Fall 2013 | | Page 3

Alyssa in New Zealand: Two is better than one

October 23, 2013

Doing something more than once is anything but a waste of time. In fact, it allows you to see more of what you have initially missed. As pointless as it may seem to visit the same place for a second time, it is actually very beneficial.

After returning to Queenstown once more with my parents, I was exposed to some of the more geographical aspects of the area. As we drove to several different vineyards throughout the day, I got the chance to see the nature that truly surrounded Queenstown. It was quite strange to think that vineyards could thrive in such a dry, cold area in the region. However, such wineries have learned to adapt and grow successfully in New Zealand’s weather conditions, even if they are situated near mountainous areas.

Northburn Station winery

A taste of Queenstown scenery

I also returned to the Milford Sound, except this time, instead of just standing at the entrance, I went on a boat cruise that took us deeper within. Despite the fact that it was raining fairly hard (Milford Sound is considered to be one of the wettest places on Earth), the beauty of Milford was not overshadowed by the dismal weather. As a matter of fact, the rain only contributed to its magnificence, for there were several waterfalls, most of which formed from the rainfall, that were running down from the mountain peaks into the sound. At one point, we encountered one of the more powerful waterfalls. As we made our way closer, the vibrations began to increase from the impact of the water hitting the sound. We were several meters away, but we still managed to get completely sprayed and covered by the water. The force of the water was immense, but it did not prevent us from approaching it.

The reverberations from the waterfall became more and more immense as we approached it.

There were vast amounts of fog which made it hard to make out some of the peaks of the mountains in the distance. However, the magnitude of the mountains were fully revealed when the boat made its way through the fog. Throughout the cruise, we were all kept in suspense, waiting to see what more Milford Sound had in store for us beyond the layers of haze.

A layer of mist floated over Milford Sound as we made our way deep within

The minute I returned to Dunedin, I finally had to put myself to work, for it was officially final exam period at Otago. Even though I was disappointed by the fact that I had to stop traveling for the time being, I knew that papers were a priority during my time over here as well. It felt a little weird to abruptly put my travels to a halt, for I had become so used to being on the go for the entire semester.

There was a significant amount of work that I had to do in order to prepare for my exams. My theatre exam was a take home exam, for which I had to write two essays. For my microbiology exam, the paper consisted of over thirty lectures. There were forty multiple choice and three short essay questions, all of which had to be answered in three hours (very similar to Richmond’s exams). The only difference was that these exams were more heavily weighted on my final grade. As a result, the exams covered a lot of material and it was obligatory for me to do well.

Since my theatre exam was a take home, microbiology has been my only exam so far that has taken place during a given time slot. The location for each exam is usually very random. For instance, my exam was set in the old physical education gymnasium instead of a classroom or lecture hall. The room held an exam for not only my class, but for another class as well. The desks in the room were set up in rows and each person was assigned a number. As we took the exam, three proctors continuously walked around the room, watching almost our every move. The room atmosphere was tense, and the experience was similar to being a room full of students taking the SAT’s.

Now that two out of three of my final exams are out of the way, I have free time to myself once again. Having only one exam left makes the end of the semester seem so soon. The end is quickly creeping up and I’ve barely begun to notice it up until now. I continue to explore Dunedin in my free time, for I still haven’t seen everything. Whether it consists of me waking up early to watch the sunrise, hiking tracks that are not typically highlighted or discovering new beaches around the peninsula, everything still seems new and exciting. I still find it astonishing that all of these amazing sights and spots are so close by. Their proximity and easy access just reminds me that I have to take advantage of them while I’m living here for the last four weeks of this experience.

The odds of me seeing these people again in the near future is very slim, for we are all from very different places. Being from Boston, having friends all the way from Michigan to Norway does not make visiting each other very easy. Nevertheless, I plan on making the most of my time with the friends that I have made over here until the very end. It’s never too late for us to arrange a last minute trip in our last few weeks. The end may be near, but that does not turn us away from continuing to travel more.

Having been to most of the highlighted areas of the south island, I find myself wanting to return to the same places again. I have a fear that I will forget the sights that I have seen. Something new is always discovered the second time, which makes me think that there is still more out there. Even if I don’t see everything, it always gives me an excuse to come back all over again.

Sunrise at Saint Clair Beach on the Otago Peninsula

Leave a Comment » | Alyssa in New Zealand, Fall 2013 | Tagged: Academics, Friends, Host University, Nature, New Zealand, Travel | Permalink
Posted by gunvillealyssa

Rhiannon in India: Classes at the University of Hyderabad

October 22, 2013

Now that I have been taking classes at the University of Hyderabad (or Hyderabad Central University, as it is called here) for about three months now, I have started to reflect a bit more on my academic experience. As I wrote at the beginning of the semester, the University of Hyderabad is a predominantly graduate-level university about 20 minutes outside the center of Hyderabad. Although the university has a small student body of about 5,000 students, the campus is vast, full of greenery, and serves as a nice sanctuary within the bustling city. Much of the campus still lies untouched, so despite the long, hot walks to South Campus every afternoon, it is nice to be in an environment with lakes, trees, and wildlife like peacocks and water buffalo.

