Valpo Voyager

Student Stories from Around the World

Year: 2012 (page 11 of 14)

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

Italy Round 2: Florence

April 24, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Before setting out for Easter Break, it appeared that our luck in having a remarkably rainless semester was about to catch up to us: every single day’s forecast predicted rain. During the Italian segment of our journey we had had a light shower in Milan, but by the time we had arrived in Florence the weather was back to mostly dry and sunny.

 

The first day in Florence actually wasn’t spent in the city of Florence, but consisted of a tour of the surrounding Tuscan countryside. The first stop was Siena, the rival citystate of Florence. The stop included the city’s famous striped cathedral, one of the world’s first (and still functioning) banks, and the famous Piazza del Campo (home of the Palio horse race).  After stopping at a farm and winery for lunch (which including sampling two wines unique to Tuscany) the tour took us through the scenic countryside and included a break at the small town of San Gimignano.  Our last stop was Pisa; where we saw one of the wonders of the world. It was here that we experienced the only true rain of the journey (and first European thunderstorm). However, I had no difficulty sitting in a cafe with a cappuccino and admiring the leaning tower of Pisa.

 

Cathedral of Siena Library

The day actually spent in Florence started off with a visit to the Accademia Gallery. We were originally worried about waiting for hours in line, but found out that with a phone call it is relatively simple to reserve tickets and walk right in (it helps if you know someone that speaks Italian, like the friendly owner of our hostel). It does cost about €4 to reserve a ticket, but you will undoubtably spend more than €4 of time waiting in line.  The museum’s centerpiece is undoubtedly Michelangelo’s David, so after viewing that and an exhibit on ancient musical instruments it was on to the next stop.

 

The first thing one notices about Florence is how exquisite all of the cathedrals are. This originates from the fact that Florence was originally a community of bankers (the Florin gold coin comes from Florence). But the bankers wanted more money and began charging exorbitant interest rates. The Church didn’t take kindly to this, and told the bankers they would assuredly be going to hell.  Therefore, in order to buy their way to heaven the bankers poured their money into building the most striking cathedrals possible (and adorning the front with their names so everyone would know who was responsible for the structures).

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

The Basilica de Santa Croce is a moderate walk away from the main cathedral, but is was not very crowded. As with many European cathedrals, it is now more of a museum for tourists than a church. Also, for some reason nearly every famous building over the course of my trip has seemed to have scaffolding on some part of it.  From tiny watchtowers on the west coast of Ireland to the grandiose Italian cathedrals, all have some scaffolding covering various amounts of the building.  However, most places have turned this into a profit by charging an €5 for entrance to see what is behind the scaffolding.  It sort of reminds me of the unfinished Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota – it is probably more profitable to never finish.  Although in Santa Croce I didn’t pay the extra fee to look at the renovation-in-progress altar, the Byzantine art and other devotional pieces in the Museo dell’Opera still made cathedral a good stopping point.

 

View from Piazza Michelangelo

The last stop was across the river to Piazza Michelangelo, where an old wall on top of a hill provides what are unequivocally the best views of Florence. After stopping to watch a few street performers, the trip back to our hostel was one of the best parts of Florence. The way back passed several koi ponds, journeyed through the old city gate, and over the Ponte Vecchio.  Most exciting: we found the best gelateria in the world on the way back!  If you’re ever traveling through the Piazza della Signoria, make sure to stop by Caffe Mokarico Gelateria!

 

 

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Recap of Two Week Break (Pt 1)

