Checking in from Frankfurt

Two pictures for the record, and one not worth the send -- a great piece of translation fun at the Frankfurt airport: The construction sign reads "Great Prospects! We will modernize this level for you until 2007." I just hope they finish in time, because they obviously aren't going to work in 2008 ...

As for the pictures, the first is me in front of the Frankfurt skyline. The prize, however, is the world renowned Comet Cleaners. Yeah, I'll whoosh for that. Seriously. The Comet Cleaners here in Frankfurt. I was really pleased.



Now that the weather has reached a perfect 77 degrees, things are going very well. Class continues onward, and we are amidst the major portion of our class, the World Cup (merely joking!). A good group of other students from multiple countries and continents, and two fun teachers. They weren't kidding with Super Intensive, but hey, neither was I. Anyway, wherever in the world you may be, all the best for your work and studies and travels.

Reporting from a trip to Europe

I have been in Europe now since May 7th. I am currently studying photography and painting in Paris, but I have also been blessed with the opportunities to visit other countries around France. The picture is me on the top of the Schynige Platte in Interlaken, Switzerland. I have classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We have photo lecture in the morning and every week we are given a photographer to photograph like. We have painting class in the afternoon and instead of painting in a studio, Paris is our studio! We meet every time at a new location and we paint the different landscapes and memorials that we see. It has been a blast and it is all winding down now.

Much thanks to Mrs. McDermott and the McDermott program for sending me here.

Writing from Monterrey

Armed with only clumsy and sluggish Spanish, I tried to convince the Mexican guard at the airport to give me a six week visa. After awkwardly repeating what I believed to mean “me like six week” several times to him in Spanish and getting nowhere, I settled for the ten days he was willing to grant.

The other international students and I were kindly picked up at the airport and brought to the university, Tecnológico de Monterrey, which was nothing short of a high-class petting zoo. Peacocks, deer, ducks, and all were peacefully strolling about the campus grounds. “Neat!” I thought, until I discovered what peacock dung smeared between the soul of my shoe and the ceramic-tiled ground looked like.

Our first week at Monterrey was filled with fun activities, orientation sessions, and excursions galore. Nightlife was dominated by crazy and wild inebriation followed by some drunk dancing that varied from gentle swaying to violent convulsions. There was music involved too. Distracted by the flurry of excitement, we quickly forgot about our visas. It was not too long, however, until hell broke loose among the ten-dayers (some were fortunate enough to get 30 day visas) as we scrambled to fill out and turn in all of the necessary paperwork. Traveling tip: always get your visa before your trip. Or, don’t be a ten-dayer.



Though I’ve visited other parts of Mexico before, I have only seen the insane driving style that has, to me, become one of Mexico’s defining characteristics. Daily use of Monterrey’s taxi and bus service was a novel experience for me. I found out how to hurl myself off a bus and land running when it approached my stop, since the bus never truly came to a halt unless someone was getting on. Equally important was jumping onto a taxi within fractions of seconds, unless I wanted to feel for a second time what being dragged across the street while hanging out of a cab was like. My “friends” who were already in the taxi thought it quite amusing, but my still scraped and bruised leg tell a different story. I’m glad the school required us to have health coverage.

One night as I was crossing the only street between the residence and the Oxxo, I was forced into a game of chicken. My rival? Three steely teenagers in a rusted sedan. Now I’m not one to back down from a good game of chicken, but when it’s human versus gigantic metal car and I’m the human, I’m out. Almost being run over simply highlighted the fact that pedestrians do not have right of way here. Also, traffic laws are more like suggestions than they are laws. I’ve gotten used to the fact that red lights equal stop signs and stop signs equal green lights. Despite the prevalence of police here, traffic control is nonexistent.



Rather than waste precious time on something as frivolous as traffic safety, the police concentrate their efforts on preventing foreigners from taking pictures; and on several occasions, I was curtly asked to put my camera away. Becoming irritated with such unnecessary stringency, I snuck in a picture of the policía themselves and then ran for it.

