Monthly Archives: April 2011

Thank You for Being Awesome.

Hei alle!

I’ve been home in the US for about a week now. I’m actually not “home” right now, I’m in Florida! My friend Ally, who was student teaching in Utrecht, Netherlands, and I planned this trip to “defrost” from our chilly climates in Northern Europe. I think I went a little bit past “defrosting” to “crisping”. My Norwegian skin wasn’t quite ready for that big ball of fire in the sky! Anyway, let’s backtrack back to Norway…

My last week in school was really bittersweet. I was getting excited to go home but I knew that I needed to cherish the time I had in Trondheim and at Charlottenlund. I felt bad that I had to give a test to my students (and that I wouldn’t be there to grade it) in my last week but I think the students forgave me. Unfortunately I was not able to even be with them when they were taking it because I was in meetings all that day. The meetings were really interesting because they were all about the school. We had the faculty adviser to the student government speak to us about how student government works at Charlottenlund. I found it to be really interesting because I was involved in SGA as a high school student. One of the things that I found most interesting was the unique positions that were featured. The elected board has a member who basically keeps the administration of the school in check. This person regularly meets with the principal, faculty, and even the community. I think this is absolutely wonderful because it makes sure that the student voice is heard. I would have loved to have this position in my student government because I think it’s a great way to keep communication open. I also think that it shows that the administration really appreciates and values the opinion of the students. Mutual respect is key.

One of our other meetings that day was all about the M-Base. The M-Base is an area of the school where students with severe mental and physical disabilities have their classes. Norwegian schools feature full inclusion for most of its students but students with severe disabilties are given extra treatments. Sometimes they do not go to the same classes as the other students in their Base. The M-Base rooms were really awesome. They had one room with a HUGE ball pit, Chuck-E-Cheese style. Another room was completely black with the exception of some fiber-optic lights. It is meant to help students relax and be stimulated. The White Room featured a water bed and a movie projector. The M-Base is open to all students and they are allowed to go in any of the rooms when they have breaks. I think that the M-Base at Charlottenlund shows a key difference between American schools and Norwegian schools. You would be hard-pressed to find a special education classroom like this in the States and I really think the main reason is money. It’s no secret that Norway is an extremely wealthy country and they invest a good amount of money into their schools. The students had Charlottenlund had resources that we only dreamed about in my middle and high schools (and I went to great schools in great school districts). It’s not that American schools do not want to have resources like this; in many cases it’s just not feasible. I can only imagine what an inner-city school would do if they had access to the resources that the Norwegian students do.

During my last week of school I completed one of my life goals: I judged a cooking competition! I am a huge fan of cooking shows (Top Chef being my favorite) so I’ve always wanted to pretend I’m Padma, Tom, Gail or whoever else is on the judging panel. The 9th grade students take food and nutrition class and part of their curriculum is learning how to cook. Each group (A, B, and C) competed in a class cooking competition. It was SO delicious and I was so proud of my students (and Megan’s students) for creating such delicious food! Choosing winners was a really difficult decision! I wish that I had this class when I was in 9th grade. Then maybe I’d actually know how to cook! =)

My last day of school came far too quickly. I had a few surprises up my sleeve and apparently my students and teachers did as well. In the English class that I taught we discussed summer camps (something they do not have in Norway). I was appalled when I found out that none of my students (or even my mentor teachers!) had ever eaten a s’more. I LOVE S’MORES and made it my mission to introduce this delectable treat to Norway before I left. My dad actually came back to Trondheim to help me pack/hang out for a bit, so he brought over s’more supplies. On my last day we made s’mores (using candles) in English. It was a blast! It was so much fun seeing everyone roast their marshmallows and eat their first s’more. I found out later that the candles made a little bit more smoke than I anticipated and other teachers began to smell roasting marshmallow. Whoops. They didn’t know what was going on so they made their classes put on their shoes in case my class set off the smoke alarms and we had to evacuate. Thankfully that did not happen. =)

Ove, my mentor teacher for social studies, told me that the students were planning something for my last day but I had no clue what it was. I was very surprised to see that some of my students had baked a cake for me! We had chocolate cake and lemonade and it was fabulous! I was so honored that the students would take the time to do that for me! I was also unaware that I would be getting presents from my class and my mentors! It was honestly like Christmas! I received so many great things like a Charlottenlund tshirt, coffee table book of Norway, and hand-knitted gloves from Gunvor (Megan’s mentor teacher). The best present, however, was a book I got from my students. Each student wrote me a short goodbye letter or drew me a picture. It was honestly the best gift I’ve ever received. It was so sweet to read such wonderful things from my students. I had to fight the urge to cry in the middle of class! I can’t think of a better way to leave Charlottenlund. It was kind of surreal to hand back my keys and clean out the Batcave (the conference room that Megan and I shared at school). I know that Charlottenlund Ungdomsskole is a truly unique place and I’ll never find another school like it anywhere in the world. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to teach there and become a part of the school.

