Valpo Voyager

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Germany and Easter

Parents’ Visit

Two weeks before Easter, my parents, brother, and grandpa came to Zaragoza to visit me and go on vacation. This turned out to be a unique experience because my host mother invited them all over for lunch twice and as they don’t speak Spanish and my host mom and sister don’t speak English, I translated everything.

Sure, I’d translated things on the spot before but this was completely different because it was constant for about 2 hours each time. My headaches returned during those few days because I was being forced to think in two languages at the same time. I’m glad I got to do something like that, though, because it forced me to think more quickly in Spanish even though I spoke to the wrong person in the wrong language a few times. I guess that’s one of the perils that come with translating.

Germany

The week of Easter, I traveled with my family from Zaragoza to southwestern Germany to visit some family friends. My senior year of high school, we hosted an exchange student from Germany and we went to visit him and his family. The region we went to is known for its wine and that’s the primary industry there. The whole area is filled with small towns that are so close to each other that many times you can’t tell where one begins and the other ends.

Even though the area isn’t touristy, it has a really nice country atmosphere that’d be good to visit just to relax. I’m so glad I finally got to visit my “other family” as well as have my family visit me in Spain. It was sad to leave everyone in Germany but knowing that I’ll see them soon was comforting. While we were there, we also went to a larger city called Freiburg. It’s a little more touristy than out in the country but not much. It’s an interesting city with lots of typical German architecture and there are also little streams that run along the sides of all the streets that are often associated with Freiburg. I was told there are streams because they have a lot of springs under the ground and the water needs to go somewhere.

After returning to Zaragoza after speaking only English for a week and translating between the two the week before, my Spanish was much worse, needless to say. My host mom even told me that she noticed it was worse than before I left and understandably so. If I had forgotten that much after just 2 weeks, I shudder to think what my Spanish will be like after this next semester as I’m not taking another Spanish class until spring semester 2013.

If you’d like to follow more of my daily musings, I have a Twitter account and if you’d like to check up on my photos I also have a Picasa account.

This is the music collection of the flatmate. Ill be listening to it when I get home.

Italian Hospitality

April 29, 2012 / davidcyze / 0 Comments

(This post was written immediately following my trip to Naples, Italy.)

We have had rain every day but two. The forecast predicts rain for the final two days of our trip. Yet, even with all this precipitation, our trip has felt sunny. Besides, the rain has not been constant. It’s sunny right now, and the rolling Italian hills along with the sheep that populate them perfectly match the feeling of this trip. I can see grape orchards throughout the landscape; some are big and some are small. The small ones are likely owned by families who continue the tradition of making their own wine. The large ones are likely owned by corporations that make wine for the millions of Italians who moved away from their fields but still value their culture.

Traditions, especially those revolving around food, seem to be alive and well in Italy. When we arrived in Italy, Alaina and I were greeted with a traditional chocolate treat which our couch surfing host assured us was “made by old ladies.” He walked us to the best pizza place in town before giving us the key to his flat and heading off to work. After cleansing ourselves from the effect of two days travel without a shower, Alaina and I ordered two traditional pizzas for a grand total of seven euro fifty. The pizza chef was stationed behind a translucent glass counter in the fluorescent lit, unassuming restaurant. Delivery boys came and went every few minutes or so, carrying with them five freshly made pizzas. The chef could always be seen grabbing flour from the corner of his counter and then beating, tossing, and spreading it into freshly formed dough. When our pizzas came to us straight from the hot brick oven, I was surprised to see no more than a small handful of cheese thrown on one quarter of my quattro stagioni (four seasons) pizza. That’s just how they do things in Italy.

In Italy, even Burger King has pizza.

Hospitality has followed us throughout this trip. While riding a train we thought was heading towards Pompeei, two middle-aged women who only spoke Italian had an Italian student translate directions for Alaina and me once they learned of our intentions and subsequently discovered we were lost. Our conversation was an enjoyable, awkward-laugh filled exercise in tone and body-language comprehension, because the student translated only when it was absolutely necessary for practicality or the sake of a punch-line. As one of the ladies left, she gave Alaina a friendly pat on the head and said something in Italian. It was apparently humorous, because her new Italian friends laughed. Without knowing what she said, Alaina and I laughed too. Somehow, it felt wrong not to join in.

We almost made it.

After a long day of travel, we made our way back to our host’s flat and prepared ourselves to relax. We originally meant for two more pizzas to cap off our night, but when our host came home and offered us spaghetti, we decided to modify our plans. The kitchen soon filled with the smell of home-made sauces, and, after discussing American slang, Italian schools, and middle-aged women on trains, our stomachs were too. I asked what made up each of the sauces, and our host informed me he could only be sure of the ingredients of the sauce he made. The other was made by his mother, and she had yet to give him the secret recipe. Shortly after dinner, just before I had closed my eyes for the night, our host’s flatmate came home. He rushed into my room and informed Alaina and me that we were going to try his aunt’s homemade limoncello and chocolate liqueur. Unable to refuse, we sat down at the kitchen table and gulped down another dose of Italian hospitality. Our day had been brightened ten times over. When we left the next morning, it was only fitting that we were greeted with the sun.

