Kelsey: At the one-month mark

I’ve already made it to the one-month mark, which seriously blows my mind. The days here are flying by faster than I ever thought they would. I’ve already done SO many amazing things, and I haven’t even done the coolest things on my list of things to do! 

I had to do an assignment for a class I’m taking through the U that is all about reflecting on your experience and talking about the ups and downs that come along with “culture shock.” Culture shock is defined as having a “Honeymoon” stage where everything is great and you have no complaints, a “Frustrated/Down” stage where you can’t stop comparing your new culture to one that you’re familiar with and usually the familiar culture is perceived as “better”, the “Adjustment” stage where you’re finally getting used to how things work and rarely compare to home, then finally there is the “Mastery” stage where you are fully comfortable in the no-longer new surroundings and act as if this was your home culture. In the assignment we had to describe how we’ve been feeling within the first month and which stages that we may call ourselves in at the moment. I said that I don’t think that culture shock is a process that you continue to go over just once, I think it’s a process that could last months or it could all be in one day. If I were to put myself in any stage at this moment it would be the Adjustment stage because I’m finally starting to get the hang of this crazy place! 

Honestly though, I could not have been doing this well here if I didn’t have such great support at home from family and friends. It means the world to me when people pop in and ask how I’m doing and say that they love my pictures/blog etc. 

It has already been a wild ride and I haven’t even gone on my upcoming ski trip or weeklong backpacking trip! Keep looking for pictures/blog posts, I’m going to try my best to keep up!

Alex: Matauranga Maori

I checked out books from the library for the first time today.

I’m largely caught up on my homework, and in addition to looking for something to fill my time I was looking to start my research in earnest. I explained my project to my Anthro tutor (which is what they call TAs) who is also an American, and the rest of my Anthro tutorial this morning. I get more and more excited every time I mention it, and since it is the reason I spent all this money to fly half way around the world, I felt like I should get to work. Also, I have yet to hear from a single tattoo artist, so the approach that I had intended to take to this project has yet to bear fruit and I needed to feel like I was doing something.

So I was at the library this afternoon, struggling to find the books I was looking for, when I saw one of the books was marked in the system as being in the Matauranga Maori section. I had no idea what matauranga meant (it means education, knowledge). So I wandered around the first floor of the library when I noticed it: half of the floor set back and labeled with a large sign beckoning from the drop ceiling “Marautanga Maori.”

I walked into this section, and understanding crept up on me slowly and warmly. It started in my toes and by the time I had found my section the feeling was near my eyeballs and I had to use all my considerable force of will to restrain an actually giggle of delight. There is an entire section of this library dedicated to Maori topics. Minnesota has one of the largest archives in the country, and Maori topics is a sub-division of a sub-division. Like a kid in a candy store, I wanted to pull everything from the shelves and gorge myself until I was sick. I resisted, but only just.

I ended up only taking two books on ta moko home with me. Voracious as I am, I know myself and I know that if I could only have them for a month, I may accidentally skip homework in favor of pouring myself into these books. Upon arriving at home I had to once again restrain myself from tearing open my backpack like a child on Christmas morning. I dutifully did my homework, and then sat down and devoured an entire book just this evening. My hunger was so great I totally forgot myself, I had no conception of the passing time. As it turns out, my hunger was actually so great because I had forgotten to eat anything.

This project is going to go oh so very well.

Katie: Coming home

Whelp, the time has come for a final post. I realize it is a little late, but I guess waiting this long has given me time to reflect on my adventure to the UK.

I spent my last days that I had in London exploring the city. I was able to attend the Harry Potter Red Carpet Premiere. I was amazed to have gotten as close as I did, especially since I thought I wouldn’t even get in. I ended up getting to Trafalgar Square later than I had hoped and was lucky enough to receive one of the wristbands needed to attend the premiere. So my friend Ayla, whom I met at the Hostel I was staying at, and I went back to our Hostel and waited til later that night when we checked out of the hostel and headed to Trafalgar Square to sleep…or at least try to sleep that night. We woke up at 4am with the sun and stood waiting for a total of 16 hours in the rain before the stars started to arrive.

Ayla and I made some friends at the premiere – Sammy, Cat, Katie, and Elissa:

I even made it in some press images:

I was really excited to see J.K. Rowling

The premiere was crazy, amazing, and so tiring but so worth it. It was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity and a great way to end the series that many of us grew up with. Coming to London I never thought I would sleep in Trafalgar Square.

The Last day I decided to bike around the city. A lot of things can get lost when you ride the tube everywhere. Your sense of direction is played with. So I decided to rent a bike for the day and spend my final hours riding around London.