The rest of my trip was rather uneventful. My last day of school was a Thursday so I spent Friday packing up my room and getting things together. Leaving on Saturday morning was sad. I feel like I have made so many great relationships and I’ve met so many great people in Norway. It’s really sad to think that, as my English mentor Jarl Henrik so delicately put it, I’ll “never see these people again”. I certainly hope that is not true but it’s hard to think where I’ll be after graduation in May and where my students, teachers, and friends in Norway will be. I hope to return to Trondheim one day (hopefully in the summer!) and maybe I’ll get the chance to see my students and teachers. Then again, maybe I won’t. I think the best thing to do is cherish the time that I spent in Trondheim and appreciate all of the wonderful people that I met and all that they did for me.

The day after my PSU supervisor observed me I put a slide on my PowerPoint presentation for my class that just said “Thank you for being awesome”. Apparently that quote really resonated with my students because many of them wrote that in my book and said it to me as I was leaving. I think it is time for me to return the favor once again. Thank you for being awesome, Trondheim.

Location: 1830 South Ocean Drive Hallandale, Florida USA 33009

Anacondas, Piranhas, and Anteaters, Oh My!

Roughly three weeks left until I have to leave this beautiful country! This thought makes me sad, so I suppose I’ll focus on something a little less depressing this time and tell you all about my time in Los Llanos this past weekend!

Los Llanos (otherwise known as the “the plains” of Venezuela) are absolutely breathtaking. The wildlife is incredible and the sun is scorching! We left on Friday, early in the morning, and drove for about 12 hours (with stops, of course). A few times we were stopped by la poilicia and a few of us didn’t have our original passports with us (HUGE NO-NO, if you’re traveling out-o-state)… we would have been in trouble, but, as I’ve been saying this whole time, Venezuelan men seem to have a huge weakness for gringas. At one point, we were stopped, but they forgot to even ask for all of our passports because my roommate and I were in the front seat smiling at them. Hahahha. I’m sorry if this makes me sound egotistical, and I promise I’m not exaggerating–I just find it so hilarious!

Once we finally arrived in Llanos, the place looked kind of like something out of nature magazine. It was kind of the picture that I had in mind before I came of what I thought Venezuela would be like–honestly, I thought I would be roughin’ it way more that I am, but in Merida we have great living conditions. All things considered, we’re pretty spoiled the house where we live (I mean, besides the occasional blackout, there really isn’t much to complain about). However, at Los Llanos, one is most definitely roughin’ it. With pipes for showers and dim electricity only at night, you really get the feel of what life is like on the plains as opposed to in the city. Luckily, I’m one who can appreciate living in all sorts of situations, so this experience was actually quite exciting for me!

We slept in hammocks (well, there were beds in our hut, but I’m all about getting into the spirit of the place, so I opted for the hammock). Good thing I did, too, because the night when we arrived, there was an ANTEATER that came into the camp! Her name was Dulce Maria (sweet Maria), and the guides told us that they had raised her from when she was just a baby. We all marveled at her drinking milk in the campsite… however, that night, when it came to sleeping with no lock the door, we ended up having a bit of interesting experience (at around 4am) concerning Miss Ducle Maria (check out the photos, they can explain better than anything I could possibly write).

Okay, moving on… the first day we went on a safari on the river, caught piranhas, gutted them, and then ate them! (pictures to come). It was a tiring day because, the night before, we danced like crazy! It was so fun; the people who live at the camp site just got out these massive speakers and blasted some Joropo (which is the kind of music that Los Llanos is most known for). I must’ve danced for four hours straight! All of them were so impressed that I could catch on so fast that, once they find out that this gringa has rhythm, it was very hard to sit a moment without being asked to get right back up again! Haha, but I really don’t mind, because I love to dance, and most of them are amazing dancers.

I hesitate to say that Los Llanos was my favorite experience here, simply because all of the experiences are so different that it is impossible to compare them and come up with the best…

Having said that, Los Llanos is where I finally got to ride horses! (And those of you who know me, know how important this is to me). For that reason that reason alone, if I had to rank my experiences here, Llanos would definitely be top three. The horseback riding was so intense! I would have been happy with simply following a trail and walking the whole time, but what we got was so much more than I ever expected! (I should have known to expect more though, I mean, this is Venezuela). Anyway, the experience was one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my life. The one guy who lived there who accompanied us on horseback asked me how many years of experience I had, and when I told him 14 years, he basically told me to “just go.” So, I did. I trotted, cantered, and galloped all across the plains of Venezuela basically by myself! I’ve never experienced anything so wildly freeing in my entire life–definitely something I will not soon forget.

Pictures:

Car rides here are ALWAYS crazy! haha.

A replica of a church found in the mountains that a man made from scratch with his hands.

Yes, that’s an ANTEATER in our bed. I forgot these guys even existed! hahaha. Que Locuraaa! read the description above. hahaha. Solo en Venezuela…

PIRAHNA! (Did you know they can eat a whole cow in 20 minutes?!?!!?)

clearly, it’s no longer a threat… haha.

ANACONDA hunting!

Location: los llanos, Venezuela

Stockholm for the weekend with the family

This weekend, my family came to visit me! My mom, dad, aunt and uncle traveled from Pittsburgh to Sweden for about a week, 5 days of which were spent with me. They arrived Thursday, and took my entire exchange group to dinner. We had 16 people total, and we had a blast!

