Got another reply from Javi, a friend of a friend who attended UPV and is still at the University of Stuttgart. He was really nice, offered to give me advice on finding a flat, etc. Interestingly enough, he said that UPV is way more organized than Stuttgart (for him at least) and that he misses it a lot.
I got some other news from UPV today, but completely unexpected. Nathan forwarded me an email that he didn't know how to answer. I read it over, and realized that the girl had an email from UPV! Out of all the countries and cities and universities that EWB-UCLA receive an email from today... Anyways I told Nathan that I would reply to her (I'm sure he was relieved), so I did (in castellano). I'm still giving her advice about finding an internship here, and hopefully she will give me some good advice about studying in Valencia.
On a different note, it was very difficult adjusting to life back at home. Of course, I had my friends and family, better food, (much much) better weather, but I missed traveling a lot. Supposedly there is a period of 3 weeks of adjustment. Anyways, the scholarship made things a bit easier in that I know that I will be back soon enough.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
my last 17 days in europe...
Ended with a bang! I continued my travels, met up with some old friends, and made lots of new ones.
I went to Dachau Memorial, which is outside of Munich. I'm glad I went, but for some reason it wasn't nearly as emotional for me as the Anne Frank House (where I literally cried through the last one-third of the museum).
Here I am with my CS host, Martina, after we cooked dinner together.
And here's the famous Mirabell Garden (where the Trapp kids sing "Doe a Deer" in the Sound of Music).
Then I headed to Vienna...
Then to Innsbruck, which is a small town in the center of lots of snow-capped mountains. The scenery was gorgeous.
Eating typical Styrian food with Veronika and Vero halfway up the mountain
Veronika's village, Götzens, was so so so cute.
Then I stopped for a night in Zurich, where I had a bizarre experience at a bar/club that the bankers to go. It turned out to be fun, though. After that was 5 beautiful days in Paris.
My hands-down favorite spot in Paris
No trip to Paris is complete without some crepe...
or going to the Seine...
or seeing the Arc de Triomphe.
Then I went to Cologne where I stayed with my friend Pola. Here we are eating yummy Turkish food.
I also really enjoyed the one day I had in Hamburg
My last day, I sprinted to the dock in Koblenz and arrived in the knick of time for the KD Rhine ferry/cruise/boat. Someone actually mentioned that she saw me running onto the pier with my backpack, purse, and plastic bag of shopping. But it was worth it!
I went to Dachau Memorial, which is outside of Munich. I'm glad I went, but for some reason it wasn't nearly as emotional for me as the Anne Frank House (where I literally cried through the last one-third of the museum).
Here I am with my CS host, Martina, after we cooked dinner together.
And here's the famous Mirabell Garden (where the Trapp kids sing "Doe a Deer" in the Sound of Music).
Then I headed to Vienna...
Then to Innsbruck, which is a small town in the center of lots of snow-capped mountains. The scenery was gorgeous.
Eating typical Styrian food with Veronika and Vero halfway up the mountain
Veronika's village, Götzens, was so so so cute.
Then I stopped for a night in Zurich, where I had a bizarre experience at a bar/club that the bankers to go. It turned out to be fun, though. After that was 5 beautiful days in Paris.
My hands-down favorite spot in Paris
No trip to Paris is complete without some crepe...
or going to the Seine...
or seeing the Arc de Triomphe.
Then I went to Cologne where I stayed with my friend Pola. Here we are eating yummy Turkish food.
I also really enjoyed the one day I had in Hamburg
My last day, I sprinted to the dock in Koblenz and arrived in the knick of time for the KD Rhine ferry/cruise/boat. Someone actually mentioned that she saw me running onto the pier with my backpack, purse, and plastic bag of shopping. But it was worth it!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Valencia
Exactly one week ago, (Sep 20 2010) I received an email from RI with my assignment: La Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. This was my first choice university! I also received some files that were informative but perhaps created more questions than answers.
I got the contact information of two friends of friends who attend UPV (and were also Erasmus students in Stuttgart). Hopefully I can remain in contact with them and ask them about Valencia.
Sunday night (Sep 26 2010) was the DISTRICT 5280 FOUNDATION ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PARTY. It was the first time that they had held this event, but I got to meet some of the leaders of the Alumni Association and also past Ambassadorial Scholars, which was awesome. Mina is the President, and she gave me some materials that she had kept from Spain (which I unfortunately left at Karis' house and felt terrible about). She studied in Bilbao, Spain about 7 years ago. Karis is going to Argentina in February as a Peace Scholar. Brian has applied for a Peace Scholarship. Jamie is a UCLA Public Health grad and returned from Córdoba, Argentina in December and now has a job with the CDC in Arizona.
Lessons learned:
- Communicate with the RI counselor (mine is Jorge). It seems like a lot of my more difficult questions should be directed to him, not my WVRC counselor Gordon or Dave.
- Make lots of connections before I go abroad... through Rotaract, Couchsurfing, common-interest groups, etc.
- Make an effort to meet as many people as possible, which may or may not be difficult
- Meet guys on motorcycles and make lots of novios, which is the best way of learning the language (from Jamie, of course... Jamie had only taken Spanish 1 and 2 before going to Argentina but made it clear to everybody she met that they were going to speak Spanish not English. Her classes were in Spanish as well but the other students were really helpful and made she that she understood)
I got the contact information of two friends of friends who attend UPV (and were also Erasmus students in Stuttgart). Hopefully I can remain in contact with them and ask them about Valencia.
Sunday night (Sep 26 2010) was the DISTRICT 5280 FOUNDATION ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PARTY. It was the first time that they had held this event, but I got to meet some of the leaders of the Alumni Association and also past Ambassadorial Scholars, which was awesome. Mina is the President, and she gave me some materials that she had kept from Spain (which I unfortunately left at Karis' house and felt terrible about). She studied in Bilbao, Spain about 7 years ago. Karis is going to Argentina in February as a Peace Scholar. Brian has applied for a Peace Scholarship. Jamie is a UCLA Public Health grad and returned from Córdoba, Argentina in December and now has a job with the CDC in Arizona.
Lessons learned:
- Communicate with the RI counselor (mine is Jorge). It seems like a lot of my more difficult questions should be directed to him, not my WVRC counselor Gordon or Dave.
- Make lots of connections before I go abroad... through Rotaract, Couchsurfing, common-interest groups, etc.
- Make an effort to meet as many people as possible, which may or may not be difficult
- Meet guys on motorcycles and make lots of novios, which is the best way of learning the language (from Jamie, of course... Jamie had only taken Spanish 1 and 2 before going to Argentina but made it clear to everybody she met that they were going to speak Spanish not English. Her classes were in Spanish as well but the other students were really helpful and made she that she understood)
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