Sara (Greece) - Epomenh Stash - United States

So this is it. I've come to the last day of my study abroad experience in Greece. I sort of can't believe that it's over already, as it seems like just last week I first arrived in Athens. And, even though there's been some absolutely hellish experiences, overall, my time here has been amazing. I've met people and done things I would never have fathomed four months ago, and have changed so much in so little time. I have absolutely no regrets and would come again in a heartbeat. Studying in Athens has been one of the most terrifying, gratifying and liberating experiences of my life; one that I will never forget. I think my friend Danielle said it best before leaving "Greece will always be a part of us, and we will always be a part of it." So, on that note, and in true Greek metro fashion, I say Epomenh Stash (Next Stop) - United States. See you all there!

John (Poland) Taking a Dip in a Little Water

Well folks, it looks like it's been a while for me and everyone else on the blog. Hope all the Beloit folks had a good end to the semester and that everyone else's programs are wrapping up well.

Here in Poland, I've had a good but busy last month or so. The weather continues to be beautiful and I've taken to reading on the shady park that surrounds the Old Town. There are flowers everywhere and lots of people with enough time to just sit and appreciate the weather for hours and hours, it's a nice feeling. It's also wonderful how the whole city comes out for nice weather on weekends. The parks are literally packed and there's a communal vibe where people's kids will wander over to play with each other while the grownups talk and the teens make out energetically and unabashedly on benches and in the grass.

My program's work has been heavy, but now, nearly almost finished so that I've been able to have a nice couple of weeks to end the semester. It started last weekend when Kate came to visit. It was a huge holiday weekend in Poland, starting on May Day, which was Thursday, and also including Constitution Day on May 3rd, which celebrates Poland 1795 democratic constitution, which was the second in the world after America's (doesn't Robert have the lucky birthday).

After having a difficult time finding the train from the airport, I finally met up with Kate late Thursday night and the next morning we hit the town. It was great seeing a Beloit peep and to be able to actually show off the city. I think she really liked Cracow, but I'm pretty sure that a lot of that was just because the weather was so nice. At one point we stumbled on a carnival when we were walking by the Wisla, which was way more intense than any I'd seen in the US. The images painted on the rides were generally either inappropriately sexual or just odd non-sequitors and each ride was blasting terrible music at far to high a volume. We ended up going on a ride that invovled being strapped into the bottom of a large pendulum which rotated laterally while simultaneously swinging you well over 50 degrees in each direction. I think it's safe to say it was one of the best 12 zl I've spent in Poland.

Later on Friday night, we decided to hit up a Woody Allen film festival, but to pregame before we did so. To honor Kate's program we started with carbombs at one of the Irish pubs. We were a little surprised when we had to describe to the bar woman how to make a carbomb, but we figured it'd be fine. When she asked us what kind of whiskey we wanted we saw a bottle of Jameson's and decided to also pay tribute to J-Man by choosing that. We were startled, however, when she informed us that our two drinks would be 63 zl (about $30). Apparently, the Jameson's was 12 year old aged whiskey, which, though smooth, was a little much for the drink. After talking her down on the price a little, we downed our drinks (which were delicious), we drowned our sorrows in a quick round of Zubrowka (delicious bison grass Vodka) before hitting up the movie. Unfortunately, it was at this point that Kate found out that despite a semester of Irish beer, she still wasn't quite ready for Zubrowka's kick and we had to head home early. It was worth it however, as she kept freaking out that cars would hit us (apparently the Irish aren't the safest drivers) and telling me stories that she didn't remember.

Overall, it was a great trip, which we ended on a real high note when we found a place that had American breakfast on her last morning in. We enjoyed our pancakes and bagel with lox, respectively, which we had been without for far too long while watching the Cracow marathon go by our window in the cold and rain. It was a good feeling.

After Kate left, my fun just kept rolling along as last week was Juvenalia, a weeklong student festival where Polish students get off of classes, and spend the week grilling, going to concerts and clubs, and, of course, getting very, very drunk. The high point was the parade, which was on Friday morning. For the parade, most people dress up in ridiculous costumes such as Magic Mushrooms, a giant rabbit, sexy killer bees and pretty much anything else they can think of (for illustration see my facebook pictures, I got some pretty good ones). Then they get very drunk by 10 when they go to the parade area and divide up by schools and start yelling chants for their institutions while disparaging others. I ended up by the Jageillonian crowd, which was both enthusiastic and VERY loud. The parade ends with a concert in the old town square, which was quite fun, however I had to duck out early and sober up, since my program had cruelly scheduled classes for that afternoon.

Friday evening was also the height of the student partying and I ended up in my friend Mike's room where there was quite a party going on. When I got there I was far behind everyone else who had been partying all day, so I immediately grabbed a beer and some "little water" (the literal meaning of wodka in Polish) and began trying to catch up in earnest. Several hours later, I had just completed this task, when one of Mike's suitemates, walks in with an unopened bottle of vodka. In the tradition of Polish students he starts pouring rounds for everyone in the room (about five or six people). After the first two I respectfully asked for a brief reprieve, however he would have none of it. His arguments included "What? You won't drink with me? Please, don't insult me that way!", "You're fine, you are big and that isn't even a big glass." (For the record, I was using a shot and a half glass). And finally, after hearing my last name, "You must have it, you are Polish, it is the drink of your people!" Of course, after such an onslaught, I could do nothing but offer him my glass. Finally, four rounds later, he left to get another bottle. Hoping for respite, I started talking to a cool Australian girl named Kaja, who invited me to chill with some friends in her room. Eager to sit down, I agreed, to which she replied, "Great! Let's just finish this absinthe I brought and we can go!." I'll spare you further details, but let's just say that the night was one to remember.

And that's mostly it for the last few weeks. Saturday night, the last real night of Juvenalia was also the night when Wisla, one of the local soccer teams won their league, so plans of drinking were stymied somewhat by hordes of soccer rowdies, riot police everywhere, oceans of broken glass and bars that closed down in self-defense, ah, Europe. Now I'm trying to figure out how to send all my winter clothes home as well as my souvenirs without bankrupting myself as well as looking forward to two incredible weeks in Europe with KO starting on Thursday.

Inspired by Robert, I've been making two lists, one of things I'm looking forward to in America and one of things I'll miss, I'll end with a summary of these lists.

Things I'm looking forward to in the US
- drinks with ice, free refills and sizes that actually quench your thirst
- strangers and making idle small talk with you
- black people (both specific ones and in general)
- not hearing shitty Eurodance songs in bars
- baseball
- IPAs and other snooty micro-brews
- Chicago-style pizza, Greek diners, Harold's Chicken and gyros (not kebabs!)
- salads that aren't just sauerkraut and/or red cabbage
- drying my clothes
- driving with the windows down and the music up
- you all (awww...)

Things I'll miss
- the Poles' relentless devotion to feeding pigeons
- the Planty (the park that surrounds Cracow)
- living in a medieval city where everything is within walking distance
- having a bar in my dorm
- 5 zl meals that leave your stomach distended
- having a bar in my dorm
- Europeans' far healthier and more relaxed attitudes towards sex, drinking and life in general
- not being harassed and hurried by waiters
- the cheap deliciousness that is Jawo brand frozen meat pierogie
- being able to say "zloty" (pronounced z-wat-ay) on a daily basis
- Zubrowka, Zapikanki and Obwarzanki

Robert (New Zealand) - The Blessings of Our Fathers

The trip down to Dunedin and the Catlins was cold, but good. We made our way south slowly, stopping at various boulder fields, and eating lunch at a nice seafood place which was a bit more expensive than we had bargained for. Near Dunedin we hit a rain storm which turned to sleet then snow, unfortunately the snow had stopped by the time we got to the city. In Dunedin we stayed at a backpacker hostel just south of the city center for the first couple days. The place was cool and drafty and laid out in a kind of awkward way, but it was cheap and had free internet. On my birthday Susan and I got up early and bought breakfast pastries at a bakery. We spent the day driving and walking around the Otago Peninsula. We tried to get in to New Zealand's only castle, but they charged $10 just to go to a place where you could see it. Being touristy with no money is a sad sad thing. We did get to see some amazing skies though. Dinner was at a little hole-in-the-wall place, and then out for a few pints at the bars.

We drove two hours south the next day to spend a night in The Catlins, a coastal region on the south of the South Island. We set up in a remote campsite, visited a few waterfalls, and made toasted tuna and cheese sandwiches as the sun set. It was a cold night so we huddled in the tent, drinking wine, talking about how we admired our parents, and having dance parties to keep warm. The stars were amazing though. The Milky Way stretched from one horizon to the other.

In the morning we hurried back to Dunedin so Bryan, Susan, and Liz could go an a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate factory and I could start hitching back to Christchurch. Sunrise over the frost and mist covered hills was beautiful. The others dropped me off on the side of the highway north of Dunedin and we said our goodbyes. Hitching was far more successful this time around than when I tried in Manapouri. Busy highway+backpack+"ChCh" sign=much better situation. I got picked up within two minutes of being dropped off by a great Scottish immigrant not much older than me who was great conversation and gave me a tour of Omaru before dropping me off to visit his parents in town. I then got picked up by a CRAZY woman who ranted to me for an hour about various conspiracy theories including the New Zealand Department of Conservation poisoning people, Marijuana casing paranoid schizophrenia, and 7/11 (I believe she meant 9/11) being a US government action. After she dropped me off in Timaru I caught a ride the rest of the way with a gangster/bro looking fellow. We didn't really talk much, just sat in awkward silence listening to Eminem and bad rock music for an hour and a half.

Back in Christchurch I crashed on Sophie's floor for a night and watched Howel's Moving Castle and Run Fatboy Run. In the morning I went to pick up my father from the airport. We spent the morning walking around the hills on the coast east of Christchurch. In the afternoon he met with Jay to start getting his feet on the ground for next year's New Zealand program. Dinner was at a nice pizza place called "The Ruptured Duck" with the program leaders and their kids.