It’s like walking through the jungle to get to class, and sometimes I see peacocks on the sidewalks and in the trees

The natural, untouched landscape

I am taking four classes this semester, two that are direct-enrollment with Indian students and two that are only for international students and are held in the Study in India Program building all the way in South Campus (which is quite far from the rest of the academic buildings). My two SIP courses, Basic Hindi and Indo-US Policies, are structured much more like classes at home and cater more to our home school programs and majors. These classes are great because our professors give us tons of opportunities to do things outside of the classroom and experience different aspects of Indian culture. Our Hindi professor, Bhavani, who is also a home stay mom for some girls in my program, holds cooking classes in her home for us. And our Indo-US Policies professor, Ramesh Babu, took us on a trip to Osmania University in another part of Hyderabad, had us over to his sister’s house for dinner, and invited our whole class to his cousin’s wedding. Even though we are just their students, they really embody the Indian culture of welcoming guests and want us to see India in the best way possible.

For the most part, my classes in India are very similar to my classes at Richmond, but there are definitely some differences as well. My workload so far pales in comparison to my usual workload in Richmond, not because the class content is less challenging, but because the grading system here is much different. At home, professors generally decide the number and nature of assignments in each class. Here, however, there is a university-wide policy for assignments and grading. Professors must assign three “internal” assignments, counting only the best two, and one final. This means that you can skip one of the internal assignments because only your best two are counted. Other than these two assignments, no other work is really required, except studying for the final. This system makes it really easy to fall behind with readings because there isn’t much incentive to do them, especially if the class is lecture-style and you aren’t expected to contribute in discussions. What’s worse (or better, depending on your perspective) is that you only need 75% attendance to pass, so generally speaking, it is much easier to get by with much less effort than at Richmond.

The shopping complex (Shop-Com), where all the students hang out, eat, and socialize

I really notice this in my Indian Philosophy class, which has about 15 students, five of which are SIP students like me. We are learning about three schools of Indian philosophy, including Yoga, but the professor is very new to teaching and, according to my Indian classmates, studied art in graduate school – not philosophy. Because of this, her lectures are usually pretty confusing, not only to the international students, but to the Indians too. And to add to that, the Indian style of teaching tends to emphasize repetition, so many of our lectures are about very similar things for days at a time. After the first few weeks, many of the Indian students even stopped coming to class. For the international students, this class gets pretty frustrating, and we usually just read outside material on Indian philosophy to complete our assignments.

It’s pretty common for the campus dogs to go in and out of the academic buildings. This one in particular sits in on our philosophy class every morning.

On the other hand, my Technology and Politics professor is very interesting to listen to and engages the students a lot in class. We talk about a wide range of topics – from philosophy to new technological advances with regards to caste and gender issues – and the students get really excited to contribute in class. The structure is mostly discussion-based, and our professor engages the class by assigning presenters and discussions on each reading assignment. If you don’t speak up during the discussion, she will inevitably call you out and ask if you have anything to add. She can be pretty intimidating, but her way of challenging students seems to work well. For our second internal assignment, we have to research a topic of our choice and present on it, but instead of presenting what we have learned about the topic, we present our research proposal to the class. The class and the professor critique our research and then we have to write a formal research report by the end of the semester. I have never had to do this type of project before, so I’m not sure if this is a difference between U.S. and Indian schools, or if it is because this is a masters-level course and I have only had undergraduate classes so far. Regardless, I am glad that I took this class because I feel like I am learning about Indian culture, not just through the course content but also by hanging out with my classmates.

The outdoor auditorium on campus – the site of many student events and protests

Overall, I am really enjoying my classes in India and they are adding a lot to my experience. Not only do I enjoy learning about ancient Indian philosophy, India’s foreign policy, and caste and poverty issues, but I also think that observing my professors and classmates is a valuable way to learn about Indian culture.

1 Comment | Fall 2013, Rhiannon in India | Tagged: Academics, Culture, Host University, India, Nature | Permalink
Posted by rhiannoninindia

Diego in Brazil: Exams at PUC-Rio

October 18, 2013

[Taking pictures of my classes during exams was not a real option for this post, so I am sharing with you some pictures of PUC’s campus during a beautiful rainy day in October.]

This is where you can find the International Cooperation Office – a fantastic and very helpful team!

Five classes and five mid-term exams. One of my major concerns about studying abroad at PUC-Rio without having taken some Portuguese classes was writing exams. Your time is limited, looking up words in a dictionary may make you lose some valuable minutes, and what you write simply may not make much sense.

Apart from my Portuguese language class, four of the courses I am taking at PUC strongly rely on reading, writing, and analyzing texts. I knew in every class I was going to be asked to write an essay as a response to a question. I was nervous, definitely. But how did it go in the end? Well, I am not sure yet. But let me tell you what my experience was with these exams.

I hope you read one of my previous posts in which I wrote about PUC’s grading system. To summarize that post I can say that PUC grades students mostly based on two exams per semester, allowing those who study here to have some space to work and have internships outside their time at the university. This made me think during the first two months of my semester that my exams would be very heavy in terms of content and would require me to carefully do the assigned readings for each of my classes.

And yes, I was right. Two of my professors told me that what we had done in class was not extremely important for the exam. “Everything will be based on the readings,” my professors told me. I spoke to my four professors before the exams to get an idea on how I should go about studying, and every single one of them told me to simply do the readings and not worry about their in-class lectures.

One of my favorite places to read on campus

Coming from UR, this was quite a new approach for me. I could not understand how my professors’ great in-class lectures were not important for my exams. I have four classes on Brazilian Foreign Policy, Latin American Politics, Contemporary Geography, and Social Inequality. If you are into social sciences, imagine how fantastic it has been to see professors teach how these topics relate to Brazil (of course, being in Rio de Janeiro and doing all of this in Portuguese makes it ten times better.) But hey, “that does not really matter as long as you do the readings” seemed to be the general rule.

