Valpo Voyager

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跟小朋友们玩

October 17, 2012 / gloriallenos / 0 Comments

During our time in Hangzhou, we have been fortunate enough to have many natives and locals help us around while we are here. One professor named Cherry has been especially helpful, basically showing us the ropes and answering any questions we may have since the day we arrived. This past Saturday, Cherry’s daughter and her class invited all of H-23 to hang out with them! Finally, some people whose level of Chinese is about the same with mine! (though theirs is still better obviously) So we grabbed some taxis and made our way to the other campus, which was actually very reminiscent of Valpo for me. Cherry herself said so as well- maybe it was how spread out things were and the beautiful outdoor scenery (though I do think this campus beat out Valpo…)

The pretty campus scenery~

Once we arrived the children (about 10-11 years old) shyly greeted us. At first they mostly kept to each other and would giggle or whisper excitedly about the foreigners visiting them. We all started off bouncing a volleyball around in a circle, sort of like an icebreaker to show the kids that we were here to have fun with them. Soon enough, game after game ensued and we ended up having a lot of fun with the kids! We played badminton, jumped rope and even had a three-legged race. There was also a game where everyone sat in a circle and played a game of hot potato. Once you lost, you had to stand up and either sing, dance, show a talent or speak Chinese/English [obviously not the one that is your first language].

The kids had a blast with the jump rope!

Almost everybody lost. There was everything from Tai Chi demonstration to beat boxing. What more can you ask for? Seriously though, it was so much fun being able to just relax and spend time with the kids. Once they felt comfortable, they were more than willing to play games with you or make small talk. It was a good opportunity for H-23 to have an active day as well.. we have been missing sports severely!! And while our campus has a lot of areas where you can play different sports, we have just been overall too busy/slightly lazy. So I think it was a good opportunity for both parties! (Note: In case you wondering, the title of this post is “跟小朋友们玩” (gen xiao pengyoumen wan)/ “Playing with the kids”)

...so did our big kids.

Rollin’ in the new

October 15, 2012 / Micaela Johnston / 1 Comment

I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated, but things have been a bit topsy-turvy here so I’ll just highlight a few things.

Last Saturday our group went to Isla Negra which is not actually an island, but the name of one of the houses of Pablo Neruda. When we arrived, we had to wait for our tour at 3, so we got lunch and then went out to the ocean. The day was grey and cool, but that almost added to the feel; the ash grey sky with the steel blue ocean and the bright white foam of the waves that came rolling into the ominously black rocks that made up the shore.

: The beach at Isla Negra

When we walked over to the house/museum for our tour, we noticed a lot of what looked like governmental cars outside. It was the president of Ireland visiting the house of Pablo Neruda! Being a poet himself, he gave a speech as to how Pablo Neruda has influenced him and the world for the better. Though I didn’t get to meet the president himself, I talked to a few of his bodyguards. I love Irish accents.

Finally after the speech and interviews, we went on our tour. We weren’t allowed to take pictures indoors, but the house was meant to be as if you were living on a boat. The doorways were low, everything was made of wood, and the views from the bay windows were spectacular. Pablo had a lot of collections; unique shells, pipes, colorful glasses, miniature ships in bottles, and of course, figureheads (the carved statues of typically woman that go on the front of ships). The entire place was so beautiful and it was easily seen how someone could write poetry in a place like that.

Another big topic: my host family. I changed host families just yesterday. My old host family and I were never on the same schedule and it became difficult to live in a house that seemed always empty when I was there. I had been spending a lot of time, therefore, outside of the house enjoying time with friends and exploring Viña more, specifically spending more time with my friend Olivia and her host family. It was strange how naturally we all melded together, and I began to notice that I really loved spending time with them. Olivia told me that whenever I would leave, they would always ask her when I would be coming back; I felt a part of their lives already.