My father and I then started making our way up north. We stayed two nights in Kaikoura, ate good Thai food, went on Albatross Encounter, and visited the seal colony. Albatross Encounter is run by the same people who did the swimming with dolphins tours. On the albatross trip they take you out in a small boat and chum the water. Wandering albatross will come up and land in the water just a few feet away from you. Very cool experience. We got up early in the dark and drove up to Picton to catch the Interislander ferry up to Wellington. The highway runs along the coast and sunrise over the ocean was amazing.

Right now we're in Wellington, staying in the same hostel the group stayed in when we were here, just a couple doors down from our old rooms actually (it's a really big hostel). Wellington is actually a really nice city. I wish the program had been able to spend more time here. It's been strange sort of retracing the programs travels backwards as we head back up to Auckland for me to fly back to the states. It's kind of a nice way to end my time here. Tomorrow we keep heading north. We have two days to get to Auckland for my flight. We haven't really decided what we'll do or where we'll go on the way yet. It will be nice to wander.

I guess this is my last post from New Zealand. I hope the rest of you are having pleasant ends to your programs as well.

Slan


Things I have been appreciating:
-Bryan beat-boxing in time with Liz's snoring.
-Watching waves roll in when the surf is rough.
-Snow on the mountains.
-Arden (just turned two) who Liz always said acts like she's drunk, sitting at the bar at The Ruptured Duck.
-Sunrises.
-The nightly routine my father and I have developed of having a nice meal out and then going to a bar for a pint.
-Leaving a cool experience and still looking forward to what's ahead.

KO (Senegal) The end is near...

Classes are winding down, although they didn't finish nearly as early as they were supposed to, which is disappointing and stressful because it means that now we have to write final papers and keep going to class, which is a little much.

Last weekend I went to an island off the coast of Dakar saturday with a bunch of people on my program who had rented a house on the island for the night. I was planning on leaving later in the day to go home, but I ended up spending the night as well and having a lot of fun. The house even had a pool, which I thought was a little unneccessary since we were on an island surrounded by beach, but it was still a lot of fun. Then Sunday we did actually sit on the beach for a while before heading home in time for lunch and then going to a Senegalese wrestling match with one of our classes. That was a lot of fun to see in person ,we watch it on tv a lot. I didn't bring my camera because my host mom warned me about pick pockets, but this ended up being a smaller match than most of the other ones, so it probably would have been fine. There is a lot of preperation for each match, we saw for, with lots of different little ceremony type things that they do before hand to ensure good luck and that they win the match etc, but then each match actually only lasts for about a minute, but it is still a lot of fun. The crowd gets really into it.

Friday after my class I left for my rural visit, which was a lot of fun, but not all that rural. I went to a village called Diouffior, which is about 3 hours south of Dakar and stayed with a peace corps volunteer who works with small business enterprise, or more tries to work with small business enterprise, with fairly limited success. She was really nice though and from North Central IL and when she is done with her service in November will probably be moving to Chicago with her Senegalese fiance. We walked around the village Saturday and then met up with my friend Margaret, who was actually staying with another peace corps volunteer in the next village. Margaret spent the rest of the weekend with us, Saturday we watched a movie with Elizabeth's host siblings and just hung around and then Sunday we went to this larger town nearby that has a lot of tourists and hotels and went to the beach. The town isn't really on the ocean, but it is in the delta so the river has beach like things. We went to one of the hotels for a soda and stayed for a few hours in their pool, which was a lot of fun, but again, not very rural. Then Margaret and I left at 3am Monday morning to head back to Dakar since we knew a bus would come through then and if we waited until later we would have to stand on the side of the road and hope that some vehicle came by going to Dakar.

Robert (New Zealand) - School's Out

Well, the inaugural run of the Earlham College New Zealand Semester is over. About half of the students have left the country already. I'm moving out of my home stay tomorrow morning.

The culminating event of the program was a seven day kayaking/hiking trip in Abel Tasman National Park in the north of the South Island. We drove up to Nelson and spent two nights at a campsite next to a soon to be "mainland island". I mentioned a while ago the strategy of eradicating mammalian pests (rats, stoats, possums, etc.) on offshore islands to protect native bird species. Another strategy is to install predator proof fencing around a section of forest on the mainland, kill all the pests inside, and then have a fenced in sanctuary. We'd visited a few before, but it was cool to see one that was in the process of being created. Back at the campground we celebrated the faculty leaders' daughter Ellie's 4th birthday, played balloon volleyball, and hung out with an sketchy/offensive drunk Kiwi man who looked like Bert Reynolds.

Like the Routeburn trip we split into two groups for the back country. My group got the ocean section first, paddling south along the coast in two person sea kayaks. It was very laid back, only a couple hours of paddling each day, then hours to spend lounging on the beech, although the wind off the ocean could be cold at times. At night the moon was bright enough to light up the whole ocean. The nights were cold and in morning when the sun hit the ocean it would steam.
Our second campsite, at the fortunately misnamed Mosquito Bay, was a great place. At high tide the campsite was surrounded on three sides by a tidal lagoon, but at low tide it was all a sandy beach that extended out to a small island. At night our campground was invaded by possums which aside from being a nuisances are really a blight on native wildlife, so there was nothing to do but go on a nocturnal possum hunt. Shane ended up bludgeoning one after everyone else had given up. One down, 70 million to go.
The switchover point for the trip was a two night stay at a hut in a large bay called The Anchorage. We played a game of capture the flag, pitting the two brigades against each other. It was a hard fought battle but we were victorious. In the end it came down to a daring amphibious assault with a kayak by Julia and myself which served as a diversion while our teammates stole the flag. We also built a massive sand castle/city which we named Panui (Maori for "big fort"), and then watched it get swallowed by the tide.
We traded our kayaks for hiking packs and set off on the Inland Track. The first day was crazy hot and the landscape felt oddly like the American southwest. I got to learn all sorts of things about Jay (one of our faculty leaders) on the hike, including an apocalyptic story of family drama around his step-sister's wedding in Turkey. The huts on the track were small and simple. We shared the space with good people, both Kiwis and internationals from as far away as Wales. We had some of the best stars of the trip the last night before the moon rose. The Southern Cross with the Milky Way spiraling out behind it.
The other group apparently had far more luck with ocean wildlife than we did, with dolphins swimming along side them and baby seals jumping onto the kayaks as they paddled.
After the tramp we wrapped up the program in a campground on the beach in a small town called Pohara Just west of Abel Tasman. We ate a delicious final meal at a local restaurant, filled out massive program evaluation forms, and did a last group check in. Pohara is a beautiful spot. The sunsets were astounding. The last morning we got up early in the rain and fog and standing on the beach felt like the edge of the world.

Back in Christchurch it's become full-blown fall. The air is filled with falling leaves. The weather reports say we might get a dusting of snow in a day or two. Still, the last few days have been pleasantly warm.

We had a farewell potluck with all the host families, which was predictably awkward. It was also kind of a weird way to end the program, with so many strangers around. Some students are decidedly happy to leave their home stays. Mine has been good though, even if living in suburbia drives me a bit nuts sometimes.

Yesterday a few of us who are sticking around for some extra time got together for drinks at the Bush Inn, a favorite meeting place near the university. I really don't know why we congregate there so much. It's a room full of people over 60 pouring their money into slot machines and watching horse racing. Kind of depressing actually. However, beer is cheap, it's a convenient location, and it has a nice outside seating area. Ashley, one of the guides from the Whanganui River trip back at the start of the program was down for a few days visiting us and staying with relatives. I ended up going a cookout at his family's place. Amazingly friendly people. I showed up, a total stranger, and they welcomed me in, hongied me (traditional Maori greeting where you press noses and/or foreheads for a second), and we ate and jammed on guitar for about an hour. After that it was off to the pubs where Susan and I toasted to things we were thankful for every time we drank. I don't know how many pitchers we went through.

Right now my host brother and his friends are booby trapping every door in the house. I'll need to tread lightly to get out of here. Tomorrow Susan, Bryan, Liz and I head down to Dunedin.


Things I have been appreciating:

-The phrase 'Gorsed' meaning "I've been stabbed by gorse, oh god, oh god, look at all the bood." Gorse is an invasive plant that devotes more than half of its biomass to various sharp and pointy protrusions. Touching it results in getting 'gorsed'. I've also been appreciating the mental image of Elliot levetated aboves the ground where he had just sat down screaming "It's Gorse!"
-Bellbirds. Walking through the woods with these little guys singing all around is something I will miss a lot.
-Slapping the sack.
-Dub Dub Dub Internet cafe. Just a really good place.
-Sea-salt stains on cloths and skin.

Robert (New Zealand) - Autumn

It's starting to feel like fall here in New Zealand. It's getting dark earlier, the days are starting to have that autumn feel, and some of the trees are starting to change (well the introduced European trees are changing, natives don't, but they're pretty much all gone here). We've also started to get rain more often and even a thunderstorm or two (It's been far too long).

We've been wrapping up our time in Christchurch. The last two weeks or so have been regular class schedule. We went on a few field trips to local businesses with positive environmental policies including a metalworking factory that's recycling water, a couple clothing manufacturers with sustainable practices (and got to meet the New Zealander of the Year who runs one of them), and a dairy farm that's using a 'digester' to generate power off the manure from its cows. Probably the most inspiring visit though was a newly started industrial waste reclamation plant that boasts the ability to reclaim for reuse or recycling, 80% of commercial or industrial waste that would otherwise go to landfill. The guy responsible for starting it is brilliant and ambitious. The plant has only been operational for two months and he's already looking into building two more. His ideas for changing how we deal with waste range from powering the plant off the waste it collects (with virtually no emissions), to using crushed glass to help wine grapes grow, to using algae to simultaneously treat waste water and create biofuel. As long as the landfill company doesn't overpower his business/strong-arm him out of the way (yay waste management mob-ties) you really get the sense that he could be on the forefront of completely changing how we think about consumption and waste. Even more interesting, none of it is really done out of environmental ethic, it's all about common sense and is quite profitable.

