John (Poland) No food. Only drinks.

Hey gang, tonight I'm writing you from a very nice hostel in the less nice city of Warsaw, where me and the girls in my program are enjoying a long weekend. Since I last wrote, I'm finally starting to settle in to life in Krakow. My classes are interesting but so far pretty good. I have ten hours of language a week, which is both intense and a little bit of a lost cause, but I'm definitly giving it a college try (no pun intended). My other classes are finally getting off the ground, with culture and civ being interesting and my reasearch project/methods course being a little frightening given that I barely have a topic selected and I have about two months to reasearch and write an 18-24 page paper. I've really enjoyed getting used to living in a foreign country as opposed to just touring and have been pleasantly surprised how quickley I've adapted (although that adaptation is undoubtedly helped by the large number of people who speak at least some English in the city).

I've started really exploring the area as well. Over the weekend we had just ridiculously gorgeous weather for February (low 60s and sunny), which after two cloudly weeks was heavenly, so I took advantage of that to explore the many large parks which are right near my dorm. After the students being gone or inside for two weeks, it was great to see the city out and about. That being said, even I was amazed by the amount of PDA going on in said parks. Couples here just feel no compunction about getting as much physical/mouth contact as possible short of groping, no matter where they are. Maybe it's just cause Catholics love their sex, but it seems to be everywhere. There have to be more lingere stores per capita here than anywhere I've been.

Anyway, I've spent the last few days traveling after getting settled in. On Tuesday I didn't have class until 5, so I took a day trip with Megan and Caitlin to Tyniec, a great Benedictine abbey about a half hour outside of the city. Not only was the Abbey nice, but it was on cliffs overlooking the Vistula and the surrounding countryside, which was wonderful. Perhaps the happiest I've been in Poland so far (and certainly the happiest when I'm sober) was wandering through fields by the Vistula on what felt like a lovely spring day. (I'll have pictures of this up just as soon as my dorm gets it's internet fixed).

Then, last night, Emily had her one night in Krakow during one of her whorlwind tours, which was very fun. We hit up a nice Indian place, then I gave her a very basic introduction to Polish alcohol. One of my friends and number of people from her group came out and it was a good feeling. Everyone especially loved the Tatonka, a mixture of apples and vodka, which was decreed to be the equivalent of drinkning an apple pie. One person was even a former debater, so you can imagine how painful the conversation was for anyone without a deep interest in Policy/LD distinctions or the effects of PEPFAR on condom usage in Uganda. But overall, that was very fun and it felt great to see another Beloiter again!

So this morning, after sleeping through my overly ambitious alarm for an 8:30 class, I set out on another beautiful morning to head to train station en route to Warsaw. I eventually walked off any lingering effects of the night before and enjoyed a scenic trainride north, getting some much needed rest and coffee. Upon arriving in Warsaw however, we discovered that at some point the weather had taken a cold and windy turn, which would prove to an omen for the remainder of the day. We first spent an hour and a half wandering through the cold (all of us of course, being completely underdressed) trying to find our hostel, which we eventually did after realizing that it was on the other side of the street and should have taken us no more than 20 minutes. The walk was instructive for us, however, on a few matters. First, Warsaw is way bigger and way less inviting than Krakow. It's big, has few interesting places and nothing is near anything else. We confirmed this with a native who ran the hostel and informed us that he didn't like the city but if you had to come, it really should be in the summer. Our expereince then worsened as the one restaurant we were recommended (the Podwale Beer Company, sight) was already booked for the night, forcing us to repast to a nearby Chinese restaurant which was thoroughly mediocre. Finally, looking for a bar and finding nothing, we stopped into a Spanish(?) restaurant called Armando's which was A) far to swanky for us but also B) nearly totally deserted at 8:30. After Christine informed the waiter in her best Polish that we wanted "No food. Drinks only.", we spent most of the rest of our time there giggling, getting odd looks from an older gentleman in the next room and generally embarassing ourselves. It was actually a pretty good night, but a lot of that comes from a sense of relief that Warsaw is only a brief interlude on this trip.

Sorry for the long entry, props to anyone who actually bothered to slog through it. I'm really enjoying hearing about everyone both at home and abroad, so please keep posting and I'll hopefully be able to say hi on AIM from my dorm again soon.

KO (Senegal)

I only have about 5 minutes before my gender and development class starts, which I love, btw, but its been a while since I posted, so I thought it was about time.

The weather changes a lot, you know it goes from about 20 celcius to 25, so I've got a pretty rough life going on. haha, sorry I just feel it necessary to rub my warmth in everyones faces. I spent Sunday at the beach with sally, which was great fun, we took our first unescorted car rapid ride. Car rapids are the ghetto version of Dakar public transportation, which as you can imagine is super crazy ghetto by normal standards. So there are guys hanging off the back of these old big vans that have no glass in the windows and just shout to people standing on the side of the road to tell them where the van is headed since they dont really have set routes. One stops for us and we ask if they are going to the plage (beach). They want to know which plage and we say that we don't care, any is fine. Keep in mind that this is pretty much all in wolof, since the people working on the vans arent the most educated, although neither sally nor i know the word for beach in wolof. They eventually decide we can get on, although we still arent sure if we will end up anywhere near the ocean. We keep trying to ask people if they will tell us when we are close to the beach and should get off, but they dont really understand either, until this nice women who actually speaks french helps us out. We get off the car rapid and can see the ocean, but we're pointed in a completely oppisite direction, so we just started heading that way. We passed a cool muslim cemetary that I wanted to go in, but i dont really know the rules on that so we looked from afar. from what i can gather, muslim tombstones all look like big marble/tile beds, ill have to take a picture at some point.

we eventually get to the beach and are relieved to find that it is a free beach as long as we dont sit under a little hut thing, which the guy working was very insistent that we do (for our safety of course, the 10 dollars shouldnt be an issue). we eventually got him to leave us, but i did gather about 10 phone numbers over the course of the afternoon.

and now it it past time to go to class. im on my way to st. louis this weekend, which will be very exciting. ive determined that ive gotten too used to dakar and it is time for a change. i love hearing about everyone elses adventures ,i cant believe mine is almost half over!
KO

Kate (Ireland): "I know where all the pubs and prisons are"

So I went back to Dublin this past weekend. My favorite friends here in Galway are part of a study abroad program called CEA that has a handful of organized trips. They were scheduled to take an early train to Dublin on Saturday, so my friend Siobhan (crazy awesome Irish name, but she's from Las Vegas) and I decided to tag along. Little did we know that every single hostel in the city, and I do mean every one, was booked because of the Six Nations rugby tournament--freaking huge rugby matches including Ireland versus Scotland (Ireland won), France versus Wales, etc. So thousands of people came from all over Europe and took up all the accomodations. Were we dissuaded? Why no! We joined Couchsurfing.com, a brilliant and slightly terrifying travel networking site, and found a random young Dublin man to stay with for free. The reviews on his page were absolutely glowing and we bought him a bottle of wine and a pineapple, the international symbol of hospitality.

