Benjamin Barton: Argentina

Ben Baron: The Arts, Service, and Cultural Emersion in Argentina

With my Wilson Language Grant, I completed the Experiment in International Living’s program “Argentina: Visual Arts, Photography, and Service”, and I had an incredible experience. My time there was divided into two parts, a 10 day orientation in Buenos Aires and a 14 day period in Santa Fe. In Buenos Aires in the mornings, we learned about photography and planned our service project in Santa Fe. This was all done in Spanish, and I think these daily four hour sessions really improved my Spanish listening skills. In the afternoon, we would explore Buenos Aires and use our photography skill to try to capture the city. Buenos Aires was an amazing target for these pictures because it is such a diverse city, having an array of different architecture and neighborhoods. It was also the art capital of South America, and we visited many art museums which contained some of the most famous pieces in South America. What I found equally interesting was Buenos Aires’ street art. The city is famous for its street art, 70% of which was political. We were in Buenos Aires in a very politically charged time. The new president had just taken office, and decreed that Argentineans, who formerly saved their money in dollars because it was a more stable currency, now must save their money in pesos. The people were outraged, and many used street art to express their opinions. One of the most interesting things I saw in Argentina was a demonstration by the Mothers of the Disappeared, mothers whose children had been executed by the military government of the 70’s many years ago, and had themselves started the peaceful movement against this government and to find out the whereabouts of their disappeared children. Since then, they advocated for political transparency and freedom of speech, which are still controversial issues in Argentina. One of the original mothers had died, and the other original mothers were there sprinkling her ashes in the presidential square, where they had all started the movement 47 years ago. One of them made a speech, stating that the death was a tragedy, but she saw the woman’s spirit in today’s youth, many of whom were becoming passionate about politics.

The photo above is one of the photos I took while experimenting with the photography techniques we learned. This picture exhibits two of the unique things about Buenos Aires; the mix of classical and modern architecture, and the artistic street art.

During our time in Buenos Aires, we visited many art museums. This is my favorite painting from the trip, and is from the Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art.

This is the Mothers of the Disappeared demonstrating in the presidential square. These were the same women who have been demonstrating every Thursday in the square since 1975, and still carried pictures of their disappeared relatives with them.

This is a photo I took down Buenos Aires’ equivalent of Broadway, 9 de Julio Street. We were lucky enough to stay in a hotel one block off of it, so we were relatively close to everything.

The second half of the trip we spent in Santa Fe, a mid sized city of 600,000. I had an incredible experience with my host family. I had six host brothers and sisters, the youngest of which was 21, and my host father owned a chainsaw store. I always felt included and welcome, and my host siblings would always take me out with them, whether it was to play soccer with their friends, go fishing, go 4-wheeling, go to a soccer game of Santa Fe’s local club, or go to asides, and much more. Asadas were probably one of the most pleasant surprises I experienced in Argentina. Because meat is so cheap, people will have cookouts where you pay 5-10 dollars and you can eat as much bread and steaks as you can. Those were probably some of the best meals of my life.

This is a photo of the grill at an asada. The meat is cooked with chars from the fire, and sadas were some of the first meals of my life in which there was more great food than I could possibly eat.

The service project was teaching photography and some English to underprivileged children at San Francisco School. With photography, we taught them how to take, develop, and make positives of their pictures. The medium we were using was pinhole photography.  In pinhole photography, the camera consists of a can, photo paper, and a lens, and the picture can easily be developed with normal dark room chemicals. The children there were extremely enthusiastic and happy about learning, which made our jobs a very pleasant experience. They were also very funny, and we spent many afternoons playing tag, football, or soccer with them in the park outside the church. As it turns out, they were also talented artists, and teachers and students alike were very pleased with how their photos came out. Probably the most interesting part of the trip was that my group leader, I, and another experimenter were able to be on an Argentinean talk show named ENTRE MATE Y MATE to talk about our service project. I was not able to record it because it was broadcast live and then again when I was not home, but I am trying to get the video for the school and took a lot of pictures of the studio.

This is us teaching the class. On the table are the dark room chemicals which we will help the children to use to develop their photos.

Here is a photo and the positive version that one of the children took. It is of a fountain in the park outside the church.

Here is the studio where they shot the program. I will have a copy of the actual video soon.

