE IT IS
THE HILLBILLY ACCENT OF ARGENTINA!! As a result of this
realization, and the Buenos Aires accent slipping into my brain
after falling in love with it, my Spanish accent became a
peculiar mixture of three distinct regions of Argentina. For
those of you who don’t
know anything about Spanish and don’t
care to learn about its linguistic variations in Argentina, it’s
basically like speaking American English with a predominately
Appalachian or southern accent, sometimes a New Yorker’s
accent, with a weird Chicago spin. It’s
quite strange.
Continuing the
theme of the linguistics of the Spanish language - one of my new
noteworthy hobbies has been listening to music and watching TV
shows from other Spanish speaking countries. I find it extremely
intriguing to hear how much Spanish varies from Spain to Mexico
to Columbia to Chile to Argentina. It was also pretty hilarious
going to Chile and talking with Chileans in an Argentine accent.
An American boy speaking fluent Spanish with a strong and
bizarre (see above) Argentine accent must have been confusing
for them…not something they would expect to see everyday.
Other
languages besides Spanish that I have been learning have been
Portuguese, French, German, and a bunch of other random European
languages. Portuguese, the language that I am by far most
learned in, has definitely become one of my passions. Even
though I taught myself a lot before I went on exchange, learning
Spanish has really opened up the door and allowed me to truly
grasp Portuguese. Due to it’s
similarities with Spanish, I have soaked it up remarkably fast
and Catamarca was lucky enough to receive a summer exchange
student from Brazil, so I also had the chance to perfect my
accent by speaking with her. On top of that, I would pretty much
constantly watch a Portuguese channel on satellite in my old
house. So by now, I feel comfortable saying that I am fluent in
Portuguese! French, next in the list of languages that I have
been working on, has been slightly more difficult for me to
grasp. I always assumed that among others, Spanish, Portuguese,
French were extremely similar and because of their similarities,
if I learned one Romance language, it would be much easier for
me to learn the others. Unfortunately, this is not exactly the
case. Though it was the case with Portuguese, French is sadly
very different from Spanish and Portuguese and therefore much
more difficult for me to learn. Luckily, I have become very good
friends with the exchange student from France in Catamarca so I
have been able to speed up my progress and I hope to be on my
way by the time I leave Argentina! As for the rest of the
languages, I hate to disappoint, but I pretty much know nothing
of them. German, Swedish, and Danish are constantly being taught
to me by the various exchange students in Catamarca and I can
proudly say some pretty hilarious phrases in each language.
Maybe some time in the future when I am old and have nothing
better to do, I will actually study these languages because they
are actually pretty fun and interesting. For now however, I
think I will stick to Spanish, Portuguese, and French!!!
Well a
thousand pardons for my late and infrequent reports! I highly
admire the people that are writing blogs weekly or monthly…
because as you might be able to imagine (“let’s go to Chile for
the weekend” - for example), life in Argentina can be pretty
capricious. Not to mention the “put it off until tomorrow, I
need a siesta” mentality that I have adopted over the past
couple of months… But I will be sure in the future to write more
often and save everyone form having to scroll through such a six
month long report! Well I trust that everyone is doing fine back
in Westerville and all over the world! I hope everyone back in
6690 is enjoying themselves and the weekends! CAN’T WAIT TO GET
BACK AND CATCH UP! So wish me luck in my final months here, and
hope that they won’t go by too fast as I already know they will.
Much love from Catamarca! CHAU!
Hello all!
I am delighted to inform everyone that I am
safe and sound in San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca,
Argentina. At the moment, I am fresh out of the shower, full of
yummy Argentine cow, and loving life. I suppose I should write
this report in sections, so as lessen the pain of my rambling
and organize my thought more efficiently. I will also insert my
bits of advice for the benefit of my dear friends; the future
outbounds of RYE 6690.
STORY ABOUT MY JOURNEY HERE THAT I WAS
SUPPOSED TO POST THREE WEEKS AGO, OOPS!!
I left home in my beloved Westerville
during the afternoon of Sunday, August the 25th in a bad mood
and understandably stressed out after a long sleepless night of
frantic packing. I
of course. (Thanks again everyone for coming, it was really
amazing I LOVE YOU ALL!) After walking through the absurdly
large airport in Atlanta for about three miles, I got to the
gate right as they were boarding YIKES! My flight to Buenos
Aires was actually very enjoyable despite the horrible movies
and lack of sleep. There were about 10 other American exchangers
from all over the country on my flight, and I got to sit next to
a bunch of them and we even built a clubhouse in the back row
and talked for hours, what fun! I arrived in Buenos Aires,
Argentina on the morning of August 25th to be greeted by a man
holding a sign with my name. He whisked me and another American
exchanger off to the domestic airport on the other side of city
to catch our respective flights later that day. After making it
to the domestic airport and waiting for about five hours and
falling asleep on the floor, I boarded old school style out on
the tarmac and took off for Catamarca. The flight was really
great because I got to see Buenos Aires from the air and all of
the mountains and rivers of Argentina´s interior. I arrived at
the tiny airport in Catamarca (an airport so small that it only
receives one fly-by flight from outside the province weekly) to
my host parents and my Rotary counselor greeting me with warm
hugs and friendly smiles. I proceeded to take a quick tour of
the city before going home to take the tour of my home for the
next five months!
SAN FERNANDO DEL
VALLE DE CATAMARCA!!
The most important thing that you must
understand about Catamarca province is that it is the
Wyoming\West Virginia of Argentina, so its capital; San Fernando
del Valle de Catamarca (or Catamarca for short) is equally as
out of the way, small, and quiet. Population wise, it is the
smallest province of Argentina´s 23. This may sound like a bad
thing, but it is actually quite the opposite. Some cities, like
Tucuman to the north of Catamarca, are so large that crime is
very high and it is dangerous to be out on the streets at night.
Other cities are also too small, like Fiambala, a city in
Catamarca province that has nothing fun to do. Because of this,
I have found my city to be just right in every aspect. I can be
out as late as I would like with no fears of being robbed while
still having lots to do. I have never once walked around
downtown without seeing someone I know and them greeting me with
a warm kiss on the cheek or hug. Everyone here is so
outrageously nice and friendly and generally interested in
talking with me, that I have fallen in love with the people of
Catamarca. My new hometown also is a very beautiful place to
live. The city (which has the word ¨valley¨ in its name) sits in
a long stretch of flat and fertile land between three mountain
ranges. It is very difficult to be anywhere in the city facing
north, east, or west, and not be able to see the mountains. In
fact, my house sits right up against the western range and if I
so desired, I could go outside and walk west for about ten
minutes and climb some mountains!
LA
FAMILIA VEGA RAMIREZ!!
I learned who my host family would be way
back in April in an email I got from another exchange student
that was living here at the time. It was quite exciting learning
of my host family and getting to know them through facebook
before I arrived. *ADVICE FOR FUTURE OUTBOUNDS: if it is at all
possible, do as much facebook stalking to track down members of
your family before you leave. It will make the translation a lot
easier and less awkward as well.* Anyways, my host family´s name
is Vega Ramirez. My host dad, Carlos, is a very important trauma
physician/private practice orthopedic doctor/city medical
examiner in Catamarca and a large majority of the time when
someone asks me where I am staying and I respond with ¨La casa
Vega Ramirez¨, they say ¨Oh yes, the doctor!¨ - As is if he is a
celebrity or something!!! Then there is my host mom, Delí. Delí
works part time at a book store and devotes most of her time to
painting classes, English lessons, playing tennis, and taking
siestas (napps, which I too enjoy very much!). Jime (short for
Jimena) is my host sister of 21 years who is the coolest host
sister I could ask for! Unfortunately, she currently is in law
school in Córdoba (huge city five hours away), so I have only
seen her once. We have however been communicating since May and
we are actually a lot alike. If I ever have to share a story
about my childish school yard crush or complain about her
mother´s accent or anything else when I am in a bad mood, I call
her up for a good laugh. My host brother, Augustín, who is a
couple months older than me, is currently completing an exchange
year in Denmark and will return in November at which time I will
have a host sibling! YAY! The reason why I have become so
excited at the prospect of gaining a host sibling is because
sometimes, with just host parents in the house, I feel like I am
staying in a very empty hotel. My host dad works most of the day
and my host mom is usually sleeping during the day time when I
am home after school. I am also free to leave and come home
whenever I please, due to the convenience of the bus system
here. One time when I was downtown, I encountered my friend from
Hungary walking to the supermarket with her little host siblings
to get groceries and I became very jealous and depressed because
I so wish I could do stuff like that with host siblings. But it
is still nice to eat dinner with my host parents every night and
go out with them when possible, just so I don´t feel completely
without a family. I also have met a bunch of relatives of the
families: cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, nieces etc.
Unfortunately, I don´t know any of their names yet… But they are
still fun to spend time with when the family gets together for
an asado (traditional Argentine BBQ…not an American BBQ with hot
dogs and hamburgers though, it´s more of a cow cooking on a
grill and eating it´s various parts all at once, yumm!). We also
have a very lovely lady in the house who lives upstairs, but I
don´t really know what to call her … maid? servant? No sé. She
does everything. Laundry, cooking, cleaning, house maintenance
etc. She is very nice and I enjoy talking with her even if her
Santiago del Estero accent makes it very difficult to understand
what she is saying. It can be awkward though because I have been
taught to clean up after myself and do my dishes and make my bed
and so on ever since I was little, but my host mom always
insists that I not do anything and instead delegates these
chores to Laura. All in all though, I have it really good.
Seeing as how I don´t have an alcoholic single mother or
fundamentalist Catholic host parents like other exchange
students I know in Catamarca currently do, and that my family is
very comfortable financially speaking and extremely hospitable
and generous, I feel very fortunate.
MY DAILY ROUTINE!!
As
I have adjusted day by day, my routine has become more and more
… routine. Needless to say, after a month of doing nothing at
the end of senior year and then a long and lazy summer of more
of doing nothing, going back to school has been sort a pain. I
have to wake up at around 6:30 each morning. I then shower and
get my uniform on. My school uniform is relatively simple and
consists of gray slacks, black shoes, and a sky blue collard
shirt displaying my school emblem and name. My host mom is off
to work by this time so I eat ¨breakfast¨ with my host dad. To
me, an average American, the breakfast that I eat seems like
some sort of cruel joke. All we eat are biscuits and facturas (Argentina´s
answer to the donut) and maté cocido (yummy tea!) or coffee. Not
much at all. After breakfast, my host dad takes me to school.
School commences with the flag raising ceremony at 7:55.
Depending on the day, we then head off to the science wing or go
to our homeroom. Between each five periods,
there
is a ten minute break in which most people go to one of the six
or so kiosks to buy a sandwich or bag of chips, small snacks to
tide the masses over until they go home to eat a real lunch.
When school is over, my mother is waiting for me outside in the
same spot every day. We eat a delicious lunch prepared by Laura
and then both go off to siesta. My siestas are tragically short
however – only about one hour most days. I crawl out of bed half
awake to prepare to for swimming practice and leave the house
and walk about ten minutes to the bus stop. Swimming here is
amazing and I am so glad that I have to opportunity to be a part
of the only team in the whole city. Luckily, my Rotary counselor
knows the pool manager, so I get to swim and be on the team for
free! Anyways, practice usually lasts about two hours. After
practice, I usually walk to the center of the city to meet up
with friends and hang out in the plaza and drink mate, or I go
home and sleep. Keep in mind that my host parents never drive me
anywhere, so I have to take the bus just about everywhere. For
me, the average American with a car and a license who has ridden
American public buses three times in his whole life, this is
quite a change. When I get home, a delicious hot dinner is
waiting. I usually eat with my host mom and Laura and we watch a
novella called Los Valientes (think Desperate Housewives on
crack) or a really weird South American game show. I then go off
to bed, usually at about 23:00 (that´s 11pm for you Americans
who don´t have to live with annoying South American 24 hour
clocks…). Then, I get up and do it again … YAY! On the weekends,
I go out with friends to a club or a disco and usually come home
at about 4:00 or 5:00, which is pretty early because most people
go to ¨afters¨ after the discos - which are like slightly less
loud clubs that are opened until 9:00 in the morning. What a
crazy place.
LA ESCUELA PREUNIVERSITARIA FRAY
MAMERTO ESQUIÚ – MY SCHOOL!!
School
here in Argentina is extremely different from school back in the
States as you might imagine. The most striking difference is how
my peers view school. There is a very odd general lack of
motivation within the mindset of the student population here
that is very unusual for me as an American. Back home, everyone
is clamoring to take advanced classes to prepare for college,
studying for the big standardized tests, and obsessing over
every grade. Here it is quite a different story. Most class
periods, we all push our desks to the corner of the room and
talk, throw paper balls at each other, and listen to music. The
teachers are partly to blame as well for being so apathetic as
to let these behaviors go on. As for the classes themselves, my
day commences at 7:55 with five class periods daily on a
rotating schedule. School here is also very different in the way
that classes are chosen and set up. Once a student reaches
secondary school, that have to choose the area that they will
focus on until they graduate. They can choose either a
humanities course, which focuses heavily on literature and
language, the social course which focuses on history,
psychology, and sociology, or they can choose the science
course, which focuses heavily on math and science.
Unfortunately, I was placed in the course that if given the
chance, I would not have chosen – the science course. While I
love my class for the people and the fun, I also wish that I
would be in a course that would interest me more, like the
social course. The science course that I am in consists of
classes of biology, chemistry, economics, math, English, and
language. For me, being in a course with people that are the
ages of American juniors is rather easy (when I can understand
what is being taught that is) seeing as how I took almost all of
these classes with the same subject material two years ago.
School is still fun though, even if I am not learning a whole
lot. Oh how I would love to be in the social course though,
learning about the history of Argentina... *sigh* I did ask to
change next semester though, so only a couple more months of
being bored in school! Also – a bit of advice for other exchange
students!! This advice applies to anything by the way, not just
school. Originally, Rotary assigned me to a different school, a
much smaller private school where they send all of the exchange
students. Luckily for me, I got some advice when my friend
Lucas, from here, told me that the large public schools are best
for exchangers because there are not as many exchange students
there (so they are more of a commodity) and that the teachers
are better in public schools (go figure!). So I politely emailed
Rotary here in Catamarca before I left the USA and requested a
change of schools and they were happy to oblige. Lucas´
suggestion turned out to be great advice because the other
exchange students that go to the school where I was originally
assigned don´t like it very much at all. So the advice for
others from this story is that basically, if you have any doubt
about anything pertaining to your exchange before you leave, or
even while you are on exchange, don´t be afraid to request that
something be changed! I almost didn´t ask because I thought it
would be terribly rude, but Rotary was more than happy to see
that I would be happiest here, and now I am very glad I asked!!!
ARGENTINA (the little that I have seen
so far) AND MY FUTURE TRAVELS!!
Argentina
is a country much like the United States in terms of the
diversity of its landscapes. It is the second largest country on
this continent and being such, it has just about every type of
climate you can imagine. From the rainforests in the north, to
the deserts in the west, to the rolling plains in the center, to
the towering mountains and glaciers in the south, Argentina has
just about everything. The small amount of Argentina that I have
seen so far in this short month has been restricted to my
province. For my Rotary district´s orientation of all 60 of
their exchange students, we traveled to a very quaint little
town in the interior of the province called Fiambala. Fiambala,
though it is small, is also world renowned for its one of a kind
mountain springs and rolling sand dunes. After the orientation,
we all went to the springs and swam around in hot mineral water
from deep beneath the earth on the top of a mountain that is
supposed to possess magical healing properties. It was quite
fun. I also went to a small resort town to the north where my
family has a summer house called El Rodeo for the national
holiday of Day of the Student with all of my classmates. El
Rodeo is way up in the mountains and has the best views by far
that I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I have yet to see the rest
of the amazing sights that Argentina has to offer - but with
time, I will travel to just about everywhere in the country. In
the coming month, Rotary will take all of the exchange students
from the surrounding three provinces to the south of the country
(Patagonia!) for a 17 day excursion in which we will see the
mountains, the penguins, go whale watching, go skiing, climb
glaciers, and go to the world famous resort of Bariloche! I
can´t wait! Then, in November, we are going on a slightly less
intense excursion in which we will tour the province of
Catamarca for about five days. Even though this excursion is
shorter and simpler, I have heard that the views and sights are
absolutely spectacular and I am also excited to get to know my
beloved province of Catamarca a bit better. There is also a
Rotary excursion to Buenos Aires which I will probably not do
because I will go there anyways to visit my aunt or go there
with my host sister some time. But Buenos Aires is definitely a
must-see if you ever travel to Argentina, so I am very much
looking forward to that as well. Towards the end of my year here
is the North Trip. The North Trip is an excursion that tours all
of Argentina´s northern provinces and tops the whole thing off
by going to the Iguazú falls, right on the border of Argentina
and Brasil.
AN AVERAGE AMERICANS OBSERVATIONS OF
ARGENTINE CULTURE!!
I will start this section with a bit of
advice for future outbounds or anyone who travels abroad. My
dear friends Florence and Briana gifted to me before I left the
States a beautiful journal which has become my scrapbook.
Originally, I wanted to keep a diary, but I quickly realized
after one entry, that I am not a diary type of person at all. So
I decided that I would carry around this journal and record all
of my thoughts, observations, bits of advice, and everything
else. I have also used it as a place where people can write me
notes, a place to record any new word that I learn and don´t
want to forget, a place to draw pictures, and just about
everything else. I will now list off some quick observations I
have written in this book of mine.
-On
any given street, there is litter everywhere. The culture here
does not look down upon uncleanliness the way that I am used to
back in the United States. Because of the huge differences
between the two places in this case, this was one of the
strangest things for me to get used to.
-I have found that America is obsessed with antibacterial
everything. In Argentina, you will be hard pressed to find soap
in any public restroom, let alone antibacterial soap. Surfaces
are not cleaned with bleach of other disinfectants as they are
back home and tissues are no where to be found. This leads me to
my next point:
-American immune system in Argentina = not good. As I said
before, everything in my country is disinfected before use and
everyone impulsively washes their hands with antibacterial
soaps. So with an immune system as incapable of fighting off any
sort of small bug as mine, coming here was very difficult. I
basically got here and had no immunity to anything, so I was an
open door for everything that I encountered when shaking hands
and kissing cheeks. This coupled with the comparatively
unsanitary conditions here led me to basically be sick since I
arrived.
-Cheek kissing and hugging. South American greetings and
salutations are much warmer and so very different from what I
have known my whole life, that I am still downright awkward when
I kiss someone on the cheek as a greeting.
-Stray dogs! Every time I see a male dog with all of his
parts in tact, I think of Bob Barker´s voice reminding me to
spay and neuter my pets. Unfortunately, Latin American culture
sees no need for this. Pets that live outside mate with other
dogs, either strays or other pets, and so on – the population
grows and strays are born without owners. They are everywhere in
the city, digging through the trash, chasing cars and busses,
and mating with other dogs. To me, an average American who
worships dogs, it is very tragic to see this every day. One time
after I first got here, I was sitting in the plaza waiting for
my friends and petting a stray and everyone around was looking
at me like an alien, but to me, I was just petting a cute and
friendly dog!!
-Catamarca is very small and there are not a whole lot of
foreigners running around, so sometimes when I am looking
particularly foreign because of my clothes, people stare at me
and it is really awkward and uncomfortable.
-The ice cream here is gross. It is flavourless and watery
and nasty… and there are ice cream stores all over the place.
What irony. I really miss American ice cream that is basically
flavoured butter. YUM! I also had ice cream cake, which was the
most disappointing thing that I have ever eaten.
-Busses. As an American who possesses negative stereotypes
of public transportation, coming to a place like Catamarca that
has hundreds of busses was quite strange. But here, there are no
stigmas about riding the bus for the simple fact that they are
so terribly practical that it makes no sense to buy a car.
-SPANISH! Have ever noticed how different people speak
English within the States, let alone in other countries (e.g.
UK, Australia, and New Zealand)? – Now imagine that in Spanish.
For me, the American who learned the type of Spanish from Mexico
in school
and
who has a horrible Yankee accent, coming to Catamarca, Argentina
was quite an experience. Not only did I have to relearn half of
the stuff that I thought I knew, but I had to make sense of
Catamarca´s famous accent. I will not try to explain it as it is
to spare a couple of pages of writing, but try to imagine the
Texan accent of Argentine Spanish – and there you have the
accent of my province. To quote my good friend Lucas who did an
exchange year in Westerville last year, Catamarqueño Spanish is
the hillbilly accent of Argentina. Nevertheless, I am trying
really hard to speak and learn the Catamarqueño tone because I
really want to return to the States with my Catamarqueño accent
and confuse everyone with whom I speak Spanish. But I am happy
to report that I am basically fluent. Just talk slow please. And
don´t use slang. Thanks.
-Winter? My first week here, the dead of winter
(supposedly), it was about 75ºF every day. How strange. It
cooled down to chilly normal winter temperatures over the next
few weeks, but what a strange first impression. The Catamarqueño
climate is also known for 45ºC summer days (110ºF…). So hot that
no one can go outside during the days. Can´t wait!!
-In Argentina, a lack of socks is the source of all
disease. No, not really .. But that´s what people think. As I
mentioned before, my American immune system wasn´t exactly
equipped to handle Argentina, so I am always sick. This leads my
host parents to berate me to put socks on (something which I
refuse to do if I am not wearing shoes). I have to try very hard
to nod and smile every time it comes up, and avoid informing
them that the source of my sickness is not my lack of socks, but
rather the masses of their country who don´t practice proper
hand washing techniques.
-Argentines love a blood sausage called Morsilla that
makes a ripping noise when you bite in to it. Yes, I said blood
– as in they ingest the blood of dead cows. Vampires?
-I only know about 40% of the names of my friends here.
Due to the over abundance of nicknames between friends, learning
names and nicknames and keeping track of all of them can be very
difficult. But I am slowly getting better!
-The
general population is surprisingly uneducated about the outside
world in terms of foreign cultures, histories, geography, and so
on. And hearing the stereotype that all Americans are ignorant
as to the world outside their country my whole life, it was
quite a shock to me that a foreign country as well off as
Argentina is as unlearned. I guess people all over the world
don´t know a whole lot about the rest of the world, despite
location. Hopefully one day, once every student in the world
does a cultural exchange like me to better understand foreign
cultures, there will be a mutual understanding between all
nations and there can finally be WORLD PEACE!
-Darwin is alive and well in Catamarca! I have made a
rather strange observation about the people of Catamarca – they
have very long eyelashes. The only explanation that I can come
up with is evolution. Over the last couple of hundred of years,
the people of this region must have evolved to gain longer
eyelashes to protect against the horrible wind and debris that
flies around the valley for most of the year. Fascinating! I
wish my puny American eyelashes would protect me better, maybe
then I wouldn´t have pink eye!!
-Living on the Argentina Peso is the greatest thing ever.
One Argentina Peso is about 26 US cents. So I can get a two
liter bottle of water and a facture (donut thing) for three
pesos or about 78 cents. This is just one of the examples of
when I have been astounded by how great the exchange rate is for
me. I can´t imagine going to Europe and living on the Euro where
everything would be expensive!! Argentina is the right place to
come if you want stuff for cheap!
-No one drinks water! The main beverage of choice here is
Coca-Cola and orange Fanta. Even when I go to swimming, they
have their bottles of soda on the side of the pool to stay
hydrated! And since I pretty much only drink water, my host
parents always ask if there is something wrong with me because I
am always filling up my glass with water.
Well this is all I have for my first month!
Overall I think that I have experienced a very smooth
transition. There has been a surprising lack of culture shock
that I heard a lot about, a lack of extreme homesickness (no
offense!), and everyone here is very open minded to my
differences, a lot more so than I expected! I will surely send
out another report in the next few months, so be sure to check
it out! Thank you so much Walter, Sandy, Bill, Judy, Jackie,
Sema, Westerville Sunrise, and everyone in RYE 6690 for making
this whole thing possible. It´s really weird to think that I am
actually here after more than a year of preparations! I do miss
the crazy 6690 Rotary weekends though, I admit it. I hope
everyone has a great year and that the 6690 inbounds love Ohio
and 6690 as much as I do!! CHAU!
So today I
finally got to go to the centro...alone! Chanel (the
exchange student who is living really close to me
with my second host family, and later in the year we
will swap) and I were dropped off by her host dad
this morning to spend the day shopping and eating.
It is frustrating because it is hard to get anywhere
without our parents driving us because our houses
are pretty far out away from everything. Not that
there are a whole lot of places to go in Talca, as
my friends at school love to tell me. Chanel and I
passed an
interesting
and educational day of trying to understand the
un-understandable and communicate the
uncommunicatable (not sure those are words) in a
different language while trying to retain a smidgen
of self-respect. I have to say that I'm not sure I
have any left, however I found that laughing at
myself isn't so terrible. After shopping a bit we
looked around and found the Chinese restaurant that
my host mom recommended, which is owned by the
parents of a classmate of my sister's. My mom said I
should tell them who I am when I got there, so I
tried to, but a few things got lost in translation
(what a surprise) and the waitresses were all like
¨um...you want to talk to my boss?¨so I let it drop.
But it gets better! Chanel and I didn´t know that
you were supposed to come in and just pick a table-
we were following the good ole U.S.A. custom of
telling them how many people and then the hostess
shows you to a table. This meant that the restaurant
people assumed we were getting take-out, naturally,
and showed us a menu and let us point to what we
wanted. So we ordered and sat down and
waited...wondering are they going to show us to a
table or what? And then a family came in...and
walked
past us and into the main room...and sat down
at a table...oh shit. So for the next several
minutes we argued about who was going to suspend all
dignity and try to explain to the already amused
waitresses that we wanted to eat at the restaurant
after we had already ordered takeout. We had a nice
little lesson about accepting
embarrassment as necessary part of becoming fluent.
Chanel learned the lesson better than me because she
was the one who gave in and explained to the hostess
why we were sitting there giggling and looking
panicky. However I must say that eating an egg roll
was worth the humiliation of complete bungling
gringo ignorance and also of not knowing whether to
leave a tip- we ended up having to call Chanel´s
Rotarian counselor from the restaurant to ask him.
It´s good that shop owners and Chileans in general
find our obnoxiously obvious foreigness and language
incompetency to be cute and amusing rather
than...well, obnoxious. I annoy myself actually.
However I have to comfort myself with the truth that
no matter how Chilean Chanel and I dress or how
perfect our Spanish is we would still get stared
out: Chanel is black and I am Asian. To say that we
are not the norm in Talca is a gigantic
understatement. Oh and Emily, the other exchanger
girl in Talca, is blond. We might as well have
tattooed American flags on our faces. What
I was told before my exchange is completely
true in practice: boredom and tiredness are the
enemies of exchange students. When I'm bored, I´m 3
times more likely to be pessimistic about my
exchange. When I'm tired, I'm 3 times more likely to
be homesick. But I am getting creative about talking
myself out of down moments and putting everything in
perspective...it´s all part of the experience.
Actually track is the source of the majority of my
stressing out, so if I can solve that problem I
think I would be happier.
Next week is Chile´s independence day on the 18th.
People here are so much more enthusiastic about
their country! My experience in the U.S. has been
that people only make a big deal of the Fourth of
July on the actual 4th of July. Here, the
Independence Day is a 1 week+ occasion. Yesterday
was a big deal at school, because each curso gets
judged on their Chilean decorations and my curso
went all out. We decked out the room with 12 foot
palm leaves, streamers, balloons, traditional
Chilean dresses and saddles and shells and coconuts
(for Isla de Pascua), and blasted Chilean Cueca
music all day long. I wasn´t surprised when we won
out of the whole school, but I was glad! A lot of
students participate in different Chilean dances
like the Cueca, Pascuense, etc, to be performed next
week, and it´s a really big deal. Everyone here has
been learning and dancing the cueca since they were
little, which is embarrassing for me to say the
least. The P.E. teacher took pity on me and said I
didn´t have to dance, but not until after I passed a
few humiliating minutes of them trying to teach me.
I didn't object to getting to dance with Rodrigo,
but the actual dancing part I did object to!
Whatever you believe, neither God nor genetics
intended for me to be a dancer and with the
teacher's permission I accepted this with
considerable relief.
Holy cow, my grandma here is a good cook. She made
sopaipillas. I have consumed more than is entirely
healthy in the past week...maybe one with breakfast,
a couple during the first recreo at school, a couple
more during the second recreo... Also she´s
making
homemade empanadas for the big day next week, and my
whole family has been telling me how good they are
so I can´t wait. Today was the Saint's Day for
everyone named Maria, which I´d estimate to be about
half of the Chilean population. Since that half
includes my host mom, we got a manjar cake to
celebrate. It doesn´t take much to justify buying a
manjar cake, which is just fine with me.
School is fun- it is so different from CSG! It is
really relaxed in comparison, though for Chile my
school is considered demanding. I try not to look
incredulous when people tell
me that. The other
students here don´t believe me when I tell them how
much schoolwork I have in the States. Here they
actually have time to hang out during the school
week, go out, even get enough sleep, etc. Didn´t do
the homework? No big deal, you can just copy it off
someone else and the prof probably won´t check it
anyway. Prueba you didn´t study for? No problema,
you can just use the answers written on your arm! I
couldn't believe it the first time one of my
classmates showed me their cheat sheet! The only
thing that is more intense than the U.S. is the
choir- we won first place in a national competition
in another city last week, and we are going to
another in Santiago in October that I am excited
for.
I would really like to thank Ms. Dickman and Ms.
Leonard. Biology and Matematicas are the only
classes here that I almost always understand. The
biology teacher here takes pleasure in singling me
out by asking me bio questions to see if I
understand, which is nerve-wracking. However thanks
to biology and Ms. Leonard I've known almost all the
answers, once I can figure out what he is asking!
And in math I´m actually the one explaining things
to my classmates because none of them pay attention
and they haven´t learned the most basic things so
when we have a practice problem to do they are lost.
I would probably say that one of the things I miss
most about home is knowing what is going on and
feeling confident of what I´m supposed to do. Here I
almost never am sure of what´s going on and the only
thing I'm good at is choir and track.
The stars here are amazing. You can see so many more
than in Columbus. I could do with some calmer cows,
though. There is one mooing loudly outside my window
right now. Also whoever said roosters crow at dawn
never lived within a mile of a real one. They don´t
crow at dawn, they crow whenever they feel like it,
which includes 1 o'clock in the morning or 7 or 3 in
the afternoon. My mom here throws things at the
birds when they get too loud, which I found really
funny. She likes her sleep.
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying America.
Take care and carpe diem. Cuidense! Chao!
I just want to say thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for
the opportunity you gave me to have the year of my life
living abroad in Germany. This was the most amazing,
worthwhile, important and sometimes terrifying year of my
life and I'll always be grateful for the chance you gave me.
Through this year, I've gained so much more than just the
ability to speak German, I've gained a true passion for
exploring all that the world has to offer me and a better
understanding of myself. Through this year, I've learned to
look at the big picture and not stress the little things. To
appreciate the moments that most would take for granted. To
trust my judgment and not to let fear hold me back from
anything. And, most importantly, to be independent and know
I can overcome any challenge.
Because of Rotary, I was able to stand atop the leaning
tower of Pisa, ride a gondola through the canals of
Venice, gaze at the stars from the top of the Austrian
Alps, and a thousand other things that I never would've
dreamt of doing. I've also built friendships with people
in every corner of the world, which I really can't thank
you enough for. This was the best year of my life and
there's no way I could ever forget it.
