Tag Archives: While Abroad

Boliche…!

Posted on by
2

For the first time in 3 weeks, I experienced the night life in Argentina. I could consider it the morning life as well. It was Annie’s last night in Rosario so of course we had to let her go out with a bang. We all decided that we should go to a Boliche (dance club). Annie and Emily had experienced the Boliche on the previous Thursday, and recommended that it was a must. So we all decided to go and have our last moments of fun in Rosario with Annie.

When I initially told my host mom and sister that I was going to a Boliche, they said, “Okay we will see you tomorrow.” I asked them why and they said that the boliche doesn’t open until 2am and then they don’t even close till about 7am. This idea seemed crazy to me but I had to go. I would see how tired I got as the night went on.

My first surprise was the cost to get in. It was only 20 pesos, but I got in for cheaper because I was 21 and a girl in line gave me a V.I.P pass. So it was only 10 pesos for me. Then I checked my coat and that was 10 pesos as well. So it was a total of 20 pesos, which is around $5. It amazed me at how cheap it was.

The Boliche was wild and so were the people in it. I know that it was a dance club and all but if you could have seen what some of the girls were wearing. It was crazy! They had dresses on that were so short I didn’t know how they were going to be able to dance without their bottoms falling out. I was wearing jeans and a dress shirt so I initially felt out of place. But once we all got in and started dancing it didn’t matter. I don’t even think anyone noticed what I was wearing. We were all dancing and having fun.

Throughout the night/morning, some things got a little strange. Some of the guys thought that they could touch you wherever they wanted, and of course that was not okay with me. I would walk through the club and guys would pounce and you and grab your arm and pull you towards them. At first it was okay cause I was there to dance after all. But when I was trying to look for my friends, that’s when it got annoying. It was a little more contact dancing than I am used to. But I am in another country, and I have to embrace different cultural ways of doing things. That is why I am here, to experience new things. So besides a couple of differences, my whole night was a blast. I ended up returning home at 7am. So my host mom was right. I swear the time flew in the club. I didn’t even realize how early it was. All in all, I had the time of my life. I love to dance and it was nice to let loose and have some fun with my friends. I definitely want to go back a couple more times before I leave.

Melissa

Soda Pop

Posted on by
2

I set off away from London today off to Bath, got very lost, ended up on the wrong train and traveled to Taunton instead. It was lovely though. Along the way however, I met two wonderful women from Taunton and we sat on the train together for a little over an hour and chatted. It was really nice to meet them because they were both getting ready to travel to America in a couple of months so they wanted to know as much about my culture as they could, which allowed me to ask lots of questions about theirs!! The thing that surprised me the most during our in depth conversation was their confusion regarding Soda.

They asked me, “I’ve read so many books that talk about this, what is Soda??” I was soooo stumped I didn’t know how to explain what soda was. See over here, if you order Lemonade you get sprite. When I told them that they asked what we usually drink when we ask for Lemonade. When I told her it was basically water, lemon, and sugar she was horrified. She said that sounded disgusting!!

The other thing is, with the drinks over here. You cannot find anything that is not carbonated. You order apple juice or orange juice and its carbonated…it doesn’t even really taste like orange soda..it’s just orange juice with spritzer water inside. When I explained that we drink all of our juices without carbonation she said, “so when I order a drink over in America, I should expect it to be flat??”

Then she wanted to know what an Ice cream Soda was, or a Root Bear Float….yea try explaining that to someone who doesn’t know what Root Bear is. So that took a while, and needless to say she wasn’t very excited about the prospects but I made her promise to try one when she does get over to America. Which of course led us on to compare ice cream over here. Their ice cream tastes very different from ours, and they stick (what looks like a chocolate covered churro) in their ice cream. I haven’t gotten to try it yet but it looks weird.

So we had a long conversation about the different kinds of food that each culture has, they are very excited to try some of it, and they were kind enough to recommend a lot of good stuff that I intend to try. All in all, I am rather pleased that I did in fact get lost!!

Angela

Weekend in Paris!

Posted on by
3

Last Weekend I went to Paris!!

So spending time in London, especially with it being so busy because of the Olympics, I have noticed that people here really like their personal space. Back home if you get on a bus or a subway there is no such thing as personal space. Everyone crowds on and gets as close together as possible so that we all can fit as many people onto the bus or subway as possible. Here however, I have found they don’t do that. We all crowd on, but if you get close enough to almost touch someone the space is full. I fell and bumped into someone on the train and she was really offended. I think it is so interesting the importance of personal space here. Is it the same for everyone else?? In Paris more people were able to crowd on. They were not interested in personal space, but they did glare at you if you got to close because they were suspicious of pick pockets!!

