"I Love You Forever"

Well! Today was the first day of class, finally! On the one hand I am relieved that we have class from now on, at least I can feel like I am getting into some kind of thing that resembles a schedule. On the other hand, from now on, I am on a set schedule. I have two classes each day, Monday-Thursday, 8:00 am - 1:30 pm. It sounds rough, but it wasn't hard today. The first class that I have is called "Cross Cultural Communications" and in the first day, we have broken down what culture is, the ingredients of culture, and the different dynamics of culture. Estuvo facil. The second class that I had was Intermediate Spanish, which will take a little bit of studying. Today we reviewed some grammar and learned how to use a few phrases. Then we wrote a short story about our childhood and talked about a funny thing that happened to us as a child.

Again, classes run on Venezuelan Time. In the United States, I am used to having to be in the classroom before the professor, which means that I need to get there early. Not so here. Class started at 8:00am, but I don't think we started class until 8:20 or so. Again, definitely not what I am used to. Fortunately, we get to take a couple breaks during class, so I took some time to play with the resident cute kid Diego, whose parents work in la cafeteria in VENUSA. During Spanish, we also has a forty minute break for lunch. It was a very pleasant surprise, since I was starving by that time. After class, I took a trip to El Centro to look around and investigate with a friend of mine, Ben. Unfortunately, he had somewhere else to go, so we cut the tour short and headed back to VENUSA on my first...

BUSETA!!! The fare was cheap and the music was bumpin'. Since there aren't really many designated "bus stops", instead you have to yell, over the music, "¡La parada, por favor!" and they'll stop almost immediately, wherever they are. Everywhere you go, reggaeton is BLARING. I am not even sure if they know other music exists! Since I have been here, that is the only music I have heard: coming from cars, kids' cellphones, stores, buses, everywhere! This is the most lively place I have ever been, and it's like that at all hours of the day, both day and night! There's constant cars, music, and talking. I absolutely love it.

Today was the first day that I walked back home alone. Jenee has class until 8:00pm on Thursdays, so I decided to come back home for a while before we meet at around 8:00 to meet our Nuevos Encuentros partners. I can definitely tell a difference when I am walking alone and when I am walking with her. When I am alone, I don't attract much attention, other than the fact that I have short hair. No woman in Venezuela has short hair, NO ONE!! But when I am alone, I don't get too many catcalls or second glances. When I am with other VENUSA students though, I am sure that we stick out like a sore thumb. Everytime I walk with other students, we get lots of whistles, and catcalls. Everything from "mamacita" to "hola chicas" to my personal favorite "I love you forever" in English with a very heavy Venezuelan accent.

I bought my first piece of fruit today as well. On our way to school, Jenee and I saw HUGE mangoes easily twice the size as anything I have seen in the U.S., so when walking home, I couldn't resist myself. I haven't eaten them yet, I am waiting to share them with Jenee.

Tonight we are planning on going to some bars and la discoteca, so hopefully that should be a lot of fun. None of us have class tomorrow, so this is the first time that we really will be able to all get out in a group. I am sure we will have a great time.

Well, now it's nap time for me. Buenas Tardes.

Las Montañas Hoy

¡Las Montañas Son Bonitas!

Today we went into the Andes to take a day trip and explore around. We actually left on time today, which was very surprising to me. Again, this isn't a complaint, but a mere observation, and it is a known fact that most people outside of the United States have a very different view of time.

The bus ride was fantastic. It took over four hours to reach our final destination, since we stopped in many villages and places along the way, including a place called Mucuchies. Here, according to our tour guide, most people are farmers of onions and garlic. Believe me, the entire drive there, you could certainly smell las cebollas y los ajos. The entire mountainside smelled like it. He said that most people in Mérida believe that the people of Muchuchies are only poor farmers, but they actually have lots of money because of the fruits of their labor in the fields. However, they prefer living like los pobres because it is the way that they have always lived, and for them, it is unnecessary to live any other way.

After we drove through Muchucies, we then stopped in a small town with a church built by a man named Juan Felix Sanchez Sanchez. He started building the small churchh when he was 80 years old. Eighty f-ing years old!! It is made with no cement, but only small hand collected rocks stacked on top of eachother with the greatest of care. It was a huge feat, obviously, and took him over four years to complete. It was an amazing church too, obviously very rustic, but nonetheless it was certainly the most charming little (very little) church I have ever seen. This entire day's theme for me was enjoying and appreciated non-materialistic things: my surroundings, the people here, big dreams and accomplishments. I am so happy I have the opportunity to see such a different world from my own. Muchas gracias a todas.

