Hot Springs

On Saturday, we took a trip to the hot springs close to Musui. My Venezuelan friend Jose told me that this one was totally better than the one I couldn't go to the previous weekend because I was sick.  So I was like cool!  He also said that there would be a little walk, maybe a half hour up hill, a half hour flat.  And I was like ok, I can probably do that.

So I get up at 6 am cause Jose likes early mornings.  I met up with people in our group at the bus station and then proceeded to take a bus for an hour up to the mountains.  I remembered a little of it from our first excursion to the mountains.  Then we stopped at this tiny little village, got a pastel for breakfast, and then all crammed into the back of an off-road truck to get to the road. There were 12 of us in the back of this van. Luckily it was only like 15 minutes or so.  When we got to the place, it was all mountain scenery.  We started walking down the path we thought we were supposed to take.  This is my before picture.

As it turns out, altitude is not my friend.  While I was not having the headaches or nausea that others were having, I was not able to really catch my breath, and any kind of effort I put out took immense amounts of energy.  Luckily it was not a very long climb, so I made it up there eventually. But I was exhausted and mildly light-headed.  We had to walk a tiny path along the side of the mountain for like another 20 minutes, but we finally reached the hot spring.  It was amazing.  It looks like cold lake water, but what it actually is is a natural hot tub.  So we just hung out here for most of the day, while the steam blew off the water from time and again. Here are some pictures of it, of us, and of the view.

(This photo is actually courtesy of one of my friends, whose parents got her an indestructible camera.)

I did mention that the first photo was the before photo, and with every before, there must be an after.  After we were done with the springs, the trip back was still challenging, as we had forgotten how exhausted our bodies were because of the altitude and of the climb.  I did not manage to take an after picture, but if I had, I imagine it would look something like this.

(converse shoes and all.)

But I was very proud of myself for doing it. Afterward I was like yeah, exercise!! Maybe if I ever get courage and a group with a ton of patience, I'll do it again before I leave.  But here's a picture of the group that went.

Due to increasingly frequent electricity and internet outages, I don't think I'll be able to post as often as I have in the past.  I've been working on this one all week.  Don't freak out.

A Nature Story

Did you know that when Amerigo Vespucci first came to Venezuela, he saw one of the native tribes' village?  They were little huts built right on top of the water, held out of the water by large wooden posts as foundation.  This reminded him of Venice, Italy, another city built on the water.  And from the Italian word for Venice, Venezia, came the name Venezuela.  Little did he know that hundreds of years later, the similarities of these two cities would still be apparent, even though the huts of the natives have long since disappeared.  When it rains here, it's like the roads turn into rivers.  The water pools even though there are no holes to pool into.  Ankle deep, the current is unmistakable. You can see leaves and trash floating down the road.  But this only seems to happen really when it gets dark.  It rarely rains during the day, and when it does, it's never as hard as when it rains at night.  I was on my way home when it started pouring out.  I broke out the poncho for the first time.  I don't think I looked as ridiculous as I thought I would.

Today I went to the botanical gardens.  They are entirely outdoors.  They have the usual parts, like a garden full of flowers and ponds, but they also have a challenge course like at Butler and an untouched area of rain forest, save for a tiny path you can walk on.  Naturally we went straight for the rain forest. However, I was not too happy because had I known we were going on a nature hike, I would have at least worn tennis shoes instead of sneakers and would have brought bug repellent.

But I still managed to appreciate the coolness of everything.

Outside of the rain forest, there were actual exhibits and displays.

(This is bamboo. I had no idea it was so dense.)

It was a shame I had to leave before I could see the whole thing.  Hopefully we'll go back.  This is so interesting to visit because I'm taking an Ecology class here, and so I think of all these plants in the adaptations they had to make over time to survive.  The days are getting busier.

I'm Trying to Take More Pictures

It is with great regret to inform you that I did indeed have a parasite.  I took medicine for it for three days: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  My weekend was ruined.  But now I'm better.

I keep forgetting that this city is actually at a pretty decent altitude.  Which is why I keep thinking it's really cool when the clouds are really close when it rains. You can see them covering the mountaintops, which also seem not that tall from far away.

I also like the city at night.

Venezuela has the best desserts I have ever tasted.  Everything is delicious and rich.  Even plain cake with no icing is good.  Some bakeries even grind the sugar straight from the cane to make it, which is why I think it's so delicious.

Nobody uses credit cards here.  So whenever you need money, you have to go to the bank to get however much you need out.  There are no ATM's except at the bank. I think it's some kind of ordeal also, lots of paperwork and such.  But you have to get up early and go to the bank, because you'll be waiting there forever.

(There's a line inside the bank also)

You know how when you're a little kid, and you're told not to take rides from strangers? This is an example of one of the buses I take to school sometimes.

(I'm not lying. This is an actual bus.)

But probably the saddest part of Merida is that there are stray dogs everywhere. Sweet looking, cuddly dogs that obviously only want to be loved, and you can't pet them because they'll bite you and you'll get rabies.  They just wander the streets and if you ignore them, they won't bug you.  But if they catch you paying attention to them, like I did in the second picture below, they'll start barking and growling.  Good thing there was a fence.