Over the weekend we finally went to a rugby game. The home team, the Canterbury Crusaders, are the best in their league. A large proportion of the team also plays for the national team, the All Blacks. The game was a lot of fun. Rugbys a beautifully brutal game and I like the flow of it. We did our part as cheering fans (or obnoxious tourists, take your pick), made a good share of semi-inappropriate crusade jokes, and watched the home team kill the Lions something like 31-6.

Shane and Bryan's rap is up on youtube.
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=lFWCxtzaR0I
The video contains footage from around Christchurch, Routeburn, the West Coast excursion, a really bad Maori reenactment we went to and more. Check it out if you want a laugh, or just to be confused by inside jokes.

Classes and our service learning placements are pretty much over now. I did my finals today. Tomorrow is our last class day at the University of Canterbury. There are just a few loose ends of academic work to tie up and then I'm done with that. Wednesday we're headed up to the north of the South Island to do a kayaking/hiking trip in Abel Tasman National Park as a capstone to the program. Upon getting back we'll have a final celebration dinner and Earlham College New Zealand Semester 2008 will be done. After that it's a week of travel down south with some of the other students who are staying longer, then a week of travel with my father when he comes over, and then back to the states.


Things I have been appreciating:
-The Bog (Irish pub) always playing my favorite songs when I walk by at night. First Revelate and then Fisherman's Blues. It's quickly becoming a replacement for the iPod I left in the states.
-Eccentric bus drivers. Some blast blues music, some sing opera as they drive, some pat patrons on the head as they depart.
-Guest lecturers unwittingly mentioning topics that are inside jokes in our group and the snickering that ensues. Poor guest lectures don't know what's going on.
-When CNN international anchors say: "looking a little bit closer, lets broaden this out"
-Pints. 2 pint jugs might be more cost effective, but I love a good pint glass.
-Standing on the Port Hills just south of the city, looking out over Lyttelton Harbor, across the bay and being able to see my wwoof farmstay all the way over on the Banks Peninsula.

Sara (Greece) - GOATS

So, considering it’s been a ridiculous amount of time since my last post, I figured I’d hop on this thing and update! And, for the time being, I’m going to disregard the fact that I start with that exact same sentence almost every post! Wow. Anyway, back to business I suppose.
I don’t really know where to start actually. The last I wrote was right before spring break, so I guess that’s as good a place as any! Spring break was amazing. It was a month ago, but it was still the best time I’ve had here all semester. My family and Derek trekked over to Athens and for about 8 days and we tore up the country! Well, alright, not tore exactly, but you get the picture. We were in Athens for a few days, and then went to Nafplio, Mycenae, Corinth and the Isthmus. My two brothers left for London, and we continued to hike up into the mountains to this ridiculously charming mountain town called Zaklarou! Some of the most amazing pictures I have taken happened during that trip. And…AND I saw goats. AND SHEEP! Not only did I see them, there were huge herds of them way up in the mountains. They had bells around their necks and a legit herder with a little beagle. They were all over the mountain roads and the trails. We must have seen upwards of 6 groups. Crazy.
So, after about 8 days, Derek and my parents left; which left me about 9 weeks of Greece before I had to head home. Since then, I’ve dropped a class, written a bunch of papers and gone to Olympia and Delphi with my class. That in itself was amazing. I got to run a stade (ancient Olympic running event) in the first every Olympic stadium! And Delphi was just awe inspiring in itself, as you will be hard pressed to read any ancient text and not find over 200 references to the oracle at Delphi in the first 3 chapters! Going back to Beloit, and studying Classics will never be the same, as I can now attest to everything that ancient writers are describing in their accounts of the land. Not only can I attest to it, I can picture it. Amazing.
And that’s about it so far. After spring break, things have been pretty relaxed around here. However, this is my last weekend before a crazy 3-week filled time of trips, and so far, its been wonderful. Two nights ago, I went with 6 other girls and we found an Irish Pub in Athens (Weird, I know) where we drank excellent beer and sang raucously to a bunch of iconic American songs until a ridiculously early time in the morning. Last night, I met up with my roommate Danielle and another girl named Danielle and we made burritos…sort of. Apparently, Greece is devoid of sour cream, tortilla shells, tortilla chips, cilantro, beans and ripe avocadoes. Though, one thing Greece has taught me is to improvise at all costs! We had rice with “Mexican Sauce,” basically glorified ketchup. We found canned red kidney beans and combined some tomatoes and onions to make salsa! And finally, we used pita for the tortillas. It actually turned our pretty decent!
Next week, I have a Mt. Olympus trip planned, where, yes, I will be climbing Mt. Olympus! The weekend after is Greek Easter. Cue Danielle, Erin and me going to Crete to see Knossos and hike an 8 hour gorge! The weekend after I will be Santorini with Danielle and Erin again, where we will go tanning and snorkeling! Finally, I come back to Athens to perform the play (Antigone) I’m in. One more weekend after and I’m home. That leaves 5 weeks and I’m back in the states for good! I really can’t believe that my experience here is almost done! There have for sure been ups and downs to the trip, but it just seemed to go so fast. It’s weird to think I won’t be able to look out of the classroom window and see the Acropolis or Lykovitos Hill anymore. Hmm. But I suppose all good things have to come to an end sometime! Well, that’s it. Missing everyone at home and abroad tons, and I think about you guys often! I’ll see you all soon!!

Ted (Burma): Yes, I am actually in Burma

I touched down in Yangon (Rangoon), Myanmar (Burma)
yesterday at 8:45 Thai time, but 8:15 Myanmar time. I had
no idea there were half hour time zones. That's too much
math.

There was a free shuttle to a guesthouse with $4 dorm rooms,
and since three Americans had already made reservations
there, I figured it was a safe bet, especially since taxis
from the airport cost at least that much. They threw in free
breakfast even though we hadn't stayed, and what a nice
place. I think it's going to be a common thing here, but
they're also very overstaffed with possibly more staff than
guests, so at least 20 in a small place. Some of the nicest
people I've ever met. I hear that the average wage at the
guesthouse is $40 a month.

After changing money on the streets with a sketchy guy (the
black market rate is nearly twice as good as the official
rate) I went to the Shwedagon Pagoda, the massive golden
religious center of Myanmar. There were a ton of locals
there, and my bare feet were burning from the sun-heated
tiles surrounding the pagoda. The heat is crazy here!

The highlight of the day was when I went out drinking with a
guy from Wales and a girl from Germany, and after a little
bar hopping, we ended up at "Music Pub" where we were the
only foreigners. After passing tons of neon lit signs that
all turned out to be fashion stores, and wading through
crowds of people selling old clothes, eating, drinking and
socializing on the streets in the city center, we were
overjoyed to find an actual "pub". But what a strange pub.
It was almost all guys sitting at small tables facing a
stage. And the entertainment? Dance music would be turned on
for several minutes, and about 7-8 girls would come on the
stage and do little model walks. They would walk forward,
turn around, tilt to the right, and then walk back. The
whole time, looking unhappy at best, and miserable at worst.
After each "set" they would go into a tiny room and change
their clothes. Sometimes they wore matching dresses and
other times they wore varying styles. We couldn't figure out
if this was plain entertainment or some kind of fashion
show, but we eventually decided it was as close to a go-go
bar as you can get in Burma since the girls were all young
and wearing tight clothes. Never seen anything like it.

We also talked to two Burmese guys sitting at our table, and
the conversation really depressed me at one point for
reasons I won't get into now, but which are probably
obvious. They were good guys though and we had a lot more
laughs then serious moments.

On a final note, I'm very very sad that the government
pretty much has a monopoly on beer in the country. There is
Myanmar Beer, and Mandalay beer. The former is great, but
definitely run by the government, and Mandalay is supposedly
sketchy and possibly run by the government as well. But
cruel world! Not the beer!

The semester is almost over! Can you believe that? Looking
forward to seeing you all in Fall.

Audrey (Australia)-Traveling

So my traveling can in no way compare to KO's trials in Senegal but apparently it still takes a long time to describe...Good luck with the epic post!

The first thing I did after the last entry was go to Tasmania. It's an amazing island and an interesting place to study what's going on the in the Australian environment. About 40% of Tassie is a World Heritage Area (WHA) because of it's ecological and cultural significance. Within the huge WHA there are mountains, lakes, and impressive old-growth Eucalypt forests. It was strange because it was so different than any other forest I have ever been in. Many of the plants in Tassie are the same as when the continent split from Antartica and when you look at the giant ferns it is easy to imagine dinosaurs roaming through this same land. I also saw: a platypus, an enchidna (porcupine-ish), a wombat (badger-like), and multiple pademelons (very miniature kangaroos). Although I liked Tasmania the whole time I was there I was very concious of being on an isolated island at what feels like the end of the world. It was a little comforting to get back to the familiarity of a city.

Next I spent five days in Melbourne which was great. I really needed a chance to recover because packing my bags and driving for hours every day in Tassie got old really quickly. I stayed in North Melbourne which was great because it wasn't touristy or ritzy. I felt as though I was really seeing the city. In many ways it reminded me of Chicago. I met up with my friend Sarah who was staying in South Melbourne and we sampled international food, admired architecture, and tried in vain to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert for less than $100.

On the train back to Byron Bay I saw my first kangaroos! It was so exciting and so strange to watch them hop around. Somehow it just doesn't seem natural.

Next we went on a three day Aboriginal camping trip. It was certainly the strangest camping trip of my life. We were mostly in the Byron Bay/Lismore region which for some reason I hadn't been expecting. During the trip we were forbidden cameras, watches, and anything to read or write with. However, we were around that sort of technology all the time so it was interesting to get an outsiders perspective. Most of all I was impressed with how open and friendly everyone was to us. There is certainly a vast amount of knowledge to be gained from Aboriginal cultures and it is ridiculous to me that most Australians have never even met an Aboriginal. Staying with our hosts also impressed on me what an amazing loss these people have endured and what it must be like to live in a cutlure that is consistently marginalized and misunderstood. It was a sobering and painful realization.

