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A true Hungarian adventure…

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Greetings fellow travelers!

I apologize for the delay in posting. I had a true Hungarian adventure that prohibited my blog updates… But to tell you that exciting story, I must first tell you about Prague.

Since I last posted, I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Prague, Czech Republic. While there I was able to experience several new things. The first and most exciting was watching Don Giovanni, an opera written by Mozart, in the original opera house it was premiered in. It was such a thrilling and culturally rich activity. Not many can say they have been where Mozart had once conducted. It was a beautiful experience and the opera house was beyond words! So majestic and beautiful. Sadly, our seats were of the cheap variety and we couldn’t see the whole stage, but the music was outstanding.

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My friends and I before Don Giovanni.

My favorite part about Europe thus far has been the ease of travel. I have loved every minute of being in Budapest, but I also have loved every minute of being in Vienna and Prague. I love being so close to so many diverse cultures and being able to experience them firsthand. Back home, it is so easy to dream and wish that I could learn and grow culturally, but here… It is so easy to accomplish all those goals. I have learned so much about myself and so much about the cultures I am surrounded by. I am so excited to see what else there is to learn!

Now… To the adventure. While in Prague, I got really sick. My travel-mates did as well. So the atmosphere of the group was not as exuberant as it should have been. Although we made the best of it, being healthy would have been preferred. When I returned home to Budapest, I quickly realized this was not an everyday flu. I needed to see a doctor and get some medicine. Through my program I was recommended an emergency room. So without wasting time, I hopped on the metro and headed there. I knew they weren’t going to speak much English, but as a positive person, I was hoping for the best. I arrived at the hospital, alone, and quickly realized I was not in America anymore. Long story short, I was scared and alone, so I left and went to the American clinic on the other side of town. Having experienced the medical system, I feel like I know a little more culturally about Hungary. It was an eye-opening experience and it really makes me grateful for the amenities we are blessed with back home.

Although it wasn’t a positive adventure, it was still an adventure. I hope all is well with you all and wish you the best of luck in your classes!

-Molly

Where to begin?

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It has been a long time since my last post, and I don’t even know where to begin. I have certainly been busy having the time of my life here at uni! Last I posted I was still in London being the ultimate tourist, but the past two weeks have been quite the immersion experience.

When I first arrived the only other students in the halls were international students from all over the world, but primarily from all over America. One of my favorite aspects of this trip has been meeting the other American students and getting to know them just as much as meeting local UK students. We have all become so close and it really feels like we are one big misfit family. The first day after we arrived the study abroad office took everyone on a trip to Conway, a quaint little city in Wales that was ever so picturesque, and it helped that the weather ended up being perfect!

Our group at Conway:Image

ImageSome of the international students along the castle wall

Conway was a great day trip to get to know the staff and other international students, but the next day was the real challenge. It was move in day for the freshers (what freshman are called here) and most of the American students including myself are in an all freshman dorm. It was certainly an interesting, almost like being a freshman back home again. The first week was basically a string of parties and events to get everyone used to campus, and on the last day the international office took us on another trip to Liverpool, the nearest large city to Ormskirk.

The big group!Image

After a whirlwind week of fun it was time to get down to work though, and classes began. The course system is much different here so I may spend some time focusing on that in a separate post, but most of the international students have a special set of courses across different areas of study, unlike the the traditional students who only take courses in one specialized area. Each class is only one day a week ranging from 2-4 hours and because I have only 3 classes I feel like I am doing hardly any work at all!

So far I don’t feel like I have had any real culture shock, but perhaps I am still in the honeymoon period. I know that one thing all the other Americans have trouble with is the weather, but it reminds me so much or rainy cloudy Oregon that it is almost comforting to me! I definitely brought the appropriate wardrobe as well so that helps keep me warm and cozy.

Overall I am having a blast, and now that things have calmed down a little I hope to write posts a little more often.

