Tony- Cusco, Peru Week 7

This past weekend I spent time on Lake Titikaka. Some fellow volunteers and I traveled from Cusco to Copacabana, Bolivia to experience the lake. The sights were gorgeous.

Unfortunately I had to miss out on a parade of handmade floats that occurred in Cusco during my trip to Lake Titikaka. I was surprised to see some of the floats lingering around town after I returned, so I took a photo.

Hannah - Madrid Week 6

Hi everyone,

Last week I participated in an intercambio, which is essentially an opportunity for people to get together and practice speaking different languages. Katie and I met up with a recent university graduate from Madrid, who wanted to practice her English before a job interview. We went to a popular restaurant and first ordered some churros and chocolate, which I had been wanting to try since I’ve arrived in Madrid. We spent an hour talking about where we’re all from but the most interesting part of the conversation for me was when we shared some of the difficulties we always have with our non-native language. The girl from Madrid told us that she could never tell the difference between the words “bear,” “bird,” and “beard.” For native speakers, it’s hardly a problem but hearing some of her experiences made me realize that English is a very frustrating language!

El Mundial

Those who have been following the World Cup should know now that Spain, the last World Cup champion, is out of the competition. After weeks of anticipation and excitement for what I had expected would be several weeks of intense soccer matches, Spain was kicked out by the Netherlands and Chile. This came as a big shock to everyone but now I’ll just have to keep cheering for the United States and (possibly) Korea! The only amusing thing is that on TV commercials and advertisements on the street, companies have already released advertising campaigns that focus on the World Cup. I keep seeing a men’s razor commercial that glorifies Spain’s last World Cup victory but it’s obvious that no one had anticipated that Spain wouldn’t advance. Other than that, however, this early exit is very disappointing.

I’m just hoping that I can still keep cheering on some teams after the USA and Korea games on Thursday!

Hasta luego!

Hannah

Enxhi Merpeza; Tirana, Albania; Fifth Week

This week led us to a project with the Harvard Grad Student and we worked on the logistics of airports in the Balkan region—statistics mainly so it was a tad tedious but not unbearable. It seems to me that statistics are more “fun” when done for an actual purpose and not just for practice. It was a data collection of all Balkan international airports compared to Albania’s sole Mother Theresa Airport. We ended up piling some more interesting work to our translations and PR workload—we met with the National Coastal Agency’s director, Auron, and we're working with them to further future internship and possible USA student/university affiliation opportunities. Although nothing was handed to us directly this week—we know we’ll be dealing with their new app they just launched about the coastline and translating it into English by next week and onward.

We took a couple days off to explore Southern Albania’s coastline in the little beach town of Himare—considered a Greek minority of Albania. It was my first time visiting the coast especially after 16 years away from Albania. You could see Corfu across the distance of the Ionian Sea, so it’s super close with Greece and people could be heard speaking in Greek and we even ran across Swedish tourists—really cool for us to see tourism on the ground instead of seeing it through the statistics. In addition, the coastline there was small and quaint—beautiful rocky hills right in front of the rocky, crystal clear, turquoise colored water. Needless to say we enjoyed it and being that it isn’t super developed but established enough with restaurants, cafes, and hotels galore it’s developed enough to accommodate the influx of tourists that will be hitting Himare up in the next two months (July and August are the key touristic months). So for anyone planning on going to Corfu—go to Himare, it’s the same exact seashore and even cheaper—plus the experience is more authentic and still not as capitalistic/touristic!

Laying out after a nice burn

Dinner right on the seaside :)

Hanging out on some rocks on the Ionian Sea

Enxhi Merpeza; Tirana, Albania; Fourth Week

This week we met the Minister of Urban Development and Tourism and it was really nice because we not only were treated very kindly and hosted generously around a conference table with little goodies—but the local news channel was there to capture the meeting. In the meeting it was the three of us ladies from U of M, two Harvard interns, and two Albanian Grad Students who studied in Europe for Urban Development and Planning. Shortly after the meeting we also met with the a director of marketing who is working with us to further spread the news via social media, into the hands of the Albanian diaspora of Europe and neighboring lands. It was a full week of female-led projects and being three University going women, it was very intriguing to see how the power dynamic and stronghold exists in Albania between the sexes. In all situations, we’ve seen more women in the office than men until now—though I’d argue that the higher ups are mainly male-dominated positions still.

Conference with Minister, Directors, and other USA students and peace corps volunteers, etc. 

We took this Friday off because it was the holy day for the sacred pilgrimage to Kisha e Laçit [Church of St. Anthony of Padua] that is held each year in Albania—something my mother had told me about prior to departure and it was really exciting to be a part of a tradition that has been ongoing for years—though it wasn’t allowed during Atheist/Communist Albania. The other nice thing about this tradition is that it isn’t religiously exclusive—remnants of communist traditions that didn’t believe in religion—and thus many Atheists, Orthodox, and Muslims make the pilgrimage each year to touch the holy rocks of the site and light candles up at the top of the mountain where the cross sits above the church grounds. You have to make quite a hike up there if you want to touch the holy grounds and so it was a tiring feat undoubtedly, but to me, someone who believes in spirituality strongly, it was well worth it.