My experience at UR has been quite different. Of course, you always need to do the readings and get through those assigned books. Yet you can expect your exams to also include some questions about discussions, projects, papers, assignments, and many other aspects of your courses. Both at PUC and UR I was asked to analyze a particular subject based on what we had done in my course. The difference is, and this is just my impression based on my first round of tests, that at PUC you can do well in those exams by attending classes, preparing each reading, and learning the dry, classing theory for each course.

Now, before I close the post, let me be really clear that I am not suggesting you should not go to classes when you are abroad. I can guarantee you that your exams will not go well if you pretend you can read 15 papers before your test and sit there analyzing a new question in two hours. Understanding how my professors tackle each question in class using our readings was essential to write my exams. How did my tests go? Well, I still have not got results back, but let’s all hope everything worked out.

PUC’s main road on campus. It was a beautiful rainy day in October

Leave a Comment » | Diego in Brazil, Fall 2013 | Tagged: Academics, Brazil, Host University, Language | Permalink
Posted by DiegoGuatemala

Done with Classes!

October 16, 2013

Alright, before all of the other study abroad students look at this title and feel themselves overcome with jealousy, I should explain.

I am not doing a traditional exchange program with a university in Chile. Technically I go to Universidad de Santiago de Chile, but that is only true in part. The School for International Training (SIT) is an independent organization that offers themed study abroad programs around the world. The program I am participating in right now is called “Chile: Political Systems and Economic Development”. All of the students in SIT programs take classes together. For example, my program has thirteen students and all of our lectures are in a classroom of just SIT students; we do not have classes with Chilean students as part of the program. With that said, I am not lying when I say I am done with classes. One of the characteristics of SIT is the month long independent research project students work on during the last month of studies, so for me this means November. Today we are starting a ten-day excursion in southern Chile where there are high concentrations of Mapuche communities (Chile’s biggest indigenous group). The drive will be about ten hours and we will do this during the night. The purpose of this trip is to engage in dialogue with the Mapuche community and the community leaders about Mapuche political participation, economic development, and the struggles over land rights that the government sells to multinational forestry corporations, and the Mapuche perspective of identity within a nationalist country that marginalizes indigenous identity.

We will return from this trip in late October. During the next couple of days I need to create a research proposal and make the decision to reside in Santiago for November or relocate to a place that would be more useful for my work. Then November will come and I will be in full swing on my independent research.

Now that I am done advertising for SIT, I would like to express some thoughts on how it feels to be finished with classes.

Time has passed by faster than anyone can understand until they participate in a similar study abroad arrangement. Of course this is because we literally have less time in the classroom with the excursions and the independent month. However even taking into consideration those circumstances, I still feel it is honest to say time passed very quickly.

I have truly enjoyed the group with which I spent the past two months. There are only thirteen students so we had the opportunity to become close to one another. I can say that all of them are people I would have chosen to be friends with under different circumstances. We learned about Chile together, we learned a different language, we explored Santiago, and we traveled to magnificent places and came back to hotel rooms discussing them under the lens of social progress. We sat in class together every day for the past two months learning and exchanging ideas. It goes without saying I will miss the group.

We are all meeting at the metro station in two hours to start our journey to the south. I feel ready for this next experience.

Stay tuned 🙂

This is a picture of almost all of us…we cannot be contained within the dimensions of one photo! This is in Valle de la Luna, in the North of Chile.

Leave a Comment » | Fall 2013, Mel in Chile | Tagged: Academics, Chile, Culture, Host University, Politics, Travel | Permalink
Posted by melinchile

Alyssa in New Zealand: The capital and Maori culture

October 11, 2013

The reality that the end is approaching has finally hit everyone. Since it’s the last week of classes, we have all started to realize that living here is not going to last forever. As we hand in our last minute assignments and prep for the upcoming exam period, we can’t but help ourselves to keep planning more and more last minute trips. What have we not done? What are we missing? Surely we’ve seen a lot, but have we seen enough? The thought of leaving something behind seems to be more worrisome than preparing for our final exams.

Yet, it is important to focus on the next few weeks, for typically, the final exams account for the majority of our final grades. My microbiology final is 70% of my grade and my zoology final is 50%. As much as I would prefer to put most of my efforts on my travels, it is essential for me to focus on my work as well.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the traveling comes to a complete halt. In fact, I continue to explore the country. Nothing stopped me from flying into Wellington (the North Island) last weekend. What made this experience a little more special was that I was with the people that I have known my entire life: my parents.

Being with mom and dad was such a great way to spend my time in the nation’s capital. I found myself very lucky to have had visitors. I got to have a little taste of home in America, even though I’m several thousand miles away from it.

Golem, a main character from Lord of the Rings, greets those who arrive in the Wellington airport everyday

Wellington is a very walkable city, for we continuously weaved in and out of the streets. Since the city is situated on the southern part of the North Island of New Zealand, much of the main activity is centered near and around the waterfront. It it typically known as “Windy Welly” due to the high amount of winds that blows into the city from the ocean. A boardwalk that turns into a path runs along the perimeter of the city right by the waterfront, making everything very accessible and creating an enjoyable walkway. Near the water, Wellington seems almost like a beach town. Nevertheless, the further you walk away from the waterfront, the more urban it becomes. The city turns into a more hectic and active version of Dunedin. There are several more people that are walking around as well as cars drive through the streets.