So long for now, and I hope your adventures have been just as exciting as mine!

Summer

Well, it´s bee…

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Well, it´s been a while hasn´t it? Two weeks to be exact since my last post.

There are a couple reasons for that. One, the internet at my host site comes and goes as frequently as a door-to-door salesman, so even when I can log in I never have enough time to finish the post. Second, as a general rule I am not allowed to go anywhere by myself, which has been an incredibly difficult adjustment for me. Currently, I am the only volunteer here so if there is not a staff person to go somewhere with me then guess what, I can´t go. Ugh. Sometimes it is very frusterating not having my independence. I know it is a cultural thing and a form of protection, but I don´t know if I will ever get used to it. Thankfully, there is another volunteer coming in just a little over a week, which means I can drag him along wherever whenever. Haha, that sounds a bit mean, but I´m feeling a bit desperate to have someone to go places with me.

Well, enough of my lack of independence rant. Moving on to some more exciting and positive news. This weekend I have had the most wonderful opportunity to stay with a Guatemalan family! The Long Way Home staff left for a retreat and, of course, I could not stay by myself so they arranged for me to stay with a family who has opened their doors to other volunteers who wanted to do a home-stay. I am only staying until Monday, but so far it has been such a treat to spend time with a family from Comalapa and see how they live. Yesterday for dinner we had tamales, which are much different than the tamales I´ve had in Mexican restaurants or from my friends´ moms. They were wrapped in a huge banana leaf and all mushy, which was absolutely delicious! I described to them the tamales I am used to and they told me that is called a chuchito. I was amazed that the same food could be prepared and called something completely different in two countries that share the same border. Que intersante!

Well, it´s almost lunch time and Ana, my house mama, told me to be back by 1:30pm. I wonder what we will have today? (:

Shannon

 

Pre Departure

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Hola!

I’m so excited to go to Spain! My friends are throwing me a going away party at the Rogue hop farm and brewery in Independence. The party is going to be three days before I leave, so probably really emotional but I’m sure a good time. I know I’ll cry when I finally do have to say goodbye to my friends and especially my family. Not because I’m sad that I’m leaving, but because I’m going to miss them. Although, the whole point of this trip is for me to experience something new (in my case going to Europe for the first time,) make friends, and of course LEARN SPANISH! I’m excited to meet the rest of the students in the AHA program and to meet my host family. So far, I know that the mother is a widow who has three daughters and a cat. One of the daughters still lives at home because it is customary in Spain to live at home until one gets married.

Before I head to Spain, I will be going to Holland for four days. Why you might ask? Because I am going to go visit some very dear family friends of ours named Martijn and Patricia. Martijn was my grandparents’ exchange student back in 1989. Upon his stay in the U.S. he became very close with our family and ever since he graduated high school he and his long-time girlfriend Patricia have come back to visit us every few years! However, the peculiar thing is, is that no one in my family has every traveled to Holland to visit them! I am going to be the first one! I have already sent Martijn a list of interesting places I’d like to see. Once I get over there it will depend on he and Patricia’s work schedule, but, if I know Martijn, he’ll show me a great time! I also recently received an email from him asking me to please bring some of my grandma’s WORLD FAMOUS cookies and also I duck antenna topper for the Mini Cooper they just bought! Naturally those two item will be in my carry-on bag for safe keeping.

My plan is to fly to Amsterdam, visit Martijn and Patricia, fly to Barcelona and have a seven hour layover (yuck,) and finally fly to Oviedo!

Ciao for now!