The Cross

 It’s not about an elaborate religious effort but about the way that you feel about contributing and abiding to a cultural and historic event. I’ve been camping before but I’d never slept underneath the stars entirely. We placed blankets down atop the rocky grounds, ate bread, feta, tomatoes, and cucumbers—traditional Mediterranean styled picnic—and attempted to sleep. Legend has it that those who were sickly or ill would only need to sleep on the grounds of the church on the holy day and would awaken cured and without ailment—others still tell me this is a very true experience and I kept my eyes peeled for miracles but I was too tired to notice much. After a small and unconformable nap, we lit candles for our desires and for our families alike, which proved to be a challenge against the howling wind, and then proceeded to trek back down the mountain to the van that would lead us back to Tirana—a village about an hour away from Laç. I felt relieved to have made the journey, let alone that it fell on the most important day of the year where nearly 1 million people from neighboring lands of the Balkans all come to make the pilgrimage. I’d highly recommend the trip to anyone in the Balkans or Italy to come out and try it if you happen to be here next year on June 13^th!

Hiking upwards!

Enxhi Merpeza; Tirana, Albania; Third Week

During our Third Week of the Internship things progressed immensely--as I said the second week was spent attending meetings, but not really doing anything and I started to think that, that was all bureaucracy really was. Thankfully—so I thought at the beginning of last week—we received tons of PR and Marketing translations to do from Albanian to English--my forte, as I know English grammar inside and out since I've lived in the US for 16 years of my life. On the other hand, my Albanian skills--besides for the conversations between family members and with grandparents--lack in the formal writing department, as I cannot stretch my imagination to create, both grammatical and beautiful, marketing slogans/ translations. So it was helpful that we were doing Albanian to English translations at first and not the other way around.

The first couple days started off super slow because I had absolutely NOTHING to do...and then the work crept up on us. But, while we were lounging and chilling we decided to try a few places around town as we had been there for 2 weeks and still not had a nice meal out--only coffee, sweets, and street food--which is still good, just not the same. Era Piceria was a hit with us—a frequented tourist restaurant.

It's going well so far thankfully--but it's picked up with a lot of promotional marketing pieces under our belts we've even had the opportunity for our work to help change the national website Albania. At the end of the week we visited Korca, Albania and ventured around it's rolling hill and visited Birra Korca--a famous establishment there known for it's beer and meatball like "kernacka" aka the best things ever. It was very cool to be tourists ourselves especially during "Karnavalet e Korces" a mix between halloween type costumes and Mardi Gras tribe associated groups doing Albanian traditional dances.

Albanians LOVE crepes and so do we--this is a picture of one of the many crepes we enjoyed that week!

Era Piceria and me having traditional Albanian rice with chicken broth and pine nuts!

Karnavalet e Korces...

In front of the Cathedral!

Ashley Connelly, Week 4, Madrid

Hi everyone,

The new king and queen 

Flag supporting the republic

It's been another week in Madrid and the World Cup has officially started! Unfortunately, while the rest of the world is still buzzing after a series of amazing games, the excitement in Spain has died as the reigning world champs have already exited the tournament. As a huge fan of soccer and Spanish football, I have to say I was really looking forward to spending the World Cup here. Luckily, Madrid has been able to channel that excitement into another historical event- the new king's coronation. This past Thursday as Madrid celebrated Corpus Christi, the city celebrated the new king's reign. However, this show of Spanish pride has not gone uncontested. Throughout Madrid, the Spanish flag and support of the royal family has been met with a call to restore the Spanish republic once again. While red and yellow Spanish flags fly throughout the city, you can't help but notice the flags of the republic with an additional purple stripe.                          

With the excitement of the king's coronation and the disappointment of the Spanish nation team setting the mood in Madrid, my fellow Wolverines and I headed to Barcelona where as Catalans they did not care about the king or even the soccer team. Heading to Barcelona earlier Friday morning, we took advantage of the Spanish way of celebrating holidays. If there is a holiday on a Thursday here, Spaniards also take Friday off too in what they call a puente or bridge in English. Since Corpus Christi was on Thursday, I had a 4-day weekend to head to Barcelona and sight-see.

Park Guell

                            

When we got to Barcelona, the first thing we did was finally hit the beach. Because it was too cold before we left Michigan and Madrid is in the middle of Spain, it was nice to finally lay out in the sun and relax. The following day, we hit up as many of the Barcelona tourist points as we could. This included a tour of the Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, and Casa Batllo. Most of the places we visited were designed by the famous Catalan architect Gaudi. While everywhere we went was amazingly beautiful, Gaudi never had the chance to completely finish them. For instance, work began on the Sagrada Familia 132 years ago and isn't supposed to be done until 2026- 100 years after Gaudi's death. Even though Gaudi didn't get to finish his work, walking around Barcelona, you can see his grand impact.

Casa Batllo

Sagrada Familia Passion Facade 

The final day we were in Barcelona we completed our tour of tourist hot spots walking around La Rambla, the Barcelona cathedral, and Gothic area before finally hitting the beach one last time. After criss-crossing Barcelona all weekend, relaxing on the beach was a much need break even if I did leave a tad bit red. Ultimately, our trip to Barcelona was a success and it was such a different experience than being in Madrid. It was as if we left Spain especially considering that everything is in a different language. It was an amazing experience but I'm glad to be back in Madrid and excited for the week to come.