I'm so beyond grateful for everything I was able to
experience and achieve through my year here. I don't
think I could ever say thank you enough, but one
more time couldn't possibly hurt. So..
THANK YOU! DANKE SCHÖN!
October
3 months already?!?!
It’s so weird, like time feels like its going normally and then
I realize, hey my exchange is already a fourth of the way done?!
I’m still amazed that I’m in Europe hah. This last month was
probably my favorite so far.
After Spain, my host
dad and I flew back to Germany and stayed with my host mom’s
parents about an hour away from Oldenburg because I had 2 days
before my Germany Tour and it wouldn’t have been worth it to sit
on the ferry twice. It’s really hard having to schedule my life
around this ferry. Most exchange students have to schedule with
hours, I have to work with days ha ha
Then, finally, it was
time for the DEUTSCHLAND REISEEEE! There were about 35 exchange
students on it, 5 from another district. It was only 5 days
long though, so basically it was an Erfurt and Berlin tour, not
a German one hah.
This was the BEST
WEEK of my exchange so far. I made so many friends and had the
best time ever. We did a lot of historical and educational
things, since rotary paid for the entire tour, but we also got
to see Berlin nightlife and have tons of fun. The first 2 days
were in Erfurt and Weimar, then Berlin for 3, and Wolfsburg on
the way home.
We saw a checkpoint
between East and West Germany near Erfurt and then had free time
in the city. Then we went back to our hostel. Germans love
hostels. The next day, we saw Buchenwald concentration camp
which was really interesting and obviously very sad. We were
split up into 3 groups; Spanish, English, and for the daring,
German.
Our guide, like 90%
of all Germans had perfect English and was wearing Aero postal.
It’s so weird to see brands like Hollister, Abercrombie and
other brands that are so American in my mind on all these
Europeans. That night, we went to Oktoberfest.
Ok, so when people
hear Oktoberfest they think of this huge drinking party and
lederhosen and everything like that, which is half true :P, but
really, Oktoberfest is just a carnival or fair held in almost
every town during the month of October.
We went into this
huge tent and, at the recommendation of the Rotarians; each
ordered a liter of beer. Best 6 Euros, $10, of my life. It was
really funny to all the Americans that the Rotarians allowed,
let alone encouraged, us to drink. We were all like, can we?
Is this a test? So we drank and danced to a bunch of German
drinking songs.
They each have a
specific dance that goes with the words. All the exchange
students could do the dance, but had NO idea what they were
saying ahah The only song I really understood was something
along the lines of being strong like a lion, swimming like a
fish, flying like a bird, and then they say, "And we dance" over
and over and you have to pantomime each animal, then do a
ho-down type dance haha
After that, we drove
to Berlin and got a tour of the city. It was really cool to see
the 2 sides of the city. One side, the west, is very modern
while the other side, the east, had a lot of historical
buildings and has more of an old world feeling. We got to see
parts of the wall and check point Charlie.
We saw another group
of exchange students while we were on the bus at a stoplight.
It was crazy, every exchange students ran to the windows and we
were pounding on the windows and trying to put our flags where
everyone could see them. Then they all pulled out their flags
and were running up and down the sidewalk trying to find the
same country
That night, we went
to a Disko. My first real German disko. It was ridiculous! And
rotary had to sneak us in because we weren’t all 18 hah German
rotary. Rotary here trusts that we know how much we can have,
they just say be responsible. And, for the most part, that’s
true. Some people though…haha let’s just say that was an
interesting subway ride home at 1 in the morning.
The next day, we went
to Madam Tussah's wax museum and then walked to the Bundestag,
which is Germany’s parliament building. On the steps of the
Bundestag, we ran into that group of exchange students again.
One of them was at the Otterbein weekend! It was so weird to
see him again. When we went in, they confiscated my flag.
Nobody else’s, just mine….Apparently no US flags are allowed
inside because of political statements.
After the Bundestag
we went to a mall and got lost on the way home. I don’t know if
I mentioned this, but it was ridiculously cold there and, having
just come back from Spain, I was not really equipped for the
weather. I only had flip flops and 1 light hoodie for the trip.
It rained every time I stepped outside. That’s not too bad
Erin, you say. Well, it also hailed. Pea sized hail in the
beginning of October?! What kind of place is this?
That night was free
time, so we all went to a big mall. The last day in Berlin was
sooooo cool. We went to the Olympic stadium where Jesse Owens
won a gold medal and then we went to the zoo. Apparently with
this zoo you had to pick inside, or outside. My group wanted to
see the polar bear so we went outside. Hah it was sooooo cold!
Then our tour guide
woman wanted to see the monkeys so she dragged us to the
opposite side of the zoo and then when we tried to leave the
gate was locked. The zoo was closed. Second time she got us
locked in some type of park hahaha
We did eventually get
out though. On the way to the subway we stopped at a tourist
shop and she just left. We were like, how do we get back to our
hostel?! We got a little lost, got some assistance from some
drunk Germans in the subway, and eventually got home.
A half hour later,
the limos came! We did a "tour" of Berlin in the limos. Once
again, rotary was really different. We were like, oh I bet some
people will try to sneak and drink on this cause there’s no
Rotarians with us. But really, no need for that worry. As were
stepping into the limo, the Rotarians hand us a "menu" and tell
us it’s pretty reasonably priced for limo alcohol ahahahah
GermanYYY.
I was in a limo with
all the Brazilians, so it was a pretty crazy hour hah. When we
got back, we had another half hour, then we walked to our last
Berlin disko. This disko was crazy. It had like 10 or 15
different themed bars and rooms within the club. We were there
from 10 til 2, which was way too short of a time I think. It
was probably my favorite night so far of my exchange, it was so
fun. We danced and, once again, old people sketched on us.
This old woman came
over and started dancing to "Moskau" with us then tried to get
us all up on the bar hah I don’t think anyone went to bed before
5 or so and we had to get up and leave at 7:30 the next morning.
Saying that bus was dead the next morning would be an
understatement.
We drove to Wolfsburg,
which has the Autostadt or Car City. It’s a mini city dedicated
to European cars. It was pretty cool, but the moving movie was
not what we all needed after that night. We had to drive about
4 or 5 hours home after that. It was really sad to say goodbye
to everyone, especially the people from other districts.
I had one week of
vacations left before I had to start school again. They have so
much vacation time here! And on school days, they’re barely
even there. My longest day is from 8 to 3:30, with an hour off
for lunch and 2 half hour breaks. Usually though, I go from 8
til noon. I don’t know how I’ll survive when I get home and
actually have to go to school and do homework and everything.
I became a 10G, which
is basically the highest level in the sophomore class.
That’s right, sophomore. Hah hey, it’s an upgrade from
freshman I guess. I’m a lot happier in this class because
they’re closer to my age; they’re all turning 16 this year or
next summer.
I already have
friends in this class which is really nice. My host parents
think I had ulterior motives for switching though, since out of
12 people in the class, only 4 (including me) are girls hah.
But in the entire grade of about 30 people, only 8 to 10 are
girls. It’s really weird.
In class, it seems
like were always talking about the U.S. It’s really weird
because they think that, because they talk about it so much,
they must know everything about it. They think that because
they see it in movies or something they understand it. And they
think that we have no culture, so when I do something "strange"
they assume it’s just me ha. Maybe it is… aha. Like, the fact
that I don’t butt into other people’s conversations. They
thought that that showed that I wasn’t interested, but I just
thought I was politely listening. They still don’t believe me
about that. They were like, Erin, it can’t be that different,
it’s not like you’re from Afghanistan or something.
Anyways, in history
class we’re learning about the cold war, and when we talked
about the airlifts to Berlin, my teacher went on about how the
only reason the U.S. did it was because we wanted publicity and
free marketing. I was like, what?! Then, in English class, we
were learning about "dating in America" which was the funniest
thing of my life ahahahha.
Basically, it said
that in the U.S. girls have to look exactly alike, and on dates
we aren’t supposed to appear too intelligent, just friendly and
bubbly. We should be an "audience" hah. Then we had to
describe pictures. One was of 2 African American people in a
restaurant. One boy raised his hand and says, well…they
obviously live in Harlem.
I thought he was
kidding, but he was dead serious. The teacher was like, why? Is
it their skin color? And he was just like Yeah, I mean, they’re
black and everyone knows most of the black people in America
live in Harlem. My teacher’s response? Well, you know, now
they can live other places too. I just sat there, with my mouth
open. And everyone stared. .at me. What!? How can he say
that and they look at me like I’m crazy?
Here, there isn’t
much diversity, only about 7 people in my school aren’t white
and none are Hispanic or black. If you’re different they will
stare, it’s not really rude for them. And they always make
intensely racist jokes without any teachers saying anything.
It’s weird.
Halloween is less
than a big deal here. They literally didn’t know when it was.
I gave some Halloween candy to my host family and they thought
it was funny. Apparently it’s like Saint Martini day or
something, they always tell me about it when I say Halloween. Or
they reference Mean Girls, aka "Girl Slap" with the name change.
That’s all for now I
guess.
Good luck everybody,
I’ll see you next month :)
September
Another month, and once again i’m wayy behind
with this report. September was a pretty ridiculous month. My
host dad, brother, sister, and me, all had our birthdays in the
first week so basically everyday we had a little birthday
party. For my birthday, they made an “american style” chocolate
cake and gave me all kinds of candy and snacks, just what I need
hah
My Oma and Opa here gave me a giant towel with
an “E” on it, for Ereen. I’ve given up on correcting my name,
now i just say, “Hallo, ich heiße Ereen” I didn’t know my
name was really that difficult, I’ve heard everything from Ereen,
and Eileen, to Erlin, and Erreena. Haha Anyways, back to my
birthday. In school, everyone said “Alles gut zum gaburtstag”
which translates to everythings good to the birthday but really
means, happy birthday! It’s weird having a bunch of people come
up to you and shake your hand and say “Everything’s good!” or
“Everything’s fine!” instead of hugging you and saying happy
birthday.
Then in class, they sang happy birthday, in English because
German doesn’t have a song. Except they can’t say the “th”
sound, so it was “Happy birsday!” aha they also do this thing
where they put you on a chair and sing this song along the lines
of telling you that you’re special to them, then they say “3
times!” and throw you up in the air 3 times. I was scared, so I
was sitting in this chair, getting thrown up in the air while
saying “ICH HAB’ ANGST! ICH HAB’ ANGST!” hahaha it was probably
quite a sight.
In
gym, I got to choose what we did, so I chose basketball because
the teacher refused to play football or baseball or let us do
the
California
stretch. I’m the best at basketball, that should tell you
something about how important it is to them ahah In physics, we
had to do a lab where we timed how long it takes the bubbles in
a beer glass to go away after you pour it. Only in Europe would
a bunch of 14 year olds be pouring beer at 10 a.m. in a physics
class. All in all, it was a really good day though.
That weekend, I had my inbound orientation in Oldenburg. It was
soooo different than any rotary thing i’d seen in the U.S. There
were about 150 inbounds, mostly from South America and the U.S.
We had to do some type of performance about our country to lure
German exchange students there, and then answer any questions
they might have.
The only questions we seemed to get were about why there were
only a couple fat Americans there, I mean, aren’t all Americans
fat? And cheerleaders hah Do I have to be one? Are they real? Do
they like my accent? We walked to this gym for a sleepover and
they checked all our bags for alchohol and drugs, which was
really weird. Especially because later, half the exchange
students walked to the kiosk 20 meters away and bought whatever
they wanted.
They gave us a bunch of bread, naturally, and Schwip Schwap! I
love schwip schwap! Hah it’s just fanta and coke mixed together
because apparently here that’s really popular and they hated the
hassle of having to mix it themselves. We had a big dance party
thing. All the south Americans were dancing and the Americans
were like, what do we do?? How do we dance to this?? Hah All the
adults left and it was just the rotexs and rebounds to watch us.
It
was really cool because I got to see Thea, Judith, and
Christiana from the western trip. You could tell where all the
rebounds went, based on how they acted and dressed. All of the
American rebounds were really outgoing and chill, which was a
nice change from the average German. We went to sleep at around
3, but the Mexicans stayed up dancing until 5 or 6, I don’t know
how they do it! The next day I had my first train ride! It was
really cool, well for me at least. All the Germans were like,
Erin, calm down, it’s just a train.
The next day, I got up and rode the ferry again and then rode a
train for about 12 hours to France! My class had a trip to Mourmelon, a city about 2 hours from Paris. We went to school
and lived with French host families for 10 days. My host family
was AMAZING! I think they’re the only people in France who could
actually speak English hah.
In
school, we sat in an English class, and it was ridiculous. They
had 8 years of English, and I’m pretty sure it was worse than my
French. Yikes. I asked the teacher a question and she told me my
English was pretty good, so I said, “yeah, well it is my
language” but she didn’t understand that I meant I spoke English
natively, because they didn’t tell the school I was coming. So
she said, “yeah, I mean, it’s not bad but you need to work on
your accent” and she said this in the heaviest French accent
ever. I just said, “no, im an American” awkwardly hah It was
really…komisch, strange, weird, I don’t know.
The French would make fun of me, because since I’m an American
I can only speak English, right? And I would turn to the Germans
and tell them something in German and the French kids would be
like WHAT?? They’ve had about 4 years of German, but can’t say
ANYTHING so it was funny. My Germans getting pretty good now and
I can understand most things and have things explained to me in
German.
On the weekend, my host parents took me to Versailles. It was
RIDICULOUS!! I love Versailles! It was soo beautiful and the
gardens were richtig geil, really cool. My French host family
was soooo French, which sounds stupid, but that’s the only way
to explain them. We ate crepes all the time and I also had;
Pate, foi gras, quiche, a mushroom and egg tart, fondue,
ratatouille, so much champagne and of course, Frog legs! They
were really good, but they looked really gross. Like, you could
see all the bones and the vertebrae. You could definitely tell
you were eating a frog.
One day, we had a crepe party for all the exchange kids. Each
family brought their own crepe maker and it was just super
French hah. On my last day there, my host mom was watching an
American show, and realized that Americans make fun of French
people, so I awkwardly had to explain to her and try to divert
the conversation.
After Mourmelon, we took a bunch of trains to Paris and then
went on the metro at 5 with all of our luggage, I almost got
left at a station which was really scary. Then we walked 6
blocks to our hostel. My first, and hopefully last, hostel. We
had to carry our luggage up 5 flights of stairs and our room had
no bathroom or shower door.
One girl, Linda, tried to use a sheet as a door, but she strung
it through the light. We smelled something burning and when we
took down the sheet there was a hole the size of my head in it
ahahahhahah for the next 2 days, we saw as much of Paris as we
could. My favorite things were the Eiffel tower and the Louvre,
even though I didn’t get to see any artwork D:< I also loved
when we sat at the top of Paris at night and just looked at the
lights and listened to some French people playing guitar.
It
was crazy to think that all my friends were sitting at home, not
doing their homework, and here I was, in PARIS listening to, and
understanding, conversations in German. Crazy. On the last day,
we went back to the train station and got on a sleeper train to
go home. I think sleeper trains are basically the coolest thing
ever but all the Germans were like, Erin, it’s just a train.
They seem to tell me this a lot…It was strange because there was
no adult super vision, and it was co-ed. 2 things that you would
never see in America.
2
days after I got back from France, Oktober break began so it was
time to leave for ESPANA!! We left a day early because…well, im
not really sure. My host family seems to change plans a lot at
the last minute without any warning. We stayed with their
friends in Nordern, on the other side of the water. We ate deer
for dinner, at least, that’s what I think they said it was. They
didn’t know what it was called in English so they pantomimed
antlers hah There weren’t enough rooms, so my host brother had
to sleep in the tanning bed ahah He wasn’t too happy about that.
Me
and my host dad flew to Malaga 2 days before my host mom and
brother and drove 2 hours up the coast to Albunol. It’s crazy, 4
days and 4 languages, only in Europe. My host dad doesn’t speak
Spanish so I had to help him out, he didn’t like it, but I
thought it was funny hah
Every day there, we went to the beach for like 5 hours after
stopping at a tapas bar for fish and beer. My host family really
likes nude beaches or abandoned beaches, so either we’re the
only ones on the beach, or we’re surrounded by naked people. I
think I’ve been in Europe for too long because now it doesn’t
shock me when I see naked people, it’s still kind of gross hah but
not weird. Well, usually not weird. I mean naked people tanning,
ok. Naked people doing push ups or fly fishing? Not ok. It’s
also still weird to me that my host family changes on the beach,
like ON the beach. They don’t go anywhere to change, so
basically I’ve seen EVERYTHING.
I
feel like a rotary example hah My host dad took me to a tourist
market to get some souvenirs and it was an entirely different
world than in Germany. I got a bunch of piropos and instead of
the sales people ignoring you, they hover over your shoulder and
bother you until you pay and leave. Back to the piropos though,
there was one especially sketchy guy. I walked past him three
times, and here's how they went:
1st
time: “Holaaaa, que tal? Bonita, where you go? Come back! I love
you! Fine, bitch! Puta! PUTATAAAA!”
2nd
time: “Heyyy, tienes sed? You want drink? La playa? Go to disco
with me, I love you”
3rd
time: He saw me coming, went into a store, and when I walked by
he popped out and started walking with me “Where you go? Who you
with? Come with me, we have fun” ’wink’
Hahahah
it was quite an experience.
Ok,
last thing with this crazily long report, the word “Awkward” I’d
heard that it didn’t translate, and while here I’ve not only
found out that it’s true, but why it doesn’t translate. I’ll say
“akwardddd” or do the awkward turtle and they don’t understand,
so then I try to explain awkward. I’ve realized they don’t have
that word, because it’s unnecessary in their culture.
They grow up seeing everybody naked, having no personal space,
and hanging their underwear up for the whole world to see. What
could they possibly find awkward? I’m starting to find it
completely normal to see naked girls and sex tips in a teen girl
magazine, to have a teacher make sex jokes with students, and to
see my underwear blowing outside for the whole island and every
tourist to see. I’m basically the most awkward person ever, so
being here, where they don’t even understand that concept, is
going to be interesting. Maybe I’ll return home and not be
awkward at all. Hahah yeah, right.
Til
next month, or 2 months with how late I always am with these
haha
Hallo, or Moin! As they say here in the
islands. Somehow I managed to survive my first month here in
Germany hah. It’s already been way more intense than I ever
imagined. For the first half of my exchange, I’ll be
living in the airport. It makes some things harder, like having
basically no internet and living a 20 minute bike ride away from
grocery stores, my school, and anybody that I know. But it also
offers some amazing opportunities that I wouldn’t have had
otherwise. I got to see the German chancellor land when she came
in to give her speech, and my host parents have taken me on
plane rides around the island, and even to Bremen to go
shopping. My first full day in Norderney, my rotary club
was holding a sausage booth for a fair at the kurplatz. They
gave me the easiest job they could find, blow up balloons for
little kids. This turned out to be a lot harder than I thought,
especially because all of the toddlers were asking me about a
million questions, none of which I understood. I quickly learned
how to say, “What? Sorry, I don’t understand.” And that hand
gestures can be verrry helpful. I had a week of summer here,
which I spent exploring the island with my host sister who just
left for Ecuador. We went to the beach, which turned out to be
another lesson in culture shock. I saw more speedos than I ever
knew existed and I learned that telling somebody the beach was
topless was optional because, “Aren’t all beaches topless?”
ahaha. I also learned how to really ride a bike, which I’ve
become pretty good at, minus the occasional crash, and now I
think that 5 miles really isn’t worth taking the car as long as
it isn’t pouring rain. I also saw Harry Potter ( und die halp
blunt prinz) with my sister. It was the weirdest experience,
sitting in a theatre, a legit ballet theatre, and watching a
movie where the mouths didn’t match the words and where I
couldn’t understand anything. It was the most lonely feeling in
the world, to be surrounded by people that could all understand
and laugh and cry at something that I couldn’t dream of
understanding. The school here is probably the
biggest change though. There are 300 students in my school, from
5th to 10th grade and they’re divided into
3 “schools”. These are; haptaschule, regularschule, and
gymnasium. Gymnasium students are the ones who work the hardest
and are most likely going to college because they go to 11th
and 12th grade and take better classes. In
regularschule, the students are more middle of the road and show
potential, they might go to college, but they stop high school
after 10th grade. In haptaschule, the students are
being trained for life after school because it’s basically
impossible for them to get into college and they also stop after
10th grade. These kids are all the same age but have
completely different classes because of the school they were
assigned after 4th grade. They also stay together
for the entire day and have different classes every day, which
definetly confused me for awhile. The students here seem to
teach themselves, the teachers seem more like babysitters than
anything else. They always are just reading their books or doing
group research which is hard for me because I can’t communicate
very well yet. They also seem to actually want to participate
and not just try to do the minimum or get out of doing things if
they can. In sport class, they always put in 100% and they all
ask to read or answer questions in class. I was put in the 9th
grade, but after my October break, I’ll be switched into the 10th
grade which is closer to my age, 15 to 16 year olds. Im one of
the oldest in my school because the people who are in 11th
or 12th grade have to go to the school on the
mainland, which would be an hour ferry and 2 half hour bikes
ride for me every day. I made some friends at school
and they invited me to the local fair, which was in town for a
week. This gave me another interesting view into European life.
They basically have no rules. I'm guessing it’s because they
don’t sue over just anything, but I was surprised by the lack of
safety. Here, it’s more common sense. Wanna smoke while playing
bumper cars? Go ahead. Wanna climb around and not wear a
seatbelt on the tilty ride? Be my guest. Wanna run across the
bumper car ride while it’s going then ride with your feet
hanging out? No problem. Nobody got hurt though, because they
had to use their brain and make logical decisions. There’s also
no safety warnings on blow dryers or shopping carts telling you
how to seat your children. They all think I’m crazy when I try
to explain hah. My 3rd host family’s youngest
daughter had her 1st day of school, and here that
entails a HUGE party and a school ceremony starting at the
church and ending at the families’ houses. All the kids get
these giant cones filled with toys and candy and gifts. The
cones are decorated by their parents
usually
and show their children’s favorite things. They can be simple,
but most of them had handmade stuffed animals hanging off or
were tye dyed or had hand made fairy princesses. At the party
afterwards, we ate German cook out food, which is basically tons
of sausages and pork and grapefruit beer. It was sooooooo good.
A couple weeks ago, I went to my classmate’s 15th
birthday party at the beach, it was pretty cool. They carted out
all these drinks, and of course tons of bread hah. They LOVE
bread here. Like, for breakfast we eat bread with cheese, raw
bacon, radish spread, or NUTELLA (I basically live off of
nutella and banana sandwiches). Then for a snack at school,
bread with like 4 pats of butter. Lunch? More bread. An
afternoon snack? You guessed it, more bread! Hah anyway, at this
girl’s birthday, we played this version of dodgeball where
random people that got out can throw balls at you and we built a
campfire. It was funny because they got sticks and I was like,
Oh! Marshmallows? Are we having s’mores? And they were all like,
What?! You cook marshmallows and eat them? Gross! Ahah they
thought it was the grossest thing they’d ever heard, besides
pepperoni pizza which they still can’t believe I eat. Instead of
marshmallows, they bring bread dough and cook it over the fire.
I spent about 20 minutes trying to cook mine, then I gave up and
ate it basically raw, I’m too impatient for this I guess.
Lately I’ve been making a lot of friends, which was hard at
first because the Germans, from what I can tell, tend to be more
reserved at first and not as warm as Americans. They all shake
hands when they say “Happy Birthday!” and if you smile at
someone it basically means you want something of theirs, or
you’re hitting on them. I found this out after my host sister
caught me smiling at everyone I saw at my school and on the bike
path. She explained that that was probably why so many boys had
been talking to me and so many girls had given me weird looks hahahaa I learned my lesson pretty quick. Now that I can
understand conversations pretty well and can make a joke or 2,
people have really begun to open up to me and I’m getting out a
lot more. The funniest thing here is that random things are in
English, but the English doesn’t usually make sense. They all
wear things in English or have ads in English because they think
it’s really cool but it turns out making no sense. Like this
campaign for fitness:
And all the time, people will say random
things to me in English so they can show off, but they’re the
most random things like “He is my father, Santa Claus” when
talking about my gym teacher, or “I’m so in the ass!” because
apparently in German that means your exhausted ha ha In English
class, my teacher is always asking me for the “American” word
and why I can’t spell correctly (brutishly), especially after I
failed my last English test hah. Because everyone here speaks
British English, there have been some awkward language moments,
like when everyone kept asking if I had any extra rubbers they
could use ha ha ha or when one girl in my class said, “I love my
fanny!” because the girls name was van anh aka vanny but with
German pronunciation “fanny” ahahhah Nella I thought of you when
that happened.So there's my novel hah. This month started out
very hard, but I just want to say THANK YOU times a billion. I
know that not every day is going to be a good one and that it
will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but those moments when
I stop and look around and realize I’m in GermanY totally blow
my mind. Danke, danke, danke shon!
Robin
Smith's Presentation to Ecuadorian Rotarians Published in
The Ecuadorian District Magazine
Robin Smith from Bexley has been in Quito
Ecuador for the past year and has been writing wonderful
pieces about her experiences there which are found in this
web site. Robin has had a wonderful year and part of
her duties as an exchange student is to make a presentation
to her Rotary Club in the local language, Spanish.
Robin, a student at Columbus School For Girls, made her
presentation and it impressed local Rotarians so much they
published her talks in the District Magazine for all
Ecuadorian Rotarians to read. Robin will be
coming home shortly after an extremely successful exchange.
Last Update
This is my last update. It has a bit about what
I did the past two months, and just some
thoughts and feelings about Rotary Youth
Exchange and coming home.
The past two months have been so much fun. I got
to attend an Ecuadorian soccer match with my
friends Karem and Misael and their families. It
was between Barcelona and La Nacional and was
INSANE. We sat with the Barcelona fans and
they’re pretty much all from the coast, so it
was a total party for the entire game!
Mother’s Day was fun at my school; we had a
party and hired a mariachi band to come play for
the “mamitas.” The best part was being able to
wish a Happy Mother’s day to three very
different, and very amazing women that I have
the privilege to call mom.
I helped cook my first crab, saw my first (and
last) horror movie, and drank goat milk straight
from a goat. I visited the Capilla del Hombre,
Guayasamin’s museum and home. And most
excitingly, I was able to meet my new host
nephew, Joaquin, who was born at the end of May!
At the end of May we went on the EcuaTour! The
EcuaTour was nine insane days of traveling
around Ecuador with exchange students from all
over the world! We visited Guayaquil, Machala,
Cuenca, Riobamba, Baños, Quito, and Otavalo.
Each city was so interesting, and highlights
included eating ostrich in Machala, visiting a
llama raising community in Riobamba, hanging out
in Baños the day before the entire city was
evacuated due to the volcano eruption, and
pretending to be Brazilian with all my friends
from Brazil so we could get better prices in
Otavalo.
At the end of the trip, it was very, very sad
because nobody knows when we will see each other
again. But I think our world has become a lot
smaller because no matter where we wander in the
world, we’ll always have a home with one of our
exchange brothers or sisters. That’s one of the
many amazing things about Rotary Youth Exchange:
they take people from all over the world and
turn them into brothers and sisters.
My last day at school was really sad (and
hilarious because there was a bomb threat!! Haha
but probably just so people could watch the
opening of the World Cup). My class threw me a
party and everyone got up and said
something...it was pretty emotional. I feel so
lucky to have such great friends. I miss my
class so much, and the teachers and just the
general military craziness at mi Liceo Naval.
Hoy y siempre Liceo Naval!
P.S. I have great news! One of my very best
friends from school is coming to visit in
August!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At the beginning of June my second host family
took me, Merle, and Walter to the beach! It was
so much fun and it was great working on our
Ecuadorian tans. =) My second family are great
people; the mom Pochi and the dad Ramiro are
very nice. I also had a lot of fun with my host
brother who is thirty-five and his two sons. My
host sister and her family are also so sweet!
The Larrea family gatherings are so huge (40+
people) and are crazy!!!
Anyway, during my last week and a half here I
spent a lot of time with the Larreas, and my
first host family, the Sanchez family; had
several despedidas, and spent a ton of money in
Megamaxi on food to bring back to everyone (CSG
unicorn forever hahahaha). Oh, with my counselor
and his family we had an interesting encounter
with the slightly drunk Russian ambassador…
-O-
Those last moments in the Quito airport were
some of the strangest moments of my entire
exchange. Some exchangers came, some friends
from school, my two host families and the family
of my host counselor were all there. Ahhh, I
don’t even know how to describe the feeling. It
was just a mix of everything, though mostly sad,
sad, sad… I didn’t know what to say except hasta
luego, see you later! One thing that I kept
reminding myself of was there can never be a
hello unless there has been a goodbye. It was so
hard to verbalize to all these wonderful people
how much it means to me that they were part of
my exchange. I feel so incredibly lucky!
I can’t even begin to describe how much I miss
Ecuador. I miss my host families. I miss my
school friends, my exchange friends, the
Rotarians, and the teachers and kids at the
special needs school. I miss how everyone
dances, anytime, anyplace. I miss the food, the
music, and the warmth of the people. I even miss
that gross cheese! Even the guys who pee on
people’s walls have left a little space in my
heart. I’m pretty sure that space will never be
able to be filled because there just ain’t that
many guys peeing in people’s yards around Bexley.
I especially, especially miss my first host
family. The Sanchez family is just awesome and I
love them tons! They are like my real family,
sometimes even more so. I call my host dad Papi
(Darwin), my host mom Mami (María Enith), and my
host brother ñaño (Juan Pablo), and my host
sister ñaña (Pao). They taught me so much about
Ecuador and just life in general! My host mom is
so sweet and fun. She is also a great cook! She
doesn’t speak any English, and she talks A LOT
and at 100 miles per hour. So I learned fast!
She and Juan Pablo were the ones who really
taught me Spanish. I talk to my mami about
everything. Whenever I have a problem or am
confused about something, I ask her. Sometimes
we would start talking after lunch and keep
talking until we went to bed! I love her so, so
much and I feel incredibly lucky to have such a
great relationship with her. My papi is so
cool!!!!!!!! He is so funny and loves to joke
around and is very adventurous! He plays the
quena (an Ecuadorian flute) and always buys us
tons of junk food when we go on trips. My
brother Juan Pablo is hilarious! He plays the
guitar and loves Legos and Iron Man. We always
had movie nights with Doritos and galletas
Amores. My Sociales class got moved to the
classroom right by his because we behaved so
badly, so I got to see him everyday even though
I wasn’t living with them anymore. It was great!
And he always gives me bear hugs. Although I
only knew Pao for a weekend, she is a sweet and
wonderful person just like the rest of the
family. I also became close to my aunt Asalia
who is sooo funny, and my cousin Francisco who
is awesome at the guitar. It was weird, when I
changed host families; I was home sick for my
first one! When I went on Rotary trips, I was
homesick for my host family!
And now being back in the United States, I’m
homesick once again. The two weeks I’ve spent
back here in the U.S. have been so crazy. It has
been great to see everyone, but it is also just
plain weird being back. When I arrived two weeks
ago, I could tell immediately it was Ohio—hot,
sticky, and humid. Some of my friends and
neighbors came to the airport and then came over
to the house to have pizza. It was so nice to
see them! After talking to them, the first thing
I did was drink a huge glass of tap water. The
next thing I did was drink a huge glass of ICE
COLD, KROGER SKIM MILK. And boy was that good.
