Valpo Voyager

Student Stories from Around the World

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A Change of Seasons

November 24, 2012 / / 0 Comments

If you have not seen the movie Amarcord, by Federico Fellini, I suggest it – if not for the nostalgic setting of prewar Italy – then for the vignetted coming of age of Titta, the young lead. The film opens with the arrival of the puffballs, the small white “manine” announcing the coming of spring. This simple event captures the attention of the townspeople, bringing them to the street to hurrah and parade in joyous celebration. With the arrival of spring is the spirit of renewal, the white – purity, and the sense, simply, of time passing, moving forward.

The changing of seasons is not something I can greet here, in Paris, so easily, so markedly as in the Midwest. There, cornshocks rustle in a dry wind (that same wind which brings in, year after year, the puffballs), forest gleam in passionate shades, as families decorate for those wonderful holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Here, alas, the city is self-contained, the onset of fall marked by temporary death in the rare inner-city vegetation, while October and November greet me with torrents of rain and slowly cooling temperatures.

Yet the city moves on, progresses as usual, seems even to thrive on the effrontery of the seasons. The city is business – while American hands trade lattés for their holiday counterparts, the Parisian continues to consume that potent drug (upon which the city endlessly runs) expresso. There is, I have noted, a continuity, an unparalleled movement that exists here, that feeds on the activity of Parisians, in the change of money, food, products, in the rush of the metro, the larger Grandes Lignes, and the continual activity of Charles de Gaulle International. 

It is this movement that keeps the city alive. Parisians are too busy living, truly living to stop and enjoy a calmer pace. For who lives so precarious, so vivant a life as the young Parisian? Overcome with desire for an ever-changing adventure like beloved Mr. Toad of Graham’s Wind in the Willows. Each new day, new fad, new acquaintance seizes hold of the mind and holds sway until the night of that day fades into the next – the mind effaced, open now to new horizons.

So life goes, the Parisian (really, not so different from the New Yorker, the Chicagoan, you see) living life from link to link, chain stretched endlessly on the horizon, waiting to *snap* like a firecracker. And so Keroauc describes such folk, like On The Road‘s anti-hero Dean Moriarty: “. . . the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”

And again, the little white puffballs, drifting into town to wash again the minds and hearts with a new season . . .

Dear Namib

November 22, 2012 / / 0 Comments

For our final projects this semester we were assigned to do an integrative project that would encompass the things we’ve learned in the past few months. Some of us chose to do games, some made videos, and others used a straw building activity as a metaphor for building a nation. I was impressed with how creative our group was, at the amount of information we have really absorbed, and the critical thinking skills we’ve developed. I found one student’s project particularly inspiring and wanted to share it. This person is from South Sudan so he has an unique perspective and being from the new youngest independent country in the world he wanted to draw parallels between their struggle to build a nation and the second youngest, Namibia’s struggle. I think this letter will give you a good idea of the obstacles Namibia has encountered in the past few decades and the things we’ve been taking an in depth look at on this trip. As we have, I am sure you can see these themes in the struggles for equality in many nations, including our own. Here is his letter to Namibia, if he were South Sudan:

An Open Letter from Sud to my friend Namib.

Dear Namib,

It has been an absolute pleasure and joy to see you during the past 3 months. I’ve enjoyed visiting your many national historical sites, game parks, and conservancies. I’ve enjoyed our days filled exploring topics in religion, politics, history, and even our occasional outings to meet and greet speakers in order to expand our knowledge. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed learning about and practicing yoga while here. Although all of these events brought me great joy, there were some things which disturbed, confused, and even shocked me.

I saw you turn away children and shut down schools in the north, I even saw you care more about money then education, when u stopped university and secondary age children from taking exams and getting results due to lack of school fees. I saw children born out of the struggle in exile suffering and carried away from the lawn of the national assembly as they tried to voice their concern, I saw you harass and intimidate locals into doing what you wanted. A random guy on the streets even stopped to tell me he was unhappy with the failure of the high court to decide on their election petition to the Supreme Court in a timely manner. That’s not even the worse one of the guys told me a few years after you moved out from under your parents roof, you subject our friends and families to torture and death while in exile in Angola, and to this day you still have not confessed or owned up to it.

What is going on Namib, as your friend I am very concerned.

