Emily (Germany) Ich bin heir!

Hey everyone! I arrived in Freiburg on Monday but haven't had internet access until today. I'm currently stealing it.
Don't be surprised if I never come back to the United States. I already love it so much here. I haven't met that many people yet because everyone is unpacking and jetlagged, but I know soon I'll have some really fun people to hang out with for the next four months.
Freiburg is really an adorable city. It's the perfect size with about 200,000 people. There's really good public transportation (and it's German, so it runs on time!) and a lot of things are within walking distance for me. I'm a block away from an organic supermarket that's kind of like whole foods. They have vegan nutella and a ton of meat substitutes as well as organic.. everything. There's also a market in the afternoons practically in my backyard. One of the street car stations is right near my room, too, so I can get almost anywhere in the city center in about ten minutes.
My roommates are really nice, too. I have my own room, but I share a kitchen, bathroom and common area with three other people, just like a townhouse arrangement, only the kitchen is bigger. All of my roommates are German. Two guys and a girl. I haven't met one of them yet, but the younger girl and the guy have both been extremely helpful and friendly.
I also love how environmentally friendly everyone is here. They recycle everything... I even had to pay .25 Euros for a bag at IKEA. Of course, I didn't realize this until after I paid for everything and had to stand in the massive IKEA line all over again. Schade. (don't be surprised if I use random German phrases in any of my posts. I just kind of do that. Schade=sad)
An American student also lived in my room last semester, so she left all this stuff that she couldn't carry home. A comforter, two giant pillows, a hair dryer, etc. It's really making everything a lot easier and more colorful. When I first walked in, I saw white EVERYTHING. Now I have a bright pink comforter and other colorful things. It's almost as comfy as my bed at Beloit.
And the best part about everything is that my German is starting to come back. I can understand a lot of what people are saying. I still can't speak it very well, but that will come with time. I'm going to speak German with my roommates once my two week long intensive language sessions are over, so we'll see how that goes!
Gute nacht!

Kira (Thailand): Finally Here

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Bangkok.
I arrived at Dulles airport on Saturday, and the lady checking bags gave me a full 10 minute lecture on the possibility of deportation. "It will be between you and the Thai government." After that ordeal, the flights were smooth, and I didn't run into any problems at customs, surprisingly enough. We just got here last night, but we are leaving again tomorrow morning for a week of orientation at a resort. The program involves a lot of short trips, especially homestays. I tried to count the number of homestays, but eventually got bored and lost count. We also don't really have weekends.
The other program participants have been likable so far, and I think I'm already falling in love with Thailand. A few of us ate lunch today at an outdoor eating area. The food here is amazing, everywhere, and unimaginably inexpensive. At our orientation sessions today, we began discussing issues, and I feel like everyone is fairly well-informed and interested.
I am very excited for the semester.
Hope everyone is well.

kate (ireland): craic

craic (n)(pronounced: crack): from the irish, meaning "fun times;" "witty banter." ex: "there was great craic at that pub" and (my favorite) "where's the craic tonight?"

well kids, ireland is great craic. i've been hanging out with my upstairs and across-the-way neighbors and running around all over galway meeting people.

on tuesday, i met up with amanda's irish friends who, as fate would have it, had made friends the day before with my neighbors megan and erin. so everyone trekked over to the rosain dove pub and had some beers (galway hooker for me--what else?). let me tell you, irish kids are ridiculously funny and wild and silly. my cheeks hurt so much from laughing all night. went to a club afterwards and talked and danced and laughed--and yes, irish kids cannot dance. it's my impression that irish boys are merciless flirts and teases but they like to take care of girls--stay with them to keep creepers away, make sure they get home ok, pay for taxis. and yes, there is a giant world of truth in the drunk irish stereotype. these kids have livers of steel.

wednesday brought a catastrophic hangover and a walking tour of campus. national university of ireland is 15,000 students, quite the change from beloit. the campus is great, lots of places to eat, cool buildings, etc. pictures are up on facebook.

thursday and friday i went out with neighbors to pubs and clubs. one place, called the quays (pronounced keys), is beautiful, full of interior art and structure from a medieval french cathedral. we saw a live band doing covers of beatles, stones, james taylor, etc. super fun. the oldest pub in galway, with foundations from the 1200s, is called the king's head and i had an amazing time there last night. meeting irish people is amusing--add some booze to that accent and it's pretty hard to decipher.

today i failed utterly, slept through the outdoor market downtown with another stupid hangover. must learn that i'm only 25% irish and cannot drink the way they do, even when they pay. been thinking about you guys a lot, miss you tons. send me love.

Ted (Thailand) - Ow my eye, prostitute minefield and a little drunk

No, these three things do not go together in some hilarious and embarrassing anecdote, but are rather in consequential order.

Chapter 1: Ow! My F#*$$*& eye.