After having been up for almost forty hours, I
went to bed, slept until noon the next morning
and when my mom woke me up, proceeded to talk to
her in Spanish. The first few days I kept using
random Spanish words in conversations. Each day
I’ve been back, I keep discovering things that I
had forgotten about and now think are kinda
strange. It’s awkward for me not to air kiss
people when I see them. It’s weird that lunch
isn’t the biggest meal. I get hungry! At my
house at least there is way more food in cans
and we eat more junk food hahaha. A big
re-culture shock I’ve had so far was when
Bridget and I went to take photos the morning of
Red, White and Boom. Geez people are so intense
about fireworks! Caution tape and construction
fencing to stake out your spot, complete with
sound systems and squishy couches? Obese
hillbillies eating giant funnel cakes? At that
moment I thought wow. I’m definitely back in
America.
With my family right now we are in Pigeon Forge,
Tennessee, birthplace of Dolly Parton and all
things kitschy, cheesy, and made of vinyl. This
has to be the biggest culture shock yet.
It will be interesting to see how readjusting
will work out. It is strange to be able to view
American culture, before going to Ecuador I
didn’t even think the U.S. had a culture because
I had never been away from it! It already feels
like my whole year in Ecuador was just a
dream—an amazing, crazy, wonderful, incredible,
terrifying dream.
-O-
It does not seem that it was only ten months ago
that I was waiting in the airport with Sara,
Tessa and my family sipping my “last” chai tea
latte from Cup O Joe. It does not seem that it
was only ten months ago that Jaymee and I
entered security crying and boarded the plane.
It does not seem that it was only ten months ago
that we arrived in Quito and had strangers
waiting to welcome us into their families as
daughters.
To each exchange student, the exchange year
means something a little different. To me it
means having everyone call you m’ija. It means
asking fifty times for a jabón sandwich before
realizing what you really want to say is jamón.
It means staying up until three in the morning
dancing. It means loving a family that at first
were complete strangers. It means making new
friends and having a reggaton party in the
middle of math class. It means getting to know
kids from all around the world. It means
learning a beautiful new language and
experiencing beautiful new culture. It means
hearing ideas and perspectives completely
different from your own.
That is what Rotary Youth Exchange means to me.
I used to be afraid to speak up and make
mistakes. But now I’ve learned that you can
never let fear become a thief because it will
rob wonderful moments from you! I’ve learned to
take more risks and to be more confident in
myself. Exchange has taught me to enjoy the
small moments in life and not to worry about
things you can’t control and because of that,
I’m able to enjoy life so much more.
I want to thank Rotary a million times over for
this experience. Words cannot even begin to
describe what you have given all of us exchange
students. What you guys do is absolutely
amazing. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. Muchas
gracias to Sandy, Walter, Bill, Judy, Sema,
Jackie, Mr. Kilbourne, and the Whitehall-Bexley
Rotary Club and everyone else who makes exchange
possible. DISTRICT 6690 FOREVER!
I’d also like to thank my Rotary club in
Ecuador, Los Chillos Milenio. Richard, Lani,
Francisco and everyone are so amazing. Thank you
so much for this experience and for all that you
do!
Thank you to my absolutely incredible host
families, to my awesome classmates and Rotary
exchange students. And thank you to my mom and
dad (and Ben) for letting me do this and to my
friends and family for all the support!!! MUCHAS
GRACIAS.
¡QUE VIVA ECUADOR, CARAJO!
Abrazos y besos,
Robin
Seventh/Eighth Month Update…where is the time
going?
With pretty much every report, I write the same
thing (and a lot of the other exchange students
do, too). Where has the time gone?? Now I have a
slightly different idea, however….it’s not so
much where has the time gone, but more like
where is the time going. Gone makes it seem like
something has been lost or wasted; going seems
more like living in the moment, enjoying the
time here. Time can never be wasted if you’re
living in the moment.
So where is the time going?
I blinked and eight months have passed. I feel
like an American and an Ecuadorian. The gross
cheese I hated at the beginning of my exchange I
like now, as long as I put tons of hot sauce on
it (that’s another new addiction) and can also
tolerate orange juice. I’m also obsessed with
mushrooms and green olives which I used to hate.
It’s like the song the “Seasons of Love.” There
are so many different ways to measure an
exchange year: in new foods, new friends, new
music, new dances, and new ideas. However you
measure it, it sure goes quickly!
When I talk to the other exchange students, it
amazes me the ability people have to adapt to
new things. At the beginning the majority of
inbounds didn’t speak any Spanish, yet were able
to find ways to communicate to get what they
needed. Now it’s so rewarding to able to ask
“what the heck is that suspicious looking meat
sitting across from the Aunt Jemina Frozen
Pancakes?” and in general just function in
another culture (it was cow tongue, by the way).
I guess it’s like if someone who didn’t know how
to swim was thrown into a pool; she would
probably start to struggle until she got to a
wall or a lifeguard came and saved her. Probably
after such an incident they would start swimming
lessons so it wouldn’t happen again. That’s how
it is for exchangers. We struggle until we find
a way to survive, and then start learning as
fast as we can so we are able to flourish and
enjoy our time in the water.
This is an absolutely amazing experience. There
are hills and valleys, good cheese and gross
cheese, but it is all part of the learning we do
everyday. We are constantly learning. It won’t
stop after exchange, it won’t stop after
college, and it definitely won’t stop after we
have our own families and eventually retire. You
can never retire from being a learner. I love
this idea that “life has to move, or else it
stagnates.” Life will never be boring.
I wanna take a minute to write to the new
outbounds that this coming year will be lo
maximo. I won’t say it’ll be the best year of
your life because that’s a pretty depressing
thought when you’re only sixteen and have
another seventy years of life, but you can bet
it’ll be an incredible year. You will change so
much and have such a fun and amazing time.
Always remember what Sandy, Walter, Bill, Judy,
Sema, and Jackie and everyone has
said—especially “SAY YES TO EVERYTHING!” Good
luck!
Okeydoke, so now for the news-y section…this
month has been INSANE! My family from the U.S.
visited, I changed host families, started school
again and went to the GALAPAGOS ISLANDS!!
U.S. Family
With my family from the U.S., it was like going
back to my first month here. I remember one of
the first things my dad commented on “What just
happened that little kid just ran across four
lanes of rush hour traffic?” That kind of thing
happens all the time, so I guess I just don’t
notice it anymore haha. We visited the town I
live in, Sangolquí, and went to the main plaza
and Sunday market. My brother was pretty
fascinated by the huge stacks of live moving
crabs. We also saw a great deal: six baby chicks
for one dollar. Later we went to the Ecuadorian
grocery store Megamaxi (laugh) so it was
interesting for my family to see just the
regular Ecuadorian life.
Some other places we visited were Cotopaxi, one
of the highest active volcanoes in the world,
Mindo, one of the best birding places in South
American (a group there won the Christmas bird
count). We also stopped at the equator and
stayed a few nights in the Centro Historico of
Quito. One of the coolest things that happened
was when we went out walking in the Plaza Grande
and just happened to be there at the same time
as Rafael Correa and Hugo Chavez. I also talked
with this really left wing poet who turned out
to be a Rotarian from a Quito club whose
daughter went to Virginia on exchange.
One of the most fun parts about my family’s
visit was getting to make everything I had
written about come to life for them, especially
the food. It’s so awesome here; every city has
different food and the food is completely
different from the U.S. It’s not like back home
when you go to any random city in the U.S. and
it looks the same with a McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza
Hut, and Wal-Mart.
cotopaxi
Host Family
Switch
I lived with
my previous
host family
for seven
months, so
it was hard
to switch.
We have our
differences
like any
complete
strangers
that become
family, but
I really do
love the
Sánchez
family.
That’s one
of the many
great things
about Rotary
exchange:
they take
complete
strangers
and turn
them into
family. And
also take
kids from
around the
world and
turn them
into
brothers and
sisters.
It’s pretty
amazing.
So anyway,
got a little
distracted,
but in my
new host
family I
have a host
mom called
Pochita,
host dad
Ramiro, host
brother
Diego who is
17 and on
exchange in
Idaho, host
sister
Alexandra
whose 31 and
going to
have her
first kid
really soon,
and host
brother
Cristian who
is 35 and
has two kids
who are 9
and 11.It’s
cool because
they live in
two house in
front of us
with their
spouses, so
people are
always
coming and
going. It’s
fun playing
Playstation
with my host
nephews. I
also have
bazillions
of host
cousins,
aunts, and
uncles. It
is a fun
group of
people and
everyone is
always
joking
around. I
love it. The
grandparents
are so cute
and are the
type who
can’t really
see or hear,
but
constantly
try to stuff
you with
candy and
stale
cookies.
School
I started up
school again
on April
5th. My
class is the
best.
Everyone is
so hilarious
and we all
dance during
class when
the teachers
don’t show
up and have
our own
class theme
song. I’m in
11th grade
Social
Sciences
track. We
have
Philosophy,
Psychology,
World
History,
Literature,
Civics,
Moral, Naval
Awareness,
Geopolitics,
Math,
Socioeconomics,
Tech, and
P.E. My
favorite
class is
probably
Geopolitics,
which in a
nutshell is
studying the
interactions
of countries
and how they
start,
expand, and
end.
Galapagos
The trip to
Galapagos
was
indescribable
amazingly
awesome.
Just imagine
35 exchange
students in
place that’s
nick name is
the
Enchanted
Islands. As
soon as we
saw the
first bits
of land from
the
airplane, we
could tell
this place
was like
another
planet. The
airport is
the puny-ist
one I’ve
ever been
to, and the
only sign of
civilization.
From Baltra
were the
airport was
we traveled
to Santa
Cruz, the
neighbor
island that
has one of
the biggest
cities,
Puerto Yora.
We went to
the Charles
Darwin
Research
Center and
saw Lonesome
George, the
last of his
species; a
Playboy
tortoise who
has ten
girlfriends
and 1,500
kids, and
tons of baby
tortoise
scientists
are trying
to raise to
repopulate
different
islands.
some
big
tortoises
Another day
we visited
Tortuga Bay
and swam
around and
saw tons of
sea iguanas.
They blended
in perfectly
with all the
lava rocks!
Two other
days we went
snorkeling,
one day at
Santa Fe and
another on
Santa Cruz.
We say tons
of fish, sea
lions
swimming and
doing flips
three feet
away, and
manta rays.
We went
snorkeling
inside of a
cave which
was scary!
We also saw
blue footed
boobies,
Darwin’s
finches, and
little
sharks. We
visited Las
Grietas
which is
this long
sort of lake
thing with a
depth of a
hundred feet
in some
places. All
of the water
in Galápagos
is very
clear and
has a
gorgeous
turquoise
color. The
color of the
water looks
fake in my
photos, but
it really
was that
blue.
between
Baltra
and
Santa
Cruz
Each night
we would
walk around
the town and
eat ice
cream or
pizza (or
nachos haha).
It is so
different
from back in
Quito
because a)
you
definitely
can’t walk
around at 11
o’clock at
night and b)
cars that
would have
run over you
in Quito
actually
stopped at
places that
weren’t
crosswalks.
One night we
had a dance
party and
the
Brazilians
taught us
some dances.
They told me
I could
dance like a
Brazilian
which was
probably one
of the best
compliments
of my life
haha.
The trip was
absolutely
fantastic.
Everyone was
so cool and
we talked so
much about
all topics:
Private
Practice,
politics in
Belgium,
everything!
It was
paradise: a
place with
turquoise
water and
animals that
aren’t
afraid of
you (even
the bugs…)
spent with
other kids
from all
over the
world. You
know that’s
only gonna
happen once.
It was so
hard not to
cry when the
trip was
over.
-o-
Life’s
amazing
here.
Something
just has
clicked so
perfectly. I
don’t want
to leave. I
don’t want
to leave my
host
families, my
exchange
friends, my
school
friends, or
Ecuador.
I miss the
U.S. and
everyone
back home a
lot, though.
But coming
back home is
going to be
a lot harder
than leaving
because to
come back I
have to
leave
another
home—my home
here in
Ecuador.
This
experience
has been and
continues to
be
incredible.
Thank you so
much to
everyone who
has helped
support me
and
especially
to the
Rotarians
and
volunteers
who make it
all
possible!
some reasons
why I
freaking
love
Ecuador!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can go in
less than one
day to the
beach,
rainforest, or
mountains.
Dogs live on the
roof.
Sidewalks on the
highway.
HELADOS DE PAILA!
You can do all
your shopping
from your car.
Metric system:
you think you've
run so much
farther on the
treadmill, think
you're going so
much faster in
the car, and
think you weigh
so much less on
the scale =)
$5 venus shoes
that sometimes
you can get for
$4 if youre
feeling extra
cheap and my
host parents say
you can get them
for $1 but I
still haven't
seen that yet.
Your host family
seems to be
related to
everyone.
Liceo es
bacanisimo!!!
2do sociales!!!!!!!
friends at Liceo.
We march at
school.
Giant
hummingbirds.
The trash trucks
play music.
There are junk
food shop, bread
shops, and
beauty salons
every 100 feet!
You kiss and hug
everyone you
see.
My bio exam only
had 10
questions.
You can take a
bus around town
for 12 cents,
and 25 cents to
Quito and just
wave one down in
the middle of
the street.
My school has a
25 meter
platform dive
and no
lifeguards!
Going to the
fruit aisle of
the grocery
store is like
going to another
planet.
Reggaeton and
salsa are
amazing!
People go crazy
dancing!
We have soup
everyday.
Movie theater is
$3.
Agua con gas =)
Parents give
their 12 year
olds beer.
You can walk
around and still
see nuns in
habits and monks
like the ones in
Monty Python
(Sally :).
People ride
horses around
town.
There are stores
only for eggs.
Chifles.
CEVICHE
chochos!
Avacado and
popcorn in the
soup is the
best.
Guys open the
doors for you,
carry your
stuff, bring
girls flowers at
school.
You can see
movies before
they are the
theater (and
then bring them
in to watch in
English class)
Cars stop so
cows can cross
the street.
The gorgeous
churches and
houses in el
Centro Historico
of Quito.
Some people
still wear the
traditional
skirts and hats.
Mountains!
La Selva.
There are people
who still speak
Quechua--the
language of the
Incas!
A bag of Doritos
is 25 cents.
The Costa
accent.
Monkeys,
toucans, llamas,
and alpacas.
Women wear high
heels to clean
and cook.
There is a lime
bush & madarin
orange tree in
my backyard.
The crazy bus to
school that
takes one hour
to get to the
house which is
four minutes
away.
Cow tongue is
sold across the
aisle from the
Aunt Jemima
frozen pancakes.
The little kids
who give me hugs
at school and I
have absolutely
no idea who they
are...
When people ask
you for
directions
and/or think
your Ecuadorian.
You can buy six
chicks for one
dollar at the
market.
All the awesome
exchange
students!!!!!!!!!
My host families
and everyone
I've met here.
I LOVE
ECUADOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, it’s January.
This time a year ago I remember finding out
what countries we were assigned to. I
remember that when I read the email I
started crying and then Sara and I ran
around the lunch room bouncing off the walls
telling everyone the news. It was a feeling
of utter excitement and being scared out of
our freaking minds. Or maybe just out of our
freaking minds.
That was a year ago?
Now all the exchange students from the
Northern Hemisphere are about halfway
through their exchanges. We’re at the point
in exchange where we can pretty much
communicate, aren’t doing as much stupid
stuff, and life seems to be getting better
and better.
…sending emails home in broken English,
thinking it would be just awkward not to
greet someone with a kiss on the cheek, and
knowing that when the electricity goes off
every day it is the best time for a nap…
°°°
On Christmas Eve tons of family came over to
eat Christmas dinner. My host mom had
started preparing about a week before hand
and let me tell you, the food was AMAZING.
We hadn’t eaten the whole day to have room
for all the food. By eleven o’clock we ate.
And ate. And ate. My host mom says that
every holiday here is just an excuse to eat
some kind of special food, and I think she’s
right. I think that might be universal
excuse, too. We had turkey that had been
marinated in wine for three days. We had ham
with peaches, pasta salad, regular salad,
and bacon. The gravy was so good! It had
white wine in it. We also had rellena, a
traditional Quito dish of ham, beef, olives,
walnuts, and dates.
At midnight we opened presents and everyone
was so tired that the entire extended family
slept over. On Christmas day everything was
closed down, nobody was outside; everyone
was in their houses, sleeping off tons of
food and more than a little bit of alcohol.
New Year’s was so fun. We stayed in Coca
with my host dad. The tradition in Ecuador
for New Year’s is making años viejos, paper
maché dolls that you burn at midnight. Some
Army guys even built a full size helicopter
to represent a helicopter that had crashed
in Quito last year. I bought this doll
shaped like a cartoon character named Pucca
to burn (I was so sad to see her burn haha).
Oh, and guys dress up as girls and dance in
the streets for money! Our family went and
had dinner at a hotel that a cousin of my
host dad owns. I hung out with the little
kids playing hide and seek. Oh, and there
was a guy from Texas there who had married
someone in the family! Someone who actually
knew who the Buckeyes were! At midnight
everyone in the town was out on the street
burning the años viejos and setting off
fireworks. Usually people go out dancing
afterwards, but the karaoke we were going to
go to was really crowded, so we decided to
go to bed early at 2:30. Gotta say, New
Year’s in Ecuador sure beats Dick Clark’s
show.
On New Year's Day we headed out to a little
river that is a tributary of the Rio Napo,
which eventually dumps into the Amazon
River. It was so gorgeous. The water was
clear and there were even areas over my
head--a little freaky knowing that pirahnas,
caimans, and boas actually DO live here! AHH!
We also went to a traditional Ecuadorian
cookout at the commander of the military
base's house. It is called a paradilla and
we eat hot dogs, sausages, pork chops,
potatoes, and corn on the cob.
I had told my uncle that I really had loved
going to the Basilica and Compañía churches
and sometime wanted to go to mass there. So
last Sunday my uncle took me to the Basilica
for mass! I didn’t understand much of what
the priest said, only “Padre, Hijo, y
Espiritu Santo” and a couple of other
things. But that didn’t really matter
because I just kept looking at the 100 foot
ceiling and all the gorgeous stain glass
windows and statues of saint! It was so
beautiful and interesting to go to a mass; I
had only been to one other Catholic mass in
the U.S. It is very interesting to walk
around Old Quito because you still see nuns
in the full habit and “padres” in the
different brown and black outfits. My uncle
explained to me the differences in the
different outfits people wear: brown is for
San Francisco and black is for the Basilica,
along with other variations for different
churches. According to some counts there are
87 churches in Quito alone!
°°°
Oh, I almost forget about this, but I think
it’s necessary to have a weird food section.
While in Coca I tried several strange foods.
The first was cow hoof soup. It was…gross.
The cow hoof was just like a rubbery piece
of fat. The second dish was guatita or
something like that. It is this piggy jungle
animal and was actually very good, though I
think they just chop up the whole animal and
give you bits and pieces of it. I’m pretty
sure I ate shoulder blade meat… the final
weird food I tried was mancone a.k.a fried
grub. It had the consistency of fried
cheese…hate to write this but crunchy on the
outside and gooey on the inside and tasted
like salt. It wasn’t that bad; mainly just
the idea that you had eaten this worm thing
that had been wiggling around in salt water
a few minutes before. I also tried raw cane
sugar which was SO GOOD.
I’ve seen four movies while I’ve been here:
2012, New Moon (!), Avatar and the Frog
Princess. I thought 2012 was pretty good. It
was scary/emotional seeing the Washington
monument come crashing down when you’re in
another country missing your native one,
even if it’s only a movie. New Moon I went
to see with Pia and Lisa. It was in English
so we were the only ones laughing because
the jokes didn’t transfer into the
subtitles. I also saw part of New Moon on a
pirated DVD in my English class. It was a
horrible copy filmed in the movie theater
and I couldn’t even tell if it was in
English or in Spanish. Avatar was good and
has a lot of themes that apply to exchange
students. The Frog Princess was SO CUTE! The
music was great; jazz music in Spanish ahaha.
I could actually understand the story, too!
Movie tickets are only three dollars! People
can’t believe it cost nine bucks to go to
the movies in the U.S.
°°°
Life’s good. There are still occasionally
moments of what the heck just happened, but
those moments have decreased a lot. It was a
little surprising when I learned that people
give out quince años (15th birthday party)
invitations three days before the party. Oh,
and for weddings people come in person to
deliver the invitations about a month before
the date. I guess Americans are just
busier…or maybe just more inflexible with
their plans? Who knows haha. People also
don’t use the term RSVP. It’s pretty rare
you’re asked to confirm your attendance
anyway. I think my host mom thought it was a
little strange that Americans use initials
from a French phrase to ask if you can
confirm your attendance.
I’m staying with my current host family
until March, and then I’ll switch families
with Walter or Merle. We have exams in
school until Thursday (the bio exam was one
page and had only ten questions), and then
summer vacation! I’m planning on taking some
dance lessons and volunteering at a school
for special needs kids, probably teaching
English. We have a Rotary day trip to the
cloud forest, then another Rotary trip to
the rainforest. Also, if everything works
out correctly, I’ll be going to Bogota,
Colombia to stay with my host aunt and
uncle! At the end of March, my family comes
to visit! Yay!
When we start back to school in April, I’ll
be in quinto sociales (Junior, Social
Sciences track). I’m looking forward to
taking some classes I’ve never had before,
like World Politics and Philosophy. Also
during April we’ll be taking a Rotary trip
to the Galapagos and in May a trip around
all of Ecuador.
And then in June, I come home.
We always say that time flies. You’d think
we would have learned to expect that by now,
but somehow we always look back and say
“Where has it gone?
the family! la familia!
this is the jungle piggy
años viejos
grubs
the basilica
16 October 2009
I’ve been in another hemisphere, on another
continent, walking (well, mostly being driven)
around another country for almost two months. It
still does not seem real! And only eight months
left here. It seems pretty short when there are
about only two more months of school, three months
of summer break, and then three months of school! I
divided this into chapters because I went overboard
with the details, like usual. Don’t feel obligated
to read the whole thing!
CHAPTER 1: EVENTS
50th Birthday Party
I
really, really didn’t want to go to this birthday
party. I didn’t want to sit in a room that looked
like a mini Versaille, talk to Ecuadorian women with
fake eyelashes, or eat another piece of freaking
choclo (a type of corn that is the most bland thing
I’ve ever tasted). But it ended up being…AMAZING!
And the chocolate fountain wasn’t the only reason!
Oh and the living room had a tribal, Egyptian feel
and no one wore fake eyelashes except the Dolly
Parton-esque mariachi singer! We did, however, end
up eating choclo. You can’t get everything you wish
for =)
Since
it was adults only party, I spent the majority of
the time with the Tanya (the daughter of the man
whose birthday it was…don’t remember his name), her
cousin, and my host brother. We played Monopoly,
laughed at a stupid comedy, and watched the boys
play Grand Theft Auto (what a great representation
of the U.S.) Oh, I just realized that all those
things were from the U.S…well, you can definitely
see the influence the U.S. has here. Anyway, we all
ran down the steps when we heard a trumpet…THE
MARIACHI BAND HAD ARRIVED! It was SO cool! The
birthday man and his wife danced together and then
everyone started dancing, singing, and clapping
along. Next we prepared for the “The Hora Loca.”
THE COOLEST THING EVER!!!!!!
Basically, all at once we turned off the lights and
turned up the music. The goal of the Hora Loca is to
be as loud and crazy as possible. All of the women,
including me and Tanya, danced into the living room
in a conga line screaming and banging pots and
blowing on those party honk-er thingies. Also,
everyone wore masks and leis. For the next hour or
so, we danced. Everyone knows how to dance here.
(Host mom on far right, I am next to her.)
At this point I would like to give a shout out to
BALLETMET COLUMBUS! Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I gotta say I’m pretty proud that, as a gringa, I
could dance like an Ecuadorian! Eleven years of
dance classes really helped. Everyone knows how to
dance salsa and tons of other genres—reggeaton is
the newest craze right now. It is mostly popular
with teenagers and is a combo of hip-hop and club
dancing. The music is rap in Spanish--here is a link
to two popular songs right now. Sorry if there are
Spanish cuss words. Abusadora:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0w53CgAlo8
Que Tengo Que Hacer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHgnebZ_jYo
We spent the rest of the evening eating lots of
meat, potatoes, and choclo, plus REALLY GOOD
Colombian meringue cake. I talked to the Tanya’s
uncle for a while. He actually lived in Boston! It
was also cool because his son, who is really young,
about 10 or something, can speak English, Spanish,
Dutch, and Papiamento (language from Aruba. Never
heard of it before!) What could have been another
stuffy evening turned out to be absolutely awesome.
Note to future outbounds: follow the advice Sandy,
Walter, Bill, and Judy tell you…SAY YES TO
EVERYTHING because you could miss out on something
totally cool!!
Quince
During the weekend I spent with my host counselor, I
was able to go to a quince--a girl’s 15th birthday.
The daughter of my host counselor, Caro, was really
nice and helped me put on make-up and get ready…like
an Ecuadorian, which means it takes about two hours,
minimum. Let me tell you, it seems to me that all
Ecuadorian women must have been Mary Kay saleswomen
in their previous lives because ALL OF THEM, I
repeat, ALL OF THEM, are experts in makeup. It is
definitely a different style of using makeup than in
the U.S.; lots of people paint their eyebrows on and
make these little “wings” out of their eye shadow on
their eyelids.
To continue, in Ecuador the “family” (and by family,
the 300 close friends and relatives of the birthday
girl) eat dinner and then all of the kids show up
later for the dance party. This quince was
incredibly fancy. Most of the kids there were from
the really rich private schools in Quito, the
equivalent of a party with students from CSG,
Wellington, Columbus Academy, you get the idea. It
was at the Hilton in Quito and all of the girls and
guys looked like they had walked out of magazines.
It was kind of awkward at first because I only knew
Caro and I felt uncomfortable in my dress because it
wasn’t mine and had sticks in it…I think they are
called ribbing or something like that, and it was
hard to breathe, plus it was strapless and I don’t
exactly have the ability to wear strapless dresses.
The dance party was supposed to start at 10:30, but
ended up starting at 11:30. This is called the hora
ecuatoriana,
a.k.a. everything starts later than scheduled. Caro
laughed and laughed when I told her that in the U.S.
dances usually start between 7 and 9.
Completely coincidentally two of my good friends
from Liceo Naval were there! So I danced with them
and Caro and her friends until 2 in the morning. IT
WAS SO MUCH FUN! We never stopped dancing. And it
was really refreshing because no one was embarrassed
to dance. The guys will just come up to you and say
“would you like to dance?” and you will start
dancing. It was fun trying to dance salsa. I was so
thankful that earlier in the week some of the kids
in my grade had taught me how to dance some salsa
and reggaeton so I didn’t end up looking like a
total idiotic gringa!
Papallucta
One weekend my counselor and his family took me
Papallucta, a collection of hot springs up in the
mountains. It was probably the first actual tourist
destination that I’d been to. It was so relaxing.
Mountains on all sides, super hot water you don’t
feel guilty about using, and the mist rolling in
made for a very peaceful afternoon. A few times my
counselor’s kids and I jumped in the freezing cold
icy river water and then jumped into the hot, hot
water.
Package from the U.S. and some comments about the
news!
THANK YOU MOMMY! A few weeks ago a package from my
mom came and it was an adventure just trying to get
it. First, when a package for you arrives, the post
office calls your house so you can pick it up. I
assume that they don’t deliver it to your door
because a) someone would steal it and b) who wants
to go to all the trouble of delivering it to your
house? We couldn’t pick up the package that day
because the post office closes at 1. So the next day
I had to leave school early to get my package. When
we
got
there the post office guy said he needed three
copies of my I.D. card. Went across the street and
got the copies, gave them to post office guy. Next
the guy needed 75 cents for who knows why, then I
signed some papers and he handed me my package. YAY!
PYSCH!
The customs guy (who, by the why was not wearing any
I.D. and could have been in cahoots with the post
office guy to steal my package) had to open my
package and seemed extremely disappointed when all
that was in there was candy. Then I had to pay 75
cents to another post office guy and sign some more
papers and then finally got my package! I WAS SO
ECSTATIC TO GET THAT PACKAGE. Candy and Newsweeks
and a Seventeen and Craisins and more! I ate almost
all the Jelly Bellies in one day and read all the
Newsweeks in one day. Newsweek is my nerdy
obsession. Back home when it would come in the mail
on Tuesday, I would sit down and read the pretty
much the entire thing. It was kind of funny, when my
package came the first thing I did after opening my
jelly beans was grabbing a Newsweek…the first thing
my host mom looked at was Seventeen. In a nutshell,
that is the fundamental difference between me and my
host mom.
It is definitely strange not really knowing what is
going on in other parts of the world. I don’t watch
the TV news very much and the newspaper here mostly
reports about Ecuador. For example, I didn’t know
that Ted Kennedy had died until a week or so after
the fact. I also I had no idea that Obama won the
Nobel Peace Prize until this Sunday when he received
it on Friday (again, shout out to my crazy
Ecuadorian lit teacher for making us read the
newspaper). That kind of thing just isn’t on the
news here because there are a ton of problems in
Ecuador that take precedence over coverage of world
events (or rather, current events from the U.S.) It
makes sense even if it can be frustrating…people
here aren’t as concerned as knowing things as soon
as they happen like people are in the U.S.
Fiesta
de las Faldas
One
of my friends from school invited me to go to a
public party at a hotel in Sangolqui. Not an event I
want to ever repeat. It involved a mob of teenagers
trying to push their way into a doorway while the
bouncer guy would push everyone back. Everyone was
squashed together and stepping on each other’s feet
and following on top of each other. Now I can
truthfully say, I HATE MOBS.
La Mitad del Mundo/La Virgin/La Ronda and Empanadas
On a Sunday when my host dad was back from Coca, we
did a whole bunch of the typical touristy
activities. First we went to the Mitad del Mundo,
the equator! It was so cool to get the cheaper price
for PEOPLE THAT LIVE IN ECUADOR! La Mitad del Mundo
is a combo of the novelty of Four Corners National
Park, minus the cheesiness and middle of no
where-ness, plus the coolness of the St. Louis
Arch. The view from the monument was gorgeous and
there were also a lot of cool shops and a dance
performance. Afterwards we stopped at the Virgin
statue that overlooks Quito. In one direction you
can see Old Quito with lots of churches from Spanish
colonization and in the other you can see New
Quito. Quito seems like a city that stretches on
forever. If you ever get the chance to visit
Ecuador, make sure to stop and visit the Virgin
statue. The view is just incredible!
We walked along a beautifully restored street that
was built all the way back during Spanish
colonization called La Ronda. Lots of famous
Ecuadorians in history lived on this street. It
reminded me of the Short North-lots of little
galleries and funky restaurants. We ate the BIGGEST
EMPANADA IVE SEEN IN MY WHOLE FREAKING LIFE in one
of these restaurants. It was probably a foot wide
and one and a half feet long.