The leaning posture of the statue indicates the magnitude of wind in Wellington.

Variety is integrated all throughout Wellington. Every corner that you turn is something completely new. Whether it be shops or restaurants, no two places that you encounter are the same. I finally got to go out to eat and have a taste of some of the New Zealand food. The food isn’t significantly different from American food. Most of the options that they offer on the menu are somewhat similar. However, the way it all tastes is fairly different, for it tastes much more natural. Everything that I tried seemed like it was a more flavorful, healthier version of what the American dish would be.

A view an area of the waterfront from Mount Victoria, a prominent hill in Wellington. Wellington is the first city one would enter if traveling by ferry from the South to the North Island.

The waterfront is a very populated area, for there are several different kinds of attractions located there. One of the main appeals is the Te Papa Museum, New Zealand’s national museum. As we walked around each level, I found myself learning a lot more about the kiwi culture than I had throughout the entire semester. The Maori culture is highly preserved and respected in the country, for they are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand that have their own language, mythology, crafts and performing arts. Sadly, the presence of the Maori seems to be slowly shrinking in New Zealand, but the kiwis make a great amount of effort to sustain and uphold the customs in the country.

A light up map of New Zealand in the Te Papa museum

Pounamu (also known as “greenstone”) plays a very important role in Maori culture. It is a very highly valued type of stone found in southern New Zealand and each piece of stone carries some sort of significance to it. The piece of greenstone that I attained (a gift from my parents, for it is advised that you should never buy greenstone for yourself) is a “fish hook”, the symbol of plenty. It represents strength and determination and it provides safety for travelers, especially those who venture out overseas (which seemed to be quite fitting for me).

Maori greenstone – the fish hook

After returning to Dunedin, I was inspired to attend the end of the semester concert that was performed by the students enrolled in the Maori papers (both 100 and 200 level). Over half the students in the 100-level paper were international students. I saw the people that I was familiar with walk on stage in costumes that made them seem like strangers. The females were dressed in all black, wearing knee-length skirts, black lipstick and black designs drawn right beneath their lower lip on their chin, almost making it look like they had fangs. The males were shirtless and wore grass skirts that seemed to be constructed by some type of fiber.

Throughout the performance, the students were only singing in Maori with a peaceful melody. Even though I did not understand what they were saying, I was still very entertained. Typically, the dance starts off so that the females are situated in the front and the males in the back and they’re standing very close to each other. Eventually they all spread apart, and the females continue to gently sing in the front. The highlight of the performance is when the males make their way to the front to perform the haka, the traditional ancestral war cry. Much of the dance involves stomping of the feet, vigorous movements and rhythmic shouting and chanting. The signature mark of the dance is the widening of the eyes and sticking out the tongue. New Zealand rugby teams perform the haka before every game, trying to intimidate their opponents and to increase the intensity of the team.

Even though the semester is finishing, that does not prevent me from learning more about the New Zealand tribal culture. I’m glad that I finally had proper exposure to the culture, for there is much more to New Zealand than amazing sights; it has plenty to offer. It’s never too late to discover something new, even if it seems like you’re quickly running out of time (which is exactly how I do feel). The end may seem intimidating, but it is also motivating.

Leave a Comment » | Alyssa in New Zealand, Fall 2013 | Tagged: Academics, Adventure, Culture, Friends, Host University, Music, New Zealand | Permalink
Posted by gunvillealyssa

Mel in Chile: Missing Richmond

October 8, 2013

Here it is!

I cannot accurately chronicle my time abroad if it didn’t include a post about how I am starting to miss Richmond. This also comes a couple of days after I decided that I would will go back to Richmond in lieu of another semester abroad.

Maybe the blog about missing UR and being excited to come back and the nostalgia that starts to hit me, would be more romantic or fitting if it were my last blog. But I will break with tradition here and talk about how I miss the red brick and grassy heaven that is the University of Richmond only a month and a week into my program.

Evidently, I am not the only one who feels this way. Our program director walked in today and said “Look, I imagine the month long excitement of being in a different country has waned by now. I know you all want to eat hamburgers again and are getting tired of eating so much bread (NEVER!). But this will pass. I promise it doesn’t last.”

After the one-month mark, I get the feeling the excitement of being abroad turns into a routine of waking up, having class during the day, hanging around a bit before going home, and finally coming in for dinner at 8 pm. After this, I start with homework/skype/reading news/reading things that don’t matter/answering emails until all this culminates into a trip downstairs for some pan con aji pebre (bread with the best spicy salsa concoction to ever be put on the market). I will be bringing 5 bottles of aji pebre upon my return to the states. This will probably last me a month or so and then I will suffer through a withdrawal phase. I could write an entire blog post about aji pebre.

The title of this post is “missing Richmond” and before I wrote the main body, I thought I was going to write about how much I missed Richmond, what I missed about it, and how I am so excited to come back.

All of this is certainly true, and I was going to write about it all without being too “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone” –ish

But then I decided not too. I will be back in Richmond and “have” all of what I miss in a couple of months.

So instead, I decided to write some things I love about living in Chile.

Pebre

Aji

Aji Pebre

How it is socially acceptable to eat a copious amount of bread

The movements for social progress

The people who perform in front of rows of cars stopped at red lights

The hot dog with fried potato chips around it

THE HOME MADE ALFAJORES BY THE LA MONEDA STATION (I can never buy just one)

The colorful stones the country has

The friendly Chileans

Chilenismos (Spanish words used exclusively by Chileans)

The Human Rights Museum

The National Library I go to study in every day after school

My walk to the university

The Andes.