I am curious as to what it is with our individual cultures which allows us to be more relaxed and crowd one another, versus here were everyone walks around with their own personal bubbles.

It was also very interesting to visit Paris after a weekend in London. In London the people are a little reserved, they don’t even like to say ‘excuse me’ to a stranger. When we all load onto the bus everyone looks up or down and will not make eye contact, they don’t like to talk to strangers and they keep their opinions to themselves. In Paris, it was really different. I was walking down the street and people would holler out to you, random questions or insights or opinions. Someone yelled across a street, four lanes of traffic, to tell me they liked my bag. Paris was incredibly more relaxed and easy going. Not to say they were really friendly, because my not knowing any French set off a lot of people, which made me feel bad. I had not wanted to offend anyone, but most of the time we communicated through gesture which worked marvelously!!

It was an amazing weekend, and if anyone ever gets the chance to go to Paris, GO!!!!! Definitely check out the Louvre.

Angela

Adapting

Posted on by
2

I’ve been sitting here for about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to articulate my time here in London so far. I’m going to post photos (seeing as I’ve taked almost 700 so far) and tell stories through those 🙂

For my film studies class, we got to tour the Harry Potter studios. Needless to say I kind of freaked out. It took me 4 hours to get through the whole exhibit. I’m still in shock that I say some of the things I did. I’ve gained so much insight on film since I’ve taken this class and it’s definitely increased my passion to be a part of the film making process, especially production.And Harry Potter is HUGE chunk of my childhood. I actually teared up when I first got in there. It was bittersweet at the end to leave because I was revealed to all the secrets behind Harry Potter. Kind of like finding out that Santa Clause is your parents, I fell in love with the creators behind Harry Potter and not just the fantasy of it. And the class itself… what an amazing course. The Professor, Dr. D is brilliant. I love his teaching style, I’m a visual learner and he uses so many movie clips in his lectures. It’s great.

This photo was taken right before getting a on a speedboat with some people from CCSA and some new friends I met in the beautiful city of CARDIFF, WALES. I decided that I wanted to move there after college. I totally fell in love with this city. You look one direction and see the bay, the the city mixed with castles and modern buildings, rolling hills in the background, and England just across the ocean. What an amazing experience. The culture was a little different than London, which was nice to experience. I enojyed every second of this trip, even getting lost for 2 hours 🙂

This is my new best friend Victoria. She’s from Kentucky! We’re already planning a roadtrip to see each other this spring. We go do crazy fun things together after class like getting totally lost on the tube and ending up in places like THIS (see picture above). It’s so nice meeting all these new friends. Everyone is so friendly and open minded here, I don’t know what I would do without the group of people I’ve met so far! We are actually all going to Amsterdam next weekend which will be quite the experience! I hear it’s beautiful there also, can’t wait 🙂

Yes, the caption is correct. I went to the Quiddich world cup in Oxford. It was HILARIOUS and intense! Also, Oxford was breathtaking. The history there was so interesting. I went to a pub where C.S Lewis and Tolkien (famous authors…. you know, Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and LORD OF THE RINGS…my FAVORITE) used to collaborate on their novels. Amazing.

To wrap this up, I’d just like to say that I am so thankful for this experience. I have grown so much as a person since I’ve been here. Talk about life changing. Cheers everyone 🙂

-Rachael

I Dream Of Paris

Posted on by
2

After class today our french teacher took us on a little tour of the city, to the places that we may not have been. We started off walking to Pont Neuf, which I had already been for my painting class, but had yet to have walked across the pedestrian bridge, Pont des arts, where lovers come and lock on their love. A tradition dating back till I don’t know when. The legend goes, that if you go there with the person you love and put a lock on the bridge and throw the keys in the seine your love will last forever. And man where there a lot of locks.

From Pont Neuf we walked to parts of Paris that I didn’t even know were there. But it was the Paris that I had wanted to see, old buildings that weren’t corrupted by tourists shops and “American friendly” restaurants. We walked down a little ally way with a very old road which housed the oldest cafe in the world. And if it didn’t say that on the sign you could probably still guess it because of the slanting walls falling into the street.

Final days in Paris, Bitter sweet

Lauren

 

“I get by with a little help from my friends!”

Posted on by
3

Seemed like an appropriate title considering its the half way point and that the boys are learning choreography to a Beatles’ song and this experience would not be even half of what it is, if it weren’t for the friends I’ve made.