April 23, 2012 / / 0 Comments
This post is a collection of short journal entries I took throughout my two week break. I kept the writing informal because I thought it might help you get a feel for everything I did and saw. Hopefully that works!
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Krakow, Poland:
Snowing on Easter. Despite the cold, I really enjoy it. It adds so much to the beautiful city, and gives tourists on free walking tours a reason to stick together. There is so much in this city, we could have easily spent two more days here. During our walk home last night, we accidentally took a different route and saw buildings we would have never seen had we stuck to the guide book. The people in our hostel are extremely nice. A guy from Greece who was staying in the hostel for twenty days for vacation shared his water with Alaina and I when we went to fill up from the sink. Easter is huge for Poland, and nearly everything was closed today, and I’m told the same will be true for tomorrow. So long as there isn’t a strike, I think we’ll be okay.
Budapest, Hungary:
Both here and Poland have really fun exchange rates. I held my first thousand dollar bill here. Food is super cheap, even more so than Poland, which is supposed to be one of the cheapest places in Europe. After arriving, Alaina and I went to a Chinese restaurant and got two large meals and a drink for around $4. The “chef” kept three microwaves behind the buffet, and our food came in and out of one of them. I loved that. Ran into Julia Trowbridge, another Valpo student who is studying in the Reutlingen program, as I crossed a bridge. She and her Valpo friends directed Alaina and me to another restaurant for dinner and it too was cheap. The food I got was delicious, was presented as if it came from a four star restaurant, and only cost me $6. More happened here than just eating food, but this was too awesome to not talk about.
Zagreb, Croatia:
My small world just got smaller. Yesterday afternoon, Julia was in the same train car as Alaina and me. We talked during the eight hour ride to Zagreb, where, after exploring the breathtakingly clean city, we ran into even more Valpo students. The other Reutlingen group also happened to be in Zagreb. Just before we thought the coincidences would end, Julia’s group ended up accidentally reserving seats in the same compartment in our sleeper train that night.Thank god, because this allowed us to spread out the seats to make a huge bed. I tried sleeping on the floor, but eventually moved back onto the seats.

For me, the best part about Zagreb was all the cool logos.

Dubrovnik, Croatia:
Got a room from a woman at the bus station, and she gave us two free glasses of wine when we arrived at her home. The city was beautiful and was also my first taste of a tourist town. Alaina and I sat on the rock shelves and had wine and cheese next to the see. It didn’t rain until we left, and it was relaxing to eat and have the tide come up right next to our feet. The next day we went to a beach club which was abandoned because of the cold weather and rain. The water was incredibly, beautifully blue throughout the country. I didn’t realize how much cooking my own food meant to me until I had the chance to do it again. I’m looking forward to being able to do that again when I get back to Cambridge.

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Sacré Coeur

Weekend in Paris

April 23, 2012 / / 0 Comments

From the top of the Eiffel Tower

As with most major European cities, the airport serving Paris, France is located far outside the city.  So, the first adventure in really any city is navigating the public transportation system in what is hopefully a timely and cheap manner (a single taxi ride from airport to hostel often costs at least €50 and can run upwards of €100).  In Paris the metro system is the best option.  For about €20 a three-day pass will let you ride the metro to anywhere within the city 24 hours a day.  By the end of the weekend I had been on the metro easily 15-20 times.  Buying the pass was well worth the time I would have spent walking around the city.

Eiffel Tower

It is possible to spend hours in every site in Paris.  Therefore, there are some sites that you have to merely stop outside of for pictures.  For example, this is what I did at the Arc de Triomphe,  Invalides, Moulin Rouge, and the Pantheon.  Other sites are almost mandatory for tourists, such as the Eiffel Tower, which I went to nearly every day.  I took the trip to the top the first morning of the weekend.  By climbing the steps to the first level I was able to avoid waiting several hours in line for the elevator.  As you continue to climb, the views become more and more spectacular until at the highest level you can look over all of Paris and see the Seine stretch for miles before it disappears into the horizon.  Looking at it from the ground the Eiffel Tower is more impressive after dark.  The light show on the half hour and the rotating search lights from the top draw a crowd every night.

Notre Dame

The only other site I visited more than once was Notre Dame.  On the way to the Latin Quarter for dinner the first night I walked by the front of it.  The next day I came back and went inside.  Similar to many other major European cathedrals, the inside was really best described as a tourist carnival.  The sides of the church are a sea of tourists attempting to take pictures of all the altars and works of art housed by the cathedral.  In the main part of the church, hundreds of Catholic believers are lined up to kiss whichever relic is on display that day.  Even from the short glimpse I got of Notre Dame I could tell that it is rightfully one of the most well known churches in the world.

Mona Lisa

Although I only spent a few hours in the Louvre, it would easily be possible to spend days and days there without seeing everything.  After a relatively short wait to get in (with free entry because I’m a student in the EU) I headed towards the Mona Lisa.  Along the main hall there is large room to the right.  I had heard that I would be under-impressed by the size of the painting, but I didn’t really think it was that small.  And the crowd’s interest didn’t imply anyone else was unimpressed either.  Every individual in the enormous group swarming in front of the painting was attempting to jostle past the others and take a picture.  Eventually, I was successful too.  Then, on the way out of the museum I walked past halls of ancient Greek sculptures and paintings as big as the wall.