Our trip might have been under a bad star. We get up at 5:30 and crawl over to a 7am train. We're on the Dublin bus to couch surfing guy's house and the bus driver announces that the stop we need has been rerouted. Why? A bomb. A pipe bomb. In Fairview Park, one block from where we were staying, the Irish Army was disabling a bomb. Princess Anne of Britain was attending the Six Nations match that evening at a neighboring park, the scene of 1920 Bloody Sunday (in the middle of the Irish War for Independence). Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, also held a protest to Princess Anne's visit during the match. Totally surreal...really made it clear that nationalist conflict here is still very much a reality, especially since Ireland only offically gained independence in 1949.

We tried to move on with our day but I got hit with a huge wave of flu-ish something in the middle of the National Gallery of Art. I've been struggling to form coherent sentences and keep my head from drooping to one side since then. Wish my failure of an immune system luck in this damp climate.

On a positive note, I will leave you with a Robert-esque list of things I've been appreciating:
+ every single taxi driver in this country (one of whom is responsible for the subject line of this post)
+ walks by Galway Bay
+ Jenna almost getting attacked by swans
+ the wildness and sketchiness of 80s night at a club called GPO
+ seeing a blues band in a tiny pub with Robert's friend Philip
+ gossiping in the kitchen with Kate at 3am while we drunkenly devour everything in sight

Sara (Greece) - This is Sparta!

Well, everybody, I'm alive! I know, its hard to believe but somehow its true. And, an unbelievable amount has happened since I last wrote. First, I'll get the boring stuff out of the way, and then, I'll get on to Sparta! Classes are going very well, though a little boring. I suppose that is to be expected though. I mean, I am in Athens, which is the equivalent to New York City back in the states. There is always something to do and places to go see. Classes, as compared to that, seem very dull.
So far, I've been all over. After Meteora, I've been to Mt. Pelion, a tiny mountain village called Makrinitza, the Argolid, Mycene, Naplfiao and last weekend Sparta. I've seen more ancient ruins than I can count and they are still amazing. The food is still wonderfull (no change there) and I'm most certainly learning more and more Greek as time goes on. I've even had a few tentative discussions with the people here, which was pretty rewarding.
Ok, on to Sparta. We left at 7:30 this past weekend from Athens, and it took a total of about 5 hours bus ride to make it into Sparta. On the way, we crossed the Isthmus (a thin band of land connecting mainland Greece with the Peloponnese) and made our way down south again into Laconia. So, here's the 5 minute version on Spartan history up until Roman times. The first inhabitants of Laconia (Peloponnese) were the Messenians. Though, after a while, the Spartans came in and kicked their asses in the first Messenian war. After a few more battles, the Messenians were made into hoplites who ran around working Laconia for their Spartan warlords. The Spartans took up camp in Sparta and developed a whole bunch of governmental stuff with Kings and an Assembly and the Ephors, who I won't explain. By this time, Sparta controlled most of Laconia. Then they had some more conflicts with Athens, the Peloponessian war came about and tons of stuff happened. That's all you need to know, because I'm tired of writing it.
SO! We get to Sparta through the pass in Mt. Tiegetus and climb this monstrous hill/mountain thing to the Temple of Helen. Here, Nigel (the prof) reads us Herodotus' description of the temple. This part was amazing, as he was pointing out physical landmarks and traits about the land we were sitting right in the middle of. It was a very sobering experience. Then, only because we absolutely had to, we all stood on the edge of the mountain and screamed "This is Sparta" because...well...that was Sparta. It was great.
We had lunch on the ruins of Helen's temple, and then hiked back down to the bus. We arrived in the physical town of Sparta, checked into our hotel, and went looking at the acropolis and some more ruins there. The night was ours, so me and a bunch of kids went out to dinner and came back to the hotel to chill. Saturday, we wake up super early and head out to the Spartan Museum. The museum was small, but wow did it have everything...and i mean EVERYTHING to do with archaic, classical and roman sparta. Whoa.
The rest of the day was spent visiting more ruins. We had to, however, stall some because there was a communist riot going on in Athens on Saturday. Because the majority of our apartments were right in the middle of the riot area, we had to stall so as to not get back to early and get pepper sprayed. Crazy stuff. On the way back, we drove the Mt. Tiegetus again. That mountain range was amazing. I can not put into words the absolute beauty of this place. The range itself was huge and very long. The mountain peaks were covered in snow while we, on the ground, were in tee-shirts and flip flops. The peaks were so high they extended into the clouds. You couldn't see the tops of almost any of them and they ALL had olive tree groves around their base. They were the most amazing things I think I have ever seen. So after that, we arrived back in Athens and I collapsed into bed. The end.
Alright, this entry is already long enough, so I'll shut up and leave you all to it. I'm glad to hear everyone is doing so well abroad and at home. Love you all and miss you!
- Sara

Kira (Thailand): organic farming and pig slaughter

Hey guys! A whole bunch has happened since last post, as usual...

Part 1: Surin Organic Farmers
The homestays just keep getting better and better. I honestly don't know what else there is to learn or experience at this point, but we still have three months left.
We got back a few days ago from a homestay in Surin province, which is supposedly the organic farming province. However, less than half of a percent of the farmland there is actually organic. We got to meet with the vice-governor of Surin, who rambled for a few hours about why he was so great and oh so supportive of organic farming. When asked why not more farmers were organic, he blamed the farmers themselves, saying that it "wasn't in their hearts."
After this, we met our homestay families (who all farm sans chemicals). Another student and I stayed with a middle-aged couple. All four of my host parents' children were out working in various cities. My host mom slept in the same bed as the other student and me, and she let us do a lot of the cooking. She is pretty amazing. She picks and sells coconuts, grows and mills her own organic rice, weaves, and also raises buffalo, chickens, and ducks. The area we were in was gorgeous too with lots of palm trees.
Some highlights from the homestay:
1. Festival: The first morning we were there, there was a huge festival for the 10th anniversary of the organic movement in the village I wasn't staying in. We all went over there to celebrate with them. One thing I noticed was that no one had to pay for food -people just brought food and everyone could eat it. Also, the governor made an appearance. Of course, he wanted all of the farang to pose for a picture with him. I felt very used...
2. Fishing: That afternoon, I was a little bored, so I went outside to wander and ran into our driver. He asked if I wanted to come fishing. So we all went fishing Thai-style -it's some complex process that I don't completely understand, but it involves swimming. We went to a tiny, milky-green pond at the edge of the rice field and splashed around, and the Thai guys we were with caught fish, often with their hands.
3. Other farming activities: I got to sort silk worms and pick vegetables. It was fun. Also, on the last night we were there, my host mom made me and 5 other students shave coconuts with spoons for a few hours. We kept wanting dinner, but all we got were more coconuts! It was amusing. After a 7:30 dinner (which is really late when you're used to being put to bed at 8), we shaved even more coconuts. We didn't get to bed until 9:30! (homestay life usually involves absurdly early bedtimes, and we're always tired anyway. I think the whole homestay situation just drains my energy.)
4. Dalad Ki-ow (Green Market): This is the organic market where our host parents sell their organic food. We got to wake up really early (4ish) and go with them to sell on our last day. I had fun selling the coconuts that we shaved. One of the host moms also packed us a picnic breakfast, which was adorable.

