Week 3- First trip: Barcelona

Posted on October 4, 2013 by Adaleni Lopez

Another week of classes started and they went well. I’ve gotten used to living in Spain and made Segovia my home. Living with my host family has been going well as well. I’ve gotten used to the food and have found some of my favorite dishes. I had paella a typical Spain dish for the second time. I really like it. I’ve also gotten used to the Spanish tortilla which is not what I expected. It is made of potatoes and eggs. Potatoes are a really common vegetable around here, any vegetable really.

Seafood Paella

I’ve really adjusted to the language here as well because even now that I talk to my mom on the phone I start to say words from Spain. Although some words they use here are really strange to me, I enjoy learning the new words.

As week 3 of classes finished up my first trip with some of the girls from the group approached. Thursday night we took the night train to Barcelona. We spent the weekend in Barcelona and that was great. It was nice to visit a city that is filled with so many tourist attractions and to see the wonderful architecture and art by Gaudi. Barcelona has beautiful beaches as well and that was nice to take in the sun. Barcelona is filled with tourists. There are many bus tours available in Barcelona for a good price. A friend and I went on a tour bus and that was the best thing we could have done. We got to see so much of Barcelona which we would not have seen on foot. On Sunday we headed back to Madrid on a plane and that was so much better than a train. Our flight was only an hour and a half compared to the 8 hour train ride. I’m glad I got to see Barcelona, it’s a beautiful city.

Barcelona Bus Tour

La Barcelonata Beach. The Mediterranean Sea!

La Sagrada Familia

Building by Gaudi- La Pedrera (Casa Mila)

Where the 1992 Olympics were held in Barcelona

Rambla del Mar bridge

Barcelona cathedral

The girls at the fountain show in Barcelona

I’m excited for week 4 because this week the whole group is going to a Real Madrid soccer game.

Week 9….What a week

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Hannah Williamson

I’m almost half way through with my time here in Lima, and so bad nothing TOO awful had happened, but with my luck I should have known I had it coming for me.

Wednesday September 25, I was sitting in my only class of the day, Spanish, when I noticed an annoying rattling sound coming from the glass cabinets behind me, along with the rattling I could feel a shaking and vibration feeling in my legs, but I didn’t think anything of it, just like if a train passed by and it rattled the building a bit, but a few seconds later I realized, “I’m on the 4th floor, there is no train passing by”….my attention was drawn to the projector screen which was swaying back and forth and suddenly it hit everyone….we were having an earthquake. At this moment I cannot say how I felt, scared, nervous, worried, all emotions possible, I was feeling them. It had been about 45 seconds that the shaking went on until we realized what was happening, and it lasted for about another minute after that. Our teacher had us exit the class into the hallway where there are strong pillars, we walked along those planning to go to the bottom floor and then the shaking stopped, and to my surprise my teacher had us go back to class for the next hour until class was out, as if nothing had even happened.

It was amazing to me that it was no big deal to anyone, except for the international students. We had just experienced a 7 point quake and nobody even thought anything of it?? Then I found out this type of thing happens frequently when the temperature shifts and the air gets warmer. What an experience it was for me…

After Wednesday things went on normal as always, until Friday night. Thursday night I noticed I wasn’t feeling well…specifically having certain stomach issues, but I ignored it figuring it would go away, Friday rolled around and we had our night tour of the cemetery as you can see in my last post. Luckily I was able to survive through the tour, until I got on the bus to go back. I had never had stomach pain that bad in my life, and I knew something was wrong. I went home and told my family what was happening and they were very worried and insisted that I go to the hospital right away since I would be reimbursed 100% through my insurance. Well…I went and turns out I was suffering from dysentery. Dysentery??? I hadn’t heard of that since playing the Oregon Trail computer game in 5th grade! The doctor immediately started an IV to get me re-hydrated and to administer an antibiotic and pain medicine. What a relief to finally get some medicine in me, I have never felt pain like that in my life.

My 21st birthday was Monday, and because of this sickness, I was not able to drink and celebrate like I would have liked to, but I was thankful that I was feeling better!