Must. Not. Pet.

(There were like three or four of these dogs that just live in this little foresty fenced off area.)

My Actions

One of my professors told us of the time he visited the United States to teach a class at a university.  In Venezuela, women are very much objects.  They always are wearing skinny jeans, that are practically painted on, with 6 inch heels and dressy shirts.  They always have their hair and make-up done up just so if they ever go out in public.  So my professor walked into the classroom in the United States, and he saw: girls in sweat pants, hoodies, hair messily pulled back, no make-up, and kicking off their slippers or flip flops. Gulp. Wow.  So yeah, the taking off of shoes thing I'm guilty of a couple times, I don't do that here.

When I grow up and have a house, all the sitting furniture will be hammocks.  No chairs or couches, just a bunch of hammocks hanging from the ceiling.  Not those net-type ones.  The ones made out of durable blanket like material and have cushions in them so they're comfortable.  And they have a million strands of twine connecting the cushion to a wooden beam that holds the hammock steady, and are hung from the ceiling by a large rope.  These are the hammocks that Venusa has.  This is where I napped today.

Weeeee!!!!!! Swinging back and forth.

More lists!

I would like to think that since we are such a small group, we would all be the best of friends, but I get annoyed with people too quickly for that.

My list of Spanish-Speaking-American Pet Peeves:

- faking accents
- believing that your fake accent is genuine
- believing that you are good at Spanish because you think your fake accent is genuine
- believing that you are good at Spanish because you are able to fill your conversations with meaningless filler
words while you search for something to actually say.  This is also annoying in English.
- talking about all the experience you got when you studied in Mexico for two weeks
- changing the topic in a class just so you can continue talking about yourself and your experiences for a half hour to try to make everyone else believe you are good at Spanish
- sucking up to the professor after class, to show off your Spanish abilities and experiences again
- Talking and going "ah" obnoxiously loud when a professor corrects you because you got something wrong, and trying to explain the reason why you thought you were right. You were wrong.  Get over it.

Guess what lovely people! I am here to learn! I am not here to show off or talk about how awesome it was in Spain or how much I learned there because it is uniquely spectacular program guaranteed to make you learn Spanish by the end.  Nor am I here to take a second summer vacation and go out partying every night and skim my way through the classes.  I am here to glean the knowledge from the professors, do well in all of the classes, and discover a new system of music education.  And this is really hard to do when immature displays of ridiculousness occur left and right.  The sad part is that most of them are seniors here, and will be entering the real world shortly.

Parasites

I enjoy the food here in Venezuela very much.  It's delicious, authentic, and real. One hundred percent food.  No artificial flavors, no food coloring, no high fructose corn syrup.  I love it.  My stomach, however, does not like it. This entire past week has been filled with uncomfortable stomach complaining.  Every time I would eat something, a few hours later I would be squirming in my seat with an upset stomach. I didn't have diarrhea, vomiting, or any type of fever or flu symptoms though, so I wanted to wait and see if it got better before I freaked out and ran to the pharmacy for parasite medication.  Nobody else seemed to be having those problems though, or at least not that they were letting on.  So the week passed, and I did get better.  I'm still not completely fine though, it just isn't as bad and happens far less often. So yay! I don't think I'm infected.

My fellow students don't seem to be having as much luck.  In this weekend alone, I've heard of two confirmed cases of parasites and other rumors of more.  I talked with my host family this morning about it, and they told me not to worry, that is was normal, and was not serious. By serious, I think they mean when you need to go to the emergency room.  They don't seem to understand that parasites are not as common in the U.S. among healthy, sanitary 20-somethings, and therefore the thought of them occurring is outrageous.  You'd have to be doing something as dumb as drinking out of a sewer to really come close to contracting anything.  But apparently everyone gets them here. It's a part of the experience.  I guess I'll keep updating, but as of now I can say I'm parasite-free.

Chill Time

We have three day weekends here in Venezuela. HAHA. So today we didn't have classes.  I decided to go downtown with a friend to buy some clothes, because I only brought enough for like four days. I've been rewearing a lot, and I've also been to the laundromat, because we aren't allowed to use the family washer and dryer.  Too expensive.  I noticed I needed clothes when I went out last night and felt under dressed cause all I had was a t-shirt and everyone else was wearing more dressy shirts.  So I bought four shirts, and I am satisfied with them.

We also went to get some ice cream.  There is a famous ice cream place in Merida called Heladeria Coromoto. Tourists come to Merida for this ice cream place, and it is always packed. It is famous because it has 100 flavors. Literally. They have normal flavors like chocolate and strawberry, but they also have salmon, beer, rice, beef, avocado, rum, tomato, vodka, hot dog, and cheese.  I got chocolate and vanilla chocolate chip, because when I pay money for ice cream, I like to enjoy it.  But here are some pictures of the ridiculousness.