One thing that completely blew me away is the fact that the organic farmers that we stayed with gave up so much of the little they had to stop using chemicals. Switching back to organic from chemical farming is difficult for a number of reasons. First, since chemicals deplete the soil, it is difficult to get a good yield the first few years off chemicals. Also, some banks buy up a lot of chemical fertilizer and make all the farmers who ask for loans buy some before they can get their loans! Additionally, organic farming takes a lot more work than chemical farming. So organic farmers make less money for the first few years, have a hard time getting loans, and also have to do more work. The price they get for organic food isn’t actually very much higher than the price for non-organics. However, they seemed to understand that it was worth it for the environmental and health benefits. To them, money is not very important. I am amazed at their deep connection with their land, and I’m also angry that chemicals were forced on them in the first place.
One organic farmer we had a discussion with said that CIEE students were her only hope, and that we needed to take all of our knowledge and power and make the world better. She wants us to make people realize that they needed to eat local, natural and organic foods. She wants us to stop the major corporations and the governments from making life hard for small scale farmers. And I want to help her, I really do, with everything I have, but I don’t think I can reverse all of the damage that has already been done. I don’t even know where to start.

Part 2: Slaughterhouses

After we returned from homestay, we went on a “follow the food” activity. I was in the meat group, so I got to see a fish farm, a pig slaughterhouse, and a cow slaughterhouse. Ajaan Jeab, our girly, dainty little Thai teacher, was somehow put in charge of our group. The fish farm was actually pretty nice. It was run by a nice old man on a river. We spent a long time just sitting around by the river and contemplating how fun canoeing would be. However, the fish are packed 900 deep in a 3x3x3 meter space.
Before our ordeal at the slaughterhouse, Ajaan Jeab took us out for a nice dinner at a downtown restaurant. After a pleasant dining experience, we went to the pig slaughterhouse to speak with the veterinarians and see some slaughters. The slaughterhouse, which is run by the municipality, kills 180 pigs every night. They kill at night so that the meat is extra fresh for morning market –Thais like their meat very fresh. The pig slaughterhouse was pretty much the closest thing to a horror film that I’ve ever been in. I won’t go into too much detail here, but if you’re interested, I have a ton of pictures and video. It was terrible, and I’m never going to eat pork again (that being said, I keep getting food with pork in it by accident. Avoiding pork in Thailand is incredibly difficult. So I guess I mean that I’ll never eat pork intentionally again.)
The next day, we went to lunch at a Muslim-run resturaunt to avoid pork. After lunch, we went to see a cow slaughtered. In comparison, this wasn’t terrible, although it was still sad to see death. It is interesting how the Thais utilize every part of the animal.
Anyway… I feel like I really need to stop eating meat again at some point. I have multiple reasons for that, but I’m not going to list them because this entry has gone on for far too long…

I really and truly hope that all of you are well and safe and happy wherever you are.

Audrey (Australia)-Cultural Experiences

AH First post! I know it's really belated but what can I say, I've been busy!

I'm currently on my two week homestay and I'm having a fantastic time. I feel so lucky that I have such a great family and get to live in such a beautiful area.
My "mom", Gina, is the Homestay coordinator for the program and I think I was placed with her because she is a chef by profession and understands veganism very well. She has a 14 year old daughter, Fiona, and an 11 year old, Charlie. All three of them are outgoing and engaging and I feel like I'm really a part of the family. For example Gina had bellydancing yesterday and I 'watched' the Charlie and Fiona and today I looked after Charlie and got him to the bus on time in the morning.

Gina lives in a neighborhood called the Channon (pronounced Chan-en) about 20 km outside Lismore. The region is largely pastoral, very hilly with cows and livestock, but just half an hour away there are massive Eucalypt and tropical forests. Lismore is a hotbed for alternative lifestyles including a couple large communes. This started because an Acquarius Festival was held here in 1973 and many of the college students who came decided to drop out of school and start a life here. For example, on my street there are at least two musicians, a German expat who used to live under a tree, a Jungian therapist, an organic gardener, a natural healer, and a garden rejuvenator. I'm really enjoying everyone and I had a great talk today with the German expat and her husband, a musician. Everyone seems to be very much in tune with each other and there is a strong sense of community, it could hardly be more different than LA.

Also this is like the perfect marijuana growing climate and just about everyone has a plant in their yard. I went a party with my "mom" on Saturday and both she and her partner were smoking and drinking all night. Which was great because I didn't need to feel guilty about consuming vast quantities of wine and champagne. God the way Australians drink is really no joke!

Charlie my host brother is completely obsessed with skateboarding and American culture. All our conversations go along the lines of him asking "What do they call Hungry Jack's in America?" [Burger King], "How do you pronounce dog in America?" and then laughing my silly American replies. Or as I leave the bathroom I'm ambushed with "Want to see a truck stop?", "An ollie?" or whatever skateboard trick comes to mind at the moment.

I'd like to get and explore more but we have so much reading! The problem really is that the reading is so interesting I WANT to read it all and it takes me forever to absorb all the details.

Our classes have taken a turn for the boring side but fortunately we're going to a Buddhist retreat tomorrow and spending the night there. We're going to explore the spiritual side of environmentalism while camping in a Eucalypt forest. Amazing? Absolutely. Unfortunately we can't kill anything, including leeches, mosquitos, and snakes. I actually haven't seen any snakes yet but I DID overhear the Channon store manager discussing his 'pet' 9 foot python today. I think my expression was probably pricelessly American.

Here are my most recent observations on Australian culture:
-Mosquites are mozzies, skipping class is wagging, and rainforest rave parties are doofs
-Not only is there Vegemite, Marmite and Promite are alternate versions and people really do enjoy it.
-Dental care seems to be a low priority compared to surfing, art, drinking, or really anything.
-Linkin Park and Weird Al are the music of choice for adolescent boys.
-There are marijuana police that patrol people's backyards and drop down from helicoptors to collect pot plants.
-Leeches here are tiny and have the unforunate habit of climbing through shoelace holes and into eyelids. If they do you have to leave them there because pulling them out would destroy your eyeball.

Robert (New Zealand) - Sweet As

"Sweet as": Kiwi expression meaning "cool", "good", or "excellent".
For example
Person 1: "I just decided that you need this $100 bill more than me."
Person 2: "Sweet as."

Oh, and Kiwi = New Zealander. Not to be confused with the kiwi bird or the kiwi fruit, which are to be refered to as such.

I spent the weekend at a wwoof site in Purau (wwoof = willing workers on organic farms), just south of Christchurch. It happened that Jon had booked the same farm stay as me. It was a really good time. We arrived during a big rain storm with wind so strong it threatened to knock you off your feet. The farm gets all its water from rain catchment, so they were very thankful after the drought they've been having. I weeded, built earth terraces, made steps, made stakes out of fencing wire, and made compost heaps. At night you could look out over the bay to the lights of Littleton. It was a very relaxing place. Jon and I rented kayaks and went out paddling in Purau Bay and explored an old island fort that was a POW camp during WWII. Michael and Wendy, the couple who ran the farm stay, are good folk. They really make me want to grow old like them, living on a farm in the hills by the ocean, spending days working the land and evenings enjoying the company of friends from all corners of the world.

