tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81600649902058186852024-03-13T05:08:24.970-07:00She Walks AboutCleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-71666834224366398112013-05-31T11:41:00.001-07:002013-06-01T01:33:17.399-07:00HomestretchI. Have. Five. Days. Left. <br />
<br />
Holy shit. [ <-- excuse the French]<br />
<br />
My time in Nice (and Cannes) and Barcelona was really fun. Full of sun, beach time, cool people, and magical fountains. Plus, I snuck into the VIP section of the Cannes Film Fest and felt super badass. But you'll have to ask me about that in person.... I'm currently in the beach town of Tossa De Mar (north of Barcelona), just relaxing and soaking up some rays for the majority of my last week abroad. It's extra easy to enjoy being a beach bum when you know you have to hit the ground running with work literally four days after you get back home. Le sigh. Real life can be such a slap in the face.<br />
<br />
But really? From eight months (!) to less than one week. How did this happen? Where did my gap year/walkabout/year abroad go??<br />
<br />
I'm sure there's a similar feeling for those of you who just finished (or are finishing, Anri) your academic year. Especially if it was your freshman year of college. Yet your endings may have had a bit more jubilation and relief attached to them, whereas my thoughts about finishing up are sort of... conflicted.<br />
<br />
On the one hand, I'm SO ready to be home. I want to see my family and friends. I'm ready to return to the familiarity and comfort of STP. And by all means give me some free, home-cooked meals, my own room and bed to sleep in, and access to a washer and dryer 24/7. Honestly, for stretches of days at a time within the past few weeks it feels like all I've done is count the days, hours, minutes until my plane arrives back in MN. At certain points recently I've just lost the will to travel: I don't want to walk around new cities, I don't want to pay for museums, I don't want to meet new friends I'll just say goodbye to a few days later, I don't want to take advantage of my legal drinking age, just get me HOME.<br />
<br />
...But on the other side of that equation- I don't want to stop traveling. Returning home means going back to having parents [whom I love! But nevertheless it'll retract a bit of my complete independence], to beginning jobs and having responsibilities, to doing chores, to sinking back into "real life." No more exploring large, new, foreign cities at night with a crew of other travelers; no more "playing tourist" in the hopes of riding the metro for free; no more recounting travel tales without feeling like I'm bragging, and no longer will my biggest problem be whether or not the sun will stay out long enough for me to get five hours of beach time in instead of four....<br />
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As I've been discussing with other travelers recently, being away from your normal routine for an extended period of time is always an amazing, surreal experience. Yet once you get back, sure there's some culture shock or whatever, but soon enough you've settled back into your old ways of life, and you think to yourself "Did I actually do that? Was I really drinking Long Island iced teas in the south of France only one month ago?" It's depressing. I don't want to believe an experience like this- and especially one so [dare I say it?] life-changing- could just fade into a fond, dreamlike memory. <br />
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Because I can honestly say that this year- this decision to embark on a year abroad- has been the best thing I've ever done. I've learned so much about myself, about being self-sufficient, about how life really IS what you make of it. I've met incredible, fun, inspiring people, people who became my best friends for days, weeks, and months. I've had amazing, new experiences. I've seen beautiful, historic, breathtaking places. I [pretty much] skipped winter. I caught up a bit on my sleep debt. Traveling has lots of pros :)<br />
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I really did this by myself- was on my own, completely independent. And I've certainly grown from that. Maybe in ways that are apparent, maybe not. One thing I am sure of, though, is that I am NOT that same little, unworldly, sheltered girl who stepped naïvely onto a plane bound for Costa Rica last September.<br />
<br />
No fucking way. <br />
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I'll see y'all soon!<br />
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xoxo, CleomeCleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-74548402160247090912013-05-18T00:05:00.001-07:002013-05-18T02:38:31.317-07:00Big City Livin'As I sit here in Paris, I have (slightly) less than three weeks of backpacking left. It's crazy to think that the end of not only this leg of my adventure, but my ENTIRE year of traveling, is in sight. When I touch down on June 6, I'll have been away from home for a total of eight months.... And as ridiculous as it sounds, I'm sure in just a few weeks after being back in MN, this whole journey will have felt like a dream. But that's traveling for ya- all about living in the moment and making the most of the present. Because in the future you could be stuck in a dorm room cramming for finals....<br />
