Week #3

Let’s talk about our trip to D.F! The capital of Mexico! Boy oh boy was that fun. I was on high-alert the whole trip because there are SO many people everywhere. It takes a little over 3 hours to get there on the bus we took. The whole weekend we visited museums and walked around a lot. I more or less enjoyed the trip! Just got a bit claustrophobic at certain points. I missed my Mexican family a lot…and we were only 3 hours away so I’m not sure what I’ll do when I have to come back to the states 🙁

One of my Mexican friends here invited me to hang out after school one monday so I said I could go! I had no idea we were leaving the state of Queretaro….we took a 2 hour road trip to Guanajuato…on a Monday…and I didn’t get home until about 9. It was really fun though! We talked in Spanish the whole day too so I got plenty of practice! This week is my first week switching into 300 level Spanish so we’ll see how well I can do! 200 level was pretty easy for me so I was pretty bored most of the time….

Week 1 Querétaro, Mexico

Ah, I can’t believe how fast this trip has gone, I don’t want to go home at all 🙁 Alright, now I suppose I ought to catch the online blog up with my journal.

So the first week three other students from WOU and I came down to QuerĂ©taro a bit early with Carmen Cascaeda, our amazing advisor. The first thing I noticed after getting off the plane was that the airport was not air conditioned at all. It was warm, a bit muggy, and definitely crowded. I also noticed that a lot of the advertisements were in English, or had English on them, and though there were signs, I don’t think I could have found my way to the proper spot without Carmen leading. The bus ride to QuerĂ©taro was only eventful in that there was a lot of traffic and the driver decided to take an alternate route which added and extra two hours to our trip and landed us in QuerĂ©taro around 1am. A bit late for already tired travelers. Actually, I can’t complain much because I slept for pretty much the entire trip. One thing that shocked me with the taxis and later with almost every vehicle I have been in- they don’t use seat belts here! Some cars have them (in working condition), but few people ever use them and that’s usually just the driver.

We eventually made it safely to our hotel- Hotel Señorial, which was a beautiful old-fashioned hotel in the heart of el Centro Historico.

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The first morning we walked to a little near-by restaurant for breakfast and had our first taste of authentic Mexican cuisine. The orange juice was fresh squeezed, the coffee (cafĂ© de olla) was the only coffee I’ve ever liked, and the food was delicious. I did notice though that the eggs had a lot of oil, enough to drip out when I put some in a tortilla.

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After breakfast we walked to an indoor market that sold just about everything. It was really fun to look but we only bought a little bit of sweet bread (delicious).

After the market we went on a pilgrimage to find sunscreen, and just generally explored el Centro. Two notable occurrences would have to be talking to the guy at the Bernal sweets shop, and taking a tour of an elementary school. The shop owner told us stories about La Peña de Bernal and showed us the animals in the rock face which was really cool, and then gave us goat milk sweets which were like extra delicious caramels. The school was really neat- one of the oldest in QuerĂ©taro. The students weren’t there because it was the afternoon break time, but we got to peek into the classrooms and meet some of the teachers.

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One of the teachers gave us her number, and we decided to get together later to go dancing. We also walked all the way to the other end of town to go to a viewing point form which we could look out over the city and see the arches. It was neat but it was really quite a walk.

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We went back to the hotel to lay down for awhile, because we were meeting our teacher friend at 10pm and going to the Plaza de Armas (one of many plazas in QuerĂ©taro). The plazas at night were/are awesome.  There are lights and music and people everywhere. There are vendors and performers and children playing with flying light-up toys that I coveted too. We met some friends of our teacher friend, and then walked to the antro (dance club) from there. The first one we tried (La Mulata) wouldn’t let us in because Josh was wearing flip-flops and it was the sort of place where you needed to dress up. In the end we drove to a different antro called Club Latino where we got our first introduction to Cumbia. I honestly think it was one of the most fun nights of my life. I danced for hours and I may not have been very good but I definitely enjoyed myself. We didn’t get back to the hotel until 2am but it was worth every second.

Day two started with another delicious breakfast, this time a croissant sandwich for me and molletes (beans and cheese on bread; delicious) for Josh and Courtney.

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After breakfast we went on a tour of the city on the trolley, and it was fun even though I only understood a fraction of what the tour guide said.

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We even went and visited the place where Maximilian was executed by firing squad… yay?

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We ate lunch at a place that we were pretty sure converted into a bar at night, and I had my first taste of mole which I hated (only food I’ve disliked so far, actually).

