We had to take a long train ride to our next destination in China, Shaolin. The train ride took many hours we had to even stop for a couple of hours to wait out an electrical storm, the train could not run during that kind of storm. The next day we went to the tai chi village and practiced tai chi. It was great. I really loved it there. We also had lunch at the village, the best thing was the orange eggplant. It was wonderful. The next day we went to the Shaolin temple. It was a 6 hour hike up the side of a mountain. I had to overcome some serious fears and anxiety, but I did it. It was the hardest thing I’ve had to do so far. We then traveled to Wudang Mountain. There we took cable cars to the top of that mountain. It was amazing.
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First week in China
The first site we went to see was the Great Wall of China. It was so beautiful and amazing. It took 2 hours to climb to the top of the short side. Oh my goodness, my legs were shaking by the time I got down. I found it very interesting how the locals wanted to take so many pictures with us. It was pretty fun. After we were done we went to dinner. I tried blood for the first time and quail eggs, it was good. Of course there was plenty of other food also; beef, pork, lamb, noodles, mushrooms, tofu, duck tongue.
The next day we went to the summer palace and the forbidden city. Both amazing places, what architecture there is here. Both of these places were built for the emperor and his wives. The summer palace had its own lake.
Arrival in China
Upon arrival we got off the plane to catch our ride to the hotel. It was nothing like I thought it would be. I was definitely expecting more people than there was. It was very hot and humid. It took about 45 minutes to get from the airport to our hotel. We went to dinner with Pluto and his parents. It was wonderful. There was so much food and many different kinds. I even tried jelly fish for the first time, and it wasn’t bad.
Home at Last
I arrived in the USA around 230 pm. It was a weird moment to be finally back in the US and seeing my family. The way time moved and the how everybody interacted seemed really foreign to me. What do I care, I was back home with a nice slice of American pizza in my belly.
For me to compare India to America is like trying to compare an entity that is totally different from the other. Both are countries and have people in them but the way people interact and talk to each other is totally different.
I am just feeling elated that I am finally back in states!
Before leaving to France
Pre-departure was a very difficult journey for me. I had so many obstacles for having issues with my passport, getting my visa, to getting my computer, money and phone stolen; it was really bad. Fortunately, I overcame every one of those obstacles.
It was hard to pack my belongings because I wanted to bring everything with me. I like brought 10 pairs of shoes because I knew I was going to do a lot of walking and odds are that I will probably buy more over here. Then I know french people dress different than Americans in the sense where they dress with more casual/formal. You wouldn’t find someone going to the store in their pajamas and t-shirt. Actually, I don’t think I have seen a woman wear a t-shirt at all. Like in the US I always wear my shorts and t-shirts all the time and it is hard because I wont really be able to do that over here, of course, unless I want to stand out as an American which I really don’t. Besides, I am doing an internship so I have to look professional. So I pretty much packed all dress shoes and boots. dresses and dressier shirts. But no jeans because last time I was hear, I don’t remember seeing a lot of people wearing jeans.
Saying good bye was hard. I didn’t think it would be that way. I thought I was prepared to say goodbye but I was wrong. I know I am going to go back but three and a half months is quite far away. It was very painful to say good bye to my mom and to my boyfriend. For a moment I began to have second thoughts of leaving.
Since I had already been in France, I already knew what to expect for the most part. I knew I was going to see beautiful monuments and a lot of old buildings. The streets where going to be more narrower and the cars smaller a lot of motorcycles/mopeds, crazy drivers too. For the meals, well I expected bread and wine for sure, oh and cheese which is not my favorite whatsoever. I like cheese but not french cheese. I am not expecting a whole lot of different things from what I had previously seen. I am hoping to see a lot of new places, meet a lot of people and make the best out of this internship abroad.
Last Days
As I prepare to go home I think of the expectations I had in the beginning and what they are now. I believe that somethings have changed but they were not the expectations, but it was me that changed. I was the one that grew by immersing myself in a culture that I fully did not comprehend, but I still jumped in with two feet. That is why I have come to a point at the end of my journey where I realize that good things will always be there even if you are not there presently. Its what you keep in your heart and mind that the events that I experienced that I will keep forever.
One of these moments was meeting the two Delhi University students at my internship. Their names are Smiridi and Puja. We always joked around but we always knew that we had to be serious when it came to our work. So their were times where we got into intensive talks about global governance and public policy in India.
Then there were the interns from the state of Gujarat. Their names were Dharmavirsingh, Bhargov, and Jatin. We also used joked around and we always had a good time. There was not a time that one of us was not laughing.
Then there was Manda who worked for the organization. She was the livelihood coordinator who took me on day trips to places where the organization was doing livelihoods. She taught me that that sometimes the best way to do something is to test it out, even if you did not do know what you were doing. She never said this specifically but she always strived for this goal, because she loved what she was doing.
Lastly are my advisors. Their names are Amit Khedkar and Dr. Sudha Kothari. They were the two that guided me though the project that I was working on. Since this was a new idea for the organization they also were learning. They always pushed me to come up with new solutions that could be developed through this volunteer project.
Lastly, I want to give myself a pat on the back. Not to sound self conceded, but I feel I have gained so much more then I actually put into this project. That is why I find solice in coming home because I feel that I have grown as a human being for what India has taught me.