<br />
But coming back from the above musings, let me update you on how/where I spent the last 12 days.<br />
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<br />
Berlin<br />
Sooooo I got stuck in Berlin. Oh, nothing as dramatic as being mugged and left without money or official documents, no- by "stuck" I just mean I couldn't find enough motivation to leave the city for a while. Like, a full week a while.<br />
<br />
See I went in thinking I'd stay three, maybe four nights. Because I'd planned to visit Cologne (and actually had already booked a hostel there) for a few days before arriving in Paris on the 14th. But after a few days in Berlin, I realized that 1) the city was too big to see everything in only a few days, 2) my hostel was a great place to hang out and full of cool people, and 3) Berlin was cheap. AND training/bussing it to Cologne and then Paris would have been extremely expensive. AND I really had no reason to go to Cologne except to say hi to a few people for a night. AND I was tired of moving around so fast.<br />
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Plus, the hostel had a decent kitchen and I was having a blast actually cooking. A girl can only live off of raw carrots, apples, and the occasional bag of trail mix for so long. Trust me.<br />
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All that ^ is to say that I stayed in Berlin the longest of any city on my backpacking adventure so far, and totally loved it. The city is gritty, raw, unrefined, and completely real. Remnants of Berlin's (and Germany's) tumultuous past litter the streets. The people are essentially all hipsters. The atmosphere is extremely laid back. Everything and anything you want to do is available there: parks, art and history museums, shopping districts, cheap hair salons, and tons of great bars/music/clubs. [Actually, such things as 36-hour clubs exist in Berlin- people enter Friday night and don't stumble out until Monday morning. Insane.]<br />
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It's interesting how my style of traveling has developed over the past month or so. At the beginning (up until Germany, actually) I was blasting through cities. Two nights, three nights, four only if it was reeeaaaally special. And I enjoyed moving around like that. It kept things fresh and interesting and I got to see a LOT. <br />
<br />
...But try doing a month of that, and all the motion starts to get a bit old. And by 'old' I mean exhausting. Right around the time I arrived in Berlin (and if I'm being honest, maybe even a few cities beforehand) I felt in need of a break. A little bit of time where I could just plop my backpack down and not have to pack it right back up in a few days. Where I could buy food and store it in the fridge for more than a night. Where I could actually get to know people for an extended period of time. And Berlin hit the spot. (I think the rest of my visits to cities will last longer from this point on as well.)<br />
<br />
I spent the first few days in Berlin doing all my normal touristy activities: sightseeing, taking a walking tour, wandering, museum-going, etc. And then I said a final goodbye to Alec (we'd actually split up before Berlin, anyway), settled into the hostel and a new crew of people, and just chilled. It got to the point where I'd plan one activity for the day (going to the grocery store, for example), and feel successful if I managed to complete it. So in retrospect I probably stayed one or two days too long (as I really don't remember doing anything my last couple of days), but the chill-out time was a great battery recharger. Especially because Paris was next, and I planned on doing nothing but walking the streets for five solid days (in the non-prostitute sense).<br />
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My last day in Berlin consisted of contracting major blisters on both my feet, as well as spending a sleepless night on the freezing cold airport floor before my 6am flight to Paris, but it in no way colored my view of the German capital. Berlin's a top-of-the-lister, for sure.<br />
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<br />
Paris<br />
The capital of France, the city of romance, the location symbolized by a large metal tower... what a place! I think I'm in love. Seriously. And it's the kind of affection that really has little solid basis, because as I now try to pinpoint actual reasons I think I could stay here all my life, I'm sort of drawing a blank. The world-famous museums? The impressive monuments? The food? The vibe? The exclusivity the extortionate prices create? The weather? (<-ha, I'm so funny. It's been 60 and rainy/cloudy pretty much my whole stay...) Well, whatever the reasons, I really have enjoyed my time here.<br />
<br />