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We spent the rest of the day exploring the city some more and catching up on sleep.

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Day three had a calm start to it. I went to church with Quo friends and then met back up with the group in time to be dispatched to my host family.

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My host family welcomed me warmly and I love everything about living here, well, except Leonin the dog. He is sweet most of the time but the first morning that I went into the kitchen to get some water before school he barked his head off and completely terrified me. Anyway, the house here is fairly similar to houses in the US, but it is in a very small gated community with other similar houses, it is more colorful, and it tends towards tile and painted metal.

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The location is perfect because I’m in el Centro and only about a 15 minute walk from the school in the mornings. After I got settled in a little bit, my host mom and her daughter took me with them on their errands including two bookstores and Costco- I even got Costco frozen yoghurt!

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Monday was the first day of classes… the beginning of the end if I’m allowed to be melodramatic about it.

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My first two classes are spanish language in context (Lengua en contexto) which is mainly about the social, political, and cultural context of Mexico, and composition which is mainly grammar review and writing. The first teacher, Alejandro, was a bit intimidating because he put us on the spot and expected us to answer, which is not something I’d dealt with before in spanish. The second teacher Nadia is young and very sweet, but also has an excellent way of explaining concepts so that they make sense. she also writes words on the board if we don’t know them, which I really appreciate because then I know how to spell them, and it also makes them easier to remember. After classes we went to a restaurant and had a buffet lunch with all of the students and their host moms from session 2. The restaurant’s name was Las Monjas and their tortilla soup was fabulous. That night I went with a group of students from sessions 1&2 to college bar, which was a lot of fun.

Tuesday was my first day with ESOL class at La escuela de Gabi and it was very different that what I was expecting. All my classes here are small, but it’s one thing to have a new class be very different, and another to have a normal ESOL class be in a tiny little bare-bones classroom with three other students. The only equipment there in the room is a whiteboard and some desks. It is very different but it’s kind of fun that way.

Wednesday was Laurie (our resident director)’s birthday and so we had tres leches cake at la escuela de Gabi after classes. It was my first time trying that type of cake, and I’m a convert :).

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Some observations from my first week in QuerĂ©taro: I was right about the cobble-stones, don’t ask me how I knew. I love the cobble stone streets and sidewalks. I have no clue how girls navigate them in heels, but they do. People dress up a lot more here, especially at night. I’m pretty sure girls are obsessed with their footwear because they all wear fancy shoes and at night they all wear deadly looking heels. I don’t think I would last five minutes in their shoes on these streets, but then again they all seem to have a guy to cling to. That’s another thing, couples are *very* open with affection here. It is a common occurrence for there to be couples making-out randomly anywhere any time of day, and no one bats an eyelid. It has been hard enough for me to adjust to the whole air kissing people’s cheek in greeting thing, but the rampant PDA kind of shocked me. Also, society here seems a bit more paternalistic than the US, and they definitely treat men and women differently. For one thing, in many bars and antros men have to pay a cover charge and possibly get patted down, but women do not. Men do many of the traditional gentlemanly things too, like opening doors, pulling out chairs, acting protective etc that aren’t very common in the US (wish they were). There is also a lot more smoking here for both men and women.

Week 5 in Vienna

I am writing this on my last morning in Vienna. In 45 minutes I will be getting into a taxi headed back to the airport for a dreaded 17 hour flight. There isn’t a whole lot to report on for this last week. Mostly I rested and got over my sickness and studied for finals. Overall I think my finals went well. My German final was super relaxed and not like any other final I’ve ever had before. Our teacher even let us ask some questions and told us what some words meant! My Music History final was a lot more tough. I didn’t feel too great about it because there was so much material covered and it was all way over my head. My teacher gave me some really good comments on my other assignments this term though so I am sure that overall it will be fine. Last night we had a concert that all of the music students had to play in and I had a violin solo. I think the concert went really well and it was a lot of fun visiting with everyone after the concert for the last time. I think this was the first time that I was sad I’m leaving. It was hard saying good bye to my teachers and site directors. They were all really emotional and sad to see us leaving. Well I need to finish getting my stuff together now. I am excited to get home. My boyfriend will be picking me up from the airport and then the next day I’m off to a leadership conference where I’m being hopeful that I can do laundry and get sleep as well… I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their trip!

Argentina Week 4. Mostly a picture gallery this week.