Lakes, Otavalo, and Che Guevara
Last weekend we had Friday off school because it was
Guayaquil’s independence day, so my host family
decided to take me to Otavalo. On the way there we
stopped at the ugliest, tackiest hotel I’ve ever
seen in my life. Background: Some guy with wayyyy
to much money for his own good started building a
hotel twenty years ago. But this was not just any
hotel; this hotel was going to be seven stars (how
can there be hotels with seven stars anyway?). But
wait… he kept constructing and constructing, adding
more and more ornaments and decorations from a
mishmash of time periods and countries. And to this
day, he is still constructing. But the real
question is, where is he getting all this money, and
will it be another twenty years before it is
finished?
Anyway, we stopped at another Mitad del Mundo with a
sundial which was kind of cool (there are bazillions
of Mitad del Mundos here) and drove past the
gorgeous lake of San Pablo and stopped at a
beautiful lake with three islands in the center.
This lake is in the middle of an inactive volcanic
crater. No one knows the source of the water or how
the lake formed.
Finally we got to Otavalo. You can immediately tell
the difference between Otavalo and other Ecuadorian
cities. For one thing, it was a lot cleaner, and for
another, pretty much everyone there who was not a
tourist was wearing the traditional Otavaleño
outfit: long black skirt and lacy white shirt for
the women and loose pants, braids, and hats for the
men. The market was not as crowded as I expected,
though still was definitely “sensory overload.” Tons
of colorful booths set up really close together,
lots of people trying to get you to buy stuff, a
myriad of different smells and sounds.
At night we managed to find a hotel room and then
found an Italian restaurant that looked good. It was
amazing having a big ol’ plate of regular spaghetti.
No tomate del arbol sauce, no rice, just regular red
sauce and pasta. Thank you, lord. Spaghetti never
tasted so good.
What was also very interesting was the restaurant
was having a Che Guevara memorial night with a
documentary and discussion. I had never heard of Che
Guevara before then, but he is famous (and for some
infamous) all over South America. He was a
communist guerrilla leader from Argentina who led a
revolution in Bolivia and was captured and killed by
CIA backed Bolivian officials thirty years ago. Most
people in Ecuador consider him to be a hero. *That is a super
bare bones description, but if you want more
information look him up and if I got something
incorrect about what I wrote, tell me por fav.
The next morning the market had DOUBLED IN SIZE and
was TEN TIMES more crowded. I felt so good when I
bought a wool poncho for $16. Hehe, I may be a
gringa but you can’t rip me off! Well…it was really
my host mom who negotiated the price. Advice: I
think it is probably better to go to the market with
at least another person so they can help you
convince the vender to lower the price.
It
was so weird seeing all the foreigners and I felt
kind of bad for them…and then realized that I was a
foreigner…except I didn’t feel like a foreigner so
much anymore. I look like one, I talk like one, I
still can get ripped off like one, but at that
moment I didn’t feel like one. I felt Ecuadorian.
And that was just a freaking awesome feeling.
CHAPTER 2: SCHOOL & FRIENDS
Quizzes and Hot Wheels
Just a few differences about school:
·A lot of the quizzes are
oral, I think because kids have more of a problem
cheating on those kinds of quizzes.
·My school is HUGE on
projects and expositions. People give presentations
all the time, so most of them are pretty good at
speaking in front of people. My school is also
really into to decorating your work with borders and
pictures and colors.
·We don’t write papers.
For example, our biggest literature project was
making a diorama about a book we read. These
dioramas were so intense. Wooden bases, hot wheels
car glued on, and mini paper houses. In my head I
could hear Dr. Doden laughing the entire time. This
creates a problem: kids know how to give good
speeches, but don’t know how to write because the
occasional times that they do write essays, it’s
straight from the internet.
·I joined the basketball
team. We are probably one of the most horrible
basketball teams in Ecuador, but it is SO MUCH FUN.
I’m also the second tallest person on the team haha,
because there are four foot tall twelve year olds on
our team.
·There is also a
difference when you borrow stuff from classmates
here. Everyone is very willing to lend you markers,
pencils, uniform hats, whatever; there is just a
small problem…if you lend someone something, most
likely, you will never get it back. If you lose
something, you will never get it back either, even
if it has your name in it. It has been in this way
that I have lost a pen, pencil, scissors, a uniform
ribbon, and two hats. So, never let people borrow
anything, because it doesn’t mean borrow, it means
keep.
·
A few days ago, one of our teachers never came to
class, so we were waiting outside our classroom, but
then the school disciplinary guy came and yelled at
us to get in formation! So we had to march and then
we had to run around the school building. Then we
had to run around the building again. Then we did
about 50 something jumping jacks, but one guy in our
class smiled, so we had to run around the building
AGAIN! Then the disciplinary guy got mad at us
because we had run too slowly, so we had to run
around the building another time! All this exercise
just because we had been waiting outside of the
classroom when we should have waited inside!
Definitely a culture shock! The priorities just seem
to be a lot different at the school here. Kids cheat
on everything and plagiarize basically all their
project work from the internet and get absolutely no
punishment, but if you stand outside the classroom,
UH OH, looks like your going to have to run around
the school building! It makes me laugh...definitely
a lot different from CSG!
·
One day during English class I found this huge piece
of gum in my shirt. Yep, someone stuck gum in my
shirt. But instead of getting majorly pissed off, my
friends and I all just started laughing
hysterically. This is just one of the ways that
Ecuador is different than the U.S. People are just
more easy going about the random stuff that happens
day to day. People say así es la vida,
that’s life, all the time. I only really got pissed
off when I got home and realized, how the heck am I
going to get a huge pink gum stain out of my shirt?
Buckeyes
Advice for future outbounds: if you want friends,
make buckeyes. One day I brought a couple of
buckeyes to school to share with my friends during
recess (everyone, everyone shares food) and they
were gone in about 2 minutes and then in about 5
more minutes, it seemed like half the school was
asking me for buckeyes.
Flag Day Celebration
We had to stand for one and a half hours…in heels. I
swear, that should have been illegal! It was
absolute torture. The sixth graders and twelfth
graders all marched in lines to kiss the flag. They
all wore gloves and I kept thinking of Mickey Mouse
the entire time. Also, when each line was marching
to kiss the flag, this guy would bang on a drum to
keep everyone in rhythm. I seriously expected
monkeys to fly into the ceremony and start chanting
“Oh, wee oh, deee oh, OH.”
History Class
History class has been very interesting learning
about past events from an Ecuadorian perspective.
For example, we talked about was “incomplete” and
“complete” families. Family is the number one most
important thing here. Period. It was interesting
that the teacher seemed to think that no matter
what, any family that wasn’t the traditional “two
parent” family would have problems. Some of the kids
in my class, however, brought up the point that it
doesn’t matter whether someone has one parent or
two, problems like drug addiction and alcoholism can
be occur in both types.
Another comment is that a lot of times things just
aren’t as politically correct here…not that that
makes the people bad, it’s just that it is not as
necessary because most people share the same
religion and similar backgrounds. Come on, Ecuador
is 95% Catholic and 4% Protestant. In all of
Ecuador, there are less than 500 Jewish people. It
makes sense that things aren’t as “politically
correct” (at least from the point of a person from
the United States).
Nereida
Well. I did something I never thought I would do.
Ever.
I
entered a beauty pageant.
So at my school there is a contest called “La
Nereida.” It is similar to homecoming queen. If you
win, you become Queen of the school and get some
free dance classes and other prizes. Sounds pretty
low key, right? WRONG. It is the most intense.
Thing. Ever.
Anyway, a few weeks ago some of my friends in my
class first suggested that I enter. I was like ok,
what is it? They told me: well, you have to buy and
dress and model and the whole school votes for the
candidate they like the best. Didn’t sound too
hard. I thought, ok, maybe I’ll do it…but I hate
pageants…yuck…I don’t want to do it…it objectifies
young girls…yuck…I don’t want to prance around like
an idiot in a super short dress… But then I started
thinking, ok,
this could be good… my whole class nominated me…I
can’t let them down…a lot more people will know who
I am…I can practice public speaking…Rotary told us
to say yes to every opportunity…But what
finally made me decide to do it was one of the
things Sara and I had written down on the bucket
lists we made before we left:
Do something you never thought you would do.
I
thought, what the heck, I’m only ever going to have
one chance to be in this dumb pageant thing, so I
might as well do it.
But
for about a week I had no idea what was going on and
when I didn’t show up to the rehearsals during
school, one of the teachers in charge of it came and
found me, but I think I accidentally told him that I
didn’t want to do it. So later I found another
teacher and told her that I still wanted to do it.
She told me, ok, leave school, change, and get ready
to get your photo taken. When I came back, she and
this other teacher were like “Whoa, you need wayyy
more makeup!” So these two teachers start digging
around in their purses and pull out tons of makeup
and start smearing gobs of this crap on my face. AH!
It was so awkward getting my photos taken. I felt
like I was on America’s Next Top Model except I
don’t know how that ever would have happened because
I’m like America’s worst model.
So, later Monday afternoon I started after school
rehearsals with the eleven other candidates all from
the high school. We learned our presentation, you
know, the “strut your stuff” type deal to this
really popular song by Shakira called “Loba” (look
it up, it will be stuck in your head for the next
ten years). We also started learning part of our
tango dance. Very cheesy, but it was nice to get
back in the dance groove. Wednesday was when
things started getting crazy. For the first period,
the teacher attempted to teach, but after that
things just got out of control.
Everyone in our class was writing on stickers “Robin
Nereida” and “Kathy Nereida” (one of my friends who
was also a candidate) and then putting the stickers
on candy. They also made this huge signs that said
“Robin Nereida” and “Kathy Nereida.” The teacher
actually got on some of the boys’ cases who weren’t
helping. We left classes with some of friends to go
visit other classes to campaign. The other girls
that went with us carried signs and passed out candy
and blew on horns. A few of the candidates’ moms
were there and looked like they were out to kill. SO
INSANE.
During recess it just got crazier. Random people
would start chanting my name. Other candidates and
there friends were also out campaigning—one girl
even hired a guy on stilts and a drummer to campaign
for her. I started dancing with some people and we
did the coffee grinder. So, for the rest of the day
everyone kept asking me to do the coffee grinder.
Advice for future outbounds: use whatever random
skills you have to make friends.
Found out later that we technically weren’t allowed
to campaign during classes and only with an official
chaperone. All of the candidates divided into two
groups to visit around the school and introduce
themselves. It made me feel so happy that everyone
would always clap and say “Aww, she can speak
Spanish!” For the rest of the afternoon we
practiced all of the dances on the stage and we
learned one reggaeton dance—the day before our
presentation!
The big day finally arrived. I got to sleep in
until the glorious hour of six o’clock because we
didn’t have to get to school until eight. My host
mom helped me with makeup and hair and then dropped
me off at the common area with the other girls. We
walked to the stage and started getting ready in the
green room. Total flashbacks of Nutcracker. Except
Nutcracker gone horribly, horribly wrong.
There were tons of girls crammed into one room
changing while moms glooped on the makeup, friends
took photos, and frantic chaperones searched for
ribbon. One teacher helped me glob on more makeup.
We put this disgusting oil all over our legs and
arms and, of course, there had to be sparkles.
Our dance dresses were…very short and rather
embarrassing to say the least. From pretty much
this point on, I was able to survive only because of
BalletMet and the CSG Theater Department (thank you
Mr. Hanks and Ms. Davis). It was complete acting the
entire time. Our dancing was terrible. It was so
cool when we did our little walk thing and everyone
would start chanting your name, screaming with
signs!
What happened afterwards was even crazier.
So at the end we all went out to the audience to be
with our friends. One of my guy friends just grabbed
my arm and started leading me around because the
teachers were restraining all these little kids from
mobbing the candidates. At the end all these little
kids and my friends kept giving me hugs and chanting
my name. Then a whole bunch of kids starting asking
me for my autograph!
And
for the rest of the day, people would just start
chanting my name, even some teachers! It was so
crazy and exhausting, but made me feel really happy
and grateful for my class and friends. It was fun,
but I really don’t like having that much attention
and I’m not that into the whole pageant idea, though
I can see why people do them—they are fun! I was
also surprised that there weren’t any students who
were strongly against the pageant.
For the rest of the day, people voted and watched
bands and dance groups made up from kids in the
Liceo.
Anyway, a lot of good things came out of it. I
actually got to meet my principal, practiced more
Spanish, met a ton of new kids, and become closer
with my class.
Oh, I came in third place, which means I’m going on
to the final round. YIKES.
CHAPTER 3: OBSERVATIONS
Food
·Favorite food is ceviche.
I think it is sort of an acquired taste because at
first it was so hard to finish because it was so
strong, but now I love lime flavor. At a Colombian
chain called Crepes and Waffles that serves Belgian
and French food I tried this amazing pita with
cheese and a giant mushroom. My host mom made colada morada,
a special drink for the Day of the Dead. It is
purple and has strawberries and pineapple in it.
·The food that I’m
craving right now is just popcorn. Back home we eat
popcorn at least once a week, if not every other
day. I just want a huge bowl of popcorn with good,
melted cheddar cheese.
oCows are everywhere.
People shepherd them around on the sidewalks, empty
lots, and in between traffic.
oMachismo has been one of
the harder things to get used to. Men just expect
that the woman will have dinner ready to serve as
soon as they come home. It is almost like having
their own personal chef.
oI have no idea why, but
teenagers seem to have a huge obsession with horror
movies here.
Differences in gestures and Whistling
·The “come here” gesture
is in the reverse here. Instead of beckoning with
the palm up, you beckon with the palm down. You
also never show someone’s height with the palm down;
that is only for animals. People start counting with
the pinkie finger first, too. People also don’t use
the yes/no head nodding as much here.
·Whistling is like a
second language here. In the super market, people
will whistle to each other as a way to tell them
“ok, this cash register has a short line, get over
here.” Whistling is used so much more for
communication. The guys all whistle at girls…it is
not considered an insult or as a way to make you
feel uncomfortable; it is more of a compliment.
CHAPTER 4: THOUGHTS
oI finally figured out
why the mountains don’t look like any other
mountains I’ve ever seen before! It is because there
are no trees! In general there are just not very
many trees here, due to deforestation and forest
fires.
oI’M SICK OF PLAIN WHITE
BREAD AND CHOCLO. I WANT A BIG ASIAGO ROAST BEEF
PANERA SANDWICH OR A THAI OPEN FACE SANDWICH FROM
FLAVOR’S OR A WENDY’S SALAD.
oAll the time I feel
incredibly stupid, but that is ok because I’ve
gotten used to it. It does, however, get annoying
when other people assume that you are incredibly
stupid. Thank you for you help with everything my
dear host brother, but I do know that the popcorn is
finished cooking when you don’t hear the popping
noise anymore.
Homesickness and Ideas about Exchange
Homesickness has been pretty hard for me. The chart
of feelings you will probably experience throughout
exchange has been right—except what the chart says
will occur in one year happens in about one hour,
hehe. Before I came I thought that maybe one day a
month I would feel really crappy. But really each
day I’m a little bit homesick. It could be the sound
of the sewing machine or the smell of peanut butter;
I don’t know what will start it. The best thing I’ve
found that helps is to just go do some other
activity and try to think of all the positive things
I have gotten out of being here. And for some days,
you just let yourself be a little sad because you
can’t be happy all the time!
For me writing these massive letters has been really
helpful because it has let me reflect on the things
that have happened…and how stupid and hilarious they
seem after the fact. I’ve learned to not take
things so seriously and to just enjoy not knowing
what’s going. It makes things a lot easier when you
can laugh at yourself—it gives people a better
impression, too. I sure do miss Ohio, my family,
friends, and CSG, but I love it here and already
have experienced so many amazing things. However,
without all the people and experiences back home I
never would have ever even considered doing an
exchange. I just feel so incredibly lucky to know
such awesome people!
One thing that I would like to comment on is a term
called
ethnorelativism, from the slideshow by
Dennis White that all the exchange students saw
before leaving (thank you Walter for sending the
slideshow to us again!). Ethnorelativism is the
“acquired ability to see many values, beliefs, and
behaviors as cultural rather than universal.” In
other words, cultures can be understood only
relative to themselves. It doesn’t mean you have to
approve of everything in the culture, just
understand why those differences occur from the
perspective of that culture. With the effort of
trying to understand these differences comes the
ability to adapt to them, even if you don’t
necessarily agree with them. Appreciate the
differences!
I
really like this idea and think it is one of the
most important things to remember when you are
annoyed or frustrated with the culture because after
thinking about this, you probably will be less
annoyed or frustrated!
Even after only being here two months, I feel being
dumped into a culture that is completely different
from my own has been extremely beneficial. It forces
you to become more adaptable and causes you to look
at everything from past history to how you wash the
dishes in a different way. This coupled with the
challenges of trying to figure out what you want to
say in another language makes you think more
creatively. At least for me, my patience has
increased a ton because when I disagree with
something like “complete” or “incomplete” families,
I don’t exactly have the ability to present a
logical argument in Spanish. Plus, I feel that I’m
still learning the culture and, as a foreigner, just
need to listen to people’s opinions, not argue with
them. I’m here to learn
this culture and look at the reasons
behind these opinions with the mind of an
Ecuadorian.
Yep, definitely makes you think creatively!
As always, THANK YOU ROTARY! Thank you: Sandy,
Walter, Bill, Judy, Brianna, Sema, Jackie, Mr.
Kilbourne, Whitehall-Bexley Rotary Club, and
everyone else in District 6690! ROTARY ROCKS.
Congratulations to anyone who actually finished
reading this. I hope it wasn’t too boring.
September 18,
2009
Hola! Como estan?
Well, I’ve just
about wrapped up the first week of real school. It has been
really hard, but exciting and fun at the same time (just
like pretty much everything during exchange). Also, today
I’ve officially been in Ecuador for four weeks! Scary!
Pretty much
everyone talks to me, but our conversations don't last very
long. It can be very frustrating. But the girls in my class
are nice, though the boys are crazy (but nice, too). In
general teachers seem to automatically like the girls better
than the boys. Tons of people say hi to me but
I have no
idea what their names are. It seems like everyone is named
Gabriella or Carolina. Which means you call them Gaby or
Caro, but everyone also has a random nickname like Pollito
or Gato or Santiago or something like that. Also, no one
uses facebook, they all use hi5 and MSN. I try to do my
homework (we don't have very much thankfully!)-- the
internet is really helpful for looking up instructions in
English. Math I sort of understand...the teacher is REALLY
nice I like her a lot. The kids respect her, too, and don't
talk so much in her class. She actually talked about
emotional intelligence with our class today which was kind
of interesting! Chemistry I don't really get what is going
on...my teacher is nice when he isn't teaching. Today in
ocean science class we had a quiz which I tried to study for
but ended up being an epic fail! The teacher read six
questions out loud and we had to write them down and the
answer. The only question I understood was one where we had
to explain the difference between abiotic and biotic
factors...thank you, Ms. Leonard!
English is really
hilarious. The stories are so funny that they have to read!
Plus the teacher doesn't even speak that good of English. I
help her with different things and also work with another
girl who is the best at English. Logic class was kind of
interesting, though really repetitive. It is sort of like a
thing we did in geometry last year, a deductive reasoning
unit right now. I could understand more in that class. We
were working on stuff like...
Dogs are animals. A golden
retriever is a dog. A golden
retriever is a animal. or something like
that...you get the idea.
We did examples
of this for the entire class...kind of boring...it did,
however get interesting when the teacher got REALLLLLYYYYY
mad at this boy who wasn't showing respect and wasn't paying
attention. She sent a girl to go get the lieutenant guy. The
lieutenant guy comes into our class (we all have to stand at
attention) and gives us all a lecture and makes the boy do
30 something push ups and then he escorted the boy out of
the classroom! Grades are from 0 through 20 and are
completely public. The teachers have the class president,
called the comandante, record everyone's grades. The
teachers yell out the kids grades in front of everyone and
there is a bulletin board of the top three kids who have the
best grades in each class. In English class people sit
according to who has the best grades. Its crazy! We all have
to stand up when the teacher comes to our class (at least
for the teachers who strict). Most of the teachers call the
kids Cadete Lopez, Cadete Smith (which is embroidered on our
sweaters) etc. The nicer teachers call us by our first
names. EVERYONE PASSES NOTES!!! I think that because there
really isn't any art classes here, the kids use their
creative energy to make really cool letters on the notes
that they pass. It has helped me learn to write better in
Spanish, though! It is also really cute that the boyfriends
give their girlfriends presents and cards ALL THE TIME and
all the girls make their boyfriends cards during class. It
seems like everyone has a boyfriend. But the Ecuadorian teen
culture is interesting because girls still hug, kiss on the
cheek, and hold hands with boys that are not their
boyfriends.
People don't
raise their hands. They usually just shout something out or
stay silent. In the morning we all get in formation in the
planchanda, the outdoor gym. Each class has to march 3 steps
then march back and then the whole school does it. Kind of
cool, but pretty pointless. There is also this ceremony were
some cadetes raise the Ecuadorian flag while someone blows
this eerie sounding whistle and rings a bell. I like the
little kids on my bus. They are all really nice to me,
though are kind of shy. We all share junk food on the bus.
The ride to school is dead silent, but on the way back
everyone talks all the time. Oh, the kids all through their
trash out the window. Oh, on Wednesday and Fridays we have
gym. You get to choose what sport you want to do. Two girls
invited me to come with them to....tae kwon do. I
don't
think Im ever going back!!! It wasn't that the teacher was
mean or the class was boring, he just knew barely anything
about keeping your body safe. Normally the girls are in alternativo gym class, where you do a little bit of
everything, but their teacher is pregnant. So there are
about 5 people normally in TKD, but right now about 12 other
girls are in it that normally are in alternativo.
The highest
ranking boy did the warm ups. He was a freaking YELLOW BELT
and barely held the warm ups positions!!! Then the teacher
had us do a whole bunch of different steps over a pretend
outline of a ladder. It was so hilarious! Not very many
people could do them. Then we did more stretching...except
really bad for you stretching. Like instead of reaching down
to touch your toes, it was like bounce your torso up and
down to try and touch your toes. Similar problems with other
stretches! Then later on we were sitting in the butterfly
position and he's like, OK, get your partner to press down
on your knees! I was like, WHAT THE HECK! I told my partner,
no freaking way!! Then, one guy actually STANDS on another
guys knees when he is in butterfly! TERRIBLE! And the
teacher is like, good job, that's great! I seriously was
staring with my mouth open. Later on we sat with our legs
out, back to back and then had to lean back to push the
other person torso to their legs for a hamstring stretch.
How awful! I was thinking of Linda (Robin’s yoga teacher at
Yoga on High) the entire time, what would she say about
this? It was so bad, I felt like laughing the entire time.
Still, the girls I were with were a lot of fun and for about
half the class we just sat and talked.
I like my
classmates and the kids here and my school. Everyone is so
friendly and nice. Earlier in the week it was harder, but
now I know my classmates a lot better and I can hold longer
conversations each day. I just love the people here!Today I
tried gymnastics. It was fun, but I think Im still going to
try basket and swimming (my math teacher worked it out so
that I can try different sports and choose the one I like
the best). In April once school starts again I want to do
alternativo.
We drive
everywhere. I miss milk. We eat Wonderbread all the time, it
is better than the U.S. type of Wonderbread, though. It is
called Superpan. Bread all the time! Rice all the time! Just
the actual amount of food we eat is so much more. It is
really good food even if it is unhealthy...I feel really
spoiled! My host mom spends a lot of the morning with our
maid making lunch. I like the ceviche with shrimp, toasted
corn things, popcorn, and banana chips-- all in the soup!
I don't walk
anywhere! I was so happy in TKD just get some exercise.
I
also miss being messy. Like my room at home in a normal
state would what my host mom would consider to be extremely
unorganized and messy. It is also hard because everyone
thinks you need help all the time...just because you can’t
speak the language doesn't mean you are a complete idiot!
Like, I know how to pump up a bike tire! I know that sitting
down it is easier to tie your shoes! hahaha oh well haha
This afternoon,
I
finally got to walk around my neighborhood by myself! But
the area I was allowed to go is only about 2 blocks
long....and there was a wild dog wandering around so I paced
up and down the street by our house a whole bunch of
times--still
funnish though. Our class went to see the
theater club’s show. There are only 4 people in the club and
they did three different little acts. I sort of got what was
going on but it seemed super melodramatic. About half the
show someone was crying or yelling about something. The
theatre was so insane! It seriously was like Luke
Skywalker’s house on Tatooine except smaller. It was this
dome beige stucco thing in the basement of the chapel.
Coolio.
Yes, I miss choir
and theater a lot! My school is super sporty and super
sciencey. It is nice that there are a lot of sciences
because those are easier to understand but still... we only
have literature twice a week and history twice a week! We
have biology, chemistry, physics, ocean science, and logic!
I have at least two sciences a day and math everyday.
Different sports for gym class is a cool idea and it is nice
to get exercise.
The President
Correa wants to shut down this TV channel that shows ideas
different from his. This channel also is the channel that
plays the Simpsons! Correa is NOT a fan of the U.S. He does
not like the pop culture or imports from the U.S. at all.
The people here are pretty much stuck with him because there
is no set year for an election according to my host mom.
The politics are very interesting... SO different from the
U.S. I hope to hear some other opinions. I don't have a very
strong opinion about Correa because I feel that I still
don't understand the government and politics here that well,
so I've been unable to have a well-informed opinion.
Oh, when
I tell people my brother’s name is Ben, they are all
like “Ven”? Your brother’s name is “Come Here”?
People can’t really say my name so a lot of them
just call me Caroline. How is swine flu in Ohio?
There is hand sanitizer everywhere here and you see
some people walking around with face masks but
that's about it. If you want to send me Ohio
news that would be sweet, too! I don't
really know whats going on outside of
Ecuador. I'm glad that my literature teacher makes us read
the Sunday newspaper every week though because normally my
host family does not buy the newspaper.
Yeah, honeymoon
period is pretty much over! Things that were so different
when I got here I don`t notice so much anymore. Its amazing
here, but its also hard. I knew that it was going to be
hard, but I didn't know in what kind of ways it would be
difficult. And I never thought I would miss CSG as much as I
do...well, not the homework, but just about everything else!
=) Please let me know what`s going on with you!
I would absolutely LOVE to hear about the things everyone
has been doing, sports, school, movies, dances, football
games, new Jeni`s ice cream flavors, anything! Tambien,
MUCHAS GRACIAS for all of your support and interest in RYE!
It is just such an incredible program! And of course, thank
you so much Rotary!
I hope everyone is doing well and is enjoying the last few days
of summer. Good luck with the first day of school to all the CSG
and Bexley people. Have fun! I will not check my email or send
an email for another couple of weeks because technically Im
supposed to be on communication blackout, but I really needed to
write down all the stuff that has been happenening in a
different way than writing in my journal!!!! ( Sandy and Walter
I hope you understand). Plus, I don't really like spending time
on the computer because I feel like Im missing out on
something! Sorry about all the run on sentences and spelling
errors ,Mrs. Carpenter and Ms. James. It is really hard to
concentrate on writing in English when all you hear is Spanish
(well almost all the time, it is really strange when Hot N Cold
starts playing on the radio or Hannah Montana in Spanish comes
on). Which I guess is good, because it means I'm learning
Spanish!!!!!
¡Hola todos!
I hope everyone is well and enjoying the first few days
of school and a nice break on Labor Day.
Thursday, September 3rd
My host mom invited me to come along to a dinner party
with some of her friends. Another girl my age named
Mickey was also there (she is the daughter of the person
who hosted the dinner, Alexandra). When I first sat down
on the couch in the ¨sala,¨ living room , I seriously
just wanted to run away, far far away (it didn’t help
that the living room looked like a mini Versaille).
There were about six other Ecuadorian women, all wearing
their designer best, all wearing high heels, all
wearing TONS of makeup, and all talking really loudly
and really fast in Spanish. And some of them were
actually wearing…FAKE EYELASHES! WHAT THE HECK! I
thought those were only for theater! AH! But after a
while, they just started bragging about their husbands
and children, and complaining about the state of the
country, their husbands and children. Yep, some things
really are universal.
Mickey is really nice and friendly, and very patient.
I
thought it was interesting what she chose to wear:
Hollister shirt and short shorts, plus these really high
heeled gladiator sandals (oh, and fake eyelashes). It
was a cute outfit, but something teens in the U.S. would
wear only if they were messing around taking photos.
People wear their skirts shorter, their shirts tighter,
and their shoes taller here.
Friday, September 4th
Today
I actually had to wear my fancy shmancy uniform.
It is cool, but really impractical for anything other
than Halloween…just kidding. Only the girls had to wear
the uniform. At first I thought we were going to a
marching competition or something. I had no idea what
was going on! But then we all get on the bus and the
teacher is like Bye! Have fun! So it is seven girls on
this bus with just the bus driver and it turns out we
are going to a…tae kwon do demonstration?!?
What?
But it gets better! First we drive to this stadium.
Absolutely deserted.
Next we drive to the only other stadium in Sangolqui.
Again, no one is there, but there is a sign for the TKD
demo. It is just seven girls and a bus driver.
We ask this random person for help and just wait on the
steps. One girl bought chips from this person wandering
around selling food.
We wait.
Still waiting.
Wait.
Wait.
Eat chip.
Still waiting (and talking).
Wait.
Wait.
IT IS THE WRONG DAY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!
I have to say, this was one of the most
hilarious things I’ve
experienced in Ecuador so far. This other girl named
Andrea and I basically just laughed the whole way back
to Liceo Naval. Then when we got back, me, Andrea, Dani,
and Milky (I don’t remember her name exactly) went to
their class room and slept. For about an hour and a
half. Then school was over.
Yep, this whole week, what did we do in school?
Nothing.
How much did
I learn?
Tons.
Saturday, September 5th
The head of the RYE committee of my club, Richard
Miller, invited all of the host families, exchange
students, counselors, and various Rotarians to his house
for a party slash orientation. It was so much fun! I had
already met the other exchange students (one from
Finland, one from Germany) and my counselor before the
party, so it was fun getting to know them and their
families. We also went over rules and general advice for
living in Ecuador. Richard’s wife, Lani, is the
president of Los Chillos Milenios and is SO nice,
friendly, and funny. She had tons of good advice.
Richard is ‘’American’’ but never has really done much
in the U.S. His first language was Spanish, then French,
then English. He lived in Mexico and Switzerland and
some other Latin countries, but ended up retiring in
Ecuador. I had a lot of fun plotting how to dunk Merle
(the exchange student from Germany) in the pool with my
counselor´s kids.
Later,
I asked my host dad if we could go see the Toros.
This is part of the two week festival that is currently
going on in Sangolqui (last week we saw an AWESOME!
Parade with tons of different dancers from different
ethnic groups in Ecuador). This ‘’Toros’’ is a big
wooden stadium filled with lots of people. People who
have drunk…a lot. In the middle of the stadium it was
about 25% guys on horseback who actually knew what they
were doing. The other 75% were men (mostly likely drunk)
wandering around the center of the stadium. The goal of
this particular event was to snatch a velvet cloth off
the back of a bull. It was really entertaining to watch:
completely different from anything Ive ever seen in the
U.S. It was also an adventure just trying to find a
seat. We had to climb up these really rickety ladders to
get to the third level of the stadium (it is a temporary
stadium that is built in about three days). Needless to
say I was pretty nervous the entire time (the stadium
did not exactly look very sturdy).