While there were many aspects of Paris I liked (the crepes are fantastic), two of my favorite things were Sacré Couer and the numerous bridges spanning the Seine.  Several of the bridges are works of art in themselves and are heavily adorned with carvings.  Several others are lock bridges, which I spent a long time taking pictures of.  Sacré Couer is rather far out of the city centre but is well worth the trip.  It is on a hill, so the steps leading up to the basilica have a great view of the city.  Also, several really good street performers can be found here, so many people sit on the side of the hill with friends to relax and enjoy the atmosphere.  Crowing the hill is the magnificent cathedral with one of the most beautiful interiors in Europe.  Pleasantly, there were less tourists than I expected inside.  The acoustics are amazing too.  The music from the nuns’ service could be heard perfectly in all corners of the chapel.

Lock Bridge

 

Unfortunately, I only had one weekend to spend in Paris.  But in the space of one weekend it became one of my favorite European cities and one that I will definitely try to return to in the future!

Sacré Coeur

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Marseille, France

Unexpected Twists part one

April 22, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Marseille, France

Life throws many unexpected twists when traveling. As much as we pride ourselves in our planning and reading about all the different places we are going to, random, out of the blue, occurrences have happened over the course of the last few weeks. From missing trains, to having our water shut off, to having to find a hostel at 11 o’clock at night, we have had quite the experience learning what “just go with the flow”, and “thinking on your toes” really mean.

Our first encounter with life’s unexpected twists was our second night in Marseille, France. We had a full day of touring around the city and taking a boat ride to a park off the coast of the city, we were ready to come back to the apartment we were renting to cook dinner and relax. About ten seconds into filling up a pot of water, the water stopped. At first we thought we had broken something, however, after calling the owner and speaking broken French to a guy at a pizzeria next door, we figured out that the water was shut off in the area until 10 am the next morning. So as we ate pizza rather than the pasta we were planning on making, we came to terms that we would not be showering or drinking water anytime soon. We didn’t however, come to terms with the fact that we didn’t have a bathroom.

So our solution was to try and find a public bathroom (which in Europe, this is very rare). While we were on our quest to find a bathroom, we found a 24 hour convenient store and bought water. After about an hour and half running around the city, we desperately went into a hotel, water bottles and all, begging to use their bathroom to a man who couldn’t understand English. When we finally got him to understand that we didn’t need a room for the night but just a bathroom, he very graciously let us use a bathroom. We came back to our apartment to find that while we were frantically running around the city, our water turned back on. Though at the time it was sort of an inconvenience, we still laugh about it and the next day we were fully hydrated from our newly bought water bottles.

Château d'If

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Spring Break at Vicky Falls!

April 16, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Though I have truly loved all of my experiences here so far, I think I finally have an answer to the “favorite part” question… Spring Break! Our Spring Break trip to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe was one of the most amazingly fun experiences I have had in my life.  Seeing God’s creation in such a magnificent form, meeting so many interesting people, and getting the chance to encounter another part of the world made the trip so great and I wish I had time to go back before I left Africa.

When I got back from my rural homestay, we had the next ten days for spring break.  Ironically everyone in the program decided to spring break at Victoria Falls, but some stayed in Livingstone on the Zambia side, while four others and I stayed on the Zimbabwe side.  We endured a twenty hour bus ride from Windhoek, a ridiculously unorganized border post in Zambia, and our friend being attacked by a baboon before we finally made it to Shoestrings backpackers lodge in Vic Falls, Zimbabwe.  The lodge was great; it had a pool, a little outdoor restaurant called the Garden of Eat’n, a huge bar, lots of space to relax outside, and so many awesome people to talk to.

Shoestrings!

During the days we tried to fill our time up with your typical fun tourist activities.  The first day we woke up early to go elephant riding which was amazing!  The elephants were huge, way larger than I had anticipated in my head.  The trail was about an hour long and it was so cool to be riding though nature on an elephant.  We then spent the afternoon at the falls.  Remembering a family vacation to Niagara Falls several years ago, this did not even compare.  It was the most vast display of natural beauty I had ever seen in my life.  Neither words nor pictures, can adequately describe it. The clouds, the blue sky, the trees, the wildlife, the rainbows, and the mist – everything just pointed to God’s incredible power and magnificence.  Seeing the falls also made me realize how truly small I am in this universe, but that God still cared enough about me to send Christ to die and save me from my sins.  I’m not small; I’m not unimportant to him.