San Pedro de Atacama

That good pizza place I went to on Tuesday after visiting Pablo Neruda’s house

Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda’s houses

Especially the one in Isla Negra

$2 Yoga classes at the studio close to my house

My host family

The delicious meals they cook
But most of all, I love sitting in the kitchen at 1 in the morning, when everyone is asleep, doing my homework while listening to a radio station that plays old Spanish, English, Portuguese, and French classic songs, with the volume super low.

The kitchen at night is my favorite place in all of Chile.

The list could be long enough to circle around the equator at least 13 times.

But nobody has time to read that!

One of the most memorable days in Santiago! Neal, a UR student studying in Valparaiso, Chile, came to visit me for the day. We stopped for dinner at my favorite bar/restaurant “The Clinic”

This view is from Pablo Neruda’s house in Isla Negra. I can definitely see what he loved about the place!

Picture from a section of the Museum of Memorial and Human Rights in Santiago. This is a museum dedicated to the 17 years of dictatorship (1973-1989/1990) in Chilean history

This is the porch in my Chilean house. Now that summer is coming, it makes for a lovely place to spend a Saturday morning. We will start to have many barbecues here as well!

Hasta la próxima (until next time!) 🙂

Leave a Comment » | Fall 2013, Mel in Chile | Tagged: Chile, Culture, Food, Host Family, Housing | Permalink
Posted by melinchile

Alyssa in New Zealand: Reaching new heights

October 8, 2013

How high can you possibly imagine hiking? Personally I find it hard to imagine. At this point, it is hard to believe that there is a limit to how high I can climb, for tramping (another word for hiking in New Zealand) has become an addiction. If there wasn’t an end to the trails, I would certainly venture higher through the mountains.

Two weekends ago, I tramped to the height of 1,250 meters, which can be reached on the Sealy Tarns Track. My friends and I were planning on doing the tramp to Mueller Hut, which is 1,800 meters high and the halfway point to the summit of the highest mountain in New Zealand, Mount Cook. However, our plans were foiled once we were informed that there was too much snow blocking the track. As disappointing as it was, we weren’t going to let that prevent us from going up. I became determined to go as far up as I could.

The higher you go, the more you see. The more you see, the better the view is.

The view that we were rewarded with after climbing 1,810 steps to the top of Sealy Tarns track

So much can be achieved by reaching the top. Not only have you tested the limits of your fitness, but you have also tested your drive to complete the challenge. In order to get to the top, we had to climb 1,810 steps. As I arrived at the top of Sealy Tarns track, I found myself completely surrounded by a new level of nature. The weather was still brisk enough that snow capped the peak of every mountain. Mount Cook was fighting to reveal itself to us through the thick clouds. The depths of the valley seemed never ending and the glacial waters below were reflecting several different shades of blue even with the grey skies above, all the way from navy to turquoise.

Tasting some of the glacier ice that is over hundreds of years old

I was so enamored by what I had seen, I was unsure of what my next adventure should be. I kept thinking that nothing could possibly be better than what I just accomplished. After returning to Dunedin and talking to my neighbors about my weekend, they told me about their plans for the following weekend. Although I wasn’t particularly close with them, I decided to join, as the plans were to hike in Wanaka and go bungee jumping (even though it is not an activity covered by the insurance the UR OIE provides, and they advise not to do so, it’s been something on my bucket list that I’ve been keen to do for my entire life).

The new group of friends that I have recently acquired

As I am usually embarking on trips with only my flatmates and a select few of other internationals, traveling with my complex neighbors was something new to me. There were some that I have never even met or seen before. However, by the time the weekend was over, it seemed like we all had known each other since the start of our arrival in the country. I now find it hard to believe that I haven’t spent time with them before. It has become much easier to make friends, for we all have the same motives to explore and make the best of our time in a country that has so much to offer.

I reached an even higher peak in Wanaka when hiking on the track Roy’s Peak. There was a view the entire time we hiked. The track was open and offered an incredible scene of Lake Wanaka and the mountains surrounding it the entire way through. As we gained height in the clouds, the valley continued to expand right in front of our eyes. We passed several grazing areas and sheep as we made our way to the top.

After tramping for a little over two hours, we reached the summit, which is 1,600 meters. Clouds completely blocked every direction that we looked, leaving us slightly disappointed. Just as we were about to give up on the view, a huge gust of wind came through and blew every single obstruction away. Everything was revealed and the entire valley was crystal clear. There were countless elements that were in front of our eyes. From the pastures to the lake to the mountains, we were completely immersed in an environment like no other. Not thinking that anything would ever compare to Mount Cook, I was certainly convinced otherwise as I looked at the beautiful and encompassing scene of Wanaka.

The crystal clear view of Wanaka from the summit of Roy’s Peak

Just when I think that I’ve seen it all, I immediately realize how wrong I am as I keep embarking on new journeys. Each destination is so unique that they cannot be compared to one another. None of them are remotely the same, but each place is equally as spectacular.

The following day was the when the thrill of adventure really presented itself. A bus transported two of my new found friends and I to the large canyon where we would bungee jump. As we approached the cable car that hung above the canyon, I caught a glimpse of how far I would be jumping. My nerves didn’t begin to hit me until I was actually standing at the edge of the platform, seconds before my fall.

