After 2.5 weeks here, I can say that Argentina has really started to grow on me. It helps that the weather has warmed up a bit and I was able to do a little more exploring this past weekend than I had done previously. On Friday night I partied it up like a porteño, making it home at about 5 am (only 15 minutes before our host-sister came in). Saturday I went with a group to the city of Tigre, an river delta area where the majority of the town [...]

On Wednesday we did our Made in Italy presentations and then took our final. We were so thankful to be done! Wednesday evening was spent out for our group dinner and I was lucky enough to sit at the end of the table with Tim Gunn. He told us about one of the small Italian villages he lived in when he first moved Italy. He talked about how Italians will never decorate the outside of their houses because they want the glory all to themselves and will decorate the inside. [...]

Last Tuesday for my Cross-Cultural Communication class we went downtown and visited some art museums.  It was my first time taking a buseta (little bus) and seeing some of the art scene of Merida.  It was really interesting, and I always love walking around downtown.  Though I was disappointed that the solitary pan-flute player wasn’t in the Plaza Bolivar playing Celine Dion or that song from the movie Ghost. One of the places we stopped was an old church built in the 1800′s that had a bunch of paintings and [...]

The annual rainfall here is something like 4 inches. I think today we got at LEAST that much and this kind of rain does not make porteños or their gutter systems or roofs very happy. Usually the rain is much more of a mist. During a downpour, roofs in even nice building leak. People eat eggs on almost everything… on sandwiches, hard-boiled on pizza, hard-boiled inside pastries, etc. but never for breakfast. Breakfast here consists of coffee or tea and toast, crackers, or these sweet croissants called medialunas that are [...]

It has been such a long time since I have updated the blog. Since I last left off we have done a plethora of things. On the 11th Clare and I accompanied her Mom, Dad and brother, Ross, on a 13, even though it turned into about 15.5 hour excursion to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. Pompeii was spectacular and I was very excited to see Vesuvius. After Pompeii we drove through the mountains and down to the water on the Amalfi Coast. Little did Clare and I know we [...]

Yesterday we went to the neighborhood of La Boca which is the most colorful and vibrant part of the city surrounded by the worst (and notriously most crime ridden) slums. The 9 or so blocks that are fit to go down, however, are very interesting. The buildings are painted a variety of bright colors and the pedestrian-only streets are lined with restaurants, shops, and art galleries. In the streets themselves are Tango dancers, Gaucho dancers, and other street performers. Wandering around the area was the most fun I’ve had exploring [...]

I have been back in the United States for two weeks. The feeling is indescribable, but not so much in a good way. As I prepared for my trip, I came across a graph showing the emotions one goes through when planning, experiencing, and returning from a study abroad experience. It began with intense excitement and happiness as one decides to go, then drops a bit during the preparation due to the forms and fees one experiences, then goes up as departure approaches and the program begins, then drops as [...]

During a quick chat from the Houston airport, I received some sage advice from my wife; take everything one day at a time and things will start getting better. I married a very smart girl, and at that point it was exactly what I needed to hear. Especially since I still had more than half of a very long journey ahead of me. Little things started to go my way the moment I got on the plane to Caracas. I found my seat and there was a woman sitting in [...]

I am sitting in the Houston airport, literally in a state of shock. So much has happened in the last couple of days that my head is spinning. It is still going to be 24 hours before I reach the place I will call home for 3 months… and although it has only been 6 hours since I was dropped off at the airport, the effect is staggering. I suppose I should preface this entire entry by saying that I am still looking forward to my adventure. On the flight [...]

Like always, I went to the zoo excited and left depressed. I did get to see some interesting animals, though. Yes, we were really that close to the lion. It was breathtaking, frightening, and exhilarating all at the same time. I snapped a video of him pacing back and forth, and if I figure out how to post it on here I will. It was really sad to see what small cages they kept their Big Cats in, though. Really, really sad. I also soaw one of the big cats… [...]

Thursday was a total whirlwind! It started out with a tour of Southwest London with my Pop-Culture class where we began in Covent Garden and walked and walked and walked all over learning about little shops with unique histories. It was really interesting to hear about the hippie and punk subcultures. I had no idea the hippies were so prevalent in London. Our teacher was walking really really quickly but I managed to keep up. Immediately after class, I hopped on the tube to my internship. My class had gotten [...]

So, today was interesting. We visited the Merida Botanical Garden for my tropical ecology class. See the photos below. ( In the third one there’s an awesome tree. I forgot the name but one of the theories of why it has spikes on its truck was to protect itself from the giant sloths that used to be present in South America before humans came.)

Sitting in class now, waiting for my spanish Prof to come back. Hopefully we’ll finish early today. The other girl in my class isn’t here, so it’s been a very interactive class thus far. I think there is a cold going around to all the Americans. I’m pretty positive I have an ear infection, but I’ll continue to take pain relievers and trust that my body will take care of it (I was reading online, and it said that 80% of ear infections heal themselves after a few days, with [...]

Sunday was beautiful so we decided to go out to Hyde Park and wander around. Unfortunately, we missed Speaker’s corner, but we have plans to go this weekend. It was a gorgeous day and the park was the perfect idea. We then walked around Kensington High Street and peeked into Harvey Nicholswith its elaborate shop windows, and Harrod’s, two world famous department stores. Monday was a bank holiday which meant virtually everything is closed (even the banks!). We made a run to our sponsor school to drop off some paper [...]

Last weekend we traveled to the hot springs. It was incredible. The hike to our campsite was pretty hardcore.. I thought that the boundaries waters were difficult, but they are a cakewalk when compared to hiking in the mountains. It began with a huge hill that took us about 30-45 minutes to ascend, and we all stopped to rest probably around 5 times going up. Then there was another 15 min or so of hiking along the mountains. There were two other groups of Venezuelans who were camping there, and [...]