Valpo Voyager

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Wandering in the Woods of Wales

This past week was full of a whirlwind of activities, the most recent being our group’s weekend trip to Wales. Normally, groups travel to the Lake District in England for their hiking trip, but our director Matt decided to take us to Wales instead. And we were all very glad he did.

Our first stop was Caernarfon Castle in Wales. I have a fascination with royalty and princesses, so for me, seeing a castle was the perfect way to spend a couple of hours. Being able to see the passages and staircases and rooms in a castle gives me a better sense of what life would have been like for royalty back in the day. I can definitely see where a castle would have been drafty–there were a couple of times when the wind whipped right through the windows.

We also had the opportunity to go horseback riding on the beach. It was a gorgeous evening, and the sky was so blue, and it made it the perfect afternoon. My horse’s name was Tommy, and he was black with a little nub of a tail. He had a mind of his own, so by the end of the walk, we had moved up from sixth in line to second in line. This was only my second time on a horse, but I felt so secure and relaxed with Tommy that I was able to enjoy all the scenery around me without worrying about breaking away from the group or falling off.

The next day, we went on a “hike” (more like a nature walk) down a road from our hostel. The day was cloudy, and it rained a little, but it made for a very peaceful walk. The clouds were low in the sky, and covered the tops of the mountains in a sort of eerie fog that I thought was absolutely beautiful. We strolled through the rolling hills, next to the water and the estuaries, and then out to the sea. There were blackberries and gooseberries along the side of the road that we picked and ate along the way.

On Sunday, we drove to Liverpool and visited the childhood homes of John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney. Our group stood in the front entryway of John Lennon’s house where the Beatles practiced, and sang a Beatles song. We can now all say that we sang where the Beatles sang :). Because Liverpool was the main dock where slaves were transported into the UK, we also visited the Maritime and Slavery Museum in Liverpool.

It was a wonderful weekend, and the perfect way to see a new country. If anyone else has the chance to go to Wales while they are in England, take that chance. As several people in our group said, now that we’ve been to Wales, we couldn’t imagine coming here and not visiting Wales. It is such a beautiful and unique place, and absolutely worth the time to go and see.

Caernarfon Castle

Tommy and me on the beach 🙂

View from our horse ride to the beach

A Day Well Spent

September 28, 2014 / margaretprunty / 1 Comment

The air has finally cooled down. I roll over to look at the clock. It’s 5:09am and I know that in 51 minutes I’ll be meeting outside our tent to run around the campsite before the sun comes up. My mind wanders off into amazement and disbelief that I’m camping in Namibia where lions, zebras, giraffes, and elephants roam right outside our gate.

It’s 6:00 now and we are off running, first around the campsite and then to the waterhole with hopes of seeing animals gather for a drink. When we arrive, I can tell that some people have been perched there for hours; bundled in scarves and hats, accompanied by large lensed cameras that sit on tripods. After waiting for a while, there’s no luck. We head back to the campsite for breakfast and a game drive.

Driving through the park, we see mostly zebras and springbok at first. Moving onwards, there are elephants and giraffes. A pile up of cars is ahead and one of the other drivers told us that there is a leopard under one of the trees. Our van is frantic over the binoculars until we see his polk-a-dotted coat under the tree. Amazed, we stare a little longer.

Now, we make our way to another waterhole where a hyena drinks. Zebras approach in a single file line, keeping there distance from the hyena as they stay on the other side. The hyena ignores them for a few minutes, but decides it is time for them to go, running towards them. They who is in charge, so they take off. The hyena takes a few more drinks and then sprawls out on the ground. It is out of our sight now.

Looping back around, a herd of elephants approach the leopard from behind the tree he lays under. There are baby elephants in the herd and some of us start to worry that the leopard might attack, but our driver assures us he won’t. Instead, the elephants will be the ones to kick the leopard of his spot. The four baby elephants stay back as two of the elders chaperone them. Two more approach the the leopard and, sure enough, he moves for them. We drive parallel to the leopard as he tries to find another spot. He lays down again under shade, staying far enough from the elephants not to be bothered again.