I had an amazing time in Argentina. I greatly improved my Spanish, I was able to complete a meaningful service project, and I had many incredible experiences and met a lot of very interesting people. Probably the biggest lesson I learned is that kindness and other values that MBA teaches are universal values. Towards the beginning of my trip, my communication wasn’t completely there, but being friendly and polite could speak louder than my words could and break the language and culture barriers. I cannot thank the Wilson family, Mr. Gaither, Dr. Gaffney, and Sr. Kamm enough for making this unbelievable experience possible.

Chris Burrus: Spain

Spain: Flamenco and Ceramics(June 25-July 31):
Chris Burrus

Orientation in Madrid
The first day of the trip, our EIL group flew into Madrid for a three day orientation to get to know our group from the States. The group stayed in a hostal that was in the very center of the city, which allowed me to be completely immersed in the life of Madrid. We visited several tourist spots in Spain with our group, such as the Prado and The Palacio Real, and also looked into the different attractions that were prevalent at the time. A fond memory from Madrid was watching Spain play in the 2012 Euro Cup game against Portugal in the Semifinals. We went to a nearby pub to watch the game with the local Spaniards. The energy was incomparable; it was phenomenal. After Spain, we headed towards the city of Guadix.

Day Trip to Toledo
On our way to Guadix, we stopped for a few hours in a small pueblo called Toledo, a famous fortress area. We walked around the cobble-stoned streets, watching the stores open up again after the "siesta." The views were miraculous from the top of the river-surrounded village. After we had a quick lunch consisting of bocadillos and gazpacho, we got back on the bus and made our way to Guadix.

Classes in Guadix
We arrived in Guadix late at night on the 30th of June. The minute we stepped off of the bus in the small city, a large group of people was there to greet us and show us to the Hotel Comercio, the hotel we stayed. Our EIL group didn't know at the time, but these people who met us ended up being our guardian angels throughout the entire 12 days in Guadix. They compiled an entire schedule for our nightlife and also our afternoon excursions when we weren't taking our Flamenco dance classes or our ceramics classes. We spent 2 hours a day in each of the two classes. We decided as a group to use the Flamenco classes to explore the different types of Spanish music. We worked with two women named Lucia and Carolina to put on a play for another EIL group coming to Guadix in two weeks.

This is a rehearsal of our Flamenco class while working on our play

Once we completed our Flamenco class for the day, we would make our way to a ceramics class to learn specific Spanish forms of art and pottery. The class was enjoyable because it was very hands on for each of the students and we were able to make different pieces of pottery such as benditeras, necklaces, and Spanish plates. Not only did we create our own works of art but we were able to visit a genuine Spanish ceramic artist named Pepe.

Pepe showed us how to create vases through spin pottery

The classes were very rewarding for me because I was able to work hands-on everyday, investigating the Spanish arts instead of sitting in a class all day learning the language. I was still completely immersed in the language.was still completely immersed in Spanish, but didn’t have to sit and learn from a teacher. I learned from native Spaniards.

The classes were great in Guadix, but the excursions in the afternoon were the best part of the stay in the small village. We were able to go horseback riding, visit natural hot springs, tour the cave houses that some people stayed in (“cuevas”), watch the Euro Cup Finals, and experience the amazing tapas. I liked Guadix because there were hardly any tourist attractions in the town, but it was still very alive and very modern. We had our final performance of the show on July 11th. After the show, our host siblings surprised us by attending our show and riding with us to Granada for the two week homestay.

Homestay in Granada
The homestay began on July 12th with each of the students in the EIL group breaking apart for the day and meeting our families. My family was a family of five, the Sanchez family. The entire family was incredibly understanding and welcoming. I loved with Alicia, the mother, Pedro, the father, Pablo, the 16-year-old son, and Diego, the 10-year-old son. Granada was a rather large city, with a good deal of area spanning across Southern Spain.

The purpose of Granada was to communicate with a Spanish family for two weeks and see a larger city with native teenagers. We visited different places with our homestay sibling, the rest of the group and their homestay siblings as well. My family stayed in a nearby village called Huetor Vega, which created a closer family feel instead of being placed in the center of downtown Granada. As a group of about 30, we visited the Alhambra, a water park called Aguaola, nearby beaches such as Salobrena and Almeria, and the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabel. Although the tourist attractions were beautiful, the trips with my family and the time spent at their house were the most memorable. My host family had the prettiest overlook of the Sierra Nevadas. Every night we would have the privilege of seeing a gorgeous sunset.

The flamenco dance is unique because it is focused on the idea of tapping your feet very quickly and moving to the clapping and playing of the musicians. The singers use a completely different form of breathing and projecting to create a specific sound with the dancers and the guitar strums.