Then a few days ago, they asked me if I wanted to stay and live with them. Being that I wasn’t completely satisfied in my other host family, I was more than willing to make the change to a more active and comfortable place, but I felt bad and didn’t want to offend my original host family. They explained to me that these things happen and people switch around all the time; it’s normal. So after talking to my host family and the director, I moved my things yesterday into my new room with my new roommate, Olivia. What a difference it’s made already! I have Oscar and Christopher (my Chilean host brothers), Scott (gringo brother), and then of course Olivia (gringa sister) along with my new host parents (who I call Mamá and Papá instead of their first names) and Basilio (a very good family friend who’s secretly a superhero and can do basically anything and is teaching me Portuguese). I feel so appreciated here and there’s always someone to talk to; I think it’s safe to say I made the right decision.

: Dancing in the streets; bailando en las calles

After putting all of my things in my new room, we rushed out to enjoy the rest of the sunshine, Oscar, Olivia and I went to a festival called Mil Tambores. It’s basically a bunch of bands of drummers parading around the streets of Valparaíso. People painted their faces and bodies, dressed up in costume, and brought their own drums to join in on the celebration. They walked on stilts, performed tricks with fire, played Capoeira. There were plenty of beats, chants, singing, and of course, dancing. We danced with the brigades on the shoreline for miles through the sunset and into the night chanting along with the community that was there. It was absolutely incredible.

Now I’m sitting in my almost completed room (just missing a few pictures on the walls) in front of a window spilling sunshine and relaxing before I start my homework. Isn’t life just a peach?

Ciao! Scusi? Grazie!

October 11, 2012 / ayatakahashi / 0 Comments

Those 3 words were probably used a billion times during my 6 day trip to Italy last week.
Now let me just tell you, Italy was absolutely amazing!
I didn’t realize though, that English was not very prominent in Verona where 2 other group members and I decided to stay at.
We learned Ciao pretty quickly since we heard it everywhere. It’s neat that it can be used both as hello and good bye. How convenient is that?

I personally was a little spoiled in thinking that I would only need to know ciao (hello/bye), scusi (excuse me), and grazie (thank you) in order to make it through my week just fine – I had assumed that English would be pretty well spoken there.
I was wrong.
As soon as we got to our B&B where we stayed for 4 nights, we realized our assumption was wrong. The B&B was more like experiencing a stay with a host family. It was a large, beautiful home owned by an old Italian couple. And they spoke barely any English. This was a problem to us since the city centre of Verona was actually about a 25 minute car ride away and we couldn’t figure out how to get there at first. However, the couple were such sweethearts (we decided to call them our host grandpa and host grandpa amongst ourselves!) and they appreciated every effort we made in speaking Italian.

The first night that we flew in to Italy, we were all so exhausted that we didn’t do a whole a lot. But on the second day there, we had planned to take a day trip to Venice! At the Verona train station, we met up with 3 other more members of our C-90 group and all 6 of us headed to Venice together. Being in Venice was a bit more of a relief since the language barrier wasn’t as big here. Most shopkeepers came up to talk to us in English, and flatter us so that we will buy their things haha. None of us had specific monuments or buildings that we wanted to see in Venice; we all just wanted to wonder around and take it all in. And Venice was just absolutely beautiful. It really is a town that’s floating on water, and the houses are all so colorful and adorable!

I’m not a huge fan of tourist-y areas, but Venice gave you the feeling of home but at the same time it was a complete foreign place. It really was a magical time being there!

On the second and third days, we spent it in Verona.
The bus system from our B&B (Negrar, Italy) to Verona was very confusing and we didn’t really understand it during our entire stay there. But we did figure out how to get to Verona’s city centre so that was a relief. Verona was also another adorable city. It didn’t seem as ancient as Venice, but still had the look of having long history behind it. Although the buildings were older, there was a main street with lots of modern stores, mostly for clothing and accessories. Those were definitely fun to window shop at (:

A group of us decided to go see a castle on top of a hill, and the view was absolutely beautiful! It was a long way up, but definitely worth it. Not to mention we also got a little bit of nice, warm sun!