Friends at a look out point from our tour of the Fortress (see below)

Lost in Translation story of the week:
*mass chaos in studio*
Me: “What’s going on?”
Gwen: “Huh?”
Me: “What’s going on?”
Gwen: “I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Me: “Yeah! Me either, I don’t know what we’re supposed to do!”
Gwen: “No no no! I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Me: “Right…me either.”
Gwen: “….no, what is ‘going on’ ?”
Me: “OH! What is happening! What is happening right now.”
Gwen: “Ooooh! …..Then I still don’t know…”

Gwen, not in the chaos of the studio but in the city. On a chess board that made me think of Harry Potter!

Shopping and interacting with no-so locals:
Went to the local mall which is only about a 5 minute walk from where I’m staying. Vivra needed a “plaster”. She asked us where to find one. No one knew what a plaster was. Turns out it was a band-aid. Calling it a plaster is apparently a British thing but I quite enjoy the term! Another friend needed shampoo but had already checked out so Joni and I were recruited to go back and grab some for him. Neither of us speaks German. After a moment of struggle I decided to just ask the guy standing there; “English?” After explaining what we needed he helped us and continued to explain, “I’m not actually from here!” well, “Neither are we!” But he still was helpful and I was brave enough to try to interact with (who I thought to be) a local.

Today (our one day off for the week) I went into the city with a group of people for food and touring. Along my previous blog theme of picky eating, I don’t particularly care for Asian food….but the group chose a Chinese food place so I went along. I actually enjoyed the buffet and was satisfied.

All of us at lunch at the Chinese buffet! I’m slowly getting used to how restaurants are different here.

We took a tour of the Festung Hohensalzburg (the Fortress, Castle place) and even had an audio guide! The view was spectacular. We shopped at the little market along the river and I got a nice scarf after conversation with vendors. Now this is the more interesting part, I interacted with actual locals and supported a young woman’s bachelorette party fundraiser. They were all dressed up and explained to us the Austrian tradition for the friends to say “goodbye” to the bride the night before her wedding and I got a cookie. Seemed like a lot of fun and made me want to get married in Salzburg! The day in the city ended with another addition to my rubber duckie collection! Thanks to Joni, I now have a Mozart rubber duck. I was so surprised, excited and grateful!

Joni, all dressed in his going to the city outfit and the duck that he got for me! 🙂

I took a zillion pictures all the way up to the top of a tower at the fortress. This was not even half way up and next to the giant gold ball is the chess board from the picture above.

One of the pictures from the panoramic view at the top of the tower. This one has the most of the city, other angles have more of the fortress or open land visible.

More seriously, it has been interesting talking and learning about other cultures and in a single conversation having 5 different countries’ view points. Last Friday’s topic was drinking/driving ages. Last night’s was (prompted by the horrible news of the shooting in Colorado) more politically inclined and included a discussion about criminal activity, the death sentence and jail vs. mental institutions. It sounds rather dark as I write about it here but it was rather fascinating and intellectual. Not simply a compare and contrast session. The individuals involved were some of the oldest students at this program and it was genuinely nice to have sophisticated conversation. Not to mention impressive, because of how well everyone speaks English as a second, third or fourth language!

“Lean on me” …literally.
Helena informed us one afternoon that she had a “purple” on her arm (most likely from partnering). What’s a purple? Exactly what it sounds like. A bruise. I will never use the word bruise again, they will forever be purples. Except mine is more of a greenish brown.

Evenings have become massage trading time. Soon enough, we’ll all owe each other hand massages. Legs make good pillows and a buddy’s shoulder is a nice spot to rest an elbow during or at the end of a long day of dance! It’s really neat how much we can learn from each other as fellow dancers and not just from our (also incredible teachers). One classmate studies Pilates and Yoga and showed me a stretch just different enough from what I knew to help my injured hip release some tension.  Sadly, tonight we said goodbye to an injured friend going home to Norway with promises of pictures and updates! Safe travels to Helle.
“When you’re not strong, I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on!”

Goodbye to Helle in the Lobby of the dorms 🙁 So glad to have had the chance to get to know her and can’t wait to have her be a guest teacher for my ballet students someday 😉

Little by little my pile of “stuff” is growing as I accumulate souvenirs (good thing pictures are digital!). When I first arrived I was asked if my other suitcase was in the mail. Ha, nope! I’m amazing and fit it all into one……at least on the way here…

Tschau!

