Hannah - Madrid - Week 3

Hi all!
This week has just been a lot of getting to know everyone at my office and apartment. I´ve gotten more comfortable with making some casual small talk in the work place even though it can be hard to fully express my thoughts sometimes with a more limited vocabulary. However, I think that listening to people on the metro, at work, or in my apartment talking in Spanish has improved my speaking, and vice versa (hopefully).
At work, I've designed posters for international business courses that our organization offers to young adults. I've also been working on making banner advertisements that ask people to donate to 1 Kilo de Ayuda. They're taking much longer than expected because every computer in the office has decided to freeze every time I touch the mouse! Despite the frustration with technology, I've enjoyed getting to work with different design programs. Lucia even showed me how to do some simple things on WordPress to make changes to our website.

Lucia didn't want to be
internet famous

Cards that are sent to different supermarkets in
Madrid that shoppers can pick up and donate to the NGO

Real Madrid v. Atletico Madrid

The Real Madrid team is in there… somewhere

Plaza de Cibeles!

This last Saturday was the Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. People often referred to it as "the game that would determine the best ´futbol´ team in the world." Actually watching the game wasn´t the best experience for me, since I spent the second half riding around on the metro. The chaos that poured into the streets of Madrid afterwards, though, was something I´ll never forget. Whenever Real Madrid wins, fans gather at Plaza de Cibeles to celebrate and wait for the team to arrive. I was at Puerta del Sol at the end of the game and joined the mass of people walking over to Cibeles. The team was coming back from their game in Portugal so we had to wait several hours. The team finally arrived but I ended up only being able to see the backs of people´s heads because it was so crowded. But, I think I saw Cristiano Ronaldo for a second, though I can´t be too sure.

After conducting several polls of people´s favorite cities in Spain, I´ve narrowed down my list of places I´d like to visit this summer:
- Granada
- San Sebastian
- Barcelona
& Lisbon, Portugal!
So look out for future posts from these trips(if I´m able to organize everything)!

Hasta luego!
Hannah

Tony- Cusco, Peru Week 3

This week I've explored the places near my temporary home, instead of the common attractions outside the main square. It surprised me to see that there are many huge markets within a short distance that sell everything you would ever need.

My volunteer work is still fun. The kids have received their final grades for their volleyball skills and, positively, none of the kids received a failing grade. Some of the kids are very skilled at volleyball and soccer for their age and it is a pleasure to watch and help them. The physical education system at the school I am at changes what sport to focus on each month. We are moving on to basketball on Monday, which the professor has told me is definitely a sport that many of the kids need help in.

I plan on visiting more of the adventurous sites here in Peru soon. Thankfully I have plenty of time to do so.

First week in Morocco

This first week in Rabat has gone by super quickly. On Monday I met my host parents. They are extremely nice and welcoming. They have a 4 year old son who is completely crazy and constantly jumping around. I really like having a young child in the house, mostly because we eat earlier than normal Moroccan families. Our dinner is at 9:00-9:30, whereas some of my friends don't start eating till 11. We live in the old Medina which is really cool because my house is right in the middle of this giant outdoor market. 

My host brother wearing my Michigan hat

My first night in the house my host mom dressed me and my roommate  in traditional Moroccan clothes and had a photo-shoot. My roommate goes to University of Wisconsin and will only be in Rabat for another week. 

  

I only went to work twice this week because on my first day the doctor got called into an emergency meeting so I got the office, introduced myself and left. On my actual first day I went to a super long meeting. The people in my office are super nice. They made sure to only speak in Arabic during the meeting (instead of French) so I could better understand what they were talking about.  

The food my host mom cooks is super good, and she has made everything vegetarian for me!  Yesterday we got out of work early and she made a giant dish of couscous. My host Dad’s parents and siblings came over to eat with us.   

Couscous 

Ashley Connelly, Week 1, Madrid

Hi all,

I've finished my first week in Spain and it has been an exciting and exhausting time. This first week I've settled in to my apartment, my internship and Madrid. I arrived in Madrid a few days before my internship and headed straight to my apartment. Ten people from across Europe and the United States live here. There are 2 guys from Spain, 2 guys from France, a girl from Ireland, a girl from Germany, a girl from France, and a girl from California plus another student from the UofM and me. If you've seen L'Auberge Espagnole, it's been a lot like that- minus extra-marital affairs. It's been interesting to meet everyone and navigate the differences between each culture. For instance, yesterday my European flatmates were talking about how Americans can eat really spicy food. They were talking about my flatmate from California´s sriracha sauce. While they could barely handle a few drops, my flatmate adds a bunch to her food and casually eats it. They were amazed by this yet I never thought Americans could handle spicy food. Experiences like this have been quite interesting and have helped me adjust to the lifestyle differences.