After our Aboriginal camping trip we spent two quick days in Byron Bay before going to Fraser Island. Fraser was amazing. It all seemed like one big vacation even though we really learned quite a bit about the ecology of the island. Fraser is the biggest sand mass in the world and another WHA. It is accessible only by four wheel drive (FWD) and the roads are really atrocious. The best way of getting around is driving on the beaches at low tide. Driving on the beaches felt a bit like a guilty pleasure but it was also an amazing way to get around. Every morning we would get to wake up by driving down a gorgeous sand beach on our way to 'class.' The ocean isn't much good for swimming because of bad rips and sharks but there are gorgeous lakes that were amazing to swim in. We also got to look at some more rainforest areas in the center of the island. Our teacher, John Sinclair, was incredibly inspiring because he has been the main figure responsible for conserving Fraser Island. He stood up against logging and sand mining in the 1970's when those industries were supported by the government and no one would else would fight them. Despite enduring legal battles, smear campagins and the like John perservered and eventually achieved his goal.

Now I'm back in Byron Bay and we're working on getting things wrapped up before we leave for our ISP's next weekend. I will be working with an organization called Green Collect in Melbourne for mine, studying how this group has been able to integrate principles of environmental sustainability and social justice. I have a big final to study for on Friday and our final ISP proposal on Thursday so I will definitely being schoolwork.

KO (Senegal) At least there were mangos

Last week was our spring break and I went with Marge and Lizzie to Kayes, Mali. It is a small city about an hour inside the country. We were thinking about trying to get all the way to Bamako, the capital, but decided that with only a week off we wouldn't have enough time in the city to really make it worth while. It turns out that Lizzie's host dad is from Kayes and still has some family and friends in the city, which ended up being very lucky for us. We met his childhood friend Ibrahima and their family, along with their granddaughter, Adji, who is about our age and married to Cheikh, Lizzie's host dad's grandson.

We left Dakar Saturday morning, we got to the station at 7:30am and were told that there was a bus leaving at 8, so we bought tickets and waited. We boarded the bus around 10 and then sat for a while before driving across the street to switch buses and then sit some more and then go to the gas station and then finally leave the city around noon. The ride to Kaolack, the first larger city, was fine, although we learned very early on that the bus only had 2 windows on each side that actually opened, which was not at all good. But after leaving Kaolack it is about a 6 hour drive to Tambacounda, the last major town/city before hitting the Mali border and the road is absolutely awful. There are so many gigantic potholes that the bus had to drive like 10 miles an hour and spent a good deal of time driving in the sand along the side of the road because you could go faster than if you were actually on the road. We got to Tambacounda probably around 10 or 11 at night and stopped for dinner etc and then continued for a few hours to the border, which we discovered is not actually open when it is dark, so we slept on a sheet that some nice man gave us from about 5am-7am and then sat around for another few hours before we wre actually allowed to enter Mali. We ended up getting to Kayes around noon and tried to find a hotel that was recommended to us, but it was too expensive.

So we called Ibrahima, who sent Cheikh to get us, and we went to Ibrahima's and then decided to stay at the youth hostel we'd read about that was about $6 per night per person. We all took much much much needed showers before heading out to search for food. Cheikh came at night and took us to a pastery shop with AC, which was amazing and then we went to bed around 9 because we were all beat, but then woke up at 10 when Cheikh and Adji brought us a cooler with ice in it, which was extremely nice, it was absolutely great.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all spent in similar fashions, so I won't go into detail about each day and just give you a summary of all of the things we did. We spent a lot more time in the ACed pastery shop when we were trying to find a tourist office that we were told about so we could figure out how to visit some waterfalls that are about 15km outside of the city. We never found the office and never got to the waterfall. We did however, go with Adji twice to the river, which is vrey shallow and we walked halfway across to little islands so that we could swim and bath in water that was a little cleaner than the water along the edge where there were just tons of people doing laundry and taking baths. We also spent a lot of time in the great market, it was a lot different from the markets in Dakar where there is a section for food, a section for fabric, a section for housewares etc, here they were all just all over the place. We all agreed that the fabric in Mali was a lot nicer and prettier than that in Senegal. We decided this was because it is all made in Mali and then they send the less pretty stuff to us and keep the good stuff for themselves. One night we went to the end of a dance competition, it was sad because we just got to hear them announce the winners, but it was still fun to see how excited everyone got. It was different neighborhoods in the city competing against eachother. We did get to see a little dancing though as we left the stadium, people were celebrating outside.

So we left bright and early Thursday morning, at 5am and figured this way we would avoid having to wait at the border for so long since we would get there once the sun was up. We thought the trip was going to be a peice of cake because the bus actually left on time and all of the windows opened, but this turned out to just be false. We did get through the first part of the border just fine, but then ended up waiting just inside senegal for about 3 or 4 hours because some of the people who had to declare things at customs decided to disappear for a while. Then on that wonderful road between Tambacounda and Kaolack our bus broke down for about another 3 hours and we overheard someone say that the company was going to send us a new bus from Dakar, which was about 6 or 7 hours away, so it was great that the bus got going again. However, at the next town we came to we got stopped at a police checkpoint, and the entire cargo on the bus was checked, which took another 2ish hours. To top it all off, I got kind of sick, and I'm not really sure why. I first pooped in a "bathroom" at the border when we were stuck there for 3 hours, although it was really a shower and I decided that I would just consider my shit punishment for the border police making us sit there for so long. It got subsequently worse as time went on, and I'm not sure if this has happened to anyone else, probably not any of you in cushy Europe, but I had the unique experience of PEEING OUT OF MY ASS! Literally my shit was the consistency of pee, it was pretty horrible, especially because once in a while I would feel like I had to barf instead and couldn't decide which would make me feel better. The guy sitting next to me on the bus also almost got into a fight with another guy who said he was really sitting in that seat and refused to move. There were also 2 Nigerian missionaries on the bus on their way to Gambia and spent a lot of time trying to convert us, all the while I just sort of want to die. It was horrible in the best way possible.

We got back to Dakar around 6:30am on Friday, which was Senegalese Independence day, and saw some of the preparations for the parade as we taxied back to our houses, but then fell asleep and didn't even get to watch it on tv. We were all disappointed to learn upon waking up that the fireworks were the night of the 3rd...

All in all it was a lot of fun, and I was glad we could all laugh about the situations we got ourselves into, and that none of us died from the heat, and that Mali has the best mangos ever!

Spring Break themes:
1. I feel drunk, but really I'm just hot.
2. Even the wind is hot!
3. Take me to the river, uhn uhn uhn, throw me in the water!

John (Poland) Obscene Barmen, Hijacked Hotels and Other Adventures in Hungary and Romania

Hey all, it's good to be writing you all from the comfort of my dorm, back (temporarily) in Krakow after a week in Hungary and Romania.

The trip itself was very fun in terms of what we saw. We started with a night train to Budapest, which was felt so wonderfully European, I couldn't stand it. After that there were two days in Budapest where we met up with the Berlin group, which were very fun. There actually wasn't too much sightseeing in the city then and most of the time was spent on various debaucheries. After two months living with nothing but girls, I don't mind telling you that boys nights were sorely needed. The city itself was very nice, and a huge change of pace from Krakow which feels small, cozy, knowable. Budapest is huge, sprawling and just way too full of stuff to get a good sense of in such a short amount of time. Hungary also had a very different feel from Poland. The country isn't adjusting to capitalist democracy as well and people are still very dour and depressed (it's always a world leader in suicide). Whereas the Poles seem to revel in the glories of spectacular failed uprisings of the past, the Hungarians seems to just internalize the defeat. There is apparently a Hungarian saying that if you live in Hungary for a while you learn to live with suffering and if you live there long enough, you learn to like it.

So after two days, we hopped on a bus and headed for Transylvania, which is an area that was long a part of the Hungarian empire, but was given to Romania after WWII. Both sides have historical claims to the region (although Hungary's are probably stronger) and we were looking at how ethnic minorities deal with living in such a contested region. We spent five and a half days seeing different towns(mostly Hungarian, with some Seiki and Saxon), learning about the region's history as contested territory and how different peoples have learned to live together. The area traditionally was home to mostly Hungarians, but also Romanians, Saxons (imported German industrial workers), Jews, Gypsies and other smaller minorities such as the Seiki. It was very cool to see the area, because Romania in general and Transylvania specifically are much poorer than the rest of Europe and so touring the region was almost like going back in time. People still used horses, donkeys, their children and bare hands to work their fields, most roads were dirt and even the cities seemed to be crumbling with serious infrastructure problems (lots of open sewers). Although Romania is in the EU, it isn't in the Schengen Zone and it very much felt like seeing how the other half lives.

That being said, we spent all nights but one with Hungarian families, who were just incredibly nice. We were generally staying in the best homes in the village, which were comfortable, and the hospitality was unbeatable. Everywhere we went there was a welcoming ceremony, which centered around shots of the locally made moonshine called Palenka, which is deceptively strong. As soon as you finished your shot there would be someone at your shoulder giving you a refill. After the welcome ceremony, we would repast to the kitchen/dining area, where we were summarily stuffed. Most dinners would consist of bread throughout, with an excellent soup, again liberally ladled into your bowl, then a main course of rice/noodles and homemade goulash. After you'd eaten enough to visibly distend your stomach, a tray of pastries (often made with lard) would be brought out, which you would have to sample at least one or two of, both to avoid offending your hosts and because they were delicious. I can honestly say that I've never ate as well or felt as immediately welcomed as in Transylvania.

Although the trip was filled with amusing incidents, I will highlight only two, which I believe will be of most interest to you all.