I stumbled upon these pianos that were placed around the city for anyone to play.

After traveling for more that 23 hours I arrived back home.

So I have been back in America for a total of 17 days. It has been bittersweet. I keep remembering that I actually lived in another country and it boggles my mind realizing that my adventure is over. I miss London like crazy but being away for so long has made me appreciate America so much more. I haven’t gone through much culture shock, probably because I was only gone for 7 weeks as opposed to an entire semester. I have noticed that I still try to convert prices to dollars even though the price is already in dollars. I was overjoyed to walk into my room and see all of the clothes that I left here. After 7 weeks of wearing the same 10 outfits over and over again, I am so excited to wear different clothes. I am also enjoying the vast amount of open space here. Everything in London was crowded and condensed. I love looking out the window of the car and seeing cornfields, I will always have a piece of London with me but I still love Iowa.

Kelsey: Snow!

Another week (and a half!) of classes has flown by and I’m starting to really get in the groove of everything. It’s nice because here you have options besides buying the textbook because you can use them at the library for an hour and a half at a time, it’s great! So far I haven’t had any problems with going to the library (except for motivation to leave the house..). I decided to participate in a paying research study to get some extra moola (paying research studies are rare!) On Thursday I did my first day of it and it was harder than expected but it’s for a good cause and I’ll get $125NZD for doing it! Booyah!

Thursday night we decided to go to town but going at 10pm proved to be too early so in our attempt to waste time until the bars picked up, we went into a bar that had a band playing live music. The band was actually pretty good and it made me miss going to see Chester Bay and jamming out. After listening to them and watching some rad Michael Jackson music videos that were playing on the TVs we finally met up with my roommates and when to a bar named “Metro.” There wasn’t anyone there really when we first got there but it soon picked up and we danced the night away! That’s something that’s very unique (at least it’s different to what we do at home!) about Dunedin, they only go out on Thursdays and Saturdays and they usually don’t start going out until about 11:30p-12a. It’s crazy! And usually by the time everyone gets there, I’m ready to go home! 

Friday was the All Blacks game that we had bought tickets for a few weeks ago. The All Blacks are the New Zealand professional rugby team that will be participating in the Rugby World Cup in a few weeks and this was a rare opportunity to see them and not pay ridiculous prices for it! We had a cab reserved for 6:40p to pick us all up at Suzy’s house. Well 6:40 rolled around, then 6:50, then 7:00. We called the cab company and they said there is nothing they could do for us and that our cab wouldn’t be there any time soon, so after the typical American backlash we had to find another ride to the stadium because if we were to walk we wouldn’t see the whole first half. To our luck Suzy’s kiwihost offered to take us there but we had to go in two groups. I was in the first group to get there with Anna, Emmett and Lauren. I realized almost right after we got there that I had the camera batter that wasn’t charged and I forgot the other one so I called back to the second group to tell them to go and get the other one from my house but they didn’t want to so needless to say I was upset about not being able to get any pictures from the game. The game was a lot different than what I thought it was going to be. Throughout the game it was very quiet compared to any pro sports team in America. The one time that the whole stadium got excited (apart from when the All Blacks scored) was when they did the wave, which was much more exciting that normal because as soon as it got to the student section, they all threw up their green plastic beer bottles. It went around about 4 or 5 times and each time there were more and more bottles being thrown in the air. From the sitting section, it was a fun sight! The All Blacks ended up winning 60-14, so it was quite the blowout! 

On Saturday we were going to go see the penguins but the plans were not very well planned out so we scratched that plan and ended up going to the reservoir in the hills. It was absolutely beautiful and the lake reminded me a lot of home. The trails went on forever but we left with enough time to get back before sunset. I will definitely be going back to take some better pictures during the day!

On Saturday night we all got together to celebrate Victoria’s birthday (which wasn’t until Sunday but who parties on a Sunday?) We had some cake and sat around until it was the acceptable time to go out to the bars. We first went to Malbas (a hip bar with a fireplace and about 02938402398 different rooms/bars), but we didn’t stay long because the DJ was playing really lame music and we ended up at Monkey Bar again and stayed there the remainder of the night. 

Sunday morning I wake up and walk downstairs to SNOW!

It was so great! My roommates and I just sat in the lounge all afternoon and watched the snow pile up in our tiny lawn and even going outside at one point to catch a few snowflakes in our mouths. I had to go to the grocery store and I asked if anyone else wanted to join the flat shopping time but no one else (especially my kiwihost!) wanted to venture out into the snow. After my very windy trip to the grocery store, it was time for our weekly dinner at Anna’s house. We had tomato soup and grilled cheese and Anna made pear-apple-cranberry cobbler that was freaking delicious. 

