Valpo Voyager

Student Stories from Around the World

Month: October 2014 (page 2 of 2)

Back to London

During a week when just about everyone is traveling the Continent, yesterday, the few of us left in Cambridge decided to venture to London for the day. We got up early and made our way down to the train station, and in less than an hour, we were pulling into King’s Cross. It still amazes me how easy it is to get places around here. There’s always a bus, train, or taxi going the places you want to go.

My favorite part of the day came first, when we stopped in at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Admission was free, which is always an added bonus for a college student. This museum, first of all, is absolutely huge. It has lots of big columns and marble floors and high ceilings with interesting looking chandeliers. I saw a bunch of marble statues, some from ancient times, a lot that tried to mimic Renaissance style statues. I also really enjoyed a section of paintings, where there were a lot of landscapes that reminded me of the plains and the mountains in Colorado.

The jewelry section was by far the most fascinating section. There were so many pretty pieces of jewelry in that room. As I am fascinated with royalty, it was especially cool to be able to see several different tiaras and crowns. It makes me wonder what it would have been like to wear a crown. I know that there’s a responsibility that comes with wearing a crown, but I also think that it would be really fun to get dressed up and wear a crown for an event every once in awhile. I wish we had spent more time at the museum, because there were so many more things besides what I saw.

After the museum, we went to Hyde Park. Earlier in the morning, it was rainy and cloudy in true London fashion. When we got to Hyde Park, the sun suddenly burst through the clouds, and we got to see a little blue sky and sunshine before it began to rain again. I love nature, and I think it is wonderful that there is a big park like that inside such a large city like London. It gave me a little taste of the country inside the city, and I loved that. I loved the big trees and the little hills, and that we could walk by the water for a little while. I didn’t even mind the geese :).

In the afternoon, we went shopping at Harrod’s and on Oxford Street. For me, window browsing was enough of an experience without busting my bank account. I wonder how much Harrod’s and everything in it is worth, because literally every big name is housed there. Gucci, Prada, Coach, Dior, Louis Vuitton. You name it; they were there. It is interesting to see just what people will spend hundreds of dollars on because it’s designer.

Traveling while abroad is important, because you get the chance to see different historical things and visit places you’ve always heard about, but never seen. But it is also important to explore and get to know the place you are living. I would encourage anyone who comes to Cambridge to take the time to get to know the city of Cambridge, and take whatever opportunities you have to go into London for the day. It is so nice to have that kind of big city so close and accessible, and you should absolutely take advantage of it if you can.

IMG_2427 Helen of Troy

 

 

One of those interesting chandeliers in the Victoria and Albert Museum

One of those interesting chandeliers in the Victoria and Albert Museum

Hyde Park

Hyde Park

The extravagant Christmas section in Harrod's

The extravagant Christmas section in Harrod’s

Cambridge Culture

Before our lovely excursion to Wales last weekend, the group had a whirlwind of a week. We were booked with a number of fascinating things to do that gave us a better perspective of what life used to like in Cambridge, and what English culture is like today.

The first thing that we did was visit the Imperial War Museum at Duxford Air Field. This air field is where pilots went to train during World War II. On display are many old airplanes from different wars, and even pieces from a Nazi plane that was taken down. There were also a lot of interactive activities where you could see how they make a hot air balloon fly, or understand what a plane looks like when it is flying into the wind.

My favorite part of the Imperial War Museum did not have to do so much with the planes, but the people involved with them. One section of the museum was dedicated to pictures and profiles of British veterans who served during World War II. Many of them were paratroopers who parachuted down into France during the D-Day invasion of Normandy. I always get emotional with anything that has to do with the military, but these struck me as even more special than before. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the beaches of Normandy. Many of these veterans were standing in places that I had visited. I felt the enormous weight of history on me, and I am very grateful to them for risking their lives so that I can travel here and look at their pictures and see their stories.