Once we finished our time in Spain, we made our way to the Pyrenees mountains to spend a few days in the wilderness of the Pyrenees Mountains before we made our way to Barcelona.

Hiking in the Pyrenees
During our time in the Pyrenees Mountains, we met up with another EIL group to spend time hiking along the French border and visiting close villages to see ancient Spanish cathedrals. We took a seven hour hike to the top of the mountain that we were staying on. The mountain was considered a part of Spain so the joke of the group was that we hiked internationally.

After our time hiking in the mountains, we returned to our hostal (which is actually a wintertime ski lodge) to watch the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics. All of the Americans dressed in red, white, and blue, much like the fourth of July to celebrate our native country.

Barcelona to Close
In Barcelona, we split up into our smaller group once again to really connect the final 3 nights. We spent the day time visiting areas such as the famous Catedral and the beaches on the coast. The city of Barcelona is much different than the other Spanish cities because there is grass next to the streets and enormous buildings on the beach coast.

 

We also visited discotecas at night as a group to have a great finale to an unbelievable trip. I couldn’t ask for anything more in some of the greatest five weeks of my life. I owe all of my experiences to the Wilson Family for allowing me to study abroad and also to Dr. Gaffney and Mr. Gaither for facilitating the logistics of the trip. I cannot wait to spread the word about the trip to all of the other students of MBA and my friends around Nashville!



Pat Sanders: France

Pat Sanders - French Alpine Adventure

My trip began when I arrived in JFK and met my group.  The experience was awkward at first; I felt like an outsider because I was late to the meet up and was one of two ‘southerners’ surrounded by almost all New Yorkers.  However, I quickly felt an inseparable bond with my group which still exists today.  The picture shown here is a view of Paris from the top of L’Arc de Triumph. In the first four days of our journey, we explored the streets of Paris, immediately jumping into French life by visiting Cafes and going to sites such as Le Louvre, La Tour Eiffel, Sacre Coeur, and many others.  

This picture is of the famous canal in the town of Annecy, sometimes referred to as the Venice of the Alps. Our visit to Annecy was a turning point in our trip, because it was when we had to become acclimated to Alpine culture and moved away from a group setting and towards homestay life.  

The picture here was taken at the top of Croix de Toulouse in my homestay town of Briancon.  My host father, two other Americans from my group, and I biked to the top of this hill.  The hill was a very nice place because at the summit, it gave a view of the full valley in which Briancon is situated.  The picture also gives a picturesque view of the French countryside of the region.

The two pictures shown above are of a lake my host family and I hiked to on one of our many day-hikes in Le Vallee de Claree, Nevahce.  The lake contained frigid bright-blue water which only the family German Shepherd, Kiera, dared swim in. The pictures are quintessential to my homestay because my family was so oriented around being outside and appreciating everything that the French Alpine landscape has to offer.

The picture here shows the unity and friendship of everyone in our group, besides the fact that we are all asleep.  The group loved to be together, and took advantage of this beautiful streamside mountain patch of grass for a quick nap.  The picture was taken while on our trek in the Nevache valley while we were on a break for lunch.

 

This final picture is of Barre des Ecrins, the highest peak in Le Parc National des Ecrins standing at 4102 m.  The picture was taken on the final day of our trek, before we returned back to Briancon for one final day visiting our families.  The picture is significant to me because at the end of this 5 day hiking journey, we were presented with this awe-inspiring mountain.  The mountain view was the perfect end to my hike.  

Talor Adams: China

Taylor Adams, China       

 Arriving in Beijing, we went straight to the Bird’s Nest, where the 2008 Olympics were held. The architecture was amazing and modern. Here is where I really began to get to know the people in my group. We also ate Peking duck that night which is very famous to Beijing and reminded me a lot of tacos, but at that point I still hadn’t developed a real taste for Chinese food. One of the first major differences that I noticed in Beijing was how much the people honked. Even in the middle of the night, you could always hear the honking. Later I found out that the right away laws are different from the US. The bigger the vehicle, the more the right away! So all the walkers and bikers had to watch out for the buses coming through. I enjoyed the street vendors a lot. They became annoying at times, but the haggling was just part of their culture. Before I really learned to haggle, I was buying fake watches for around 80 yuan. If my haggling skills had really been perfected by then, I could’ve gotten that watch for around 20 yuan, which is ten dollars less in American money.