On Sunday we head out for a five day hiking trip on the Routeburn and Greenstone tracks. I'm going to be one of the Leaders of the Week (part of the personal growth part of the program), which means I have lots of planning to do over the next few days on top of paper writing and reading. It's a bit stressful now, but I'm really looking forward to the hike. On friday I'm going to take surfing lessons, and probably make and ass of myself. It'll be grand.

So, I know I've been trying to be positive in these ending lists, but some things just need to be said.

Things I have not been appreciating:
-Spoons. New Zealand only has small teaspoons and huge soup spoons. There are no properly medium sized table spoons.
-Kiwis hating on sandals. Sandals are apparently somewhat looked down upon. They actually don't let you into a lot of bars if you are wearing sandals.
-Kiwis don't like 'thick' food. Milkshakes are just cool milk with some flavoring unless you special order with ice cream, and even then their still pretty weak. Also, sandwiches are thin. One slice of meat, one slice of cheese type deal.
-How many pretty New Zealand girls there are that I'll never be with. Self explanatory.
-Camera. My camera seems to have deleted all the pictures I've taken thus far.

Ok, back to the positive.

Things I have been appreciating:
-Manual labor
-That security at the University of Canterbury drives segues
-That it's customary to thank bus drivers as you get off the bus.
-Good food
-Trespassing

Ted (Thailand) : Two Old Capitals

So I basically became bored with Chiang Mai, which definitely lacks the entertainment potential of all of your European cities. So I moved south to two of Thailand's old capitals, Sukhothai and Ayutthaya. Chiang Mai was the former capital of the Lanna Thai Kingdom, but Sukhothai and especially Ayutthaya were precedessors to the modern Thai state.

I stayed in New Sukhothai, which is predictably very close to old Sukhothai. Sukhothai was a Khmer (Cambodian) city for a while before establishing its own kingdom in the 13th century. Later it declined, and Ayuthaya reigned as a properous capital when London was a shack town (or so people like to say), before being brutally sacked by the Burmese in the 18th century. Both are UNESCO world heritage sites, and full of huge monuments and temples (the only structures made out of stone in pre-modern Thailand). Old Sukhothai was all by its lonesome, but old Ayutthaya is surrounded by modern buildings and roads.

All in all, both places are breathtaking with some temples in good enough shape to see the excellent craftsmanship of statues, buddhas and decorations. It's crazy to imagine all of the ruins when they were new, brightly painted, and surrounded by religious devotees. Thailand is 95% Buddhist now, and was probably even more so back then. I'm glad I was never a Thai king, having to do a million different rituals, like dancing on an elephant...or just having to ride on an elephant for hours and hours which I hear is terrible.

Right now I'm looking forward to a lot of wandering and being a general lost farang. Some of my recent Thai encounters.

-A middle aged man asked me to take a picture with him, and called me very handsome.
-A gaggle of middle aged women surrounded me, called me and my skin beautiful, and then compared me to a guava since the word for foreigner and guava are the same, oh how funny ... how do I make a disgruntled face?
-Shook hands with some random politician
-Met an overweight Thai guy with a sideways pony tail, make-up and his best girlish voice. I always get nervous when the lady boys ask me where I'm going.

So travel plans, off to Kanchanburi to see Thailand's largest waterfall, learn about the death railway built by the japanese during WW2 using POWs,and to take some cooking lessons. And then Khon Kaen (maybe see kira?), Nong Khai, and then into Laos to putz around. Yes, I've basically left academics behind, which is both great and terrible.

Everyone's travels sound amazing, and I'm pretty much equally jealous of all of them.

-Ted

Emily (Germany) Geneva and other random happenings

I'm starting to learn that Freiburg is the best city in the world. Honestly. When I leave, even for a day, I just want to be back in Freiburg. Props for picking the absolute best city, IES!
Anyway, we went to the UN in Geneva on Thursday and Friday. We heard a number of different speakers. A couple were pretty enthralling, but a couple were brutal. We heard the Slovenian ambassador to the UN (Slovenia holds the EU presidency, so he mostly talked about that). We also had someone talk about human rights. It was remarkable that the woman made something so incredibly interesting so incredibly boring. She just droned on and on, it was really unfortunate. The other woman also talked about human rights, but she was personable and entertaining. On Friday, we had someone talk about the UN's involvement with refugees. He was by far the most interesting. He's a lawyer and was a very good public speaker. The guy after him talked about the WTO and didn't change his pitch at all. All in all though, I have very good notes and learned a lot about the UN and how it tries to do so much more than Americans seem to give it credit for, but of course it's very bureaucratic and doesn't have the ability to get that much done. Meh.
I was a bit disappointed in Geneva. It was just extremely expensive and snooty. IES took us out for dinner at a Cheese Fondue restaurant. I've never been so disgusted in my life. It smelled completely awful and, though I was starving, I could hardly choke down my overcooked pasta. I ended up drinking too much wine because it was the only thing that would block out the smell for more than two seconds. I just kind of held it against my nose. Most of the Americans who did participate in the fondue thought it tasted better than it smelled, but still would have preferred something else. I DEFINITELY would have preferred something else. I would have gone somewhere else (it wasn't required) but the prices for anything was at least 40 Swiss Francs. That's $40! For dinner! After dinner, a huge group of us went exploring for a place to dance. Nothing was open on a Thursday night. We ended up in Geneva's ghetto. So, basically, it was the snootiest ghetto I have ever seen. There was all this cool graffiti and everybody was speaking Spanish. There was supposed to be a valentine's day party somewhere over there, but apparently the club is run by illegal immigrants. Perfect. It was really bizarre looking for this place, but at least we got to see the city because we honestly walked through all of it.
I woke up Friday morning and turned on CNN, only to hear about the NIU shooting. I was really freaked out because CNN had almost no information available. I didn't have a way to get in contact with any of my friends at NIU so that was in the back of my mind all day. It's all so scary.
We had some free time after our lectures, but me and a few of my friends were so tired from walking around so much the night before (and had already seen the city) that we just got lunch at a grocery store (only $10 for a meal instead of $40!) and sat at Starbucks sipping a $5 cup of tea. Ridiculous town.
We all got back to Freiburg on Friday night. I slept so well that night, it was amazing. Yesterday night, I went out to a local brewery with a few friends, including Paul who goes to Beloit with me. He was talking to this guy who had worked as a miner all over the world. He was an American and was there with a man from Eritrea. The American scared me a lot and had incredibly evil looking eyes, so I made conversation with some other people. Paul asked him where he most wanted to work and the guy said "Wherever I can make the most profit." It soon unfolded that he's in the blood diamond industry and has most likely exploited and killed entire communities. Needless to say, I felt sick and had to leave. Disgusting.
Now I'm working on an outline for a paper for my Muslim World class. The paper isn't due until April, but my professor wants a detailed outline with our topic question already. If only I had actually had time to do some research at the library, but he sprung this on us the day before we left for Geneva. Great. I'm writing on the EU's involvement in Afghanistan. But only because it was one of the least depressing things I could write about.
Well..... this turned into an uplifting entry. I'm really very happy, but my liberal arts education has made me pessimistic and disgusted in the world.
On Friday, IES is taking us all to go skiing in the Alps. I haven't been skiing in like five years, so this should be interesting. I'm the only one that I'll be skiing with who's skied in the Rockies, though, so that should be an advantage. Northern Wisconsin is nothing compared to the Alps. Then on Sunday, we're going on our second trip. We're going to Budapest, Prague and Krakow. We're also stopping for an afternoon in Auschwitz because it's on the way. Hopefully the people are a lot more respectful than they were in Dachau. I'm meeting up with John in Krakow and he's going to show me around the city. Hopefully this trip with be fun. This is definitely the one that I'm the most excited for.

