Bienvenidos
Choroni Beach
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
He terminada!
AY AY AY! Yo acabo de terminar mi segunda clase y yo totalmente estoy terminada. I apologize for not posting to this baby for awhile, I have missed it. My life had been a little bit taken over by spanish compositions & early morning class time. Por supuesto no quiero salir esta ciudad. This is my last weekend left in Merida and I absolutely can NOT believe how fast the time has gone by. A group of people are traveling to Los llanos this weekend but I decided it be best to stay in sweet Merida and dance in las discotecas por la ultima vez. I feel a little bit bad for not going to Los Llanos but the group of people who I've gotten to know best are staying here and I also need to save my money for my EXCITING NEWS::: Instead of going straight back to Chicago after 6 weeks, I will be making a pit stop with 5 other people in Margarita Island for 4 nights. If you google Margarita Island you will understand just how excited I am. My plane tickets: set. My money: exchanged. My classes: done. I have a feeling that this last weekend will be the best one yet and things will just get sweeter once I'm laying on a beach and learning how to surf. I love and miss you all! It's not too long until I return to the windy city ;) Less than 2 weeks!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Mercado Principal
El mercado principal. Definitely not like your average mall. I'm not lieing when I say that the culture here in every way is rich because even their mercados have so much life to them. 
It has been raining a lot in Merida and on Friday night it rained so hard Krista and I got charged extra for our taxi ride because one street literally resembled a scene from Day after Tomorrow. Yikes. So much rain. Today when we walked and got our late lunch of pizza it was raining yet again but this time it was nice and almost comfortable. We had an amazing meal of pizza and cheesecake and then on our walk back Krista took a photo of a incredibly interesting mariposa that was resting on the ground. The photo now serves as the only remaining physical proof of the butterfly because one second after we took its picture a crow swooped down and devoured it. :-(Right now it's pretty late in terms of Venezuelan time... but I don't have class until 2pm tomorrow which is a nice relief. As much as I love to learn spanish I always feel apprehensive before jumping into my intensive schedule that totals up to 22 hours total of classroom time. Dios mio. Good night, Buenas noches & I shall continue on my Venezuelan journey for my remaning 2 weeks, :-(
Wherever did the time go...
Spirit
Bueno,
The beautiful picture that I added at the top was taken at Choroni Beach. The beach was a beautiful rather remote location that I would love to go back to. We went to the beach last weekend and this weekend was action packed with dancing. Salsa, tambores, and reggaeton. Honestly the more that I stay here the less I want to leave. This trip has confirmed my passion of exploring and seeing new places immensely. Walking in the Mercado Principal this past weekend was delightful. I walked through the aisles of guitars, dolls, fruits, jewelry, clothes, scarfs, and wine. All of the vendors greeted us by saying "a la orden" aka at your service and most stalls had some Shakira song playing very loudly. All of the products are piled up to the ceiling and I was quite overwhelmed as I tried to look at everything the Venezuelans were trying to sell. Today is the perfect lazy Sunday and a period of rest after a lot of dancing. I will go get pizza with Krista, write my composition for class that is due tomorrow, and then pasar un rato con
Derek and Adam with their host mom. Tonight we plan to casually drink some wine with cheese and watch UP
.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Querida Venezuela
Querida Venezuela,
Tengo una confesion
Pienso que estoy enamorandome contigo
Yo quiero estar mas de amigos
Me encantan tus montanas hermosas y gigantescas
Me fascina la rica cultura
Es una lastima que yo necesite salir en menos de 3 semanas
Yo me extranare mis nuevos amigos americanos y venezolanos que les conoci aqui
Yo necesito comentar, que tus playas especialmente Choroni que yo he visitado son las mejores del mundo
Las arepas, las empanadas, la pan de azucar, el chocolate, las panaderias, LAS DISCOTECAS y BARES, LOS TAMBORES!!