             

The Bird's Nest: Site of the Beijing Olympics

Tiananmen Square

On our fourth day, we left for Chengde by train. I was extremely excited about meeting my host family. My mother is a high school history teacher, and my father works in diagnostics at the hospital. I had a 13-year-old brother named Li Zi’ang, who was shy but as our travels went on, we became very close. No one in my family could speak English very well, but I think that turned out to help my speaking and understanding. A cousin of my host family took a train in from another city and she could speak English pretty well. She only stayed for a few days, so those days were nice when I did have a translator. Chengde is a beautiful little city, where the emperor used to go when the weather was too hot in Beijing. While we were in Chengde, we explored the emperor’s palace, hiked up to a famous rock, and played soccer and basketball with the students from a local high school.

My host family in Chengde

By the end of the week, I felt close to nearly all of the host brothers and host sisters. I even felt close to some of the students we met at the local high school, who we got to play sports with and talk with. Before I knew it, it was time to leave my host family, and leave for the second half of my being in China. I came back the last night to my host family’s home and found out that my little host brother, Li Zi’ang was also coming with us to our rural home stay, but leaving before we went to Shanghai. He was the youngest Chinese student traveling with us, so his parents asked me to take care of him. Traveling with him was absolutely incredible. When I first met him, he just seemed like a quiet little kid, but by the time he was heading back home, we had become friends, and I realized he had a great sense of humor, and is just an interesting guy, whom everyone in my group loved. It was sad the last day when I was leaving my family, and they all came to say goodbye including the grandmother. I was excited, though, for the experiences that lay ahead.

           

A famous hiking destination in Chengde

The Great Wall was incredible. I just wished that we could’ve stayed longer instead of only being able to stay for about an hour. The view was magnificent even though it was cloudy that day. Going here kicked off the second half of being in China, so it was somewhat bittersweet. Every time I thought of the time when my whole group would have to split up and go home, I became sad because I couldn’t imagine not being with them every day after having spent so much time together. I tried to not let that thought hold me back for the most part, so I could enjoy China and the people I was with as much as possible. I certainly didn’t let it stop me from having an incredible time at the Great Wall, and now I can say that I ate lunch on the Great Wall of China.

           

The Great Wall of China

Waking up on the sleeper train

I had my first time on a sleeper train on the way to the Gobi Desert. That night was one of the best nights of the trip. Our entire group just sat around, cramming into one of the bunks, telling story after story. We shared laughs and memories. After that night, there was certainly a special bond between if we didn’t have one already. Also the sleeper train was cool as it was, and the beds weren’t even too uncomfortable.

             

The next part of our journey included the Gobi Desert and Inner Mongolia, which were probably the most beautiful places we were able to see in China. The Gobi Desert was the first real desert I ever visited, and while we were there, we got to ride camels and ride sleds down a sandy slope. In Inner Mongolia, we spent a few days there. There were no showers and only public restrooms, and I didn’t even like the food, but being there was easily one of the highlights of the trip. The sky was bright blue with white clouds and rolling green plains stretching out as far as the eye could see. We slept in yurts, rode horses, and witnessed long-standing traditions of the Mongolian people.

Riding Camels in the Gobi Desert

             

At the rural home stay, I stayed with a family with an 8-year-old son. He was shy but was very funny to watch. Every time I tried talking to him, he just quietly walked away without even responding. Maybe he didn't understand what I was saying in Chinese, or maybe he was just shy around me. While we were here, we went to a Chinese kindergarten. A lot of the kids swarmed us, but some of the kids were shy and didn't want to talk to us or play with us at all. They were all so cute, and I had a ton of fun playing with them for a few hours. Also we hiked 3,925 steps to a temple at the top of a mountain. By the end of the hike, I was drenched in sweat. Looking around at all the Americans in my group, who were covered in sweat, it was funny to see that almost all of the Chinese people hiking around us were completely dry. We also had a picnic with our family after a beautiful hike.  Being with my rural family went by the fastest of my entire time in China.

Finally, it was the most exciting part of the trip. We took a high speed train to Shanghai. As soon as we made it to Shanghai, we went to the Shanghai Zoo. I had never seen most of the animals there, and being able to see elephants, giraffes, and pandas was amazing. The city itself was also breathtaking to me. Living in Nashville, downtown is tiny compared to Shanghai! Nearly all of Shanghai is downtown, and the buildings dwarf the buildings in Nashville that I am used to seeing.