On Sunday I somehow woke up with an eye infection. I believe it was caused by swimming in the guest-house pool with no goggles, mixed with the detrimental nature of my contacts. My right eye's only weakness became the sun, or any form of light, and I spent Sunday and most of Monday lurking in the dark confines of my room like a wimpy version of Batman, or Jim Gannon. Whenever I day walked, I felt like someone had just kicked me in the eye with a spiked boot, or maybe smacked me with a staple gun. I eye hobbled to my morning class on Monday, wearing my badly mangled sunglasses that hardly stayed on my head, and continued to wear them sketchily all throughout the lecture and practice conversations.

Luckily, the local pharmacist sold me some eye drops and I can see once again, although I've refrained from wearing contacts, which has caused problems mentioned in Chapter 2.

Lessons Learned: Thai pools are no place for unprotected eyes, and pharmacists are like prophets sent here to guide the incompetent. Bless their souls.

Chapter 2: Prostitute Minefield

Never have I seen "lady nights" in such numbers. Yesterday I saw them leaning against cars, sitting at tables, lurking at bars, etc, all trying to get my attention. I can't walk anywhere without encountering them, and they slightly scare me. Today on my way back from a bar, one of them literally came out from a dark corner, started asking me where I was going, what I was doing, and after I said I wasn't interested (in Thai), started following me before deciding that I was walking too fast. A 21 year old, slightly intoxicated white suburban boy must be like candy to them. It didn't help that I hadn't worn my contacts and was unable to tell who was tellingly scantily dressed and who wasn't. The horror.

Lessons Learned: Walk on the side of the street near the old city encircling moat as the lady nights seem to be afraid of the shimmering waters, and try to walk quickly and non-drunkenly as often as possible.

Chapter 3: A little drunk.

Time: The Present. What's there to say?

Some Random Observations:

-lots of stray dogs in Chiang Mai
-moat encircling the "old city"
-Cheap Thai, Lao, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, European food.
-My room comes with a breakfast that consists of eggs, tea, imitation orange juice and toast, which I eat every morning because I'm cheap.
-According to a 43 year old Belgian who makes instruments and jewelery and who mentioned his "crystal" dealer disappearing, Thai and Lao people actually say a lot of dirty things to each other in public that foreigners have no idea about.
-there are old temples all over, even in between modern buildings, damn.

Hope you're all doing well, abroad and at home!

-Ted

KO (senegal)

hi guys; i dont have much time left on this computer and im still getting used to the different keyboard.

senegal is amawing: we moved in zith our host families on sunday; im living in a pretty big family and im not quite sure how everyone is realated etc, there are also some people living in our house who i think are ust students at the university because they dont eat with us and ndont really come out of their room. i have my oan bathroom which i wasnt really expecting and it only has cold water; which i think i will be more thankful for when it gets a little hotter out.

my host mom is great and keeps asking me if im cold and i tried to explain to her that there was snow on the ground in chicago when i left so this is a great change. im getting comfortable in the city; but i havent ventured very far from the places i know:

were about to leave and go to one of the centers ahere we will be taking classes; i excited about picking them.

ok; i have two minutes left so im sorry i cant type more and that i didnt have a chance to read ahoat eeryone else has written; another time!!

kate (ireland): luck of the irish-ish

first, my feet are very cold in my flat.

after an unspeakable journey across the atlantic and part of ireland, i got in a taxi to go to my flat and had my first conversation with a native galwayan. this is about how it went:
me: corrib village, please.
driver: ack! a yank abroad, eh? well mermermmermermerm university mermerbleh, aight, eh?
me: sorry?
driver (slowly): look there, there's the university.
me: oh. ah yes.
driver: stay away from the boys.
me: i will.
driver: my my my, bless my soul love, mermermermemrahem.

seriously.

then i took an epic nap and went out to dinner w/ a bunch of girls from my building.
nice nice times. we walked long ways to downtown along the corrib river, which should be gorgeous in the daytime. we even saw some sort of castle remnant on the banks. this morning i'm going to walk downtown w/ my roommate, umbrella in tow, and see what's what. pub scene updates to come.

Robert (USA) - Ticketu, Passporto, Okane

These are Sachi's words of wisdom for the transnational traveler (I probably misspelled it). Ticket, Passport, and money. All you really need. It's become my traveling mantra.

I'm about 2 days into my trip from Ireland to New Zealand (I think). I'm hanging out with Earlham people in LAX right now. Starting the trip in the early morning with no sleep and a little tipsy from my last pints with Jon plus all the time zone changes has thrown me completely out of wack.

Since I have no real sense of time right now, here are the occurrences of the journey so far:
-I saw Caroline (a high school friend) in Dublin airport.
-I ended up being on the same flight to Chicago as the lead guitarist for The Frames.
-Connecting through O'Hare felt strange
-It took 4 hours to get to my hotel from the airport
-Now meeting up with the Earlham group and getting to know them
-I'm getting good at sleeping on planes

Ok, checking in soon.