John (Poland) A Week in Krakow

Well, it's been a fun first week here in Krakow. As I think of that, I marvel how much longer you all have been abroad and feel like I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Well, I've been loving the program here. This week was set aside basically to adjust to Krakow, learn about the city and program I'm in, and basically be tourists. My dorm is located about 15 minutes from the market square, which is the largest in Europe and is the heart of the Medieval Old Town and a lot of the historic buildings, cathedrals, museums, etc. Krakow is an incredible city, which was left relatively untouched by WWII, and thus is still filled with incredible 14th and 15th century buildings and art and walking around it is so surreal when compared to almost any American city (except kinda Boston). Poland is an incredibly Catholic country so there are churches and cathedrals everywhere and not only are they gorgeous (St. Mary's, in the market square has some of the best Gothic and Renaissance art of any Cathedral in Europe) but they are also constantly in use for masses, offerings and individual prayers. Among the sites we've seen around the city are the Collegium Maius (great college) of the Jagiellonian University, which was stuffed with great art, maps and scientific instruments used throughout the history of the second-oldest University in Europe. We also toured Kazimierz, the old Jewish district, now the hip, interesting new neighborhood as well as the Soviet factory town, Nowa Huta, built to give Krakow a proletarian influence. Pics of this and all my other SA stuff are on my Facebook.

My program itself only has three other people, Megan, Christine and Caitlin, which makes me the literal odd man out, but fortunately we all seem to like each other, so it should work out well. Our program director is a wonderful Polish lady named Beata, who is an archeologist working on the excavation project in the Wawel Castle, which would be the Polish equivalent of a British archaeologist working on Westminster Cathedral and Buckingham Palace. She is a wealth of knowledge on history, sociology, art, architecture and archeology and will be giving us a lot of our lectures in our Polish History and Culture course, which looks to be wonderful. She also knows lots of interesting people who she has guest lecture or show us various sites around the city. For example, on Thursday she managed to get us a tour of the ongoing archaeological dig underneath the historic town square, which will eventually be open to the public. When we went down, however, we saw the old foundation of the market building, a 13th century pipe system and cottages from the same time period which were being excavated. Our academic program will focus on such experiences which combine firsthand visits with expert lecturers, so I'm actually itching for classes to start tomorrow. This will also be good because my Polish is laughably poor and even though one can get by with mostly English, I look forward to actually learning the language.

I realize that next week will be my first class since early December, so I should be pretty busy but I'll hopefully be able to make time to tell you all about the wonders of Polish beer and make everyone using Pounds and Euros incredibly jealous over the prices here. Hope everyone's doing well!

P.S. Get out to those polls on Tuesday, Beloiters!

Kate (Ireland): The walking bus

Walking Bus: a term used by Irish kids to indicate walking in groups for safety (as if Galway is dangerous).

So, due to my OCD-esque need for continuity, I've been peer-pressured into writing like a grown-up the way all of you are doing (I usually never capitalize anything, etc).

I'm always confused when the weekend rolls around because most days here feel like a weekend.

Last weekend I went to Dublin and stayed with Agnotti, who is doing a theater program. Dublin basically took my breath away. After a month of chilled out, small-scale Galway, I stepped off the bus in the middle of Dublin rush hour and was completely overwhelmed. There were people everywhere and amazing buildings, statues, huge double-decker buses, markets, stores..Fantastic. Agnotti lives on the south side of the city in a neighborhood called Ranelagh (ranna-lahhhh). The first night, we hung out with Agnotti's hilarious theater friends and went out to a great pub in the Trinity College neighborhood. The next day, we wandered around the city, took a long walk and explored the north side away from all the tourists. Pictures on facebook. That night was spent cooking an amazing dinner, talking and laughing and drinking 2 Euro wine from Aldi, and going out to bars in the Temple Bar (trendy, cool, artsy..) neighborhood. We tore up some dance floors, drank Absinthe, and talked to absolutely everyone. Met tons of crazies and had a phenomenal time. After about 2 hours of sleep, I drunkenly walked back to the touristy area and bus-ed back to the west coast.

I like having random adventures with my friends here. This week:
--I sat in the harbor with Jenna and Jerad, drinking tea and watching the sunset
--Got followed home by a dog
--Hung out after hours VIP-style with Polly and Eoin who work at a nightclub
--Woke up from a nap because my crazy neighbor Alex set off the fire alarm while he was making puppy chow
--Got told my a 19 year old irish boy that I was proof that God exists
--Recorded my first radio show at NUIG Flirt FM!!!
--Last but not least, saw THE ZOMBIES live...absolutely incredible.

More to come. I miss you darlings.

KO (Senegal)

ok, so I don't really have any good stories or anything, so I think I'll just give you a list of things I've noticed/like/are struck up/dislike....
1. People take a lot of pride in what they have, ie- people wash their cars a lot, I've decided this is because if you have a car, even if it is a pos, you're pretty lucky, so you take good care of it.
2. on the subject of cars, I hate having every taxi slow down and honk at me in the hopes that I want a taxi. If I wanted to take a taxi I would flag one down, not wait for one to come to me. I've actually had taxis stop and back-up to me and try to convince me that I need a taxi.
3. I love buying fruit on the street, there are tons of stands maned by the same people every day, so I have specific places that I go to and where the proprietor knows me, it is pretty great. As a ps, I eat and love bananas now, who saw that coming?
4. I'm surprised people know I'm American instead of French or something like that, people always want to practice their english on me, some people are better than others.
5. The French influence is interesting, for instance, I have a baguette with butter and nuetella(ish) chocolate every morning for breakfast.