True to my original plan, I did spend my days here just walking the city. I toured the main tourist attractions (though didn't make it up close to the Eiffel Tower/Arc Du Triomphe until my third day here), got a history lesson on the artsy Montmartre area, popped into some nifty shops, soaked up the intermittent sun in parks, and did a handful of the top museums [I did the Louvre last night for free, and after hitting the celebrity pieces like the Mona Lisa and Venus di Milo (who decides which artworks become so famous, anyway?) wandered to the Islamic art area. Where I'd step into a room and literally be the only person there. In the Louvre.... Sometimes the curators were even MIA. Kind of a surreal experience.]. Also hit the small-yet-beautiful Rodin museum. Totally recommend it.<br />
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My hostel here isn't the nicest place to hang out, but it was fine as I wasn't planning on cooking, relaxing inside, or (as sad as it sounds) meeting people in Paris. So all in all, even with the iffy weather, I think I may have found my absolute favorite city. Though I still have yet to visit a few others that may give Paris a run for its money.... But for now, it's top.<br />
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<br />
Now I'm off to really do nothing but read, tan, and stargaze on the beaches of the south of France. And the Cannes film festival. So pumped.<br />
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And yes, I'm still trying to snag a ticket to a movie premiere. I'll let you know if I succeed.<br />
<br />
xoxo, CleomeCleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-53964270693629543292013-05-07T13:45:00.001-07:002013-05-09T11:56:24.096-07:00To the East and Back AgainMy time in Italy ended roughly one week ago, but damn does it feel like so much more time has gone by since then. In these past eight/nine days, my route took me through Vienna, then I hit the non-Western cities of Budapest and Prague, and am currently stationed in Berlin (just arrived). Kind of a whirlwind tour, but luckily I (so far) have lived to tell the tale.<br />
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[Oh, and if you happen to remember back to my possible list of cities to visit and their order... yeah, it's safe to say that has COMPLETELY changed. Like, everything after Italy. So get ready for some surprises :)]<br />
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<br />
Out of Italy #1~ Vienna, Austria<br />
First on the trajectory was Vienna- a city that managed to secure a place on my list of favorite spots by the time I had to say goodbye (three days after getting in). <br />
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If I had to describe the vibe present in Vienna in one word, it would have to be "artsy." Everything had a creative bend: murals on the walls lining the river banks, art-nouveau architecture, random decorations on buildings... not to mention the hundreds of art museums all over the city. <- all the prettiness within Vienna made it so much fun to walk around and just marvel at the various types of public artwork.<br />
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I was mostly on my own in Vienna, but the city was so full of things to do and see, it didn't matter. To be honest, I generally prefer exploring cities on my own. I have gone out wandering with others, which is certainly fun, but I like to walk... like, a lot, and so when I'm going solo I can move around as much/little as I want. Also, I've devised the perfect method to get the most out of sightseeing in a city: grab a map from the hostel and figure out where that is located, then pick a direction that heads toward the main tourist attractions and put my map away until the evening when I realize I should start heading back to cook some dinner. Using that way of exploring, I invariably end up seeing more of the city than I otherwise would have, as I rely on my sub-par sense of direction (and which streets look coolest) to determine where I end up walking. Trying to make it back to the hostel with the map always turns into an adventure, as well....<br />
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So yeah, at this point I think Vienna would be one of the few cities I've visited which I could see myself returning to to live for a more extended period of time. Highly recommended.<br />
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Out of Italy #2~ Budapest, Hungary<br />
Umm, it had never even crossed my mind to venture into Budapest, even briefly, until people I'd met in Europe (from Athens on) began mentioning the city as a cool place to go check out. But as I began rethinking my route- due to finanicial as well as interest reasons- I started to formulate a plan to hit a few more eastern cities (namely Split, Croatia; Budapest, Hungary, and Prague, Czech Republic) before stepping into Berlin....<br />
<br />
Which happened to worked out perfectly when I met Alec (my travel buddy basically beginning in Budapest) in Rome, and it turned out he was planning on doing a similar thing at basically the same time (only he wanted to hit Vienna instead of Croatia). So we decided to keep in touch on our separate trips through Italy, and then just see if it would work out to meet up and travel together through Vienna [though we only arrived there together- he was staying with family friends, so we didn't see each other much in Austria], Budapest, Prague, and Berlin. And it did. By the time we split (at end of our visit to Berlin), we'll have traveled together for about a week. <br />