The first story is perhaps my favorite memory from the trip. It occurred on our last night, which was the only one in which we stayed in a hotel rather than peoples' houses. We had another great dinner, then enjoyed some fantastic gypsy dancing, which, let me just say, is incredibly badass. Those gypsy men not only are awesome dancers but they can provide their own rythmic music through the tapping and knee slapping, wow. Anyway, the dancer's musician was just packing up and people were wandering out when I was summoned from my room by a couple of the Berlin guys, who had convinced the hotel to keep the speakers up and connected them to the lobby computer. We went downstairs and found that the hotel was willing to let us take over the lobby computer for a dance party. Naturally, I sprung into action and, working with a very nice woman from the hotel, configured the sound system,downloaded itunes on the computer and hooked up my iPod (yes, I've gone to the dark side, sigh). By this time, most of the people from the group were down in the main room and starting from the first bars of Ignition Remix, the party was on and poppin'. We basically took over the bottom floor of that hotel, including adjoining bar area, it was great and the hotel was happy to lets us do it, good times. As Beloiters could probably guess, I was in my element DJing the party, mixing major R&B/Rap dance songs with a few lesser known jams. At one point we put on some Hungarian swing, which got the Lexia Budapest director, a large middle aged Hungarian women named Hoyne (spelled phonetically for y'all) and our guide, Andras, also a boomer himself, out on the floor and cutting some serious rug, it was a good night for everyone.

The other story revolves around a phrase that some guys from the Berlin group had picked up after watching a video in Krakow. The phrase describes a sexual act that I won't detail here (though you're welcome to ask me later). In the original video, the giver of this act is encouraged by a fellow off screen to "Freak that bitch out, Tone!" in a hilarious intonation which must be heard to fully be appreciated. Anyway, this soon became somewhat of a catchphrase among certain members of our group, being used when ever possible (ie, when you see two pigeons mating, you might yell to the male, "freak that bitch out!".

So one night in a small mountain farming village, the group decides to go out to the local bar for drinks and everyone is having fun, when we notice that two group members have snuck off for a little slap and tickle. Two of the guys want to sneak outside their door to yell the catchphrase, which we dissuade them from doing. Instead they decide to wait until the guy has gotten back and then to yell it at him when he comes back to the bar. This plan soon involves the whole group and becomes more and more elaborate, getting a life of its own. Finally, when the lucky guy (Teddy) enters 90 minutes later, he walks up to the bar, which is run by a very nice let's say 60 year old Hungarian man who is standing next to Andras. As Teddy starts to order, Andras holds up his hand and Brian (the mastermind of this scheme) says, "Wait, Teddy, this guy has something he wants to say to you." The barman looks down at a small note card in his hand, clears his throat and says in a clear but heavily accented voice "Freak that bitch out!" And scene.

I'm off to Prague to meet my friend from Homewood, Kristin, so hopefully there will be more tales to tell soon.

Kira (Thailand): Adobe, Asoke, and other Adventures

I never thought I’d say this, but it’s really good to be back in Khon Kaen. Yesterday morning when I was walking past the classroom, one of the little pre-school-aged kids who hangs out outside ran up to me and hugged me around the knees, shouting “FARANG! FARANG!” He motioned to his two friends, and they ran up and hugged me too. “FARANG! FARANG!” Apparently, they missed us when we were in Bangkok...
Then in the afternoon, some of us returned to the local elementary school where we have been helping build an adobe music building. We stomped in mud, coated the walls with our mixture, and joked around with the workers. I don’t think I can explain how much I love this building process. It’s so sustainable and traditional, and incredibly fun(The first time we built there, the kids were building too, but they’re on summer break now. They have been an integral part of the building process.). When we were stomping in the mud, I led the group in the moose song and Princess Pat (really, would you expect otherwise?) And then the director of the school invited us over for an amazing homemade dinner. It was so good to eat Isaan food outside on a porch under the palm trees again.
As I said, it’s good to be home.
Notable events since last time I posted:
1. The Asoke community: The Asoke are really extreme Buddhists who try to live without any greed at all. They grow their own food, do everything communally, refrain from wearing shoes, and follow the 5 precepts very, very carefully. The community we stayed with for a night consisted mainly of school children (apparently, parents can send their kids there for free) and older women whose husbands aren’t Asoke (Thai marital relationships aren’t usally super-close anyway, so it’s not unusual). The Asoke wake up every morning at 3, have discussion/class from 4-6, work from 6-8, breakfast at 9 (most of the adults only eat one meal a day), work again from 12-2 and 2-4, dinner (for the kids and us) at 5, meeting from 6-8, and sleep after that. We had a really good time there, actually. We got to help out with work (gardening, fertilizer-making), play games (huggy bear, down by the banks, etc) with the kids, and have a “cultural exchange” with everyone in the evening. One part of the cultural exchange consisted of us taking turns playing/singing songs. We sang (with guitar accompaniment) “Sweet Home Alabama” and “On the Radio” (by Regina Spector). It was one of the most unexpected experiences of my life –singing Regina to a crowd of attentive children in blue uniforms, a monk, and some older women in drab, traditional clothing.
The next morning (at 4 am) we had another exchange in which they asked us what religion we were. One other girl and I said we were raised Jewish, and the Asoke woman who had been acting as our host mom (she was an English teacher before she became Asoke) said that she didn’t know much about Judaism, but she had heard that Jews were particularly violent and not very good to their slaves (!). So the other girl went into a brief history of the Jewish people, the holocaust, and the Israel-Palistine issue. When she finished, our host mom asked, “so, is it true that Jews are stingy?” HOW DID THAT STEREOTYPE GET TO THAILAND? It was crazy. I don’t think she meant anything bad by that, though…
After that, we accompanied the monk on an alms round through a city. Picture a monk, about 10 children in blue uniforms, and about five farang, all shoeless, wandering through a city and accepting donations of food. Kind of crazy.
And then, after a whole lot of intense wai-ing, hugging, and even kisses on the cheek, we left. I’d like to go back, though.
2. HIV/AIDS Patients: We spoke with an NGO about HIV/AIDS and then we visited a clinic and people’s homes. It was kind of intense. One thing that struck me is that a lot of the patients didn’t know how they got it, and they didn’t really seem that interested in knowing. One hadn’t even told his ex-wife and wasn’t sure if he ever would (apparently, he didn’t have the courage. Just for the record though, I feel like it’s kind of a necessary thing to do, regardless of courage). Also, we didn’t really connect HIV/AIDS to everything else we have been studying, but it is really connected (I explained this to the group later, if you’re interested in my analysis on the matter, ask).
3. BANGKOK: AHH. I HATE BANGKOK. It was nice to eat international (Indian, Mexican, middle-eastern) food, but that was the only good thing about being in Bangkok. We stayed right near Khaosin road, which is where all the dumb, white tourists like to go play. It was kind of a jarring contrast to what we usually see. Also, we had to go see male and female sex shows. That was a really difficult experience, especially in the context of what we have been studying. But we did get to have a bunch of really good exchanges with NGOs. I am though, as I’ve mentioned numerous times, very, very, very glad to be home.

We’re done with units and now we’re starting final project planning. I’m in a group doing stuff with alternative education in the school we’ve been building with and in another school in a slum. It should be fun . Also, it’s almost sonkran (water festival). We have four days off, and I’m going back to Udon Thani (the land-unit village) with some friends. That should be amazing too. I can’t believe I have only another month on the program…

Miss you guys.

Kira (Thailand): Adobe, Asoke, and other Adventures

I never thought I’d say this, but it’s really good to be back in Khon Kaen. Yesterday morning when I was walking past the classroom, one of the little pre-school-aged kids who hangs out outside ran up to me and hugged me around the knees, shouting “FARANG! FARANG!” He motioned to his two friends, and they ran up and hugged me too. “FARANG! FARANG!” Apparently, they missed us when we were in Bangkok...
Then in the afternoon, some of us returned to the local elementary school where we have been helping build an adobe music building. We stomped in mud, coated the walls with our mixture, and joked around with the workers. I don’t think I can explain how much I love this building process. It’s so sustainable and traditional, and incredibly fun(The first time we built there, the kids were building too, but they’re on summer break now. They have been an integral part of the building process.). When we were stomping in the mud, I led the group in the moose song and Princess Pat (really, would you expect otherwise?) And then the director of the school invited us over for an amazing homemade dinner. It was so good to eat Isaan food outside on a porch under the palm trees again.
As I said, it’s good to be home.
Notable events since last time I posted:
1. The Asoke community: The Asoke are really extreme Buddhists who try to live without any greed at all. They grow their own food, do everything communally, refrain from wearing shoes, and follow the 5 precepts very, very carefully. The community we stayed with for a night consisted mainly of school children (apparently, parents can send their kids there for free) and older women whose husbands aren’t Asoke (Thai marital relationships aren’t usally super-close anyway, so it’s not unusual). The Asoke wake up every morning at 3, have discussion/class from 4-6, work from 6-8, breakfast at 9 (most of the adults only eat one meal a day), work again from 12-2 and 2-4, dinner (for the kids and us) at 5, meeting from 6-8, and sleep after that. We had a really good time there, actually. We got to help out with work (gardening, fertilizer-making), play games (huggy bear, down by the banks, etc) with the kids, and have a “cultural exchange” with everyone in the evening. One part of the cultural exchange consisted of us taking turns playing/singing songs. We sang (with guitar accompaniment) “Sweet Home Alabama” and “On the Radio” (by Regina Spector). It was one of the most unexpected experiences of my life –singing Regina to a crowd of attentive children in blue uniforms, a monk, and some older women in drab, traditional clothing.
The next morning (at 4 am) we had another exchange in which they asked us what religion we were. One other girl and I said we were raised Jewish, and the Asoke woman who had been acting as our host mom (she was an English teacher before she became Asoke) said that she didn’t know much about Judaism, but she had heard that Jews were particularly violent and not very good to their slaves (!). So the other girl went into a brief history of the Jewish people, the holocaust, and the Israel-Palistine issue. When she finished, our host mom asked, “so, is it true that Jews are stingy?” HOW DID THAT STEREOTYPE GET TO THAILAND? It was crazy. I don’t think she meant anything bad by that, though…
After that, we accompanied the monk on an alms round through a city. Picture a monk, about 10 children in blue uniforms, and about five farang, all shoeless, wandering through a city and accepting donations of food. Kind of crazy.
And then, after a whole lot of intense wai-ing, hugging, and even kisses on the cheek, we left. I’d like to go back, though.
2. HIV/AIDS Patients: We spoke with an NGO about HIV/AIDS and then we visited a clinic and people’s homes. It was kind of intense. One thing that struck me is that a lot of the patients didn’t know how they got it, and they didn’t really seem that interested in knowing. One hadn’t even told his ex-wife and wasn’t sure if he ever would (apparently, he didn’t have the courage. Just for the record though, I feel like it’s kind of a necessary thing to do, regardless of courage). Also, we didn’t really connect HIV/AIDS to everything else we have been studying, but it is really connected (I explained this to the group later, if you’re interested in my analysis on the matter, ask).
3. BANGKOK: AHH. I HATE BANGKOK. It was nice to eat international (Indian, Mexican, middle-eastern) food, but that was the only good thing about being in Bangkok. We stayed right near Khaosin road, which is where all the dumb, white tourists like to go play. It was kind of a jarring contrast to what we usually see. Also, we had to go see male and female sex shows. That was a really difficult experience, especially in the context of what we have been studying. But we did get to have a bunch of really good exchanges with NGOs. I am though, as I’ve mentioned numerous times, very, very, very glad to be home.