I’ve even heard some people have tried to summon you to the ICC department of Human services. Don’t you remember that’s the same department which ruled your parent’s treatment and occupation illegal?

A U.N. Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous people named James Anaya even pointed out that all of the indigenous groups he has met with continue to suffer injustices as they have not seen the promises and benefits, which independence from your parents promised.

I know our upbringing was not the best, but it is no excuse for the neglect oppression, and injustices which I have seen while here.

Do I need to remind you about the hardship, discrimination, and oppression which we endured under our parents roofs? The blood sweat, and tears shed to realize our freedom. Do I need to remind you of the unequal treatment, subjection to unfair labor, housing, and opportunity your parents afforded you? How they made you feel dumb, inferior, and told you, you had no history, and that keeping you apart from the others was for your own good and how they made you carry your I.D. card in certain parts of the house.

I know you remember these terrible times.

I was under my parents roof for much longer, and in that time we did not talk as much. But I know you heard about the persecution and oppression which I received from my parents. How they tried to force their religion, values, and way of life down my throat. The worst of which was heard around the world when they killed, tortured and maimed our friends in Darfur. I don’t know if you heard but during that 50 year struggle under my parents’ roof, I really started to have internal struggles with myself. I struggled about whether to liberate everyone from my parent’s oppression, or just get myself out from under their roof. This dilemma really ate at me, and when I wasn’t actively resisting my parents, I broke out in internal strife and all out chaos within myself almost to the point of self-destruction.

We were so Strong back then Namib, I remember you marched and boycotted, demanding to get out from under your parents. Do you remember hector Peterson, Steven Biko, and the many students and friends whom died fighting and demanding your release? I do! Do you remember when our friend Luther who finally had enough, and took a stance against your parents, oh how he condemned their actions, after our friends in the I.C.C. department gave their verdict?

We had lots of friends and family who helped us to survive and endure those long and trying years under our parent’s roofs.

In your absence Uncle Tom and his many friends really stepped up and helped me endure my internal struggles and my resistance against my parents. Uncle Tom played a very vital role in bring about a comprehensive peace agreement in 2005. His friends Amnesty, UNHCR, and I.R.C provided me with and still continue to provide me with vital services including healthcare, child survival programs, education, and sexual violence aid and prevention projects. When I visited Uncle Tom in 2006, he gave me a Black cow boy hat, which I never take off or go anywhere without, as a sign of my gratitude and appreciation for all of his support.

Please remember the long hard road we traversed in order to get where we are today.

Do you not remember the promises we made to each other about how we wanted to live our lives once we were out from under our parents. How we wanted to live them through respect, understanding, and acceptance of all people regardless of race, religion, Ethnicity, tribal affiliation, or sexual orientation. And how we vowed to never turnout like our parents.

We even wrote it out in our supreme plans, oh how brilliant our supreme plans were. I can remember yours boosted by many people as one of the most inclusively liberal plans on earth. Especially with your clause pertaining to or should I say lack thereof a death penalty. Oh how our plans looked so spotless to the many onlookers. I know my plan is only an interim one due to my recent emancipation only a year and half ago from my parents, but I’m still quite proud of it. I’ve made sure to include our respect principles especially pertaining to religious practices.

I never want anyone to experience the turmoil I went through, the 2 million friends dead and the 4 million displaced in that long 50 year resistance against my parents.

I’m Sorry to labor on for so long old friend, but this letter is also helping me to remember and come back to those plans we created in the days of struggle. Writing this has forced me to really take a critical look inward, and sorry to say I’ve been a hypocrite.

If you were to come visit me you would not only see a lack of respect for freedom of speech, but sever mal treatment and torcher of those who openly oppose. Our brother Mr. Deng Athuai, chairman of the South Sudan Civil Society Alliance, was abducted and beaten a year into my independence, because he openly spoke out and criticized government officials on corruption. That’s not even the worse, I thought I was finished beating myself up when I got out from under my parents. But recently new problems have arisen, and they almost take me back to the brink of self-destruction within myself. Even though I’m only a year and half out, I have not made sufficient plans to meet the needs of my people.

I have not taken the initiative to put education first so everyone can learn about and hold the supreme plan as the rule of law.