<br />
Anyway, back to Budapest. My first real venture into "Eastern Europe." So cool.<br />
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Budapest the city, if taken solely at face-value, has little to offer tourists. You can see the monuments in a day, there are few museums, and it takes maybe 45 minutes to walk from one side to the other. But if you delve a bit deeper, there's a lot of cool things to DO. In my one and a half days in Budapest I: saw a $5 opera, went to a cheap Hungarian buffet, got caught in a torrential downpour, and visited "the 3rd best pub in the world" (according to Lonely Planet) in a cool ruins bar- building blasted in WWII and kept in its damaged condition. I had a lot of fun, and the vibe in the city (and among the travelers who pass through) is extremely relaxed and into having a good time. The atmosphere felt a lot more sunny than the majority of other European cities I've been to; it reminded me of Central America a bit, actually. Extremely comfortable and easy to immediately feel at home. Had I not already planned to go to Prague, I most likely would have stayed in Budapest longer. It was nice and cheap, too :)<br />
<br />
[Also, Budapest reminded me that, though in Europe there are tons of possible routes to take/places to visit, the traveling community is weirdly small. I ran into not one but two different people I'd hung out with in my earlier travels (one in Israel, one in Athens) in the same day while walking through Budapest. Forces of the universe at work, I tell ya....]<br />
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Out of Italy #3: Prague, Czech Republic<br />
Second (and final?) stop in the east was Prague- a city I'd heard a lot about, beginning in Costa Rica. It had the reputation of not only being extremely gorgeous, but also possessing a pretty active nightlife. Best of both worlds, right?<br />
<br />
I really did enjoy Prague, no doubt. But maybe if I hadn't already seen Vienna, I would've been more amazed by its Victorian beauty. And maybe if I wasn't coming from Budapest, I'd have been overwhelmed by the nightlife experience.... <br />
<br />
That being said, I still had a great time in Prague. The walking tour I took was my favorite of the five or so I've been on so far. Seeing the astronomical clock "performance" was pretty cool. I came across free-ranging peacocks one morning, which definitely made my day. The city was full of scenic views and elegant architecture. And trying authentic absinthe had been on my To Do list... ;)<br />
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Plus, met some cool people and had a good Prague-after-dark experience. A fun, beautiful, and cheap city.<br />
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<br />
Loving All the Moving, But...<br />
To those of you who don't know much about backpacking, it may sound like one big vacation. And while it is most likely on average more enjoyable than a routine of studying/working day after day, let me tell you: straight traveling is exhausting. Most cities are a three or four day stop, and in that short amount of time you try and fit in EVERY single "touristy" thing to do. Plus activities you hear recommended by other travelers. Plus going out at night. And if you're me, you walk everywhere. Because you're cheap. And wandering around is fun, anyway. But put it all together and it's a lot.<br />
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No, I am in no way complaining. Honestly, the backpacker life is pretty stress-free :) However, I am quite looking forward to spending at least a week in southern France. I'm planning on beach-bumming it for a while, coupled with some daytrips to the Cannes film fest. Sounds like a good life, no?<br />
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Two more big cities and then the beach. Hope y'all are enjoying finals....<br />
<br />
xoxo, CleomeCleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-76262435612834180192013-04-27T02:11:00.001-07:002013-04-27T08:18:53.891-07:00Ciao CiaoGray day in Venice. Luckily I've got a nice apartment, five cool American chicks, and- of course- this blog post to keep me going :)<br />
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My time in Italy is up! One day more and I head for the hills. Literally- I'm going to Vienna. And gaining a travel buddy (finally) along the way. It's crazy to imagine I've been solo-but-not-alone backpacking for essentially one whole month now. And I've got basically only one month (okay, five weeks) left until I return from my time abroad. I'll have been out for eight of the past twelve months once I touch down in STP. Insane.<br />
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But it's a bit too early to get nostalgic for experiences I'm still not through with. Let's talk about Italy.<br />
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Roma<br />