A word of advice for everyone before traveling: Have your doctor prescribe you 500 mg Ciprofolxacin before traveling. This is a common antibiotic that can be used for many bacterial infections and I was lucky that I already had it because it saved me from having to buy it at the pharmacy here.

Presbyter Matías Maestro Cemetery

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Hannah Williamson

As you may know, Lima is a huge city, over 9 million people live here and it came as a surprise that I had not seen even 1 cemetery. Not that I am fascinated with death like some Americans, but I have always found cemeteries to be very interesting, especially old cemeteries, and I knew there had to be one somewhere. I asked my program coordinator where we could find one and she offered my group a tour by NIGHT of Lima’s oldest cemetery.

The tour began at 7 pm when it had just gotten dark and it was done on an open bus, so of course my group chose to sit on the top/open part of the bus, which was really cool. The cemetery was about a half hour from where we began and it was interesting to pass through districts by night, we started in Miraflores which is a nice, richer district, and ended up in La Victoria which is Lima’s poorest district. Seeing the change in scenery and people was very interesting.

Once we got to the cemetery I already knew we were in for quite a thrilling adventure. The cemetery was opened in 1808 and there are around 800 mausoleums as well as another 800 or so tombs on the premises, many of which are occupied by the bodies of deceased priests, heroes of war, and important literary and political figures.

What surprised me is that when I told my host family about the cemetery they had never visited it, and gave me the impression that it wasn’t very interesting, but I found it extremely interesting and incredible.

Travelling to the Highlands

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Emily Pate

I’m having an amazing time in Scotland. The people here are very friendly, and there are so many things to do!

Only ten minutes from my apartment, there’s a shopping district which has a small street market every weekend. A few of my flatmates and I went there this past weekend and bought some sweets there.

This past weekend, most of my flatmates and I, took a bus tour up to the Highlands, which was a lot of fun. We had to be at the Royal Mile by 7:45 in order to catch our bus. The Royal Mile is the road that starts at Edinburgh Castle and ends at Holyrood Palace, which is the official residency of the queen when she’s in Scotland. It’s only about a twenty minute walk from my flat to get there, which means that I have a view of the castle when walking home from class. It’s still amazing to me to see such amazing historical monuments just going about everyday business. Here’s a picture looking down the Royal Mile from the top, near where the castle is.

Unfortunately, our group was separated between two buses, with everyone on one bus except one of my flatmates and I. It turns out, however, that we got the more entertaining bus driver. He was very funny and had a strong Scottish accent. He kept saying “Fantastic!” in a very enthusiastic manner. It was quite foggy out, which David the bus driver was worried about, but the fog burned off pretty quickly after we were on out way. At our first stop, we got to see some Highland cattle, which are the cutest cows of all time.

We stopped at a few places after that to take pictures of amazing views, especially of the Munros, which are mountains that are over 3,000 feet tall. There are 280 of them in Scotland, and some people make it their life’s goal to climb to the top of all of them.

Here’s a picture of everyone who went, that we had another person on the tour take for us:

That’s Liz, Rachel, Megan, Kayla, and then me.

After that we went to the Three Sisters, which is the place they filmed parts of Skyfall, Braveheart, and the Harry Potter films. This is the ridge Mel Gibson as William Wallace runs along after the Battle of Falkirk in Braveheart:

After that we went to Loch Ness and took a boat cruise. The weather was perfect for it, which was great after how foggy it had been in the morning.

Liz and Kayla actually swam in the Loch, though very briefly, as it was quite cold.

After that, we drove through Inverness. Our bus driver told us that “inver” simply means “mouth of”, so Inverness means “mouth of the river Ness”, which I found interesting. After that, we drove back to Edinburgh.

Classes have been going very well, and I’m finding the material very engaging, though I have a lot of reading to do for each of my modules. The professors here expect their students to call them by their first names, which is a strange transition for me.