Please give the teachers I have seen striking a raise, so they may effectively teach all of the children about our supreme plans, and thus hold us accountable to our plans, so they may speak out and let us know when we have strayed without fear and so that they will know their actions and participation and criticisms are grounded in our supreme plans which rule the land.

So Sorry for the short notice and having to communication via letter, I wish I had the time to say farewell face to face, but I got an urgent call this morning to return and start the development process ASAP. There’s roads, hospitals, and schools to be built. Writing this letter has put me back in my right state of mind.

I felt like I had to say something or as our main man Lupe would say. It would have been so loud inside my head, with the words I never said. I will thoroughly miss the great food, conversations, and friends at the center for global education not to mention the many friends from basketball, Wadadee and our times at Kapana Soul Sessions.

Once again you’ve opened my eyes to so many new perspectives and possibilities.

But please keep in mind our past, I know we can’t do anything about it, but we can do something about the future that we have.

Sincerely your friend,
SUD

Castles Weekend!!

November 19, 2012 / / 0 Comments

As I mentioned in the previous blog post, last weekend was our last group trip – Castles Weekend!!
This was the trip that was the determining factor between choosing this program and one other program so it was a pretty big deal for me.
Our destinations included: Conventry Cathedral, Warwick Castle, Stratford Upon Avon, Bath, Stonehenge, and Windsor Castle.
Although I had to wake up at 5:30am on a Friday morning, needless to say, I was absolutely ready for it.

Friday, as I just said, started pretty early…when it was still pretty dark outside.
We arrived at the Coventry Cathedral around 9am. This was a really neat cathedral and one that was different than all of the other ones I have seen in the past. It consisted of 2 buildings; one was the ruins of a cathedral built in the early 15th century, and the other was a new cathedral built around the 1950s.
The older one, was bombed during World War II and is the reason why it remains as ruins – to hold the memory in place.

the ruins

Notice the row of benches in the picture, and if you take a closer look at one of them (which I can’t upload the picture of it for some reason :/) it says “Valparaiso University U.S.A. February 1964”. So Valpo must’ve donated to this Coventry Cathedral for its rebuilding! Isn’t that neat? It was great seeing a part of Valpo in England.

The light coming through from the glass windows were absolutely beautiful! Especially because the sun rays were at the perfect angle in the morning. It was great seeing two parts of history in one place.

All of our group at the Cathedral!

But the next destination was something that I was really looking forward to: a castle!

Our first castle that we headed to was Warwick Castle. I had the impression that it was going to be just be a regular castle, so I was really surprised to see how touristy it was built to be.

This is the view from the walls that were surrounding the castle. Walking along the wall was very fun, although we climbed almost 600 steps to get to the top of it! The staircases and doorways throughout the walls were really small, and even I felt a bit confined going through it. It really shows how much smaller the people used to be several hundred years ago. Good thing that population started becoming taller throughout the years! …except I might that missed that boat.
Another thing that was really neat about this castle was that it had a “King’s making” attraction that showed what the King’s servants did behind the scenes. The wax figures looked very realistic, and they made me jump a couple of times. There was a wax horse that looked really real, and it’s tail moved all of a sudden which made me definitely startled. They were all really well made.

Servants making weapons.

We were also able to see a WHOLE bunch of peacocks, and I’ve never been so close to a peacock in my life!
They were really pretty, but much larger than I expected and were quite intimidating to be honest.
But while they were perched up on the benches and resting, they were a really nice sight.

After the Warwick Castle, we drove to Stratford Upon Avon, and went to see the house that William Shakespeare grew up in.
It was a nice, small house, but with lots of rooms. It was really amazing to be standing in the house of a historically famous person who lived there a few hundred years ago.
That same night we went to see a play at the Royal Shakespeare Company. The outside was different, but the inside looked almost exactly like the Globe Theatre in London. It was a great experience to be able to see both the Globe Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. A nice little deja vu!

The following morning, we headed to Bath to see the Roman Baths.
Now the Roman Baths has a LONG line of history. It was first found during the pre-Roman period and the water was thought to be able to heal. That tradition still exists today and visitors come to drink the water from the fountain.
Our group was able to drink some of that water. When we were first offered it by the tour guide, I was very excited. I had been pretty thirsty all morning so this was going to be a great thirst quencher, especially if it had the ability to heal and make me really healthy, right? Well I was wrong. It’s true that it’s healthy but the water was warm, first of all, so it wasn’t very pleasant to drink. It also tasted faintly like blood, which I found out later was because there’s some iron in the water.