I feel like there is a lot more, but I really don't know what it is, so I hope everyone is doing well and having a great time in their respective corners of the globe.
KO

Kira (Thailand): Where we're at

I think I may be settling into a routine here in Khon Kaen. That being said, we are leaving for a five-day trip to Surin tomorrow morning, so things will stop being routine fairly quickly.
(As a side note, my throat hurts a lot right now. I blame all the food and utensil-sharing, my chronic sleep deprivation, and the MSG (well, the MSG isn't actually making my throat hurt, but I have been getting a lot of headaches too). I'm just praying that it isn't mono, if only because I don't want to be responsible for giving the whole group mono)

Since I've gotten a few questions about my courses, I guess I'll try to explain them to some level (you can skip down two paragraphs if this bores you). The whole system is actually fairly complicated. We are officially taking four courses, each of which is taught on no regular schedule. One is Thai class, which consists of 3-hour class sessions, 2-hour peer tutoring sessions, and "Thai cultural fun" events. We have moved into the "themed" section of the course, meaning our words relate to the theme we are studying in our other classes. Since our current theme addresses chemical and organic agriculture, our Thai vocabulary includes "chemical fertilizer," "integrated agriculture," and things like that. It's fairly difficult.
Our other classes all blend together, but they're all taught to pertain to a series of units that addresse aspects of globalization in northeast Thailand. We have a series of lectures, workshops, and discussions that relate to our unit. Our current unit is "land," and we're focusing more specifically on the changes in the agricultural system in Thailand. Because of this, we will be staying with organic farmers in Surin starting tomorrow. While we are there, we will be gathering information to use in various assignments. Also, as part of our alternative educational model, we each have to help facilitate one of the units. This is my unit to facilitate, so I've been exceptionally busy lately.
That's all I'm going to write about that here. You can ask me if you have any other questions. It's a pretty good program overall, really.

Anyway.

Our last unit ("the people of Khon Kaen") just ended, and we had a retreat this weekend to do our "Where we're at." The WWA is exactly what it sounds like -a time during which we can discuss where we are at as individuals, as a group of students. The program facilitators, staff, and Thai teachers have their own WWAs. So we went off to this retreat site which was actually run by a co-op of villagers. We got a chance to walk around the village, and one villager insisted on showing us around. We saw herds of cattle walking down the street, ponds that were green and milky in color, and overly friendly villagers that kept asking us (in Thai) where we were going and if we had eaten (these are appropriate greetings, not nosy questions). That night we had a campfire, and our driver P'Joy made us his famous roast pork. I'm not a fan of pork in general, but even I love P'Joy's pork. We all stayed out late drinking beer Leo, talking and looking at stars (I thought of you, KO). It was amazing. However, we then had an agonizing night of shivering under thin blankets in a non-insulated house made of boards. It was one of the coldest nights of my life, but I guess it was good group bonding.

I am very excited about the trip I have tomorrow. The things I have learned about this issue have already shaken me. I feel like this trip has shaken me a lot in general. I find my eyes tearing up while I'm reading or listening to lectures, and it's even more dramatic when I'm actually with the people. It's one of the deepest things I have ever felt, but I have no idea how to explain it.

If that makes sense.

Miss you guys,
Kira

Robert (New Zealand) - My book has more bookmarks than pages...

Wow, lots has happened.

The trip from Wellington was, if I had to use just one adjective, windy. It was really great though. We took the big Interislander ferry to Picton, then a train down to Christchurch. The train had an open air viewing car in the back so I spent most of the six hour ride there watching the country side go by. Jay and Marcie's (the two faculty leaders) two young daughters have finally started to warm to the group. I got to watch Elly (almost 4) scream and giggle at the roaring sound of passing through tunnels one the train. It was cute. Shane (one of the students) has been teaching Arden (almost 2) to say "what's up dog?", "roll deep", and "I'm from the streets".

Our first night in Christchurch a few of us went out to scout the bar scene. We found a place called the StockXchange. We had about an hour of confusion as to why it was that every time we bought a beer the price changed. Finally we realized that they change the prices of their drinks every 5 minutes according to the supposed stocks of the various breweries. They also play horrible 70s music videos.

We're into a whole new section of the program now. We're living in home stays, taking classes in actual classrooms at the University of Canterbury, and doing service work at local community groups. So far I'd say I much preferred our time on the north island, but I'm still adjusting. Moving into home stays has been hard for a lot of the students, but my family is pretty good. I can't stop thinking that they seem oddly like a stereotypical 'american dream' family. The fact that home stays started on the 4th was a bit rough though.

Jon and I are doing our service learning at an environmental grassroots group in a small town outside of Christchurch. They seem really scattered and short on money and people, which can be frustrating, but hopefully we can really help them out. I'm looking forward to seeing how that all turns out.

Last Wednesday was Waitangi day, celebrating the signing of the treaty of Waitangi between the British crown and a number of Maori chiefs. There's a whole world of political and social relevance to the treaty itself, but I wont get into it now. Waitangi Day is kind of the New Zealand version of 4th of July. Tuesday night I went to the park downtown for an orchestral performance and fireworks.

I've had more small world meetings. On Kapiti we meet a woman who's niece and nephew go to Earlham, the nephew being the freshman year roommate of one of the students on the program. Also, while walking around Christchurch one evening I ran into a guy on the street who I've worked with at F&W the past two summers.

Over the weekend the group went up to a research station in the mountains. It was nice to get out of the city for a while. We learned about alpine plants, climbed Mt. Sugarloaf (we decided not to climb the mountains next to it, Mt. Horrible and Mt. Misery), saw beautiful views (including one of the most amazing sunrises of my life), and climbed in a huge bolder field called Castle Hill. We also went to a waterfall where I had the closest thing to a spiritual experience that I've had in a long time. One of those things that really defies words.


The only cure I know is a good ceremony.


Things I have been appreciating:
-Jon's idea for a "hatin' on America water pistol" to spray members of our group with when they go on self-deprecatory America bashing rants without thinking about what they're saying
-Using public transportation with some degree of competence
-Watching rugby
-The feel of rock under bare feet
-The astounding gullibility of some of the students in our group

John (Poland) Quick Hits From An Airport

Greetings fellow travelers, it’s good to finally get away from home and have a chance to add something to the blog, which I’ve very much enjoyed during my long hiatus in the south suburbs. I write this entry from the Munich airport in the midst of traveling purgatory. I have already had three flights today, Chicago to London, London to Paris, Paris to Munich and soon, finally, Munich to Krakow (the things we go through to save a buck, eh?). It’s been quite an experience which has given me a few insights to international air travel.

First of all, I love British Airways. My first flight was great, comfy seats, decent food (and wine) and amazing entertainment highlighted by a cool feature that allowed you to track your flight’s progress and stats in real time on your little monitor, which I think all flights should have. The only bad part was when they served us some food that must have been British in origin, some sort of an icy congealed mixture of viscous eggs, sausage and bacon on a bun.

Things have continued to go downhill from there. I’ve realized that all big airports are the same in that each is uniquely baffling. In Heathrow I was led in a frustrating circle by attendants which resulted in my going through the lovely shoeless x-ray process twice, after which I rushed to the gate, arriving breathless and worried I would miss my flight. Here I was hit with another realization – Americans are coddled and herded like cattle in terms of group directions. I saw nothing indicating the flight number at the gate, no sign saying when it was leave (which was later than scheduled) and heard no announcement to start boarding. This, naturally, flustered my sleep-deprived, feeble American brain, which was worried I was at the wrong gate, but all my innocuous, in my mind fair, inquiries such as “Is this the right gate for flight 294?” were met with dire looks that seemed to say “It obviously is, you dull-witted Yankee twat, would you also like help finding your ass?”