On our 4th morning, we bid adieu (or ciao in our case) to our host grandparents to head to Florence. Even though we didn’t get to have long conversations with them, we were able to communicate in bits and pieces and that was such a great feeling. Going to a country not knowing the language, but still being able to connect to someone can bring such happy feelings!
I decided to travel to Florence by myself while the group left a little bit before me because of train situations. It was only traveling by train, but it was a great feeling traveling by myself in a foreign country. The other group members made sure I was okay, and we met up once I got to Florence. Now Florence was a little different that Venice and Verona. It has a bit more contemporary feel to it. The buildings looked a bit different and there were many more English speaking people. My highlight in Florence was probably seeing the duomo. There were so many intricate details on the building I couldn’t even imagine someone creating it.

I only spent about 3 hours there but it was great. That night we headed to Pisa, our final destination.
On our final day, we spent the day in Pisa. Of course we had to go see the Leaning Tower. And it really was leaning! I didn’t realize this, but there were also 2 other church related buildings right next to the leaning tower.

We were all pretty tired this day since we had to carry around our heavy backpacks. There was a nice patch of green grass next to the leaning tower of Pisa and we decided to take an advantage of that and laid out and enjoyed the almost 80s weather. I’d like to think that I was able to get a bit of tan on! The weather was absolutely beautiful and it was such a great moment and the best way to end our amazing week at Italy.

I was able to see some beautiful buildings, views, and adorable houses during my trip and also learn the struggles of a language barrier which was a great experience for me. I enjoyed every minute of my stay in Italy and I definitely want to go back again! Next time, I will hopefully know a little more Italian though (:

Cheers until next time!

Aya

Deutsch-Kompakt Kurs and Ulm

So, the last couple of weeks have been crazy with the Deutsch-Kompakt Kurs (the orientation program here that runs for five weeks). We have been doing a lot of traveling, tests, and group projects to wrap up the end of the program. Some people have said goodbye and gone back home or elsewhere in Europe, because they were only here to improve their German skills, but the rest of us are looking forward to the beginning of university classes here. We are not looking forward to a new hectic schedule, though. That is something to talk about in the future however. Let’s talk about what’s been happening the last couple of weeks here in Tübingen, or elsewhere on one of the many excursions. First up….Ulm. Ulm is a great city. A majority of it was destroyed during the second world war, so most of the architecture is not exactly what you would expect in a city that is more than 1,100 years old (yes, 1,100!). However, one can experience a very interesting blend of the modern buildings and the Gothic style of the Ulmer-Münster (Ulm Minster), which is obviously the focus of the city (both visually, since it is the tallest church in the world, and for tourists).

The church literally towers over everything in the city!

Making your way to the very top of this church is a challenge, even for the physically fit. I do not recommend that you try to do this if you have a fear of heights!Going to very top of the church offers some great views, but it is most likely to be windy and cold too. The very last part of the climb is a very narrow spiral staircase. It is actually so narrow that I was stuck at the top lookout for a while since so many people were trying to come up and nobody was able to go down. The whole experience was worth it, though, because I got to look at the amazing view (even though it was a cloudy day). You all should visit Ulm. It’s a great city.

The spiral staircase leading to the very top...

In my next entry, I will talk about the group trip to the Bodensee!