Look at the heat waves!

The rest of the day was spent in Bath, and I loved the town! It was a very cute, typical English-looking town. I just can’t get over how adorable the towns are here.

Pretty lights!

Most of the town was already in Christmas season (as am I!) and the lights were so cute!
We also saw the Royal Crescent, and saw a beautiful sunset.

So that was Bath, and it was just splendid.

I realized that this post has gotten pretty long and I don’t want to bore you, so I will post a separate entry for Stonehenge and Windsor Castle. I have LOTS of stunning pictures from Stonehenge so stay tuned!

Cheers!

The H-23 Boys

“在家靠父母，在外靠朋友”/ “At home you depend on parents, outside you rely on friends”

November 19, 2012 / / 0 Comments

This last week has been pretty hectic, as all ZJU students (international and nationals alike) took their mid-term exams. Everyone’s last exam was Thursday, giving us a well-deserved 4 day weekend to relax. My family came to Hangzhou to  come and see me, which was really fun. It was great to see familiar faces and to catch up on what was happening back home.

When you’re in a completely different country cultural/language wise, at times you can’t help but become homesick. At times like this, you really might need to depend on some of the people in your group. Most of H-23 are Crusaders except two. Bert is from Rowe and Oak in Virgina while Joel goes to Simpson in Iowa. I won’t lie—you’re not all going to become best friends right away at the start of the program. But over time, as you continue to be around each other more and more, you can easily adjust to each other and it is possible to find yourself naturally becoming friends. Bert admitted that he was slightly worried about joining our Hangzhou program because he didn’t get the chance to meet any of us in person. But he was “pleasantly surprised because everyone is actually really nice. We bonded as a group pretty quickly and we’ve been hanging out ever since then.” Before we met Bert in person, we had Skyped with him occassionally, which led to an add on Facebook. He thinks this is a good step for anyone looking into joining a study abroad group, so that you can become familiar with the people who will be a big part of your life during your semester abroad.

Joel, however, had never been introduced to us before we met him in person. No Skype, QQ (China’s instant messaging system), nothing. I thought it would be much harder for him than for any of us, since he REALLY didn’t know any of us. But he said that Julie, who is a big help with the study abroad programs, helped him ease into the program and told him she thought he would fit right in. And once we really got to know him, Joel insantly clicked with the rest of us. Additionally, for anyone outside of Valpo that is looking to join any of its’ study abroad programs, he suggested:  “I think studying abroad is a must have experience. It is important to go to a place that you are really interested in, and since I couldn’t find it at my school, I searched outside and found Valpo. You should take the chance, because you never know what you’ll be missing out on.”

(Note 1: Forgive me for the lack of pictures in this entry, wordpress has been very difficult for me to access here lately and each time I have tried to post pictures in the entry, the page will crash and lose the entire entry. I promise pictures in the next post!

Note 2: the title comes from a famous Chinese saying)

Sishani “Windhoek”

November 19, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Namibian artist Shishani recently released a new music video about the beautiful city of Windhoek. Inspired by Alicia Keys and Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” the video gives a glimpse into the cultural diversity and beautiful landscape surrounding Namibia’s capital. Check it out to get an idea about where I’ve gotten to stay this semester.

Sishani “Windhoek”

The Superhumans of CGE

November 18, 2012 / / 1 Comment

So throughout my trip I’ve blogged about the places we go, museums and historical sights we get to visit, and all the speakers we hear from, but I realized I never really talk about the biggest reason this program is so wonderful—the Center for Global Education staff!  The people that work at this school have made this an incredible trip for me and the other students.  They have served as mentors, stand-in parents, and friends to all of us. Not only do I learn so much from them, but they continue to brighten my day whenever I see one of them.  I’m not sure how you find people like the one’s CGE has hired, but I thought it was time I introduced you to them so you can get to know the wonderful people I am spending my semester with.