Montezuma_ Week 4

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This was the last week of my Basic 1 Spanish class. Then for the long weekend we went to Montezuma. Since it was low season there weren’t very many people and it was very expensive for food, but it was extremely beautiful! We spent a lot of the time on the beach. There weren’t any places to swim because of the rip tides. We had some nice adventures hiking to the waterfalls and getting lost. I bought a pair of Macaw feather earrings for $10 from a vendor there.  Koryn

Part of the trail. We went down the wrong side so had to do a bit of rock climbing.Image

Adjusting to Long-Term

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Most of the things I would like to talk about right now can’t be made clearer by a photograph. My biggest adjustments were to the general atmosphere and the way people here behave. But first I can talk about some of the more concrete differences that I noticed, and of which I took pictures:

1p,        2p,        5p,        10p,        20p,        50p,        £1,        £2

It’s been really hard to adjust to the money here. The bills are fine, sure, they’re pretty straight-forward. The numbers are there big on the paper just like ours. But after going through the change I was accumulating and doing a little research to verify, I found out that England has 8 different coins (pictured here). Furthermore, their sizes don’t really seem to follow any particular pattern. The only one that I have no problem distinguishing is the pound coin (second from right), which is thicker and heavier than the other coins, and is also gold-colored. I guess I’ve also picked up that the tiny one is 5p.

I’ve heard that American coins are not user-friendly for someone who is used to the euro, and apparently the pound has the same problem. Neither American nor English coins are clearly marked with their value. Euros have large numbers on them so it’s easy to see which is which (see previous link for pictures), but with American and English coins, you just have to be able recognize the coin. I guess the U.S. actually has six different coins, but we really only use four of them. As far as I can tell, all eight of the English coins seem to be in use. And rather than spend five minutes at the register trying to count out change, I usually end up using bills, which leaves me with a large amount of loose change (which, according to my online research, can be referred to as “shrapnel” or “slummy,” though I’m not sure how common these terms actually are).

Another POV adjustment I had to make when I got here was getting used to the fact that everyone drinks. Maybe that’s an exaggeration–I’m not saying that everyone here is a raging drunk–but everyone at least is allowed to drink, and apparently it’s not uncommon for a student to have a drink with a professor when meeting to discuss an assignment, etc. It’s just strange, coming from a dry campus in a town that was dry up until ten years ago. I don’t really have a problem with it–not morally anyway; I’m not judging the country for its legal decisions–except that the Venue (the campus bar) is about 100 meters away from my single-pane window. Hey, people party. I get it. I just hope it calms down a little bit now that classes have started.

Anyway, it was a little weird at first to see that they sell alcohol and tobacco products on campus, but I’m pretty much over it. I really wanted to buy a cider from the campus store, but kept chickening out. I worked myself up to it after two or three “attempts.”

On a side note for which I have no pictures, I attended my first class today (WRI1011: Intro to Fiction). As a rule I hate first days, because introducing myself in front of groups scares me. I can’t help it. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here before, but I have a stutter that for the most part doesn’t make much of an appearance unless I’m trying to say my name or speak in an official setting like a classroom or job interview. I’m always scared of embarrassing myself or of scaring people off, and it was certainly even more scary coming to a different country where I don’t know anyone to try to just insert myself into a culture and settle there for three months.

So far my experience has been pretty good. I even went to the meet-and-greet for the media department on Friday, and when I got there and didn’t see anyone I knew, I went and sat and talked with a group of English strangers. I was pretty proud of myself. For the most part, I’ve found that people are pretty friendly here. I have a bit of a rough start with introductions, but when I tell people here I have a stutter, they do not 1) act embarrassed for me, 2) stop talking to me, 3) talk down to me. These are things I’m afraid of happening when people find out I have a stutter, and none of them seem to happen around here. In my class today, I had to introduce myself in front of everyone and talk about myself (we were playing the two-truths-and-a-lie game), and once I explained my problem, no one seemed to mind. Maybe I have my “Americanicity” in my favor, but people seem to be genuinely interested in talking to me, which is somewhat of a foreign experience for me (that everyone is really nice to me, not that someone is).

Marissa

Real Life?

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Upon Arrival (Again), this time in Angers
How many countries, how many footsteps, how many Euros (don’t think about it), how many people, how many sights seen, and now finally, ANGERS!