I really enjoyed Los Toros. So interesting and different
from the U.S.
Sunday, September 6th
Not much really happened on Sunday. My host dad left for
Coca, where he will be for the next four weeks. We ate
at a Pizza Hut which was really good. The Pizza Hut was
actually pretty fancy! A lot nicer than in the U.S.
Speaking of junk food,
I have been craving hamburgers.
And French fries. On Friday for dinner we had hamburgers
at Rusty’s. On Saturday we had dinner at TropiBurger. I
have to say my favorite place is still probably
Churrasco’s (the Chilean place). Still after all these
hamburgers, I still want more hamburgers. Mmm. So good.
I eat more hamburgers and French fries here than in the
U.S. I never wanted hamburgers and French fries in the
U.S! They are so bad for you, but taste soooo goooooood
here. Haha.
Also
I saw a store that was just selling eggs. That’s
right, just chicken eggs. An egg store… (WHOA that
sounds really bad).
Monday, September 7th
Today, finally, the first day of normal school!
Except.
Not.
Apparently, this was a vacation day for the kids in
Secundaria. Whatever.
I got to meet some more people and I did actually have
one class, Literatura. The teacher was nice but I didn’t
really get what he was saying. I met some other girls
who are really nice.
Oh, since
I don’t have much to say about Monday, I’ll
tell you about my bus ride…the bus ride out of
Hell!!!!
Everyday at approximately 6:05 A.M. a wonderful yellow
vehicle known as ‘’La Buseta’’ stops in front of our
gate (oh yeah, every house here is behind a wall. Our
wall has an electric fence on top! We also have a
security camera and little thingies on the windows that
buzz every time you open the window. And if you leave
the window unlatched and the wind blows it open…the
police come…yeah…umm…ahah.) Our bus driver I think must
be slightly insane (or maybe every bus driver is like
this. I don’t know). STOP. HONK HONK HONK. GUN the
accelerator! SCHREECHING
HALT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HONK HONK. Turn so sharply
I think a little kid will fly out the window. Repeat.
I
want to barf.
Yep, it is fun.
Tuesday, September 8th
Finally the day
I have been waiting 9 days
for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The first day of normal
school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No joke, it actually
was!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a lot of
fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The kids in my class, 1 año
bacillerato ‘’A’’ are nice and friendly and also really
crazy. They talk when the teacher talks, text right in
front of the teacher, pass notes, talk, listen to
music…no one cares! It was definitely a culture shock
right there! I expected before I came to Liceo Naval,
that each class would be dead silent, and when someone
wanted to talk, they would have to stand up and salute
the teacher and everyone would be so serious.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
So my first class was fisica. No idea what the teacher
was talking about. NO IDEA! I’m going to try and figure
it out later. It took two periods to get through one
problem because my class is so crazy!
Ingles. YES! The only class
I understood! Wahoo!
Recreo. Recess
I can understand! It was cool talking
with the other kids in my class. Everyone wants to talk
to me and offers to help me and everything. They are
really nice! People also share their food. Everyone
does! Don’t even expect to eat half of what you buy.
Matematica. We didn’t do any math. The teacher gave
announcements and lectured about things our class needs
to improve on (conduct,
grades).
Bioanatomica.
I actually understood more or less what
was going on in this class because it was Biology! The
words are really close to the English words so I could
get what was going on.
RECREO!
Ciencias maritime. It is like an ocean science
class...talked about different ocean habitats.
My first day! Overall really fun and interesting.
Tomorrow is the beginning of Spanish camp and it goes
until Sunday.
Almost forgot to mention, today
I had my first
experience with the informal Ecuadorian bureaucracy type
thing. Richard took me and the two other exchange
students to get our Censo, Ecuadorian I.D. card. The
place we went to is sort of like the BMV. We got little
time tickets and waited.
Me and Merle talked to this little girl who was waiting
for her dad. She was so cute!
It started to get a little annoying when there were
thirty people waiting and no one working.
After an hour and a half, a person comes out and tells
everyone, oops, we think our computer is broken. Come
back mañana if you want to, or you can sit around and
wait to see if we fix it.
Yeah right. So we left. Definitely a cultural
experience! I got to know Merle a lot better during that
hour and half, though!
I’m starting to get used to things here.
After
a while you just get used to going with the flow, not
really knowing whats going on…it is kind of a relief in
a way…you eventually get comfortable feeling
uncomfortable.
I really like it here and the already it has been life
changing. Thank you Rotary!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Sandy
Walter and Bill and everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
´´It´s not better or worse, just different.´´
I have been in Ecuador for 4 days now. My host mom, dad, sister
(Pao), and brother (Juan Pablo) are very, very nice. Yesterday
we took my ñaña (sister) to the airport because she is going to
Germany. Today we actually called her host mom in Germany and I
had to talk to her and then tell my host parents what she said!
Definitely an international experience. Pao has arrived in
Germany and we video chatted with her through MSN.
Family
I call my host parents Papi y Mami and Juan Pablo Juanpi or ñaño.
Ñaño is used interchangeable with someones name. (Sorry I cant
figure out where the apostrophe is on this keyboard). For
example, I heard grown women at the grocery store calling each
other ñaña. It is different from the U.S. because no one really
says ´Sister come and do this, but here they do. Everyone has
nicknames and isnt considered mean to call someone Gordito
(fat). Oh by the way, the grocery stores here are called
Megamaxi and Supermaxi. Please feel free to laugh. Megamaxi is
HUGE it is like Target and Kroger combined.
My host dad works in el Oriente, or the Amazon, on the border
with Colombia. He works for the Ecuadorian army in military
intelligence. He gathers information about the drug trafficking
and leads missions to bust the drug traffickers (FARC). FARC is
a terrorist insurgent group from Colombia. He stays here for a
week and works in the Oriente for three weeks. He is the jefe,
or boss. My mom works in the house, cooking, taking care of the
kids, etc. She LOVES to shop. She is an excellent cook! Juan
Pablo likes taekwodo, nintendo ds, playing his guitar, and legos.
Sound familar (cant find the question mark on this keyboard
either).
We have a maid named Miriam who is really nice. It is really
weird having a maid. Normally I like to have control of doing my
own laundry, but it is nice I guess haha. She also is a really
good cook!
We have a dog named Nena and a cat named Muñeca (doll). Everyone
has a dog here, everyone! There are also tons of wild dogs that
roam around. Muñeca is SO cute. She is fully grown but is the
size of a kitten and una pocita gordita! Also, everyone here
adds -ito to all words. Like the salt would be salito.
Everything is cuter here I guess!!!
Food
The food here is AMAZING. For breakfast today
I had this
tortilla, potato, omelet type thing with salsa de tomato,
ketchup! I also had jugo del tomate del arbol, juice from the
tree tomato. It is a version of a tomato but it grows on trees
and is really sweet. Yesterday I had this mashed banana thing
that you eat with cheese. We eat everything with mozarella
cheese here!!! It is the best mozzarella cheese Ive ever had. It
is made in a leaf. Ive also tried humidos, this corn snack
thing, empanadas with cheese, this caramel butter that I think
is called dulce de manjer or something like that. Ive also had
ceviche which was amazing. Very lemony. Yesterday I had locro de
papa, potato soup that is really good! We have rice or bread
with everything. Vegetables are nonexistent. The only salad Ive
had is one with cucumbers and radishes. Yep, really healthy...ve
gone out to eat twice, once at a Chilean hamburger place that
was soo good(a huge hamburger for 2 dollars or something, way
better than McDonalds!) and at Hornados Doña Faby. It is similar
to a fast food restaurant but SOOO GOOOD. I had lunch there with
my parents. We shared a potato pancakes (they were like really
fluffy latkes) avocado, this type of corn that is sort of like
gritz but its definitely not yellow corn and of course, cancho.
Pork. Normally Im not a pork person. I don't like pork that much.
But this pork was the most amazing pork Ive ever
had!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was really
tender and good with this salsa type stuff. We also had a fried
plantain. All this for only $2.75. This dish is really typical
of Sangolqui and is the signature dish. Sangolqui is from two
Quechen words that together mean the food of the Gods a.k.a. corn!
There is so much corn here! It isn't just the yellow corn we have
in Ohio, there are so many different types. In fact, I don't
seen the yellow corn here.
One thing that is interesting about the culture here is that
people share plates and eat each others food. Also, people
never put napkins on there laps and they talk with their mouths
full. I think my host parents think it is weird when I don't
answer them because Im chewing. It is just so crazy to see all
these glamorous Ecuadorian women talking with their mouths full!
There are tons of different types of bananas here. Big green
plantains called verdes, yellow plaintains, little regular
bananas and more. Sometimes after breakfast I feel sick because
Ive eaten so much fruit! In our backyard we have a lime bush
and a peach tree. I had a peach straight from the tree, que rico!!
Some cool things in the Megamaxi
+They have one forth an aisle full of rice. Economy rice,
standard rice,highest quality rice.
+One aisle just for oil. Yep, really healthy food here.
+One quarter an aisle just for popcorn. There are tons of
flavors of microwave popcorn, like vanilla!
+There are soooooooooooooo many fruits. They
don't have names in
English and I don't really remember them in Spanish haha
+ Tang comes in orange, blackberry, and a whole bunch of others
in the flavors of fruit from Ecuador
+ A 70% cacao chocolate bar is $1. M and Ms are $1.50
+Milk comes in boxes and isn't refrigerated until it is opened.
I
could really go for some nice cold skim milk ha ha
+ There are bazillions of varieties of
mozzarella cheese and only
one variety of cheddar. I could really go for some cheddar
cheese right now, too.
+ I think we have gone to a super or mega maxi everyday. We
don't
buy huge amounts of food at once, we just go and buy what well
make for lunch the next day (lunch is the biggest meal).
In the kitchen
+There is no dishwasher. No one has dishwashers.
+The stove has a lid on top for extra counter space and to keep
it clean. Makes a lot of sense doesn't it?
+ No saran wrap. My Mami puts towels on top of the food that is
sitting out.
+ I tried Pringles here and they are different. They
don't taste
as fattening.
+ Eggs are never refrigerated
+ Everyone loves Bridget's cookies. My Mami really wants some
sprinkles!!! They don't have them here. They have peanut butter
here, but not chocolate chips and again, not cheddar cheese.
Yesterday was kind of hard because
I had to saw goodbye to Pao.
She helped me understand a lot the first couple of days because
she helped explain words in Spanish. She is just a really sweet
and wonderful person. After we said goodbye at the airport I
went to my cousin Diani s house. She was an exchange to student
to Indiana in 2006. She was really helpful and checked this list
of words that Ive heard and their translations in English. Her
house (her mom is my Mami s sister, mi tia) is on a mountain
(well, every house here is on a mountain, but hers is actually
on the side of a mountain). Their house is really cool and has
this sort of open second floor and steps to go up to the roof.
The view from the roof is lindisimo!!!!!! BEAUTIFUL!!! From the
roof you can see all of Quito.
About Quito
Quito has about 2 million people.
I live in a suburb of Quito
called Sangolqui (my Mami was telling me that in Spanish
suburbio is town where only poor people live, so where I live
would be called a pueblo, town.) It is nice during the day, in
the 60s, but at night it gets down to the 40s I think. Ahh I
haven't really gotten the metric thing yet. It is really funny,
people wear heavy winter coats when it is only 50 degrees out.
People here talk slower than people from the Costa.
Quito is a very colorful city.
I
don't think there are any
restrictions on what you can do to your house. There are pink
houses, blue houses, green houses, orange house, everything!!
There is also lots of art here. EVERYWHERE there are murals and
sculptures. Unfortunately, people graffiti on everything. In
general, most people disregard the majority of rules. For
example, driving.
If you want to live, please don't learn to drive in Quito. The
default speed is 60 km per hour, whether the speed limit is 25
or 35. I never have actually seen a speed limit of 60 km. Its
not as fast as it is in the U.S. but it is pretty dangerous when
you are going down really steep stone streets. Oh, there is no
such thing as using a turn signal. Instead, you honk! People
don't really wear seatbelts, either. Its not really as scary as
it sounds to be a passenger, but I definitely would never want
to learn to drive here. Its kind of fun though, like a roller
coaster haha.
Other thoughts
+ There are a lot of cows around here and roosters. The roosters
crow at like 10 o'clock at night!!! haha
+Clothes and electronics are way more expensive here. A Spanish
English translator I saw at Staples was $20. Here it is $95.
+ Everything else is a lot less at the little stores. At the
mall stuff is about the same, but movies only cost 4 or 5
dollars.
+ In the U.S. everyone says sorry and excuse me when you bump
into them or cant get through. Here, most people just walk past
and if they bump you, don't say anything.
+ I think it is really interesting that there are tons of
language schools to learn French, but mostly English. People
here think it is really really important to learn English in
order to succeed in the world. Most people know some English
because there are tons of things in English here. TV shows,
magazines, etc. I think the U.S. biggest export is its pop
culture, for better or for worse I guess. This makes learning
English a lot easier because people are constantly surrounded by
it.
+ No one has blue eyes. People give me double takes a lot. I've
only seen 1 other person with blue eyes, a cashier at a
Supermaxi. And I have to admit, I stared too! Its weird, but
whatever!
+ Everyone says que rico (really yummy), que lindo (how cute,
how beautiful), and que chevere (cool) all the time!!
+Sandy, you are totally right.
I have a permanent headache ha
ha.
Oh, almost forgot to say, today
I enrolled at my school, Liceo
Naval. It is really nice! I bought my gym uniform which is
really cool and Im going to where Paos old uniforms. Ill start
school next week on[Monday. Originally I was going to be in
Regimen Sierra, which has the same schedule as schools in the
U.S. and goes from 1-6 30, but Juan Pablo is in Regimen Costa,
which is the opposite from the U.S. and goes from 7-2. Since
Ecuador is on the equator some schools are the same and some
schools are different from the Northern Hemisphere So I'm
starting 10th grade in the middle of the year, Ill have summer
break from January to April, then Ill go to 11th grade. Oh, I
almost forgot to mention the fact that I get to wake up at the
glorious hour of 5 30 so I can catch the bus at 6 30. Fun.
Well, I just want to say, I LOVE ECUADOR!!!
I love the fact that
you greet complete strangers with a kiss and hug, even the
dentist!! (Speaking of the dentist, I hope I never have to go
while Im here!! Pao had to go and basically the dentist
scratched at her gums and she had to keep spitting out blood.
yuckkk!) Everyone here is very loving and constantly gives hugs
and kisses and calls you mija (daughter, even the nurse at the
dentists called me that I didn't even know her) or mi amor.
Everyone is pretty easy going and doesnt get too worked up about
stuff. I absolutely love the mountains. They are different from
any mountains Ive every seen. I love it here! The first day or
so was hard because I couldn't understand people. I had the WHAT
THE HECK AM I DOING HERE moment, like Danielle haha. But its a
lot better now because I can tell people thank you, and I can
help them and things. Juan Pablo is really fun and he has taught
me a lot. So have mis papis. We drew pictures and labeled them
with words.
So according to my countdown (I've had one since last year
telling me how long it'd be until I got here, haha), I've
now been in Japan for 5 months and 2 days. Seriously, how
crazy is that? I honestly can't believe it. Time really does
fly on exchange.
My last post was a long time ago as I haven't had a computer
long enough to write a report but I'll try and remember some
good stuff to include :)
School: School here is...different to say the very least.
When I first got here I understood absolutely nothing during
school. Most (hopefully) know that the Japanese language has
a completely dfferent writing system. They have 3 different
types of writing known as Hirgana, katakana, and kanji. I
learned hiragana and some katakana before I came but knew
absolutely no kanji. Kanji is the really, super complicated
symbols that you see on clothes tags and such in America. In
Japan, all three of these writing systems are all bunched
and used together to form the Japanese writing system. haha,
not trying to be annoying with my little lesson just trying
to have everyone understand why school is so difficult for
me. Kanji takes years and years and years to even have a
good enough footing to read a short novel. So with that
said, school for me is amazingly difficult. BUT I'm trying
really hard and studying everyday during school to try and
improve my kanji skills. My hostmom and I study all the time
together after school and my kanji has actually improved a
good deal (a TON compared to when I first got here which
makes me happy). I've made tons of friends at school with
whom I hangout with a lot after school and on the weekends.
Even though I've been in school for, what? 4ish months, the
staring and whispering and screaming out my name in the
hallways has yet to stop. It's very common to see gaijin
(foreigners) in Japan for sightseeing and whatnot but for a
foreigner to be enrolled into a high-level Japanese
highschool is definitely unheard of. Which is my theory as
to all of the weird attention, haha.
I recently got home from a 4 day skii-trip with my school.
It was AMAZING! I had never been skiing before and the part
of Japan we went to (Nagano-ken) had snow up to my thighs.
It was a sight. In Tokyo, it doesn't snow at all so it was
definitely interesting to experience snow in Japan. I found
that I am actually pretty good at skiing and am really
hoping that I can continue doing it once I get back to
america!
Language: Ahhh, the language. I'd like to say that my
language skills are amazing and that I can say almost
anything I want but I'd be lying. Japanese is really
difficult. I'm not trying to make excuses, because actually
my Japanese is actually really pretty good for which I'm
really happy BUT it's still very hard for me to understand
some of what people say sometimes. I've learned to not
translate things from english into Japanese because the
order of the words is COMPLETELY different. I learned that
the hard way :) Since I've gotten to my second family and
have been studying my butt off at school and with my hostmom
my language skills have improved ten-fold. I still have 6
more months to improve my skills so hopefully by the time I
leave it'll be close to perfect :)
Host family: In late november, I changed to my 2nd
hostfamily: The Akatsu family. They are really a very nice
family. It's my host parents and their son, Hiro. They also
have a yellow lab, Charlie, who I'm in love with and is my
best friend :) My host mom and I are extremely close. We
pretty much do everything together. She teaches me how to
cook Japanese food and we watch Japanese dramas at night on
the TV together. She also helps me with my studying. She
really is like my mother. My host father is probably the
nicest man I've ever met. He's the president of my host club
here and always introduces me to everyone as his "real
daughter," which usually leads to everyone asking how we
look so much different, haha. So far, my host family has
taken me to Yamanashi, Mt. Fuji, and to Kyoto all of which
are absolutely gorgeous and are must see's if you ever go to
Japan :).
Travel: Like I said, I've so far been to Yamanashi (a part
of Jap nclose o Mt. Fuji) where the house we stayed in
looked out over Mt. Fuji. It was so amazing to wake up in
the morning and look out the window to a view of Fuji. It is
absolutely gorgeous. I went to Kyoto for a second time and
visited tons and tons of temples and shrines and got to see
Maiko-san (Geisha). It's so amazing to be able to visit and
learn about different places in Japan other than Tokyo.
Kyoto is probably the most gorgeous place I've ever been to
and ill probably ever go to. The food there is also amazing
:)
On Christmas, my host mom took me to Tokyo Disney Land and
Disney Sea. In Japan they have a seperate park called Disney
Sea. I'm not exactly sure as to the meaning of the name
because it's not really a water park or anything of the sort
but none-the-less it was so much fun! You'd think it would
have been freezing because of the time of year, but it's
still gets into the 50's here almost every day even though
it's mid January! On Christmas when we went to disney, the
weather just so happened to be perfect so we were able to
stay all day and watch all the christmas parades and such.
It was so much fun!
Rotary: The rotary here is somewhat similar to the rotary at
home. We have meetings here every month, although they arent
the amazingly fun sleepovers we have at home :) At these
meetings we are required to give a 3 minute speech in
Japanese and also recieve papers in which to write reports,
in Japanese writing of course, about how our month went and
what we did and so on. All of the rotarians here are so nice
and really do care about our well-being and always make sure
we have everything we need and are having a good time.
Recently, I went on ANOTHER skii trip with the rotary here
(it was actually really tiring. the day I got home from this
rotary trip, I had to leave that same day to go on the 4 day
skii trip with my school. mind you, I had never skiied
before haha) which was amazing. My rotary here goes on many
trips for which I'm really grateful for because it gives
everyone a real chance to experience the culture here.
Miscellaneous: I've honestly eaten so many things I thought
I'd never eat. I'll list some of the weird yet amazing
things I've tried so far: octopus, shark, whale, squid,
every kind of fish under the sea, fish reprodctive organs,
pigs feet (yes, really), cow tongue, fish eggs, fish eyes
(they literally eat them out of a bowl), fermented beans
(absolutely horrid, its known as Natto here), peking duck,
jellyfish, raw egg (i drank it right from the egg shell
which is popular here), etc. I can't think of everything and
I know there is more but this is just a taste of some of the
food I've tried. I really do try and be open minded and not
picky when it comes to trying new food here but sometimes
I'm just plain scared, haha. My family has just taken to not
telling me what something is if it's something they think i
won't eat :) haha
I now have the delight of saying that I tried the Onsen. In
Japan it is extremely popular to go to Onsen which are
public baths also known as hot springs. A real Japanese hot
spring is naturally heated and really, really hot. Clothes
are not aloud and everything bathes together in the spring.
My host mom had to pretty much drag me into the spring
because I was so shy, but I'm so glad I tried it. Since then
I've gotten into tons of springs/public baths. In hotels
even, they have showers and such in the room but public
baths are always available for all of the guests to use. I
actually really enjoy using them for which I'm extremely
suprised at myself.
Have to include a section about my real love in Japan:
Japanese entertainment. I've truly become a Jpop fangirl.
I'm absolutely in LOVE with all of the Japanese pop groups
here. My host mom and I joined the exclusive, somewhat
expensive Johnny's (johnnys is the sponsor for the largest
Japanese pop groups in japan) fanclub and I'm planning on
going to any of the concerts if I have a chance while I'm
here. My ipod is now ONLY Japanese music with which I sing
along to all the time which makes my family laugh at me. My
host mom and I watch dramas on TV every night with which are
also useful for my language and with which I lovelovelove
anyways. I have many Japanese celebrity crushes and my
hostmom buys me posters of them all the time to hangup in my
room. I swear shes just as much a fangirl as I am which is
funny because shes 67 years old :))
My hostfamily has friends that live in Hong Kong who came to
visit recently. They speak no Japanese so when they were
here they spoke in only english. My host parents english
isnt the best so I had to translate everything for everyone.
It felt amazing being able to do something like that! The
family had 2 girls my age and we went shopping and they were
asking me how to read all the Japanese and asking me to
teach them words and phrases and such. It was the best
feeling ever to show people around and read things to them
that normally I would never be able to read either. It was
amazing :)
Well, that's about it. I still can't believe that time has
flown by so fast. I try not to think about how long I've
been here but rather how long I still have left to spend in
Japan. Japan has truly become my home and it really is going
to be hard to leave. Thanks again for EVERYTHING! I'll try
and write again soon :)
また今度のレポート、ね:)
シェリーSheridan
"Tonight i went out to dinner with my host parents at my
favorite sushi restaurant close to my house and the man that
owns it made this big speech about how amazing it is that my
Japanese is so good and that he's so surprised that someone so
young could accomplish this much in only 3 months of being in
Japan. it made me SO happy :D makes me feel like by the
end of my stay, my Japanese will be amazing :) he said he
wouldn't be surprised if my Japanese was better than his by the
time i leave! ha ha, yay!!!
I have now been here
for about 2 months (1 month, 3 weeks, 3 days :D ). Time is
really flying here. It's the most crazy thing. Yet again, I have
done so much since my last post. I'll try and go in order.
My school bunkasai (culture festival) was held on September 22nd
and 23rd. It was so much fun! My school is HUGE and many, many,
many people came. Booths are set up and all kinds of Japanese
food is sold and shows are put on that represent some aspect of
Japanese culture, all performed and worked on by the students.
Examples: Japanese Tea Ceremony, flower arangement, kendo and
judo lessons, how to make some kinds of Japanese foods, etc. I
got to participate in holding a "Mikoshi". A mikoshi is a sort
of portable shrine that is carried by many people on the
shoulders. My homeroom class made the mikoshi so we carried it
around the school during the Bunkasai for everyone to see. REAL
mikoshi though are SUPER, SUPER heavy and made of real materials
(gold, etc). My friend, Arlette, came to my bunkasai and we just
hungout and ate Japanese food and went to the shows. It was
amazing :)
About a week or so after that, my second host mom (I have not
yet moved to my second host family's house) took me to Kyoto!
Kyoto is probably one of the most gorgeous places that I have
ever seen. I was told it has over 3,000 temples and shrines.
Just walking down the street, you see tons. I got to visit many
of them. We stayed in a Japanese style hotel. That meant no
beds, tradtional Japanese food, and Japanese hot springs. The
room was gorgeous. We slept on Japanese style futons that were
so comfortable. It was my firsｔ time sleeping on a futon, so it
was definitely an experience. I loved it though. The food in
Kyoto was...interesting. Before I came to Japan, I wasn't a huge
fan of seafood. I've learned to tolerate it and I even like some
of it now but the food in Kyoto consisted only of seafood. tons
of sashimi, sushi, and things that I wasnt even sure of. It
wasn't all bad though, lol. My second host mom is taking me back
to Kyoto in February for my birthday. She is going to make me an
appointment to be transformed into a Maiko-san for a day :)
(Maiko-san are like geisha, but younger). I am SO excited :D
Just this week I went to Tokyo Disney Land and Tokyo Disney Sea
with my host family! I had never been to Disney before so I was
super excited. It was absolutely amazing. We stayed in a hotel
and ordered room service and woke up early in the morning and
went to Tokyo Disney land and sea. It's Halloween time so
everything was decorated in black and orange with pumpkins and
skulls. It was amazing. My tolerance for high roller coasters is
getting better I think, yay! lol
Needless to say, I think I've traveled quite a bit since I've
been here! The language is still very much a challenge for me.
To me, it doesn't seem like it's improving, but I hope I'm
wrong. School is really difficult because everyone speaks so
fast and the lessons are all in kanji but I've made a lot of
friends that are really cool! Everyone helps me out and is
really nice, so I'm happy :) I just hope that soon, something in
my head clicks and I'm able to understand Japanese more, lol.
This month (October 31) I have a 10 minute speech that I have to
give in Japanese at a rotary meeting. I'm BEYOND nervous. My
Japanese isn't good enough yet to give a 10 minute speech, lol.
not sure what I'm going to do, I just want to get it over with
though. I suppose I'm lucky though, as that's my biggest problem
right now. Everything else is amazing :)
just thought I'd add a little segment about some of the food
I've eaten. I recently had the experience of eating cow tongue.
While I know that that is also eaten in the states, I would
never have touched it. My host family has taken to not telling
me what things are before I eat them, haha. So after I ate the
tongue, they told me what it was and I was horrified. It
actually wasn't that bad though. Other things I've eaten: eel,
baby fish (which I also didn't know I was eating until I spotted
the eyes and mouth. the fish are about the size of a fingernail.
they were scattered in my rice in my bento (lunch) my mom made
me for school), shark, fermented soybeans (natto). The food here
is definitely interesting, but I've really come to like most of
it!
Report 1
んにちわ！ Konnichiwa!
I've finally arrived in Japan! It's amazing, to say the very least.
It's so unbelievably different, but that's what I came for so I'm
definitely loving it. Here's a rundown of al the goings on so far:
I left Columbus International airport on August 18th for a 14 hour
flight to Tokyo Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. I was lucky because
I sat right next to the other exchanger going to Japan on my flight.
The flight was of course long and boring, but I suppose it wasn't
too bad and it could have been worse.I arrived in Tokyo at 3:35 pm
to Hiroki and Uegata-san holding up signs of ‘ようこそシェリ！‘ (Welcome,
Sheri!). I was so happy to see Hiroki, and Uegata-san was very nice.
We left the airport by bus and traveled to Yokohama where I met up
with Akatsu-san (club president and my next host dad), a few other
rotary members, and my host family.
My Host family: my host family is amazing. period. They try and make
me feel as conmfortable as possible and they are just so nice. I've
become really close with pretty much everyone in my family. My host
father is hilarious as is my host brother and I've fallen in love
with the little girls.
My bedroom: My room, not to mention the whole house, is very nice.
I
got really lucky! I have my own bathroom, fridge, microwave, TV, and
air conditioner set in my room! It's really very nice! My little
sisters come and wake me up each morning and we watch Japanese
cartoons together :) Language school: From the second day
I arrived until August 29th, I
attended language school everyday except for sundays. It was so much
fun. I met all the other exchangers in my district and we all became
fast friends. We all try and speak as much Japanese as we can to
eachother, which is usually pretty funny. I learned a ton. and
probably the best part for me was going to the combini (convenience
store) during lunch and picking out amazing Japanese food. In the
states id probably never stop at a convenience store to buy lunch,
but here the food is amazing and pretty cheap at the combini (and by
cheap I mean Japanese cheap. stuff here is SUPER expensive, lol).
Language school ended with everyone wearing yukatas and giving big
speeches in Japanese. I think it went well :)
Food: Japanese food is beyond amazing. I've tried so many different
things, things I know I'd never usually eat, and found that I really
love them (except for whale..didn't like that). Favorite foods so
far: Okonomiyaki, shabu shabu, tamagawa nashi, inarizushi, sushi,
noria, curry. I love it allllllll. I'm proud to say that I can officially navigate and make my way
through the train stations here without getting lost. I was sort of
forced to learn the stations in a day because I had to go to
language school everyday. . Trains/subways are a huge thing here and
super convienient. It's going to suck going back to the states and
not being able to use them :) I've also had the privelage of
participating in and learning many aspects of Japanese culture in
the 2 weeks that I've been here. I've participated in Kendo (sort of
like fencing but way more intense), Traditional Japanese tea
ceremony, Calligraphy, I've learned how to put on a yukata, and how
to make various Japanese dishes. and finally, something that makes
me very happy and everyone else laugh: I can now watch Yamapi on
live television instead of searching for his stuff online in the
states. I can buy all the jpop magazines I want and listen to
whatever Japanese music I like. So yeah, I'm obsessed with Japanese
entertainment and my host family thinks it's the best thing ever :) So, yes. In short, JAPAN IS AMAZING and
I most definitely love it
here. I can't wait to see what happens next.
Hallo aus Deutschland! I can’t believe I’ve been here for six
months. What with the holiday season and moving in with my
second host family, everything’s been going by really quickly.
The weirdest part is that I’m looking at return tickets home
now—it’s hard to imagine that in another five months, I’ll be in
Ohio again. But there are so many other things to think about,
I don’t have time to worry about that! But here’s everything
that’s happened in the last few months:
New Host Family
I moved in with a new host family at the end of
October. I’m really glad I got the chance, because I was
originally supposed to spend the whole year with my first host
family. That surprised me when I heard it, because I’d always
assumed it was 3 or 4 host families in a year. However, the
system is different in Europe, and parents host students
according to how long their own child is on exchange. Since
there was only one kid going on exchange from my town, I was put
with the family for the year. Sadly, there were a lot of
personal problems between us, so I’m really happy that Rotary
was able to find another family on such short notice.
And my new host family is great. They’re so nice,
and it’s fun to live with them. There are three other kids, 2
young teenage girls and an 11-year-old boy, so things are always
a little bit crazy. It’s great to always have people around,
and I love to talk with my host dad and one of my host sisters.