Friday morning, we left Jonkoping at about 1pm, headed for Stockholm. We had to make several stops on the way for food (especially at the candy store!), but finally arrived in Stockholm just in time to make a reservation at the icebar. The icebar is located in the famous Stockholm Ice Hotel, and can only hold a certain number of people at a time. This icebar is also only allowed to be visited for 45 minutes at a time. One must wear a special blue robe with gloves to enter, and once inside it is truly amazing. Everything is made out of ice! The walls, the chairs, even the glasses are completely ice. We stayed for all of about 30 minutes before we were too cold to spend anymore time there, so we left and found a sports pub where we could have dinner. After dinner, we went back to the hotel, and, exhausted from the day, we went to sleep.

Saturday, however, after a large buffet breakfast, we woke up ready to hit the town. We visited the old town, which was absolutely beautiful. Originally built by German influences, the buildings were spectacular and unique. We passed the royal palace, as well as the Nobel Peace Prize museum, and continued on to the National Museum. We were able to see original paintings by Rembrandt, Cezanne, Degas, and even Monet. They also had a special art show occurring at the time called “Lust and Vice”, which consisted of not only modern, but also classic, works of art dedicated to lust and vice. Although rather risky, most pieces were incredible.

After a lovely morning, we had a big lunch and continued on for some shopping and further exploration. We visited the grand hotel, as well as a few more stores, before we decided to head back to the hotel for some rest before dinner. I, myself, napped for about two hours! For dinner, we managed to find a Friday’s and have a nice dinner after a long and historic filled day.

This morning, we were able to reserve seats on the three hour boat tour (I know what you’re thinking, and no, Gilligan was not there…). We traveled about an hour and a half north of Stockholm before turning around and heading back. Sights seen included the home of the “Swedish Rockefeller’s” who own many banks around Stockholm, Oil companies, historic buildings and vacation homes of several Swedish celebrities. We also got an extremely extensive history of Scandinavia, such as the fact that Finland only became an independent country in 1907, and because of this, out of all the Scandinavian countries, Finnish is the most foreign language.

Overall, we had an amazing weekend in Stockholm, and I am already planning on saving my money to buy an apartment on the exclusive street in central Stockholm.

Until next time, peace, love and Stockholm!

Location: Jonkoping, Sweden

Trying to find Neverland

“But Peter… how do we get to Neverland?”
“Fly, of course!

“Fly?”
“Yeah, it’s easy!”

Peter Pan is a classic that is usually remembered for the Disney classic of the 3 Darling Children flying over London with the boy who didn’t want to grow up. Or, it’s also remembered for the movie that saw him actually grow up Hook. Or possibly the musical also called Peter Pan. Either way, Peter Pan is a classic English story and he is immortalized here for eternity.

London is usually known for the cold, damp weather. People hide under their coats and umbrellas, not bothering to see what is around and just trying to get to where they are going. But, Spring has arrived in all its majesty and brought a new life to London this past week.

I live right on the corner of the King’s Road in London. It’s a pretty famous street for its window shopping (or actual shopping if you can afford the designer boutiques). King’s Road now has people everywhere in bright colors showing their faces and carrying huge bags of new clothes to brighten up the season. I adored London before, but seeing this new weather makes me want to never leave!

Because the weather was so warm and the sun was out, I couldn’t stay inside being tied up with Finals. I knew I wasn’t going to start work until the end of the weekend anyways. So, why not go to one of the parks?

I wanted to go to the park that had the Peter Pan statue. I had seen it in so many films and it was one of my favorite movies growing up. I looked up in my tour book and saw it was in Hyde Park. So off I went with my friend Becca to find Peter Pan.

In the background is a Ferris Wheel. I believe it is known as the mini- London Eye. I went to Hyde Park not long after Christmastime and there was a winter festival to liven the place up. But, in the spring, it’s just beautiful. The flowers are bloomed, people are out lying in the sun, and the Serpentine is a method of traveling for anyone.

We got a little lost on the way to finding Peter Pan, but we still saw more interesting and popular sites in Hyde Park. One of the most prominent figures in modern history was Diana, Princess of Wales. And Hyde Park was where she resided in Kensington Palace. There are other memorials devoted to her- the Diana Memorial Playground (which is set up to look like Neverland) and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain. I wished I could join all the people in the fountain. Never had I seen such an intimate fountain before. Diana would have enjoyed it.

After an hour of searching down winding paths and chasing puppies around, we finally found Neverland and Peter once and for all.

I was so relieved and happy that I finally found Peter and he wasn’t trying to fly off to Neverland without me. It makes me though never want to leave London. But, it’s only a week away that I’m going back home and I do have to leave. But maybe I’ll try to take one more trip around Neverland and do some things in London I have yet to do before I go back to Pennsylvania.