Museums of Paris: Un petit goût

October 7, 2012 / Gregory Maher / 0 Comments

Paris is a city of culture, undoubtedly, but how does one judge that culture? There is the food, of course, the people, their mannerisms, the language, the buildings, and then, there are the museums. Museums, as I perceive, those institutions that center their interest on a topic (be it medieval tapestries, art deco furniture, or contemporary installations) and attempt to find some connection/significance between the objects/information displayed, and the visitor. And so I am fascinated by the manner in which museums attempt to create this connection, instill significance, or simply make their visitors marvel. There are two trends I especially noted, the first being the general lack of analysis and interpretation of art or artifacts- this is something I certainly appreciate. The other is that museums either display their artifacts in a completely black atmosphere (in vitrines lit from within), or showcase their works in completely white, well-lit galleries. What a contrast. So here I will describe many of the museums I have visited thus far, and my impressions.
Cinémathèque Française: Modern, an intriguing building from the exterior. Magical, the permanent exhibition, like walking through a dream. The vitrines are lit from the interior, there are clips of audio and snippets of film projected or playing on all corners of the black space. The collections are organized not by time period, but by theme, be it Russo-Germanic avant-garde or early collectors of moving photographs. Fascinating, and I need to return for their cinema, which has a regular schedule of cinematic gems.
Musée d’Orsay: Fantastic collection of Impressionist works, organized by theme or artist as much as time period, but the density of grand works makes no single one better than another. This is how Impressionism should be displayed. It’s interesting too, that the converted train station (a symbol of industry, smoke, movement) has become a peaceful white, and quite elegant space for exhibition.
Centre Pompidou: So cool, I would spend days here. All white walls, it shows the progression of movements from modern to contemporary, which is quite helpful from an art history perspective. My favorite room is the studio-apartment of André Breton, father of Surrealism, artist, and collector. The single wall recreating his studio is replete with African and Oceanic masks, works of fellow artists, sculptures, exquisite rocks, stuffed animals, shrunken heads, ornate furniture- a vast colloquium from which to derive inspiration.

Mur d'Atelier d'André Breton (not my picture)

Musée de Quai Branly: Ethnographic drama, sculptures and masks floating, glowing in a completely black museum. I loved it, and it felt modern, not stale like certain ethnographic rooms at the Field Museum. Also, there is little to no interpretation regarding the artifacts, leaving you often to imagine their function (though there are a number of videos and images that show use for more modern masks or artifacts). I have never quite seen ethnographic objects displayed as such, and I’m quite pleased with the way they make such important artifacts interesting and important in their own right. The exterior of the museum is intriguing, composed of a forested campus (more like a jungle with small walkways) that you must traverse to get from one part of the museum to another. The part of the building directly facing the Seine is actually composed of vegetation, growing straight off the multi-story wall. At night, glowing light rods spread throughout the grounds illuminate the dark vegetation, accompanied by well-hidden speakers that play (slightly unnerving, but really cool) jungle noises. I loved this museum.

Mummy's skull, gold leaf

Sculpture, skeleton motif

Musée de Quai Branly, exterior

Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris: This museum pales in comparison to the Centre Pompidou, its open spaces home to but a few contemporary installations and works. It almost feels like the space is filled with the leftovers of Palais Tokyo and Centre Pompidou. Not really worth my time. Certain exhibitions, though, were very interactive, including such aspects as adding your height to an installation (solely composed of the names and heights of visitors), or being able to press buttons and see and hear live feeds from major subway systems around the world.

Height "installation"

Musée du Chocolat: This museum is new, and has a bof (expression of indifference) exhibition showing how cacao is grown and harvested and made into chocolate. The cool part of this museum is the interactive aspect, where one first watches the chocolatier make pralines using a machine (it takes as much expertise on his part as on the part of the machine) as it would be made in a factory. Then we participated in a workshop, where a traditionally trained chocolatier assisted us in making our own pralines, a very smooth and detailed process, which we found out in attempting to replicate the chocolatier’s actions. Despite our untrained efforts, we walked away with a bag of pralines made by our very own hands!

Making Pralines

The view from our hotel entrance

Fun in the sun

October 5, 2012 / gloriallenos / 0 Comments

I’ve just returned to my dorm after a longgg day of traveling. Today, starting from about 11AM, I took three taxis, two ferry rides, one bus ride, one train and one bullet train to get back to sweet Hangzhou, ringing up 9 hours of traveling. “Wait, going back to Hangzhou?” you may ask (or may not, but just play along). Well, these past few days, Zhejiang University students were fortunate enough to have a week-long break from their harsh days of studying. H-23 quickly took advantage of this break to travel to take a five day vacation to Shanghai/Xiushan Island.