My host dad travels to Vietnam often, so he’s got really
interesting stories to tell. And he asked me if I could correct
his work correspondence, since it’s all in English. That was
pretty cool. My host sister, even though she’s a few years
younger than me, has a similar sense of humor, so it’s fun to
watch movies and stuff with her. And since I have a 13-year-old
brother at home, it’s great to have a little brother here. I
watch the Simpsons with him (yes, in German), and playing with
him teaches me lots of vocabulary. For instance, I now know how
to say “lightsaber”, “Death Star”, and “barnacles” in German
(that last one is from Spongebob Squarepants, or Spongebob
Schwammkopf, as he’s known here).
Living with the Schlendstedts has also introduced me
to a new bit of culture shock: hunting. Both my host parents
are business professionals, and they’re very modern and liberal,
but they both love to go hunting. The second week I was here, I
walked into the kitchen to find my host dad with blood-covered
hands, holding a knife, and a pig’s head on the floor.
Definitely a bit of a shock! But it turns out that in Germany,
there’s a lot more tradition attached to hunting than in
America, and it has more to do with the Huntsman character in
fairy tales than the country music stereotypes we have. There
are still hunting clubs and competitions all over the country,
and people see it as a proud and useful tradition. It’s an
interesting difference.
The town I’m living in now has also introduced me to
a lot of new traditions. I still go to school in the same city,
but I now live in a population 6,000 town, instead of a
200-person Dorf (village). It’s a huge difference. But my new
town is interesting in that it’s very Catholic in a mostly
Protestant area of Germany. There are crucifix statues on
nearly every street, and most of the town’s social activity
revolves around church, like in the olden days. For example, on
St. Martin’s Day, everyone gathered in the town square in front
of the church to watch all the kids make a procession with
lanterns while they sang St. Martin songs. Then there was a
play about St. Martin. The coolest part was that a huge part of
the town turned up, and everyone knew all the songs, and it felt
like we had stepped out of time for a bit. Of course, it only
worked because the town is so homogenously religious, but I like
that. I’m not very religious, though I’m Catholic, and it was
nice to see religion just matter-of-factly there. Sometimes in
America it feels like people think being religious means that
you have to remind everyone that you’re Catholic or Protestant
or that you believe in Jesus, and that you have to defend your
choice and convince others you’re right. It was refreshing to
see a tradition and not have to think about it past how
beautiful it was and the story.
The other cool part about my town is that it
celebrates Fasching (a.k.a Karneval, Mardi Gras). Most places
in Saxony don’t celebrate it because they’re Protestant, but
Wittichenau has a huge celebration, with dancing, street
parties, and people dressing up in costumes. It’s famous for
it. This happens next week, so I’m excited to see what it will
be like. It sounds like the Athens Halloween Party, but more
fun than notorious, and without so many drunk college students.
Sounds like fun!
Christmas/Silvester
Christmas here was interesting. On the one hand, I
saw really interesting traditions, but on the other, being away
from my family was really difficult. Christmas in Germany is
like something out of a picture book. Starting the first week
of Advent, everyone puts up decorations (all carved wooden
things like nutcrackers and candle pyramids, plus stained glass
paper), and every Advent Sunday, there’s afternoon coffee with
Christmas cookies. It’s really beautiful and there’s almost no
holiday rush. The tree goes up a few days before Christmas.
And on Christmas Eve, everyone goes to mass (beautiful, even
though I didn’t know any of the hymns except Silent Night), and
then back home to open presents. That was a bit strange, not to
wake up early on Christmas morning to open presents. But
nonetheless, it was a great celebration. Most German families
eat bratwurst and sauerkraut for Christmas dinner, but my host
family set up a griddle and a fondue pot, and we cooked stuff
like pork, shrimp,scallops (mmm, seafood), and mushrooms, and
had a delicious dinner. And my host mom gave me a great
present: a round-trip ticket to Hamburg! She and my host
sister and I are going there next week, and I’m so excited to
see a new part of Germany. Oh, I almost forgot another
tradition: burning the Christmas tree a few weeks after
Epiphany. It was pretty bizarre to watch . . .
Silvester (New Year’s Eve) was also a lot of fun. I
went to Dresden (about an hour away) with a bunch of friends,
and we went to a party. Walking through Dresden was like
experiencing World War III, because there were firecrackers
EVERYWHERE. Right in the middle of the city! I swear, for a
moment I thought there were bombs going off, it was so loud and
smoky. And then at midnight, we went up to a hill outside town
and set off real fireworks, a ton of them. It was pretty
crazy.
And the best part about the holidays was that I got
to go visit Munich. By a total coincidence, my cousin and her
husband are staying in Munich until March, and I stayed with
them for a few days. Munich is beautiful, and it’s 180^o
different from Saxony. Not being in the DDR for 40 years
definitely helped, so there’s no ugly concrete apartment blocks,
and the economy didn’t get ruined by the Wende (fall of the
Berlin Wall). Everything’s colorful and lively, even the people
look happier, and apart from the East/West Germany differences,
it was great to be in a real metropolis. It felt so European (I
found out later that people call it “the northernmost Italian
city”), and there was so much history, since it used to be the
capital of the kingdom of Bavaria. And when you look at the
city from somewhere high up, bam, there are the Alps, a few
miles away. It was so cool to see.
Travel
Traveling is something I’m going to be doing a lot
of in the next few months. I already went to Berlin in January
(it’s like New York and L.A. rolled into one, a really cool
place), and I’ll be in Hamburg next week. Then my dad comes to
visit in March (very excited for that), and we’ll be back in
Bavaria. It turns out my grandfather has a cousin there who
lives a few miles from Schloss Neuschwanstein (aka. Cinderella’s
castle!). I called him up to talk about visiting, and it was
really funny. I was hearing my grandfather, but in German, with
a thick Bavarian (which is very stereotypically German) accent!
Who knew I had a German mountainman in my family? (Oh, that’s
another thing about Bavaria. Just about every stereotype about
Germany comes from there, and people really do wear Lederhosen
and Dirndls {Oktoberfest dresses} for special occasions! I
always thought it was a myth. . .)
Then there’s the Eurotour, which is going to be
amazing. I’m going with a Norwegian district, since all the
German ones were filled up. Maybe I’ll learn some Norwegian?
The best part is that in addition to Paris, Italy, Austria,
etc., we’re also going to London! I can’t believe I’ll be able
to see so much of Europe. Everyone says that Eurotour is the
highlight of the exchange, and I believe them. Only another 3
months!
Oh yeah, and there’s also Easter. My host family is
from Western Germany, and we’re staying there for Easter. We’ll
be in the Eiffel area, right on the French border. It’s so
crazy to see how small Europe is-I can be in France, Poland, or
the Czech Republic with a few hours of driving. Anyway, I can’t
wait to see the extended family AND another country.
Language/Culture
This is what I’m in Germany for, and I’m learning a
ton. My language skills are about a million times better than
when I first got here. Of course, 2 ½ years of classes helped,
but now I can hold a normal conversation. I can understand my
teachers, which was one of my biggest problems at first. And
since I talk a lot more with my host family, and the TV is
always on, I’m a lot more comfortable with speaking and
understanding German. Now I can watch Tv and understand almost
everything, even the cultural jokes. I even watched a few
movies, and afterwards, I couldn’t remember whether they’d been
in English or German. That was pretty strange.
In general, though, watching TV here is strange.
Most shows and movies are American ones that are dubbed into
German. And German dubbing is not the best. Sometimes it’s a
bit like watching old Godzilla movies—the mouths just keep
moving when the dialogue is done. Plus, none of the original
accents come across. For example, in Harry Potter, the German
actors try to copy how the British actors sound, so they speak
German, but pronounce words the way a British person (or Texan,
or whatever) would. Watching Harry Potter without the accents
was actually a bit of a disappointing experience . . .. But I
could still understand the whole thing! And now I’m working on
the book, too. It’s slow going, but I understand most of it.
I’m really proud of how far I’ve come. Now I just have to work
on my writing, because that’s the most difficult thing for me.
My teachers usually don’t understand when I try to write things
down . . . .
As for culture, I’m noticing and getting used to a
lot of things. One of the most positive things is the level of
personal responsibility here. People are very much aware of
their actions and the consequences, and they are held to that
standard. It means that people my age tend to be a bit more
mature. But at the same time, it also means that people take
things like recycling and following the news more seriously,
because it’s taking responsibility for themselves. And in
Europe, with so many countries around them, the Germans are
super-aware of how they act with other countries. Even my
11-year-old host brother has an opinion about the news. I’ve
started reading the newspaper and following the news here, and
it’s hard to believe I didn’t before. America is all over the
news because we hold so much power culturally and politically.
I think most Americans aren’t really aware of how much what we
do as a country affects the rest of the world, which is really
irresponsible. Most Germans like Obama better than their own
Chancellor (who is a woman, by the way), and they know all about
his politics. Everyone learns English, and everyone knows all
the American tv shows and movies. I almost feel guilty for the
U.S. for being so insulated from the rest of the world. Even in
school, all we learn about other countries is Western history
and maybe some outdated stereotypes. It’s making me think a lot
about political responsibility and awareness, which I never
expected, since I always assumed European culture was very
similar to American.
But like any place in the world, Germany isn’t
perfect. I’m actually having a bit of a love-hate relationship
with the culture right now. People, especially in my area (and
Germans from other parts of Saxony groan when they hear where I
live. . .), aren’t very friendly. Germans seem to believe that
unless someone goes right up to them, they shouldn’t bother
others. And small talk isn’t a big thing. People in my school
are nice, but they hardly talk to me unless I ask them a
question. Even then, the conversation tends to be a few
sentences before they go to talk with people they’ve known their
whole lives. That’s another thing: people are more
group-oriented here, and I don’t see a lot of individualism
being encouraged. It’s just not a strong value. Another thing
that goes along with the colder attitude is personal space.
German people don’t touch each other a lot, but pushing by
people is completely normal. In fact, a lot of things that
would be considered rude in the U.S. are normal here, like being
uncomfortably frank, or criticizing someone in front of everyone
(teachers do this a lot). It’s strange for me. I was raised to
be very polite, but when I say please and thank you here, I
almost feel like I’m going overboard. People ask me why I say
thank you when it’s something they would just do normally.
Practicality is a big thing. Plus, I haven’t seen a lot of
humor here. When I talked to a friend about it, she said, “Why
should I smile or laugh if I’m not really happy?” It’s another
matter of practicality, but sometimes it just feels really
cold. The worst thing I’ve seen, though, is that people aren’t
very sensitive racially. Germany has a huge amount of
immigrants (mostly Turkish, with some Italians and Asians), but
my host family still jokes about “ching-chong Chinaman” when
they get Chinese food, and there’s a poster in my Current Events
classroom with a caricature Chinese person on it, with a saying
where all the r’s are replaced with l’s. And people have asked
me if I’m afraid of black people. It’s not that everyone is
racist, just that the stereotypes and some of the things they
say wouldn’t fly in the U.S. And sadly, a lot of it comes from
what they see in American movies. But with no context, it gets
misinterpreted. Just another strange thing . . .
Well, all that sounded depressing, but I’m still really glad to
be here. I’m happy I still have 5 months to explore and live in
Europe, and it’s so cool to experience normal life in another
country. I wish I could put everything I’m seeing and
experiencing here into one report, but it’s impossible. Anyway,
I hope that everyone is well in Ohio, and good luck to all the
new Outbounds! Tschussie!
(And many, many thanks to 6690 and the Athens Rotary Club, plus
of course Rotary International!)
Photo to the right: Me with a Sorbian women at the Sorbian
History museum. Sorbs are an indigenous minority in Germany, kind
of like the Navajo, and they are from my region of Saxony.
Hallo auf Deutschland! So, I’ve been here 2 ½ months already.
I can’t believe it. It stopped feeling like a vacation pretty
soon after
I
got here, because school started the 3rd week in
August! Now everything is just normal and everyday. I’m
trying to think of interesting things to say in this, because
nothing seems as strange as it did when I first got here . . . .
.
Well, I guess I’ll start with what’s going on right now, since
so much has happened since I got here. Next week, I’m going to
my second host family, which is good, since things have been
kind of rocky with the first one. Yes, I discovered that there
are cultural differences between Germans and Americans right off
the bat. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite realize what they were,
because I basically ran head-first into that cultural barrier.
But now I think I’ve figured it out, so: 1) Germans are a lot
more direct than Americans. They say what they mean, even if
its not complimentary. Here, it is good to speak your mind.
2) It’s also good to be self-sufficient and take responsibility
for your actions. This includes making the first move if you
want to talk to someone. But this rule even applies to kids.
Kids here in Germany are a lot more independent than in
America. I don’t think the term ‘helicopter parent’ could even
exist in a German’s vocabulary. You see kids riding their bikes
everywhere, into the night, and the playgrounds here . . . well,
‘lawsuit waiting to happen’ is how I’d think of them at home .
. . .I don’t think Germans can grow up with a fear of heights
either . . ..
School
is also very different. I’m in 11th grade here,
which is when kids start getting ready for college entrance
exams. But everyone takes classes very seriously. I’ll admit
that even some of the teachers in Athens didn’t really care
about their classes, but that is definitely not the case here.
Kids always do their homework, and memorize the lesson, even if
the teacher doesn’t tell them to. I’m actually really glad I
don’t have to do the homework here, because they’re so much more
ahead in all the subjects than I was when I graduated! Luckily,
I have 2 ½ years of German, so I know what the teachers are
saying (mostly), but how do you explain the electronegativity of
an element in German, when it’s hard enough in English?
Actually, English is probably the only class I can really
participate in, and even that’s . . . .well, interesting. They
teach British English here, and my teacher can’t really speak
English all that well. So she tells the students the wrong
answers sometimes! It’s really surreal, especially since she
always tells the class not to speak in a ‘lazy American’
accent. I found that one kind of funny. The other part of
school that’s interesting is how much freedom the kids have. If
you have a free period, you can leave school. There’s a mall
near the school, so you see 6th graders wandering
around shopping at 11 on a school day. And at lunch, there
isn’t one main place to eat. Everyone just scatters.
The
other really interesting thing here is the history. I have
heard Hitler mentioned a few times, though everyone highlights
how ashamed they are, and how they have to atone for it. It’s
strange to be in a country where being patriotic is looked down
upon universally. In fact, you get called a Nazi if you have
a German flag up in your yard. And yes, there are still Nazis
around, though everyone hates them. Apparently, my city is home
to one of the largest groups of Neo-Nazis in Germany, mostly
because there’s so
much
poverty and unemployment. They mostly just graffiti things, so
they’re not particularly dangerous, but it was interesting to
see in the August election how all the streets in my village had
signs for the Nazi party. It only won a small percentage of the
votes, but to see ‘Germany for the Germans’ hung up on street
lamps was a little bizarre.
And then there’s the Soviet Union aspect. I am living in one of
the ‘new states’, meaning it was formed after the Wende (Fall of
the Berlin Wall), so everyone here over 30 grew up with an
entirely different culture, and completely different experiences
than in Western Germany. For example, my Rotary counselor told
me a story about how she had an American penpal boyfriend for a
while. But when she wrote that she couldn’t come visit him
because she wasn’t allowed to leave the country, she stopped
getting letters from him. She thinks it was because the state
police read her letters and stopped delivering them. And
this is not some 3rd world country that no one ever
thinks about, this is Western Europe. But the entire adult
generation lived under basically a dictatorship(maybe not
literally, but similar) up until 20 years ago. It’s bizarre to
think about. Of course, no one can just ignore the USSR, bec
ause it’s their history, but the approach now is to market its
nostalgia. You can buy DDR (GDR) joke books, DDR ad prints,
old DDR brands sold as jokes . . .And “Ossi” pride (East
German) is a big deal. Plus, since the fall of the DDR ruined
the economy here, it”s kind of like the American rust belt. So
Saxony is very similar to southeastern Ohio! Lots of poverty,
though some of the biggest industry used to be here, and it”s
all really rural. There are big cities within an hour train
ride, but I’m living on a farm in a 200 person village! So I’m
seeing both the DDR Germany and the stereotypical German country
life.
And if I wrote everything that”s been happening, it would take a
really long time, so I”ll just describe a few interesting
differences:
-Most drinks (especially bottled water) are carbonated. Oh, and
people drink a full liter bottle like it was a normal
Evian-sized bottle.
-Deoderant is more optional among the older generation. And
school kids spray it on right in the classroom! It”s also okay
to blow your nose really loudly during class . . .
-Rolls here are delicious, and people make sandwiches out of
them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And meat is a huge deal.
Everything has meat, and the vegetables are cooked. Also, the
ketchup is sweet, and everything from fries to potato chips has
paprika flavoring on it. And beer is served everywhere, even in
Mcdonalds.
-Punk style is pretty popular here, and even middle age ladies
have spiky hair cuts.
And finally some German slang: Schiki-Miki is a party girl who
only cares about fashion ; Tussie is the younger version of a
schiki miki. And when anyone says goodbye, Tschussie, Tschuss,
Ciao, and Ciaoi are all acceptable. Even really macho guys say
Ciaoi, which is hilarious to hear. Oh, and Bloede Kuh (stupid
cow) is a really bad insult.
So, bis spaeter! I will write more when I get to my next host
family. In the meantime, I hope it stops snowing long enough
for Halloween to happen!
No, you did not
read the title of this note wrong, I really truly have been
in Belgium for 6 months. 6 months?!
That's:
1/2 of a
year
26 weeks
185 days
4416 hours
264,960 minutes
15,897,600 seconds
No matter how you
say it, its a lot of time.
So what have I been up to since my last note, you ask? A
lot, as usual.
I last left you on January 4th when school started
again after winter break. I really love my Italian classes,
English, and depending on the day, French. I recently just
read The Kite Runner in French for my French class (aka
Les Cerfs-Volants de Kaboul) It is an AMAZING book, I
really suggest it. I admit that I maybe cried, a lot. During
study hall. Whoops. It was sad, just to warn you. I am
reading Le Petit Prince again for a project for
French. The teacher assigned it to Nicole (the other
exchange student) and I, but the other students had a choice
for their books, so since its break right now I'm planning
on reading some of the others too seeing as I already read
L.P.P. Some of the books are Les Liaisons Dangereuses,
Notre-Dame de Paris, and Madame Bovary.
Something that I have realized since coming to school here
(Athenians, be prepared to be shocked) is that I actually
had a really good education at AHS, especially in English,
French, and History.
For example:
1)I'm in a senior
level French class here. Their NATIVE language is French,
but some of the things that I am studying in our class
here
I studied in my senior level French class at home! Thanks
Mrs. Read!
2) Nobody in my French class knew the story of Tristen &
Isolde, we read the story last year in English class so
seeing as I was the only one who raised my hand when the
teacher asked "Who knows the story of Tristen and Isolde?" I
was the one who answered. Thanks Mrs. Wrist!
3) I realized that Belgians don't really know much about
their own government. When the teacher was explaining how
their electoral system is similar to the American Electoral
College I explained it to the class. Thanks Mr. Lalich/Read/Chapman
With my English class we went to London for the weekend of
the 6th. I LOVE London. It was my second time there and I
really feel like I'm starting to get a feel for the city and
the people.
From Left: Nicole (the other American), me, Diane,
Sophie
A statue by
Buckingham Palace
Trapped in a phone booth?!
It was a great way to really bond with my classmates, I love
them all so much :) I would like to thank Britain for being
similar to the USA because there were many "You've been gone
for almost 6 months here's a taste of America" moments
including BAGELS, WAFFLES, REESES, and STARBUCKS. MMMM.
Something really weird about going to London is that I kept
talking to storekeepers in French. It was awful, but I was
weirdly proud that I was that integrated in my language!
Also, if I would bump into someone or need to pass someone I
would say "pardon" aka "sorry!"
Class pictures:
I'm not in
this, because I didn't realize that our pictures were
taken during 1st period so I was dutifully in Math class
:(
A tough part of
January was that our "Oldies" left us but thankfully our "Newies"
came. These words may seem foreign to anyone that is not an
exchange student but they are common terms used in daily
exchange student life. Oldies are the exchange students that
are already in the country when you arrive. Because the
seasons are different in the northern and southern
hemispheres, most exchange students (especially from
NZ/Australia) from the southern hemisphere arrive and leave
in January. So when we arrived in August, there were already
exchange students here that had been here for half a year.
Of course after they leave they are replaced by Newies. So
it is a bittersweet part of an exchange year. I am really
lucky because I was all alone in my club until my Newie
arrived from Australia.
Matilda, my newie when my counselor (on the right) and I
went to meet her at the airport!
My
counselor and I picked her up from the airport and then went
to a museum together in Leuven.
I do really miss my oldies though:
With some of
the oldies at our last Rotary activity with them.
Speaking of newies I had the honor of being invited to their
inbound orientation as a translator. There were not many
people invited to the orientation and I was invited based on
language competency :) It was actually really fun to
translate for the newies and it was really fun to meet them
all!
On January 9th I changed host families. I was really sad to
leave my first family, but I do like my second family a lot.
I now live with the Cheung family. They own and live above a
chinese restaurant. So every night for dinner I have chinese
food! Its so yummy! Sometimes we eat westernized Chinese
food, like what we eat in the US, but usually on weekends we
eat real Chinese food. Today we ate DUCK TONGUE as part of
our lunch. Crazy right? They way that it was prepared made
it taste like beef jerky kind of! Its really bizarre living
in a restaurant. For one, there is food available 24/7, not
good for my stomach haha, but also there are always people
coming in and out of the restaurant and on Friday and
Saturday nights we don't eat dinner till 1 am! I have a host
sister, Laura, who is 14. There is another exchange student,
Emily, that also lives here because they had problems
finding host families for me.
From
Left: Me, Laura (host sister), Pink (host mom), and Stan
(host dad) back in August.
The cutest
host sisters that you've ever seen haha
Friday the 5th all of the Rotary Exchanges students were
invited to the European Parliament which is located in
Brussels. It is so cool to live in a country that is the
center of European politics.
European
Parliament!
It is currently February break! Which also means that it is
carnival! I went with my first host family on Saturday to
the carnival at Malmédy. It was SO cool. It is basically a
big parade with people that do different things to the
people that are watching for example:
These are the
people that have "long arms." They come up to you and
still your hat or mess with your hair. This is one of
them getting my host mom!
The cobblers
choose people to steal shoes from and then they give
them a different shoe to wear, of course they get their
shoes back in the end haha
There are
people with wooden objects and they will trap your leg
with them and you have to kneel down and repeat after
them. This is my host dad being the victim of a
youngster :)
The bakers
come around and hit people with their wooden baking
things... I don't know the name for them...
My host mom,
host dad, and friend/neighbor Maite!
THESE
ARE
MY
FAVORITE: The long-noses, there are HUNDREDS of
long-noses throughout the crowd and they split up into
groups of 5 or 6 and then they choose victims to follow
around and they have to do everything that their victim
does.
Its all harmless but fun :)
Unfortunatly this country likes to shutdown because of the
snow so my plans to visit Ghent yesterday and to go to the
Binche Carnival today have been canceled. Also, there was a
terrible train accident yesterday that killed at least 18
people. Its really terrible and shocking:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7029015.ece
Month 4 and the first part of Month 5
So let's fill you in:
ROTARY ACTIVITIES On November 18th my district had a Rotary event at Hoegarden, a
beer company-- how Belgian of us. Belgians LOVE their beer. So
we learned about how it was made, and Rotary gave us all one
glass of beer and a glass to keep.
"Bartending" at
Hoegarden
The Christmas
market in Germany :]
Then on December 2nd
Rotary took us to Aachen in Germany to go to a Christmas market.
It was a beautiful town. And of course all of the Americans were
excited because there was a Starbucks. There is only ONE
Starbucks in all of Belgium (my country is the size of
Massachusetts) and that one Starbucks is in the Brussels
airport. Then on December 5th we had an "Exotic Dinner" with Rotex where
all of the exchange students from all three Belgian districts
cooked food from their native country. My friend Nicole and I
made PB&J sandwiches which were a big hit, especially with the
exchange students haha
On the 2nd we went to Brugges, a gorgeous town here in Belgium
that is called the "Venice of the North" because of the canals
that run throughout the town.
Beautiful,
beautiful Brugge
SCHOOL
There is not really much to explain about school because besides
the two exams that I took, I've been on vacation since December
3. On November 23 there was a Parent's Day at the school and my
class had a bake sale to raise money for our trip to France that
we're taking later this year. Nicole and I made Buckeyes, and
they were a big success. Almost everyone loved them, which is
good seeing as Europeans don't really like Peanut Butter
usually.
Exams started on December 3rd, but since I'm an exchange student
I only had to take 2. I took English and French. English was
easy, but NOT as easy as you would expect because the whole
first section was listening, which was a conversation in
English, BUT all of the questions were in French and had to be
answered in French. But of course the essay was REALLY easy. My
French exam was ridiculously hard, but luckily my teacher is
really nice, and only made me answer two of the questions and do
the essay. I was planning on also taking Italian since its the
only class that I truly care about, but unfortunately I was not
feeling well and since I'd already fulfilled my 2 exam
requirement, I decided to sleep and get better instead. School
starts again on the 4th, I'm excited to see my friends, but NOT
excited to wake up early again.
HOST FAMILIES
I am still in my first host family, the Langes. I really like
them, but I'm changing families sometime next weekend. I'll be
sad to leave, but I know that the family changes are important
because they let you see different parts of the country's
culture.
Over the past month and a half I've gone on some outing with my
host parents. We went to Bastogne where the Battle of the Bulge
was fought during WW2. It was really cool, but SO bizarre
because everyone was dressed up as American soldiers, was
carrying an American flag, or was driving an American tank,
because, if you don't know the story of the Battle of the Bulge,
the Americans saved the day.
In front of an
Authentic tank from the Battle of the Bulge
I was really proud to
be American. We went to the war memorial too and the museum that
was by it. If you ever find yourself in Belgium, its really
worth it to go to Bastogne!
There has also been a circus here in Liege for the past few
weeks. I went with my host family this past week and it was fun
:)
HOLIDAYS
Our makeshift
Thanksgiving dinner
Obviously this is the
month of Holidays. I spent my first Thanksgiving outside of the
US. It was so weird! Everyone at school was so cute and they
kept saying "HAPPY THANKSGIVING" in their cute Belgian accents.
The other exchange student, Nicole, and I would always say "sadddd
thanksgivingg" whenever they said that because Thanksgiving
isn't really Thanksgiving if you're not in the US. Most people
didn't know the story of Thanksgiving so I spent most of the day
explaining it. And people here are DISGUSTED when you tell them
that we eat pie made out of Pumpkin. For Belgians, Pumpkins are
for soup, not pies! My Thanksgiving was celebrated on the
Saturday after Thanksgiving with my exchange friends and it was
delicious! It was good to be with fellow Americans :)
Christmas is celebrated differently here. Which brings me to
SAINT NICHOLAS. You know how in the USA, Santa Claus and St.
Nick are the same person. Here, they are most definitely not.
St. Nick brings candy and presents to children on the first
Sunday of December. I'm not really sure what Santa Clause
does....
But Saint Nick reminds me that I left out something in the
SCHOOL section, which would also fit very very well under the
CULTURE SHOCK section. The students in Rheto (Senior year) of
every school choose a day to celebrate St Nicholas in their own
special way. This involves wearing and decorating big white lab
coats that all of your friends sign. You then buy bags of flour
and put them in your lab coat pockets. You also need a big beer
mug with a handle. On the set date you come to your school, with
your lab coat pockets full of flour and the mug in your hand and
you threaten all of the younger students to give you money OR
ELSE you'll throw flour at them. And then once you've spent your
morning pestering your classmates, you head to town where you
threaten any and all passerbyers to get money. And once your mug
is full, seeing as this is Belgium, you obviously go to the bar
and drink with all of the money that you have earned throughout
the day. SO bizarre, SO Belgium.
But other than the Rheto tradition, St. Nick brought me a lovely
plate of candy to eat :)
There are really no jews here so I had a Hanukkahless Hanukkah
:(
Christmas here is also very different. In the US, the most
important day is Christmas Day, but here the most important day
is Christmas Eve. We had a big Christmas dinner including Foie
Gras (actually veryyy yummmyy). And then at Midnight we opened
our presents! Everyone in the
neighborhood
was setting off fireworks or firecrackers, including of course
my host brother Stephane haha. Christmas day was just like any
other day which was so bizarre for me.
For New Years I went with some school friends to a soiree aka a
dance. It was really fun, but my feet were about to fall off
because I wore heels for 8 hours (the party started at 10pm and
ended at 6 the next morning) and unfortunately we all got our
coats stolen thanks to a badly organized coat check. But oh
well, it was fun!
New Years!
(From Left) Diane, Celine, Me, Coraline
My cousin from American visited me for the past three days
because he was in Sweden for Christmas with his Grandparents. It
was cool to be able to show someone MY country. I really felt
like a Belgian.
LANGUAGE
My language keeps getting better and better. I read books in
French nonstop because its a) a cool feeling to understand a
book in a different language b) really good for my vocabulary
and c) I just love reading anyway :)
I've read 3 books from the Harry Potter series and I'm almost
finish with the Golden Compass trilogy. I've been reading books
that I have already read in English so that I can focus on the
language rather than the plot. But once I've finished these two
series I'm going to start reading books that I haven't read
before.
UPCOMING
EVENTS
School started again today (January 4th) so I'll be busy with
school during the week.
I change families next Saturday. Its going to be a sad month
because all of the "oldies" leave aka all of the exchange
students that arrived last January (many countries from the
Southern Hemisphere do exchanges from January to January, mainly
New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina). Its so bizarre that
they're leaving because we're not new any more. But happily this
month the new exchange students arrive. There is a girl from
Australia that will be in my club so I won't be alone at
meetings any more :) I'm going with my counselor on the 17th to
pick her up.
February 6-7 I'm returning to London with my English class at
school. I'm working on maybe visiting Bess in Poland the week of
the 13th because I don't have school!
The Beautiful
Atonium in Brussels
La Belgique- La fin de mois 3 (Belgium- The End of
Month 3)
Today at 12:25pm
So much has happened in the last month that I will try
to split it into nice sections so that if you're reading
this you can pick and choose what you want to read :]
Rotary Trips
From October 31 till November 8 we had vacation! I
participated in the Rotary trips to Paris and London and
could write a whole report on how amazing they were. I
can't choose a
favorite
city out of the two of them. They were both gorgeous and
interesting. Full of history and culture.
Me with the classic red telephone booth and Big Ben
in the background in London
Unfortunately, the whole time that we were in Paris it
rained, but the city was still beautiful. I wish that I
could explain how amazing both cities are in words, but
its impossible. All I can say is GO. Empty your bank
account (especially for London, seeing as the British
Pound is almost double the $!), buy a plane ticket, and
see these cities. You won't regret it.
The view of Paris from the top of
the Eifle Tower ♥
Another
suggestion, for all future exchange students: Go on
every possible trip that you can. Unfortunately,
especially with the dollar being so weak right now, it
can be expensive to go, but you will make new friends
and memories that will last you forever.
Eating my first crepe! It was
delicious: banana and nutella! ♥
The view from the top of the Arc de Triumph at night.
Harrods
in London
Culture Shock
If you have read my past monthly updates you will notice
that there has not been a mention of culture shock
except to say that I have not experienced it. That is,
until this past week. My two moments of culture shock
happened within 24 hours of each other.