Monday morning I woke to even more snow and my kiwihost said this was the most snow she’s ever seen, which is funny because you could still see grass blades sticking up (I’m pretty sure we only got around an inch of snow). A lot of NZ students were saying that it was a snow day but I didn’t trust that just because snow is rare here. Well I went to my first class and after we all sat down, someone finally checked their e-mail and we figured out that our class was cancelled because the professor couldn’t get onto campus. My second class was still on only because our professor had a pre-recorded lecture ready. Everything about the snow, in my Minnesota mind, was hilarious. People were walking around (in their Converse tennis shoes) as if the ground was covered in ice and that any wrong move they were going to fall to their death. Then there is me, walking around in my hiking shoes in NORMAL strides, and even slightly faster, and they are looking at me like I’m walking on water! I couldn’t help but giggle while I was walking around. Even the cars had put their freaking snow chain tires on, when the snow was melting before their eyes! Now the snow is all gone and just a funny memory…

Lauren: Week 5

Tuesday, July 19th -
We returned from a trip to Paris the night before around midnight.  I had two papers to finish writing, one for my Media Class, and the other for my Art History final.  I finalized both Tuesday morning, and it was a relief to be done with the both of them (especially Art History).  For my media class, we had a guest speaker.  He was a very intelligent man, but not entirely good at public speaking.  It further confirmed how important it is to be able to communicate with others.

In Art History, we received our final exam grades (I got a B+).  Soooo happy to almost be done with this class.  My teacher, Pia, is absolutely terrible.  That night, we went out to celebrate finishing our research papers.  It was Scholar’s again for Karaoke, which was great, as always.

Wednesday, July 20th -
I spent the day out and about in Rome with friends.  We went shopping on Del Corso and I picked up a few gifts for my loved ones back home!

That night, we tried out a new place called “DJ Bar”, which was great!  We had a ton of fun dancing the night away…and it really hit me how much I’m going to miss all my new friends!!  Especially the ones from Michigan State, who I won’t have the ability to see for quite some time!

Thursday, July 21st -
We went to Vatican Radio Station to have a personal interview with our professor, Sean Patrick.  It was weird being in a recording studio and being asked questions based on my resume, but it was also a very eye-opening experience!  This has been one of the best classes I have ever taken.

The rest of the day was dedicated to packing for the weekend, which consisted trips to Milan, Verona, and Venice!  Stay tuned for more on that trip

Shawnda: And life goes on…

“We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us” [John Steinbeck]

In less than 12 hours I will begin my long journey back to the tropical rain forest that is now Minnesota.

Saying goodbyes have never been easy, but even more so now.  I am leaving new friends and a new home.  I think no matter where I go in life, a part of me is permanently attached to Botswana.  My goodbyes are only simple “until next time”s or “I’ll see you again”s.  It’s so difficult to accept the fact that I may not see these people ever again.  We were brought together across the world, we have grown together, and have experienced the many trivialities of this country; it’s hard not feeling some kind of bond. 

Still, life goes on.  One day I will return, even if it’s in one year or twenty.  I’ve realized that it normally takes a great deal of difficulty getting to the places you want to go, whether it’s smelly flights or bug infested train rides.  But once you are there, your true journey begins. 

I have fears of leaving, fears of coming back to the US, and fears for my future.  I don’t as if my time is finished in Botswana, I’m afraid of how overwhelming the states will be, and I’m still unsure of what I will do with the rest of my life.  Maybe two days worth of travel will solve that…maybe not.

Expect some travel updates in the near future along with my last odds and ends from my time in BW.

Ke a leboga Botswana.  The lekoa will be back someday.

Lauren: Quick updates

Tuesday, July 12 - For my communications class, we discussed the role of newspaper, and how it must be looked at analogically in order to find greater meaning.  It was very interesting, as always!  Our professor is absolutely amazing, and probably one of the best I have ever had!Sorry for the wait!  It’s been a very busy week and a half!  Here’s a quick summary before I get to the good stuff!

Monday, July 11 - We needed a day of rest from our busy weekend in Florence.  My roommate, Janel, made a fabulous chicken dinner and we stayed in for some roomie bonding!  We also watched the movie, “Letters to Juliet” which made me very excited to go to Verona!

That night, we went to an amazing spaghetteria.  I had pasta with smoked cheese, bacon, olive oil, and onions.  It was DELICIOUS.  After dinner, we (once again) went to karaoke, got ridiculous, and rocked the place!!  As always, it was awesome!  Several song highlights include Independent Woman (Destiny’s Child), Jitterbug (Wham), and My Heart Will Go On (Celine Dion). 