As the overseer counted down to 1, I leaned forward, trying to manage of all the thoughts and emotions going through my head. For a split second, I lost all control of everything that was in my mind. I couldn’t think of anything except for the fact that this was actually the craziest thing that I’ve ever done. Jumping off completely stable ground and into open air was going against all human instincts. I barely had time to think about being scared. However, once I gained momentum, I never felt so exhilarated. It turned out to be a 9 second fall, for the drop is 134 meters (440 feet). The fall was long enough for me to realize that I was in fact free falling. I never wanted that feeling to end. Before I knew it, the cable retracted and I began to bounce, indicating that it was over. As I was being pulled up, I finally had time to collect my thought and all I could think of was that I have never been more happy with what I had just experienced.

A 440 ft drop and 9 second fall

Even though I have hiked to heights that are extremely higher than 134 meters, the distance of the fall seemed greater than anything that I had tramped at that moment. Just when I thought I had befriended a decent amount of people here in Dunedin, more have come into the picture and my social circle has expanded.

There is no limit to anything. The only limit that exists is the one that you impose on yourself. A maximum may exist, but there is no reason for you to not alter let alone increase it. If such an opportunity presents itself, the best thing that you could do is to step out of your comfort zone and exert a change in your life. Nothing is monotonous in New Zealand. Everything is always changing around me, and it encourages me to take advantage of what’s there. You never really know what you’re going to encounter until you’re actually there. The worst that could happen is not experiencing it for yourself.

Leave a Comment » | Alyssa in New Zealand, Fall 2013 | Tagged: Adventure, Friends, Nature, New Zealand, Sightseeing | Permalink
Posted by gunvillealyssa

Rhiannon in India: Indian Cuisine

October 2, 2013

If there’s anything that deserves the dedication of an entire blog post, it’s food. So far, I have loved the food here, and making the adjustment at the beginning of my trip was surprisingly easy. Some of the “dangers” that people warned me about still ring true, like drinking tap water or eating too much street food, but my friends and I have been here long enough now that we have adjusted to a lot of the differences. Sometimes I even go to a roadside stand with my host sister, Prerna, to eat a delicious snack called pani puri. When you go to a pani puri stand, the vendor takes a hollow fried ball out of a bag, pokes a hole in it with his thumb, throws in some mashed chickpeas with spices and cilantro, dunks the whole ball in a large vat of spicy broth, and hands it to you. You have to throw the whole thing in your mouth immediately before it disintegrates – and before he throws the next one your way.

As a disclaimer, my experience with food in India could never do justice to Indian food in general. Every state in India has its own trademark dish, and many people say that there is a new signature cuisine every 50 kilometers. This is because regional produce and ingredients almost always dictate the traditional dishes of an area in India because it wasn’t too long ago when India was made up of smaller localities called princely states. For instance, dishes in Kerala (the southern-most state, at the tip of India) always include coconuts – coconut oil, coconut water, coconut milk, or dry coconut mixed into curries, chutneys, and sweets. Hyderabad is known for its spicy rice dish called biryani, and everyone here is proud of it. Biryani is typically eaten for special occasions, is made in very large quantities, and can be made “veg” or “non-veg” with mutton or chicken. Biryani is made with a variety of spices, or masala, including cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves.

Nivedita preparing biryani for the Ganesh festival

There are also many religious beliefs that dictate the way people eat in India. The ancient Hindu religious texts say that eating a strict vegetarian diet makes you peaceful, so being “veg” is a religious tradition and is also a symbol of caste identification. However, many people eat “non-veg” too, especially the Muslim and Christian communities, so finding a non-veg meal isn’t difficult. The ayurvedic texts also describe the health benefits of eating with your hands, like that your fingers correspond to the five elements, so using them to eat helps with digestion.

My host family is vegetarian, but Jennie, my friend who is also living at my home stay, is vegan and gluten-free, so now all of us eat that way at home. Unless I am traveling or my friends and I go out to eat, I mostly eat home-cooked meals by our host mom, Nivedita. In the morning, Nivedita makes us breakfast to take to school, usually consisting of fried rice and vegetables or dosas with chutney. Dosas are like super thin pancakes made of rice flour, similar to crepes in French cuisine. Chutneys can be made of virtually any vegetable, peanuts, or even coconut and are pureed with oil and spices. For dinner, we always eat together on the floor in the living room and usually have rice with daal (lentil soup) or a vegetable curry using okra, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, or carrots.

Dosas with carrot chutney

For lunch, I usually eat at one of the student canteens on campus. These canteens are all over campus and range in size from full restaurants to little shacks behind the school buildings. At the campus restaurant, called Gops, you can order tons of different curries, rice, noodles, and breads like naan or roti. The smaller canteens serve chai (tea) and fried snacks like samosas throughout the day and serve meals only around lunchtime. When you order a “meal,” you get a huge pile of rice and unlimited amounts of the curries and chutneys that they have made that day.

My favorite canteen on campus

Another important meal of the day in India is “tiffins,” which is like the Indian version of teatime. This includes chai of course, but also a variety of snacks that are all deep-fried and incredibly delicious. I have been to two cooking classes to learn how to make some of these snacks, and the cooking instructors tried to teach us healthier ways of making them, but that didn’t mean they spared the oil and salt. We learned how to make mirchi bujji, pakora, chickpea sundel, and chiwada. I won’t explain these in detail, but they are all fried in oil and a variety of Indian spices. These are also typical dishes to eat during the rainy season. As my cooking instructor put it, “When Indians smell rain, they also smell pakora.”