This was my final week of taking Spanish intensive courses so I have been pretty busy cramming for the exams. The finals are worth around 75% of my grade so I have been pretty preoccupied making sure I am familiar with all of the material we have covered. I am excited because I will have an entire week off before I have another 4 weeks of intensive Spanish classes. My girlfriend is also going to show up for a week during my break to come visit me. I have been spending a lot of time trying to find her a nice hostel to stay at while she is here. I did a lot of shopping and walking around this week. Somehow the value of the dollar went from 7 pesos to 8 pesos this week so I thought it would be a good time to check out the markets. One of the markets I went to is called San Telmo and it’s in a very old part of Buenos Aires. Thousands of people come out to this market which stretches to about 20 or more blocks in length. I ended up buying only a few things, but I took several pictures of the booths that were there. We went to a second market with my advisor, but we traveled by taxi and I forgot the name it. It was really far west in Buenos Aires and it was a much more poor area of the city. I don’t really know how to organize all of the different thing I did this week so I’m just going to post a bunch of pictures with captions underneath them. ith all of the material we have covered. I am excited because I will have an entire week off before I have another 4 weeks of intensive Spanish classes. My girlfriend is also going to show up for a week during my break to come visit me. I have been spending a lot of time trying to find her a nice hostel to stay at while she is here.

I did a lot of shopping and walking around this week. Somehow the value of the dollar went from 7 pesos to 8 pesos this week so I thought it would be a good time to check out the markets. One of the markets I went to is called San Telmo and it’s in a very old part of Buenos Aires. Thousands of people come out to this market which stretches to about 20 or more blocks in length. I ended up buying only a few things, but I took several pictures of the booths that were there. We went to a second market with my advisor, but we traveled by taxi and I forgot the name it. It was really far west in Buenos Aires and it was a much more poor area of the city.

This building is known as the pink house and is located right next to San Telmo. The building is pink because it was made with a pink colored clay. I believe that this building has a similar significance to the White House in the United States.

This building is known as the pink house and is located right next to San Telmo. The building is pink because it was made with a pink colored clay. I believe that this building has a similar significance to the White House in the United States.

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A few of the more quirky market stalls in San Telmo

A few of the more quirky market stalls in San Telmo

Below are some images from the second market I went to.

These bottles are everywhere here. They are used to make mineral water.

These bottles are everywhere here. They are used to make mineral water.

Meat on the street

Meat on the street

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This is some sort of game that was going on outside of the market. The jockey has a small pen that he has to stick through a small ring that dangles between two posts. I don't know what the game is actually called but I call it the Lord of the Rings. Hundreds of people line up to watch this event.

This is some sort of game that was going on outside of the market. The jockey has a small pen that he has to stick through a small ring that dangles between two posts. I don’t know what the game is actually called but I call it the Lord of the Rings. Hundreds of people line up to watch this event.

 

Churros and other homemade pastries.

Churros and other homemade pastries.

 

Dancing gauchos. I believe that these people are not in costume and are actually from the Argentine countryside.

Dancing gauchos. I believe that these people are not in costume and are actually from the Argentine countryside.

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They had a paintball range. This little guy was probably excited to be shooting a gun for the first time.

They had a paintball range. This little guy was probably excited to be shooting a gun for the first time.


Funny "in case of emergency" items.

Funny “in case of emergency” items.

Area just outside of the market. The markets are completely packed with people on Sundays. It's the place to be in Argentina.

Area just outside of the market. The markets are completely packed with people on Sundays. It’s the place to be in Argentina.

I don’t really know how to organize all of the other things I did this week, so I’m just going to post a bunch of pictures with captions underneath them.

Not the best picture, but I found an amazingly big horse racing track in Buenos Aires a few miles away from where I live.

Not the best picture, but I found an amazingly big horse racing track in Buenos Aires a few miles away from where I live.

Probably the best/quirkiest thing I've eaten since I've been here. It's a triple waffle breakfast sandwhich with egg, cheese, bacon, avocado, ham and tomato.

Probably the best/quirkiest thing I’ve eaten since I’ve been here. It’s a triple waffle breakfast sandwich with egg, cheese, bacon, avocado, ham and tomato.

 

 

Week 3!