One of the things that I love about Mexico is the friendliness of the people. They are always more than willing to help and have a disturbing abundance of patience and caring. Whether I am attempting to learn a new Salsa move or trying to purchase a strange-looking food item from the local street vendor, interactions here are unbelievably pleasant. It is this friendliness that I will miss most when I return to the States, and this, among many other reasons, is what makes me want to return to Mexico. I sincerely hope that I will have another chance to study at Tecnológico de Monterrey in the future.

The picture below shows a night scene that frames my friends and myself. From left to right: the in-the-know fashion buff, the multilingual Canadian goddess, the hip-and-happenin’ local, and the shorts-wearing extranjero (me). Mexico is a human oven and how people wear anything but shorts is beyond me.

Writing from Costa Rica

Today I went with 3 friends from Canada to Playa Buena Vista, which my mama tica told me was one kilometer away. After walking for half an hour, we met a woman on the way who told us we were still about a mile away, so the estimating was a little off, but it was a great walk. On the way, we saw (and heard) a lot of howler monkeys hanging from trees (and power lines too, which was a little disturbing. It looked like an anachronism... if that's the right word for that). We saw some newborn calves and horses on the way too, one of which ran up next to Jacklyn as if to pose for a picture and as soon as the shutter closed he ran off.



We had to cross a river before we could get to the actual ocean, which by the way, was bright orange. I guess it's from the silt in the river that flows out into the ocean, but it looked extremely bizarre. We had all been told separately, by Tyrone at the school and our respective Tico parents that if the river was over our knees, we shouldn't cross because of the crocodiles. I just kind of hoped they were exaggerating or joking, but when we got to the river (which was also bright orange and you couldnt see the bottom of it), we all hesitated before we crossed it. All of a sudden some random Tico comes out from the trees and we asked him if it was dangerous to cross, but he didn't answer because he had a place for a trachea tube and couldn't talk, but he led us across the river, so we assumed it was okay.



Once on the other side, we were the only ones on the whole beach which is about 4 kilometers long except for a few people who were on the other end who camp out to volunteer with the turtles that come there to keep them safe from poachers. We ate the sandwiches we brought with us, and before we finished lunch, the tide had come in so much that we had to move way back on the beach. It was at that point that we realized that the river was rising with the tide, and so we went to ask one of the volunteers about crossing the river to get back home. The conversation went something like this:



"What time is high tide?"
"2:00."
"Does the river get really high then?"
"Yes."
"But can we still cross it?"
"Yes."
"Should we still cross it?"
"No." (Notice that he didn't volunteer that information.)
"Is it dangerous to cross the river?"
"No."
"Are there really crocodiles?"
"Yes, they are 2-3 meters in size."
"Ok thanks bye!"



So there are 2-3 meter crocodiles, the tide is coming in, but it's not dangerous? Peculiar. Anyway, when we saw all the volunteers leaving we just followed them across, hoping that the crocs would eat them first if there were any hanging around. Don't worry - we all survived and caught a ride back to Samara. I'm really glad I stayed here this weekend -- I've had so much fun with my Tico family and friends. I'm going to miss them a lot!

Reporting from Salzburg

The sun came out today (probably just for today if the weatherman is right), so I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go hiking.

I hoped on Bus 25 to the Untersberg, and ran into one of the girls from the hostel on the way. We both road up the cable car to the "top" of the mountain, then took off on a little adventure of our own. We walked up and down the ridge, and all the way to where you can start to see the Bavarian Alps. It was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!! And of course, I was wearing a tank top and my keens, which was alright because it was about 60 degrees up there. But there was still a lot of snow, and I walked through a bunch of it in my sandals I know, I'm crazy, but it was a lot of fun.

I did get a bit of a sunburn, but that and the cold feet were a small price to pay for such a beautiful day. I wish I could live up there -- I didn't want to come back down.

But the pizza at the hostel was calling my name...

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