Until next time,

Emily

La Revolution Francaise

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Kacy Helwig

This morning I woke up around ten and went and took a shower. I had breakfast and made myself a PB&J to take with me to school. I got there early and read a little of my Game of Thrones book. After a while I went outside to meet my class. Today we went on a little trip to the monument of Joseph Sec. It is one of only 5 monuments from the French revolution that still exists. The other three are in Paris and there is another one in Nantes. The last one is here in Aix! It is a small little monument with a sort of garden like thing on the inside.

Pretty much during the revolution everyone wanted to trash everything that had to do with French history before the revolution. Some people like Joseph Sec didn’t really like that idea. He made this monument and made it a sort of mausoleum but without his body so that people wouldn’t mess with it. It is super cool and has sculptures and such. On the outside it has three plaques. The middle one just kind of says what it is. The one on the left says something like : Leaving cruel slavery, I have no other master but myself, But my liberty I have no other use of but to obey the law. The one on the right says something along the lines of: I will prefer to die for these laws more than to abolish them. Basically at this time because every other country was attacking France this was France saying hey we are free from the king now but we are going to follow the laws we made, and we’d rather die fighting you than to break them and be a part of your country. Basically, France has it’s own laws and they will fight to keep them.

The monument itself was pretty cool. We stood outside talking about the different parts. In the middle there is a statue of a man with horns. My professor asked us who we thought it was and because of the horns we assumed the devil. But we learned that it was Moses and that he has horns because somewhere in translation someone mis-translated halo to be horns. Quite a bad mix up to be honest! But that’s why in a lot of famous paintings and such of Moses he has horns. On each side of him were statues of women but I don’t really know their significance or if they had one. On the very top of the monument was lady Justice with a scale. On the other side of the main wall of the monument is Jesus with a lamb. The significance of the statues is that the front and back are the old and new Testaments of the Bible and Lady Justice being on top is the French saying that Justice will win over the king who was supposedly chosen by God himself and ruled by divine right. It was pretty cool to see the monument even from just the outside.

We went inside and it was pretty much just a little garden with some more statues. We learned that the statues there were fake and that the real ones are in the museum in town. This is the museum I have already been to but I think that I need to go back later because there is so much I have heard about that I didn’t see. I think because there is a temporary exhibition there now so once that is over they will put back their regular stuff.

Inside we learned that the statues were of Noah, David with Goliaths head, Judith nailing the guy in the head, Solomon, a Prophetess, and Aaron Mose’s brother. They were all really cool looking even if they were replicas. Right after the French revolution people started to realize that they needed to have their cultural heritage guarded so the people stopped wrecking everything.

Another interesting story where the French were trashing stuff was when King Henry the 4^th was removed from his tomb. Pretty much the revolutionaries dumped the body in the sewers but some crazy guy like kept the head and now it has resurfaced and it’s a big deal. There are DNA tests going on and such but I wonder how they can do that if the rest of the body is gone. I guess probably by using his lineage and finding people that were descendents from him? Though how they would really know 100% I question because his descendents would only have half his DNA each time, and after 10 generations that wouldn’t be a lot left… But I guess it must work somehow.

I also learned that the French wanted to create their own calendar and forget the Christian calendar. The wanted it to be separate so on the middle plaque it says “the fourth year of liberty 1792” So they were trying to use the new calendar and the Christian calendar. They soon learned that the new calendar wasn’t going to work.

The whole little trip was really cool and I got to learn a lot of things about the French revolution that I wouldn’t have learned from reading a book. I want to find out who the other statues are that were in the garden and also when the other statues were moved. The ones on the top and front of the monument are the real ones from that time which makes me wonder why they didn’t move those ones as well. Perhaps because it would be too much work? I don’t know.

My literature class was a bit dull today. Instead of having a big discussion we had like little talks on different parts of the text. I enjoy the longer discussions much better though. But it wasn’t bad. We are almost done with Paradise Lost.