Me encanta todo que me ofreces muchisimo muchisimo
Yo acabo de darme cuenta que no quiero salir
No voy a salirte mi amante fantastico, nunca voy a salir
Sinceramente,
Amelia
Tengo una confesion
Pienso que estoy enamorandome contigo
Yo quiero estar mas de amigos
Me encantan tus montanas hermosas y gigantescas
Me fascina la rica cultura
Es una lastima que yo necesite salir en menos de 3 semanas
Yo me extranare mis nuevos amigos americanos y venezolanos que les conoci aqui
Yo necesito comentar, que tus playas especialmente Choroni que yo he visitado son las mejores del mundo
Las arepas, las empanadas, la pan de azucar, el chocolate, las panaderias, LAS DISCOTECAS y BARES, LOS TAMBORES!!
Me encanta todo que me ofreces muchisimo muchisimo
Yo acabo de darme cuenta que no quiero salir
No voy a salirte mi amante fantastico, nunca voy a salir
Sinceramente,
Amelia
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Demasiada Tarea
Hola mis amores,
I have SO much homework today. Today is my last day of class and Monday I will begin my second class which will be 6 hours a day of intensive spanish communication and continued written composition. Thankfully my teacher is giving us 3.5 hours today in class to finish our "trabajo final", which includes a summary in response to an article we read about reading comprehension and the constructive process of writing, a short composition, and a detailed list of vocabulary definitions. All in Spanish of course. I'm going to be very happy to be done and I will celebrate the conclusion of my 3015 Spanish class with a beautiful group trip to Choroni Beach. YAY. It's going to be quite the trip, we leave tonight around 8:30 on a 10 hour bus ride to Maracay, then another two hours from Maracay to Choroni Beach. Our group is staying there for 2 nights in a hostal and we won't return until very early Monday morning.
I'm most excited for the chocolate because I have heard numerous times that the Cocoa there is beyond believable. And I read that to get there we travel through the cloud forest mountains of the Henri Pittier National Park before descending to the sea. I can't wait to see what this weekend has in store, I just need to get through my rigorously intense academic day and then I'm home free. Plus, and this is a big plus, there are many African-Venezuelans at Choroni and it is custom for them to play tambores on the beach and dance in the sand. Viva Venezuela, Viva, Viva.
I'm going to get back to frying my brain with Spanish but I hope that everybody has a wonderful weekend. I'm only bringing my disposable camera this weekend but I'll be sure to share pictures that other people take of the beautiful scenery.
One last note:
Top 5 things that I miss back home
1. Family and friends
2. My bed
3. Being able to flush toliet paper
4. Thai food
5. The gym
I have SO much homework today. Today is my last day of class and Monday I will begin my second class which will be 6 hours a day of intensive spanish communication and continued written composition. Thankfully my teacher is giving us 3.5 hours today in class to finish our "trabajo final", which includes a summary in response to an article we read about reading comprehension and the constructive process of writing, a short composition, and a detailed list of vocabulary definitions. All in Spanish of course. I'm going to be very happy to be done and I will celebrate the conclusion of my 3015 Spanish class with a beautiful group trip to Choroni Beach. YAY. It's going to be quite the trip, we leave tonight around 8:30 on a 10 hour bus ride to Maracay, then another two hours from Maracay to Choroni Beach. Our group is staying there for 2 nights in a hostal and we won't return until very early Monday morning.
I'm most excited for the chocolate because I have heard numerous times that the Cocoa there is beyond believable. And I read that to get there we travel through the cloud forest mountains of the Henri Pittier National Park before descending to the sea. I can't wait to see what this weekend has in store, I just need to get through my rigorously intense academic day and then I'm home free. Plus, and this is a big plus, there are many African-Venezuelans at Choroni and it is custom for them to play tambores on the beach and dance in the sand. Viva Venezuela, Viva, Viva.
I'm going to get back to frying my brain with Spanish but I hope that everybody has a wonderful weekend. I'm only bringing my disposable camera this weekend but I'll be sure to share pictures that other people take of the beautiful scenery.
One last note:
Top 5 things that I miss back home
1. Family and friends
2. My bed
3. Being able to flush toliet paper
4. Thai food
5. The gym
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Chevere.
Buenos tardes,
He tenido la mejor fin de semana, fue muy divertido. This past weekend has been super in many many ways. Thursday started the epicness with a group trip to a cocktail bar called Bananas and then finished with poco loco. I really like a lot of people who are in the program, and I'm referring to Americans. They really make it so much fun and it's convenient because we all just help each other out and stay together. I have been loving all the food that my host mom has been giving me: arepas, pasta, pan de dulce, everything. I was surprised that they eat pasta a lot here I don't know why.