Location: Hyde Park, London, UK

A Night at the Opera

On the night of my return from Athens, I got the chance to go to one of the most famous opera houses in the world, La Scala. Each semester, IES typically gets access to a handful of tickets to a variety of shows, from operas to orchestral performances to ballets. They then offer the tickets to students on a first-come-first-serve sign-up basis. The best part is that they are FREE OF CHARGE (IES picks up the cost)! Since I figured I needed to see a show in this venue while being in Milan for four months, I agreed to go on Sunday. The show that I went to see was the Mozart-written opera, “The Magic Flute.”

First of all, getting to the opera house turned out to be quite the adventure. Since my flight from Athens was delayed 40 minutes, I didn’t get back to my apartment until 7:15 P.M., while the opera started at 8:00 P.M. I had to shower, get dressed, and take a cab the entire way across the city, since our apartment is about as far as you can get and still be in Milan, in 45 minutes. Miraculously I was able to make it there by 7:50 after throwing on clothes and running to the cab stop in a full suit!

After getting my tickets from one of our RA’s waiting outside the theater, I hiked up to my seat on the 6^th level, the highest one. My seat was located near the stage, but since the seating area is shaped like a U, this was not exactly the best location and required me to contort my neck all night to see the stage. However, it is impossible to complain since they were free and tickets are notoriously difficult and incredibly expensive. For example, tickets on the ground level go for around 500 euros per show.

After reaching my seat, I was amazed by the beauty of the building’s architecture. Almost every part of the theatre was made out of dark wood and was adorned with flowing burgundy drapes. Unfortunately, in my mad dash to get there on time, I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures from the night.

I was pleasantly surprised by the entire experience. As a person who strongly dislikes musicals, I figured it was going to be very much the same. However, due to the difficult vocals and limited number of large group sing-alongs, it was actually pretty good. Since the entire thing was written in German, it was annoying having to use small translator at my seat to understand what was going on, but overall I enjoyed it. It was an good cultural experience and it’s pretty cool to say that I have seen an opera at La Scala. It’s incredible to think that in the morning I was standing at the base of the Acropolis and at night going to one of the world’s best opera houses!

Location: Milan, Italy

A Concert to remember – in London <3

Sunday (March 13th) was pretty much the best night of my entire life (in a really silly way)! One of the girls I became friends with when I came here told us about a Yellowcard and All Time Low concert that was happening while we were in London – and for only 18 pounds! I of course bought a ticket because I love All Time Low but I’ve never been to one of their concerts. A few other girls bought tickets too – the concert was the Sunday after I went to Stonehenge and doors opened at 7pm.

When we got to the venue in Brixton, the queue wrapped almost all the way around the building – we were there a bit past 6 and the doors didn’t open until 7. We got inside and it was so cool! It was all open and it looked like a bigger version of a normal music venue at home. Apparently there were seats above too, but it was cool being in the center of it all downstairs. We had really good spots surprisingly enough! The first band that came on was a local band called Young Guns – amazing band with a lovely lead singer.

During Young Guns performance, All Time Low came out on stage and they all took shots together.

Yellowcard was next and they were great – I love the violin player because he’s an amazing violinist and a really incredible singer.

After Yellowcard was All Time Low. I’m going to sound like a complete girl for a minute and say that I can’t describe my love for the lead guitarist and the lead singer. WOW. They were so absolutely amazing and seemed like such nice guys.

It was really interesting because girls kept throwing bras onstage! The lead guitarist (Jack) kept picking them up and hanging them on his microphone – it was about to fall over from all of the bras! We were standing behind really tall guys for the beginning of the concert but luckily the crowd moved us away from them.

There were mosh pits breaking out RIGHT in front of me and I had to push people to move the guys away from me so that I wouldn’t get hit. After the concert was over, we stayed inside to watch some of the clean up.

Security started kicking people out so we went outside to look for All Time Low’s tour bus (this doesn’t sound stalkerish at all). We realized they wouldn’t have one so we were just walking around the building when we heard a bunch of people screaming. We ran to see what was going on. Apparently, the bands go outside to sign autographs and whatnot so we walked over the group of people surrounding the gate. No one was outside yet but everyone was waiting. I got out the ticket and my camera and waited. While we were waiting, we met this really cool girl that followed almost the whole tour. We talked for a while and then Yellowcard’s lead singer and guitarist came out.

They were real cool; since this girl that we met has been following them all over Europe, they actually recognized her and were talking to her (and us because we were next to her)! We waited a bit more and then All Time Low came outside. Jack Barakat (the lead guitarist) came out first and then Alex Gaskarth (the lead singer) came out. I got my picture with Jack and then when Alex came over, I told him I was from the States. He asked where so I told him as he was signing my ticket – then I asked for a picture and he told me that I look like Sarah Barillas, but prettier. *Another girl moment* but I almost died. I got my picture with him and then wanted to just end my life right there because life couldn’t possibly get any better than that.

So basically, this was just the best night of my life. Monday, i went for a really lovely walk around the neighborhood that I live in. We ended up going to H&M and trying on tons of clothes. I’m pretty sure that H&M didn’t enjoy me handing this to them.

All in all, it was a really great ending to the weekend (Monday’s included in my weekend since I don’t have any scheduled classes that day)! I don’t ever want to leave.

Location: Brixton, London

“No problems. We are in Morocco.”