Victoria Falls!

The next day we went white water rafting on the Zambezi River.  The rapids were so crazy and for only having 6 of us in the raft (including the guide). I was surprised we never flipped, although we came close multiple times!  Besides having to climb all the way down and all the way up the gorge, the trip was really fun and well worth the asthma attack.  Later in the week we also went fox flying, which is basically like zip-lining except on your stomach.  While it was a little nerve wracking, it really did feel like you were flying over the gorge, and the adrenaline rush was awesome!  After that, we took a sunset cruise down the river and the colors were stunning!  The sky is so clear and unpolluted that the sunset was more breathtaking than any sunset in the United States.  Little did we know that this was a fan favorite among the senior citizens.

About to jump across the gorge!

Thursday, we took a day trip to Botswana to visit Chobe National Park.  In the morning we went on a river tour down the Chobe River and saw so many cool animals.  We saw lots of hippos in the water, a crocodile, so many beautiful birds, some springbok, and impala. Then, in the afternoon we went on a game drive through the park and I saw more elephants than I have ever seen in my life! There were at least 50 in the river. They were playing, bathing, eating and doing whatever else elephants do.   One came right up to our truck and almost sprayed us with mud.  It was so neat to just sit and watch them live their lives, how they interact with each other, how they clean themselves, how they take care of their babies.  And again, the scenery was beautiful – the sky especially.  It went on for miles and miles.  I could have sat and stared for hours.

Elephants on the Chobe River

While all those events were the main things that took place over spring break, our other days were spend relaxing by the pool, walking around town, and meeting so many cool people.  Every night at Shoestrings new people would come in and it was so great to talk to them and hear their stories.  We met people from Norway, India, Germany, Canada, Tanzania, South Africa, Finland, the US, and lots of locals from Zimbabwe.  Hearing new thoughts and perspectives about life and travel was so interesting and definitely one of my highlights from the trip.  Its one thing to go somewhere and see new things, but getting a chance to talk to the people is when I really was able to learn and grow and better understand myself as well as people different than me.

All in all, my spring break was amazing.  I wish it were longer. I wish I had more opportunities to meet new people and go more places. But I’m really thankful for the experiences I did have and the people I did meet.  Seeing God in such amazing ways was also really refreshing for me and just proved even more how incredibly powerful and loving he is.  Hopefully, I will have the chance to make it back one day, but until then, I have great memories to last me a lifetime.

 

An Overdue Overview

April 14, 2012 / / 0 Comments

With only six weeks remaining in the C-89 tour of Cambridge, I am long overdue to post a general overview of my time here.

This mess was specially arranged for the photo.

The three month mark has yet to pass, and the time I spend in my room is usually confined to mornings and evenings. As I look around this possibily neglected area of 26A Huntingdon Road, I am surprised to notice how deeply attached I grew to a place just slightly bigger than a freshman dorm. There is the endtable with the drawer I broke my first day here. There are two wine bottles from France. Here is a desk with an expired BritRail, coupons for double “nectar points” at Sainsbury’s, and folders from the classes I take in a classroom one story above my room. I am going to miss them all.

Downstairs and out the door is a bike. Two months ago, Nola Schmidt and I spent an hour figuring out which key from a cup of about fifty unlocked it. The joy of releasing the bike quickly gave way to fear. A hoarde of enormous buses that play chicken with any cycler who dares to get in their way as they travel through narrow streets designed before the creation of the car is one result of England’s excellent public transportation system. I took my chances and lived to tell the tale. After a few days I had even given a few buses a run for their money.

Somehow, I made it.

We changed the layout of the living room to make it more communal, took late night trips for chips at Trailer of Life, and started a quote wall. While here, I “got nutty,” discovered that “it’s easier if you run,” and learned why “you gotta flick your wrist!” One student from Anglia Ruskin became an interesting topic of conversation before we went our separate ways.