This is the music collection of the flatmate. Ill be listening to it when I get home.

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Two Week Break (Pt 2)

April 25, 2012 / davidcyze / 0 Comments

Plitvice National Park, Slovenia:
This has undoubtedly been the most beautiful place I have ever seen. This type of natural beauty must be completely unique to this region. I didn’t even know lakes and waterfalls like this existed. We spent a day in the park, but probably only walked around half of it – and that’s with keeping to the trail 90% of the time. One of the themes of this trip seems to be, “Gee, it would have been nice to spend two or three days here.” The owner of our bed and breakfast took us to a small market where I got to buy some eggs. Great travel food. In fact, just a great food in general. Alaina and I went to a restaurant that was supposed to serve traditional Slovenian food. Britney Spears was playing on the radio.

Naples, Italy:
I was much more scared to arrive here than I should have been. Guide books made this place out to be the most uncivilized, dangerous, pickpocket haven on Earth. The town was a bit run down, but the people were extremely friendly. We couch surfed here and our host stopped to talk with at least three people on our short five minute walk to his flat. He directed us to an amazing pizza restaurant. Super cheap and super tasty. Our visit to Pompeii ended up not working out after we took the wrong train which then stalled on the tracks for an hour. Luckily, two older Italian women and a younger Italian student helped direct us to where we needed to go. That night we had more traditional food, and I began to really understand why Italians are known for being so familial.

Florence, Italy:
Bought an amazing leather jacket yesterday at the market. Apparently it’s one of the top ten things to do in Italy. It fits great and seems legitimate. I also bought two pairs of sunglasses. Those aren’t legitimate, but they are fun to have. When we first got here I bought a trolley to remedy my suitcase’s broken wheel. I had completely forgotten how nice it is to not have to carry a forty pound bag around when you’re in a hurry. Went on a pub crawl where we met some more Americans and got close with two girls from England. Had a bit of trouble getting home, but that’s half the fun. Woke up at seven today after getting less than four hours of sleep. Made it to the train. Somehow.

Venice, Italy:
Trip is drawing to a close, and I don’t think we could have picked a better place to end it. This city is beautiful. Hands-down, this is the place which most needs more than one day spent in it. We went to Murano, one of the cities many outlying islands, to look at the blown glass which it is famous for. We got there at six and most things close around seven or eight. This turned out to be bittersweet. There was so much to see that if we had gotten there earlier I’m sure we would have spent our entire day looking and the amazing blown glass and would have forgotten to visit the rest of the city. Street vendors are everywhere. It’s impossible to cross a bridge without being offered a counterfeit Gucci, Louis Vuitton, or Prada bag. The vendors seem to work together, because we saw a large group of them get on a bus boat together at the end of the day. Night-life here is non-existent. Probably because this place is the definition of a tourist town, and there aren’t enough locals to support any clubs.

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El Cierzo and London

April 24, 2012 / Jordan Harner / 0 Comments

The North Wind (El Cierzo)

Before I arrived, for some reason I had this idea that Spain was going to be so much warmer than Indiana but today I mentally put that notion to bed and completely gave up on it. The sun is shining today and there’s not a cloud in the sky. You would think with it being mid April it would be a fairly nice day but don’t be fooled: the wind here ruins everything. In reality it’s only in the upper 40s today but without the wind, it’d probably be at least 10 degrees warmer. I was warned about its strength before I arrived in Spain but I severely underestimated it.

There’s not a hint of a storm brewing but the wind is so strong there are multiple uprooted trees in the parks near my house. I was actually a bit afraid one was going to fall on my way back from school. The only way I can describe it is it feels like you’re on the top of a mountain and the wind is an invisible wall. So be warned, if there’s one thing someone should know about the weather here before arriving it’s that you never know what days the desert wind will come but you should always prepare for the worst and use lots of hairspray!

London

A while ago EB, another study abroad student from Valpo, and I visited London for a few days. We were able to fly out of the airport in Zaragoza which made traveling much easier. Ryanair, the only major carrier operating out of Zaragoza’s airport, threatened to cease operations if the Aragonese government didn’t give them more tax breaks/incentives so I’m glad Aragon did otherwise we would have had to take a 3 1/2 bus ride to Barcelona or Madrid. Anyway, London was fantastic but not quite what I’d exactly imagined.

Of course, we did the “touristy things” like go to Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and The London Eye among others but I also really enjoyed taking time out to just walk around and check out the area. It was lightly raining one day when we were walking along the River Thames and we happened to walk under a large bridge that had an outdoor antiques market. I bought a small tin print made in the 1700s of a destroyed abbey somewhere in England for a few pounds which I gave to my dad as a birthday present when he visited. That’s something you could only do in a place like London! Photos are forthcoming as soon as I get some sleep. We arrived back in Zaragoza from the Canary Islands this morning at 3 and I’ve barely slept the last two days so that takes priority (for now)!

If you’d like to follow more of my daily musings, I have a Twitter account and if you’d like to check up on my photos I also have a Picasa account.

I’m thinking about doing a typical Spanish food blog later in the week so check back for that!