Main room/kitchen of my apartment

In addition to adjusting to Spanish life this past week, I have been exploring the city and taking everything in. This past weekend was the Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. It was the derby of all derbies and even though it was played in Lisbon, it was crazy here. With a few of my flatmates, I went to the Puerta del Sol to watch the game. We probably should have planned further ahead, because everything was packed. We finally got a table at a bar and watched Real beat Atlético in overtime. Then, the celebration started. People flooded the streets in jubilee and many headed toward Cibeles. Cibeles is where the team comes to celebrate after winning a competition and the capitain of the team ties a scarf around the statue in the center of the round-about. We waited for the team until 6 a.m. when they finally arrived, but we only caught glimpses of the players because the street was so crowded. I was only able to see Sergio Ramos put the scarf on and kiss the statue when my flatmate put me on his back. While I can´t say it was worth the seven hours we waited, it was cool to witness the enitre spectacle.

Waiting for the team in Cibeles

These last few days, however, have been settling into a routine and starting my internship. I work with an NGO that helps unemployed individuals find jobs while providing them and their families with meals. So far, I´ve helped prepare meals for the families and update the user database. While this isn´t typically the kind of work I do, I´ve really enjoyed it and meeting all the people the organization helps. Plus, my co-workers are fantastic; they´ve been super nice and understanding. While for the most part I understand their Spanish or the gist of what they are saying, occassionally they start talking to each other very quick and loud and I have no idea what they are saying. I fear they are arguing until the begin to laugh and everything is okay- or at least I assume so.

I found these pieces of art in a communal garden 

Typically, I stop working around 3 and then, I have ample free time to do whatever. I usually go for a run or a walk. Whatever I do, I always get lost and I have to use the metro stations to find my way back. However, getting lost has been a great way to explore the city. I´ve found some really cool places and art wandering around Madrid including this communal garden with some interesting art in it. My favorite was wandering around Buen Retiro Park. It is this amazing park filled with statues and beautiful flowers. I probably could wander around Retiro for days and still be continuously amazed by it´s beauty.  Retiro and the rest of my experiences so far make me excited to discover more of the city and Spain.

In Retiro 

In Retiro 

Kelli Pape in Madrid: Week One

Week One: The Assimilation Phase

 So this was the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed version of me just one week ago, posing with my beloved mother on our cattle farm in rural Michigan for the last time in my teenage years, never having stepped foot in another country.  From the homestead we drove to the Flint Bishop International Airport, where I bid farewell to her and my over-sized tube of toothpaste in time for my one-stop flight to Madrid via Chicago.  It sure was a genius idea to pull an all-nighter before the plane ride, on which I was still too excited to get any sleep.  Fast forward about twelve hours, and I found myself looking down at Europe, where the farms are not arranged in perfect rectangles.

Time Traveling: Dawn - Dusk = 3 Hrs.

Worried a bit on the plane
about only having packed
my summer wardrobe.

Essentially a typical Friday morning, right?

From the airport, it only took me two hours to navigate the metro system with all my baggage (because I was too stubborn to spend the fare for the easier option of a cab) and arrive soaking wet to the hotel where I'd stay with the four other Wolverines for our weekend orientation.  And man, did I need orienting.  For anyone traveling abroad to a huge metropolitan city where you need to speak another language, my advice is to stick to the basics and don't forget to sleep and feed yourself.  My first three meals in Madrid actually included green olives and potato chips as complimentary appetizers.  Also when you order coffee here, it's assumed you want a hybrid of half-coffee and half-milk unless you indicate the "café americano" instead.  Our orientation consisted of going out for a two-hour lunch (not an unordinary length for Spain) with our program director Diana and her mother.

Directly following that lunch, I perched myself and all my luggage again outside the hotel as I waited for my host family to pick me up.  I had found them online two weeks prior and by a stroke of fate was welcomed into their home.  I swear they're angels or something, because they've gone above and beyond the call of helping out the foreign girl.  My household here consists of a father who is a lighting designer and professor, a mother who is a graphic designer, a 22-year-old brother, 21- and 18-year-old sisters, another exchange student from England, and our dog named Chispa.  For confidentiality purposes, please only read to the word "dog".  We live about a twenty-minute subway ride from the city center in a neighborhood called Puente de Vallecas.  The apartment in itself is strikingly cool, being a former carpentry workshop and occupied by such artsy people.  For some reason I had noticed a excess of national pride that day sitting outside the hotel and just figured, "wow, Spaniards must just always wave/wear their flags to welcome the newbies", but apparently it was because of some huge rivalry game between the city's two soccer teams.  So we watched that my first night in the apartment.

The Cliché Hammer Smashing Eggs Hotel Photo

To be honest, the first few days were pretty rough, despite knowing that I should be grateful and enthusiastic for this opportunity to be in another country.  The culture shock was real and there were so many logistical things to settle before I could even relax enough to remember all the verb conjugations and articles I learned in school.  It is rumored that Madrileños speak the fastest Spanish of anywhere in the world, and although I have no way of measuring that right now I'd have certainly put money down on that bet in my first two or three days of hearing it.  Not to worry though, it all started getting better as soon as I had the basics of survival in Madrid down: getting the unlimited metro card, having a functional cell phone, and adapting to their unique time zone.  I say unique because the daily schedule is so relaxed/delayed compared to America's.  Delayed in the sense that, for example, my family eats dinner around 10 or 11PM.  The work day often doesn't begin until 9:30 or 10AM, and people only begin to go out around midnight.  The jet lag caused me to not fall asleep till 5:30 my first night home.