Anywho there have been a lot of Alvaro's friends in and out of our apartment the past couple of days. All week Krista and I have been hearing them practice their cello or violins because they have a big concert today (Sunday evening) that we all are attending. It's kind of nice to wake up to classical music that's actually really good, I mean they really practice a lot and truly love their instruments. Sometimes their music even enters my dream and I won't realize it until I wake up haha, crazy. I have been genuinely loving Merida more and more the longer that I am here. I can't believe that I've been here for 2 weeks. I don't think I've ever gone on a family vacation that has lasted as long as two weeks. Seriously though, my time here makes me want to travel to other places in the world so badly. I need to see Europe and Asia and definitely do some volunteer work in Africa. It's so cliche but the world really is incredibly vibrant. You don't realize how differently people live until you actually immerse yourself in it. Again I'm glad I took this oppurtunity and I would love to come back in the future.
Back to my weekend... Friday was a typical tourist day. A group of the girls in the program with a hand full of guys went to a really nice pool at a hotel in Central Merida to sunbathe and tomar el sol o broncear. Right as we put our towels down on the chairs and begin to lay out, it rains. I often forget that right now is Merida's rainy season but unlike the midwest it rains, stops, and goes back to beautiful weather. We finally got a good hour of sun and all of us girls were relaxed and happy when the strangest thing happened. Let me just add that at this point us gringas are used to being stared at. You walk down the street, people stare. You go to the grocery store or any public place, people stare. This day at the pool was no different than any other day that we've had in Merida, and of course people were staring. We receive attention because there are no blondes in South America and for some strange reason there are a lot of blondes in the program and EVERYBODY loves to notice us. Ok, so the staring at this point is not a problem, completely normal. The strange part was that a group of younger Venezuelans asked each one of us girls individually if they could take a picture with us. I'm not kidding all of us girls took at least 5 pictures with different youth members who were also at the pool that day. The group of boys would stand at the end of our chairs, while we were laying out, and ask to take one picture with us. Most girls, including myself, agreed but we soon realized that after one picture was taken, all of the other boys would need a picture with us as well. It was so weird. It was as if they had never seen girls with different hair before, let alone girls in general. My friend Zoe was laying upside down just sleeping and sunbathing, and she opens her eyes to find Venezuelans leaning over her asking over and over "Puedes tomar una fota conmigo!?!". I finally asked one of the boys why they all wanted pictures with us, and he said that it was because we were just so beautiful. He then continued to ask me how and why we all were so beautiful and I just said "No se, no hay una respuesta."
My friday concluded with Venezuelan pizza and a lot of lotion on all of the sunburn that I ended up having, even though it was for the most part cloudy that day. Saturday was very relaxing and included a trip to the mall for some good old shopping and then off to the Venezuela v. Canada Soccer game. The biggest difference that I saw between Venezuelan and American sports arenas is that the Venezuelan stadium didn't have half as many advertisements, and it also sold hardly any food. The soccer game was very fun and energetic and although I've never been to an official soccer game it was easy to follow what was happening on the field. The futbol game took up most of my Saturday night and I didn't have the urge to go out since the next day I would be paragliding. Speaking of which it was EPIC. Once some pictures are uploaded I will for sure post them on here. You literally fly, you are strapped to the front of a pilot and run off of a moutain until your parachute catches the wind, then you coast up in the sky and see a view that you'll probably never experience again. OMG. LOVED LOVED IT. It was very epic, but once you are floating in the sky it's more relaxing. I'll def upload those pictures once I can and post them but as for now necesito ducharme. In a little bit I'll be off at Alvaro and Diego's orchestra concert, then I'm looking forward to some nice peace and quiet while I write my spanish composition that is due tomorrow. Hasta pronto mis lectores.