Back at camp we have lunch and swim. Later, we go on another drive to see elephants, both young and old, and other areas of the park. After, we watch the sun dye itself a pinkish orange at the waterhole and rhinos approach for a drink.

First Trip: Part 1 Berlin

September 25, 2014 / Katie Rinda / 0 Comments

So, having been in Germany for a grand total of three weeks, we decided it would be a grand idea to take a ten day trip to Berlin, Hamburg, and Cologne. Seriously.

Kaiser Wilhem Memorial Church, left unrestored in remembrance of the horrific damage WII caused not just here, but everywhere.

Technically, the Berlin trip was a part of our Modern Germany class. Nothing is more exciting as a college student than a field trip. (Excepting free food and naps.) Learning about the Friedricks and Wilhems of Prussia is great, but their importance doesn’t really sink in until you see building after gorgeous building funded by the Prussian monarchy. There are many of these buildings in Berlin. We also visited Sachsen-hausen Concentration Camp and the German History museum to continue learning about Germany outside of the classroom.

No, I do not know why Super Luther is a thing. Seen outside the Berlin Cathedral

We were in Berlin from a Friday to a Wednesday, so there was plenty of time outside of class to go exploring. Berlin is a fantastic city to walk around in and admire the architecture. I loved exploring the neighborhood of Savignyplatz, where our hotel was located. There were fun restaurants and shops everywhere, gorgeous turn-of the-century buildings, and (most importantly) two fantastic bookstores underneath the S-bahn: one for fiction, biography, and philosophy; and one for all kinds of art-based non-fiction (film, music, architecture, art, etc.). I bought a book one rainy afternoon, and read and enjoyed fantastic hot chocolate at a cafe three doors down from the hotel, which was delightful.

Platter for four at the Zillemarkt in Berlin, just a few blocks from our hotel. Yes, this was a ridiculous amount of food.

Since this was a longer trip, we visited so many places that I started losing track. We went on a bus tour that highlighted key sights in East and West Berlin, including the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and a few sections of the Berlin Wall (Cue Pink Floyd). We toured the Berlin Cathedral, took pictures in front of Humboldt University (where Einstein and Max Plank taught!), visited the Brandenburg Gate, marveled at the beautiful Schloss Charlotenburg and its extensive grounds, admired Art Nuveau at the Bröhan Museum, and ate authentic Berlin Currywurst.

Train rides across Germany are long if you do not amuse yourself.

(As a side note, while they might not always be there on the exact minute, German trains, buses, and subways are pretty much the best. Easy to understand maps, signs showing the train, its final stop and stations between are everywhere, and they-re pretty much always clean. Plus, even in second class, the inter-city Deutsche Bahn trains are very sleek. They have automatic glass doors between compartments. It’s like a science fiction movie. Maybe James Bond?)

Courtyard and Alley to Orangienburger Strasse

There’s my update on our Berlin adventures. I will explore some of our tourism in more detail, along with Hamburg and Cologne, when we arrive back in Reutlingen. Right now: Hamburg. Tomorrow: Cologne. I’m excited for more trains!

In Ulm und um Ulm und um Ulm herum

September 22, 2014 / katherineackerman / 0 Comments

So, this past week my class took a week-long trip to the small town of Blaubeuren, just outside of Ulm. Blaubeuren is adorable and famous for it’s blue pond created by a chemical reaction between lime and carbon dioxide and the poem about it written by Eduard Mölrike. It was a great week filled with German learning, hiking and many, many excursions. I had one of those coming full circle experiences because I visited a city for the second time in my life. That city, as shown by the three times it appears in the title of this post, is Ulm. Ulm is the home of the world’s tallest church tower, which I have now had the pleasure of climbing not only once, but twice. It was in fact the topic of my admission essay to Valpo, about however the world seems to be getting smaller and smaller, there are always surprising new things to learn as we go (that is a summary, the original was a very extended metaphor made worse by the fact that I had been abstaining from the English language– something which I think can be made clear is happening again based on the almost 3 lines that make up this sentence).