Passat and Romanus

Passat and Romanus

First let’s talk about how we get to all these awesome places.  Passat has been the nick name given to the superhuman that drives us to all of our internships, homestays and trips around Namibia.  He is even driving 16 hours to Cape Town (while we fly) so that we can get around while there.  Nothing keeps Passat from getting to our destination—whether it’s blown tires, closed roads, or wildlife.  While in the car, he’s always singing along to either 90s RnB or some traditional music that has really grown on us.  I have even caught him hands in the air belting out a lyric when most of us are asleep.   I have to say that some of my favorite moments are just driving in the van. He is also the handy man around our house and can fix everything. I also realized, after hearing him speak to different staff members, people in the north, and our rural homestay families that he knows six different languages.  In general he just knows so much and shakes his head and giggles at us when we don’t listen to him.

Next, our professors.  I don’t get to interact with Romanus, the history professor, but he’s definitely loved by the students.  One student said, “If we gave out superlatives for the staff, he would be named coolest.”  We got to attend his wedding early in the semester and from being with him in Swakopmund, I can tell he’s a laid back guy with a great sense of humor.  Everyone in the house raves about the history class and I’m a little regretful that I didn’t take it, however, what I took in place of that class has made it worth it.  Instead of taking one of the classes offered here at CGE, I decided on an independent study and my advisor, Nespect, has been absolutely incredible to work with.  He is the travel seminar and internship coordinator also, so we get to spend time with him in class and also for our first week in Johannesburg.  Nespect is always enthusiastic and my favorite thing is that he always greets us with, “Hello Friends!”

Last of the professors, is our development and yoga professor.  Students say this countless times and I really think it’s the only  to describe her, “Linda is Awesome.”  For me she has not only been a fantastic professor who makes me think critically and challenges me to look at the many sides of development issues, but she has also been a great role model.  Instead of rambling about great things she has taught me, I will just share her cheesy but meaningful conclusion of our development class that made me hopeful instead of cynical—she shared with us that, to her, development boils down to love.  We need love one another, love people on the other side of the world that we maybe don’t know, and love them more than our material possessions.  More importantly, she pointed out that love isn’t this passive, wimpy thing that many think of, but one of the most powerful tools in the world.  Its statements like these that make me admire her and hope that throughout my career I can keep the same passion and optimism.

Sara and I

Sara and I

Evolyn and Janobe are cooks in our house and I honestly don’t how I will eat after this, because they make such delicious meals, with freshly baked bread, and incredible desserts—it’s no wonder all of our shorts are a little tighter.  I am always amazed at how creative they are and how they do such a great job at planning.  We have never once had the same meal and they’ve adapted to all our weird dietary requests.  They’re even been cooking without an oven for the past two months.  Talk about incredible!

Lastly, Sara, she is one of the cooks at the house, but she also coordinates our homestays and she traveled to Khorixas with us, which was really great because she’s from this area.  We got to visit the high school she graduated from and she knew so much about the people in this area.  It always puts a smile on my face to see Sara—she is always bubbly and enthusiastic and it just isn’t possible to be unhappy if you’re around her

The staff overall genuinely cares about the students on this trip.  We’re often impressed with how much time they invest in getting to know us and finding out how we are daily.  I admire that they value education so much and that they go out of their way (undoubtedly more than we know) to make sure students have the most incredible experience.   It’s  going to be really hard to leave all the incredible people here, but I am so excited for the next group of students to spend an awesome four months with them!

To get a tour of the house and introductions to everyone, check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUa8QgBHkP0

A day in the life.

November 15, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Nothing too terribly exciting (that’s to say anything outside of my normally wonderful Viña life) has happened lately, so I thought I would take you through a day-in-the-life…

On Mondays and Wednesdays I have classes at 2pm, on Tuesday at 8:20am, and on Thursday and Friday I have no class…regardless of my laze-provoking schedule, I usually wake up around 7:30/7:45am to take advantage of my day starting off at the gym or with an easy morning jog.

We post our schedules on the fridge in the kitchen so that our host parents can set out breakfast for us (awww) which usually consists of a yogurt with avena (plain oats) & a piece of (delicious) bread that can be paired with either cheese or marmalade. We spend the mornings doing homework, classes or still just trying to wake up. Chile in general is usually not up and kickin’ until about 10 or 11 when most stores and shops open.

Then anytime between 1pm to 3pm is lunch. Magaly, the house maid, is an amazing cook and always has something delicious prepared! Lunch usually consists of a salad, soup, entree, and (of course) dessert. We’ll sit at the table, make conversation and, if we’re lucky, watch Dama y Obrero, one of Magaly’s favorite soap operas (and now, one of mine as well!) Lunch usually takes an hour or two and then after we go upstairs to relax and digest a bit until the afternoon activities which are usually random and thought of in the spur of the moment which can range from going to the beach to learning how to dance Bachata to just walking around the city.