Angers: (On-Jay) or (Ehn gehay) or maybe (Ahnj-hae) I give up, listen to it on Google Translate.

Like a lot of the past month, on the last morning in Paris getting up to head to Angers, I didn’t really have much time for thinking or feeling. I had breakfast in the train station and found my platform. After a moment for thankyous and goodbyes, I had to walk quickly away without turning around to wave as I walked into what will someday be a milestone and what had always been just a dream and a plan and now was reality. Reality. Reality? Reality.  This is the longest I time I’ve been so far from home. Trusting the reputation of study abroad programs, I lifted my chin, then lifted my suitcase and sat on the train to Angers. Angers. (Pardon the repetition while I try to convince myself that this is real life….REAL life).

Once situated, I pulled out the information for arrival printed from AHA. I suddenly felt really unprepared. It had been so long since orientation and even longer since I’d read preparation materials online. I was under the impression that everyone else would be much more informed upon arrival. As if cramming for a test I studied the cultural and historical information I had access to and did actually learn a good few tidbits. Judging by how thankful I was for that new information, I regretted even more not doing better research.

The other entertainment on the train was a fascinating French quartet; three women and one man. They all seemed to be about the same age and I could not figure out their relationships with one another. At one point, two women moved leaving one alone with her laptop. The man got out a fancy camera and videoed some very interesting shots of her working as I was dying of curiosity and wishing I’d brushed up on my French before arriving. Little did I know just how much I’d wish that, later!

The train ride went pretty quickly and I was getting off before I knew it. My only goal; to find the AHA sign! I think I will remember the following moment for the rest of my life. I can’t claim to have been jet lagged but I was in some sort of fog. Two friendly women greeted me and spoke French and “kissed” my cheeks and I was rather confused and speechless. I had gotten into a routine and didn’t have a lot of emotional transition time. Almost the way I’d imagine a doll house person feels when a giant 7 year old transports them to an unfamiliar place and then wanders off to tend to their stuffed kitten. Introductions were done and I said “A demain” to Sue Crust, the site director, and followed my new host mom to where my host dad awaited with the car.

I felt awkward the whole ride. I had no idea where we were going and I could hardly communicate. I sat quietly and nervously knowing the answers to many questions were coming soon. My host parents tried to point things out to me and I tried desperately to understand and remember while secretly feeling really stupid.

It was warm the day of my arrival, really warm actually. I was sort of surprised. Another surprise, was that on the drive home, we pulled over, my new host mom hopped out, ran into a “boulangerie” and returned with a baguette. SERIOUSLY?! Awesome. Real life, Emily, this is real life! Not a scene from a movie….

Arrival at the house I recognized from Google maps brought a mini wave of apprehension but I was mostly comforted by its home-y-ness! It is adorable and I loved it!

The house! See the three windows above the Garage? That’s my room!
Brittany, I hope you don’t mind being in the picture…

I got a tour and a review of the household terms in French.

The hall at the top of the stairs. Right – Le salle de bain (bathroom), next right – ma chambre (my bedroom). Left – Brittany’s room and my host parent’s room.

Top of the stairs where the previous picture was taken from.

First observation: no pets. Bummer that there was no kitty to welcome me, but a relief there wasn’t a yappy little dog to chew on the shoes we’re not supposed to wear on the staircase. I was shown the kitchen and bathrooms and told where to put things and find things and at the end, I was given the choice between two bed rooms. I preferred the downstairs bedroom in terms of decoration, storage space and access to the patio, but I decided on the upstairs room next to the bathroom and another student’s bedroom. So this was it. My tour was over, my spot was chosen, and I had about 3 hours before we returned to the train station to pick up my Oregonian roommate! Still sort of numb, I didn’t unpack. In each place we’d stayed while traveling I was eager to unzip my suitcase and settle in, but here, it felt weird to take things out and put them in a wardrobe where they’d stay for the next 4 months.  Not to mention the pressure of deciding where to store what. That’s a lot of pressure, you know.