Heads up: This is probably my longest post yet, but I hope it’s worth the read! There is just too much to say about Morocco 🙂

Many of the CIEE programs include trips to Morocco, but my specific program does not. We really wanted to see this country, so a couple of friends and I signed up with a travel agency called We Love Spain for the trip of a lifetime to visit the cities of Tetuan, Tangier, and Chefchaouen in Morocco in Northern Africa. We jumped continents for the weekend in an incredible, eye-opening trip. (Important Note: If you ever plan to visit Morocco, do so with guides and/or an experienced agency. Our trip was very safe, but Morocco can be a dangerous place if you are not with people who know exactly what they are doing.)

The first step in our trip involved taking a bus from Seville to Algeciras, which is where we boarded the fast ferry to Ceuta. Ceuta is techinically in Northern Africa, but it is still part of Spain. Once in Ceuta, we met our weekend guide, Muhammad, and boarded another bus to cross the Moroccan border. Crossing the Moroccan border is an interesting experience, and I will leave it at that (again, not something I would recommend doing alone). After about 45 minutes at the border, we drove to our hotel next to the Mediterranean Sea and had dinner (which was about 10:00 pm Spanish time).

This is the point where the trip took a bad turn for me. Unfortunately, I was the only person out of 43 of us who had food poisoning that night after dinner. I tend to have a sensitive stomach and have always had unusual reactions to things, and such was the case with this weekend. It was my first experience with food poisoning and by far the worst night of my entire life so far. I was sick the entire night and went with less than two hours of sleep collectively. It was terrifying. However, I had to be up and ready to go the next morning because we had a packed weekend planned and would never be returning to any place at any point. I gathered up any strength I had left and pulled myself together for the rest of the trip. Saturday was extremely rough as it involved a lot of walking (and at times in areas that smelled terrible, such as a tannery…) and I was still getting sick periodically throughout the day. Sunday went much better, but I’m proud of myself for staying strong and keeping with the group throughout the entire trip. I feel like I could do anything now. However, this week of recovery has been miserable, and I missed the entire week of classes. Today is the first day I have really started eating at all since the incident. Food poisoning in Morocco is certainly not unheard of though, and I pulled through it without any regrets. Morocco was such an amazing trip!

So, now on to the fun stuff. I have to begin with a description of our guide, Muhammad. He was a very nice man who spoke about six languages (most Moroccans speak at least four). He was hilarious, and we loved him. Here are some of our favorite quotes from throughout the weekend (Keep in mind that this is a very different culture. He meant well and meant any comments about women to be compliments.):

1. “I have big, strong wife. With strong wife, you don’t need washing machine. You just need washing board. When it is cold, she gives me heat. When it is hot, she gives me shadow.”
2. “No problems. We are in Morocco.”
3. “God willing if we return.”
4. “Many people who live next to the border don’t work. They just smuggle people into Spain.”
5. (Talking to me after I told him I was really sick and needed to rest): “No, you are not sick. You are fine. You have strong face, good eyes, very nice face. You are ok.”

So, we began Saturday in Tetuan with a walk through some outdoor markets and a plaza, which had many cats (as did all of the cites we visited). The photo below is of a little shoe store.

While the group walked through the Jewish quarters, I was taken to rest at the next
destination 20 minutes early, which was actually a pretty cool experience. We went to a beautiful store that sold hand-dyed, handmade rugs and cloths. Everything was done naturally without any chemicals, and every single piece was remarkably beautiful. Before everyone got there, I sat and watched TV with five or six Moroccan men. Once the entire group got there, they showed us their rugs and we had opportunities to buy some. Most of them were incredibly expensive, but I bought a beautiful end table covering for only 15 euros.

After the rug store, we went to a holistic pharmacy. A pharmacist gave us many herbal remedies to smell and try, which actually worked better than some of the medicines that I have taken (especially cold medicines). The following picture was taken at the pharmacy.

We continued walking through the streets afterward, did some bargaining for goods (their currency is not very strong. 1 dirham = 1 euro), and walked through a tannery. We then stopped for lunch, where the owner set up a bed for me so that I could nap during it. Luckily, I didn’t miss all of the performances during lunch, which were really cool. Then we took a bus near Tangier to see the Caves of Hercules and to ride camels! The cave was beautiful and looked out into the Atlantic Ocean. They also sold many different items in there. Here’s the view! (It’s a little hard to see with the bright light).

Next, we rode camels at the beach. This was soooo much fun! The men who helped us were hilarious, and everyone was laughing the entire time. There was a lot of screaming every time the camels stood up or got back down because we felt like we were going to fall off. It was an unforgettable experience. Here is one of the camels! 🙂

After the camel rides, we went to an outlook of where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean, rested, and then checked into our hotel in Tangier. I then proceeded to sleep for the next eleven hours, which I desperately needed.

The next day, we got back in the bus and drove to Chefchaouen, which is a beautiful small mountain town. It is called “The Blue City” because the entire town is painted blue to keep away mosquitos. The Moroccans here were incredibly sweet and told us throughout the day how welcomed we were. Women even held babies out of windows to wave at us in the streets. When we first arrived, a group of boys around our age were singing and playing drums in a plaza at 8 am. After dancing with many of us for a bit, one boy leaned over to our group and said “You are welcome in Morocco.” It was such a wonderful thing to hear.