In Paris, the airport had an even more indecipherable system of gates, satellites, letters and numbers, which even those working there didn’t quite seem to understand. This was exacerbated by the fact that the signs and maps pointing to my terminal all seemed to give me two alternatives. 1 – follow this sign pointing straight down through a solid floor to get to a nonexistent shuttle OR 2 – just hoof it you fat fuck! The French honestly must love watching dumb Americans like me trying to parse their ridiculous signs.

I’ve been trying to enjoy international flying, despite doing it alone. It’s funny how being alone makes such a huge difference. I find myself wondering about others’ nationalities and being acutely aware of my own. I find that I start imagining that my Americaness just radiates and those nearby hold me in secret contempt because of it. It gets to the point where I’m launching silent irate attacks against those sitting around me. “So what if I took the tomatoes off my sandwich, that doesn’t mean I’m spoiled. Screw you, you judgmental bitch!” It’s probably not a healthy pastime.

That's all for now, I'll actually post about Krakow soon, once I've had a little more time to get a sense of it.

Emily (Germany) European Travels and The Beginning of School

If you want to read about my travels to Berlin and Tallinn (Estonia, FYI), please visit my other blog at deutschlandemily.blogspot.com. There are pictures :)

Monday was an incredibly difficult day. We were traveling back from Tallinn after everyone had stayed up until six am watching the Superbowl. I of course spent the entire day thinking about Jordan and missing her more than I had since her birthday in November. It was especially difficult because I've only mentioned her in passing (ie when asked why I'm vegan) to a select number of people here. I'm still not close enough to talk to anyone about her on a deeper level. I suppose it'll be awkward to talk to anyone about her if they didn't know her at all. But a bunch of my sisters called that night, so it was really great to hear from them and work things out a bit.

On Tuesday, we finally started our weekly classes. Before that, we were in an intensive phase of two hours a day of our mandatory European Union seminar and German classes. Today I had my exam over all of the intensive EU stuff that we'd learned... which is a TON for someone who less than a month ago knew nothing more about the EU than that it exists. It went pretty well, though, and tonight there will definitely be some celebratory dancing and drinking. Yay for no Friday classes!

The other classes I'm taking are:

* IR 370: EU-US Relations: A Multi-Dimensional Partnership
* IR 425: Culture and Politics: The Quest for Civilizational Identities in the Post-National World
* PO 332: The European Union and the Muslim World

I'm really excited for the EU-US relations course. The professor seems amazing. He accompanied my group on our trip to Berlin and Tallinn and he's at the very least a really nice and intelligent guy.
I'm kind of concerned about the other two. The Culture and Politics class seems like it's going to be very academic, theoretical, detailed and convoluted. It'll be fine, so long as those words don't translate to boring. The professor is probably the most stereotypically academic I've ever seen. His hair is styled like he belongs in the middle ages, but everything else about him (most notably his manner of speaking...) says he's a total intellectual. If only his accent wasn't so thick.
My Muslim World professor seems like he'll want everyone to say exactly what he wants to hear. We went around the class yesterday and spoke about our background on the subject and he basically shot everyone down. Scary. I said what he wanted to hear, though, which was basically "I know nothing teach me everything you know, all mighty one." According to someone who had him last semester (he's doing the IES Freiburg German program), he's the worst professor at IES. Lame. The readings and subject matter seem way too good to pass up, though, so I'm sticking through it...

So now I finally have an entire three days to myself. I haven't had more than a day without structure since I got here. My plans: Party tonight, sleep until I wake up tomorrow (which with my total sun blocking blinds should mean until noon, at least), write my reflection paper on our trip, do all my readings for my classes for the first two days of the week, go to the hot springs in a city really close to Freiburg or else hike in the Black Forest (just to celebrate the fifty degree wonderfulness that is Freiburg in February!) and possibly go to Basel for the first night of Fastnacht on Sunday. Hopefully most of that actually gets done...

Sara (Greece) - KalhMera!

I finally have some time to get my ass on this blog and write, so here I am. Goodmorning from Greece, even though technically its 1:00 PM here, so not morning anymore. Oh well! My time here is getting progressively better and better. My classes have started to pick up in pace, and I've already traveled to Meteora. It's a town in the north of the Greek mainland where there are 600 year old monastaries. The monastaries aren't on the ground, but on these amazing cliffs that are hundreds of feet above the ground. If you have time, google image Meteora to see what I mean. Getting there, however, was crazy. I had to take a 7 hour bus with crack-induced bus driver. We were driving through these ridicously switchback-like roads, on a tour bus (so...huge) going easily 70 mph, with nothing but a little guard rail that came up to my knees to protect us from falling to our deaths. Fun.
But the trip itself, minus all of the minor driving and traveling complications, was amazing. I have never in my life seen scenery that gorgeous and I know I will never forget the experience! This weekend, I signed up with my roommates to see this crazy magician that's supposed to be good, sort of like the criss angel of Greece? Maybe? :-) After that, I'll be heading to Psiri with my roommates and some girls. Psiri is the dancing, drinking, bar capital of Athena, so it should be really fun. The rest of the weekend, I'll be traveling (again, we do a lot of traveling here!) with my roommates to a nearby island, once of the first ones in the cycladic chain! It, like Meteora is suppose to be beautiful. But then again, I'm finding very little in Greece that isn't.
The food here deserves an entire blog on its own. It is amazing. Amazing. I can't say it enough. And even though most Greeks don't eat until 9 PM at the earliest, the food is well worth the wait. Though, when my roommates and I actually try our hand at cooking instead of going out, things tend to get scary. Olivia and I attempted to make breaded zucchini a few nights ago. So we get the flour, zucchini, egg, bread crumbs and olive oil to fry it in. So far everything's fine. SO we make the Zucchini and taste the finished product, which, consequently was disgusting. It tasted as if someone had dipped the zucchini in sugar! It was like a desert! So, I asked what flour Olivia had used for the zucchini. Turns out the flour, (whose label is ALL in greek) was actually powdered sugar...yeah. We fried zucchini in powdered sugar and actually tried to eat it. Ugh
Alright, i've got to get going to my modern Greek class. I'll try and jump on this blog more often, even though I feel like my time here is crazy difficult. I hope you are all doing wonderfully, both at home and abroad! Gea sou!

Kira (Thailand): Put some more shoes on the fire

So much has happened since last post, I don't even know where to start. I feel like I've been changed so much by what I've done and seen, but I'll never be able to convey the significance of all of it, and I'll just come off sounding somewhat cliche. I guess I'll try anyway...

We (well, half the group) just got back from two nights spent with the community next to the landfill. Almost all of the adults in the community make a living by scavenging through the trash that the garbage trucks drop off. They look for certain kinds of plastic and glass bottles, plastic bags, cardboard, cans and other things. They then sort the materials and sell them to a middle-man (usually ethnic Chinese) who sells them at a much higher price to the recycling center. The people in the landfill community have been making less and less money in recent years due partially to the increase in the number of city and truck scavengers, and partially due to the increase in recycling. When people recycle bottles and cans themselves, the scavengers do not get a chance to earn any money. It is strange to think of a negative side to recycling.