We’re done with units and now we’re starting final project planning. I’m in a group doing stuff with alternative education in the school we’ve been building with and in another school in a slum. It should be fun . Also, it’s almost sonkran (water festival). We have four days off, and I’m going back to Udon Thani (the land-unit village) with some friends. That should be amazing too. I can’t believe I have only another month on the program…

Miss you guys.

Kate (Ireland): We're kings among runaways

So my darlings, I just had the best spring break ever. First, Molly was here in Galway for St. Patrick's and we had a blast--went downtown to the parade and the entire city was out and about, crowding every street. It was also my friend Jenna's 21st so we had a lot of partying on our hands. So basically from noon to midnight we traveled from pub to pub drinking and dancing and laughing (all in green, naturally).

The bad news was that my friend Jerad, who was coming with Siobhan and I for break, had a money crisis and decided he had to cancel everything, leaving me alone in Spain for 5 days. Shit. So I had no choice but to get on the 7am bus to the airport with
Siobhan and I began our epic journey to the continent. After an entire day of traveling (planes, trains, buses) we got to Emily's apartment in Freiburg. The next few days we spent walking around exploring, I fell in love with the city. Emily isn't exaggerating when she calls it the best city in Europe. It's a big university town with unbelievable architecture, pastries sent from heaven, exciting bars, and it's basically surrounded by the Black Forest. I also got to practice my sad, minimal German. Ireland is magnificent, but it was fun to be in a place where I never heard English.

After a couple lovely days in Germany, Siobhan, Emily, and some of Emily's friends from her program took an overnight train to Amsterdam. I was shaken awake at the Dutch border by passport authorities and they told me not to go to the coffeeshops (weedhouses) because they don't sell coffee. Then they laughed and walked away. Great way to wake up. Amsterdam was pretty surreal. Aside from the snow, which really pissed me off, the city was really exciting. More canals than Venice! I really dug the canals and the tall skinny buildings, super beautiful. The Red Light district was funny, a mixture of hilarious and creepy...whores, neon lights, weed, tourists. God the tourists. Never seen so many in my life. Anyhow, we spent countless hours lounging in the coffeshops. When we gathered energy and focus together, we did cool tourist things like the Van Gogh Museum, an amazing canal boat cruise, various sex shops, and the Anne Frank House. Siobhan and I parted ways after Amsterdam (she went off to Lisbon to meet a high school friend) so I got on the plane to Madrid. Alone. Scared.

It ended up being wonderful. Madrid totally blew my mind. Warm weather, blue sunny skies, incredible architecture, sculptures and plazas. You can really tell it was a royal city. I felt like a princess in the absolutely perfect El Parque del Buen Retiro, former royal gardens. That was my favorite part of the trip I think, this giant, gorgeous park full of perfect gardens, marble statues, beautiful fountains, a crystal palace..definitely check out my pictures. The best part of the trip was when I was lounging in the sun at the Rey Alfonso monument at the edge of the lake. A middle-aged man was sitting near me and we ended up talking in Spanish for over an hour--basic sentence structures and such, but still, I was incredibly proud of myself and beyond grateful for my five miserable years of studying Spanish. Other Madrid highlights included: the Reina Sofia art museum with a huge temporary Picasso exhibit, window shopping along Gran Via, and meeting a great girl at my hostel who ended up traveling to Toledo with me.

Toledo, where my friend Hilary from the film festival is studying, is one hour south of Madrid. The city was built to be a labyrinth to confuse and dissuade invaders--you can tell. Everything cobblestoned, all the streets tiny and twisty, every building ancient, it was amazing. The area is super hilly, so we would be panting up some vertical sidestreet when someone would yell "coche!" and we'd have to hide in a doorway to let the car pass. Yes, the streets were the width of one car. Anyhow, it was phenomenal to see Hilary and get a feel of old-world Spain. Great paella as well.

Barcelona was the last leg of my journey and by this time I was getting burnt out and lonely. It didn't help that the weather was grey and crappy when I got there and there were creepy men everywhere trying to get my attention. I tried to make the best of it though. Walked around Las Ramblas, the huge main pedestrian thoroughfare filled with street vendors selling everything from flowers to souveniers to birds and chipmunks. I also went to the most wonderful market, La Boqueria--row after row after row of stands selling the most perfect displays of fruit, veg, fish, meat, candy, bread. Took a few pictures, hopefully they turned out ok. I also went on a lovely boat tour around the bay and the coast. The highlight of Barcelona was La Sagrada Familia, the giant cathedral by Barcelona's most important and innovative architect Gaudi. Google it because my pictures don't do it justice. It was amazing from the outside, but I went in an elevator one third of a mile up in the air inside one of the cathedral towers--breath-taking view of the whole city and the ocean and the coast. Perfect. My last night in Barcelona I went out with a bunch of amazing people from my hostel for tapas and a flamenco show (the sexiest thing I have ever seen), this great package deal thing arranged by the hostel for 10 euro. They also filled us up with great sangria and unpleasant Spanish shots. But it was a fantastic evening capped off by a 3 hour "nap" before I got up to go to the airport.

Back in Galway, it really feels like home here. All of my friends are back from their travels as well and we're all so happy to see each other again and share stories and enjoy each other as much as possible as our time winds down. But I think about all you guys a ton and miss you and send you vibes of love from across the Atlantic.

Robert (New Zealand) - Merry Makihinui

After two and a half weeks of bouncing around the South Island we're back in Christchurch on a regular schedule again for a few weeks.

Last week we traveled to the the west coast to stay at the Rough and Tumble Lodge and do a case study of the hydro-electric dam that is proposed to be built on the Makihinui River. The west coast of the south island is a very rural area, in fact the total population of the west coast is less then that of Beloit. It also has very little industry. It's basically the New Zealand equivalent of the US's rural deep south.

Gathering in the parking lot at the University of Canterbury it was great to hear about everyone else's break adventures and misadventures ranging from various hikes, to falling down waterfalls, to pretensious British hikers, to crashing motor boats, and hitching around the South Island. We were rejoined for the first few days of our trip by Terry, one of our guest lecturers who also accompanied us on the trip to CASS research station and Hinewai. Great guy.

The Rough and Tumble Lodge is in the northern section of the west coast on the banks of the Makihinui River. It may well be the northernmost structure on the west coast actually. It's a beautiful building run by a married couple (one from Christchurch, one from North Carolina). They actually built it almost entirely by themselves with locally milled timber. It's an impressive building in its own right, the fact that only about 4 people worked on the construction is even more amazing. Terry took us on a couple of nature walks and we settled back into close community living which is nice after being fragmented in Christchurch for so long. The main focus though was the dam that Meridian Energy is planning to build one kilometer up stream of the lodge. I mentioned Meridian in my last post as the power company that is carbon neutral. In a lot of ways they are a very impressive company. All of there power comes from hydro-dams and a few wind farms. Still hydro-dams have many problems associated with them. The Makihinui dam would interfere with fish and eel life cycles, make a lake out of a river gorge that is home to a few breeding pairs of Blue Duck (a highly endangered species), lead to massive erosion on the coats where the river runs into the sea (a small town would have to be moved), and would permanently change the river flow. However, unlike the scenarios Kira has been describing in Thailand, Meridian has been very conscious about trying to mitigate the environmental problems caused by the dam and to be open to the concerns of the local community in their plans. All in all the whole study highlighted that any form of power production is environmentally problematic. Over-consumption and the idea of constant growth are the real problems we face.
As a side note, it was a very strange feeling to stand in the gorge just up stream of where the dam might be built and to know that you could be one of the last people to ever walk there because in 5 years it may all be underwater.

We also toured a massive open-cast coal mine which is the primary employer on the west coast. The tour was lead by the guy who's in charge on the mines environmental policies. It's amazing the amount of work and money they put into trying to lessen their environmental impact. At the same time, walking along a stream near the mine later that week it was clear that no matter how much they do, there's still a great deal of pollution being caused by the operation. All environmental issues aside, the place had tons of cool machinery, including one of the world's largest bulldozers.

Evenings at the lodge took a number of forms. As I mentioned before Susan proposed to Jon at the end of Routeburn, and Rough and Tumble was the perfect place for the wedding. We got dressed up (except for me because Jon needed my nice cloths). We did the whole thing, Elliot presided over the ceremony, Jon and Susan wrote vows, there was wedding cake, rings Julia wove out of flax, and the throwing of the bouquet (Liz, an Earlham graduate who's been the program assistant caught it so best of luck to her). And of course the evening ended in a crazy dance party. We also had an Ode to Winter night because we're missing that beautiful season this year, complete with Eggnog, stockings filled by secret Santas, Christmas music, and toasts of "Merry Makihinui".

Being on the west side of the southern alps, the west coast gets an amazing amount of rain due to warm, humid winds coming off the Tasman Sea and then hitting the ridges. Our freakish luck with sunny weather held foe most of the week but we got a fair bit of rain the last night. It was great though. We got to see the river rise up to high flow, the sort of thing that would be regulated on a daily basis if the dam gets built.