Emily

Free Dory!

Posted on by
2

Hola everyone,

One week from tomorrow I’ll be on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic. It’s hard to believe that three weeks have gone by already. I’ll be glad to go home and see my family and friends again, but it’s really hit me that I’ll probably never be in Barcelona again, and I only have one more week to take in as much as I can.

Earlier this week, I slathered myself in sunscreen and went to the beach. It was nice to be by the water again, even though it really different from the Oregon coast (i.e. it wasn’t freezing).

The Mediterranean Sea

I also visited the aquarium while I was there. There were sharks, penguins, jellyfish (my favorite!), and the most poisonous fish in the world. It wasn’t as good as the Newport aquarium, but it was still tons of fun, until I realized that Dory from Finding Nemo was being held hostage.

Free Dory!

Yesterday I went to a market in the Gothic Quarter with some of the other interns. We had a good time, and I got to explore that area again, which is one of my favorites in the city. I had chocolate and churros, a popular dessert here, and walked around the old buildings. I decided to go in the Cathedral next, but it turns out it has a dress code. The security guard took one look at my shorts and turned me away with a look of barely concealed disgust. The dress code is meant for respect, and I get that, but disgust is one expression you don’t want a guy to have when he looks at your legs, you know?

At any rate, here it is from the outside, free from the perils of exposed knees.

I think I mentioned a few posts ago how my apartment is allegedly on the third floor, but is actually on the fifth. I got sick of not knowing what the deal was and decided to look up how numbering works in Spain.

In the US, the bottom floor of a building is called the first floor. In Spain and most other countries in Europe, the bottom floor is called the ground floor, and the floor above that is called the first floor. That makes sense, but it doesn’t explain how the fifth floor becomes the third floor. Maybe the designer had a strange sense of humor or something.

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week! I know I will!

Cicely

Finally a Weekend Excursion!

Posted on by
2

We finally went on a weekend excursion! All the students who are studying abroad in Argentina traveled to Cordoba, the 2nd largest city in Argentina. This is a place where families usually go for vacation during the summer time. We left at 3 in the morning…yeah I know crazy right? We all piled onto a bus that didn’t have a bathroom, and rode for 6 hours to our new destination.

Image

We finally arrived at 9am and our journey began. We took a tour of the city which was not what anyone was expecting, but we got to drive on a road with 100 curves so it was worth it! After our tour we went to Villa Carlos Paz where we got to zipline and practice archery. Our day ended with us walking up a mountain to the monumento de le Cruz. This climb was 1.5 miles and included walking on sharp rocks and loose dirt. Along the way there were mini crosses signifying each of the 14 stations of the cross. Once reaching the top, it was well worth the climb. This cross is 15ft high and is located in the highest point in Carlos Paz. It got built in 1934 when a group of neighbors wanted to make a replica of Jesus Christ of Calvary. On the cross reads ” Christus Vivit Regnat et Imperat,” which means “Christ lives and reigns queen.”

Image

I don’t know about anybody else, but I grew up with cuckoo clocks covering my walls at home. So when we witnessed the reloj cu-cu, it was truly wonderful! I guess this clock is the hallmark of the city and many tourists visit Carlos Paz to see this clock chime. It just so happens that we got there right at 12:00 so we heard the bird chirp 12 times. It stands 7 meters high, and is definitely the biggest cuckoo clock I have ever seen. My family will appreciate this picture for sure!

Melissa

Image

Cute and cuddly or dangerous and downright venomous?

Posted on by
5

For our first excursion we went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. This place was amazing! We spent a lot of the day there and it was arranged so we got VIP access to the animals. I petted a dingo called Rafe, fed more than one kangaroo, had some one on one time with a very cute koala, and had about 10 different birds land on me at once. I am so lucky to have gotten this opportunity because most people do not.

Although the sanctuary was fun I have barely started my journey here. We have also set out on out first of many adventures that will take us all the way up until the end of the program and our return to the US. Right now, I am on North Stradbroke Island staying at Moreton Bay Research Station. We are still in Queensland, but it feels more tropical here. We spent the day looking for different species on the beach. It was a lot of fun, but it got even better as soon as the sun went down. We went torch (flashlight) hunting for koalas and bottle nosed dolphins. Although I have already seen koalas, I have never seen them in the wild and it was really amazing to look up and see them just sitting there looking at us like it was completely normal. Even though that was a blast I cannot describe how excited I was when I saw my first dolphin. They swam right up to us and stayed around for a little while. It was very cool.  Katherine