A tiffins meal on the train – idly, vada, and chutney

As you can see, there are so many different types of Indian food that it would be impossible to describe them all here. I always enjoyed Indian food before coming here, but I have realized that what I thought of as Indian food at home barely scratched the surface. One of the best parts about traveling to new places in India is experiencing just how different the cuisine is from region to region. It really shows what a diverse and interesting country India is!

Preparing pakora at the cooking class

3 Comments | Fall 2013, Rhiannon in India | Tagged: Culture, Food, Host Family, India, Religion | Permalink
Posted by rhiannoninindia

Diego in Brazil: Interacting with Rio de Janeiro’s socio-economic and racial inequality

September 27, 2013

I have been writing in this blog for some weeks now, and so far I have tried to stay away from portraying Rio de Janeiro under the same lens you may find in other type of stories about Brazil. I came to Rio almost seven weeks ago with the goal of avoiding becoming yet another tourist in this incredibly dynamic city. To accomplish that, I decided I would stay away from visiting some of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods at first. From what I heard before coming here and what I have seen so far, this what many outsiders do when visiting Rio de Janeiro.

In recent years, the ‘Favela Tours’ have become major touristic attractions for foreigners. A quick search online for these tours will show you what these companies advertise: “interact with local people, see the happiness that comes out of these slums, and learn about the city’s socio-economic problems.” Most of the exchange students I have met at PUC-Rio have already ‘visited’ some of these favelas, yet when I ask them what the difference between their visit and these popular favela tours is there seems to always be an uncomfortable pause in the conversation.

Certainly many people would disagree with my approach to settling in Rio de Janeiro. Living in Rio’s Zona Sul (the city’s richest area) with a host-family, attending a private university as an exchange student, and interacting mainly with Rio’s middle-class will not show you much about other regions of the city. But this is precisely my point: what exactly is to be “shown” about these marginalized neighborhoods? I share many foreigners’ desire to learn about and interact with Rio de Janeiro’s diverse population. But can we find a more just way of learning about the country’s social diversity when we have the time and resources to do so? Would it be possible to suppress our ‘inner explorers’ until we find a social position or activity that will contribute to the lives of those from whom we seek to learn? In other words, could we approach a new social reality as foreigners and complete strangers while respecting the humanity of those who suffer from inequality and discrimination in the city? I truly want to believe we can.

One of my first steps in finding a more conscious way to learn about Rio de Janeiro was paying attention to how Rio’s residents talk about the city’s socio-economic inequality. My main source of information and perspectives is my host University. I must say that my perspective on how PUC-Rio talks about poverty, culture, and racial discrimination in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil is highly determined by a very particular set of students. As in any other university, you will find some differences between those who discuss social exclusion for two hours in a sociology course and those who take more technical courses. Among the many perspectives and ideas I have heard in my classes so far, the most common thought that I keep encountering is that “poverty in Brazil has color.”

Poverty and race relations in Brazil have drastically changed in the recent decade, and according to one of my professors, class conversation on these topics is shifting and constantly adapting. The World Bank states that Brazil saw its poverty rates dropped from 21% in 2003 to just 11% in 2009, and despite recent protests in Brazil’s biggest cities, statistics show that poverty continues to drop in the country. I have heard many students arguing that race relations in Brazil are also changing, yet by 2012, 70% of those living in poverty were Afro-Brazilian. Programs and new systems such as university quotas based on race have been established in the country, but as recently as last year statistics showed that only 2.2% of Afro-Brazilians can access higher education. Rio de Janeiro mirrors some of these relationships present in the rest of Brazil.

Let me go back to my point of respecting marginalized populations as we seek to learn about a new place. I want to ask, how fair is it to enter these communities as ‘travelers’ seeking to gain experience and then return to our safe and comfortable accommodation in the nicest areas of the city? Why would we take the freedom to pay our way into these favelas to witness the marginalization of countless families and communities for the sake of experience? As I wrote in one of my first entries, my goal for the semester was to find a position that allowed me to interact with Rio’s diverse population while contributing to these communities. I have been looking for some math and reading teaching programs that go directly to groups of kids and young students inside or near Rio’s poor neighborhoods. If everything works out in the next few weeks, I will hopefully join one of these programs for the rest of the semester. Is it a perfect solution to my questions? Of course not. Yet I want to believe that we can make an effort to grow as exchange students while respecting and contributing to the lives of those who welcome us in their cities and homes.

PUC-Rio has been an interesting place to learn about racial and social dynamics in Brazil. Just last week the University hosted a fair with many people who came to sell their products. The activity had a strong focus on racial and ethnic diversity, and I was happy to join other exchange students who were also interested in learning more about this complicated topic in Brazil.

One of the booths at the Brazilian fair

Maybe six months will not be enough to fully grasp how PUC-Rio talks about inequality in Rio de Janeiro, but so far I have at least had the opportunity to learn some interesting perspectives from the University.

The fair gave me new perspective on Brazilian diversity

Leave a Comment » | Diego in Brazil, Fall 2013 | Tagged: Brazil, Culture, Host University, Politics | Permalink
Posted by DiegoGuatemala

Mel in Chile: The North

September 25, 2013

(Warning: the pictures for this blog post are awesome.)

I ended the last blog post with a picture of the Atacama Desert I took from the plane right before we landed in Antofagasta. During the next five days we (the 13 students in the SIT program) traveled through the driest desert in the world. The purpose of the trip was to bring life to the lectures about the Chilean economy. We were to do this in two ways: three days exploring the copper industry and two days in a small village which in the past two decades has become almost entirely economically dependent on tourism.

