June 2009 Archives
Since I returned from the Amazon time has been flying by! I thought six months was a long time, or at least a decent amount of time, but now it seems so short! I´ve been trying to take advantage of every moment and I think I´m doing pretty well because I haven´t had much time to sit down at the computer and write on my blog! See more pics.
AFS offers year and semester programs to Brazil.
In about 2 1/2 months, 75 days, 1800 hours, and a whole bunch of seconds, I will be leaving to Spain. Time flies and I get more excited as the days go by. Fortunately AFS-Spain has choosen the location and the host family where I will be staying. I will be staying in Paiporta, Valencia with Lola (host mother), Rafael (host father), and Martin (5-year-old host brother). I have spoken with them by email, they seem like very nice and welcoming people. Valencia is the 3rd largest city in Spain and is also very close to the coast. Other than living with a host family, I will be going to a high school with teenagers. I truly cannot wait for this experience. I'm ready to leave from my regular environment and adapt to a completely different environment and learn to understand the differences. Read more.
AFS offers year and summer programs to Spain.
Wow we've done heaps. Went to Bathurst, saw a wombat and a kangroo, went to Terrigal and Erina and met up with Johan and Eero, my exchange friends and had to say goodbye to them. What else. I also went to Lunar Park Friday night, and went to the Sydney Swans vs. Magpies in AFL last night at the Olympic Stadium. Read more.
AFS offers semester programs to Australia.
During my time here in Italy I have crossed paths with many different people. In what feels like too short a time, our paths will take us all far from one-another. I fear that our paths may never cross again, but those I have walked with these five months have shared a very important experience with me. An experience I can never forget. An experience I do not want to forget. Read more.
AFS offers year, semester and summer programs to Italy.
My 1 week farm homestay. It was amazing. I was on a farm called Efri-Ey, and it is about a 30 minute drive from the nearest town of Kirkjubæjarklaustur (how´s that for a long name?!) which has 150 inhabitants. So basically it´s in the middle of nowhere. It is in the southeast of Iceland, and took about 5 hours by bus to get there. When I arrived in Kirkjubæjarklaustur, I was warmly welcomed by Maria (the German exchanger who I visited in Patreksfjörður during Easter... she moved to the farm 2 minutes down the road from Efri-Ey) and also by Sigrún, the daughter of the farm lady, and Andrea, Sigrún´s 17 year old daughter. Then I got to the farm and met Sara and Þórir, the owners of the farm. They are around 70 years old, and Þórir is ill so Sara does pretty much all of the work. The farm work was really fun. Read more.
AFS offers year programs to Iceland.
A little over a week ago I returned from one of the most amazing trips of my life. First of all I would like to say thank you so much, all of you that made it possible for me to do this, without your help it would never have been able to go.
The trip was 10 days in the Amazon with 56 other exchange students from all around the world. We spent three nights in hotels, the first night in the Tropical Hotel, a five star hotel and the best in the city of Manaus (the capital of the state of Amazonas), and the next two nights in a hotel two hours out of the city in the middle of the forest. Then We all boarded two boats (there was a third boat that was the restaurant boat) for the next 6 days on the river. Read more.
AFS offers year and semester programs to Brazil.
The last orientation passed, wow. That's kind of frightening really. I won't ever see most of those people again. Wow. I missed half of it too because I stayed in Budapest to take my SAT on Saturday morning. It sikerült anyways. At least its over. I hadn't been in a room with that many Americans all year. I didn't get to talk to any of them though, because afterwards I had to book it to Keleti to get my train to Jászberény on time. I was early, but all the people that I asked for help gave me bad info. Hum. Oh well, when I finally got to the orientation they were in the middle of playing some kind of game. Here's the run down of it. Read more.
AFS offers year, semester, and summer programs to Hungary.
I know why you can never leave the Hotel California. It's a tangled maze of hallways, courtyards, rooms, and stairs in the middle of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay and happened to be the location of the last AFS camp of the semester.
Friday morning I got on a bus to Asunción with Jana (German exchanger in Pilar) to meet up with the Gran Asuncioñeros whom we got on another bus with to go to Ciudad del Este. I got to meet a lot of people who've been here since August, along with seeing a bunch of my friends from February again. Most of the people are from Germany, but there are also a few from Austria, Belgium, Iceland, the USA, France, Switzerland, and Turkey. Read more.
AFS offers year, semester, and summer programs to Paraguay.
Today was fun, and different. This morning, I didn't have history, so school didn't start until 10. That allowed me to sleep in, which was really nice. My host mom had a hair appointment, so Pierrette's son took me to school. I swear I thought I was going to be late. He was late picking me up and he was slow on the road. I got to school at 10:03, and miraculously, the doors were still open. I pushed my way through the crowd of people and made it in JUST in time. Then I went into the courtyard and found Wendie, Joy, Alice, Alexandra and a couple other people getting ready to go to class. I cannot believe I made it on time, but I'm pretty happy that I did. Read more.
AFS offers year and semester and summer programs to France.
In the USA the main sport is Football and in the rest of the world the main sport is also football, but a football of another type. And by another type I mean SOCCER!!! While I have been in Italy I have heard more talk of Calcio (which is soccer in Italian, even thought it really is the word for "kick") then I have ever heard in my entire life of 17 years combined!! But I was bound to learn about why the Italians love it so much before I left Italy so hence the goal (get the pun???) to go to a professional soccer game before my time in Italy was up!! Read more.
AFS offers year, semester, and summer programs to Italy.
This weekend was chilly and wet. Most of the inhabitants are indigenous people. Some people think there are still uncontacted tribes somewhere in the Chaco. Those that aren't indigenous are Mennonites from Germany, Ukraine, and Canada. The "lingua franca" is German in the cities, and in the indigenous communities Guaraní and other indigenous languages. Spanish is widely spoken as well, but signs come first in German, then Spanish. The Chaco has no natural resources, save the tannin extracted from some of its trees, and has been called "the green hell" on many occasions. This is where I was last weekend.
Friday I got on a bus at noon with Jana, the other AFSer in my town, and arrived in Asunción at about 7. There, we met up with the exchangers from Ciudad del Este, Encarnación, and Santa Rita and Fernando, the AFS volunteer from Capiatá. Read more.
AFS offers year, semester, and summer programs to Paraguay.
We just got back from AFS camp today. It was most of our leaving camp. Though some of us hadn't seen each other since the last camp, we picked up right where we left off. It isn't like the normal people that you meet, you have something so in common that though you've only hung out with them a hand full of days it feels like years that you've known each other. On Friday it took us two hours to get there, my host mum Fiona and sister Danielle and I all went together. It was very rainy and cold. We were the first ones there, but once everyone got there and the others that we hadn't met yet we all caught up. I haven't laughed that hard in ages! Read more.
AFS offers Semester programs to Australia.