Our week continued when we went to Newmarket for the Rowley Mile Horse Races. A lot of us had never been to any kind of horse racing back in the US, and we weren’t quite sure if we would like it. By the end of the day, however, I think we all would have agreed that it was a lot of fun. Horse racing in the UK is different from the US in several ways. The biggest way is that they horses race along a flat, straight-lined track, not in a circle. In the US, you watch the Kentucky Derby, and it’s an all day event with only one race that’s a few minutes long. Our day was also quite long, but we got to see seven different races. We had fun picking horses and betting on which ones we thought would win.

It was a fun week full of lots of culture and events. This week marks our first week long break, and just about everyone is traveling to parts of Germany and France, with some going to Austria and the Czech Republic. Classes at Anglia Ruskin have also started, so for those of us not taking a class at the Study Center, it is nice to finally get going and have some other work to do. I’m looking forward to sitting around and reading books for fun :).

Until next time!

Aeroplane at the Imperial War Museum

Aeroplane at the Imperial War Museum

Piece of a Nazi aeroplane from World War II

Piece of a Nazi aeroplane from World War II

One of the horses being paraded at Rowley Mile

One of the horses being paraded at Rowley Mile

Group at the races Photo credit: Breezy Scheffer

Group at the races
Photo credit: Breezy Scheffer

汉语难

Happy China National Day! 65 years ago today the People’s Republic of China was founded. Think of it like 4th of July in the United States.

As a student, China National Day means I get a week off of classes. Although I just started last Tuesday, I’m not complaining.

For someone who is far from gifted when it comes to language, I’d say the Mandarin classes have started off pretty well. My class has just under twenty students, a few of the students are teachers themselves (retired, or in other subjects) and many students are in grad school or have just graduated, I’m one of the youngest. Although we haven’t had a lot of time for conversation it is really neat to be in a class with students from large swaths of the globe—though South America and Africa are notably absent (and seemingly underrepresented in the International College as a whole). The students in my class hail from Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, and England.

The Russian and Ukrainian are pals and I haven’t got anything worse than friendly greetings from the Pakistani or Yemeni, even though the American government conducts unlawful drone strikes in their countries. It may simply be the type of people study abroad attracts, but I get the impression that we all are far more open to conversation and friendship than reflecting the fractious policies or conflicts of our respective governments.

Our class has developed a sort of bashful good humor as our three Chinese teachers frequently call on us to speak or write on the board, which we often do with great trepidation. At first I found the pace and newness of the language to be staggering but by yesterday I felt as though it had balanced out. That said, we are learning 10-15 new words daily and spend fifteen hours a week in the classroom, so it isn’t far-fetched to believe we may actually learn “a year of Chinese” in eight weeks.

The Chinese teachers also bring their own unique style to class as well. Alex, the speaking teacher, is the most casual of the three and enjoys watching movies or making fun of the Beijing accent’s excessive use of the ‘r’ sound on word endings. He also gets points in my book for the Anonymous wallpaper and Google.com bookmark on his laptop. (Although Google’s services are blocked here, the company’s name is still treated as a verb, and I haven’t heard anyone say “Baidu” or “Bing” it.) Since listening is my worst subject I’m extra luckily that the listening teacher is the nicest of the bunch. The grammar teacher, Ma Laoshi, is strict, but she is still very nice.

Although China National Holiday is one of the most popular times for locals to travel, we still decided to venture out today. (That said, we’ve all rescheduled our travel plans for the week and are staying in Hangzhou because of the steep prices and crowds.) We visited Hefang Street, just south of downtown, which is jammed with eateries and little shops selling jewelry, clothing, and other touristy nicknacks. I wasn’t in a shopping mood, I’d seen many similar items in Beijing or Xi’an. So I tried to make the best out of people watching, and ending up starring in the occasional Chinese tourist photo. Many Chinese who come to Hangzhou during this week aren’t accustom to seeing foreigners so we are get a little celebrity treatment.

