This being my 14th day in Mérida, I'm more or less acclimated to the way of life here. I know the basic layout of the city nd I have started thinking in Bolivares (the $ here) rather than converting everything to US dollars. My spanish is improving, but it's still very hard to understand people because of how fast they speak.
Last week I started observing an English class at my school. It's so weird to see something that you've always known be taught in a classroom setting. For example, I know that "wrote" is the past tense of "write" and "lit" is the past tense of "light", but these are "irregular verbs" that the kids (mostly 17-19 year olds) must memorize. I more or less just sit there, occasionally helping the teacher (who is Venezuelan) and the class pronounce words, But I think teaching english as a foreign language is quite interesting and something I could see myself doing after college somewhere.
My classes are going pretty well. They are all in spanish and two hours long, which is a long time to focus and try to understand a different language. But they're far less work intensive than Madison, so I've enjoyed having a lot more free time.
The highlight of this past weekend was going to "aguas termales," aka thermal waters or hot springs. Ever since I played Kid-Icarus on Gameboy as a kid I have known that hot springs exist as some form of natural meditation but I honestly never had any idea what they were. What I learned is that they are basically a natural hot tub, and they're awesome. We took a bus 1.5 hours into the mountains and then climbed for about 30 some minutes before we found this little man-made nook, supplied with hot water by a little stream going up into the mountains. We hung out in the little pool for about 3 hours, enough time for my upper body to get completely scorched by the sun. Fortunately aloe vera grows all over here!
I haven't said much about the culture here to this point. I think that in a lot of ways, it is very similar to Madison. There are a ton of university students, who are all very nice and willing to meet new people. In fact, everyone here is extremely nice and many go out of there way to introduce themselves or help us Americans out. After hearing so many words of caution regarding kidnapping and whatnot, it has been a pleasant surprise how genuine and friendly the people are here. That said, I still keep my guard up and don't venture alone ever after dark.
Venezuelans are also remarkably pokey. If you plan to meet a group of Venezuelans at 8:00, chances are they will arrive anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes late, without apology nor excuse. The sense of efficiency and punctuality is nonexistant. Eye contact is also very important: it is disrespectful to look down or away from someone that you encounter walking on the street.
This weekend, hopefully, our group of gringos is going with a few guides to Los Llanos, an area with wide stretching plains that features all sorts of awesome zoography. We are hoping for Anacondas and Crocodiles, at the least. Lastly, here is the site where I have been posting a few photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/75211262@N04/sets/72157629164942869/ Hasta luego!
No comments:
Post a Comment