I can confidently say that I absolutely love Shanghai. I think part of it is the fact that it really is a sister city of Chicago- just the feeling of being surrounding by tall buildings and city lights was amazing. However, as much as I love Chicago, Shanghai definitely has one feature that beats Chicago: the Bund. The bund is basically many historical buildings lined up along the river. What makes it special is simply how gorgeous the area is at night time. It really was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen- I don’t know why, but I’ve always been in love with city lights and skylines. At night, the colorful lights from the buildings across the bund reflect off of the water and create an amazing sight. In addition, different boats with bright lights pass by and add even more color to the dark night. Hundreds of people gather in the bund area to view the breathtaking scenery, and I stood with them that night. Honestly, I could have stayed there for hours. Pictures won’t do the sight justice, but it doesn’t hurt to share.

The gorgeous sight at night.

The next night, we went to the Shanghai Acrobatic Show: ERA. I had high expectations walking into the show, and my expectations were definitely exceeded. I won’t spoil it for you because it really is something you should see in person, but I will say that there are just so many moments of pure thrill and awe. There were actually moments when I had to hide my eyes behind my hands because it seemed like they were pushing the “thrill limit”. However, overall, it was definitely an enjoyable show. No pictures were allowed, so unfortunately I can’t share any with you..but if anything, that should be more encouragement to go see the show! If you are ever in Shanghai, please check it out! You definitely will not regret it.

So after Shanghai, H-23 split up into two mini groups: half of the group headed back to Hangzhou to relax, and another group headed to Xiushan Islands. I, of course, headed to the island for some fun in the sun. It was actually slightly nerve wrecking, as this was our first trip that we were planning completely on our own without depending on our professor. He headed back with the other half of H-23, so the rest of us four planned our own mini-vacation. There were a few bumps in the road- we took a ferry from Shanghai to Daishan island and planned to take another ferry to Xiushan, however we missed the last one, so we had to stay a night on Daishan. And though it wasn’t planned, I’m sure glad it happened. We had some delicious sea food by the water, surrounded by locals enjoying the cool night breeze. The next day, we headed for Xiushan island…and once we arrived to the island, we realized something: people on the island actually speak a different dialect than the standard 普通话 (Putonghua)/Mandarin Chinese that we have been learning. It was slightly difficult communicating with the island natives, but in the end, we got by just fine. Other than that, everything else seemed to be great. Our hotel was beautiful- it really went for the tourist “island feel”, with white and wooden decorated rooms. Little tropical like flowers were scattered as decoration throughout the hotel. And only a few steps away was the beach! Since China’s waters are not exactly the cleanest, we didn’t quite go swimming or anything like that. But we took lots of pictures, admired the beautiful scenery and played around in the sand (I even learned how to skip rocks!).

Valpo and H-23's mark on Xiushan island

Having fun at the beach!

The view from our hotel entrance

So this morning marked our last day on the island. We had a delicious meal, enjoying the island’s fresh seafood. Afterwards, we lazed about the beach one last time and enjoyed our last moment of relaxation. And its a good thing we did…because once we left, we didn’t realize just how much time it would take to get back to Hangzhou! All in all, we had a great mini-vacation for our break here in China.

Did you all check out the Mid-Autumn Festival back in VU? In China, people celebrate the occasion by attending festivals and celebrating with friends and family. Unfortunately I didn’t do anything big to celebrate it here, though I did eat a mooncake! Yummy. Anyway, if you didn’t check it out this year, definitely go next year! I always enjoy myself at the event VU holds, enjoying Chinese music and snacks. It’s a good way to become more familiar with the culture as well.

The 9 hours of travel are starting to weigh me down. Time for bed! Talk to you guys soon.

Machismo.

October 5, 2012 / Micaela Johnston / 0 Comments

Disclaimer: I’ve loved my experience here and the people and the culture, but this is just something that goes along with it. It’s very rare, but still happens.

Yesterday, our UVM team was supposed to have 2 games: the first against the girls of the Naval base in Viña, the second against the University of Valparaiso.

We got to our first game where the field was located midst the training and living facilities of the Navy men who, as you might imagine, all stayed to watch us play. I ended up scoring the first two of the twelve goals as we claimed our victory 12-0.