I climbed a mountain in Wales and finally made use of my water bottle. The entire journey took over seven hours, and out of six people we had brought only six bottles of water. About two hours in, most of the water bottles were empty and people were getting thirsty. Thankfully, the mountain had numerous streams flowing down its side. All I had to do was step into a gorge, unscrew the cap of my bottle, and dip it into a stream to provide enough water for our entire group. This happened at least three times. Had we not had my water bottle, I doubt we could have made it all the way up the mountain. We eventually did make it over, and as we traveled down the other side on our way to a new town, one of our group rolled an ankle. She was walking behind everyone else when it happened, so no one saw it happen. I hear her cry out in pain, and when I turned and saw her on the ground, clutching her ankle, my first thought was “Prepare yourself. You’re going to have to carry her the rest of the way down.” After resting a few minutes, she was fine to walk the rest of the way. When we reached the bottom of the mountain, we realized we had taken a wrong turn and that we were another hour’s walk away from our lodging. We found a group of English students who were visiting Wales to get an outdoor survival certification, and one of their chaperones was kind enough to drive us to where we belonged.

Winter break seems so far in the past, despite its being only two-and-a-half months ago. Oddly, it seems much further away than my eventual departure from Cambridge. There is only a month’s difference between the two, but it seems as if it is at least a year. This trip has already helped me grow into an entirely new person. With six weeks left, I have no idea who I’ll be when I leave.

 

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Spain Update and Lisbon

April 8, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Since I’ve really just been blogging about my various travels around Europe the last few weeks, I thought I was due for a report on things that are happening in Spain because, you know, that’s what I’m supposed to be blogging about.

 

Spanish Life

The way of life in Spain has become so normal for me (for the most part) that things I no longer find interesting or new may still be for others. For the most part, my classes are going well although I’ve thought for awhile now that I may have been placed in a level too low but I’m better at speaking Spanish than filling out bubbles on a test so that may have had something to do with my placement. I’ve definitely learned a lot more Spanish since I’ve been here and have also begun to notice a recurring cycle. Things seem to get easy for a time and slowly increase in difficulty until I reach a wall. Sometime I get a bit frustrated with the language but as soon as I get over the wall, it’s back to being “easy.” The last few days have been a “wall” for me since the most difficult thing about Spanish for me right now is not knowing enough vocabulary and learning common phrases. I discovered I still have a long ways to go in regards to this aspect but knowing that I’m improving everyday has been a motivator.

I think I’ve assimilated into the culture fairly well although a few things still annoy me occasionally. Siestas are everyday from 1:30 (or 2:00) to 5:00 p.m. and almost nothing is open with the exception of some malls. Some banks close at 2:00 and don’t reopen until the next day and the rest reopen for 2 hours from 5:00 to 7:00. In addition, many stores are also closed on Sundays. Most stores are mom-and-pop type stores so there isn’t really any store where you can buy everything cheaply. A store called “El Corte Ingles” is about as close as it gets although it’s more similar to a Macy’s and not really that cheap. For me, this is extremely frustrating because my classes end at 1:30 so if I want to go shopping, I have to go home and wait until after 5:00 even though the university is closer to the shopping than my house. All things considered, I’m probably making this out to be worse than it is but in the very least, it’s inconvenient.

Lisboa, Portual

A while back, I went to Lisboa (the Portuguese name for Lisbon) and I had a fantastic weekend! The city is stunning and I would recommend it to anyone over Barcelona! It’s a hilly city located on the Atlantic coast and it’s so picturesque. I’ve never been to San Francisco but Lisboa reminded me of it. At the top of one of the major “hills” there’s a castle where you can overlook the whole city and the harbor. Many of the buildings are white with reddish-brown tiled roofs and they contrast beautifully with the blue harbor in the background. I took quite a few pictures (especially from the castle) that I think are definitely worth taking a look at so I would highly recommend that.

We also stayed at the best hostel I’ve ever visited (called the “Yes! Hostel”) and even got to go out for tapas with the owner who is a great guy! It wasn’t too expensive, was in a great location, and was rated the #1 hostel in Lisbon two years in a row so if anyone runs across this blog looking for Lisbon travel information, I highly recommend it!

I really enjoyed my time in Lisbon and am also enjoying my time here in Spain. I’ve progressed and experienced so much in the last few months I feel like I’m ready for almost anything!

If you would like to read more of my daily updates, you can follow me or just check my past posts on Twitter. If you’re interested in seeing some of my pictures from my master collection, you can check out my Picasa page. Thanks for reading and keep checking back!