At dusk I went for a run in Forest Park just behind campus. It has become my favorite almost daily getaway and takes less than thirty minutes to get to the top and back. Though haze always obscures the horizon, it is a treat to look out on a city of millions from such a forested haven. The hills stretched to the southern horizon, cradling West Lake on their eastern flank, the Xixi wetlands faded into obscurity to the southwest, an office complex covered in photovoltaics stood next to large construction project at the base of the hill while a small fireworks show burst above the apartments.

With the start of classes, the prolonged excitement and newness of China has definitely been dampened for me. Lazy afternoons of wandering around Hangzhou are now replaced by copying Chinese characters and practicing pronunciation. Also gone is the newness of the most obvious cultural differences which initially provided much to ponder and entertain. I am still trying to go to as many ‘English clubs’ as I can. They provide me the best way to interact and get to know the local Chinese—or in the case of last Sunday’s club, a German woman who’d just road tripped from L.A. to Seattle. (We got to talk about Oregon!)

And lastly, as much as I like to follow current events, I’ve spent a growing number of hours in the recent days glued to the BBC’s live coverage of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Even though I’m hundreds of miles from Hong Kong and except between the international students not even whispers of #OccupyHK have reached me here. (The increased police presence I noticed today is most likely for the holiday and its the proliferation of tourists.) While the BBC has published reports noting Beijing’s heavy hand on the Uighur minority and violence in Xinjiang, the scale and coverage of Hong Kong’s protests has the potential to be a defining moment for years to come. I’ve found it disheartening that among my Valpo peers there is so much seeming apathy—especially when we hail from a country that is supposed to be emblematic of freedom and democracy. (Though it shouldn’t be a surprise, I’ve known about the general public’s political apathy since starting debate in high school.) While China sensors Weibo terms, blocks Instagram and publishes almost comically skewed views of the Occupy protests I’ve been thrilled by the amazing teamwork and civility of the Hong Kongers. While the BBC and western media may clearly highlight the best of the protestors, I haven’t read anything to suggest that they’ve done anything worse than protest—the economic and stability harm argument is weak. For perspective, Hangzhou, one of the nicest cities in China, often can’t keep its streets clean (even with a near army of public servants) and meanwhile the protesters collect their own recycling and trash! Being in China makes following the protests all the more exciting, especially given the entrenched stances of both sides. Two years after the violent protests of the Arab Spring it is hard not to whole-heartedly root for a group with such a strong claim to the moral high ground after Sunday’s teargassing. #UmbrellaRevolution

written on October 1st, 2014

Sunday night's English club

Sunday night’s English club

The main quad of Yuquan Campus

The main quad of Yuquan Campus

The crowd on Hefang Street

The crowd on Hefang Street

Another Wanderung

So it has become something of a habit that I go hiking at least once a week with my friends. And  I thought it was about time that I summarize some of the fabulous hikes we have taken together.

Hiking, it should be noted is a very German pastime. The subcategories of hiking are “Spaziergang” which involves a jaunty walk lasting less than 2 hours and “Wanderung” which must last at least 2 hours to qualify for this category regardless of level of difficulty.

A sequoia tree (originally from California) found in the forest in Schönbuch park

A sequoia tree (originally from California) found in the forest in Schönbuch park

Bebenhausen: It was only a short bus ride from Tübingen out to this idllyic small town, but we ended up taking a 13 km hike around the Schönbuch forest preserve. One of the highlights of this hike was the small forest libraries located towards the start of the trail. It was charming and I was able to lend out a small thriller (called Krimi), which is one of the more popular genres in German popular literature. It was interesting because there was actually a gate at the entrance to the park, but it was free for everyone to open, so it was really an enclosed park. We did not originally intend to go 13km but as it turns out, we took a real Wanderung after all. We ended up going through some gorgeous wine mountains and landing in a small town nearby. All in all it was a great day under the open skies and my first experience being in a national park in Germany. It also convinced my friends and me that we should keep hiking.