After the game, we all boarded the van to take us to our next game in Valparaiso. It was only going to be 20 minutes per half as it was a celebration of an inauguration of the new field they had built, but it was still going to be a serious game for us. The University of Valparaiso was the only team the girls had lost to last semester in a very very tight game. When we arrived, we all rushed to the locker room to listen to the coach’s field assignments and the starters dressed themselves in the university’s white/away jerseys. After the main ceremony, we took the field, warming up with team passing games and a few drills.

After a while, we saw the men warming up. They were supposed to be playing after us, so we supposed they were just warming up early…really early. When we saw the officials, the starters ran to the locker room again to change out of the away jerseys into the majestic, red jerseys; the home jerseys. Then we all gathered to hear the coach’s motivational words once more to get us all ready to take the field to play. All the team gathered in the center of the field to do our grito (cheer) and we took our positions, ready to go…but the Valparaiso team was still huddled talking to the officials. The men were still practicing.

A few moments later the team manager came over to us looking seriously agitated and upset and told us to pack up our stuff; we were leaving.

Turns out that the men’s teams were going to play first. Even though both of the women’s teams were ready and we had the right to play first, they let the men play simply because they preferred to play first. They told us we could wait and play after, but at this point it was already late and we had been offended enough. As we were exiting, the crowd was confused and whistled loudly (which here means something along the lines of “what the heck!”) and even began to chant “Let the girls play!” The mayor of Valparaiso was there, and he did nothing.

So the men got to play, and we left. We weren’t going to wait around for the men to finish their game in order for the women to be able to play; we weren’t going to take that kind of disrespect. They had invited us to go over to their new field and play, when we could have said no but we gathered all of our players and took van to be able to play in honor of their new field. On top of that, we were there warming up and getting motivated for almost an hour beforehand but because the men felt they had the right to play first, they kicked us, the women, out.

This my friends is typical Chilean machismo. Uncommon, but still exists.

Still makes me angry, but there’s nothing that can be done about it now. Chile is making steps towards equality between men and women, but obviously, still needs work. I know the women on my team and I will not be allowing this type of disrespect and little by little we can get diminish the existence ofmachismo in this country.

You win some, you lose some.

October 2, 2012 / Micaela Johnston / 0 Comments

La Campana is a National Park about an hour and a half away from Viña del mar. It has over 8,000 acres of beautiful landscape and even differing climates depending on where you go in the park, and the group of UVM international students was taken to Las Palmas.

It all started at 8am on Saturday morning. They seem to like doing events on Saturday mornings when everyone is still tired from Friday nights. I happened to be a victim of this sleepiness when I arrived to take the bus with the group on Saturday with the other students. Olivia and I didn’t get back to her house until 5am the night (morning?) before, because Chileans love to dance and I mean they absolutely love to; it’s very typical that they’ll dance all night until 5 or 6 in the morning. In fact, I left Ovo on Thursday night at 3:30am and people were shocked and kept asking me why I was leaving so early. Well anyway, so we get to Olivia’s house at 5am, I spent the night (which ended up being an hour and a half of sleep) and then we gathered our things to wait for the bus. Olivia and I had deceivingly high amounts of energy but still attempted to power nap our way through the bus ride there.

When we arrived, our guides introduced themselves and we started our adventures. Guillermo, the main guide, explained a few of the aspects of the park as we went along. A majority of the trek consisted of sweat, dirt, hills, and photo opps; it was awesome.

Olivia and I; the world is our toaster.

We saw wild horses which was something unexpected but so incredible. They were purely free and galloped around the park. Even saw a momma and its baby. I made friends with a small colorful caterpillar who we named Jorge.

La Campana

Most of the time, people would be chatting among themselves, but a lot of the time I couldn’t even bear to talk; the scenery around me was breath-taking that at times I would be so captured I couldn’t speak at all. This seems to happen a lot here in general. Chile is simply indescribable.

coco!

When we stopped for lunch in the midst of the dense part of the palm trees, I felt like I was in Jurassic Park. We sat in the fresh green spring grass, ate our home-packed lunches, and relaxed. Olivia and I, still having energy, decided to find cocos which are basically miniature coconuts that you crack open and eat. They’re delicious and thus, a little hard to find sometimes. Little animals like to eat them, so you have to search underneath fallen palm branches and such to find some. Olivia and I ended up finding a ton (her more than me; she’s a pro) and shared them with the other students caught by the lazy fever.