Above: Ulm ca. 2011 I’m proud to say that I got almost the exact same shot. You’ll note the subtle differences to the below shot of the Danube ca. 2014

One of the things that surprised me most was the way that my teacher described the tower. The Ulm Münster as it’s called was funded by the people of Ulm. The city itself was not very clean, being there was no modern sewage system at the time it was built and the church could house almost 5 times the number of people than the population of Ulm itself. For these people, my teacher said, coming to the Münster was like coming to heaven. It was clean, it was quiet, there was room to spare. Going back there now reminds me of how much framing influences how we perceive the world around us. Now, in a world filled with images, music and modern sewage, the Münster does not seem like quite such an astounding building, but at the time it was built, it was really one of the greatest feats of its time. And the same thing goes for everything that we see in life, the more that we see, the more that we have to compare it too, and the more we can learn about the reasons why things are the way that they are in the world.

Otherwise I have been doing my best to “live into” my new home, as one would say in German. I’ve been trying to think of ways to decorate my room and cook for myself to make my apartment more like home. Recently the addition of a new roommate from Spain has made it feel a lot more lived-in than before. We’ve also been working on the first project for my German class. My topic is about the local dialect called Schwäbisch, which I have turned out to be surprising good at pronouncing. Although many people find dialects to be a sign of simple mindedness, I find them totally fascinating. They give language personality and are proof of socio-linguistic developmental patterns that created many smaller pockets of dialects as opposed to one homogeneous language.

One of the other things that I’ve noticed most about the German language is that although I understand most of what’s being said, some of the subtleties of German body language haven’t necessarily been totally clear to me. Instead of using a wide range of facial expressions or a drastic change in tone, Germans like to change the structure of their sentences or throw in extra words in order to reveal their true emotions. When my teacher talked about this in class, I have to admit that something clicked in my mind. It brought back countless memories of me feeling like I was somehow unable to achieve the cool, collected calm that seems to permeate German culture. I think it might take a while before I can master the art of showing emotion verbally, but it will certainly be a challenge that I’m willing to take on. Hopefully that will make my German that much less frantic-sounding and more authentic.

And so I am off to go practice speaking without moving my face so much!

Bis bald!

The National Silk Museum with Zhejiang University of Technology students

A Luxurious Life!

September 22, 2014 / Tobiah Meinzen / 0 Comments

Time flies when you’re…in China…taking only two classes…eating lots of pastries…enjoying long walks…talking with locals…window shopping at ultra luxury malls…running in the rain…visiting museums and temples…reading the Analects…meeting new friends…watching movies…and having fun!

My extended and wondrous welcome to China is drawing to a close. Although we (the Valpo group) have been in Hangzhou for a month already due to scheduling differences between Valpo and Zhejiang U we haven’t started our Mandarin classes. That all changes tomorrow when we begin eight weeks of intensive study—fifteen classroom hours a week just for language and who knows how much homework.

Although I’ve been fully enjoying the luxury of open-ended exploration and long weekends it will be nice to start learning Mandarin. (“Thanks,” “Hi,” and “I want…” will only get me so far.) But my thoughts on school itself will have to wait until next week, so I’ll devote the rest of this post to a review of last week’s activities.

The quiet summer campus is gone, the number of students on campus has probably quadrupled since I arrived. From daybreak until late into the evening Chinese students steadily stream along the many roads through campus, when it rains a sea of colorful umbrellas stretch down the sidewalk. At the official “International college” welcome assembly last week we packed the auditorium with students from over one hundred nations. Wow! The assembly ended with performances of traditional music and dance of various Chinese provinces by ZJU students. The troupe’s performance was a lot of fun to watch, the performers clearly enjoyed what they were doing and they were incredibly talented.