1. In my history class we are starting to learn about
how Belgium became a country, what Belgium is like today
(culture and government), and why it is as it is. My
history teach asked us to raise our hands if we consider
ourselves Belgian. Out of the atleast 20 people in my
class, only about 6 people raised their hands! Then he
asked how many people considered theirselves NOT
Belgian. Two hands go up -- yes, it was the other
exchange student and I. He then asked how many people
consider themselves Wallonian (from Wallonia aka the
southern, French-speaking part of Belgium). About half
of the class raised their hands. But then, when the
teacher asked who is Liegeois (from Liege, the big town
that my town is a suburb of/the state that I am in)
EVERYBODY raised their hand. It was bizarre. The teacher
asked Nicole (other exchange student) and I if we
considered ourselves American and we said yes. I guess
its a bizarre question for us because everyone I know in
the US considers themselves American.
2. This past Friday I went to a Souper Karaoke aka we
had dinner, did Karaoke, and then there was a soiree (aka
a dance). It was a fun night with my school friends-- we
sang Hit Me Baby One More TIme (old school Britney
Spears!) and then during the dance I explained song
lyrics to them. It was SO funny to hear everyone singing
songs in English with their cute Belgian accents. But on
to the culture shock: I walk into the study hall room
where it was taking place (the study hall room is huge,
basically the size of a cafeteria) and they were selling
beer to the students. Yes, beer. In a high school. MAJOR
culture shock.
School
I actually love school here. Our schedules changed the
day after break and now my days are shorter because all
of my classes overlapped so I unfortunately had to
choose some hours of some classes to drop. But all in
all, I'm happy with my schedule :]
Language
French is going REALLY well. My main problem is my
accent is still way too American. But I'm working on it!
Its so weird how easily some things slip out of my mouth
now, like the subjunctive. And I dream in French and
sometimes when I'm supposed to be speaking to someone in
English I say french words or I talk to them the way I
would speak in French.
Its all confusing but fun and interesting :]
I'm currently making my way through the Harry Potter
series in French. I started with book 3 because out of
the ones that my host family had that is my favorite.
I'm now onto book 4 and I'm proud that I understand it.
Tip for those learning a language: Read books that
you've already read in English in your new language.
That way you can concentrate on learning the words and
grammar rather than the story!
As for upcoming events:
On Wednesday I'm going to Hoegarden with Rotary where we
will learn about how beer is made and taste Hoegarden
beer (Belgians really love their beer haha). Then at the
end of the month with Rotex we are having an "Exotic
Dinner" where everyone cooks food from their own
country! On December 2nd Rotary is taking us to a
Christmas market in Aix-La-Chapelle. Then Exams and then
Winter Break (CHRISTMAS/HANUKKAH/NEW YEARS! <3)
Love to all at home and abroad!
I'm having the time of my life and never want to go
home, but I guess one day, they'll probably make me!
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU ALL FOR SUPPORTING ME ON THIS
AMAZING JOURNEY! <3
Bisous
Danielle
The following is in Danielle's Blog.
I have now been in Belgium for
almost 6 weeks – it seems like I’ve been here forever but that
time has gone by so fast, it’s such a bizarre feeling. I have
done too much to put in a blog, I started writing one that
explained everything that I’d done and I was only up to week
three and already had 2 Word Document pages filled that were
single spaced and in size 11 font. So if you want to know all
the minor details of what I have been up to, my facebook
pictures are probably the best bet. So here is the short and
sweet of it:
1)My families: EXCELLENT :] I
am living with the Lange family right now and they are so sweet
:] I have 2 older host brothers (Lionel—21 years old; Stephane—19
years old). They’re really fun, but I don’t see them as much now
that their college classes have started. My host parents,
Michele and Philippe are great too! I also know my second family, the Cheung family. My host parents
are Pink and Stanley. They have three girls—Deborah, Sarah, and
Laura—but only Laura is home right now because the other two are
on exchange (Brazil, Kansas USA). They own a Chinese restaurant
so when I live with them I’ll have Chinese food all of the time
:] I don’t have a third family assigned yet, but when I do I’ll
fill you in
2)The Language: French has been
going VERY well. Usually when I speak people are shocked! It
makes me so proud that they think that I speak so well! The
other day in school I was speaking to one of my friends and one
her friends that was listening to our conversation said “I wish
that I could speak English as well as you speak French!” The
only thing is that when I speak, people
always
ask if I learned French in school. I think they assume that the
American stereotype of only being able to speak one language is
somehow reflective on our High School language programs, but I
always make it clear that I’ve had 6 years of language in
SCHOOL. None extra.
3)School: I actually LOVE
school. I am in 6ieme (aka Senior Year). School systems here are
very different. For example, you stay with your “class” (I’m in
6A) for ALL of your classes. Also, teachers don’t have an
assigned classroom so one day you could be with them in C108 and
the next day you could be with them in A304. Nicole, the other
exchange student at my school, and I are special and leave our
class to join other classes. School is also different because
your schedule is not the same every day and you get out of
school at different times every day, depending on your classes.
Right now, I live about 10 minutes by foot to school so I walk
every day and I come home for lunch! My favorite class is
Italian. It’s weird to take a Italian in French, but luckily
I’ve taken Italian before and the majority of my classes are
beginner classes so it’s very easy for me right now.
4)Exchange Students: All of the
exchange students are SO nice :] My BFF here is named Nikki (not
Nicole that goes to my school although she is very nice too!),
she lives with the Cheungs right now and is from Phoenix,
Arizona. Our district is HUGE and makes
me
miss the homey district that I had back in the 6690, but my
district is also (supposedly) the richest district in the world!
Since I got here I’ve done so many
amazing things such as: going to the French Alps, riding in a
helicopter, going to the Belgian Coast, and going to a mine.
This is the most difficult BUT the most rewarding experience of
my life. I can tell that my language is improving.
I have been lucky to have not been
homesick since I got here EXCEPT for yesterday because I was
very sick (I think everybody just wants their own bed and their
parents when they aren’t feeling well). The longest that I’ve
ever been away from home before this has been 7 weeks so I guess
we’ll see how I’m doing during my 8th week!
Belgium is such a beautiful and
underrated country. Everyone should visit here :] I promise that
the fries, waffles, and chocolate will not disappoint!
Soooooo I have been in Finland for a grand total
of 7 months. That is a LONG freakin time. And i
swore I wouldn't use the cliche, "time just
flies by", but it totally applies here! I only
have 4 months left, *tear*, and I don't want to
go home. Sure, maybe a month ago I was like,
"Finland is great. But I miss my family,
American food, and whatnot," but NOW I keep
having nightmares that I am back in my old high
school, taking tests, being forced to have
responsibilities. Did I say nightmare? (Now, to
everyone back home who is reading this, I really
do love and miss you, so I think you should all
just move to Finland instead. ;)).
Things are finally starting to click here. I am
finally getting good with the language, and am
able to formulate decent sentences without
giving myself a headache. I have a good, solid
group of friends, and life is just peachy keen.
Oh! And did I forget to mention, that Spring has
finally decided to visit Finland?! Granted,
there is still an insane amount of snow, and
temperatures have only breached the low 40s, but
I don't care! Aurinko paistaa!! There is sun;
aww the sun, how I've missed you. And slush! I
have never been so happy to see slush in my
life. Slush means the snow is melting, and the
snow melting means Spring, and Spring means
warmer, bigger, and better things.
The St. Petersburg trip is coming up soon. SO
EXCITED. But man, not so excited about all the
paperwork it involves. Officially, not a fan of
paperwork. Gotta get a visa, another passport
photo, permission from everyone that is
important, blah, blah, blah. Geez, you'd think I
was going on another exchange for a year, not 4
days. But I'm sure it will all pay off, it is
going to be absolutely amazing :)
And then shortly after that, we have the Euro
Tour, where you ride around in a packed-filled
bus with crazy exchange students traveling to 9
different countries over the span of 19 days. No
question that that is going to be the awesome
experience of my entire life. It is all
down-hill from here. Kind of bitter-sweet, don't
cha think?
And I would just like to state, that exchange
students are POOR. "Hey, Alanna do you wanna
hang out tonight?", "Hey! Let's go see a movie
this weekend."...you know what all of this
means? Money. Or should I say, my increasingly
lack there of. And then, brought up in a casual
conversation, "so how much money have you saved
for Euro Tour?," my response: "money? saved? for
like souvenirs? CRAP." I now understand how
expensive everything is, and feel very sorry for
myself that I have officially entered into the
real world, where mom isn't there to give you
money every time you need it. Sad. There is
really no purpose in me saying any of this, I
just wanted to feel bad for myself for a minute.
Haha.
Sorry that this note wasn't as long as my past
ones. I'm short on time and whatnot. :(
But don't worry, you can expect a nice, big fat
one after St. Petersburg and Euro Tour.
Love <3
Ok so I have been in Finland for *counts on her fingers*
almost 4 months now! We have officially hit the holidays
baby. Christmas, New Years..and the oh so dreaded exchange
student holiday blues. If you have ever been an exchange
student you know what I am talking about, the holiday blues-
the period where you feel the most home sick. Of course
you're excited and anxious for Christmas in a new country,
but the thought that you are not home with your family is
always in the back
of your head, constantly nagging at you. Honestly, all
exchange students are bipolar. One minute you are so happy
and then like 5.2 seconds later you are depressed and sad,
wishing that you could see your family. Dude, talk about an
emotional roller coaster, jeesh! You miss home, but do not
want to go home? You love your new country, but hate it at
the same time? Don't ask me to explain the wonder that is
exchange students haha.
Ok for heaven's sake, be upbeat! On a more happier note...
I just got back from our Rotary's trip to the Finnish
Lapland!! Aka where santa and his reindeer live, yea you
better believe it ;). We were only there for a short period
of time, about 3 days there, 5 days total (the bus ride
basically took up an entire day). So by the time I had
gotten used to my hopelessly chapped/ windburned lips, and
the slight feeling of
frostbite,
it was time to go. The first day that we were there, we went
skiing...hmm, how did I like skiing you ask? well..let me
tell you about the method used to inflict torture that is
skiing. Nah, I am exaggerating just the slightest bit, but I
can say I did not walk away from it without my fair share of
bruises and cuts. And you are probably sitting there,
rolling your eyes and thinking, "well of course, it is never
easy the first time", and that may be so, but I have a
feeling that skiing will never be easy with me. We just not
get along; I can't remember how many face plants I did, or
how many people I knocked over because I fell in front of
them. Or how many times Swedish cross country skiers passed
me laughing, because I had fallen once again and could not
mangage to get up. Here I was panting, sweating, covered in
snow, cursing because I couldn't make it up the hill for the
life of me, while all these people passed by me at lightning
speed, skiing up the same hill like they were walking their
dog. Ha. Ha. Yeah you just wait, one day I will be an
amazing skier!- haha yeah, probably not.
We also went and saw reindeer, which was pretty sweet. But
you know what?! They fed us reindeer for dinner the same
night that we went and saw them, umm yeah, not cool guys.
Just 2 hours earlier we were petting them, and now we were
eating them. "Sorry guys, but mans gotta eat." Poor little
reindeer..
Then we went to a huskie farm, which had about 413 huskies.
So cute, but so very loud. Who knew dogs could make so much
noise?? There we got to ride on a dog sled, which was very
cool. I especially
liked the part where I got hit in the face with a branch,
not once but twice :P
Hmm and then to end the trip, we stopped at "Santa's
Workshop". Did some shopping, got my picutre taken with
Santa..but don't ask to see the picture, I didn't buy it on
account of it being WAY overpriced. Hello, I am an exchange
student- translation: I am poor.
Oh! and it was great seeing all of the exchange students
again! The Rotary here in Finland is very different and I
really don't get to see other exchange students like ever.
In Lapland one night, we had to do a talent show (we ALWAYS
have to do a talent show, ughhh), and every country had to
decide to do something that would represent them and tell a
little bit about where they where from. Ok, so the Americans
decided to get together in one room and try to think of
something to do. This resulted in 20 people squshed in a
small room, yelling at each other, and accomplishing
NOTHING. And us being Americans continued to yell, scream,
and interupt each other for 30 minutes straight. Then after
all of that, we just decided to sing the song, "This is our
land"!! haha. Don't ask..
Language:
Ok, let me repeat this for the one hundreth time- finnish is
HARD. I thought people were just exaggerating when they were
talking about how difficult it was, blah, blah, blah, but
no! This my friends, is a fact. With that in mind, I can say
that I am not fluent, pretty far from fluency, but I have
made great progress I think. I can understand a lot, and can
speak a fair amount. Things are starting to click; I can
understand what people are saying now! I am not so clueless,
this makes me very happy :D
Weather:
dark, gray, wet, snow, cold..yeah that about sums it up.
Right now we are having pretty crappy weather in my opinion.
Not a whole lot of snow, not too cold, but cold enough, and
very dark. This is something I can depend on- darkness. But
instead of cursing mother nature, I have decided to just
take comfort in the dark, otherwise I would just drive
myself mad.
Also, I am switching host families right after christmas,
the 27th I think. Once again, mixed emotions- I am sad to
leave my first host family, but also excited about the next
one. :)
Well I think I covered everything of importance. In short,
still lovin Finland and can't wait to see what happens next.
Moi! Miten menee? :D
So I have been in Finland for a little over a month now, and let
me tell you, it has been the most incredible expierence! Mind
blowing. Time is going by too fast, and I wish it would just
slow down! Here is just a short recap of what my life is like in
Finland:
Culture
Shock.: Well, I never really experienced very much of it.
Finland is very similar to the US in a lot of ways, but maybe
just a bit more Europeanified. It didn't take me very long to
settle down, feel like I belong here, and feel like a member of
the family. The people here are so nice! Being Finns, they are
very shy, but when you suck it up, and go and introduce yourself
you learn that they actually have a lot to say, and are so
interested in you and what America is like. They are a bit more
reserved though. For example, being the American that I am, I am
very used to always talking or saying hi to strangers that you
pass on the street. Not here in Finland! People generally avoid
eye-contact and don't say hi to one another if they don't
already know the person. They also don't talk on the bus. Finns
are very kind and considerate people, and they feel that they
would be bothering someone if they were to talk aloud, or on
their phones on a bus. Me being me, did not realize this until
after being starred at numerous times, and hearing the word
"tourist". However, no one would ever come up to you and say
something about it.
Host family: Love them! they are so nice. I live with my host
mum and my host sister, who is 12. My host father lives in
Helsinki, but is often here on the weekends. And my older host
sister lives with her boyfriend, but is over all the time. I
only have two host familys, so I don't switch until January :D
Food: NUM NUM! Potatoes are a huge crowd pleaser, as well as
fruit, whole grain bread, fish, and porridge. These are typical
Finnish dishes from what I've gathered. As you may notice, they
are also incredibly healthy. However, the Finns are no strangers
to fast-food, or junk food. They love Hesburger ( a Finnish
fast-food place), chocolate, pizza, ice cream, etc. Finland has
the most amazing chocolate (Frazer), and I think everybody else
would agree with me. It beats Hershey by a land-slide. Voi (oh)!
they also LOVE coffee morning, noon, evening, night, 24\7. They
drink it at any time, all the time, with anything. I have now
gotten used to being offered coffee with my hamburger, or fries.
One should just come to expect it. :)
School: My school here is very similar to college, no wait,
scratch that, it IS college. I have various times that I go to
classes everyday. And I don't have the same schedule everyday.
Kids are allowed to leave whenever they want, based on their
schedule. It has a very relaxed atmosphere. There are rules, but
not many. Kids eat during class, and they can use their cell
phones and ipods. So, you are probably wondering why then, are
kids not bouncing off the walls? Well, it is Finland, so the
kids are very respectful, and are just well-behaved??! As you
may imagine, this was probably the biggest culture shock that I
experenced. One thing I don't like about my school is the food.
It has absolutely no flavor (and there are always boiled
potatoes), but it is also free, so I don't complain too much.
I'm slowly, but surely making friends. Finland has really forced
me to come out of my shell, because everyone is so shy! So you
have to be the one to introduce yourself, and start a
conversation. And when I do, I realize that they really to talk
to me too, they were just too shy to do it :) The second grading period has recently just started, and I begin
my new classes on Monday! Last grading period I took Psychology,
2 English classes, Music, and Cooking. I was able to pick what I
wanted to take, so I was mixed with all of the grade levels. I
really enjoyed my English classes, not just because I understood
what was going on, but because they were an amazing help. I
spent most of the class translating everything. Plus, they were
fun; the teachers were so happy to have a "native speaker" there
that they had me help teach the class alot. Weirdly enough
though, in Finland you learn "British English" and not American,
so a lot of the times the teacher would disagree with me, and be
like, "oh that must be the AMERICAN way of doing it" haha. But
most of the times she was just wrong. It is really funny when
you are better than your teacher :D This grading period I chose to take English, French, Dance,
Geometry, Math, and Music. I'm not really excited about the Math
class, because first of all, I HATE math, and I don't think it
likes me either. It is a mutual dislike haha. The dance class is
for this ball that they have. It is a pretty big thing, kinda
like Prom, but completely different. You have to learn specific
dances to do it like the waltz, and then perform in front of
parents one night, and your school another. Yikes! It will be a
lot of fun, but I have to say I CANNOT dance. I have been to one
class, and it was so bad! I spent the entire time stepping on
the guy's toes. Plus, there was this really tall couple in front
of us, so I couldn't see what the teacher was doing. And I sure
as hell couldn't understand what she was saying most of the
time, so I just kinda went with the flow. Hopefully, it works
out, but I feel bad for any guy that has to dance with me haha.
Language: very hard. period. If you have learned to speak
Finnish, then you have probably just accomplished one of the
hardest things ever. Because I was late and missed language
camp, I was already behind when I started, and have really had
to study hard to catch up. I am taking courses twice a week
right now, which are really helping. I am no where near being
fluent, but I am learning. Check back in with me at Christmas,
and we will see :) Finnish is crazy though! Like the words are
so long! You would think they would stop at some point, but no
they just keep goin. That is because a lot of the words are
compounds, they put all of their words together. So when I am
reading I might know what the first 5 letters mean, but have no
idea about the other 10. Meaning, that I half understand almost
everything ha ha. Here is an example of one of the longest
compounds: lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseeriopplias.
Bit of a mouthful isn't it? ha ha. It is something to do with
someone who works on like cars and airplanes or something?
However, this is not common, most of the words are not nearly
this long. thank god!
The majority of the TV here is in English with Finnish
subtitles. When I watch tv I listen (of course) and read the
subtitles at the same time, which really helps you understand.
There are also alot of shows from other countries like Britain,
Austrailia, and Spain. The Austrailia ones are so funny,
Austrailians are crazy! I don't understand what they are saying
a lot of the time haha. They use the word "heeps" a lot..haha.
"We have heeps left to do!". The only shows that I watch that
are actually in Finnish are the Finnish Big Brother, and this
Finnish Bachelor. I have no idea what is going on in either of
them. I get so excited when I understand something too. I feel
like a little kid whose teacher has just told her\him to give
themselves a pat on the back haha. Even if it was just something
silly like "I am sorry, but I don't know". I am just happy that
I can make anything out at all!
Funny Story: So I went to go see the movie, "Hangover" a while
ago with some friends. It was hilarious by the way. So since the
movie was in English with Finnish subtitles, a lot of the jokes
didn't translate. I was sitting beside this guy, who was an
exchange student who went to Michigan last year, and we were
laughing throughout the entire movie, REALLY LOUDLY too. Because
he knows American, he listens instead of reading like me, so he
and I were the only ones who understood all of the jokes. We
would laugh when no one else was. It would be completely silent,
and then there would be us. haha. The girl beside me was
actually getting pretty annoyed with us. She kept looking at me,
with the whole "what are you laughing at?!" look, but
I didn't
care. :D
Money (or should I say, lack of): Kallis. Expensive is what it
is! Finland is oh so very expensive, which means that I am broke
almost 24\7. I get 80£ a month from my Rotary (thank you
Rotary!!), but it is quickly blown on warm clothes, and coffee.
When I came to Finland I had NO warm clothes, none. It wasn't
that I didn't want any, it was just really hard to find some
back home during the summer. And the rumors are true, Finland is
COLD. Plus, everyone dresses nicer here. They all look like they
just stepped out of a magazine with the latest trends. Back home
I wear sweat pants the majority of the time. Here, I hardly go
out in public in them. My host sister in America had to go
shopping to dress down, I had to go shopping to dress up. Money,
money, money. Golly, I wish it grew on trees. Coffee (which I
dearly love) is also very expensive. It costs like 3£ just for a
cup! Jeesh. Finnish coffee is really good too. It is a lot
stronger. :D
Daily
Routine: Rise and shine! Or just rise in my case ..it really
depends on my schedule what time I wake up. For example,
tomorrow I have my first class at 9:30, so maybe I will get up
around 8:30? But on Fridays, I don't have a class until 1 so I
don't get up until around 11. Gosh, I just realized it will be
hell when I go back home ha ha. I take a shower, eat some
breakfast, which is usually a yogurt or toast. Then, I ride or
walk to school. I don't live very far luckily so it only takes
about 15 minutes to get there by walking. Next, I go to class,
and if I have a break in between some of my classes, I may go
home, or get coffee, or shop with a friend (you can see why I
have no money haha). After school, I go home and take a nap. On
Mondays and Thursdays, I have Finnish lessons at 5 so I will go
to those then also. I really just take it as it comes. Maybe I
will go shopping after school, maybe get coffee, or just hang
out. Whatever, I feel like at the time. There is no specific
time when I eat dinner. Usually, my host mum doesn't make dinner
until really late, like 9 o'clock. I go to bed around 11 or 12.
Repeat!
Upcoming trips: The autumn break is in two weeks(!) and we have
a week off of school, so we are going to Estonia for a couple
days. I am so excited! We are going there by boat!!! Then there
is a the Lapland tour in November. The Rotary pays for all of
the exchange students in Finland to go to the Lapland! Go
skiing, snowboarding .. ahh it will be amazing. Counting down
the days as we speak DD
Weather: Okay, the Finns LOVE to talk about the weather. It was
pretty warm when I first got here, and I was like, "huh, maybe
it won't be that bad. people just exaggerate..". What did I
know?! After the first week, it suddenly got very cold. I didn't
even have time to blink! I just woke up one day and it was 20
degrees colder, and people were walking around with scarves. I
must of missed the memo or something. So it stayed like that for
awhile, about middle of fall weather back home. And then, just
recently, it has taken another rapid turn for the worse. Now I
am fishing for my winter coat, and boots. It is only the
beginning of October! Nooooo! And it is getting really dark
here, and everyone is kind of in a state of depression. Autumn
depression. Yep it exists and is going strong. Wet, dark, and
cold. Finland. I just can't wait for the snow! Right now it is just cold, but
there is no snow. Plus, once the snow comes we can go skiing,
which I've never done before. he he..
So there is this thing called Nordic Walking here. So weird.
People walk with skiing poles\sticks (I don't know what you call
them), so it looks like they are skiing, only they are walking?
I have only seen old people so it, so it isn't very popular
among the younger people. I can't imagine why..ha ha
Hmm...what else, what else? Well, I think that is it for now.
Plus, I can't really feel my fingers anymore from all this
typing. To sum it all up: I Finland, and can't wait to see
what happens next! T'will be amazing I'm sure :D
I promise to keep the updates coming (or at least I will try
;p)!
Oh! and let me just say thank you to my Rotary and everyone back
home. I can't believe that this actually happened! And for
everyone who isn't sure if they will do an exchange but thinks
they would like to, I say DO IT! You won't regret it. You WILL
regret it if you don't. Ok, cliché moment over.
Ciao!!
I have now been in Italy for about 5 weeks, and things just keep
getting better.
This week, I begin Italian courses in downtown Como, and in my town.
I've been picking up a lot lately, and I can start to understand a
lot more now. The only problem I have is speaking it..they can
barely understand my accent..which sounds so weird to say! I think
my courses will help me with that though.
I
never took public transportation until I got here. It wasn't
horrible, and my host mom helped me through it all. I have a 30ish
minute bus ride to my school, there and back. I have been in school
for 3 weeks, but it isn't your ordinary school. I attend a private
culinary school, and since they knew how much I liked cooking, they
decided to place me in the kitchen for almost the whole time. I am
the only student that gets to do this everyday though, the other
students come in some days for an hour maybe, and usually end up
watching me demonstrate! There are about 5 people that come in more
often that the others, and they are who I talk with a lot. I got to
help them cook at a wedding, which happens about every other week.
It was really cool to see how they worked through all that. My 'prof',
or the head chef and my teacher, speaks only Italian, and has helped
me learn a lot. Also, the culinary part of my school is just one of
the four subjects taught. There is also language school, which is
where I go for English and Spanish class since they speak better
English and help me learn a lot. Then there is art school and also
aeronautic school, where the students fly planes the school has on
Lake Como. My school hours are 8-3 most days. Some days I go till 4,
or if we are prepping for an event I can stay as late as 8 or 9. But
it is all so much fun I don't even think about the hours anyways!
My host sister, who is now in New York on exchange, told her friends
about me and they are really great. We usually walk around Lake
Como, go to a cafe, or look around in shops. Another exchange
student from Tennessee who connected on my flight from Minnesota,
took me to Lake Garda, which was about 3 hours away, with her host
family. I also went to dinner at my second host family's house, and
it was nice to meet them. Their daughter just got back from exchange
from New York, so she really knows what is going on and she is
really nice. Also, my host family I am living with is absolutely
amazing. My host parents both can communicate in English, which of
course helps. They teach me Italian words and then I teach them
English ones. My host mom throws in Italian words when she speaks,
so it helps me learn that much quicker.
The Milan Rotary Club took all the exchange students in my 2040
district to Milan. We rode the subway twice, first to get to the
cathedral, then to go to the Castle. We also went walking along all
the stores, meet tons of statue people that were really hilarious,
and then of course had pizza and gelato! Everyone was so great, and
we got to meet their rebounds. One of them was in Ohio, so she was
really excited to meet me. I liked talking to all the in-bounds
about their city, how their experience was going and so on. I meet
about 7 of them on my flight, so we were able to catch up with
everything.
This has been the most amazing thing I've been able to experience
and I'm looking forward to all the great times ahead.
So here I am dancing on the Equator. Life is one of those
things I'm not sure I will ever understand, and I'm not sure
if its something to be understood. So I arrived at nighttime
August 21, 2009 in Quito Ecuador. I had been crying a little
before hand after saying farewell to my family in Ohio I was
lucky to have Robin Smith with me. I walked through security
and had no idea what was happening and had no idea what my
family in Ecuador was to be. I just saw a couple holding a
sign
that said "Jaymiee Weeber" so I thought to myself.... well
close enough. My father is Jose Lopez he is the middle man
between the petroleum companies and the native indigenous
people. It's a tough job and very political. I pray for
cultural justice. Seems like these days people will do
anything for money and forget about the mother earth and the
people who live in the jungle. My mother is a retired
anthropologist, she can be feisty and bold at times but we
get along ok. I have 1 brother and 2 sisters one who is
pregant. Its a large family and I admire how important
family values are here. All of my siblings live away in
there own house so its as if I am the only child. Our maid
lives next door and her 3 yr old son is my best friend. She
cooks me delicious vegetarain meals. All is swell. Many
adventures for me. My favorite was when we went to a small
town called Banos, a town where the cows have the right of
way. My father and I rode our bikes 16 miles to the "Cascadas"
o waterfalls. There was a side trail that you could climb up
to that led to a cave behind the waterfall. So we did,
there in the cave I ate my peanut butter and honey sandwich
and all was grand. Quito is an adjustment for me- 3.000.000
people crammed in between the mountains at 9,000 ft above
sea level- altitude and City life is intense for I am a
country bumpkin from Ohio. I love my family and I'm starting
to make friends. Its harder when your not fluent, but the
language barrier isnt too bad. We went to the beach 3 weeks
ago and for the first time I swam in the pacific ocean.
Everyday is new for me. The mountains are chilly at times so
the coast was a nice warm climate. Every day is the freshest
fruit and veggies. I have a lemon and avocado tree in my
back yard. Its amazing the mountains are so calm and
powerful I swear they speak. I look out my window and am
greeted by hummingbirds. At times I miss Ohio and my family,
but know they are in my heart forever and i take them with
me on my journey. I miss the bricks of Athens and wonder how
my puppy Abby is doing. I've learned I can make my home
anywhere I roam. I'm learning patience. Its frustrating to
be so different and not understand everything at times and
exhausting too but its worth it. I walk to my school called
"nuevo mundo" which mean new world. All the stray dogs are
my personal escort. Life is good and a challenge. I found a
little yoga center I really enjoy sometimes I go to the park
to do a type of yoga with bamboo. There's only 2 seasons
here, rainy and dry. We are suppose to be in the rainy
season, but there is a drout. Therefore our electricity is
shut off many days of
the week, because most of our electricity is from the source
of water from a river. There is a lot of forest fires near
my house. I have to complete 80 hours of community service
so we go to a national park called- Inchimbiaa. The name is
Tall path for the black bird, its Aztec. Its amazing I am
learning many triditions form the natives here and find them
very interesting. We just celebrated "dia de los muertos"
which is day of the dead. Its a lovely celebration where
everyone gathers in the cemetary and dances and drinks
"colada morada" a purple drink made from fruit and "wa wa de
pan" bread for all the children who have passed on. Its only
the beginning and So i go
Dzien Dobry! (Good Day...basically) (From Her
Blog)
Wow! I Can't believe I have already been here for almost two
weeks. It honestly still does not seem real to me. It doesn't
seem real that an opportunity like this is happening to me right
now. It's just been amazing! Where to begin is a very difficult
question. I have already done soooo much! Okay, here we go. The
plane ride was long and boring. I left from Columbus to St. Paul
Minnesota where I met up with 3 other exchange students going to
Poland, Mary (Illinois->Warsaw), Katelyn (Michigan->Wroclaw)
Krista (Alaska->Lublin). From St. Paul we traveled to Amsterdam,
from Amsterdam we traveled to Warsaw. We were all very tired but
couldn't wait to meet our families for the first time! So I
walked out of bagguge clam and there in the lobby were my host
parents, Ewa and Bogdan along with my host brother, Robert, with
a warm welcome. The airport was just about 25 minutes from my
new house! I was telling them what all I knew in Polish and they
were working on new words with me. However, Robert has been
studying English for a while so if I need any help he is always
there. Bogdan speaks a little english and Ewa speaks none. I
feel like my progress is not as good as I would like. I know
colors, numbers, kitchen things, clothes, and general hello's
and goodbye's. The polish language is very hard in the sense
that things are changing and the endings for words are very
different. It confuses me. On my first official day in Poland we
went into the center of town. Robert showed me around to my new
school, Ochota, a mall, Zlote Tarasy, and a technological
school. The city is really interesting! But the funny this is, I
must have seen about 3 subways and KFC's along with Burger King
in the city. It makes me sad to see American things everywhere.
Later that night I had a going away party for an exchange
student who is going to Mexico. Her family is actually my second
host family so I got to meet her mother and see the house. The
party was really fun and I got to meet her friends along with
Daniela who is from Mexico in my Rotary Club. All of them were
really nice and welcoming! I noticed that a lot of people speak
English here so people will try to translate things for me which
is very nice of them because I will hear it in Polish and then
hear it in English. The following day my host parents made plans
for me to meet Paola (Mexico->Warsaw) and Liassa
(Brazil->Warsaw) who I have been communicating through facebook
with so I have talked to them before but this was our first
meeting. We walked through a part of Warsaw called Old Town
where there are shops and entertainment along with a Starbucks,
restaurants and the Belweder where the President of Poland
lives. They were both very pleasant and on top of all that I got
to meet my third host family! So in the first 3 days of being
here I got to talk with all my family here in Poland. I can't
wait to move in with them even though I don't want to even leave
the family I'm with right now.