Our second guide in this city was also wonderful and hilarious. He was a small, elderly man named Ahmed. He spoke 5 or more languages, and we called him Yoda because he had a similar voice and was always trying to say wise things. Here are some of our favorite things that he talked about: air conditioned pants, photos, his fame, and terms of endearment (“habibi”). He also let us know that there are no basket people (basketball players) in Chefchaouen because “we all short.” He also gave advice when walking down stairs: “Be careful, don’t ski without snow.” He was awesome and took pictures with all of us while saying “Holaaaaa, peace, Italia, habibi!” It was great.

After meeting Ahmed, he took us through the beautiful streets of Chefchaouen to another rug store, vendors, and to have one last lunch before heading back to Spain. The next few photos were taken in Chefchaouen, one of which was taken at the rug place.

Even though I was sick, this was the trip of a lifetime that I will never forget. I am so happy
that I went and experienced such a different culture. It was unlike anywhere or anything I have ever seen before!

Location: Chefchaouen, Morocco

1 Month In!!

So I’ve been here for a little over a month now! Its hard to believe that its been that long already! When I think about it, I’ve done so much but it doesn’t feel like its all happened in a month! Mid terms are two weeks away, which means my time here will be half over then!!! The past week or so has been pretty exciting! We went to Bukchon traditional village and it was a really nice change from being in downtown Seoul. Even though Bukchon is in Seoul, its a lot less crowded. There are lots of small shops where local artists sell jewelry and pottery and clothes. Its just a really cute place. Plus, the houses are sooo cool to look at and some lucky people get to actually live in these houses!

It was hard to take too many pictures of the different houses. Since people do live in them, the fancier houses are blocked off by gates and its hard to get any pictures that turn out well. Anyway, most of the houses look something like this one. The village itself is so cool though. Its a lot of hills and a lot of little streets and alleys, but its a really cool place to walk around. Plus the weather was really nice when we went!

Maybe its sorta hard to see, but our group of people were pretty much the only people on the streets. Completely different from the Seoul I live in and am used to! I know I said I was going to go on a bike ride along the Han River, but that never happened. The people who wanted to go with me wanted to go in the morning so they could see the sun rise over Seoul, but it’s still a little bit too cold to be out that early in the morning. I think I convinced them to wait a couple weeks til it warms up enough to enjoy it. Instead, my friends and I went to Myeongdong, a popular shopping district in Seoul. They have lots of clothes and makeup stores… girly things. Apparently all the Japanese tourists who come to Korea loveeee Myeongdong. All the signs are in Korean, English and Japanese. While we were walking around we stumbled upon this cookie stand where two Korean guys were talking to us in English. He asked us if we had tried them before and we hadn’t so he gave us a little show:

I didn’t let the video go long enough for everyone to see what the finished product looks like, but if you look here, you can see what they look like. There’s an almond, peanut, or walnut mixture inside them and you’re supposed to eat them when they’re frozen. It’s soooooo good. The guy told me they stay good for up to 2 weeks meaning I can bring some home with me!!

Once again, I had my four days of class, then on Friday I started my weekend. A friend and I went to the Seoul Zoo. It’s such a nice area and the Zoo itself is really really big so it took a long time to walk around the whole zoo, which we didn’t do. We decided we could go back again because it’s so cheap! The entry ticket to the zoo is only 3,000 won (about $3.00!!). We decided to get the package that let us go to the Dolphin and Seal Show for an extra 2,000 won. The dolphin show was really cool though. I didn’t have really high hopes for it because I’ve been to dolphin shows before, but the dolphin show here had 5 dolphins performing at once!

It was hard to get a picture of them all at once because I couldn’t use flash inside, but I think you can see most of them. While we were at the zoo, we went to the baby animal nursery, where they have the babies that are born inside the zoo. They had mostly baby monkeys, but my favorite babies were these guys

They were sooo cute and sooo playful. They’d follow people walking along the glass and they’d jump up at the door. A little boy was standing next to me looking at the lions and everytime they’d jump up he’d sorta squeal and laugh and it just made everything that much cuter.

The next day, we went on our HUG trip outside of Seoul. Unfortunately I wasn’t too impressed with the area outside of Seoul. Lots of the places we drove by were really dirty and there isn’t any grass anywhere, just lots of dirt and hay. It’s nothing like driving through the country at home. The air quality was still bad, because we weren’t that far away from Seoul, but you can’t even see things when you’re in the country. Anyway, we went to a “beach” but it wasn’t a beach like you’d normally think of. It’s was low tide, so there wasn’t any water hardly, and it was a cloudy day which made things cold.