When we left the church, it had started to rain, so we decided to eat lunch in a restaurant called Refugio Mucubaji that served delicious food that in the United States I would categorize under "Comfort Food". We were all chilled to the bone from being in the rain, so most of us bought hot coffee and food. I had la sopa de cebolla, onion soup, and una arepa trigo con mantequilla, a wheat arepa with butter. Everything was so fresh and the arepa was brought to me steaming hot. Even the butter was freshly whipped from fresh cream!

When we finished our meal, we finished our bus ride to the top of one of the peaks that reached 14,000 feet above sea level and took a four kilometer hike from one lake to another. It was absolutely beautiful, but the altitude made it difficult to do anything too fast. You could certainly tell that the air was thinner there.

The walk was great, we saw such a huge variety of things. A few other students saw a BIG spider and got a picture of it, we also saw some deer, and lots of horses. I don't think they were wild, because they didn't seemed bothered with us being there... We also saw some mushrooms that according to our tour guide were used as hallucinogenics. Interestiiiiing... We also saw lots and lots of amazing vistas. The fog came and went, but when it was gone, the view was unbelievable. We saw a few small rivers and waterfalls, and lots of different plants that I didn't recognize at all.

After we got to the second lake, we boarded the bus and started our loooong journey back to Mérida and VENUSA. It took well over two hours to get back, but the bus ride was pleasant nonetheless. When we got back to VENUSA, Jenee, another student Becca, and I went and bought our first cerveza (beer)! It was less than $1.00 USD for a bottle and it was really delicious beer. We payed our three Bolivares each and then watched traffic from the bridge above the street as we enjoyed our drink.

After our beer, we walked home and met mi madre's hermana, sister, y sus sobrinas, nieces. They were all very nice and welcoming, and the two little girls were SOO cute. One was ten, and the other was nine. I feel much more comfortable talking Spanish today and it is getting easier to understand and respond to people in Spanish. It is still a little intimidating talking to mis padres and people at school and on the street, but I have just accepted that I am going to make mistakes, but I need to actually SPEAK before I can learn anything new or get better.

Tomorrow is my first day of school, and it starts bright and early at 8:00 in the morning. I certainly am not a morning person, but any stretch of the imagination, but I am giving it a good try. Tomorrow I need to wake up before 7:00 am to eat and walk to school with Jenee. Tomorrow evening we have an opportunity to meet our Nuevos Encuentros partners, and get to know them a little. They are students from VENUSA that are taking English classes and we are going to get to help eachother learn the other's language. I think that it will be a great and interesting experience. Tomorrow is also the end of our week, which means that we have, get ready... THREE DAYS OFF!! Lots of us are planning on going to the discoteca tomorrow to dance and have some fun outside of VENUSA and explore Mérida a little more. More updates on that later, and until tomorrow, ¡Ciao America!

Mi vista en la noche...

Baile! Baile!

Well! The first real day in Merida. I woke up pretty early this morning to the sounds of motorbikes and cars whizzing past my window to the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. I am in the mountains! I am surrounded by beautiful, amazing mountains. Mi madre served my roommate Jenee and I arepas con huevos, and it was really delish. It was like a crispy, soft, squishy english muffin... sort of. After breakfast, mi padre gave us our keys and showed us how to open and lock all of the doors. I feel really secure here, there are four doors between me and the inside of mis padres's house.

After we successfully showed that we could open and close the doors, he walked us to school to show us where some of the essentials are, and also to show us how to get to school. We found la lavandería, the laundromat, and el supermercado, the grocery store. There is so much to look at and see here, especially the first day, that I was just trying as hard as I could to suck it all in.

When we got to VENUSA, we met some other people that worked there and waited for orientation to start. I definitely understand better today the Venezuelan understanding of time. It is not exactly the same. Here, things happen when they happen, and as for the schedule that we have, it seems to be more of a suggestion than an actual plan. This isn't a complaint, by any means, but a mere observation as someone that has never experienced that culture. I like it quite well actually! Orientation was very basic, and was over almost two hours before it was supposed to. After that, some other students and I attempted to take a walk, before our plan was thwarted by some unexpected rain overhead. We instead waited inside for the rain to clear, and then found a really cute panderia to get some lunch from.