Back in Christchurch we're headed into our last block of courses. We have two more weeks of class and service learning, then a week of finals, and finally a week long hiking/kayaking trip up in Abel Tasman National Park. After that the program is over. It feels strange to be only a month from the end (although I'm staying an extra two weeks to travel on my own and with my father when he comes over). I had a conversation with Susan on the Dusky Track about how it's really great when amazing experiences end at just the right time, when you've gotten what you want from it but it doesn't drag on. I think this program will do that perfectly.

After classes today we had a very informal game of soccer in a field by the university. It was a lot of fun, even though I haven't played in seven years and majorly suck. I was also playing barefoot and may have broken my toe. Time will tell I guess.

If you guys are dying to see pictures, I wont be able to upload until I get back to the states, and as I said, my North Island pictures got deleted. However, you can see some pictures on Earlham's website along with program updates written by my professor.
http://www.earlham.edu/~outdoor/new_zealand/updates.shtml


Things I have been appreciating:

-The Office (watched most of season 3 on various laptops while at Rough and Tumble)
-Lukas' (one of the students, originally from the Czech Republic) Tobias Fuke-esque word mix-up: "I think I would be great anal-detective."
-The smell of burning peat bricks, mostly because it reminds me of Raphoe
-Hearing a Frames song being played at a pub downtown
-Water
-I'm actually coming around to the odd spoon sizes a bit
-Running around in the surf on the west coast with some random dog
-"Snack Pack" the rap about our time in New Zealand that Shane and Brian made. I am told that the music video will be on youtube soon.


Finally, a request for you all to hold the Earlham community "in the light" as the Quakers say. It's been a rough semester. A student, and two professors have died over the past couple months. People here seem to be dealing with it ok, but it's still hard.

I'm thinking of you all often, both those abroad and back in in Belwah. Take care of yourselves.

Ted (Laos) - Wanderings

So it seems I've procrastinated quite well, and haven't written in over a month. Where do I start?

Maybe by country?

Thailand:

Visited the infamous death railway in Katchanaburi, where thousands of European and Asian POWS and conscripts died building a doomed connection between china and india. Sad that it was so commericialized with weekly firework displays replicating the bombing of the bridge back in WW2, and hawkers swarming around entrances to museums filled with photographs of dead bodies and emaciated forced laborers. Right on a river, it was green and beautiful like a lot of cities in Southeast Asia. Amazing cooking course too. Our curries and stirfrys turned out almost as good as the chef's!

Then saw Kira in bar-closed Khon Kaen (but we had fun anyway) and visited my old volunteer haunt in Nong Khai before bouncing into Laos. Haha, I think Kira's covered enough of Thailand already =)

Laos:

Vientiene- Capital of Laos, tame and lazy compared to a lot of capitals with a more secret night life, delicious fruit shakes (and tuna sandwiches), a very biased war museum (hurray for american imperialists!), some scattered french architecture, an incomplete arc de triumph-like structure built with concrete donated by the U.S. for an aiport... Very laid back, but not much to see.

Vang Viene- Backpacker capital of Laos, beautifully green mountains, squiggly and bumpy roads, caves, lazy tubing river, etc. The main "town" is full of restaurants with couches and pillows to sit or lay on, blaring television sets playing episodes of Friends, Family Guy and the Simpsons and serving banana pancakes, pizza, greasy things and not so good lao food. Oh, and 'happy' shakes and pizzas. I spent two days riding a rickity rented bike around, admiring the cliffs and sheer greeness of everything. Also watched a lot of simpsons one night. I think it would have been more fun with some crazy beloit drunks, because most of the people "hanging out" were high and immobile. Later I found out all the drunks were across the river, painful hindsight :(

Luang Prabang - Cultural powerhouse of Laos, full of old french buildings, tiny winding streets, temples, markets, painting stores. Definitely a place easy to wander. I've seen so many temples that it's hard to distinguish between them with just words from across the globe (with a faulty memory), but there were some powerful ones here. Beautiful paintings of the Lao version of the Ramayana, a magical epic that originated in India and, which features Hanuman, the magical monkey king who can do all sorts of cool things like fly and change his size and shape. He's not the main character, but he should be.

Pakse - Because of limited time, I didn't make it to the enigmatic plain of jars in north-east laos, which is basically... plains and plains of large stone jars dating back thousands of years with no clear origins. A very strategic area during the vietnam war/secret laos war. So I went to Pakse, which is a small city with no real attractions except for my vietnamese tour guide friend Thuyen, his mom's delicious noodle soup, and beerlao. Thuyen did take me to the old city of Champasak, once a Lao kingdom, and the nearbye Bolaven Plateau, but I was itching to get out of Laos.

Overall impressions- Greenest country I've ever been too. It was so green that even though there was garbage along every inch of roadside in some places, the plants just swallowed it up. So green that when a Lao family came on our VIP bus (very necessary on these bumpy hell roads where you don't want to be sitting next to chickens and fish that could easilly fall on you), and basically threw up the whole 6 hour ride, it was ok. P.S. They should hand out bigger bags for those situations. And the people? Laid back, smiley, and friendly. And the beerlao, bless its heart, and all the people it brings together.

Cambodia:

Siem Reap- ANGKOR WAT. Words cannot describe. Angkor Wat is the largest religious construction in the world and it did not dissapoint. Besides being huge and impressive from a distance with large spires basking equally in dusk or sunset, there were stunning bas reliefs and stone carvings depicting battles and myths. Angkor Wat is only one of the structures in the area, another big one being Angkor Thom, a large, fortified city, which I thought was even more impressive. Inside it had a temple complex with dozens of huge heads peering town, and the bas reliefs here depicted everything from daily life to Gods duking it out with huge armies. Thousands of figures on these walls. I was blown away. I spent three days bicycling around the temples marveling at civilization. I couldn't believe it. Sure they were all built with forced labor, and many people probably died building them, but Angkor Wat and friends together are the first thing I've seen that actually rival nature in beauty. Siem Reap, the city right next to Angkor Wat is dusty, small and easy to navigate. I loved it. THe area had a lot of beggars and hawking children, but not too overwhelming.

The people were really sweet there, but the moto driver from the airport...man-baby, no other word for it. He drove extremely slowly trying to sell me a moto tour of the temples, then dropped me off at the wrong hotel and told me it was the right one. Then the guy at the counter told me it was the right one. And the rooms were garbage, and expensive. I figured out the real name of the hotel, and as I left, angrilly, this moto driver yells out, "Fine! leave! I don't care!" I wanted to kill him, but I spared his life and found another place nearbye.

Phnom Phen- Cambodia's capital, center of the fucked up Khmer Rouge that tried to instigate a cultural revolution by depopulating its cities and sending all the educated people to work in the fields under frequently deadly conditions. Besides being a dumb idea,it was poorly thought out and like many communist regimes, impossible demands were made in insanely short periods of time. I visited the famous school turned torture-prison in the Toul Sleg (I can't remember the spelling) area of Phnom Phen and walked around the former classrooms in silence as they were now only filled with steel beds with chains and covered with stains of various colors. A few days ago I was marvelling at the beauty of Angkor Wat, and now I was in this monstrous place of the worst of human possibility. I didn't make it to the killing fields where thousands were killed either by bullets or by being bashed against walls, but I think the prison was enough. This happened in the 70's! ANd shit like this is still going on in some places. Where the hell are we?

Overall Impressions: Cambodia is a little dusty with bad roads, less green than laos, but endearing. Very underdeveloped, poor with thatched and falling apart houses everywhere, its a different kind of life. But you're so amazed that the people still seem happy. Especially the children. I couldn't help but feel a little insecure that just a few decades ago, many of the educated people were killed off, and that there was no getting around the fact that murderers from the Khmer Rouge were walking the streets. I know that many of them were afraid for their own lives and families, and that reconciliation is so important, but how do you live alongside people that ruthlessly killed, maimed and tortured for whatever reason? I later found out that A) You could kill someone in Cambodia and get a way with a several thousand dollar fine (paid to the military), and B) near the killing fields, there is a place where you can blow up a cow with a rocket launcher for $3000. A lot of war museums and old battle grounds feature firing ranges in Southeast Asian countries, and I just can't get over it. You see all this beauty, but you're scared for the world at the same time.

I'm running out of time, so I'll try to cover vietnam later. Sorry for cramming this all together. I love travelling. I feel like it's doing more for me than two years of class at Beloit since it's putting everything into context and making everything I've learned a lot more real. That and I'm a bad student... I know I've put some strong feelings in this entry, but overall, the people here are some of the nicest I've ever encountered (besides some Vietnamese that I will get to later), and the cities and towns are alive, relaxing, and make you feel like you could melt right in at times. I'm still amazed by all the greeness, trees, bicycles, random dogs, etc I see here compared to the suburbs of Chicago.