Even though the beach itself wasn’t very nice, we still had a good time! After we were at the beach, we went to the house our group rented for the night. It was on a lake, and it was just a cool place to hang out for the night. We played dodgeball, with the strangest set of rules ever. They played with only one ball, and boys couldn’t hit girls, and girls couldn’t hit boys. Once you were out, instead of sitting in jail, you got to go stand on the sideline on the opposite side of the court and throw the ball to get people out still. None of the Americans really liked this version because it took sooooo long especially since we had to wait for the ball each time someone threw it. Anyway, my time ended up losing 🙁 Since we lost we had to wait to eat dinner. Most of the people who ate got Korean barbeque, but since we had to wait til the winners finished eating, we got a little bit of the barbeque, then we got some hotdogs. I don’t really like hotdogs anyway, but these ones were really terrible. Losing really sucked that night. Luckily, the house itself was really cool! It was a giant boat!

I wasn’t able to get a picture of it, but at night there are lights all around the outside of the boat, but it was really cool! That night they played games and people drank, but we all ended up sleeping on the floor, mostly because thats all there was to sleep. The next day, we got to do something really cool. We went to the Unification Observatory, an area where people can use viewfinders to look at North Korea. It was a really cool thing to see, and we had someone from the Korean Marines who told us about his job and the significance of the area. He was actually a graduate from Sogang University!!

It was really cool to get to see North Korea, but I don’t think I’ll be making any trips there anytime soon. The strangest thing we saw at the observatory had to be this:

The big news for now though? Going to Thailand for Easter!! I’m really excited! Thats all for now though, I’ll post something again soon! Love to all!!!

Location: Seoul, South Korea

Kungfu Hustle

Shaolin Showdown

For our 4 day weekend vacation, some of the IES students went to Shaolinsi, arranged by IES of course. It took an overnight train to get us there, which I must say is always an adventure. Upon arrival, we met up with our daoyou (tour guide) in a Shaolin Monastery/Temple. It was really amazing. Mountains surrounded us on all sides as we explored this hidden city. Everything you could imagine in a the kungfu capital of the world was there: wall paintings of ancient kung fu moves, real life Shaolin monks walking around the streets and ancient temples featuring Buddha. However, our daoyou shed light to the less glamorous aspects of kungfu and Shaolin.

As a former kungfu student himself, he mentioned with bitterness the commercialization of kungfu. The monks, he said, were more of custodians and souvenier venders than actual monks devoted to Buddhism. And what he said was right; on every corner was a stand selling toy swords, prayer beads, cheap jade, and Buddhist paraphernalia… all manned by a Shaolin monk. Our daoyou said that he himself could work there as long as he gave the monastery a sizeable bribe. From there, many monks lead dual lives, he said. Monks aren’t supposed to “marry” but still maintain relationships with women when not spending time in the temples. They own cars, homes, luxuries. Most of the mysterious, bald, monks featured in the Shaolin Temple were facades of actual living conditions. In a typically hierarchical form, the lowest monks stayed in the monastery in poor living conditions while the higher ups travel the world giving kungfu seminars and reaping royalties from official kungfu schools all over the United States and all over the world.

Outside the temple, he entire city was devoid of most industries but rather relied solely on kungfu as the driver of economy. Hundreds of kungfu boarding schools were within the city, with nearly all the students being children under 18. Parents of children with disciplinary problems would send their kids to kungfu boarding schools, our daoyou explained. In order to better learn discipline and get their act together, many would be sent to these grueling schools. Rigorous exercise, academic studies, endless practicing of kungfu forms six days a week all take tolls on these children’s lives. So stressful are these kungfu programs that the daoyou said that one kid, maybe around 10 years old, tried to kill himself by jumping off a 4^th story balcony. Its really quite sad. Our daoyou turned out okay, and most of the children at the kungfu school we visited were very polite and seemed okay.

There, we learned some kungfu. Greg and I were paired up with a young kung fu student as he taught us some forms. Apparently, all the flowery moves shown in Jet Li and Jackie Chan movies aren’t really typical of real Shaolin Kungfu, which takes a more pragmatic approach. Sharp movements and specific body motions rule this type of kungfu, as Greg and I painstakingly attempted to learn. Later we learned that the downward hand spear followed by a quickly executed retracting horse stance was actually used to castrate the opponent by grabbing their testes and yanking it out of their pelvic region. Ouch.

Food was good. We had a traditional Shaolin noodle dish. This one gives you la (spiciness), this one gives you numb, our daoyou said as he pointed to two different sauces. I tried mine with both. The la was as expected. The numb threw me off guard. My tongue felt like it was fuzzy, which tingled uncomfortable with anything hot, carbonated, or cold. The numbing sauce was not my cup of tea.

Also, one cool thing I learned about Chinese culture as a whole was the idea of “hai keyi”. This means its okay, or its so-so. The dayou asked if we ever asked a Chinese person what they thought of something, whether its politics or particular ice cream flavors, only to be replied to with a “hai keyi”. Only too often, I thought to myself. He said the reason for this is the same reason why a kungfu practioner does not commit fully to a punch nor jab shallowly. The idea of moderation, at least in range of motion for punches and kicks, is essential to not be thrown off guard. If one needs to adjust, one can. And at no time is one ever in a completely vulnerable position. The same thing applies to Chinese people. Ask a Chinese person, “Hey what do you think of my jacket”, and they say “Sure, its okay”. If I say “what do you mean ok? This jacket sucks” they can quickly adjust their opinion to side with yours, in order to make you feel comfortable and to please you. On the other hand, if you say “what do you mean ok? I love this jacket”, they can quickly change it to “yes you’re right after all! Its awesome!”.