Thursday, July 14 - Our communications professor took us to see an ancient “Domus” (aka Roman house) that was found beneath a palace in the center of Rome.  They believe it once belonged to a senator.  The house itself was discovered merely six years ago, while renovating the palace cellars.  Since then, the area has continuously been in a process of excavation.  The floor there was completely glass, so we were able to see under into the ruins at all times.  At first, it was a little scary, but ultimately I got used to it.  They did a really great job on the tour of incorporating sound and projections, which made the space come to life.  I think that my dad would appreciate the design elements they used, and I would love to take him here if we ever get the chance.

After this class, we had our Art History final.  Don’t worry, I rocked it. 

Emily: The Jumping Flea

Namaste, world!  Little ol’ Emily here, howdy do?  I’ve decided to make this little bliggity-blog to share my experiences in India with you and hopefully settle the fretting minds of my loved ones at home…  I’m scheduled to arrive in Dehli on August 1, 2011 and until then I’m afraid I don’t have anything very interesting to tell you all.  Oh, wait!  I DO have something I want to explain ever so briefly: I have titled my blog “thejumpingflea” as it is the Hawaiian word for the ukulele which just so happens to be my traveling companion (courtesy of my mum & her husband, john THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU BOTH!) Also, my energetic disposition as a wee-un earned me the nickname “Flea” from my dear Uncle Jerry (aka The Silver Fox) and it has stuck ever since.  So now ya know. Time to finish packing!

Alex: Day of adventure

This is part of the historical post series. The day of adventure was Friday the 8th of July. It’s been a while, so excuse me if I gloss over a few details (not that you’ll know, since you weren’t there).

First, you should know that going in to this day I was fully expecting not to enjoy myself. This was somewhere around day four or five of living on two days worth of clothing, and I was getting quite sick of it. Not only that, but I was getting a little exhausted from my constant strained attempts at socialization with my group-mates who were practically still strangers.

The morning of my day of adventure, I picked up my vouchers and was told to pack an extra set of clothes because I would be ogo-ing, and I would get wet. This did not put me in the best of moods. I had so far not been able to enjoy the hot pool at our hostel because I didn’t have any sort of swim suit. I only had the one pair of shorts I wore on the plane and the one pair of jeans I had packed, so the idea of soaking fully one half of my leg-covering clothing was not appealing, but I did it anyway.

The morning began at the Agrodome with the “world famous” (I had never heard of it before) Agrodome Sheep Show. There were a ton of different kinds of sheep. Kate and Mayu (the two girls who were also in my group) got volunteered to milk a cow, and I (against my will) ended up feeding some sort of infant of the sheep or goat family.

After that was the Ogo. An ogo is big inflatable ball, probably ten feet in diameter, with a hollow center in which a person or persons sit and roll down a hill on a predetermined course. In our case the ogo was filled with pleasantly warm water. This doesn’t sound thrilling or terrifying at all I know, but I assure that it is both of those things. It’s a bit like being on a roller-coaster where you cannot see where you are going, it’s all one big fall, and about half way through you start to do flips inside of the car. Exhilarating indeed.

Next we went to Skyline where we took a gondola chair lift up to the top of this mountain that formed the edge of the Rotorua caldera. We took a break to have lunch at this fantastic buffet that had a breathtaking view of Rotorua. After lunch we did a bunch of luge rides down the side of the mountain on these sort of gravity-powered go-carts on this paved path. Also fairly exhilarating.

Finally we had to rush off to Te Puia, which is sort of a touristy highlights center with an active geyser and a Marae and all sorts of stuff. The carvings alone in this place were worth the trip. It was here that I was part of my first (of at least three so far) powhiri, which is a traditional Maori welcoming ceremony of sorts. The group of us then watched a Maori musical performance that was pretty entertaining. One of the performers was glaring at me for an entire song, so I refused to break his eye contact until the song had ended. Not sure why that was significant but it stuck out in my mind.

All of the performers, by the way, had brilliantly done, but clearly quite fake, facial moko. I appreciate the effort, but it did make me feel a little pandered to, a feeling that had been slowly growing, and continued to grow as I spent time in Rotorua. It is a wonderful place to visit, but it is very clearly a tourist town. Something like seventy percent of its population works in the tourism industry, so there is a lot of pandering going on.