Rainy skys have been more frequent, but the blessed cool and clean air they bring are well worth the grey drizzle. Besides, I’m from Eugene, I like the rain. After constant sweating for the first few weeks the ability to stroll around Hangzhou for hours while the air whispers of autumn is delightful.

On Saturday evening I attended Catholic Mass (in English) at a church tucked between shops and apartments near downtown. The service was very similar in liturgical order to the Lutheran services I’m familiar with. I found many of the hymn melodies hard to follow and the Priest’s message calling us to ‘evangelize’ seemed odd given Beijing’s restrictions of religion. Partitioners scattered through the narrow pews, the majority were Chinese but there was also a fair number of foreigners, especially Africans.

After the service Professor Pati, Michael and I walked the few miles back to campus. We stopped at various hole-in-the-wall bakeries and bemusedly strolled through a shopping mall filled with clothing and accessories imported from many of Europe’s finest brands. The wealth here is incredible, even if Alibaba’s IPO does create scores more millionaires in Hangzhou they already have plenty of competition to stand out among the BMWs, Benzs, Porsches, not to mention the occasional Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Tesla, or Maserati which dot the luxury mall parking lots. (Yes I’ve seen all those car brands.)

The best part of long walks though is the time they have provide to people watch. As someone who is not likely to strike-up conversation with a stranger I am more than happy to gather my experiences in a more passive manner. I’ve watched older folks practice tai chi and gather for dance groups in small parks; I’ve watched tired orange-garbed workers sweeping litter with homemade brooms; I’ve watched children enjoy snacks while riding on the back of their parents’ moped; I’ve watched young adults constantly on their phones; I’ve watched people sleep on buses with many times more passengers than seats; I’ve watched business men and women deftly negotiate thick traffic while blaring their car horns.

Also as a group we have visited the Dafo Temple in Xinchang, the Hangzhou Silk Market, the National Tea Museum, and the Zhejiang University of Technology campus. The Dafo Temple, a two hour bus ride south of Hangzhou, is set amid verdant hills. We visited on a drizzly day which added to the tranquility of the winding paths and various temples built into the hills—including the famous ‘Big Buddha’ sculpture (over 10 meters tall) which was carved out a mountainside over a millennium ago.

I picked up my textbooks today and so hopefully I am all ready for class tomorrow. Being in an international dorm, diversity is for once exists far more in actuality than in discussion—my class of sixteen has students from fifteen different countries. Should be fun!

A typical rush-hour intersection

The National Silk Museum with Zhejiang University of Technology students

Visiting Dafo Temple in Xinchang

Looking west from the top of Forest Park on a particularly grey day

Watching the fountain and light show on West Lake for Mid-Autumn Festival.

Thursday night English Club!

The Week in A Nutshell

September 21, 2014 / margaretprunty / 0 Comments

For the past few weeks, I have been working with first and second graders at my internship to help with reading and grammar. Last week, I enjoyed spending time with the older kids, grade six and seven, to help with math work. I still truly like to work with younger students, but I have also been thrilled giving assistance to older students. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know them and getting good feedback from them on homework that we worked on in previous sessions. One of the girls I helped, Brumelda, has become a buddy of mine. After the first time helping her with work, she’s come to me for other help ever since. This was a neat moment for me because I was worried that I might not be as useful to the students as I would like, but I’m more confident now in helping them. It’s very satisfying to me when I see them to start understanding the work and have students approach me for help. I try to be extra positive and enthusiastic with the students because they might not get that at school, according to my supervisor. Brumelda noticed this and, at first, I thought she might have found it a bit annoying, but she ended up writing a story for school about a day when her life changed and she wrote about meeting me! I think she picked it mostly because she was struggling to chose a topic, but it was awesome that she even thought about me for that. As far as interning goes, it has been a great week and was followed by a fun weekend.