After class I went to the FNAC (aka best buy +books and other things) store to find a birthday card for my mom. I wandered around for a while and bought a lemon and sugar crepe. It was surprisingly delicious! I was pleasantly surprised. After that I went back to the school to read for a while before meeting Cassandra for Happy Hour. Kelan, Julia, and Patrick ended up joining us as well because Kelan saw me outside the school so I invited him, who saw Julia so he invited her and Cassandra had class with Patrick so she invited him and it was fun! We went and sat and talked about lots of different things. Julia left to go skype her parents and the four of use kept sitting and talking for another hour. After that Kelan, Patrick, and I went back to the monument so we could show Kelan but it was closed by then. It was really cool though.

I came back home and wrote moms card and then I decided to try and write to my French professors in French. And I was doing fine until I wanted to know how many fountains there are in Aix exactly. Madame came home and we tried to find the answer on the internet. That didn’t work so we consulted her dictionaries for Aix but that didn’t say either. I learned she doesn’t have a book for Aix (Christmas Present? Oui.) so tomorrow my mission is to find that out. I probably will go to the office de toursime and see if they know and if not go to the library. I really want to know though because there are so many and I want to know the exact number because I am curious like that! Aix is called the city of a thousand fountains but I bet it has a few less. After that we had dinner and then watched Men in Black. Paul came up to say hi and I forgot to do la bise or kisses so he was like standing there and I was like what until Madame was like bisous and I was like oh! I didn’t know that was a thing that I was supposed to do! But I guess I am!

Also a fun little fact: after the Storming of the Bastille some businessmen sold stones from the building and one of them ended up here in Aix in this like random building. But the people who bought the building after the guy who bought it dies didn’t know it was historic so they had it engraved with “Toilettes” and used it as a sign for the bathrooms. Oops! But after they found out it was too late. My professor said not many Aix people know about it, but because the building is under construction or something we couldn’t go see it.

Also I can’t remember if I put this in my last post or not but I learned that the construction next has been going on for 2 years! Blech! It shows no sign of stopping either!

Week One or so

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Tate Sanders

Been finally getting my feet under me. Figured out how to get to town and find some places to eat and shop for essentials. Getting done with ‘freshers’ week, in which they acclimate the new students with orientations and different activities that are either fun or very clinical. This is a big party time, with our school pub (on campus no less) being a place of frivolity till past 2 am.

Decided since I had no school, I was going to see my godfather in Northern Ireland. He considers himself an Ulsterman, as this is the region he is from in Ireland. The North is still under UK control, but before this, the men of Ulster were the fiercest warriors and also had much of their heritage come from Scotland in the past and the more recent past as well. I am very fortunate he is a history buff, as he showed me around Belfast and some of the sights around it.

We went to Mount Stewart, where the Londonderry estate is. They were some of the richest and most well respected noble families in Ireland and had many titles back in England as well. Many paintings and other artifacts from the local area and from the Far East are there. It has a beautiful garden and a wide expanse. Also, for those of you who know about the Congress of Vienna, this estate houses all the chairs of the dignitaries who were heavily involved and has their respective coats of arms on each chair. Also went to see other locales, including where the Northern Irish government used to hold Parliament and just beautiful sights of Ulster. Can’t wait to go back!

Stormont, former home of Northern Irish Parliament, still has some functions for ministers

Some of the chairs at the Congress of Vienna, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

Queen’s University, where my godfather graduated from.

Why does the milk taste weird?

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Kacy Helwig

Today I woke up and read a bunch. I had some cereal and discovered that milk here has a very different taste to it. I have also noticed (today) that it isn’t in the refrigerated section of grocery stores. I did some research and figured out why this is and found this:

Most milk in France does not require refrigeration because it is sterilised and not pasteurized. Despite having been the first country to “discover” and widely use pasteurization for dairy products, they now use what is called UHT steralization, another heating process that kills bacteria.

The shelf life of sterilized milk is 6-9 months when unopened, hence it’s reason for being popular. This is why French milk tastes different. Other European countries like Spain, Portugal, and Belgium also use this method.

Apparently UHT milk has been introduced in the US, but Americans, as they are with all change, were no open to trying unrefrigerated milk that tastes like merde. Evidement.

