Last weekend, I was lucky enough to get the chance to visit Pompeii for the day. Ever since I can remember, my mom always had the TV on the History channel. Even though I would constantly protest, I slowly began to become interested in some of the places that were mentioned on the shows. Pompeii was one of them. If you told me back then that I would have the chance to visit this ancient city, I would never have believed you.
It has been three weeks since I’ve arrived in Buenos Aires and I have been meaning to keep everyone updated with this blog, however settling in to this big city has been a wild ride.
My first impression of Buenos Aires thus far can be summed up in one word. Extraordinary. I am in awe of this city and its culture and how distinct it is from any place I have ever been.
This past weekend, I had a relaxing time just hanging out around the apartments in Christchurch. My rock climbing class was supposed to have a field trip to go bouldering on Sunday, but unfortunately there was a rain storm so it got cancelled. It was kind of nice to spend a weekend relaxing instead of traveling for a change. Since I don’t have any pictures to share from this past weekend, I figured I could do a miscellaneous post from some from the past weeks that I haven’t shared yet.
Though it can be hard to say goodbye to the friends you’ve made at your home university before you leave for a semester abroad, social networks (and good old-fashioned postcards!) make it easy to keep in touch with them, and one of the most exciting parts of studying abroad is making new friends during your program. Once you arrive, it can be tempting to spend all of your free time with others from the program, especially when you find people you have a lot in common with, but I don’t advise that.
WARNING: I will try to keep the images in this post PG-13, but there are no promises!
Two cool kids from GCI!
It’s amazing how much the culture changes after just one hour of driving! Last week, we we went to Colmar, France, which is only a 90 minute drive from Freiburg, and I could immediately tell the difference between German and French cultures. Firstly, everything and everyone spoke French (obviously), but it was still interesting to see such a drastic linguistic jump just by driving 20 minutes over the French border! Secondly, Colmar was so quite and quaint. Although Freiburg is small, it’s busy!
After the Naked Bike Ride this Saturday, the whole IES group was invited to go to the Township of Gugulethu to participate in a homestay. The whole gang piled into a huge van and took off to go to our new “mama’s” houses for the night. We got to the main coordinator, Mama Nok’s house, and from there we were in for a surprise. A second after we all put our bags down, a million kids charged at us from the front yard. For the next two hours, at least 20 kids where constantly playing, charging, hanging or attacking me at all times.
The Second law of Thermodynamics states that entropy increases, or that the universe tends toward disorder. But what do the laws of thermodynamics, which are used to describe particles, have to do with my visit to the Amazon? A reasonable person might answer nothing. Clearly I am not reasonable, because it was all I could think about as we walked through la selva. The biodiversity in the Amazon is great – with more than 40,000 plant and animal species.