From there, my first week was a whirlwind of new experiences, which can be decently represented by the following photos and captions:

Drink of choice for the first
Intercambio de Idiomas
(Language Exchange Night)

These are usually much bigger
events in which people seeking
to practice their foreign language
skills come to a café/bar and
chat freely, but this Wednesday
night intercambio consisted of
only 2 Americans / 3 Madrileños.

A 6+ mile shortcut home through El Retiro Park
(350 acres as compared to the 123-acre Arb in Ann Arbor)

 Madrid from the train on my first day of work out in the suburbs:
Let's just say it took me three hours to navigate my way home.

No shortage of reminders to vote in the election,
which took place on a Sunday afternoon
while notably everything else is closed.

Rotten Attempts at Cartwheeling

I don't think I'll be missing many sunsets this summer with a view like this.
Climbing those mountains in the background tops my bucket list.

Chris's First Sunset
We might sound ridiculous
as two Americans walking
around speaking Spanish
to each other, but no pasa nada.

Failing at looking like a local at the Plaza de Sol

Would have taken a photo of the Floating Man,
but was afraid to ruin the sanctity of the moment.

Not too far off the famous Gran Via

A shot of my street in Vallecas

Last night's view from my local Parque de las Siete Tetas...
Feel free to translate that one on your own.

All in all, it's been quite an enormous transition and I can't believe how much has happened in the past week and how much I have to attribute almost every success to my choice of host family.  As a farm girl who moved to Ann Arbor my friends never hear much else than my annoying cow jokes and how huge U of M is compared to anything in my previous life, but this is a whole new ball game.  The rules must be much different in this ball game, however, considering how often couples make out on the metro, everyone kisses my cheeks when they meet me (no handshakes/hugs here), and one day a woman defecated right in front of me in the park.  Welcome to Europe, I suppose.  On the other hand, I've encountered a multitude of extremely generous, outgoing, and good-smelling natives.  And yesterday I found an awesome second-hand bookstore/bar called J&J's in the hipster barrio of Malasaña which is owned and operated by an American, and I plan to hit up their intercambio Spanish practice nights as well as others throughout the city.  Now that I've been mentally refreshed from the shock and starting to do some of the very touristic things, I'd say I'm ready to take on the challenge of making myself seem less horribly foreign, despite being a pale-skinned blonde girl.  Undoubtedly should have prepared a ton more on my grammar and vocabulary before arriving, but at least I've been brushing up and adding to my lexicon every day and the decision to live with a host family will only speed up the learning process.

Stay tuned for more specific future accounts about my internship (only just began) and other adventures in Spain. Here's a huge shout-out of gratitude to U of M for getting me here.

'Ta luego!

Sincerely,
Kelli Jo Pape

Stephanie: Cusco, Peru (Week 3)

This week several volunteers and I walked the Inca jungle trek to MachuPicchu.  The first day we went mountain biking in extremely cold, rainy weather.  The view was amazing therefore the cold was not so bad.  We then took the bus to Santa Maria and stayed at a hostel for the night.  The second day we started at 7:30 A.M. and hiked until about 6 P.M.  This was my favorite day because the walk was through partly tropical/rainforest areas.  We seen various fruits and vegetables that we could eat.  We also had are faces painted with one of the seeds that produces a red/orange color.  I wore this as a lipstick and also had my face painted by our tour guide.  After the longest hike I had ever been on, up and down hills and rocks we finally reached the hot springs.  Here we swam and had a couple of drinks.  We stayed at a hostel in Santa Theresa.  The third day we woke up bright and early and headed to zip-lining.  We zip-lined 6 different lines (one of them I did upside down and another I did superman).  This was awesome, but definitely scary.  After this we hiked 3 hours to Aguas Calientes where we stayed the night at a nice hostel near MachuPicchu.  We explored the town and finally were able to take hot showers!  The fourth day we woke up at 3 A.M and hiked to the bridge where we had to wait until 5 A.M. to enter and climb the approximately 1650 stairs to MachuPicchu (we counted the stairs on the way back down).  When we reached MachuPicchu it felt absolutley amazing.  Walking all the way here was extremely rewarding and I would recommend it to others.  

Volunteering at the mental hospital is going great.  I was able to finish reading all the patients charts.  This was extremely interesting because I was able to see the history of the patients.  I was shocked at how young some of the patients were and how old they looked.  Most of the patients had been there for 20 years!  I did change departments for part of the week and worked with people who were put in the hospital due to drug abuse, sexual abuse, and attempting to commit suicide.  I have been working in both departments and was able to talk to some other PhD researchers who were also viewing the hospital.  I am becoming close with many of the patients and they all seem to enjoy my company.  I did notice that when it is rainy the patients behave worse than when it is sunny.  I really am enjoying working in the hospital and be able to enhance my spanish.  I did find out that the government does not fund the hospital whatsoever.  I was told by the director that a couple of the cemeteries funded the program, but they are in need of more funding.  They asked the other volunteer and I to see if organizations in are countries would aid their hospital.  

This weekend I am headed to Lake Titicaca for two days.  I am looking forward to be on the floating island in Puno!