KO (Senegal)

hi all! here i am in an internet cafe next door to the hotel/apt that we are staying in for a few days beofre we move in with our host families on sunday. the flight was good but long we had to wait in nyc for about an hour because one of the planes engines was frozen. we got here, were fed breakfast and then took a nap until lunch, after that a man came and took us for a walk around the city, it was very interesting, and we had a chance to get some cash. there is a kid from macalester with us as well, he seems pretty nice. Thats about all I have to report, but I'm excited for more stuff to happen and to see more of the city!

Ted (Thailand) - Pink Doiley Bus

Touchdown! On the flight to Thailand I celebrated New Years with a tiny bottle of cheap airplane wine at 9 pm, and landed at around midnight on January 2nd after having taken off on December 31st.

I spent the first night in Bangkok in a hotel near the airport and bus station and awoke to the whimsical sound of a man spitting in the shower in the neighboring room. And then after my ~22 hour flight, I started on my 9 hour bus ride to Chiang Mai in the North.

The bus ride was a bearable Martha Stewart on MTV crack kind of hell. I was forced to listen to Thai pop for the entire bus ride played at a volume that canceled out my headphones. Most of the music videos playing on the big screen at the front involved someone singing about being dumped and holding his/her eyes closed as much as possible with a lot of sadly sitting in couches and leaning on walls. They inevitably ended with a close up of the victims heart broken face. There's not even random dancing like our worst pop groups have, just laying around and face close ups... for hours... There were two songs called "I am fine." that were especially ...

Besides that, the bus had a wooden interior, patchwork flower pattern ceiling and pink doiley head rests, pink curtains, pink blankets and general pink decor. Some things I just can't understand.

Ranting about Clockwork Orange style torture aside, it's beautiful here. The towns and cities seem like they grow out of the jungle with tall palm trees and big leafed plants everywhere, out in fields and in between houses. Even the largest buildings don't seem too far away from the reaching foliage. The roads are full of cars, motorcycles, tuk-tuks, songtaews (converted pick-ups that act like small buses), and bicyclists. Everything is really colorful (pink abounds in shirts, cars, taxis, annoying bus interiors, etc).

I'll write more later, but as for language classes, the script is intimidating and hurts my eyes to look at. Its all squiggles with 46 consonants and vowels that go wherever the hell they want with no regard for my helpless learning. They can be placed above, below, in front of (but the sound comes after), or behind consonants. Its about time for class, its sunny, and the streets are full of vehicles all waiting to hit me. Hope you all had an awesome new years!

Robert (Ireland) - It's Cold

The house is quiet again.  Liz and Kuni left late last week and Joseph headed back to Carleton early this morning.  Everyone who's still here has come down with cold so we're all a bit of a sorry bunch.

The days after Christmas were pretty mellow.  On Boxing Day we made sushi and went into Letterkenny for a few pints at a pub called The Cottage.  Thursday morning I woke up and walked downstairs just in time to see the last two pieces of the puzzle get put in. The Browns are looking into framing it.

I'm wishing that I could have gotten out of the house more on this trip, but the holidays are busy and it's a bit too cold for hiking.  Still, it's very pretty just around the Browns house.  Walking into Raphoe one afternoon the sun was setting and you could look south over all the golden rolling hills with long shadows and dark clouds overhead.  It was one of those surreal dream like moments.

Sunday night we went to a birthday party at the Robinson's, a wealthy family who's estate is a mile or two outside of Raphoe.  It was a Hawaiian themed party so we all got dressed up with lays and such.  There was a live traditional/rock/cover band, good food and much drink (you could pour your own pint of Guinness).  The sociologist in me was fascinated by the mixing of all sorts of people in such a wealthy house.  The rest of me just drank lots of good wine, chatted, and danced.  I even met a girl who was a camper at Farm and Wilderness the last two summers (small world).  All in all a very fun evening.

The next morning we went back for a ride around the estate on the steam train circuit that they've built.  All the Brown boys have tales to tell about when they worked on grounds keeping as their summer job.  That night we went to the Morrows house for their New Year party.  It was considerably less raucous than the previous night, but quite pleasant.  We decided that 2008 is going to be amazing and pretty much everything is going to go right.  I'm excited.

I start my multi-day trip to New Zealand the day after tomorrow.  The way the bus schedule is looking I'll have to leave the house at around 1:30 a.m.  I always get departure insomnia before trips anyway, so I guess it's not too big a problem.  For now, Jon and I might go down to the Diamond Bar for a last pint of Guinness, colds be damned.

Things I have been enjoying:
-Small world meetings
-Live home-made Irish music (mostly courtesy of Joseph)
-Standing in the rain waiting for a taxi to come after a night in the pub
-The hum of the electric shower
-Vitamin C
-Lazy days
-How windy days are the warm ones