The community we stayed with was warm and generous, despite the fact that they have very little (they earn an average of 104 baht, or $3.50, per person per day. Minimum wage in the formal sector is 152 baht, and these scavengers actually made 700-800 baht per person per day 10 years ago). They also seemed genuinely happy much of the time. Actually, they were pretty much the happiest-seeming group of people I've ever come across...

The kids in this community were adorable. They all love playing together, and with us, and they LOVE having their pictures taken. I started calling one little girl "monkey" (in English) and she would repeat it. She also took my camera at one point and she and her friends shot a whole bunch of pictures of each other and us.

But anyway... this morning my host dad took me out scavenging (we went out yesterday morning too). My little host brother (around 5 years old) came too, and he was cold. So his dad made him a fire out of shoes from the landfill. Whenever he would complain, my host dad would just add more shoes to the fire. The smoke was black and probably full of toxins that would be illegal in the US, but the little boy was warm and happy, which I guess is what matters in the short-run. And part of me wished that I could take him home and buy him new clothes and make him wear a bicycle helmet and a seatbelt, and teach him to speak and read English, and send him to "good" schools and soccer practice, because that is how I have been conditioned to want to treat children. But I can't really do that, and even if I could, would he really be better off without the support of his community?

The parents in the community want their kids to get educated and leave so that they can have better lives. One woman told us about how her son stopped going to school in 9th grade without telling her. She was very disappointed because she wanted him to have everything she didn't have. But other villagers actually had kids who were getting educations and leaving. In a perfect world, we wouldn't have or need scavengers, and there wouldn't be anyone who needed to scavenge to make a living.

But for now, these scavengers are focusing on earning a living and petitioning the government for things like cleaner drinking water. Actually, CIEE students have helped them begin to create a network with other groups of scavengers. They've also established an emergency fund and a microcredit project called the piggy bank project. Families can get a pig for free and give back two piglets. They feed the pigs with food they find in the landfill. According the the leader of the community, it was the association with CIEE students that made them realize they had rights in the first place, and CIEE students have helped plan and implement all of these projects. I hope that I'll be able to contribute as much as my predecessors have...

On other topics: Before this homestay, we went to a Buddhist funeral. It was the funeral of our driver's mother-in-law. The Buddhist approach to death is very much different from the western approach. Basically, Buddhists view death as a natural part of life, and so it is not necessary to be sad. Before the body was cremated, we all went up to put paper flowers on the coffin, and then we were given handkerchiefs and lip glosses and... favors? I'm not sure what that was about. When the body was sent into the crematorium, fireworks went off and small candies and coins were thrown into the crowd. Little children (and some grandmas) ran for the treats. Apparently, this gives good merit to the deceased... it was sort of like a pinata. Very different view of death.

Before that, we all went on surprise homestays with people of Khon Kaen. We had no idea where each of us was going until we got there. I went to stay with a traditional Thai herbal doctor! It was fun. I got to make herbal remedies with the doctor's wife. I also got to sleep in the examining room, which was good because there were no lizards in there (there was a HUGE one on the wall of the waiting room).

I feel like this entry is hopelessly long...
I Love and miss you guys.

kate (ireland): come here to me

"come here to me:" an irish phrase meaning something like "listen to this" or "here's a new story"

so last weekend we went on a bus tour to connemara, which is for all intents and purposes ireland's wilderness land. in the 1600s, oliver cromwell was running england and he basically took over all of eastern ireland where the fertile soil is and sent millions of irish to the west coast to die. they settled in connemara and ended up survivng and multiplying, living in the mountains and growing potatoes. go figure. my connemara pictures are up on facebook, and i hear it's even more spectacular in the summmer with the flowers and the sunshine. i plan to go back before i leave. we even saw a few connemara ponies, which should get KO excited. the best part of the day was sitting on the banks of the lake in front of kylemore abbey, enjoying the reflection of the sun off of the water and the green leaves everywhere and the mountains in the distance. i could have sat there all day. it was hard to believe i was really there, and that it was the middle of january.

classes here are basically a joke. i have 8 hours of class per week and my grades are based off of one final/paper at the end. meh. and let me tell you, cherish beloit classes while you can because big lecture halls are a drag. especially for english classes. i am taking 20th century literature, contemporary irish writing, intro to northern ireland politics, and modernizing social work and social policy. yay! also, enjoy the solitude of beloit. it's absolutely impossible to find a place to be alone here. i share my room, there's always someone in our living room, there are hoards of people on campus constantly, and the noise gets a little maddening.

been talking to lots of irish people. i was at a house party last week when a girl asked me about the american government. i stiffened a little, hoping to avoid anti-americanism and war talk, but she explained to me that she didn't really know anything about how our goverment work and what our policies were and such. so it was really great to get to have a real conversation with someone about that stuff, and explain how congress works and how bush basically tramples us all. it's a very foreign concept to the irish that americans do not support the elected goverment in power.

it's really weird to meet people and immediately forget their name, not beause you're too drunk, but because it sounds so unfamiliar on your tongue: deckland, ronan, griona, padric, moira, colhm. we're speaking the same language, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it. i'll leave you with a wonderful/ridiculous new discovery: cockney rhyming slang, where a word is referred to by another that rhymes with it. examples: apples and pears = go upstairs, china plate = mate, britney = beer (after britney spears), spetic = yank (after septic tank--feel the love, my american darlings?).

anyhow, i miss you guys. happy february!

KO (Senegal)

Hey all! Things here are great. I got here exactly 4 weeks ago and the program is 1/5 over, which kind of blows my mind.

The craziest thing was 2 weekends ago, we went to this reggae concert at the big stadium in Dakar where they have soccer games and werstling matches. Tickets were only 4 dollars, so we couldnt resits even though none of us are huge reggae fans. We got there at 10, and despite the fact that the opening bands started at 8, there were still tons of people waiting outside and a line of people smashed together waiting by one of the gates. so we decided it would be too difficult to get in, so we went to a bar for a few hours and went back at like midnight to only a slightly better situation. we tried to find the end of the line, and couldnt and the senegalese guy we were with suggested just trying to get into the line towards the front of it, which seemed completely impossible. but as we got to the front of the line we realized there were tons of guys more than ahppy to let us in front of them, mostly because it meant that that they would get to rub all up on us while we waited to get in. so we all tried to find places to get in and tried to get in slyly so that the police and military guys keeping the peace with giant sticks didnt notice. so all of the girls got in without too much trouble, but then we had to wait for a really long time for the guys we were with to get in since it was obviously a lot harder for them to find people to let them budge. so we got in and there are just tons of people smoking and the main band didnt even start until 2am. we stayed until after 4 and decided we should leave before the band was actually done because otherwise we were afraid we would be trampled. when i got home at 5am i could still here the music in the distance! it was the craziest thing ever.

the other highlight so far was the wedding i went to last weekend with some members of my host familly. I got to wear a senegalese dress that i borrowed from the nanny who lives in our house and also went to the wedding. there was music and dancing and good food, so similar but also very different to american weddings. evidently the griot, the guy singing, was pretty famous, so that was cool, and every once in a while someone would walk around and hand all of the people in the band cash, which is wierd because overall people are very private with their money.

i think that is about it!