Then in the late evening there’s la once which consists of some bread with marmalade or meat, cheese and pebre and maybe some tea or coffee. It’s typically the most conversational part of the day where everyone lightly munches and shares about their daily adventures.

Outside of that, the spaces are filled with the randomness of life happenings, every weekend with its own zest.

As for this past weekend here’s what happened:

Oh my dear Lord...

I don’t remember if this was the weekend or during the week, but at some point I tried something called acompleto which is a gigantic hot dog with tomatoes, avocado and a thick layer of mayonnaise on top. I asked for no mayo and then proceeded to become more and more frightened as they prepared the beast…turns out there are two hot dogs inside the enormous bun. I managed to eat the entire thing but ate little else the entire day. It was filling to say the least.

Another food experience was with my Chilean Naval school buddies, when they introduced me to chorrillana which is this mountain of french fries, covered in eggs, onions and meat. Perfect man food…but I’m not so sure if my tummy could take anymore giant food feats of Chile any longer.

There have also been temblors which are like little earth tremors, baby earthquakes. Apparently there was one at 3am that was relatively strong that I didn’t feel…but there were a few little ones during the day that I did.

Olivia and I also discovered a club full of flaites (ghetto Chileans), which I highly recommend you do not go to. It’s called Area Universitario…or something like that. We were going to go to this salsa dancing club called Cubanismo for a birthday of one of our friends, but we couldn’t end up finding her and it was really expensive to get in, so we settled on the place next door…this club of flaite which one should never set foot into. The music was horrible and the environment was dirty and…just don’t go.

Then Saturday came along and we went to the Jardín Botánico (Botanical Garden) and enjoyed an afternoon walk there. There was a French garden and Mexican cactus garden as well as some trees, a little lake and river. There was also the opportunity to do some zip-line/rope course in the park that looked pretty cool and you could rent bicycles! (Olivia and I got excited about the bikes…) It’s a very relaxing place to sit and take in.

Basilio, Olivia and I with empanadas!

Well, you can escape Chilean’s love for food forever because we made empanadas on Sunday. They take a lot of work, but are definitely worth it. Basilio taught Olivia and I how to make them so that we can share them with our families when we go back home. We made seafood, cheese, and the classic Chilean pino (beef, onions, egg, and a single olive). It was fun, but I’m really bad in the kitchen…so I mostly watched the Mallorca vs. Barcelona game with Messi. I helped a bit though, chopping up some of the meat and folding the empanada dough into their pretty little forms. Then we lunched on each of the 3 types of empanadas and seafood soup with bread. We were so stuffed, but even still, after lunch our host mother asked us if we were could make waffles for la once. We asked her if she was serious, and after she nodded, we unwillingly agreed and took a long post-lunch nap…luckily she forgot about the waffles by the time la once came around.

La feria

After the incredibly filling lunch and siesta we took a walk over to Avenida San Martin for the Feria Artesanía where vendors show off their wares and sell them at relatively low prices. You have to be a little more careful though because especially during the start of summer/tourist season they raise prices a little more, so it’s better to buy these things (if you can) away from that season. We browsed around the stands and saw a guy make spray paint art which was incredible. It’s also right next to the beach where people make incredible sand art statues.

It seems like this weekend hasn’t been the most exciting of weekends, but I’ve found since I’ve been here that you don’t need to go on a big trip to some exotic place to have an adventure. I love my Viña life, which of course you’re probably thinking “of course she does because she’s in Chile…” but being here, I’ve learned to love even more my Minnesota life and my Valpo life. It’s just all how you look at the place you’re in and how you choose to enjoy it and take advantage of everyday.

As Neil Armstrong once so wisely stated,

Every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.

Keep that in mind and love the life you’re in, wherever you are. Don’t focus so much on what you could be doing or where in the world you could be enjoying yourself, but rather about where you are right now and the amazing things that are happening in world around you. Find adventures in the place you are with people you love because those are the adventures that will make all the difference with the people that have made all the difference.

Take in every sunrise, every sunset...

So as I said, and will continue to say for my rest of my days, I love my life.