A slightly too-dark picture of the Blautopf

A slightly too-dark picture of the Blautopf, I promise it is very blue.

Blaubeuren: This hike actually took place during our class retreat. We went on a tour of the monastery located in the town of Blaubeuren and then proceeded to the Blautopf, or blue lake in town. Blaubeuren actually has a special connection with the University of Tübingen because it is where the bishop who asked the pope for permission to open the Uni Tübingen lived. Then we went past the blue lake to some ruins located on the top of the mountain. Although it did not technically take 2 hours to get to the top, this was a much more difficult hike than in Bebenhausen. Afterwards we hiked to a giant cross and memorial on the top of a hill in Blaubeuren. This was actually nice even though the first hike had been kind of tiring. It was good to have an afternoon off of classes to just enjoy nature and be outside.

The view of Schloss Lichtenstein

The view of Schloss Lichtenstein- named after the light colored stone on which it sits

Lichtenstein: This was perhaps the only one of the hikes that actually had a goal at the end. We hiked not to Lichtenstein the country (which is in fact properly spelled Liechtenstein in German),but to Castle Lichtenstein located about 40 km from Tübingen. We took a bus most of the way and only ended up hiking a few kilometers. This was most definitely a Spaziergang. It was very easy and partially paved and of course ended in a castle and a biergarten. The castle itself was modeled after a book at the wish of Count of Urach, so it was literally something out of a fairytale. It was located on the edge of this beautiful cliff and had a gorgeous view. This hike was one of the best planned so far and we even remembered to bring a cake along to eat at the end of the trip up to the castle. This castle also has a connection to the University because its owners were relatives of Count Eberhard Karl (for whom the University is actually named).

Bodensee (Lake Constance):

The English translation of the name of this lake will always remain a mystery to me, but it was really gorgeous no matter what it was called. This trip was yet again in conjunction with my German course. We took a bus from Tübingen down to the lake to first look at the Marienkirche located on the shore of the lake. We went to Schloss Meersburg where Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, a very important German poet lived and learned about her life a bit. My favorite part however, was neither the castle, nor the church (although both were cool), but the stone-age museum that we saw on the lake. The stone-age museum was actually a collection of reconstructed stilt houses in the lake. The houses were built because the provided optimal protection from animals and allowed for easy access to trade routes.

100_1461    100_1462

This was interesting to me because it was something that I had never expected to see something like this in Germany. With the abundance of castles and churches, it is easy to forget that there were periods in German history before any of that was built.  So, this wasn’t really a hike per se, but we still had quite a good Spaziergang between the different points of our trip and enjoyed a nice day on the lake.

The “German-ness” of hiking reminds me of an important cultural difference between the U.S. and Germany. Germany, at least the Green-Party-dominated region of Baden-Württemberg, is a country that is very aware of its relation to nature. Aside from the fact the Green party, which bases the majority of its politics on an environmental viewpoint, is a major player in parliament, Germans themselves seem to take into account the environment in small ways in everyday life.  Recycling is precisely sorted out people are more willing to take public transportation systems and always bring their own reusable bags to the supermarket. The bike lane is something to fear whilst crossing the street due to the number of bikes zooming past at any given moment. And its not to say that these lifestyle choices are not without their marginal benefits: gasoline is much more expensive here in Europe so it makes sense to drive less, the urban sprawl allows for more public transportation in more places and German grocery stores charge for plastic bags making it cheaper to bring your own bag. However, I find it overwhelmingly positive that such initiatives exist at all and that care for the planet is in the forefront of everyone’s minds. And with all the gorgeous opportunities to hike, how could you not want to do everything to protect the planet?

Bis Bald!

History’s Place in Modern Japan

Recently I’ve traveled to Tokyo and Nara.  One is the new capital, famous for its sprawling metropolitan landscape and population density while the other is the historical capital, perhaps now best known for cultural assets and (mostly) friendly deer.