 

Returning to the Cars

Spring Break Part IV: Crete

April 3, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Rethymo

Our ferry from Athens docked in Heraklion, Crete at 6:00, making it our second early morning in a row.  The weather matched our feelings; rain and a hostilely cold wind greeted us as we trudged from the shipyard to the bus station.  After an hour and a half’s ride to Rethymno, the city that would be our home for the next few days, nearly the entire group elected to take a long nap.  When we awoke several hours later, we found that we had slept through the inclement weather and awoke to the sun just coming out from behind the clouds.  In the increasingly warm temperatures we explored the city, adjoining beach, and made plans for the next two days with our extremely helpful hostel owner, Ivan.

Walk to Balos Beach

 

We were advised to rent cars because doing so would be cheaper than taking buses and would give us far greater mobility (you only have to be 18 and have a US drivers license to rent in Crete).  We got off to a bit of a late start the first morning, so instead of following our original plan and driving all the way to the opposite coast we decided to attempt to find Balos Beach at the northwestern tip of the island.  However, as we drove closer the condition of the road grew increasingly worse (maybe the road costs too much to maintain during the offseason?).  We ended up parking our cars along the side of the road and walked 5 kilometers to the beach.  At the beach we found our compensation for coming weeks earlier than other tourists:  we were the only ones on the beach!  The beautiful turquoise water (warm enough to swim in) was framed by sand and enclosed by the surrounding foothills.  But seeing as how we still had a long walk back to our cars, as soon as the sun began to set into the Mediterranean horizon we started retracing our steps towards our vehicles.  This time, instead of the view looking out to the sea, the walk back was towards a small coastal village nestled below the snowcapped mountains.

Returning to the Cars

During the second day in Crete we had intentions of visiting a pair of caves, but once again we ran into the problem of traveling during the offseason.  Both were closed.  However, our switchback route among the mountains left us within a relatively short drive of Preveli Beach.  Although the day was a little cold for swimming, Preveli Beach is adjacent to a palm forest.  After spending an hour or two alongside of the river running through this forest, we returned home at a slower rate to admire the view from the tops of gorges in the mountains.

Returning from Preveli Beach

The last day of our spring break was perfect.  Instead of stretching out the vacation by trying to do too much, we essentially took the day off.  After sleeping in, we stopped at a crepe stand (we had gotten to know the employees rather well by our third day) and for ice cream.  After this brunch, we visited the Fortezza in Rethymno for an hour or so and spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach and enjoying the sun – forming the perfect ending to Spring Break!

Walk to Preveli Beach

 

 

 

 

Missed an earlier destination?  Take a look at my visits to Venice, Rome, and Athens!

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Actions Speak Louder than Words

April 2, 2012 / / 0 Comments

After a little over three weeks of traveling to various parts of Southern Africa, learning and seeing and experiencing many things, I am finally back to Windhoek about to start my last month in Africa.  While time has gone by so fast and I don’t doubt that April will bring many great things as well, the past three weeks have definitely been my favorite part of my experience here.  From the rural homestay in northern Namibia, to game drives in Etosha National Park, to Spring Break in Victoria Falls, It has all been a wonderfully enlightening few weeks and I’m blessed to be able to have had opportunities so great.

Because I’ve been so busy the past month, I’ll split up some of my experiences into different posts, but I’ll start with our rural homestay and trip to the North.

Tuesday, March 6 we left for Outapi, which is a town in the very northern part of Namibia, almost to the Angolan border.  When we arrived that evening we met our host families right away.  My host mother’s name was Albertina and she was basically the mother of the community.  I called her Meme (mother). She was 76 years old, had about 10 teeth and was one of the most joyful, loving people I have ever met. She spoke no English, only Oshiwambo, which made communicating quite difficult, but luckily some of her grandkids spoke some broken English which really helped a lot.

When we got back to the house, I met everyone I would be living with during the week.  Somehow they were all related, but I could never keep track of who actually lived at the house and who was in Albertina’s immediate family.  Everyone was wonderful though.  I lived with Sacky, who was about 30, Ndategako and Paulus who were both in high school, Albertina and Johnny who were both in primary school and two little ones, Saara and Ephraim.  They gave me Sacky’s room to sleep in which was really the only room with four walls; everyone else slept in huts, which were beautifully crafted of sticks and straw. At first I thought my room was lovely, until I woke up to a snake crawling on my pillow and I then wished I was sharing a hut with someone.

The kiddies and I!