The view of those 3 windows from the inside!

The view out those three windows. (This is for you mom)

My host dad interrupted me, busily doing nothing, to offer “wee-fee”. What the heck? Wee-fee?! I had no idea what I was agreeing to. “Ok, thanks!” (The only two words I could remember in French at that moment). He shuffled away and I got up to follow, we walked into the room with a computer….OH! Wifi!!! Hooray! I had a private, silent celebration. And promptly figured out how to log in from my laptop. Success and a great signal! Life couldn’t possibly be too bad, even without a cat.

Now is a good time to bring up day one discomforts. Day one discomforts (DODs) are horrible. Truly awful! So, I’ll do my best to explain; basically an indistinguishable swarm of emotions (that only subside do to the distraction of a French meal). It’s the feeling of being in a new place, all alone, with hundreds of questions, feeling lonely, worried, tired, overwhelmed and so many other things all at once. Your sense of time is slightly off and you are aware that you are ridiculously emotional and that it will pass, but you can’t help but be homesick and wonder what you’ve gotten into.  For those first few hours, I knew I was experiencing just DODs because I recognized the feeling from my first night at SIBA – and look how that turned out! But I still couldn’t convince myself and I moped and missed people until it was time for lunch.

Lunch: Prepare yourselves. Food is about to become much more of a theme in these blogs than it already is. This was my first meal in Angers and first home cooked food in a long time (besides in Switzerland). My host mom spoiled me with beats, potatoes, something else, and chocolate for dessert. The whole time I was eating, I was feeling shy and uncomfortable, partially because I was unfamiliar with the way meals worked and also because I couldn’t communicate! It’s so hard. My host parents speak zero.zero English, which, I guess, is a good thing!

In the car on the way back to the train station, I was grilled. Question 1: Political and religious views. (Needed to make sure I was going to vote for the right person and figure out if I’d be going to church with them) Question 2: Do you have a boy friend at home?  Priorities.

We picked up Brittany, and briefly met our third roommate that would be moving in the next day. I liked them both and knew we’d get along. Poor Brittany probably just wanted to sleep and instead it was my turn to do the grilling and asked all the normal questions on the car ride home.

Dinner: Meals are incredible. Seriously, even better than lunch! I had told my host mom I don’t like tomatoes and since it was tomato quiche for the main course, she prepared scrambled eggs with herbs for me! Besides the food, it was a better meal because Brittany was there (after I awkwardly woke her up) and we could help each other talk and understand.
Here is a brief summary of an example of a typical French meal:
1) Fruit or vegetable dish
2) Main course and side dish
3) Cheese, bread and red wine course
4) Dessert
They take their time, enjoy their food and wine, and don’t leave out the cheese! I’m sure, if you follow my blog of my time in Angers, or come to my apartment for dinner in January, you will learn more than you wanted to about how a meal works in France.

For now, my final upon arrival notes include:
-Communicating is hard. Thank goodness for patience pants, mini dictionaries and universal sign language.
-So excited for orientation during the first full day. I’m ready to be informed!
-I went from a clear shower door in Austria to no shower door in France. I’m not kidding. It’s just the bathtub (which is elevated) and no curtain or anything. Look:

Can you tell? You can’t see how the tub is elevated in this picture.

-More thoughts on my specific DODs:
I had gotten used to being able to speak English all over these Western European countries and with other international students. I hadn’t tried speaking French much and hadn’t realized how rusty I’d gotten, so that added to the emotion – in the form of frustration. It’s especially hard when the people you are trying to talk to, are actually French and don’t have American accents with their French. I am also worried about doing little things that are not too offensive but that do violate cultural norms in public and annoy people/make me stand out as a foreigner.

Anyway, as you all know, I like to talk, so it’s hard when I can’t. I hope my French improves fast!

A bientot!
Emily