Week 3 can be summed up in a picture or two, but I cannot upload pics to this blog so I will try my best to explain what I experienced. This week, I traveled to a remote village in the valley called Kuda. Our group took a bus to get there and every time the bus passed some small towns it felt like we were going back in time. The more we made it into the valley, the less amenities there were. Once we got to the village–which was a farming village–we were transported back in time. There were farmers using oxen to plow the fields, and mothers using stone tablets to cook food on. Then there were farmers sewing the fields with rice. I even got to help them plant some rice. Like I said, we were transported back in time and it was a humbling experience. I got to see what most foreigners never see. Usually foreigners stay in the city and see tourist attractions. As for me, I rather skip all the tourist attractions and see how real people live and interact. The attractions will always be there to take pictures.

Other than traveling I have been hard at work at the internship.

Kuda Tending to the rice Rice Fields

Tending to the fields

Tending to the fields

Just walkin the oxen

Just walkin the oxen

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It was raining pretty heavily

It was raining pretty heavily

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from the left: Bhargov, Jatin, Dharmavirsingh, Vinish, Manda

from the left: Bhargov, Jatin, Dharmavirsingh, Vinish, Manda

Rice Fields

Just being happy

Just being happy

This is one of the interns named Bhargov

This is one of the interns named Bhargov

Sowing the rice

Workin real hard

Workin real hard

Rice Fields Fields

Week #2

Oh my goodness! I’ve been so busy I totally spaced writing in this blog! I keep a journal though so I’ve been keeping track of everything I’ve been doing! I absolutely love my family here and I don’t even want to think about leaving soon. Let’s see….we’ve had a bunch of activities going on after school. We went to cooking class but that wasn’t at all what we were expecting because it was at the same restaurant where almost everyone got sick from the food. I did get sick. Went to the doctor when I thought I wasn’t feeling well and he said he thought I had appendicitis or maybe some ovarian cysts. I freaked out. I had to go get blood drawn for the first time in my life…in Mexico. But I’m fine! No appendicitis as far as my blood test goes! A couple days later I actually got sick from food poisoning so I just slept all day. I’ve met quite a few people here through my ESOL class and I’ve been hanging out with some of them and helping them with english! I’ll explain in Spanish and talk in Spanish and they’ll reply in English! It’s actually really fun for me to teach them even though it’s difficult! They’ve been telling me that I don’t even need Spanish classes because I speak so well and understand a lot which is good to hear! I don’t exactly agree because there are still a lot that I don’t know. We’ll see how the rest of this trip goes! I’m having fun though!

Week Three!

This week was very fun, but also very tiring! During the weekend (last weekend) the group and I went to Mexico City. Mexico City reminds me a lot of New York, everyone always moving, the city coming to life after dark, people dressed nicely… With saying this, Mexico City I would have to say was (so far) my least favorite place on this program. There was just too much packed into such a short time. My favorite place was the Frida Kahlo Museum, in my past Spanish Classes I was taught a lot about Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, so to be able to actually see their house and their art work, was just amazing. The other place that we went to was Teotihuacan. This place was just amazing, the history that is held deep in the walls of the places and the work that went into creating these enormous structures was just amazing. Climbing the Pyramid was an amazing experience as well! I am just so overwhelmed with how nice the people are here and how willing they are to help you find where you are going or help fix the way that you said something, if it was wrong. Some friends and I got a little lost this last week looking for our school and we ran into this very nice man who was walking in that direction and was willing to show us where to go…later we realized that he miss understood us and took us to the opposite university, but it was still nice of him, and we also got a chance to communicate with another local! My uncle was here these past 5 days just visiting and that was so amazing! Im glad that he was able to be here, because his host was able to recommend places to eat and visit, giving me an advantage of knowing more areas! I also now have more friends in Queretaro, for future visits! Any ways its getting late here so this is all for now! 🙂Screen shot 2013-07-21 at 8.46.55 PM

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Week 3!

Week three is just about over! Classes have been a little stressful lately but I’m pulling through. Being here is difficult but so much fun! I love the city of QuerĂ©taro and am thrilled that I get to spend the day with my host family! We’ve been continuing to go nonstop and today has been so relaxing which I needed.

Mexico city was interesting last weekend. It is a huge city! I’ve never been in such a crowded area so that was an experience in itself. It was so different than QuerĂ©taro and it was fun while I was there but I was thrilled to go back to my host family. In QuerĂ©taro I feel safer and more relaxed than Mexico city but the museums we visited were really neat!

Last night most of the people in our group went to a professional fĂștbol game. I had a blast! It’s not a sport that I typically watch but being in the stadium with the die hard fans made the experience unforgettable! I’m so glad I went and would do it again!