Rome I already briefed y'all about. Amazing city to walk around in, but I moved on pretty quickly [in retrospect, definitely WAY too quickly] due to my severely lacking social scene.... C'est la vie.<br />
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Firenze<br />
Florence is where I left off in blog world. I stayed there four nights (the longest of any city in Italy- and actually in my backpacking journey so far) because I really just couldn't get enough of the city! To me, it felt like Rome on a smaller, more Cleome-friendly scale: less streets to get lost on, a bit calmer vibe, gorgeous river in the middle with actual grassy banks, and still lots of old buildings and museums to go check out. <br />
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Another reason I felt no need to rush out was thanks to the cool people I met (at last!). I met a guy studying in Rome, Max, my first night, who acted like my guide around Florence for a day. A fun group of five American girls studying in Grenoble (France) checked in the next night, and that's who I'm staying with in this apartment in Venice. And I found a museum-going buddy in Robin on my last full day in town. So a much better friend scene there, which allowed me to take my time and enjoy the sites a little less hurriedly than in Rome.<br />
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Florence is definitely near the top of my "Favorite Cities I've Seen" list. <br />
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Bologna [I think the English and Italian names are the same...]<br />
Now this was a different type of tourist experience.<br />
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For one, I was only going to Bologna because I had a place to stay (my dad's old Italian girlfriend and family live there- not that I'd ever met them... but in traveling, any and every connection is valid). I don't even think there's a hostel there. And two, Bologna is not really set up in any way for tourists. Which is great! Makes for a very authentic Italian town experience. But for all the pros (no entrance fees, no one speaking English, no people trying to sell you stuff on the street), there are also some cons... mainly that NO ONE speaks English. Makes it tricky to, say, buy a train ticket, or, for example, understand when people are yelling at you for entering a private art showing....<br />
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But I loved walking around the city! I pretty much just walked down cool looking streets, under all the archways, and into any open door I could find. Not many large monuments, but enough to keep you occupied for a good chunk of time. Also, Bologna has parts that are incredibly green and flowery and gorgeous. Which I was able to find thanks to having a tour guide in the form of Cinzia- my mother for the two days I stayed in Bologna :)<br />
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Getting that homestay feel in the middle of traveling was an experience too great for words. In backpacking you're always in a hostel, no privacy, strangers everywhere, everything costs you money, and you feel the need to go go go. Being able to sleep in a non-bunk bed, in my own room, have my meals cooked for me and my laundry done, was almost too much. I felt immediately at home, and just went into relaxation mode. Which was desperately needed. [Though now I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to get out and do my normal eight hours of walking a day....]<br />
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So I was really sad to leave Bologna. 'Nuff said.<br />
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Venezia<br />
Venice is one of those cities I'm pretty sure the majority of the [Western] human population wants to see. Because it's supposed to be magical- it's a floating city, for goodness sake. One that may go underwater in the not too distant future... but let's not think about that.<br />
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[Also, not sure if everyone but me realized this, but an aerial map of Venice shows that the city looks like a fish. How cool!]<br />
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I think Venice is a nice place to visit, certainly, but a few days is by far enough (for me). It's so cool walking around as there are no cars, narrow, twisting alleyways lead everywhere, and you're surrounded by water. But the city is also extremely touristy, expensive (literally everything costs money- and more euros than the rest of Italy), and has NO nightlife. I'm serious. It's like a ghost town at night. So I guess a decent spot for a family vacation, then... haha.<br />
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Walking around and stepping into church entries (so I don't have to pay <- cheap backpacker tip), plus the occasional artsy shop has been fun. And getting lost in the crazy, non-planned city streets is definitely part of the Venetian experience. But after one more full day tomorrow (in which I'll be kicked out of the apartment where I've been holing myself up...) I think I'll have gotten my fill.<br />