On Saturday night, we celebrated the first birthday in our house. We had fun going to a sky bar at the top of the Hilton Hotel in town and then made our way to other parts of town. It’s always fun to try new places around Windhoek and everyone had a great time. Following our evening, we decided to go out for brunch on Sunday morning. It did not go as planned, though. The restaurant we selected only got one of eleven orders correct. For example, two friends got Eggs Benedict, but they gave them a piece of stale bread, ham, and boiled eggs slathered with a frighteningly large amount of mayo. Some of us were a little frustrated, but the group of us have such good attitudes, we were all laughing about it an hour later. I can’t wait to see what lies ahead this week as we travel to the northern part of the country.

Exploring Cambridge

September 17, 2014 / stephanieblack / 0 Comments

I’ve been in Cambridge for a few weeks now, and I feel like I have settled into a routine. My days these past couple of weeks have been filled with a few classes, but mostly going out and getting to know the city that is my home for the next eight months.

I keep myself busy during the days by walking around the small little streets of Cambridge. I don’t have any classes on Wednesdays, so I usually take that day to explore. I go out by myself and take my time going down whatever road I want to just to see what’s there. I love wandering around and exploring and even getting a little lost. It’s been a great way to get to know the city. I love the smaller shops and local businesses. You never really know what kind of shop you’re going to walk into, and I think that’s awesome.

Yesterday, the entire group went punting. For those of who who don’t know what that is, a punt is a wooden boat with a flat area on one end. Someone stands on that and uses a long pole to push the boat through the water. Anyway, it was another unusually gorgeous day outside with clear skies and the sun shining, and I had a blast.

The group split up into two punts, and our two tour guides had us go side by side so they could both talk about the things we were seeing at the same time. We passed St. John’s College, Trinity College, King’s College, and Magdalene College on the River Cam. Both of our guides were very knowledgeable and had a lot of interesting stories to share about the colleges and things that happen in Cambridge. It was nice to sit and relax for an hour and be outside in the sunshine and see Cambridge without having to walk anywhere.

Today I climbed the the highest spot in Cambridge. Granted, I live in Colorado, so this “high spot” was a little baby hill. But nevertheless, it still offered the best views of Cambridge. I could see the entire city, and I realized that it was much bigger than I thought it was. Because I can walk to anywhere I need to go so easily and relatively quickly, I always assumed the Cambridge was smaller than it was. I could see all the way to the King’s College Chapel.

The hill that I climbed was actually built by the Romans in the early A.D.’s. It was a point where four different roads met to cross the river Cam into the city, and, being the highest point in Cambridge, it was easy to defend. Like I’ve said before, and will probably continue to keep saying, it is fascinating to be in a place where the history extends over a thousand years.

I have really enjoyed getting to know Cambridge so far, and I am excited to do some more exploring. Tomorrow is International Student Orientation at Anglia Ruskin University, and a few of us are attending that. I’m sure there will be many more stories to tell and things to talk about when classes at Anglia start in a week and a half!

The only collegiate chapel in the world that is larger than Valpo’s Chapel of the Resurrection: King’s College Chapel

Gearing Up for Berlin and Travel Season

September 17, 2014 / Katie Rinda / 0 Comments

Waiting for the bus.

This last week was a little on the quiet side. Went to class, ate more chocolate croissants, attempted to say more than “Ein. Brelzen.” to the very nice bakery ladies, and polished off my third jar of Nutella. (It actually is better in Europe. The chocolate to hazelnut ratio is perfection, and the smoothness is reminiscent of Wynton Marsalis’ patter at the BBC proms. I feel for you who have never experienced the wonderfulness of European Nutella.) But a nice, calm week is probably the best kind of week to have right now, as Friday begins our whirlwind of class traveling on a train headed for Berlin.

Yes, I color-code my travel maps. Although not entirely consistently.