Lastly, I would like to thank the Wilson family for giving me this opportunity. Before I left for China, everyone told me that going would change my life and be the trip of a lifetime. At that time, I didn't understand what they meant and was unsure how going would change my life. Now I see. Not only did I have an amazing time, but also I see the world through new eyes. My myopic view of the world has shifted after experiencing life in a completely different culture. I am so grateful for the Wilson family because without them, there is no way I would have ever been able to go on this life changing trip. Thank you. 

Chip Evans: France

Chip Evans: French and Spanish Trek and Travel

This trip started off on a rough note, as the Nashvillians were about two hours late for the rendezvous at JFK. But I broke off from my classmates and joined my group. I did not know it at first, but everyone in this group would share lasting memories with me. We arrived at Charles de Gaulle and took a bus to the Paris, France Hotel. The next few days were spent traversing Paris; highlights included visiting Sacre Coeure, L'Arc de Triomphe, Tour Eiffel, Musee de Louvre, and Versailles. For the last day of orientation in Paris, our group visited Versailles. We made our way through nearly the entire main house, but we were continuously distracted and upset by a repulsive modern art exhibit that had works ranging from a fluffy pink helicopter to a bejeweled octopus. However, after we finished up in the house, our group spent the rest the afternoon relaxing in the gardens, where we ran into several members from the photography group. We woke up early to catch the TGV leaving from Paris to Saint-Jean-de-Luz.

                 
We arrived in Saint-Jean in the afternoon of the 1st of July. I met my family, and I settled in very quickly and became accepted as part of the family. My family and I spent most days going to the beach when we weren’t meeting up with the group. As a part of the home stay portion of the trip in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, our group got together with other siblings of home stay families usually once every day or two for picnics, scavenger hunts, hikes, and other activities. This picture was taken from the top of a hill on one of our hikes where we walked from the Arbonne area back to the main town of Saint-Jean. The town hosted many festivals such as the famous Fête du Thon. My family helped me understand much more about the Pays Basque region, a region trying to become its own country separate from France or Spain.
       

In the last week of our home stay, we left our families for a two day trip to the city of Bilbao, Spain. The first day was spent getting there, sightseeing, and a scavenger hunt. But for dinner that night we ran into one of the best tapas restaurants in town, after getting severely lost for an hour. The next day was spent mostly at the Guggenheim, which this picture is of. We made our way through every exhibit of Frank Gehry’s unusually crafted museum. We returned home after the museum visit.
        

After the home stay portion of the trip, we moved on to the trek and travel, the first of destinations being a lodge in Auberge in the Pyrenees Mountains. The first day was spent canyoning led by our fearless leader, Bruno, as we rappelled down waterfalls. The next day we went on an eight hour hike crossing over two mountains to get to a lake where we had a picnic. On the last day we hiked to a road that the Tour de France was going through that day and camped out for several hours. We met some nice Australians. We had a picnic and then made our way over to the road to watch the cyclists speed past us on the downhill portion of the race. We hiked back to our lodge and left for Collioure the next morning.
       

After a very miserable bus ride through the Pyrenees and a stop in the small country of Andorra, our group made it to the second stage of our trek and travel: the small beach town of Collioure. We spent some time trying to find our hotel, which ended up being two separate buildings, but our patience was rewarded with a magnificent swim in the warm waters of the Mediterranean. That night we found an amazing tapas restaurant and stuffed our faces. The next two days were spent shopping, eating, swimming, and seeing whatever else there was to see around town.



Although it was painful to say goodbye to Collioure, we felt very comfortable as well in Barcelona, Spain. The first day was spent doing a mini scavenger hunt, doing our laundry for the first time in a while, and seeing the city. The next day after a rather late morning, we took the metro to a Gaudi designed park that overlooked the city (see picture above). That afternoon we practically traversed the entire city, walking from the park to the beach. Though crowded with tourists, it was a beautiful place to picnic, swim, and get some R&R. The rest of our stay in Barcelona we immersed ourselves in Catalonian culture and even started to pick up on the unique Catalonian language.
We flew to CDG airport from the Barcelona airport on the 24th for our last night in Paris. We attempted to see the photography groups’ exhibitions, but we got lost along the way but we gave up and returned to the hotel. For dinner we took a Bateau Mouche along the Seine River and were served a four course dinner. It was very painful to say goodbye to people that I had spent everyday of the last month with and even harder to leave the countries that have been a home away from home, only much better.