The itinerary included two classes at a university in Antofagasta- one explaining the importance of mineral mining that is done in the region for the Chilean economy, and the other one focused on the social and environmental implications of the industry. Other major experiential learning components of the trip involved a two-hour tour of one of the biggest copper mines in the world, and an informal lecture/discussion with an anthropologist in San Pedro de Atacama. The anthropologist is also from an Atacameño community, which is the indigenous group in San Pedro de Atacama.

First up, the two lectures at Universidad Catolica del Norte in Antofagasta and the visit to the Radomiro Tomic mine in Calama:

The lectures were widely different but also complimentary. The first one was on the regional economic development of Antofagasta and the second one was on the economy and human rights. Fear not, this blog will not be a drawn out summary of the lectures. I mention them because they add to the perspective I am gaining about Chile and help to shape my experience here.

The region of Atacama is rich in minerals. There is an immense area including the south of Peru and parts of Bolivia that are lucky enough to be on the fault line of Pacific and South American tectonic plates that endow the countries with a rich variety of minerals. Unfortunately, this also generates what I judge to be modern colonialism. Foreign investment pours into mineral rich regions like Antofagasta, international companies begin to mine, make unbelievable profits while draining regional resource wealth, and at the same time secure support from the national government . Open and unregulated markets seem to be the unspoken rule for developing countries. Many economists say this generates jobs for the local communities but it hardly seems to be the case for such a highly technological industry like copper mining. I learned that for every million dollars of investment in the copper mining industry in Chile, only one direct job is created.

Another issue is the danger of an export-driven national economy based on natural resources. How far away are we from developing a sustainable substitute for copper? How much longer until the minerals run out? What if the costs associated with mining and refining copper become greater than the market value of this resource? Who will suffer from these probable future events? Will it be the CEOs of international corporations or the national economy dependent on the mineral? What about the effects on communities who for 100 years have been dependent on jobs related to the mining?

That is for you to ponder (I like to imagine I have thousands of avid readers.)

After the lectures we traveled to Calama and had a free afternoon of shenanigans until the next day when we visited the Radomiro Tomic copper mine. According to the booklet (more like book) the communications department gave the group, “each day the mine extracts 600,000 metric tons of material.” In the Radomiro Tomic mine, and I think throughout the region of the Atacama where most mines operate, only 0.5% of the rock is copper. I will not continue listing facts about the mine because those can be accessed from anywhere. My personal experience in the tour was a very overwhelming one. The number 600,000 metric tons sounds ridiculous when you read it and I do not imagine it produces a specific image in anyone’s mind. After the rock is leached and the copper has been extracted, the rest of the rubble is simply taken to the dumping site. It was at this point that I understood the mountain-like formations a bit further away were rubble. During the time that we were on the observation site at the mine, they had planned an explosion to the left of where we were standing. We heard the sound, the ground shook, and within minutes the sky was covered in dust. To stand on the edge of one of the biggest mining sites in the world was nothing but extraordinary and to be honest I do not think my mind will ever fully psychologically process the sheer size of the mining pit. It is bizarre to “see” what it means to extract 600,000 metric tons of rock per day.

The mines

The next most significant part of the trip was our stay in San Pedro de Atacama and the anthropologist, Jimena, who spoke with us about the implications of the recent tourist boom for the indigenous community. A couple of comments about San Pedro de Atacama itself: it looks like a movie set. You walk around and see an “authentic” typical village in the dry highlands of Chile with its dirt roads, adobe walls, and low “houses”, but it’s as if the place is too manicured. The adobe walls and the dirt roads are perfectly rustic. Then you actually notice the people walking around and it is all western tourists. What looked like “houses” are actually hostels (very expensive,) touring agencies that will take you to do 136,455,478 activities you can do in the desert that include everything from sand surfing to star gazing.

San Pedro de Atacama

We met with Jimena in the afternoon. She started with telling the history of the Atacameño people and how things were when she arrived during the period in the 1990s when the tourism boom had just begun. The first comment she made about the change of lifestyle in the village was how tourism had brought some drugs to a place where they had never before been used. She also spoke extensively that national and international travel agencies harvest the profits from tourism. In her view, the normal lifestyle of her indigenous group is being “commoditized” and its “rustic” image sold to western tourists. At the same time, most of the locals have been pushed to the outskirts of the village to make room for the shops, agencies and hostels, which essentially sell their lifestyle.

I stayed half an hour after the discussion was over and everyone had left to talk more with her. Without a doubt, I can say this was one of the greatest conversations I have had.

I went on a hike with a friend through the mountains right outside of San Pedro (not with a touring company)

Later on that day, the entire group took a hike up a mountain in Valle de la Luna to watch the sunset. One of the most beautiful places on Earth

Leave a Comment » | Fall 2013, Mel in Chile | Tagged: Adventure, Chile, Nature, Politics, Sightseeing, Travel | Permalink
Posted by melinchile

Alyssa in New Zealand: Two is better than one

Rhiannon in India: Classes at the University of Hyderabad

Diego in Brazil: Exams at PUC-Rio

Done with Classes!

Alyssa in New Zealand: The capital and Maori culture

Mel in Chile: Missing Richmond

Alyssa in New Zealand: Reaching new heights

Rhiannon in India: Indian Cuisine

Diego in Brazil: Interacting with Rio de Janeiro’s socio-economic and racial inequality

Mel in Chile: The North

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