…do you love yours?

Let me take you through Cambridge…

November 14, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I don’t know if any of you knew me at Valpo, but I’d like to consider myself a studious student (:
This meant that I spent hours on end at the wonderful Christopher Center Library, which maybe you have seen me at.
Now I’m the type of person who gets pretty lonely doing homework by myself, so I like to surround myself with people when I’m working on things, even if they’re strangers (weird study tactic, I know).
So discovering that there is a public library in the city centre of Cambridge was a grade saver for me.
I have visited the library at least once or twice a week, and although it’s a 20 minute long walk, it’s never a chore.

As I decided to walk to the library today to get some papers done, I thought, why not share my little walk to the library with everyone? It’s actually quite pleasant. So this is my tour of Cambridge: the library version.

Walking out of the doors of the centre, it is immediately a bigger road. I keep following the road and as usual, see the hand wash car washing place (usually has some pretty good looking chaps there, for you ladies!). Then I cross the road, which is actually a struggle for me since I am not very used to the pedestrians not being yielded like in the States. Those cars will be pretty angry at you if you try to take over the road.
Then I continue following the sidewalk for a bit, passing a couple restaurants/bars, the castle mound, a few more shops. I reach the bridge at this point, which I always love watching the punts. I can’t imagine going punting in cold weather, but there are always people there!
As soon as I walk across the bridge, the livelier part of town starts showing. There are a lot of people walking, stores and restaurants everywhere, and a lot of huge buses. Not to mention bicycle users EVERYWHERE! I mentioned this in an earlier post, but bikes are a very used form of transportation here than compared to the US.

Look at all of those bikes that are parked there!

Once I’m walking on the street you can see above, I know that I’m close to the city centre. In the middle of the city centre, I usually hear performers singing or playing instruments. Today, I decided to take a little detour and drop by the market.

So many of them!

The market is open every day until 5 pm. It has so many shops with a huge variety of materials. Some have typical things like clothes and accessories. But there are some really creative ones like accessories made from materials inside a clock, or wine holders made from aluminum. There are markets all around Europe, (or at least the places I’ve been to so far) and I always love seeing the creative inventions that are made.
Here is another view of the market.

After strolling through the market, I turned the corner down to a street and entered the Lion Yard mall. This is a really neat mall because although it is technically not an outdoors mall, the ceiling is so high and open that it feels like it.
Surprisingly, this is where the library is at. Yep, inside a mall!

You might think it’s pretty small considering it being inside a mall, but it’s actually quite large and cozy. It also has 3 stories!
There’s plenty of tables and chairs, although most times that I’ve been there it’s been pretty occupied. I guess the English people must like to utilize their public libraries!
There’s always a broad range of people there. I see older people reading newspapers or working on crosswords, and sometimes I would see kids who look like they are in middle school. Of course a majority seem to be students and adults but there are times when I see a bunch of adorable children too.
It’s really a comfortable environment to get work done and is a nice way to get out of the centre sometimes.
For those of you planning or thinking of coming to Cambridge, I would highly recommend using this library! Getting a library card is free (:
Well, I hope you guys enjoyed my “tour” to the library and the next time you hear from me will probably be about the Castles Weekend. I can’t wait for it!!

Cheers!

"Campus" map.

The University Experience in Germany

November 13, 2012 / / 0 Comments

So….where to begin?

First of all, trying to figure out which courses to take is no small task. There isn’t a course catalog that you can look at and read all about the courses and figure out which ones are really interesting. There isn’t even something similar that exists. All of the courses are online. They are organized according to the faculty or school, such as medicine, law, philosophy, Protestant theology, Catholic theology, et cetera, and then under each general category there are categories arranged to the difficulty/level/size of the class. Then under these categories you can find a class that you might want to take, except most of the courses have no descriptions, so you basically have to guess what the course is like. This means that you should pick a lot of classes, and then visit each one to figure out which ones you do and don’t want to take. This leads to our next interesting thing about German universities….the first lecture.

Before I move on to lectures, I have to mention that this year in Baden-Württemberg there is a so-called “Doppeljahrgang” taking place, because of changes in the educational system within the state. This means that the equivalent of two classes are being accepted  for one year. Basically, the state took all juniors and seniors (because one year of school was eliminated before college) and shoved them into one year. Two years ago (2010/2011 school year)  there were 25, 500 students enrolled. Now there are over 27,100 students. That’s a very big difference for any university to accommodate, not to mention that you have that much more people competing for apartments and dormitory spaces.