Alan Liang: Spain

Language Immersion and Travel- Spain 2012

Arrival to Madrid
Looking out the plane window as I was landing in Madrid, the first thing I noticed was how the majority of land around the airport was non-urbanized desert, and overall just very dry, grassy, and rocky land.

The design of the Madrid airport was very un-traditional: the roofs looked like they were made of straw and the support beams gave off somewhat of a bamboo look. My group and I gathered ourselves with the other group in the same program and we headed over to our hostel in the blazing heat of Madrid.

A view of the design of the Madrid International Airport

Orientation: Madrid
Shortly after dropping all of our stuff of, my group and I headed to grab lunch. We grabbed a multi-course meal that consisted of chorizo, ribs, chicken, a baked potato, and ice cream. I asked for water and there I was reintroduced to how European restaurants work. Practically every time you ask for water, they WILL give you a bottle, not a glass of “free” water. However disappointing this may be, the water does seem to taste better than water in a glass, but maybe that’s just the money talking.
    We spent the first part of our first day in Madrid exploring the city without our leader. We trekked through Plaza Mayor and the Puerta del Sol for an hour or so. The heat became unbearable so we all went back to our hostel and took a siesta before our scavenger hunt.
    The scavenger hunt really forced us to go outside our comfort zones and attempt to interact with an unknown culture. Activities we had to do included asking Madrid locals what their opinions were of recent architectural changes and weaving our way through roads and plazas to find the smallest church in Madrid (even though we didn’t know we were looking for a church). The scavenger hunt definitely helped me become more comfortable with the layout of Madrid and also gave me confidence in my abilities to speak and interpret.
    In Madrid, we hit up a few popular tourist attractions. The Palacio Real was magnificent: over 2000 rooms, a variety of art from different regions of the world, and even a Chinese-designed smoke room! It was hard not to be overwhelmed by the size of the place. We visited two museums: Reina Sofia and the Prado. At Reina Sofia, the most memorable piece of art I saw was for sure the Guernica, an enormous Picasso masterpiece. The Prado had a wider range of painters, with works by Velázquez, Goya, and Ruben. My favorite had to be "Las Meninas," partly because we had talked about it in my Spanish class and it was so incredibly different to see it firsthand.
    The moment I had been anticipating the most was being able to watch the Euro Cup semifinal in Madrid. I expected there to be a huge screen in the middle of a plaza with thousands of people, but for some reason the government decided not to do it for a semifinal. Instead, my group and I watched the game in a bar with some locals.

Part 2: Language School in Granada
After 3 days in Madrid, my group and I took a very long bus ride to Granada to begin the second portion of the trip. Along the way, we stopped in Toledo for a few hours and explored the city. Toledo is very mountainous, but also very historic. I spotted a local scaling the rock walls right next to the river, which seemed incredibly dangerous.
    In Granada, we spent our first weekend just relaxing and recuperating our energy for a taxing first 3 days; constant walking and jetlag left us completely exhausted. We did visit the Alhambra and its beautiful surrounding gardens, called the Generalife.

A Toledo local climbing the cliffs next to the river

    The most incredible experience I had was by far watching the Euro cup final with a bunch of local Granadians on top of the Palacio Congreso. Coca Cola was sponsoring a party there, and there at least two hundred people of all ages watching the game on the four flatscreens they had. At random moments during the game, people would break out in cheers, most of which I couldn’t understand. However, I did learn one chant, which consisted of chanting “Yo soy español” over and over again. Sharing this experience with locals really showed me firsthand how crazy and passionate a lot of Spanish people are about soccer. After Spain had won, the DJ started playing music and everyone was screaming and hugging, and overall just happy. We, being Americans, added our own flavor to the party by running into the fountains and having a mini-rave in them.

On top of the roof of the Palacio Congreso with my group!

After getting completely soaked and hanging out on the roof for a little bit, we left the rooftop to check out how the streets of Granada were like after a Spanish Euro cup victory. Let me tell you, the streets were ABSOLUTELY INSANE. Every car that we passed in the streets would honk and people would have their bodies halfway out of their windows waving Spanish flags. It was by far the craziest soccer experience I’ve ever had.
    Fast forward two days and I now was in a classroom learning Spanish for a local teacher! In Granada, I had class every day except Sunday for four hours a day. I had two different teachers; one called Juanfe, who taught mechanics and vocabulary to us, the other called Maria, who introduced us to a plethora of literature, music, and dancing. In Maria’s classes we also did a lot of improvisation and acting, which forced me to think instinctively in Spanish and accustom myself to common phrases to use in certain situations.
    While we were in the school learning Spanish, at the same time there was a group of local Granada students our age learning English. Every day after school, we would have lunch with them and then participate in different activities with them, such as playing soccer, going to the beach, going to the pool, and playing the capture the flag with water balloons. We also threw a huge 4th of July party for the Spaniards, which was pretty awesome.

