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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