After the performance the three of us met up with a guided tour of the rest of the facility. We saw the boiling mud pools and the active geyser, although we did not have time to wait for it to erupt. The tour group made an initial pass through the kiwi sanctuary where they have a mating pair of kiwi. This sanctuary is mostly dark and they don’t allow photography because the birds are nocturnal and they don’t want to risk someone accidentally leaving a flash on, because it disorients the birds. While the tour as a whole was unsuccessful in kiwispotting, the trio of us returned after the end of the tour and saw one of the kiwi strutting back and forth in front of the exhibit glass. More on kiwis in a later post, this one is already running a bit long.

That Friday ended with good ol’ fish and chips, a few good beers and an unexpected level of satisfaction.

Shawnda: Victoria Falls

“But we have lived enough to know, that what we never have, remains; It is the things we have that go.”

[“Wisdom”- Sara Teasdale]

The holiday weekend served to be the perfect end to an unforgettable experience.  Seeing the largest waterfall in the world was a life changing moment in itself.  My journey to and from was a growing and learning experience to say the least.  If I wasn’t convinced before that I would come back to Africa, I surely am now.

We began our trip to the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls with a 12 hour bus ride to Kasane, Botswana.  With below freezing temperatures, bad headphones, and rock hard seats, there was little room for sleep let alone my legs.  It seemed as if we took the most inconvenient route to get to Kasane, while making multiple pit stops in the bush, with surprisingly the smallest amount of bushes to pee behind.  To make the trip even better, we were stopped at 2 in the morning to walk in a chemically treated puddle to treat for foot in mouth disease; the first of many instances. 

We arrived an hour and a half late and just outside of Kasane with no sense of direction.  We picked up a combi to the bus rink, where a bus from our hotel picked us up to go to Vic Falls.  A 35$ visa and 60 minutes later we arrived to the center of Vic Falls, where we could see the spray from the water in the distance.  We were dropped off at Shoestrings Lodge, which is the night club/backpacking centre/hostel/rosta joint of the town.  I finally felt like I was on vacation. 

Our rooms were camp styled hostels, with two bunk beds and leg room.  The lodge had an outdoor restaurant and bar, spa, and pool.  Most of the people staying there were backpackers and saunterers (reference from “Walking” by Henry David Thoreau, which I began reading on the bus ride).  We took a sunset cruise that night, which had unlimited drinks that we took full advantage of.  We were able to see hippos, crocodiles, and an elephant.  The ride reminded me of home on Lake Minnetonka; all it needed was 100 more boats and an Al & Alma’s charter. 

   We spent the rest of the night waiting for dinner and then catching up on sleep.  We began the next day with shopping in town and in the open craft market, beginning my home sickness for Gabs.  Zimbabweans are relentless sellers.  They will accost you on the street, and will not leave you alone until you are either outrunning them or deemed ignorant and unable to speak English; we settled for the latter.  After 20 minutes we were all irritable and uncomfortable, but we still trekked on to the holy land of craft markets. Imagine the State Fair grounds flooded with wooden carvings, small kiosks, and sellers screaming at you to come and see their work.  Multiply that by annoying, and you have the open craft market.  To make matters worse, I felt like my stomach was at war with my intestines and was on the verge of throwing up the whole time.  Maybe throwing up on a vendor would give them a hint that I didn’t want to buy their unoriginal wooden carvings. By the end of the trip we high tailed it out of the market yelling “no hablo ingles” and never looked back.

The afternoon was unforgettable in so many ways.  We took an elephant back safari, which was the most amazing thing I have ever done so far.  I got to ride Tatu, who I originally named Thor, with Steven the driver.  It was surprising how rough her skin was and how coarse her hairs were.  She was the oldest of the women and was a mother to the other elephants. Still, she had little manners and had no trouble ripping down branches and veering off track whenever she pleased.  We were able to see two lions, buffalo, kudu, and wild elephants throughout the trip.  At the end we got to feed the elephants and take pictures.  I don’t think I stopped smiling once, I felt like a kid at Disney World.  I was able to buy Tatu’s footprint, the proceeds of which go to the anti-poaching organization.

The rest of the night was spent at Shoestrings dancing and people watching, and moved to the Hunters bar until 2 in the morning.  I met some interesting people throughout the night, but can honestly say that I can do without a repeat.  When given the choice between clubbing in Zimbabwe and sleeping, I’d much rather sleep. 

We went to the falls the next day, an experience pictures and words cannot possibly do justice.  Standing at the edge of a cliff looking at the falls was breathtaking and overpowering; I have never seen something so unbelievably beautiful.  We were soaked from the spray, but that only made our time there more enjoyable.  I was able to stand just inches away from the falls, and with rapids and a double rainbow behind me, I felt invincible.  I’ll leave my descriptions at this, because you just have to go there to see it yourself.