My hermanos españoles in Granada!

While in Granada, I fell in love. Aquarius de Naranja was an incredibly refreshing, thirst-quenching, and tasty drink that I discovered in Madrid, but really began to appreciate it in Granada. Unfortunately they don’t have it in America.
    In terms of food, I tried a lot of different authentic Spanish/Andalusian foods in Granada. I discovered the tortilla de patata, which I found to be by far my FAVORITE Spanish dish. Also I tried foods such as croquetas, Spanish horchata (different than Mexican horchata), lomo, and others.

The Tortilla de patata

Part 3: Homestay in Guadix 

My wonderful host family!

On to the next part of my trip: the homestay. I had one younger brother who had just turned 15 and 22 year old sister. We stayed in a fairly nice apartment complex with a pool right next to it, which was pretty cool. My host brother was very nice and pretty comical guy, but we had absolutely nothing in common, so at first it was pretty difficult to talk to him. My host mother was very supportive of my learning of the language and always tried to involve me in her every day routine, whether that be running to the pharmacy to pick up something or cooking lunch for the family. She actually did make me cook lunch for the family; I made a tasty kind of pasta with lomo and chicken mixed in, with her help of course. I think she realized my inability to cook would preclude me from producing an edible meal without her help, so that was the only time I had to cook for my family.
    Throughout the homestay, all my group members and their host brothers and sisters would get together for organized activities. These included visiting the huge Cathedral in the middle of the city, staying overnight in some cabins on a farm, going to the beach, and painting. Since Guadix is such a small city, a lot of my group members and I were able to hang out with each other and our host brothers and sisters together, which was fun.

Part 4: Pyrenees Mountains
On to part 4 of my trip: my stay in the Pyrenees mountains. We met up with two other experiment groups and took a 10 hour or so bus ride from Guadix to the mountains and stayed there for three days. The mountains were a nice change of scenery for me, with cooler weather and a more relaxed schedule. Activities we did included soccer, hiking, and a LOT of foosball.

    On the first day we went on a very challenging hike. We split up into two groups, one with people that wanted to go on an easy hike and one that wanted to go on a hard hike. Safe to say, I chose the hard one. We hiked uphill for four and a half hours and once we made it to the peak, we saw France, which was pretty awesome! Chris Burrus and I led the way for the Big Red and repped MBA on top of the mountain with our boccadillos.
We also took a two and a half hour downhill hike to a very old city from the 12th century. The architecture of the buildings definitely reflected the medieval times. I also saw a church from the 11th century in that very same city, which is still locked and unlocked with the same key that was used almost a millennium ago.

Part 5: Barcelona
Finally at the end of the trip and confident in my Spanish abilities, I took to the streets of Barcelona as soon as I got there, scouting out restaurants and stores and interacting with locals. However I quickly realized that Barcelona was very different. The people there still use Catalan, an old romance language used in the areas surrounding the Pyrenees Mountains, and even though most of the locals speak Spanish as well, many of the signs are in Catalan as well.
    In Barcelona, we visited a lot of Gaudi’s work such as the Sagrada Familia and his massive Catedral, which is currently still under construction and will not be finished for at least two decades. We also visited a Picasso museum and a couple of cathedrals.

Gaudi’s breath-taking cathedral

The beach in Barcelona was absolutely incredible! The water was the absolute PERFECT temperature and was so ridiculously clean that you could clearly see your feet when you were 10-15 meters into the ocean. It was definitely the nicest beach I’ve ever been to.


Final Thoughts:
Overall, this trip was an unbelievably enriching and rewarding trip for me intellectually and culturally. I learned so much of the customs and language of Spain and met so many amazing people. I can say for certain that my life has changed for the better because of the five weeks I spent and Spain, and I want to give an enormous thank you to the Wilson family for generously supporting my study in the Spanish language through this grant, as well as Mr. Gaither, Dr. Gaffney, and Mr. Gioia for helping take care of the logistics and making sure everything ran smoothly, and finally Sr. Paolicchi for truly inspiring me to advance my studies in the Spanish language and undertake this trip.
 