Source: https://www.exasperatedexpatriate.com/2013/04/youve-always-wanted-to-know-why-isnt.html

I found that really helpful and surprising as well. I totally agree with the American view of the milk here though it is very weird and different! I think the best way to describe it is that it doesn’t taste refreshing? Once you open the milk you put it in the fridge but it still isn’t very like fresh feeling? It is hard to describe so you will just have to come here and try it 😉

I read my book for a while and got almost done with my outline for a paper due on Monday when I decided I didn’t want to have a sit at home day today when I know that Sunday the weather is going to be bad and I won’t be able to walk around much. So I texted my friend Cassandra and asked if she wanted to go on an adventure with me to find the big supermarché or big grocery store that is outside of town. She agreed and we made plans to meet.

The best form of transportation here is public because to get a license you have to pass a test and go to driving school. It is also very expensive to get a license (over 1,000 Euros, that’s over $1,350!) and if you don’t pass the tests you have to retake them and pay the money to try all over again! Not to mention that but cars are also pretty expensive here and there isn’t a lot of space to park them. So because of this if you want to go somewhere over a mile away you need to take public transportation to get there. We ended up needing to take the bus. I had a bit of trouble figuring out which line we needed to take to get us there and the bus routes aren’t very clear. I finally found a website that you could tell it where you wanted to go and it would tell you the best route to take. What a life saver! I met Cassandra and we headed out. I had looked at how many stops the bus would make before we needed to get off so that we would be sure not to miss it but the bus stopped a lot more often than the route made it seem. I was not recognizing the bus stop names and was getting worried but then we soon passed the grocery store and stopped close by. We hopped off and began our adventure.

The store is called Carrefour and the best way that I could describe it is that it is like a Safeway and a Walmart and Half of a Fred Meyers. It is BIG. I guess it could be compared to Costco but things aren’t in bulk they is just a lot of stuff!

We went in and I had some Mac Do. I wanted a taste of home and to be able to say that I had. It was difficult to order because they don’t really do things in the same way. They do single things and not really meals. I learned later that they have machines there that you can order from and put them in different languages. This makes a lot of sense because I bet that they have the language barrier problem a lot here! It tasted pretty different as everything here does even if you think it will taste familiar. I mostly just needed to eat something or else I was going to start getting grumpy.

We started walking around looking at things. There were a lot of interesting things and a lot of things that I looked at and said “Hey so and so would like this” but then I said how in the world would I get this back to them… I also found suit cases for not a lot of Euros, only like fifty so that is a good thing to remember. I took a lot of pictures of the store. There were a lot of aisles that were dedicated to just one thing. There were three wine aisles, a cheese aisle, a yogurt aisle, a French fry aisle, and an ice cream isle. I think that they have so many choices for one thing because those are REALLY popular food staples here, everyone eats cheese and drinks wine and has desserts. I think that it was a really cool experience to go to a French grocery store. I could easily have spent hours wandering and looking at all of the things that they had. Fortunately for Cassandra, I only took three and a half.

When I got home Madame made dinner and we had a very delicious Chicken and Rice with Zuccinni. The chicken she had soaked in honey, lemon, and thyme. It was sooooo good. I will HAVE to get the recipe. After that I Skyped or tried really with my crummy internet to Skype Thad before he had to go to Lunch.

After that Madame and I started watching Master Chef which is a really cool cooking show. There was a trivia question tonight which was how many desserts are traditionally at the table for Christmas in the South of France. Madame was quick to say thirteen. After one of the people on the show said three and was kicked off, I asked her what they were. She listed off a few nuts, figs, nougat, Yule Log, fruit, etc. and she got to about 7 before she got stuck and couldn’t think of any others. So we decided to Google it and in doing so found out why!

The thirteen desserts of Christmas, or Les Treize Desserts de Noël, are enjoyed after Gros Souper in Provence. The thirteen desserts are in reference to Jesus and his twelve apostles at the Last Supper. As tradition goes, there must be at least thirteen sweet available, they are all served at once, and each guest must have at least a small bit of each dessert.

Fougasse or pompe à l’Huile, an olive oil flatbread, is eaten with grape jam made during the last harvest season. The tradition is to break the bread into individual servings with the fingers, rather than cut the bread with a knife. Legend goes that this protects one’s wealth from bankruptcy in the coming year.