Later in the evening Malgosia (my host parents daughter who I is
in the states right now) called through skype so she welcomed me
to her home and we had a nice chat. She is having a wonderful in
the states! She is close to Philadelphia.
So far I have had a lot of meat and potatoes. My favorite! Ewa
cooks homemade meals everyday for breakfast, dinner, and then
supper. It's great!! I haven't tried much things that I haven't
tried in America but pierogies which are AMAZING!! I can't even
describe how much I love them. I can't wait to try other new
things though.
I really like the public transportation here! I ride the train
everyday in the morning to get to school. It's about a 20 minute
ride which can be bad when the train is really busy because it's
almost like a mosh pit, where you have to stand and be squeezed
and pushed and pulled in all different directions but it's not
to bad, I'm getting use to it. But all the trains, buses,
metro's are all really nice. But about school. School is
different but I don't really dislike it. Everyday is different
with what time we go and get out and our classes. We have class
every weekday starting at 8 except for Friday where we start at
9. We have one class of about 30 people who travel to classroom
to classroom. I like this because you get to meet a group of
people and grow really good bonds with them but you don't really
get to meet other people in the school because of this. We don't
have a lunch break which is a very difficult part of my day.
Instead we have 10 minutes in between each class and one 20
minute period where most people walk across the street to a
little shop to buy food. Some days I have math twice and English
twice and other days I have neither. I have a lot more subjects
here than there, they have chemistry physics and biology all
this year while in the states we will have chemistry one year
and biology the next. They also don't have levels for classes,
like honors, extended (easier) or just plan regular. Everyone is
going through it together. The days seem really long but it's
alright because I'm making friends! Some days I get out at 3:15
and others I get out a 1 or 2, it just depends on how many
lessons I have. Over all school is good and I will be able to
pass math I think because everyone is taking time and helping
me. Along with a boy from Taiwan named Cheng-Yu but we just call
him James. It's nice to see a familiar face in school everyday
who is going through the same thing as yourself.
One thing here that I really dislike is the water situation.
Water is not "free". When you go into restaurants you must pay
for water and people buy there water in bottles. There are no
water fountains anywhere and for an American having water handy
all the time it takes a while to get use to it.
On my 5th day I got the chance to meet up with a few more
exchange students, Mary, Gustavo, Marianna, Kristy, who is an
exchange student from Australia so she has already been here for
6 months so she told us stories and information we should know.
All seem very nice and I think we will all get along great!
Okay well there is plenty more to say but I think I'm going to
move on to the Torun Meeting.
Alright........so this past weekend was the first rotary meeting
for all of Poland. We traveled on train for about 3 hours to
stay at a hostel in Torun which is north of Warsaw. We arrived
and put faces with names because most of us were friends on
facebook. Everyone hit it off, I think this group of people will
be very fun and exciting! There were about 50 of us who are
staying in Poland for a year. The plans for Friday were to go to
a barbecue where they actually had barbecue food which most of
us were surprised by. They had a camp fire and polish folk
dances came and performed for us. This was really interesting to
see because my host brother does folk dancing and I haven't been
able to see his performance yet. We sang a few songs and got to
know each other. It's really cool to see rotary students get
into a space together because we are all so out going and just
can't wait to meet you! We left the barbecue to go to a place
across the river to see the town of Torun lite up with lights.
It was a very pretty site! When we arrived back at the hostel we
all socialized until like 2 and went to bed. On Saturday we had
a couple meetings and then we went into town. Torun is known for
Copernicus's birth so we say a statue of him and many other
interesting buildings including the leaning tower. Than we were
back at the hostel where we still socialized and had a very good
time. Sunday was time to go but we all couldn't wait to see each
other on the Europe Tour or the December meeting. Because here
we only get to see each other at the meetings but there is only
four unless you go to the trips. I met a lot of cool people and
I can't wait to see them again!
So it was so short but I have so much to do here. My time feels
like it's already going so quickly!
I'll write again soon!
In
the morning, it was raining a little, and we
went to a beautiful cemetery where famous
Russians like Chekhov, Yeltsin, and Molotov
(who invented the Molotov cocktail) are
buried. After that, we went back to Red
square, went inside the church with the big
colorful spires, and then were free. I went
with Gabi (one of the other Americans) to
GUM, or Glavniy Universalniy Magazin
(Or Main Department Store). It is a
HUGE shopping mall located right on red
square. It is beautiful inside (see
picture), and has a lot of expensive shops
(some were so expensive that they didn’t
even put price tags on their products… if
you have to ask, you can’t afford it). After
being in there for a while, we wandered a
little around the streets and happened to
find a “Steak Café”. Being Americans, and
seeing that they also had hamburgers made
with steak meat, we had to go in and eat
lunch. We were served some of the most
delicious cheeseburgers I have eaten in a
long time (it’s the first real burger I’ve
had since America). And it only cost about
$11 which isn’t bad considering it came with
fries and is right in the middle of Moscow,
where everything is really expensive. That
evening back at the hotel, all of the
exchange students reserved the spa area in
the basement of the hotel. They had a
swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, a sauna, and
billiards. It was a fun and relaxing way to
spend 2 hours.
So
we went on the metro, and there was actually
so much security and such that we didn’t
really have to worry. We went inside the
actual Kremlin, and saw the almazniy fond,
where they have a hug collection of
diamonds. There they have the second largest
diamond in the world, and a lot of other
precious stones, gold, and platinum. Then we
walked around inside the Kremlin, saw all
the churches there, and saw the big tsar
bell and tsar cannon. After that, Gabi and I
decided that we wanted to go see the Gulag
history museum. No one else, especially the
Russians, wanted to go with us to see that.
So we went, got lost a little, and finally
found it. It was very interesting, and very
sobering at the same time. There were gulags
all over Russia, including, I found out, in
my host city of Blagoveshchensk. They had
artwork, artifacts, and information. And the
museum only opened a few years ago, so this
is all relatively new. It was a really nice
warm day out (+20 C), and I spent part of
the evening sitting outside in the park near
our hotel without a coat or sweatshirt,
enjoying the nice weather.
Read Greg's Blog
1)
Relaxing. I have been to hot springs on numerous times, leading
to me thinking, once again,
and
best, spend time with everyone. We have gone
2009 at about 11:30 at night. When we walked through the
exit (I say ‘we’ because there was a big group of us exchangers that
met up in Tokyo airport, a
bout 20 of us arriving at the same time)
we heard this crazy loud cheering start. It turns out that every
host family had come with friends and such so we ended taking up
about half of the airport. The Chens were holding signs for me and
it was just such a relief to see them after about a day of
traveling. We all had to take multiple group pictures and I ended up
getting home at 1! I have three host sisters here, but only one of
them, Sara, was able to come to the airport. Sara, as it turns out
was leaving the next day for her year long exchange to
Canada. 
Germany,
Hungary, Mexico, and such! I have officially decided that no one
boring ever comes to Taiwan because they are all so interesting and
ready to become fluent in Chinese. They are all so fun and the
weekend was full of dancing and meeting all the Rotarians.
They are nice, kind funny ( even though I don't
always get it) and just so helpful to the poor and
language-needy. I would start naming names, but I
cant really say or spell any of them yet so we will
just stick with the idea that everyone who
goes to Nanhu Senior High is (to my knowledge) some
of the nicest people in the world. I swear. I mean,
would you sit there for an extra hour
after school helping the little forigner
who doesnt really understand it even after you explain it, do her homework?
I know I wouldnt
have the patience. But somehow, all of them do. They
give me tours of the school, show me where the pool
is, how to get home, which uniform (the uniforms
are a whole new story) to wear on which day, ect! So
in conclusion, even though it is a very difficult
language, I have many people trying (in what I
sometimes think of as in vain) to teach me Chinese.
Gregory
Baumgartner-Calvin
of course. (Thanks again everyone for coming, it was really
amazing I LOVE YOU ALL!) After walking through the absurdly
large airport in Atlanta for about three miles, I got to the
gate right as they were boarding YIKES! My flight to Buenos
Aires was actually very enjoyable despite the horrible movies
and lack of sleep. There were about 10 other American exchangers
from all over the country on my flight, and I got to sit next to
a bunch of them and we even built a clubhouse in the back row
and talked for hours, what fun! I arrived in Buenos Aires,
Argentina on the morning of August 25th to be greeted by a man
holding a sign with my name. He whisked me and another American
exchanger off to the domestic airport on the other side of city
to catch our respective flights later that day. After making it
to the domestic airport and waiting for about five hours and
falling asleep on the floor, I boarded old school style out on
the tarmac and took off for Catamarca. The flight was really
great because I got to see Buenos Aires from the air and all of
the mountains and rivers of Argentina´s interior. I arrived at
the tiny airport in Catamarca (an airport so small that it only
receives one fly-by flight from outside the province weekly) to
my host parents and my Rotary counselor greeting me with warm
hugs and friendly smiles. I proceeded to take a quick tour of
the city before going home to take the tour of my home for the
next five months!
LA
FAMILIA VEGA RAMIREZ!!
As
I have adjusted day by day, my routine has become more and more
… routine. Needless to say, after a month of doing nothing at
the end of senior year and then a long and lazy summer of more
of doing nothing, going back to school has been sort a pain. I
have to wake up at around 6:30 each morning. I then shower and
get my uniform on. My school uniform is relatively simple and
consists of gray slacks, black shoes, and a sky blue collard
shirt displaying my school emblem and name. My host mom is off
to work by this time so I eat ¨breakfast¨ with my host dad. To
me, an average American, the breakfast that I eat seems like
some sort of cruel joke. All we eat are biscuits and facturas (Argentina´s
answer to the donut) and maté cocido (yummy tea!) or coffee. Not
much at all. After breakfast, my host dad takes me to school.
School commences with the flag raising ceremony at 7:55.
Depending on the day, we then head off to the science wing or go
to our homeroom. Between each five periods,
there
is a ten minute break in which most people go to one of the six
or so kiosks to buy a sandwich or bag of chips, small snacks to
tide the masses over until they go home to eat a real lunch.
When school is over, my mother is waiting for me outside in the
same spot every day. We eat a delicious lunch prepared by Laura
and then both go off to siesta. My siestas are tragically short
however – only about one hour most days. I crawl out of bed half
awake to prepare to for swimming practice and leave the house
and walk about ten minutes to the bus stop. Swimming here is
amazing and I am so glad that I have to opportunity to be a part
of the only team in the whole city. Luckily, my Rotary counselor
knows the pool manager, so I get to swim and be on the team for
free! Anyways, practice usually lasts about two hours. After
practice, I usually walk to the center of the city to meet up
with friends and hang out in the plaza and drink mate, or I go
home and sleep. Keep in mind that my host parents never drive me
anywhere, so I have to take the bus just about everywhere. For
me, the average American with a car and a license who has ridden
American public buses three times in his whole life, this is
quite a change. When I get home, a delicious hot dinner is
waiting. I usually eat with my host mom and Laura and we watch a
novella called Los Valientes (think Desperate Housewives on
crack) or a really weird South American game show. I then go off
to bed, usually at about 23:00 (that´s 11pm for you Americans
who don´t have to live with annoying South American 24 hour
clocks…). Then, I get up and do it again … YAY! On the weekends,
I go out with friends to a club or a disco and usually come home
at about 4:00 or 5:00, which is pretty early because most people
go to ¨afters¨ after the discos - which are like slightly less
loud clubs that are opened until 9:00 in the morning. What a
crazy place. 
Argentina
is a country much like the United States in terms of the
diversity of its landscapes. It is the second largest country on
this continent and being such, it has just about every type of
climate you can imagine. From the rainforests in the north, to
the deserts in the west, to the rolling plains in the center, to
the towering mountains and glaciers in the south, Argentina has
just about everything. The small amount of Argentina that I have
seen so far in this short month has been restricted to my
province. For my Rotary district´s orientation of all 60 of
their exchange students, we traveled to a very quaint little
town in the interior of the province called Fiambala. Fiambala,
though it is small, is also world renowned for its one of a kind
mountain springs and rolling sand dunes. After the orientation,
we all went to the springs and swam around in hot mineral water
from deep beneath the earth on the top of a mountain that is
supposed to possess magical healing properties. It was quite
fun. I also went to a small resort town to the north where my
family has a summer house called El Rodeo for the national
holiday of Day of the Student with all of my classmates. El
Rodeo is way up in the mountains and has the best views by far
that I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I have yet to see the rest
of the amazing sights that Argentina has to offer - but with
time, I will travel to just about everywhere in the country. In
the coming month, Rotary will take all of the exchange students
from the surrounding three provinces to the south of the country
(Patagonia!) for a 17 day excursion in which we will see the
mountains, the penguins, go whale watching, go skiing, climb
glaciers, and go to the world famous resort of Bariloche! I
can´t wait! Then, in November, we are going on a slightly less
intense excursion in which we will tour the province of
Catamarca for about five days. Even though this excursion is
shorter and simpler, I have heard that the views and sights are
absolutely spectacular and I am also excited to get to know my
beloved province of Catamarca a bit better. There is also a
Rotary excursion to Buenos Aires which I will probably not do
because I will go there anyways to visit my aunt or go there
with my host sister some time. But Buenos Aires is definitely a
must-see if you ever travel to Argentina, so I am very much
looking forward to that as well. Towards the end of my year here
is the North Trip. The North Trip is an excursion that tours all
of Argentina´s northern provinces and tops the whole thing off
by going to the Iguazú falls, right on the border of Argentina
and Brasil. 
and
who has a horrible Yankee accent, coming to Catamarca, Argentina
was quite an experience. Not only did I have to relearn half of
the stuff that I thought I knew, but I had to make sense of
Catamarca´s famous accent. I will not try to explain it as it is
to spare a couple of pages of writing, but try to imagine the
Texan accent of Argentine Spanish – and there you have the
accent of my province. To quote my good friend Lucas who did an
exchange year in Westerville last year, Catamarqueño Spanish is
the hillbilly accent of Argentina. Nevertheless, I am trying
really hard to speak and learn the Catamarqueño tone because I
really want to return to the States with my Catamarqueño accent
and confuse everyone with whom I speak Spanish. But I am happy
to report that I am basically fluent. Just talk slow please. And
don´t use slang. Thanks. 
The
general population is surprisingly uneducated about the outside
world in terms of foreign cultures, histories, geography, and so
on. And hearing the stereotype that all Americans are ignorant
as to the world outside their country my whole life, it was
quite a shock to me that a foreign country as well off as
Argentina is as unlearned. I guess people all over the world
don´t know a whole lot about the rest of the world, despite
location. Hopefully one day, once every student in the world
does a cultural exchange like me to better understand foreign
cultures, there will be a mutual understanding between all
nations and there can finally be WORLD PEACE!
Sara
Maurer,
interesting
and educational day of trying to understand the
un-understandable and communicate the
uncommunicatable (not sure those are words) in a
different language while trying to retain a smidgen
of self-respect. I have to say that I'm not sure I
have any left, however I found that laughing at
myself isn't so terrible. After shopping a bit we
looked around and found the Chinese restaurant that
my host mom recommended, which is owned by the
parents of a classmate of my sister's. My mom said I
should tell them who I am when I got there, so I
tried to, but a few things got lost in translation
(what a surprise) and the waitresses were all like
¨um...you want to talk to my boss?¨so I let it drop.
But it gets better! Chanel and I didn´t know that
you were supposed to come in and just pick a table-
we were following the good ole U.S.A. custom of
telling them how many people and then the hostess
shows you to a table. This meant that the restaurant
people assumed we were getting take-out, naturally,
and showed us a menu and let us point to what we
wanted. So we ordered and sat down and
waited...wondering are they going to show us to a
table or what? And then a family came in...and
walked
past us and into the main room...and sat down
at a table...oh shit. So for the next several
minutes we argued about who was going to suspend all
dignity and try to explain to the already amused
waitresses that we wanted to eat at the restaurant
after we had already ordered takeout. We had a nice
little lesson about accepting
embarrassment as necessary part of becoming fluent.
Chanel learned the lesson better than me because she
was the one who gave in and explained to the hostess
why we were sitting there giggling and looking
panicky. However I must say that eating an egg roll
was worth the humiliation of complete bungling
gringo ignorance and also of not knowing whether to
leave a tip- we ended up having to call Chanel´s
Rotarian counselor from the restaurant to ask him.
It´s good that shop owners and Chileans in general
find our obnoxiously obvious foreigness and language
incompetency to be cute and amusing rather
than...well, obnoxious. I annoy myself actually.
However I have to comfort myself with the truth that
no matter how Chilean Chanel and I dress or how
perfect our Spanish is we would still get stared
out: Chanel is black and I am Asian. To say that we
are not the norm in Talca is a gigantic
understatement. Oh and Emily, the other exchanger
girl in Talca, is blond. We might as well have
tattooed American flags on our faces.
What
I was told before my exchange is completely
true in practice: boredom and tiredness are the
enemies of exchange students. When I'm bored, I´m 3
times more likely to be pessimistic about my
exchange. When I'm tired, I'm 3 times more likely to
be homesick. But I am getting creative about talking
myself out of down moments and putting everything in
perspective...it´s all part of the experience.
Actually track is the source of the majority of my
stressing out, so if I can solve that problem I
think I would be happier.
students participate in different Chilean dances
like the Cueca, Pascuense, etc, to be performed next
week, and it´s a really big deal. Everyone here has
been learning and dancing the cueca since they were
little, which is embarrassing for me to say the
least. The P.E. teacher took pity on me and said I
didn´t have to dance, but not until after I passed a
few humiliating minutes of them trying to teach me.
I didn't object to getting to dance with Rodrigo,
but the actual dancing part I did object to!
Whatever you believe, neither God nor genetics
intended for me to be a dancer and with the
teacher's permission I accepted this with
considerable relief.
making
homemade empanadas for the big day next week, and my
whole family has been telling me how good they are
so I can´t wait. Today was the Saint's Day for
everyone named Maria, which I´d estimate to be about
half of the Chilean population. Since that half
includes my host mom, we got a manjar cake to
celebrate. It doesn´t take much to justify buying a
manjar cake, which is just fine with me.
me that. The other
students here don´t believe me when I tell them how
much schoolwork I have in the States. Here they
actually have time to hang out during the school
week, go out, even get enough sleep, etc. Didn´t do
the homework? No big deal, you can just copy it off
someone else and the prof probably won´t check it
anyway. Prueba you didn´t study for? No problema,
you can just use the answers written on your arm! I
couldn't believe it the first time one of my
classmates showed me their cheat sheet! The only
thing that is more intense than the U.S. is the
choir- we won first place in a national competition
in another city last week, and we are going to
another in Santiago in October that I am excited
for.
California
stretch. I’m the best at basketball, that should tell you
something about how important it is to them ahah In physics, we
had to do a lab where we timed how long it takes the bubbles in
a beer glass to go away after you pour it. Only in Europe would
a bunch of 14 year olds be pouring beer at 10 a.m. in a physics
class. All in all, it was a really good day though.
usually
and show their children’s favorite things. They can be simple,
but most of them had handmade stuffed animals hanging off or
were tye dyed or had hand made fairy princesses. At the party
afterwards, we ate German cook out food, which is basically tons
of sausages and pork and grapefruit beer. It was sooooooo good.
A couple weeks ago, I went to my classmate’s 15th
birthday party at the beach, it was pretty cool. They carted out
all these drinks, and of course tons of bread hah. They LOVE
bread here. Like, for breakfast we eat bread with cheese, raw
bacon, radish spread, or NUTELLA (I basically live off of
nutella and banana sandwiches). Then for a snack at school,
bread with like 4 pats of butter. Lunch? More bread. An
afternoon snack? You guessed it, more bread! Hah anyway, at this
girl’s birthday, we played this version of dodgeball where
random people that got out can throw balls at you and we built a
campfire. It was funny because they got sticks and I was like,
Oh! Marshmallows? Are we having s’mores? And they were all like,
What?! You cook marshmallows and eat them? Gross! Ahah they
thought it was the grossest thing they’d ever heard, besides
pepperoni pizza which they still can’t believe I eat. Instead of
marshmallows, they bring bread dough and cook it over the fire.
I spent about 20 minutes trying to cook mine, then I gave up and
ate it basically raw, I’m too impatient for this I guess.
Lately I’ve been making a lot of friends, which was hard at
first because the Germans, from what I can tell, tend to be more
reserved at first and not as warm as Americans. They all shake
hands when they say “Happy Birthday!” and if you smile at
someone it basically means you want something of theirs, or
you’re hitting on them. I found this out after my host sister
caught me smiling at everyone I saw at my school and on the bike
path. She explained that that was probably why so many boys had
been talking to me and so many girls had given me weird looks hahahaa I learned my lesson pretty quick. Now that I can
understand conversations pretty well and can make a joke or 2,
people have really begun to open up to me and I’m getting out a
lot more. The funniest thing here is that random things are in
English, but the English doesn’t usually make sense. They all
wear things in English or have ads in English because they think
it’s really cool but it turns out making no sense. Like this
campaign for fitness:
Robin
Smith's Presentation to Ecuadorian Rotarians Published in
The Ecuadorian District Magazine
Since
it was adults only party, I spent the majority of
the time with the Tanya (the daughter of the man
whose birthday it was…don’t remember his name), her
cousin, and my host brother. We played Monopoly,
laughed at a stupid comedy, and watched the boys
play Grand Theft Auto (what a great representation
of the U.S.) Oh, I just realized that all those
things were from the U.S…well, you can definitely
see the influence the U.S. has here. Anyway, we all
ran down the steps when we heard a trumpet…THE
MARIACHI BAND HAD ARRIVED! It was SO cool! The
birthday man and his wife danced together and then
everyone started dancing, singing, and clapping
along. Next we prepared for the “The Hora Loca.”
THE COOLEST THING EVER!!!!!!
ecuatoriana
got
there the post office guy said he needed three
copies of my I.D. card. Went across the street and
got the copies, gave them to post office guy. Next
the guy needed 75 cents for who knows why, then I
signed some papers and he handed me my package. YAY!
Fiesta
de las Faldas
English is really
hilarious. The stories are so funny that they have to read!
Plus the teacher doesn't even speak that good of English. I
help her with different things and also work with another
girl who is the best at English. Logic class was kind of
interesting, though really repetitive. It is sort of like a
thing we did in geometry last year, a deductive reasoning
unit right now. I could understand more in that class. We
were 
working on stuff like...
People don't
raise their hands. They usually just shout something out or
stay silent. In the morning we all get in formation in the
planchanda, the outdoor gym. Each class has to march 3 steps
then march back and then the whole school does it. Kind of
cool, but pretty pointless. There is also this ceremony were
some cadetes raise the Ecuadorian flag while someone blows
this eerie sounding whistle and rings a bell. I like the
little kids on my bus. They are all really nice to me,
though are kind of shy. We all share junk food on the bus.
The ride to school is dead silent, but on the way back
everyone talks all the time. Oh, the kids all through their
trash out the window. Oh, on Wednesday and Fridays we have
gym. You get to choose what sport you want to do. Two girls
invited me to come with them to....tae kwon do. I
don't
think Im ever going back!!! It wasn't that the teacher was
mean or the class was boring, he j
ust knew barely anything
about keeping your body safe. Normally the girls are in alternativo gym class, where you do a little bit of
everything, but their teacher is pregnant. So there are
about 5 people normally in TKD, but right now about 12 other
girls are in it that normally are in alternativo.
Yoga on High) the entire time, what would she say about
this? It was so bad, I felt like laughing the entire time.
Still, the girls I were with were a lot of fun and for about
half the class we just sat and talked.
funnish though. Our class went to see the
theater club’s show. There are only 4 people in the club and
they did three different little acts. I sort of got what was
going on but it seemed super melodramatic. About half the
show someone was crying or yelling about something. The
theatre was so insane! It seriously was like Luke
Skywalker’s house on Tatooine except smaller. It was this
dome beige stucco thing in the basement of the chapel.
Coolio.
really know whats going on outside of
Ecuador. I'm glad that my literature teacher makes us read
the Sunday newspaper every week though because normally my
host family does not buy the newspaper.
Thursday, September 3rd
But it gets better! First we drive to this stadium.
Absolutely deserted. 
Saturday, September 5th
Yesterday was kind of hard because
I had to saw goodbye to Pao.
She helped me understand a lot the first couple of days because
she helped explain words in Spanish. She is just a really sweet
and wonderful person. After we said goodbye at the airport I
went to my cousin Diani s house. She was an exchange to student
to Indiana in 2006. She was really helpful and checked this list
of words that Ive heard and their translations in English. Her
house (her mom is my Mami s sister, mi tia) is on a mountain
(well, every house here is on a mountain, but hers is actually
on the side of a mountain). Their house is really cool and has
this sort of open second floor and steps to go up to the roof.
The view from the roof is lindisimo!!!!!! BEAUTIFUL!!! From the
roof you can see all of Quito.
Welcome,
Sheri!). I was so happy to see Hiroki, and Uegata-san was very nice.
We left the airport by bus and traveled to Yokohama where I met up
with Akatsu-san (club president and my next host dad), a few other
rotary members, and my host family.
I
got here, because school started the 3rd week in
August! Now everything is just normal and everyday. I’m
trying to think of interesting things to say in this, because
nothing seems as strange as it did when I first got here . . . .
.
School
is also very different. I’m in 11th grade here,
which is when kids start getting ready for college entrance
exams. But everyone takes classes very seriously. I’ll admit
that even some of the teachers in Athens didn’t really care
about their classes, but that is definitely not the case here.
Kids always do their homework, and memorize the lesson, even if
the teacher doesn’t tell them to. I’m actually really glad I
don’t have to do the homework here, because they’re so much more
ahead in all the subjects than I was when I graduated! Luckily,
I have 2 ½ years of German, so I know what the teachers are
saying (mostly), but how do you explain the electronegativity of
an element in German, when it’s hard enough in English?
Actually, English is probably the only class I can really
participate in, and even that’s . . . .well, interesting. They
teach British English here, and my teacher can’t really speak
English all that well. So she tells the students the wrong
answers sometimes! It’s really surreal, especially since she
always tells the class not to speak in a ‘lazy American’
accent. I found that one kind of funny. The other part of
school that’s interesting is how much freedom the kids have. If
you have a free period, you can leave school. There’s a mall
near the school, so you see 6th graders wandering
around shopping at 11 on a school day. And at lunch, there
isn’t one main place to eat. Everyone just scatters. 
much
poverty and unemployment. They mostly just graffiti things, so
they’re not particularly dangerous, but it was interesting to
see in the August election how all the streets in my village had
signs for the Nazi party. It only won a small percentage of the
votes, but to see ‘Germany for the Germans’ hung up on street
lamps was a little bizarre. 
Another
suggestion, for all future exchange students: Go on
every possible trip that you can. Unfortunately,
especially with the dollar being so weak right now, it
can be expensive to go, but you will make new friends
and memories that will last you forever.
I have now been in Belgium for
almost 6 weeks – it seems like I’ve been here forever but that
time has gone by so fast, it’s such a bizarre feeling. I have
done too much to put in a blog, I started writing one that
explained everything that I’d done and I was only up to week
three and already had 2 Word Document pages filled that were
single spaced and in size 11 font. So if you want to know all
the minor details of what I have been up to, my facebook
pictures are probably the best bet. So here is the short and
sweet of it:
I also know my second family, the Cheung family. My host parents
are Pink and Stanley. They have three girls—Deborah, Sarah, and
Laura—but only Laura is home right now because the other two are
on exchange (Brazil, Kansas USA). They own a Chinese restaurant
so when I live with them I’ll have Chinese food all of the time
:]
I don’t have a third family assigned yet, but when I do I’ll
fill you in
me
miss the homey district that I had back in the 6690, but my
district is also (supposedly) the richest district in the world!
Since I got here I’ve done so many
amazing things such as: going to the French Alps, riding in a
helicopter, going to the Belgian Coast, and going to a mine.
This is the most difficult BUT the most rewarding experience of
my life. I can tell that my language is improving. 
Culture
Shock.: Well, I never really experienced very much of it.
Finland is very similar to the US in a lot of ways, but maybe
just a bit more Europeanified. It didn't take me very long to
settle down, feel like I belong here, and feel like a member of
the family. The people here are so nice! Being Finns, they are
very shy, but when you suck it up, and go and introduce yourself
you learn that they actually have a lot to say, and are so
interested in you and what America is like. They are a bit more
reserved though. For example, being the American that I am, I am
very used to always talking or saying hi to strangers that you
pass on the street. Not here in Finland! People generally avoid
eye-contact and don't say hi to one another if they don't
already know the person. They also don't talk on the bus. Finns
are very kind and considerate people, and they feel that they
would be bothering someone if they were to talk aloud, or on
their phones on a bus. Me being me, did not realize this until
after being starred at numerous times, and hearing the word
"tourist". However, no one would ever come up to you and say
something about it. 
Daily
Routine: Rise and shine! Or just rise in my case ..it really
depends on my schedule what time I wake up. For example,
tomorrow I have my first class at 9:30, so maybe I will get up
around 8:30? But on Fridays, I don't have a class until 1 so I
don't get up until around 11. Gosh, I just realized it will be
hell when I go back home ha ha. I take a shower, eat some
breakfast, which is usually a yogurt or toast. Then, I ride or
walk to school. I don't live very far luckily so it only takes
about 15 minutes to get there by walking. Next, I go to class,
and if I have a break in between some of my classes, I may go
home, or get coffee, or shop with a friend (you can see why I
have no money haha). After school, I go home and take a nap. On
Mondays and Thursdays, I have Finnish lessons at 5 so I will go
to those then also. I really just take it as it comes. Maybe I
will go shopping after school, maybe get coffee, or just hang
out. Whatever, I feel like at the time. There is no specific
time when I eat dinner. Usually, my host mum doesn't make dinner
until really late, like 9 o'clock. I go to bed around 11 or 12.
Repeat! 
I
never took public transportation until I got here. It wasn't
horrible, and my host mom helped me through it all. I have a 30ish
minute bus ride to my school, there and back. I have been in school
for 3 weeks, but it isn't your ordinary school. I attend a private
culinary school, and since they knew how much I liked cooking, they
decided to place me in the kitchen for almost the whole time. I am
the only student that gets to do this everyday though, the other
students come in some days for an hour maybe, and usually end up
watching me demonstrate! There are about 5 people that come in more
often that the others, and they are who I talk with a lot. I got to
help them cook at a wedding, which happens about every other week.
It was really cool to see how they worked through all that. My 'prof',
or the head chef and my teacher, speaks only Italian, and has helped
me learn a lot. Also, the culinary part of my school is just one of
the four subjects taught. There is also language school, which is
where I go for English and Spanish class since they speak better
English and help me learn a lot. Then there is art school and also
aeronautic school, where the students fly planes the school has on
Lake Como. My school hours are 8-3 most days. Some days I go till 4,
or if we are prepping for an event I can stay as late as 8 or 9. But
it is all so much fun I don't even think about the hours anyways!
Margot
"Bess" Schreiber