Spring break in Mexico: working on an Eco-Dome

Last month, I traveled to San Jacinto, Mexico (about 2 hours south of Ensenada) for 6 days to help the construction of an Eco-Dome. This is a sustainable home that uses earth for the walls for insulation, with various additions of recycled components.

Dustin James is the project lead, and also the main person who has fundraised and designed the Eco-Dome. He makes trips to San Jacinto about once a month or so, but usually with a different group of people helping out. The home will soon house a small family of José, Angela, and their new-born Ayalin. José and Angela work at a "Casa para los Ancianos" where they take care of 12 abuelos, or old grandfathers who have nowhere else to go.

Throughout the week we worked on applying stucco to the interior of the Eco-Dome, tiling, and painting:


There's also a shipwreck on the beach:


We worked quite a bit,


drove through mud,


ate delicious tacos,


and made some new friends.

Prepararations, preparations

Today I attended a WVRC meeting and heard Jamie Feld's presentation about her year about in Cordoba, Argentina. It seems like she had a great support system in Cordoba and she participated in many activities with Rotaract Clubs and various NGOs. Currently she is working at the CDC and has a 2-year fellowship; after, she will pursue a 2-year EurPubMed fellowship in Spain and France. It seems like she really made the most of her study year by being actively engaged in her community, as well as gaining experience that will further her career in public health.

Also I sent out emails to the presidents of Rotary Clubs in:
Culver City
Manhattan Beach
Wilshire
Westchester
Santa Monica

Hopefully, I'll attend their meetings next year with my counselor, Gordon. Part of my pre-departure year requirements involve making brief presentations about myself to clubs in District 5280. This gives me the opportunity to refine my public speaking skills and get to know more clubs in the District, while allowing various clubs to hear from the individuals who are benefiting from their support and donations!

A Rotary-filled week

4 events within 6 days!

The first was last Thursday, when I attended a Westwood Village Rotary Club meeting. I usually can't make it because of class, but lecture was canceled this week! Gordon, my counselor, is actually the WVRC President and it was the first that I've attended a meeting that he's led. Anyways, I made a short speech about myself and my plans for the future with the Scholarship to the club. It's a bit disconcerting when you're presenting to people who are eating, because I never know if they're actually listening or not. It's definitely a bigger mistake to assume they're not listening when they actually are, though. At least I have plenty of experience from CBE 104A & B when everybody in the class is doing homework and a few people are listening keenly to my presentation.

The next event was SCOTS in Palos Verdes, which was orientation and training for outbound scholars. There were 4 inbound Scholars (Ikumi from Japan, Ari from Korea, Rahel from Zurich, and Marco from Bologna), 3 outbound Ambassadorial Scholars (Dave from USC going to Cambridge, Amber from Smith College going to Zimbabwe, and me; the fourth girl couldn't make it), and 1 Peace Scholar (Pani going to Brisbane). We all made a short speech about ourselves, and it was really great to hear about everyone and their great plans for the future. Especially the outbound scholars were all very international- volunteering in places like India and Honduras, and studying in places like Argentina. Pani works a lot with Nobel Peace Laureates through her job at a non-profit, and even mentioned the advice that Archbishop Tutu gave her! Anyways, various members of the Committee went over parts of the Scholar Handbook and we even had a quiz.

Main components of my pre-departure year (i.e. 2010-2011):
*Make 8 short talks introducing myself to the clubs of District 5280
*Attend various Rotary events and functions, like District Breakfasts and the District Conference
*Submit monthly progress reports to my counselor (Gordon) and the Ambassadorial Committee Chair (Dave)
*Obtain admission to my assigned institution
*Arrange my visa, bank account, housing
*Contact my host counselor in Valencia

The third event was the Paul Harris Foundation Celebration. There were over 500 attendees to this event, which serves to raise money for the Rotary Foundation projects. There was a silent auction and raffle, and of course music, drinks, and food. Unfortunately, it was a bit loud to hold long conversations, but I still talked to Miloni about her experiences in Singapore which was great.

This morning was the District Breakfast. There's always short announcements promoting the next Conference (either International or District), and a distinguished speaker, Father Boyle. At first my mind kept wandering during his talk, but when he used more humor and real anecdotes from his work with former gang members (Homeboy Industries is his organization's name) it really caught everybody's attention.

more UPV!

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.

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!

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)

eating our way through the Black Forest and Strasbourg

Claire brought back some Black Forest cake from Freiburg. I had never had it before, and didn't expect it to be so alcoholic! There is kirschewasser (cherry water), as well as some kind of alcohol in the frosting.



Started a Thursday morning off right with some Berliners & quark croissants on the train.



In Schiltach, a really pretty town (but extremely small and quiet)



At the highest waterfall in Germany (in Triberg) which was extremely touristy. Claire and I said we were 16 years old to get in for a cheaper price, haha. Anyways, despite the loads of people by the waterfall, it only took a 5 minute walk to get on a trail that was almost completely empty.


The famous Black Forest cake... we got the supposed original recipe. It was actually a bit disappointing.


But afterwards, our hike was frequently interrupted with discoveries of blackberry bushes. Yum!


This is the next day (Friday) in Stuttgart.


We finally got pork knuckle (schweinshaxe)! It was good, but not anything too amazing.


The gingerbread hearts at the Stuttgart Weindorf (wine festival). I'm not a fan of gingerbread but Claire tried one.


In Strasbourg (on Saturday) with a kougelhopf


Droolworthy chocolates in Strasbourg. These shops were literally on each block, and Claire and I literally went into each bakery, cheese shop, chocolate shop we saw.


We did get lucky a couple times when we found free samples, especially with the pistachio macaron we sampled. It was absolutely divine. Here's us with a praline macaron