Wine Tasting Excursion

April 24, 2012 / sarahtiemann / 0 Comments

Wine Tasting

One little fact about Baden-Württemberg (the region Reutlingen in located in) that I quickly took note of was that the region is known for their wine. Since the drinking age is lower here, we took a class field trip to a winery. This has been a long Valpo tradition to take a tour of the winery and then experience a wine tasting afterwards. The winery has a longstanding relationship with the Reutlingen program and it was all complimentary and we were given a tour by one of the CEO’s of the company. Now I didn’t really know that much about the process and the sophistication behind wine tasting, but after spending an afternoon of thoroughly being shown and taught the art of wine, I can definitely say that my palate has gone from saying, “That tastes good” to actually understanding what I’m tasting.

After toasting to a wonderful tour with a glass of sparkling wine, we began our tour. Here I was thinking that the winery would be a small local winery, instead it is one of the major wine manufacturer for the region. We noticed this when we walked into the first room of our tour and it turned out to be the storage room for their shipments which held literally thousands of crates of wine. We walked into one of the main processing rooms where you just get hit with the smell of wine when you walk in. The containers hold liters beyond liters of wine. Seeing how Germany recycles just about everything, our guide proudly showed us how the recycled bottles where cleaned and sorted. We ended the tour by being showed the more expensive wine process in which the wine is stored in actual wood barrels and learned about the different flavoring that comes from being in different types of wood barrels.

Massive Wine Containers

The expensive wines in wooden barrels

The next half of our tour consisted of actually tasting our wine. Picture a bunch of college students put into a sophisticated wine tasting setting, and that is pretty much how if first started off. However, as we were told about the different techniques of how to “slurp” wine (yes slurping allows for more flavors to come out of the wine) and as we recited the few facts about different types of wine we learned on the bus ride to the winery, we actually were able to hold a conversation about the wine we were trying. Overall, we all enjoyed our day of wine tasting with a few of our professors, experiencing yet another part of our region, and becoming wine connoisseurs.

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Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

Italy Round 2: Florence

April 24, 2012 / John McCutchan / 0 Comments

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

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

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

Cathedral of Siena Library

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

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

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

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

View from Piazza Michelangelo

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

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Recap of Two Week Break (Pt 1)

April 23, 2012 / davidcyze / 0 Comments

This post is a collection of short journal entries I took throughout my two week break. I kept the writing informal because I thought it might help you get a feel for everything I did and saw. Hopefully that works!

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Krakow, Poland:

Snowing on Easter. Despite the cold, I really enjoy it. It adds so much to the beautiful city, and gives tourists on free walking tours a reason to stick together. There is so much in this city, we could have easily spent two more days here. During our walk home last night, we accidentally took a different route and saw buildings we would have never seen had we stuck to the guide book. The people in our hostel are extremely nice. A guy from Greece who was staying in the hostel for twenty days for vacation shared his water with Alaina and I when we went to fill up from the sink. Easter is huge for Poland, and nearly everything was closed today, and I’m told the same will be true for tomorrow. So long as there isn’t a strike, I think we’ll be okay.

Budapest, Hungary:

Both here and Poland have really fun exchange rates. I held my first thousand dollar bill here. Food is super cheap, even more so than Poland, which is supposed to be one of the cheapest places in Europe. After arriving, Alaina and I went to a Chinese restaurant and got two large meals and a drink for around $4. The “chef” kept three microwaves behind the buffet, and our food came in and out of one of them. I loved that. Ran into Julia Trowbridge, another Valpo student who is studying in the Reutlingen program, as I crossed a bridge. She and her Valpo friends directed Alaina and me to another restaurant for dinner and it too was cheap. The food I got was delicious, was presented as if it came from a four star restaurant, and only cost me $6. More happened here than just eating food, but this was too awesome to not talk about.

Zagreb, Croatia:

My small world just got smaller. Yesterday afternoon, Julia was in the same train car as Alaina and me. We talked during the eight hour ride to Zagreb, where, after exploring the breathtakingly clean city, we ran into even more Valpo students. The other Reutlingen group also happened to be in Zagreb. Just before we thought the coincidences would end, Julia’s group ended up accidentally reserving seats in the same compartment in our sleeper train that night.Thank god, because this allowed us to spread out the seats to make a huge bed. I tried sleeping on the floor, but eventually moved back onto the seats.

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

Dubrovnik, Croatia:

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

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Sacré Coeur

Weekend in Paris

April 23, 2012 / John McCutchan / 0 Comments

From the top of the Eiffel Tower

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

Eiffel Tower

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

Notre Dame

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

Mona Lisa

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

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

Lock Bridge

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

Sacré Coeur

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Marseille, France

Unexpected Twists part one

April 22, 2012 / sarahtiemann / 0 Comments

Marseille, France

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

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

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

Château d'If

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Spring Break at Vicky Falls!

April 16, 2012 / Amy Wise / 0 Comments

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

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

Shoestrings!

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

Victoria Falls!

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

About to jump across the gorge!

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

Elephants on the Chobe River

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

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

Student Stories from Around the World