Since there are so many students, and since everyone wants to visit a lot of lectures in order to pick one that they want, maybe you can imagine what the first lecture will be like…or maybe I should just use a visual aid from a friend’s class (stole it from her Facebook profile)…

"8 a.m. lecture. I got a seat! Woohoo."

Now, I know what you might be saying…”This is a small room in the first place!”. However, even in one of the biggest lecture halls, with more than 100 seats, people were actually sitting on the floor and standing in the back of the classroom. I was fortunate to get a seat, though. Another thing about lecture that is different than Valpo is the length. Most classes at Valpo are either 1 hour and 15 minutes or shorter. Meanwhile, all of my lectures are 1 hour and 30 minutes. You are bound to be uncomfortable, especially if you show up 30 minutes early to get a good seat for the big lectures.

Let’s move on to the “campus” layout. Let’s take a look at the campus map…

"Campus" map.

There actually isn’t a real campus. The university buildings are spread all over the city of Tübingen, so when you get a map of the various university buildings, you literally get a map of the city. A large amount of the students are forced to take a bus to class, especially if they live in the southern part of the city. Now I don’t think anyone at Valpo can complain about walking across campus…ever. There are some students that actually leave lecture early just so they can get to their next class on time. I don’t take a bus, because I don’t mind walking across the city, but maybe that will change when it starts snowing. Speaking of which…we don’t have as many breaks as Valpo. We basically have Christmas break (no Thanksgiving here, of course), and one big semester break (about three months).

I suppose the last thing that I can quickly mention about university here, is that there basically isn’t homework (except for reading). Also, there is usually only one test at the end of the semester for each course, and (maybe) a huge writing assignment. I think that’s basically all of the differences.

One last thing about the structure of the classrooms….they are all really long and not very wide, but it’s the opposite in the US. I just find that a little weird, because some students are basically very far away from the board and professor.

Until next time…

Lunch at Schloss Meersburg.

Excursions to Bodensee and Stuttgart

November 9, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I am rather behind on my blogging, but , as promised, I will talk about the great day-trip I had with the Deutsch-Kompakt course. I might as well talk about Stuttgart, too. We went to the Bodensee at the end of September, so it was sunny, and the Alps were clearly visible from where we were. Before we actually got to the waterfront, though, we visited a rococo church, which looked rather ordinary on the outside, but it was ridiculous (!) on the inside. I actually thought it was gaudy.

Birnau, the gaudy rococo church.

After the rococo church, we went to the “Pfahlbaumuseum”, which was a museum about houses that stood on pillars over the water. It is easiest to just show a picture…

Pfahlbaumuseum

Of course the museum wasn’t that interesting for everybody. What everyone did like was our penultimate destination, Meersburg. We had lunch together in front of palace, which was located on the waterfront (with a view of the Alps), before we had a tour of a castle, and some wandering-around time.

Lunch at Schloss Meersburg.

View of the Alps from Schloss Meersburg (where we ate lunch).

Then we got on a ferry and headed to Konstanz, where we spent the rest of the day. Unfortunately, at this point in the day it turned windy and cold, but we mostly just walked around the city for a while before the group had dinner together.

A week and a half later….Stuttgart. The first thing we did in Stuttgart was the Mercedes-Benz Museum, of course. I thought it was kind of interesting. I went through the whole museum in about an hour (including taking photos). It isn’t something I would necessarily do more than once.

Mercedes-Benz Museum

There were a lot of interesting cars of course…

One of the older models...

For you Jurassic Park lovers...

…and a lot of information about their vehicles…

I never really understood how someone is supposed to know which one is...

After the museum we arrived in the main part of the city. We went to the Markthalle and looked at all of the interesting foods that one can buy there. Then people went their separate ways for food or shopping. The main event of the day was going to the Stuttgart Ballet. We saw “Don Quijote”, which I never knew was a ballet, but apparently it is. That was how concluded our long day in Stuttgart before we boarded to bus to go home.

Opera and Ballet House in Stuttgart

Next time I will talk about how going to school in a German Uni is different than Valpo, and believe me…it is.

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