The “four beggars” portion of lez treize stands for four monastic communities: Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans, and Franciscans. Walnuts stand for the Augustinians, almonds for the Carmelites, raisins for the Dominicans, and figs for the Franciscans. A platter of fresh fruit usually counts as one dessert, and is always served after Gros Souper. It can be a selection of oranges, apples, pears, and grapes. Any combination of seasonal fruit is welcome, and fresh berries rarely make the list, although they would be considered acceptable, as well.

Source: https://frenchfood.about.com/od/festivalsandholidays/tp/13-Desserts-Of-Christmas.htm

I found that really interesting and I wish that I was going to be here for Christmas to experience that. But also at the same time I am very happy that I will be home for Christmas with my family.

Pre-Departure: Journey has Begun!

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Finally, the day of my study abroad is here. Today, I am here at the PDX airport waiting to fly out on my journey. I have been in touch with my host family, and they are just as excited as I am to meet. Knowing that I have someone “on the other side” waiting for me makes me feel much more confident. I already know I will love my host mom, and her 2 kids, Nadya and Arian. She has been so nice to help me get prepared. Even though it has all been through e-mail, she does an amazing job by writing in full to give me as much information as I need.

On the other hand, I have been awake sine 10am (Monday), it is now 5:44am (Tuesday). No sleep is what happens when I am just so excited and nervous for this trip! My family was so nervous for me, but being proud of what I am about to accomplish helped them bring me motivation and to not be so nervous. I received much support from my friends and family, the best part was to hear them say that they will see me again soon! Because before I know it I will be back! I am so excited, but I can sense the homesickness kicking in. Maybe it’s the loneliness at the airport, or the goodbyes I had to say to my closest friends, I just hope all goes well so that I can return with many stories. At moments I felt like it was an unrealistic dream, but now, being here, in the waiting are of my terminal, it is real!

I imagine Oviedo, Spain to be as beautiful as everyone imagines. The culture, the beaches, the popular Sangria everyone talks about! But soon I will be looking through my own eyes, and I will share the beauty Spain truly has with all of you!

Introduction: Finally a sneak peak about me.

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Luanne Carrillo

Coming from a small town, being the minority, and the role model of my siblings, I became first generation on my family to pursue higher education and become the higher achiever I am today. I am currently pursuing a double degree in Community Health and Spanish, and my goal is to someday work with underrepresented families and become part of that support system everyone deserves. With a goal in mind, and with many challenges my family and I have had to face, I decided to create a goal of traveling abroad. I always had a dream of traveling to Europe, and Spain was at my most comfort level, which why I choose it for me to live and study for 3 months. Being the oldest and the first to take this journey in my family, has made me proud, because soon it will be one of my many accomplishments. I hope that through this adventure, I can learn, gain, and adapt new skills that I can soon bring back to WOU and recruit other students to also.. look at the world from a different view.

Finally some decent internet/wifi (arrival)

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Tate Sanders

Well, made it to England about one week ago. Been pretty hectic at times, but others have been real laid back and mellow. The scene leaving the airport was comic, stuffing fifteen people with most of our luggage in a small bus, as the trailer taking the luggage was overflowing. We had to leave behind our two escorts, it was so packed. I was only one of two American males, and three overall. Twelve girls to three guys was almost intimidating.

I was not too nervous about coming over, as I have already been to England once before, other than being completely on my own. I know how to get to gates, go to customs and all related to that, it was just having no support for part of the trip that daunted me a little. I was much more nervous about finding my way through Ormskirk and the campus itself.

Got a tour immediately after settling into our rooms, as the staff did not want us to sleep (we arrived at around noon local time) and further disorient our internal clocks. It was interesting, seeing the town and being around such history on the one hand, but modern (or fairly modern) conveniences and shops on the other. Rooms are fairly sparse and far less accommodation than back home, but still have heating and electricity. Still getting used to the overall scene and getting the internet to consistently work!

Classic example below of having a more modern shop put in around an older building.