In honor of our season of traveling, Brittany and I began our travel map, pinned with places we’re going and hope to go. The list is long, but between the map and the realization that Italy is a lot closer that we thought, our plans are coming along quite nicely. In addition to Berlin, we’re headed to Hamburg and Köln (Cologne) in the next couple of weeks. Don’t worry, I will post pictures of it all. I will also figure out how the post works again so I can send all the people I said I would send stuff a postcard. I promise.

We found this walking to the train in Reutlingen. I think it’s a coffee table. I also think it’s for sale.

Oh, I forgot something for my summary of the week’s events… Tübingen! This university town is 10 minutes west of Reutlingen, is home to one of Germany’s oldest museums, and sits on the Neckar River. It’s a very pretty and very vertical town. We briefly toured the downtown and the castle with our Art History professor, who’s lived in Tübingen for at least thirty years. We also got to go on a boat ride on the Neckar. It’s not that big, as rivers go- compared to the Mississippi, Illinois, or Mackanac, it’s a mild-mannered stream- but that made it an even better choice for punting, in which the boat is moved by digging a long stick into the bed of the river and pushing the boat forward. Our punter (the guy that makes the boat move) was also a member of one of the university teams for the annual punting race up and down the Neckar. According to our professor, the winners throw a huge party, and the losers have to drink castor oil. Our boatman’s team got 5th out of 30-ish last year.

The beautiful Neckar, and the punter.

While we were there, we enjoyed a dinner at the Neckarmüller, a microbrewery right on the river. We ate with everybody associated with the Valpo program in Germany, even including the retired language professor from the start of the Valpo program here, almost 50 years ago.

Kaitlyn and Katie, two non-Reutlingen Valpo students in Germany, enjoying the sunshine on the Neckar

That was Sunday, and it was delightful. But what will Berlin bring? You have to check back next week to see…

A Lifestyle Change- Day to Day Differences

September 17, 2014 / Sarah Blackwell / 0 Comments

Lately I’ve been adjusting to a new rhythm as Japan has forced me into a completely new lifestyle. At home, like many American college students, I drive or take the (somewhat inconvenient) bus everywhere. Walking all the way across campus at Valpo seems like a long hike, and though I don’t own a bicycle, I don’t think a lot of students ever go very far on their bicycles. I spend many hours a day doing homework around my classes, which occur at the same time throughout the week. I almost never bother cooking since the meal plan is sufficient.

Here my routine is completely different. My classes aren’t usually at the same time and all of my homework for all my classes can be finished in three hours or less. Usually it’s a lot less. Driving isn’t really an option here, so that leaves walking, cycling, and public transportation. Walking is actually a bit inconvenient in Hirakata, at least with the weather still as hot as it’s ever been. Any supermarket, store, restaurant, or train station is usually a twenty minute walk or more. So instead of paying bus fares, I bike all over town. I’m pretty sure I’ve never biked this much in my life. Going up the plentiful (and often fairly steep, compared to my home terrain of plains as far as the eye can see) hills was definitely hard on my legs the first week or so, but I’m getting used to it now.

At Kiyomizudera, Kyoto

I take the trains EVERYWHERE, and they’re incredibly convenient. Back near Chicago, if you miss your train, you could end up waiting thirty to sixty minutes for the next one. Here, you’ll wait a maximum of ten minutes, and the trains are always on time. My speaking partner, Mizuho, and I were talking about trains once and she mentioned how people here start getting irritated if trains are one, two, or three minutes late. She was rather surprised when I mentioned how people near chicago expect the trains to be running at least ten minutes late. Often more. Once I get off the train in the city, it’s all walking from there. It’s exhausting, but it’s nice to be able to go slowly through the city and actually notice the little things instead of driving right past.

Purikura with Katrina and Mizuho!