Today I’m hoping to go do some shopping so I have some gifts to bring home to my family and boyfriend! 🙂 Then tomorrow we’re going to a water park! I’m hoping it’ll be supper sunny and warm the whole time we’re there!

Well time for me to do some homework, shop, and visit with my family!!

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Week 4 in Vienna

I have been noticing some things around Vienna that would never happen the same way in the US. For instance they do road work with traffic still flowing by basically figuring out what to do and where to go on it’s own without any flaggers or detours or anything. They have also been doing a lot of work on and near the sidewalks and they will have people working giant machinery while pedestrians walk right beside it and it isn’t blocked off at all. Giant CAT claws will swing right by your head and machines will be lifting things up in the air and they just keep letting people walk through while this is happening and most of the workers don’t wear helmets or protective gear of any sort. This has been pretty shocking to me since in the US we constantly see road work areas barricaded off and people showing you exactly where you can and can’t go, while here it seems like they basically let people figure it out on their own.

This week I have been a lot more focused on violin and classes as the program is nearing its end so I need to prepare for finals and a concert I have to perform in. A couple of days ago my German teacher took us on an excursion to an apartment in Heiligenstadt that Beethoven lived in. While he was living in this apartment he finished his 2nd symphony and some piano sonatas and variations.

View from Beethoven's window

View from Beethoven’s window

Beethoven's apartment

Beethoven’s apartment

After we left Beethoven’s house we went to a cute restaurant and got some wiener schnitzel!

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We ended our day by going to the tree circle of life in the Vienna woods. It is a big circle made up of a bunch of different types of trees. We all walked around and found the trees that corresponded with our birth date and they have a plaque in front of the trees that talk about the characteristics of people who were born then. My tree, the kiefer, is in this picture.

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After we left the tree circle we walked on a long trail through the Vienna woods that led back into the town where we could get on a streetcar to get back home. Also, last week we went inside the Votivkirche (Votive Church) but I forget to include a picture of it then!

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Those were the most significant things that happened since my last post. Unfortunately I have become sick so I missed classes yesterday and today I am actually supposed to be in Salzburg right today and tomorrow but I ended up staying home. My site director didn’t think it made any sense for me to go if I would just be miserable and she said that being surrounded by people and walking long distances in the sun would only make me feel worse and I think she is definitely right. Staying behind was a really hard decision because I so badly wanted to be there, but when I woke up this morning I didn’t even feel like going to the subway station let alone on a train for 3 1/2 hours followed by touring places all day long. When I went to the store today to get some tea and soup I realized I had made the right decision because the store is very close to where I live and when I got back I was absolutely exhausted and my throat was bothering me and I kept coughing really badly so there’s no way I could have had a good time there. It is better that I rest and heal before my finals and my concert!

First Week in London

After a very rough start in the airport with a nine hour delay I finally made it to London. My first impressions were a bit skewed because I was sleep deprived and all I could think about was changing my clothes that felt covered in airport grime. We didn’t actually get to our dorm until four in the afternoon so the first day was really spent unpacking and sleeping. The second day though was fantastic. We took a bus tour of London and two great things happened. First we got caught on the bus right in front of Buckinham Palace during the changing of the guard which was amazing to see, and then when they let us off the bus at Camden market we caught the tail end of a flash mob proposal!

On Sunday we spent the day getting to know the area we are in which is great because it is less touristy and way more residentail so it’s not an area that I would have known otherwise. There are some very beautiful parks and garderns here that we explored and also the main village of Hampstead which is very cute and upscale. Discovered a crepe stand that is delicious! The food here is nothing extremely different. A lot less fast food and more quick cafe type places. I personally love the food here and have a moto of eating my way through London. Many different ethnic food places here. I am not an adventurous eater, but I would love to try some ethnic food while I’m here. The sweets here are to die for, and so far my favorite has been a macaroon that I got from Harrods. image

 

I’ve enjoyed being surronded by the culture and there is a definite difference between here and America. First the transportation system is great! The buses and tube runs so efficiently. But what I have noticed that stricks me as different from home is that there is no chatting going on. No one chats on the bus or the tube. People are usually reading, either a book or the newspaper, or they are listening to music. This seems to be their time to relax between work and going home or even between a quick stop. This way they are not always engaged with their phone and constantly chatting with everyone, but they are getting to enjoy some “alone” time. image

 

St. Pancrus train station, the first train station in London.