Kledia | Tirana, Albania | Week 5

This week at work we helped out our fellow Harvard co-worker by working on a project that had to do with airports in the Balkan region. We looked at around 50 airports in the region and collected data on them and compared them to the airport in Albania. We've still been working on translations for different people and it's cool to see our translations being used. We've also been "consulting" on social media and figuring out ways to reach more people -- especially albanian students. We also met with the head of the National Coastal Agency (it's a part of the Ministry of Tourism) and we're working with them on translating their new app they just launched about the coast.

We also got a chance to visit this beach town called Himare. I had been there many times but it was cool to go there with people who'd never been. I felt like a tour guide showing everyone around. It was a nice break from the city because the town is pretty small and it's not really tourist season yet so it was us, a handful of foreign tourists, and the locals. It was very nice and relaxing. Here's some sights from Himare!

Jaclyn, Cardiff - Week 6

Since last week, I got pooped on by a bird (again), ate seven different cuisines in one meal, saw Olly Murs, and ate a dirty breakfast. Not to worry, I have an explanation for all of that.

First of all, there are thousands of pidgeons in view at any given time. If you look down at the ground, no more than an inch or two goes by without you seeing a golf ball-sized, white splat on the ground.

This is the second time a pidgeon has pooped on me since I've been here.... I think the birds are aiming for me... Supposedly getting pooped on by a bird is good luck, but let me tell you - I've been pooped on twice and didn't feel very lucky either time.

Bird rant over.

This past weekend was the Admiral company party. It was absolutely incredible.The pictures definitely do not suffice.




Millennium Stadium

 

The party was held at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff which is where the rugby team plays. It's huge.

It looked really pretty on the outside with the sun hitting it so I felt like I had to include a picture.



Canopy Entrance to the Company Party!





View of the party from the entrance

The theme of the party was "Once Upon A Time." So when we walked in, we were appropriately greeted by a canopy entrance that felt like one of those tunnels (American) football players run through before the start of a game. At the other end of the canopy entrance was the coolest party I have ever been to.



Hogwarts Great Hall

It was split into four main parts: Hogwarts Great Hall from Harry Potter, where there were picnic tables for sitting down and eating with, of course, many food stands around it;



Helter Skelter slide and Arabian Nights gaming tents



the Arabian Nights game area, where each game was set up in an Arabian-themed canopy tent; a Tiki area, complete with flower leis and fruity drinks; and Neverland, where there was a life-sized chess board and mini golf.



The Neverland section of the party





Mini Golf!



Me and Amy at the Company Party!

In addition to these four main parts were a checkered dance floor surrounded by two of Cinderella's castles, a zip wire that stretched from one end of the stadium to the other, and a giant Helter Skelter tower with a slide that circled around the entire outside. Oh, and how could I forget the entertainment: Olly Murs performed!

 

Me and Gary in our matching purple!





It was the party of a life time. The food and drinks were great, the music was great, and the decorations were incredible. It was better than I imagined it would be and I'm so incredibly lucky I was able to be a part of it!

Now to address the dirty breakfast and the seven-cuisine meal. Over here in the UK, a fried/unhealthy breakfast is called a "dirty breakfast." Typically, this includes egg and/or bacon and/or sausage, or any combination of the three. Last Friday, our Head of Recruitment, Andrew (or AV, as we cann him), announced that he was buying us all breakfast. It was a nice treat in addition to being allowed to leave at 4 instead of 5, which we had been notified of just minutes earlier.

Anyway, we took a trip to the market for our dirty breakfast. I got an egg and bacon roll and put brown sauce on it to be extra Welsh. There's no equivalent to brown sauce in the US (that I know of). Brown sauce is essentially a mix between ketchup and barbeque sauce, without the tangy taste. It's hard to describe but it's pretty good - at least with the dirty breakfast I had.

On Sunday, at least in terms of what I ate, I felt right at home. For breakfast, I made French toast (ironically, a very American thing to eat for breakfast) and scrambled eggs with cheese. We also had British sausage and some fruit on the side. It was a great post-Company Party breakfast.

Dinner was at an all-you-can-eat restaurant, hence the seven-cuisine meal. I don't know how I ate 4 plates of food/pudding, but I did. Overall I had Indian, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Japanese, and British cuisine. (No traditional American food, but being at an all-you can-eat restaurant felt American enough!)

Pizza, Sushi, Vegetable Samosa, Vegetable Noodles,
Spring Roll, Chicken Quesadilla



My friends individually kept asking me if we had places like this in America... I laughed and told them that yes, we did. All over the place.



Spanish potatoes, British sausage, Spicy corn, potato

wedge, chicken tika masala



Chocolate and Mint Ice Cream with Walnut Brownies







Honeydew, Creme Brulee, Chocolate-dipped
marshmallws, a wanut brownie, and a mini almond
pastry



 

5.5 weeks down, 3.5 to go...