In Tokyo I constantly noticed traditional culture jammed in between the concrete and railways, which I thought was fascinating.  The most interesting to me was Meiji Jingu, or Meiji Shrine, located just a few hundred steps from Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line that circles around central Tokyo.  As I stepped out of the station, it was obvious that I was in Tokyo.  There were tall buildings, little restaurants jammed together in a line, and dozens of people waiting for the pedestrian green light (since people hardly ever cross streets when the pedestrian light is red in Japan).  But after going down the street a little ways and turning right, I was already on shrine grounds.

Dad came to visit me in Japan!  This is the torii, or gate specific to Shinto shrines, beyond which everything is considered ritually pure.

Dad came to visit me in Japan! This is the torii, or gate specific to Shinto shrines, beyond which everything is considered ritually pure.

Most of the shrine complex is a dense, towering forest that is somewhat reminiscent of the forest in the Ghibli movie, Princess Mononoke.  Visitors are not allowed to freely wander beneath the trees, making it even more mysterious.  Moreover, the trees dampen the sound of the city to the point where you can sometimes forget that you’re right in the middle of the most densely populated city in the world.  There’s also a lovely inner garden where Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken, used to go.  It was really incredible to be where they were, since they were so incredibly important to Japanese history.

Entrance to the actual shrine where Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken are deified

Entrance to the actual shrine where Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken are deified

Dad and I also went to Rikugien, or “Six Principles of Poetry Garden,” and Edo Period garden originally built by a samurai and official of the Tokugawa Shogunate under the fifth shogun.  It features scenes recreated from eighty-eight famous poems, besides being a gorgeous garden.  Rikugien is also in the middle of Tokyo, only two stops away from the Yamanote Line, and though you can sometimes see skyscrapers over the tops of the trees, it is still quiet and peaceful.

A recreation of Horaijima, which my Japanese friends recognized immediately when I showed them this photo

A recreation of Horaijima, which my Japanese friends recognized immediately when I showed them this photo

There is also a tea house where you can sit outside and enjoy traditional Japanese tea and sweets.

There is also a tea house where you can sit outside and enjoy traditional Japanese tea and sweets.

These delicate and detailed okashi were filled with sweet red bean paste.

These delicate and detailed okashi were filled with sweet red bean paste.

On the other hand, Tokyo also has much to offer for people interested in its urban side.  There are more restaurants and stores than I cared to count near Shinjuku and Shibuya Stations.

Shibuya's famous Scramble Crossing and 109 department store.

Shibuya’s famous Scramble Crossing and 109 department store.

Famous shopping district in Akihabara where most places sell pop culture items

Famous shopping district in Akihabara where most places sell pop culture items

We also went to the top of Tokyo Tower, where all we could see was city from the base of the tower to the horizon.  If I hadn’t been to the little forest of Meiji Jingu and quiet Rikugien myself, I probably would have found it hard to believe that they coexisted with the cityscape in front of me.

 

Sunset from the lower observation deck at Tokyo Tower

Sunset from the lower observation deck at Tokyo Tower

The week after I went to Nara with some friends.  Nara was the ancient capital of Japan over a millennia ago and is now famous for its temples and deer that, as a result of their revered status as servants of the gods, have become comfortable around people.

Five storey pagoda at Kofukuji, the second tallest pagoda in Japan and originally placed in Nara in 710

Five storey pagoda at Kofukuji, the second tallest pagoda in Japan and originally placed in Nara in 710

The 15 meter tall statue of the Buddha Vairocana, the largest in the world, located at Todaiji in Nara

The 15 meter tall statue of the Buddha Vairocana, the largest in the world, located at Todaiji in Nara

The deer are always looking for special deer biscuits, called shika senbei, and will approach people.

The deer are always looking for special deer biscuits, called shika senbei, and will approach people.

I think it's so cool that the deer don't run away.  Some even bow.

I think it’s so cool that the deer don’t run away. Some even bow.

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