I hope you're all having a great time! I really want to wander all over after reading all of your entries. I wish I had some background European experience to put everything more in context. Let's all stay healthy,

Ted

Robert (New Zealand) - Dusky

Oi. It's a busy time. It's been so long since my last update, I don't really know where to start.
After Routeburn classes continued as normal in Christchurch. The media was all up in tizzy about a car show that was supposed to bring thousands of boy racers to the streets of the city. Sure enough, riding the bus back from a cook-out at one of the student's houses the streets were filled with cars filled with testosterone filled young men, and a few women. I have also finally seen The Wizard who is a man well enough known in Christchurch to warrant an entry in the New Zealand Rough Guide. On a regular basis this guy shows up in Cathedral Square in a red VW Beetle made from two front halves welded together, wearing a black robe and wizard hat, stands on a stepladder, and babbles about the shitty state the world is in for hours on end.
For a weekend excursion we went south an hour, to the Banks Peninsula to visit a nature reserve that's trying to regenerate native forests. They're a bit unconventional in that they're using Gorse, an invasive weed, to help create a suitable habitat for the trees to retake the land. We also stopped by Akaroa, one of the few towns in New Zealand that was colonized predominantly by the French.
Last week were out mid-terms which were pretty painless. Once mid-terms were done we traveled north to Kaikoura, a coastal town known for it's ocean wildlife and good fishing. Our program arranged for us to go on a "Dolphin Encounter" boat, so we got to snorkel with wild Dusky Dolphins in the ocean. They're very friendly and will swim right up to just inches away and then circle with you. It was touristy as all hell, but still pretty cool. At night we found a nice but expensive pub. I got into a drunken argument with my professor about the nature of ethics and had some really interesting discussions about sustainability with some of the other students. We also went on a Maori run tour of the area. It ended in the wharenui (meeting house) on their marae which is covered in carvings and paintings telling the history of the Ngai Tahu tribe. The guides also gave us Maori names which seemed pretty lame to me until it was revealed that they were just the numbers one through nine. After coming back from Kaikoura I finally met up with Sophie from Beloit who's studying at the University of Canterbury this semester. We had drinks at the student bar and caught up on our time here thus far. It was nice to see a somewhat familiar face from the states other than the people on my program.
Now on to the real point of this post which is my spring (technically fall) break. I ended up doing a hike with Kirk, Susan, and Ed on the Dusky Track in Fiordland National Park. Fiordland is a large wilderness area that covers the south-west corner of the South Island of New Zealand. It's named for the many its many fjords (although New Zealand doesn't use the cooler spelling), and consists mostly of rolling mountains and valleys. The Dusky Track is one of the most demanding trails in New Zealand. The three big things you hear about it are that it's remote, muddy, and that there are lots of 3-wire bridges. The Department of Conservation try to make it very clear that it's only for experienced hikers because they have a lot of trouble with people going in unprepared and having to be evacuated, so we weren't entirely sure how much of the descriptions were scare tactics to make sure able people do the track, and how much was actual descriptions of the difficulty level.
We rented a car and drove down to a small town called Tuatapere, making stops at a winery to sample fine wines and buy a bottle, and in Queenstown to buy tickets for the huts on the trail. We found a nice camping spot just north of Tuatapere next to an old suspension bridge over a river. After sorting out our food and group gear we drank our bottle of wine while looking over trail maps and then went out stargazing on the bridge.
When I said that the trail was remote, what I meant was that there is no road access to it. You can only get in on a boat or a water plane. We hired a charter boat to take us across Lake Hauroko to the trailhead. Much of the boat ride in was spent realizing that we had forgotten various things ranging from the unimportant (soy sauce) to the slightly more important (our hut tickets). The scenery was beautiful though. Tall hills and mountains falling strait into the lake. The guy we chartered the boat with pointed out that at one point when we were maybe 15 meters from the shore, the bottom of the lake was almost half a kilometer below us.
The trail we walked would not have been considered trail on most walks. When it's flat, the chances are it's a bog, with mud pits ranging from just a few centimeters deep, to thigh deep. The only way to not fall in is to carefully step on fallen logs and roots, and sometimes you can't even do that and just need to walk through it. When it's hilly you're climbing up and down slopes covered in rocks and roots. Sometimes the trail would rise or fall vertically ten or twenty feet and you'd have to climb using roots and stones and hand holds (all with a hiking pack on mind you). At times it was maddening, but it was also cool to have to pay so much attention to where you were walking. The trail was always changing and always interesting. In a way the trail was part of the beauty of the track with all of it's moss covered roots and slopes. It also felt great at the end of the day to think back on what you overcame. We also became very familiar with the infamous 3-wire bridges which are exactly what they sound like. One wire to walk on and two to hold onto on either side with a few supporting struts to keep them steady.
The first night we stayed at Halfway Hut which was swamped with Sandflies. I have to say that the sandflies were really the only part of the trip that I really disliked, but you have to take the bad with the good. We also met Margaret and Janet, two Kiwi women (probably in their sixties) who were hiking the same way as us. While the first day was relatively flat, the second day we moved up to the alpine zone above the treeline. I had a hilarious moment with Susan in a bog while we were still in the lowlands. I tried to jump over a muddy creek and lost my footing but had enough forward momentum to launch me horizontally on to the shore where I lay for a good thirty seconds on my face with my pack on top of me while Susan laughed and took pictures. We stayed at Lake Roe Hut which had many fewer sandflies thanks to being higher up. At night we celebrated St. Paddy's day by drinking Guinness and Jim Beam that we had carried in.
We stayed an extra day at Lake Roe and did a day hike off trail up Mt. Tamatea, which was the highest peak in the area of the trail. It was actually a pretty easy, although long, ascent. The area was pockmarked with tarns which are pools of water which have a bizarre tendency to be sort of terraced on rolling hills. You'll have two pools just a few feet apart and one will be a good foot higher than the other, but there will be no drainage from the higher pool. It doesn't sound too cool when written down, but trust me, it's surreal. The view from Tamatea was amazing. Looking west we could see out to Dusky Sound, and beyond it all the way out to the Tasman Sea. Looking down the eastern slope was a mountain lake that you could watch the wind sweeping patterns on.
The hut was full that night (so much for a remote tramp). In the night some Keas, a species of alpine parrot, attacked the hut. The Kea is a beautiful bird, but they're known for being very destructive. Unfortunately my water purifier pump got left outside and was mauled. I remember going through Biosecurity at Auckland Airport (New Zealand is serious about keeping out unwanted animals and parasites) and worrying that they'd take my water pump because it might have water parasites in it. Never did I think I'd actually end up loosing it to alpine parrots.
The next day we hiked across an alpine ridge line, past more tarns, and then down a steep, steep, slope. There was one point where a chain had been locked into the one of the vertical drops in the trail to help hikers lower themselves or climb. At the end of the seemingly eternal decent was Lock Maree Hut. Loch Maree is a swamped forest so the lake is filled with tree stumps poking up out of the water. It's a rule of thumb that if there's been enough rain to rise the like to the point that you can't see the stumps, then the trail is flooded and you shouldn't leave the hut. Fortunately for us the water was quite low. The following day was pretty level which of course meant lots of mud, including one of our only waste deep mud puts which Susan was kind enough to discover for us. We also had to wade through a stream at one point. At Kintail Hut we met up with Janet and Margaret again (they had gone ahead when we took an extra day and Lake Roe). Margaret gave me a haircut, which was desperately needed (I was headed towards the doofy clown fro of frashman year). We also swam in the river near the hut.
Moving on from Kintail we hiked up and over a steep ridge (more vertical sections with chains). As we got close to the pass at a saddle in the top of the ridge a rain storm started to pick up coming from the other side. Up until this point we had had beautiful sunny weather, very fortunate considering it rains 300+ days a year in Fiordland. As soon as we came up over the saddle and out of the lee of the ridge we were slammed with winds so strong that they literally knocked us over a few times. The wind created massive sheets of rain which was really cool because you could actually see the wind gusts coming towards you. We got down back below treeline as quickly as possible ate a quick lunch and then booked it down to our last hut through the cold and rain. As the track leveled out towards the end there were times where the trail was basically a ditch just wide enough for one person that came up to waste level on the sides. On top of this were large ferns that came up to about head level.
At Upper Spey Hut we built a fire in the stove to try to dry off our cloths which was really a lost cause for the most part. By sunset the rain had stopped and the clouds glowed bright orange. We ate our last dinner and made rice pudding with our extra rice. In the morning we began our hike out down the valley towards Lake Manapouri. Naturally there was more mud and flooded streams to cross, although by this point I just walked strait through half the time. We did come to a flat dry meadow at one point which totally blew our minds. Normal trail conditions just seemed foreign by that point. The last section of the track was along a road to a remote power station to catch our boat back to the outside world. It was really cool to go from the trail to a gravel road, to a paved road and then finally to see buildings. It was like slowly walking into civilization from the wild. I'm used to just getting to a car park, piling into a vehicle, and leaving. The power station is some sort of sub-terrain hydro plant run by a New Zealand power company that is actually trying (rather successfully) to be carbon neutral. Unfortunately we arrived just in time to catch our boat out so we couldn't poke around or tour the station.
The boat was full of tourists who had come to look at Doubtful Sound (the fjord at the other end of the road form the power plant). I'm sure they didn't appreciate the smell of us. Once in the town of Manapouri we planned for one of us to hitchhike down to Tuatapere to pick up the car. I volunteered to hitch. It turns out that either I suck at hitching, or it was just not realistic to catch a ride out of Manapouri. After three hours on the side of the road with no one stopping I gave up. We were all sitting in a park, planning on throwing out our sleeping bags and living the homeless life for a night when a strange thing happened. Couples out walking their dogs started coming up to us and offering us a place to stay for a night. One even sent their son over in a car to pick us up. So there we went, into some perfect strangers house where we slept, showered, and snacked for free, and spent the night playing RISK with the son and his friends. It was surreal.
This morning I woke up before sunrise, reserved a seat on a shuttle headed for Tuatapere, and went down to get the car. We booked it back to Christchurch and dropped everyone off at their respective houses.
Tomorrow morning the program leaves for a one week excursion to an eco-lodge on the west coast. I should probably pack for that now and get some sleep, but I don't think going another week without updating would probably have resulted in a novel for my next post.

Things I have been appreciating:

-Finally starting to be at least somewhat familiar with the metric system
-Driving on the left side of the road
-The Sky. Even around Christchurch the sky is amazing. A couple weeks ago I saw a rainbow every day for a couple days strait including one at sunset.
-Making mathematical graphs to determine when the joy of having alcohol on a camping trip is undercut by the pain of carrying the extra weight.
-The man in the old army jeep with a pipe who drove by us when we got back from Kaikoura and Jay's reaction of "Did 1942 just drive by?"
-Montieth's Radler beer. It's beer that tastes like Sprite. It actually tastes more like American Sprite than New Zealand Sprite does. Not always what you want from a beer, but amusing none the less.
-Finding beauty in situations that would normally be considered by most to be miserable
-Walking out the door of my room in the morning to expectant looking cats waiting to be fed
-Good nights sleep