I think it is going to take me some time to understand these Bolivares. Today for lunch, I attempted to pay with coins, and didn't realize I had only given her the equivalent of $0,50 Bolivares instead of $5,00 like I thought I was doing. Oh well, she had a little giggle and then helped me to sort out my cash.

After a whole lot of waiting around at VENUSA, we went on a tour of the city by bus. It was soo fantastic. We saw so much of the city that I didn't even know existed! We saw El Centro, which is like downtown, and got some awesome arepas from a street vender and also visited an amazing heladeria that had well over 400 flavors posted. I settled on a small cup of rose-flavored icecream, and also sampled the arroz (rice) , chile, ajo (garlic), cebolla (onion), and kiwi. They were all pretty delicious, even the ajo, except the flavor in your mouth lasted quite a long time. When we got back onto the bus to go back to VENUSA, the bus driver turned up the reggaeton music LOUD and Jose Carlos and John from the school had a blast showing off their (amazing) dance skills. After a little while, it was our turn. They chose people at random to dance up the aisle of the bus, show off their skills to everyone, and then dance back to their seats. All the while they were laughing, screaming, clapping, and yelling, "Baile!" Song after song we danced along to the beat, some much more willing to dance than others. I think this was the best introduction to this amazing city I think that I could have had.

Tomorrow we have a day-long trip to the mountains, and I can't wait. I have heard that it is fairly cold, but time will tell what "frio" actually means to Venezuelans, who are used to the humidity and mild temperatures in Merida. I am sure being from Minnesota I can handle it. Hell, I've survived all those winters, right?

Merida es muy fantastica!

Well, I have made it to Merida. We arrived in the evening, so I have yet to see the city in the light. According to mi madre y padre, es muy bonita.

The trip here was... epic. Words can't even describe exactly the journey that I have been on so far. I traveled for about thirty hours to get here, and about three of those hours were spent in legitimate sleep in a real, not make-shift bed. I'm tired. Granted, most of that thirty hours was spent waiting to go somewhere, or finding out where to go, but somehow, it was nevertheless quite exhausting. But, four plane rides and an amazing bus ride later, I am here in Merida. The bus itself was quite the adventure. It looked as if it were decorated by Snoop Doggy Dog. The only word to describe how it looked is... pimp. That, coupled with the fact that he had no qualms about driving sixty miles an hour around curves and through the many lighted tunnels.

I feel like I have so much to share already, and I have only been in the city for less than three hours. Already so much has happened and I know that it is going to be an amazing time. Mis padres already have so many pieces of advice to share. Rigoberto, mi padre, told me that if any man tries to talk to me or dance with me, I can just tell him, ¨Mi novio es un militare Chavanista.¨ That basically means, my boyfriend is a militant for Chavez. And if they talk english, simply tell them, ´´Lo siento, pero no hablo englais.´´ Basically, sorry I don´t speak english.

They´re so amazing. I am sure that I will have a fantastic time with them. They´re very patient with my roommate Jenee and I, although I think they feel more comfortable talking to her because they know she can talk back. That´s fine with me.

Well, for now I must go get some sleep before desayuna in the morning. We have orientation at 9AM sharp and after that a walking tour, and other fun activities planned.

Hasta luego America.

departure: 4 days

So... I am leaving for Venezuela in FOUR DAYS. (!!!!!) I keep asking myself, how did it suddenly come up so quickly?! Even though I have been preparing for weeks now, and I have had clothes organized and (partially) packed for about a week, I still feel utterly unprepared to leave for the next six weeks.

I realized, even being gone for such a relatively short time, there are LOTS of things to get in order. Student loans, medication refills, credit card payments, ALL of the things that I normally take care of at home I suddenly need to think about six weeks in advance!

There's also the problem of me being the control freak/overly organized person that I am. There are so many uncertainties still, even though VENUSA has done lots of preparing and organizing for us. I woke up today, checked my email, and found I had a message from VENUSA about our detailed travel plans. "Great!" I thought, since I love being 'in the know' about everything in advance, which often gets on the nerves of people around me. I read through the email and found a short paragraph about making sure that I had at least $100 USD's in Bolivares when I am traveling.

I suddenly switched to freak out mode. What?! I need Bolivares when I am traveling!?!! Where do I even get those? I called every bank, AND the airport and it is, with the amount of time before I leave, IMPOSSIBLE to get Bolivares on U.S. soil...

In other news, I've already had to upgrade my suitcase once to fit all of my clothes and shoes. Damn.