Going Home
Well what can I say. These six weeks and flew by and I honestly don’t know where the time went. I know its cliche but its like a blinked and it was gone. Although I do miss my family and I hope that everything flight ways goes as smooth as possible. I know that there are somethings that can go wrong and I just really don’t want to deal with any crazyness tomorrow so fingers crossed that all goes well. I will be arriving back in Portland saturday at 8:30pm meaning that I have a 14 hour trek home but I am ready. I will miss my host mom and her family the most out the entire trip. They did a great job in making me feel at home and I know that they will miss me as much as I am going to miss them. I will forever remember them and hope to come back either next year or a little after. Queretaro is such a great place with a lot of culture and mexican history that I want to bring my family back. What I miss from home has to be my girlfriend, my family (mom, dad, sisters, nieces, nephews) Food, I haven’t been eating that many things in fear that I would get sick but after the 6 weeks I can say that I didn’t get sick once, but I’m ready to have me some pad thai for some reason I have been craving that for the past few weeks and I can’t wait to have it.
I do want to say that this stay has really opened my eyes culturally and I have the travel bug now. I know that after a few weeks at home and Ill be ready for my next big adventure. Although I hope my girlfirend could come with me next. It been a great six weeks and I’m sad its done but happy I’m going home. I’m happy from the memories I’ve made and I’ve made even better friends. I will miss them but know that they are only hours away from me.
Its been a great time Queretaro, See you soon.
Mario
Week 6
Well, well, well! The time has come where it is the last and final week. I can safely say that I am ready to go home, although dreading my 14 hour travel plans back home. I know it will all be worth it in the end. Well lets start off on Monday we were all dreading our final essays, presentations, and test which I had the pleasure of having all three. The only thing that kept me moving forward has been the fact that I will be back home by saturday night. My Señora has also been meaning to make some tamales with me since she didn’t know how to make them and I told her that I knew from my mom. So she asked me to write her a list of the things she needed to get and she would get them for me. Well monday she went and got all the things I needed and we made them on tuesday.
She also invited her sister and her brother in law and their 3 adult kids who are my señoras nephews who also brought their wifes and kids over to eat. They loved them! They turned out to be very good and I don’t think there were any left after the 100 plus that we made. They ate most of them and what was left where taken home to enjoy. I felt great being able to teach my señora how to make mexican food. Then I basically had to write two 5 pages essays 1 10 min speech and 1 final exam that I did pretty good at. Here in Mexico they have to show their students their final grade and if the student doesn’t agree with that grade then they can petition the grade. So today friday I had to go to all my classes and get my grades. I am happy to announce that I received two A’s and a B. I feel like I did a solid job this term and I am happy at my over all grades. Its been a great time but I am sure ready to go home. I only have a few more house here and I sure will miss it.
J’ai arrive!
So I woke up on Saturday super early , 4 am because I got a Charlie horse in my left leg and I couldn’t sleep. The time zone jet lag was causing havoc. I decided to hop online to talk to my people while I still had Internet access not knowing if my host would have it or not. Next thing I knew it was 6 and I was staying up to Skype Thad who was still at dinner with his work group for another half hour. I was tired I could tell but too excited and nervous to sleep. Finally I skyped and then took another nap until my alarm went off at 9:20.
She asked about what I like and don’t like. Then made me lunch which was tomatoes and mozerella, salad; and an avocado. Not wanting to be rude I tried to eat it even though I a) wasn’t hungry b) don’t want to be picky but I really can’t stomach tomatoes well at all. Avocados either but it is easier to chew those and not taste them than it is a tomato. So after trying to eat them and getting most of the avocado down I had two bites of tomato and my tag reflex kicked in and sold me out… I literally almost threw up… Which made me feel really bad because I was trying to be good about it. But she told me I didn’t have to eat it so I didn’t. I told her my stomach wasn’t adjusting very well and I wasn’t very hungry. She sort of understood. Then we went back into town and walked around. She showed me some buildings like the office de tourisme and the marie which is like the town courthouse. We also passed by a church that was super pretty and old looking and of course a lot of fountains.
Week 5
What!! Only one more week to go! I can’t believe the time has come where I will be able to count the days left on one hand. Its been such a great experience and I have nothing but awesome memories. I am ready to go home though. Like I said I miss my family and my girlfriend. We have talked a lot the past few weeks and I’m glad cuz I think that time would have been so much longer and I wouldn’t have had such a great stay if I would have been homesick the entire time.
This week went by incredably fast and i’m a little happy about that. I will miss my mexico family but the teachers here are very hard to get and understand. The reason being is that they let us do our work and expect us to be able to do great work without needing specific guidlines but we all know that in the USA the teachers tell you how many pages the paper must be how many cites what kind of cites and they also tell you the font the spacing and even the margins for crying out loud but here they tell you to do a paper and then the questions start getting asked. “How long?” “What font?” “MLA format?” things like that. The teachers honestly let you do whatever you want as long as its good work. That’s something interesting I noticed during my time here in mexico.
This week we went to San Miguel Allende for our last trip before we are done. It was such a pretty place. Like all the places, although this place seemed more like the poster place for mexico. It has horses in the streets, marichi bands playing on every corner and awesome smelling food all over. It was honestly like what people expect from mexico shoved into a little block.
The cathedral was so big and pretty and to top it all off as we were walking by there was a wedding going on and the wedding party was walking out. It made for an awesome photo op.
There was also a really great taco place that had some awesome Micheladas which are beers with flavors and chili peppers. It was pretty awesome I enjoyed it. Some people didn’t like the flavor but I think they are good. Also you can’t knock it till you try it so go out and get yourself one.
We all stayed in a hostel and there was a women who was from Sweden and she was going to school in San Miguel to learn how to make jewelry. She spoke very good spanish and I talked to her about languages around the world and how the USA is falling behind because she knows 6 languages and she was only 27 years old. I told her how I wanted to be a bilingual teacher and she was excited for me and excited for the USA that they are starting to come around in their thought process.
We came home around 1 pm on sunday and I had a six page paper to complete by monday so thats how I spent my week. Very hectic for being a such a pretty place. I have had a lot of fun and I love my mexico family they are honestly the best!!!!