We then played a big group version of rock-paper-scissors which was oso-hombre-arma (bear, human, gun). It was the Americans versus everyone else from all other parts of the world. I don’t remember if we won, lost, or tied…but it was fun nonetheless. Then we attempted to make a pyramid which ended up being huge! I love this group of international students. It’s so cool being able to bond with so many different kinds of people from everywhere.

Then Guillermo lead us a little further and then back to the home base where we had started. On the way back, I was talking with one of the other guides, Italo, who said he could teach me how to surf. Sweet!

In all, it took 5 hours, but it was all so incredible! Then the bus ride back, everyone fell asleep, completely dead to the world. Great reward after a great success of a day. I’d say this was a win.

The next day, I went to a soccer game between la Universidad Católica and Colo Colo (professional soccer teams here; not university teams despite the name). I was with my “brother” from La Calera, Oscar, and his friends who are all also fans. They had rented out a micro (bus) specifically take us to the game in Santiago and back. We also took random stops along the way to throw out garbage from the food and drinks we had on the micro (because we couldn’t take anything into the stadium). I learned a lot of chants for the Cruzados on the way, and proceeded to belt them out during the game.

Before we were even allowed to enter, however, our things were checked out by the police. They have a lot of strict rules for soccer here, one of them included the size of flag you’re allowed to have in the stadium; my Valpo flag was too big. So after putting that back on the bus, I was greeted at the entrance by people passing out little pamphlet reminders of the violence laws in Chile.

: El estadio de los Cruzados/The stadium of the Crusaders

Then started the game. I had never been to a professional soccer game before, much less one in South America, so it was quite the experience. There was constant yelling, singing, and swearing all around me. The energy was unlike anything; especially with the game being as horrible as it was, when the fans were mad, they were mad. It ended up that the Cató made a ton of shots and played much better, but simply didn’t make any goals whereas Colo only had a few opportunities but made their goals within them. It was painful to watch, but nonetheless I loved being there.

We got back on the micro, and at first everyone was talking poorly about the referees and how horrible the game was but then they continued with the chants. I asked one of them why, especially since our team lost. They told me that they have passion for the team, the game, the sport. Some even had tattoos for the Universidad Católica; all I knew was that they really got into it which was really cool to see. We sang for almost the entire 2 hour ride and celebrated life as it was.

Monday, I found out I had 3 soccer games this week. Also on Monday, I injured my ankle. Funny how life works sometimes.

Tuesday, today, I had to face the bet I had made on Sunday’s game. One of my classmates, a colocolino (Colo Colo fan) brought his jersey for me to wear for the day. He said he was going to take a picture to remember this moment in history, but luckily he forgot 🙂 a win inside a lose! Nice…but I still have to wear it…

But now, I’m off to my game to support my team on the sidelines and wait until Thursday hopefully to get my chance to prove myself on the field.

TTFN (Ta Ta For Now!)

The Infamous North

October 1, 2012 / samanthafrisk / 0 Comments

We were lucky enough to travel to the north a few weeks ago to attend the wedding of one of our professor’s. We’ve been told that nearly 50% of Namibians are from “the North” which tends to mean anything about Windhoek (which is actually in the middle of Namibia). Regardless, nearly every one I talk to says this is where they’re from so I was extremely excited to see this notorious place!

After months of seeking approval from relatives, Romanus, our professor, and his fiancé, Katarina were finally getting married in the city of Ongwediva. So we made the 10 hour trip through the country (which was really nice) and we stayed at the Rural Development Centre where we got to see some of the new technologies they’re working on to help farmers and improve sanitation.

The wedding was comprised of a traditional Christian service and hints of tribal rituals. The bride wore the big white dress and veil, there were bridesmaids and groomsmen, and they went through a typical Catholic ceremony with church service following. Thought it was entirely in Oshiwambo, I still picked up on many aspects, like recognizing the tune to “Praise the Lord.”