Despite the snake incident, I loved spending time with my family.  While during the day I traveled around with the program, I would arrive back with my family around 3 every day.  When I got home, I would either work in the fields with the kids, (They were impressed with my skills, said my mother had good hands and raised me right. Props ma!) or we would play soccer.  I brought them a soccer ball and they absolutely loved it.  They could play for hours and it was so neat to see them get so excited over one thing.  I let Ndategako braid my whole head one day.  It looked….nice.  I also taught the kids how to play the card game UNO.  They loved it and we would play for hours until the point that our candle burned down to about an inch. They never let me help cook dinner or anything because I was their guest, but I wished they would have because I wanted to act as part of the family.

Johnny playing soccer!

One of the last days we had a cookout with all of the other students and families.  It was so fun to get together and see everyone and eat lot of delicious food.  Each family gave us a traditional Oshiwambo skirt or dress to wear and we all looked so great.  During the party there was dancing and singing and it was such a nice time.  Our host families wanted us all to sing a song, so naturally we chose the National Anthem.  Not the best idea on our part, but nevertheless they loved our discordant voices.

The group!

Staying with my host family really made me think about a lot of things.  It made me think about the idea of poverty, and that although they had no electricity or running water they were perfectly content with their lives and didn’t really see the need for those things.  So in my American mind, I considered them to be living in poverty, but in their community, they were perfectly blessed and happy with their life.  Its really all a matter of perspective and I learned it is so important to keep an open mind when going into situations like this.

It also made me really think about the importance of non-verbal communication and how impactful it can be. Because my Meme didn’t know any English and the kids only knew a little, at first it was difficult to communicate, but by the end of the week I had learned some of their language and we had found a way to communicate. Also, even though I could never really understand my Meme’s words, I could always understand her actions.  She was always so kind and generous, loving and joyful to me that I was so grateful to be living with her.  She would always give me the biggest smiles and hugs and I could tell she loved that I was there and that I was trying my best to engage with her and her family.  She really touched my heart when she gave me a special necklace at the end of the week and really showed me the meaning of the phrase, “Actions speak louder than words,” through her enthusiastic love.  I will never forget my Meme and this experience with my host family.

MEME!

Check out more pics!!!

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The Taste of Belgium

March 29, 2012 / / 0 Comments

During our pre-departure meetings we were warned that there would be a time during the semester where we will be sick, it was inevitable. So naturally after having been told this, I disagreed with this warning and had complete confidence in my strong immune system. Well a few weeks ago, I was kicked off my high horse and got sick. Instead of doing the responsible thing and lying low for a few days, I decided to spend the weekend in Bruges, Belgium. And I am definitely glad my desire to travel outweighed my desire to stay in bed the entire weekend.

One of Bruges' many canals

We only had a regular two day weekend, so we figured why not go to Belgium? So I packed up the whopping two Tylenol Cold Medicine pills I had brought with me and left after classes. After probably spreading the love of  cold season to the entire train car, we arrived in Bruges. Though it was eleven o’clock at night, the moment we walked into town, I knew I would love the city. The next morning after taking some extra tea bags for the road, we wandered around Bruges. If I thought Bruges was pretty at night, it was even more adorable during the day. We first went to the local market where there were stands ranging from fresh fish to hand crafted jewelry. After spending some time and money there we decided to experience a real Belgian Waffle. And let me tell you, there is a reason why they are called Belgian waffles. Even in my drowsy state where nothing tasted good, that had to be the best waffle I have ever had. What better to do after eating a little taste of heaven than to go on a brewery tour with a very charismatic tour guide and buy a basket of French fries (ironically enough they were invented in Belgium). We continued eating our way through Bruges by going to an old fashion chocolate shop to taste Belgium chocolate. Belgium was definitely three for three that day.

Once we were full of Belgian classics, we started to make our way back to Germany, starting with a train ride at eleven o’clock at night and spending the night in the Welkenraedt Train Station platform. The city of Welkenraedt just didn’t have the same appeal as Bruges did at three in the morning. Finally morning came and we were able to make it back to Reutlingen. Once the sense of the night’s adventures faded, my cold systems began to make themselves known again. And the six hour nap that followed was much needed. However, I do not regret traveling while being sick because I was able to experience so much and tour around one of my favorite cities. What I do regret is my lack thereof cold medicine.

Brewery Tour

Check out more of my study abroad photos at https://plus.google.com/photos/113496106333285759017/albums?banner=pwa

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