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Though walking around at night, having the streets to yourself and taking in the reflection of lights on the water is quite magical. Venice works well for lovers I'd say, too.<br />
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To sum up Italy, I enjoyed every place I visited for different reasons.<br />
Rome for the history and the walking and the monuments.<br />
Florence for the atmosphere and the people.<br />
Bologna for its authenticity and my insider experience.<br />
Venice for its novelty.<br />
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Italy is a terribly beautiful country that inspires romance with every scene you drink in. Incredible cities. Ancient histories. Wonderful people (locals and travelers). Delicious food.<br />
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...But traveling through this country also burned a not-so-attractive hole in my pocket. I'm ready to stop living in poverty. I'm ready for Eastern Europe!<br />
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Vienna- it's on.<br />
<br />
xoxo, CleomeCleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-17052700693428477482013-04-20T01:58:00.001-07:002013-04-20T02:28:11.547-07:00[Nearly] Three Weeks InI'm currently sitting in the reception area of a hostel in downtown Rome, minutes from the main Termini station. Since all I really have on the agenda today is to make it to Florence by mid-afternoon (as opposed to my last couple weeks of what feels like non-stop activities crammed into each and every day), I figured this was a good time to write a quick update on my solo traveling adventures. Here goes!<br />
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Week 1: Jerusalem, Mitzpe Ramon (Israel)<br />
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I left my volunteer position at the Fauzi at the beginning of April- literally April 1. I, accompanied by my volunteer bestie Jake who had a few days off, headed to Jerusalem to base ourselves there for a couple of days. While there I finally got around to doing all the major touristy stuff, haha: hiked the snake path up to the ruins of Masada, swam (floated?) in the Dead Sea, and hiked through the natural oasis of Ein Gedi. I had fun, but mainly enjoyed being able to check them off my Israel to do list... they'd sort of been hanging over my head. <- And that may sound really flippant, but I think I've slightly overloaded on gorgeous treks and ancient Roman/Ottoman/Byzantine ruins. There happen to be a ton all over Israel. So while they were still nice to visit, I wasn't as wowed as a first-timer would've been, I'm sure.<br />
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Jake left me to return to Nazareth on Wednesday, and so Thursday morning I set out to my first real location where I didn't know anyone: Mitzpe Ramon, a town situated in the middle of the Negev desert. The draw of Mitzpe is that it happens to be right next to this huge crater-like thing (but it's not a crater!) called a makhtesh. Only seven makhtesh exist in the world; five in Israel and two in Jordan. I'm not exactly sure on the actual differences between a makhtesh and crater... but makhtesh aren't formed by meteors or eruptions or anything- it's all about the natural shifts of the earth that happen in a particular sequence. Anyway, I LOVED it there- stayed for three nights. I did a few different desert hikes that were just amazing, got some sun, and did I mention that the Green Backpackers hostel was incredible? Great vibe, intimate, run by accredited tour guides, and attracted the coolest people (other guests and volunteers). We had a communal dinner, movie night, poker game (which I won!), and lots of interesting conversations. I felt extremely comfortable there and was sad to leave. But I didn't stay as I had other places I really wanted to visit, too.<br />
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Week 2: Petra (Jordan), Eilat, Mishmar Haemek, Nazareth (Israel)<br />
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I managed to pick up a travel buddy in Mitzpe Ramon- this cool Argentinian named Jose who happened to be a hostel volunteer at Green Backpackers, but used his free days to travel south with me to the beaches of Eilat. We missed our bus... but it turned out for the best as we hitch hiked and arrived at the resort town earlier and for free. We spent two days just picking out beaches to hit up, playing guitar, speaking Spanish (attempting to, on my part...), snorkeling (so good there! An amazing variety of vibrant fish), and chilling on the hostel patio at night. I had a great time, and parting was bittersweet. I hope we meet up again someday.<br />