The most exciting part was that you got to relive the reception the very next night, because there are two! They were in Okatana and Onampira , one in the grooms home village and the other in the brides. At each there were a couple of different rituals, but one that seemed like a lot of fun to me was the giving of gifts. Everyone got in a line and danced and shouted in excitement on their way to the bride and groom. After these ended, we had lots of food, even cow intestine, and on the second night had a blast dancing with a group of kids, but it was strange to us that not many people danced at these receptions and the DJ ended soon after dinner.

We also spent time at the local trade fair, which was a lot like many of the local fairs we students are used to. There were vendors from all over Namibia selling tractors, handmade goods, and other accessories, lots of food, booths for government departments and also university advertisers. So we bought a few of our favorite pieces and had lunch. “Black and Yellow” came on while we were eating and the Pittsburgher in me got really excited.

I noticed here and in many parts of the north that people are curious about our being here and often stare. For the most part if you smile and wave it’s received fairly well, but a few times people just continued to stare and I had to brush it off. I also had to realize that white people were really uncommon in this area and I can imagine that people who are “different” in the United States are also stared at—it’s humbling to be on the other side some times and I think throughout this trip I might need to get used to it.

Finally, we headed to Etosha National Park! It’s a fenced in park where animals roam and within it there are places where people can camp. The park is almost 9,000 square miles and includes elephants, rhinos, giraffes, zebras, lions, springbok, kudus, so many types of birds, and many other animals. The first evening we arrived in a camping ground called Halali and had a braai (barbecue). There was something really homey about a being with the group, taking the time to prepare the food and then roasting marshmallows for smores (using the can opener as your stick). Overall being at the park was comforting.

We slept at another park called Okaukeujo the second night. A few of us went swimming and in the evening relaxed by a waterhole where you could watch the animals. This was definitely my favorite part and I think the pictures will do a much better job of describing how amazing this place is. This park had a nice restaurant where we tried some Kudu and lamb, which some of us were a little turned off by after having watched Kudu a few hours before.

After one last game drive and some final views of the animals, we headed back to Windhoek to start our classes for the semester.

Hello Namibia!

October 1, 2012 / samanthafrisk / 0 Comments

My first thought was, Wow! Namibia is beautiful! It’s dry here, and was technically still winter when we first arrived, but the shades of grey and brown were surprisingly very pretty. On the drive to Windhoek, there were mountains in the distance, different types of trees everywhere, and we were out in the country so the sky was open and a gorgeous blue. The windy roads reminded me of home and it felt so nice to relax and stare out the window.

When we got to the house, things got even better. The house is really big for our small group of eight, but having the space is nice. There’s a pool, barbecue, and balcony outside. The neighborhood is nice and view is decent. There’s a lot of bushes and trees that have been blooming as we transition into summer and you can see the mountains far behind the houses. It’s within walking distance of downtown and we have already done some exploring. There are a lot of great cafes, restaurants, and craft markets. I ate at a German cultural center and it was delicious, then, met up with some other group members who were having Nutella crepes! We checked out some art studios, theaters parks and local malls too. There’s a backpackers hostile right across the street with a bar, pool, and fast internet (its best selling point). We met some fun locals there and I think it’s going to be a regular hang out of ours.

One of our professors, Linda Raven, gave us an broad tour of Windhoek and described its subdivisions to us. It’s directly comparable to Johannesburg and Soweto—there are clearly areas that are mostly wealthy whites and poor areas that are entirely black, specifically a township called Katutura.

We were shown around this by a group of students our age (The Young Achievers) that run a program called the Kasie Tours. The group is awesome. It is solely student run and they aim to empower youth through setting educational and professional goals. They have several branches around Namibia, set up conferences, have done international visits, and even show around U.S. senators and ambassadors. All of this is organized, funded, and implemented by student volunteers—it’s amazing! They took different students to an art studio, a local church, and a radio station. We also hit up the local market for some kapana, meat that’s butchered and grilled as you order it.

There is still so much to see but I think it is going to be quite easy to call this place home for the next couple months.

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