Frank Vest: Germany

My name is Frank Vest and I traveled to Germany through the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG).  I lived in Rauenthal and went to school in Wiesbaden.  My group also took a five day excursion to Berlin.  This blog contains my five favorite pictures with descriptions of my experience.  Here is my story.

This photo is of the Feinmahle, or public viewing, of the German versus Netherlands soccer game.  Our group was on an excursion to Berlin.  On Wednesday, we were allowed to go around and shop for things the game.  We all went around and bought German flags, jerseys, scarfs, and eye paint with the German flag on it.  The whole day was preparation for the crazy night that would soon come.  I had expected there to be about ten to fifty thousand people at the most.  I was thinking it would be about the attendance of an American football game.  There were seven hundred thousand people at the Brandenburg Gate to watch the game.  The whole game was a surreal feeling.  We all were constantly in awe of how many people showed up.  The Germans don't mess around with soccer, and when Germany scored.. The only word that comes to mind is chaos.  The Germans threw their food, drinks, or whatever was in their hands into the air.  There was a shower of random items after every German goal.  Thank God there were only two goals, because I don't think that we could have survived the disorder that would ensue if there was a third German goal.  This night was by far the most energetic night that I had in Germany.

The Rheingau is one of the largest producers of wine in not only Germany, but all of Europe.  Rauenthal, the little village that my host family lived in, overlooked the Rhine.  This picture shows the wine yards that make the Rheingau so famous.  These wine yards have been used to make wine for over three hundred years.  My host father told me that French monks were the first people to come to the Rheingau and harvest wine.  The monks set up a monastery in the Rheingau and had wine yards all over the property.  The wine from the small little monastery in Germany was so good, that people moved to the Rheingau specifically to cultivate the wine that is today renown around all of Europe.

The Rheinstein is one of the oldest castles in Germany.  The castle was built in medieval times and was the home of German nobility.  The nobility chose to build their castle so close to the Rhine so that they could tax anything that came on a boat past their castle.  The Rheinstein owned part of the Rhine, and for boats to be allowed to go on the Rhine, they had to pay a tax to the Rheinstein nobility.

This picture you see is the fruit of much labor.  There was a very simple way to climb up to the top of the Rheinstein castle, but my family was very adventurous.  We went the long way up.  We hiked up a crevasse and walked along the ridge of a hill for about five or six miles.  After lunch and too much walking, we reached the Rheinstein.  It had been kept up very nicely, which can be attributed to a renovation in the last twenty years.  From the highest vantage point on the Rheinstein, one could see roughly twenty miles of the Rhine river.  That was one of the most beautiful images, and a view that I will never forget.

The Wiesbaden train station was the bane of my existence when I was traveling Germany.  The Germans are so precise about when trains and buses leave and arrive.  It was a difficult adjustment from American transportation.  There was more than one incident where I was in a full sprint trying to stop a bus or train from leaving without me.

One time I was being escorted back to the Wiesbaden train station by another German. 

We departed from Mainz and half way through our ride we got up and walked the length of the train to get to the front.  As soon as those doors opened, it was like the starting gun to the 100 meter dash went off.  We were both sprinting as fast as we could dodging innocent onlookers.  We got out of the station and waited a painful ten seconds for the signal to change to green so we could sprint across the road to the bus station.  I've played lacrosse for six years, and I honestly think that chasing down my bus was the fastest that I have ever run in my life.

Currywurst along with Doeners are the fast-food of Germany.  Currywurst is the only one pictured, because it is my favorite.  Currywurst is a sausage that is cooked over a flame and then cut into bite-sized pieces.  Then a delectable sauce is drizzled over it.  Currywurst is often served with a side of french fries, or Pommes.  The Germans are funny about their Pommes.  They enjoy putting a sort of mayonnaise on their french fries along with ketchup.  It was edible, but not their best culinary showing.  However, the currywurst with the sauce on it was outstanding, so it made up for the weird french fry sauce.

For two weeks I think that I did a very good job of trying all sorts of different German food, but in the last week I succumbed to the deliciousness of currywurst with french fries.  The Germans know a few things.  They know how to make good cars, they know how to run an economy, and they know how to make good food.

My experience in Germany is one that I will never forget.  I made friends across the world and experienced a culture unlike anything I have ever seen.  My German flourished and improved daily throughout this trip.  This trip is once in a lifetime, and I cannot express how grateful I am to the Wilson family for this experience abroad.  Thank you for changing my life.