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After Eilat I joined an old person tour to the ancient Nabitian city of Petra, located about two hours over the border in Jordan. I spent two days wandering around one of the eight wonders of the ancient world, and it was an incredible, impressive sight to behold. The city was just so picturesque- and extensive! Right when you thought you'd reached the outskirts, another little path was leading you up a million stairs to some other monastery.... I spent two days there and still didn't get to see everything. A definite highlight from Petra was also getting to stay in a real hotel (part of the tour package). A non-bunk bed. My own bathroom. A full-length mirror. I was in heaven. Took full advantage of my privacy and just stripped and flung myself on the bed. It felt soooo good. <- by far the nicest place I have stayed and will stay while traveling alone.<br />
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Once I was let back into Israel (there was a bit of border iffiness, but they finally let me through), I took a series of busses over the course of eight hours to get to my friend Jess's kibbutz in the north- about one hour from Nazareth. I'd been there once before for a day, so arriving again felt a bit like coming home... or at least to a relievingly familiar place with familiar people. It was so much fun hanging out on the kibbutz for a night with Jess and her friends again. They're always a fun group to see :)<br />
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On Friday I bid farewell to the kibbutzers and headed off with Jess to Nazareth (she wanted to come back for a few hours to say hi). We arrived at the Fauzi, and that definitely felt like coming home: we knew the town, the people, and it all felt so normal. Though I have to say, returning to a place you already left always feels a bit weird. Like you're coming into another dimension's version of that area, sci-fi- everything's the same, but different, too.... Regardless, it was really nice having a place to stay, eat, and do laundry for free before leaving Israel- the next day I'd be setting off for only unfamiliar locales where I have 0 connections. Which was simultaneously freaky and exhilarating.<br />
<br />
Goodbyes while traveling are always hard, and even more-so when it's with people you've gotten to know really well. Saying goodbye to Jess was difficult- she was my best friend in Nazareth for almost a month, and we really bonded. Our goodbye was more of a see-you-later. I sincerely hope we meet again. Plus, I'll have gotten her some cool present by that point as a thanks for her incredibly touching gift of a hamza necklace (which I haven't taken off since I got it). Love and miss you Jess! I also had to say bye to Jake, but we can meet up in the States, so. And the last person I said goodbye to was Hagai, an amazing night receptionist, even if he hates people ;) He saw me to the train station, and from there I was on my way to fly to Europe!<br />
<br />
Week 3: Athens (Greece), Rome (Italy)<br />
And then I got to continental Europe! My first day in Athens was more of a catch-up-on-sleep day, as I'd been ridiculously interrogated by israeli security throughout the early morning hours for whatever reason. When I finally felt like getting out, I was immediately overwhelmed by a feeling of loneliness. Here's an excerpt from an email I sent my parents that first day:<br />
"So much of a good time traveling is about meeting others. No way in hell am I going to spend 6 weeks walking around and doing everything alone. Maybe I'm not ready to be an independent backpacker. Maybe we all overestimated my abilities to get out there, be social, be alone, and SURVIVE. Or at least enjoy it.<br />
<br />
Clearly I'm still not feeling very positive. I had a good thing going in Israel. I had friends, a community, knowledge of the transportation system and what to do in each location I visited. Out here I have nil. And a major dip in self-confidence.<br />
<br />
Part of me wants to end this now and just come home.<br />
<br />
I'm too afraid to hack it solo in this big world."<br />
<br />
...So I was being a bit dramatic. But looking past the woe-is-me stuff, I actually was feeling like I'd made a huge mistake. And then literally as I was sitting in the hostel, about to write another depressed email, my knight in shining armor [hi MJ!] sits down next to me and strikes up a conversation. And from there my time in Athens was bomb :)<br />
<br />
I found myself a part of an awesome crew of two other 18-year-old girl solo travelers (!), and this Canadian dude. We had dinners together, roamed Athens at night, went off to a lake, and just had each other's backs. It was great, and though we were only together two days, it was extremely sad parting from them. But I think we met because forces in the universe wanted to give all of us young, independent girls a confidence boost: you are badass, check out these other chicks who are just as amazing as you are! Oh, and Athens itself? A really cool city. All monuments are located in one spot, the city feels extremely safe, and walking around was fun. A great intro to Europe.<br />
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And last but not least, Rome! This incredible city I've heard so much about. And boy does it live up to expectations. I literally spent two full days (at least eight hours) wandering the streets of Rome. Part of that may have to do with my lack of map-reading skills as opposed to how far everything is, but hey, it's a great way to see more of a city than you were originally planning, yeah? There are not only important historic sites every street you turn down, but some of the neighborhoods are adorable, there is so much greenery, and the street fashions make people-watching super cool.<br />