Moreover, my diet is completely different. A lot of the easily accessible junk food back home isn’t available here, and if they have Japanese equivalents, they’re hard to find. Even grocery shopping is different. It’s actually more of an adventure now; I can’t read a lot of food-specific kanji, so mostly I buy things based on price and looks. The other international students do the same. It’s not uncommon to hear, “That looks good. What is it?” followed by, “I have no idea,” at dinner in the Seminar House. It may not be that I don’t know the words that are printed on things, but speaking and reading Japanese are two completely different things, unlike Spanish, my other foreign language. Spanish is spelled exactly as it sounds, but the complexity of the Japanese language makes shopping quite a bit harder than at home. But honestly, it’s kind of fun sometimes, buying mystery food.

The most striking difference for me is that I’m always on the move and always planning my next outing. Hirakata is conveniently situated very near both Kyoto and Osaka. It’s also not too far from Nara. Shinkansen trips to Tokyo are expensive, but not out of the question. Dinner discussions usually revolve around either trips people have just returned from or the next trip they’re planning. Hirakata itself has a little of the small town feeling, but is also near huge bustling Osaka and the cultural bastion of Kyoto. We’re never short of things to do around here, only the time necessary to do everything!

Costa Rica–Guest Blog

September 16, 2014 / studyabroad / 0 Comments

Like a Child

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

My first few days in Costa Rica have been incredible, overwhelming, humbling, and wonderful all at once! So much has happened already, I feel like I’ve been here a month, but it’s only been about a week! Classes have just started, but I’ve learned so much already just from experiencing this different life. I guess the best way to describe what I’m feeling is to say I feel like a child, both in a good way and a bad way.

I feel like a child when I can’t successfully communicate what I need, want, or feel because I am not yet comfortable with the language. I feel like a child when I use the wrong word in Spanish and cause a lot of confusion (I mixed up the words for ‘before’ and ‘after’ and it took about 10 minutes to clear up what I was trying to say!). I feel like a child when my language and grammar is corrected in almost every sentence I say. I feel like a child because I still have to be escorted everywhere because I’m still trying to learn my way around. I feel like a child when I don’t know how to count the correct amount of change to give the bus driver and everyone stares at me because I have no idea what I’m doing or where I’m going. I am sure as a child it was overwhelming when so much of life is brand new to you and others have to help you with everything, and I feel the exact same way.

But I also think feeling like a child can be a good thing. I am seeing this world with a whole new child-like wonder! Every time I go outside I see the gorgeous mountains that surround the city of San José or the vibrant, different plants outside, and I just marvel in the beauty of this new and gorgeous world I’m in.

: Sporting a little Valpo pride with the beautiful mountain backdrop at Guayabo, Costa Rica

: The gorgeous view from the backyard of my host family! Loving the vibrant and beautiful plants!

Also, like a child, I am an information sponge right now! I ask a ton of questions everyday, and I am learning at an extremely rapid rate, just like children do in the early years of their lives. I feel like I ask the question “What is this called?” about 50 times a day, but I am learning so much just by asking! I feel like a child when I see and taste new fruits and vegetables and foods that I’ve never seen or heard of before. For example, this is a fruit called a mamón chino that we saw at a street vendor in downtown San José. It looked so weird on the outside – red with these long spikes on it. I thought to myself “There’s no way that’s edible food”. But when he opened it up and I saw the fleshy inside of the fruit, I was so surprised! And by the way, it was delicious and very sweet. And this has happened many times already!

A mámon chino! How weird looking, yet delicious!

In this new and crazy adventure, I need to have the faith of a child as well. Faith that others will help me get to the right place. Faith that my host family will take care of me. Faith that I will get more comfortable with the language and that things will get easier. I need the faith that God will get me through each day and that He will keep me safe. The faith of a child is completely trusting, and I need that kind of faith at this point in the journey.

I think appreciating the little things in life like a child does is an important part of the “Pura Vida” or pure life/good life that the Costa Ricans live. I hope I continue to keep my eyes wide open like a child and learn and appreciate all the little things that this new life has to offer.

Guest Blog Post written by Jeneal Hunt. See original blog post here.

Student Stories from Around the World