Most of these pictures are from the first weekend: Camping and the Moutains.
p.s. feel free to leave comments :)
He tenido la mejor fin de semana, fue muy divertido. This past weekend has been super in many many ways. Thursday started the epicness with a group trip to a cocktail bar called Bananas and then finished with poco loco. I really like a lot of people who are in the program, and I'm referring to Americans. They really make it so much fun and it's convenient because we all just help each other out and stay together. I have been loving all the food that my host mom has been giving me: arepas, pasta, pan de dulce, everything. I was surprised that they eat pasta a lot here I don't know why.
Anywho there have been a lot of Alvaro's friends in and out of our apartment the past couple of days. All week Krista and I have been hearing them practice their cello or violins because they have a big concert today (Sunday evening) that we all are attending. It's kind of nice to wake up to classical music that's actually really good, I mean they really practice a lot and truly love their instruments. Sometimes their music even enters my dream and I won't realize it until I wake up haha, crazy. I have been genuinely loving Merida more and more the longer that I am here. I can't believe that I've been here for 2 weeks. I don't think I've ever gone on a family vacation that has lasted as long as two weeks. Seriously though, my time here makes me want to travel to other places in the world so badly. I need to see Europe and Asia and definitely do some volunteer work in Africa. It's so cliche but the world really is incredibly vibrant. You don't realize how differently people live until you actually immerse yourself in it. Again I'm glad I took this oppurtunity and I would love to come back in the future.
Back to my weekend... Friday was a typical tourist day. A group of the girls in the program with a hand full of guys went to a really nice pool at a hotel in Central Merida to sunbathe and tomar el sol o broncear. Right as we put our towels down on the chairs and begin to lay out, it rains. I often forget that right now is Merida's rainy season but unlike the midwest it rains, stops, and goes back to beautiful weather. We finally got a good hour of sun and all of us girls were relaxed and happy when the strangest thing happened. Let me just add that at this point us gringas are used to being stared at. You walk down the street, people stare. You go to the grocery store or any public place, people stare. This day at the pool was no different than any other day that we've had in Merida, and of course people were staring. We receive attention because there are no blondes in South America and for some strange reason there are a lot of blondes in the program and EVERYBODY loves to notice us. Ok, so the staring at this point is not a problem, completely normal. The strange part was that a group of younger Venezuelans asked each one of us girls individually if they could take a picture with us. I'm not kidding all of us girls took at least 5 pictures with different youth members who were also at the pool that day. The group of boys would stand at the end of our chairs, while we were laying out, and ask to take one picture with us. Most girls, including myself, agreed but we soon realized that after one picture was taken, all of the other boys would need a picture with us as well. It was so weird. It was as if they had never seen girls with different hair before, let alone girls in general. My friend Zoe was laying upside down just sleeping and sunbathing, and she opens her eyes to find Venezuelans leaning over her asking over and over "Puedes tomar una fota conmigo!?!". I finally asked one of the boys why they all wanted pictures with us, and he said that it was because we were just so beautiful. He then continued to ask me how and why we all were so beautiful and I just said "No se, no hay una respuesta."
My friday concluded with Venezuelan pizza and a lot of lotion on all of the sunburn that I ended up having, even though it was for the most part cloudy that day. Saturday was very relaxing and included a trip to the mall for some good old shopping and then off to the Venezuela v. Canada Soccer game. The biggest difference that I saw between Venezuelan and American sports arenas is that the Venezuelan stadium didn't have half as many advertisements, and it also sold hardly any food. The soccer game was very fun and energetic and although I've never been to an official soccer game it was easy to follow what was happening on the field. The futbol game took up most of my Saturday night and I didn't have the urge to go out since the next day I would be paragliding. Speaking of which it was EPIC. Once some pictures are uploaded I will for sure post them on here. You literally fly, you are strapped to the front of a pilot and run off of a moutain until your parachute catches the wind, then you coast up in the sky and see a view that you'll probably never experience again. OMG. LOVED LOVED IT. It was very epic, but once you are floating in the sky it's more relaxing. I'll def upload those pictures once I can and post them but as for now necesito ducharme. In a little bit I'll be off at Alvaro and Diego's orchestra concert, then I'm looking forward to some nice peace and quiet while I write my spanish composition that is due tomorrow. Hasta pronto mis lectores.
Most of these pictures are from the first weekend: Camping and the Moutains.
p.s. feel free to leave comments :)
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