How was the trip?

“Hai keyi”

Location: Henan, China

You probably don’t have time to do Mt. Doom.

So this past weekend, a few of us die hards also known as Sarah, Jenna, Meg and I, decided to make another attempt at the Tongariro Crossing. We waited until the very last minute before going, just in case the weather wanted to hate on us again, but the forecast called for fine weather with light winds. Win! Jenna and I picked up our car in town on Friday and drove to Student village to get everyone. Obviously, I immediately had to parallel park with 5 or so uni students pointing and laughing.

Once we were on the road though, it was easy enough to forget we were driving on the wrong side and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of being able to stop whenever we wanted and not have to spend 30 minutes in the Rotorua visitor centre. Again.

We stayed at the Crossing Backpackers again and felt like we hadn’t even spent a week away. Friday night was spent playing pool (pretty terribly on my part) and getting ready for our 7:45am bus to the crossing the next day. The next morning dawned with clear (ish) skies and we got on our bus so excited to finally be able to do the hike.

Meg assigned everyone Lord of the Rings characters since we were in the land of Mordor. She was Frodo, I was Sam, Jenna was Gandalf, to some confusion since she hadn’t seen Lord of the Rings, and Sarah was Gimli, because she was wearing her red hair in a braid, haha. The only problem was we didn’t get to the beginning of the 20km or 10 mile track until 8:40am and our bus on the other side left at 4:30pm. The estimated time to complete the crossing was 7 to 8 hours and that didn’t include climbing Mt. Ngauruhoe or Mt. Doom (!), an extra 3 hour side trip. We had roughly 8 hours and there was no way we were skipping Ngauruhoe. The Fellowship needed to make it to the top of Mt. Doom. We made pretty good time to the base of Ngauruhoe, including climbing Devil’s stairs. Meg and Sarah flew up them while Jenna and I took our time a little bit.

Climbing Ngauruhoe is almost impossible to describe. There’s no real track and the best way to do it is to, well, scramble. Imagine trying to climb a massive sand dune, that also happens to be an active volcano. There was so much volcano ash and lava flow that every step you took, you would sink back down the 45 degree slope a few steps. Also, the rocks aren’t anchored to the slope so every ten minutes of so, someone above you would whistle and start yelling “Rock! Rock!” and you’d see some boulder hurtling down towards you. One man was unlucky enough to get hit by one of these falling rocks and had to be taken off the mountain by helicopter since it smashed his leg. Finally, after a gruelling hour and a half of climbing, we made it to the crater. Everything was tinted red and looked like Mars but the cloud would clear every so often and you could see for miles over rolling hills and forests, reminding you that you hadn’t actually left the planet. Obviously, we needed to celebrate and had joked the week before about cracking a bottle of champagne at the crater. No one actually drank it, but who else can say they’ve sprayed champagne into the crater of a volcano??

Popping bottle ^

We didn’t think jumping by the crater was a good idea at first, but we got a great pic ^

The way down Ngauruhoe was, for me, almost as difficult as the way up. It was so steep with so many loose rocks and ash that every time I’d get into a rhythm, sort of like skiing, my feet would slip out from under me and I’d land on my back. I think Meg put it perfectly in her blog “slide, fall, eat shit, volcanic rocks up the butt.” I emptied so much ash out of my shoes, socks and pants at the bottom!

The rest of the crossing was beautiful. We climbed up to Red Crater and then down to the emerald lakes which are turquoise because of all the volcanic minerals. Some crazy hikers actually stripped down and swam in them which is a horrible idea because, a.) They’re sacred to the Maori, b.) They could easily be poisonous and c.) You’re on a windy mountain, with 11km more to hike and it’s FREEZING!

After the emerald lakes, we realized that we really needed to start booking it in order to make our bus. From the Ketetahi Hut, the sign said it was another 11/2 to 2 hours to the car park. We had an hour, whoops. Meg ran the rest of the way since she’s a champ but I decided on a power walk/occasional jog. My legs were ready to drop off at that point.

When we finally reached the car park, the bus said they weren’t going to leave without all their passengers and that we weren’t the last ones off the track, there was still about 7 people behind us.

Back at the backpackers we showered and were offered dinner by some really nice older people who turned out to also be from Hamilton and worked at the uni. Scalloped potatoes, lasagne, and mini quiches were really what we needed to end such an awesome and tiring day. Watching Return of the King followed dinner, which was a fitting ending to the trip although no one could really keep their eyes open to finish watching.

The next day, we said goodbye to the backpackers once again and headed to Waitomo Caves. Meg and Sarah went blackwater rafting, but Jenna and I opted not to and instead we limped (everything hurt) round the Kiwi sanctuary to see if we could finally see the mythical kiwi. They were SO CUTE, even if there were only two of them. We also found some ostriches on the side of the road which were a tiny bit scary…

Back to Hamilton and now I just have to write two papers before more adventures can begin.

Karen

Location: Tongariro National Park, New Zealand

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