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The only bummer with Rome is the people. Not the Italians or anything- my personal people. The people I'm bonding with and exploring all the nooks and crannies of Rome with. The people who don't exist. [Don't get me wrong- I've met people, and even went out to get authentic Italian pasta with someone, but I have no CREW. Which is what I want and what I'm missing.] <br />
<br />
So I'm off to Florence today. You could spend months in Rome and still not know it all, but after two days I've hit all the major sites, and think I know what the city's about. I'll come back, maybe. But for now I'm moving on.<br />
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Let's go, baby.<br />
<br />
xoxo, CleomeCleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-42795334725781040672013-03-29T22:55:00.001-07:002013-03-29T22:55:03.201-07:00Preliminary Itinerary<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I've heard that for a lot of people, the planning of a trip is almost as (or even more) enjoyable than actually taking the trip. While, maybe that'd be the case for me if I actually had a lot of time to plan... but backpacking is a bit different than vacationing, for one, and two, I think the most "planning" I can do at this point is just try and create a basic route to follow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Below is what I've come up with so far. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Will it change? Duh. Not only is it super bare-bones at this point (I'll probably end up cutting through some small towns I've never know existed before), but I'm sure it also includes <em>way</em> too many spots for me to feasibly hit [though you should've seen my first first draft...]. And I've no idea whether I'll like a place so much I want to stay for a week, or hate a place and be on the first train out after not even a day. Plus, I'm still crossing my fingers that I meet cool people to hang with- who'll no doubt influence my route as well. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But are these the places my brain believes I can (and want to) make it to in ~9 weeks? Yup.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">(By the way, dates are totally approximate once I leave Israel.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Israel</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">April 1-14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">>Negev (Desert) Region</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-Masada</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-Ein Gedi</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-Dead Sea</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-Mitzpe Ramon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">>Eilat</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">>Petra (technically in Jordan- I've got to see if I've got the time/funds to visit a wonder of the ancient world for a few days)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">>back north to say goodbye if I have time?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><u>Europe: April 14-June 6</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Greece</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;">April 14-17?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">>Athens</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-day trip to Mycenae?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Italy</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;">April 17-May 4?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">>Rome</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-be there on April 21st for its b-day celebration?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">>Naples (yes Mom, I'm still planning on going. I'll try to find a guy to travel with...)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">-Pompeii</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">-grotto azzurra</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">>Florence</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">-trips to Pisa for the tower and Cinque Terre for the view</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">>Bologna</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">>Venice</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Germany</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;">May 4-16?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">>Munich</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">>Prague? It's the most interesting thing between the two German cities, so I may have to pop over to the Czech Republic for a bit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">>Berlin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">>Cologne</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">>Frankfurt or Black Forest or Geneva (Switzerland) or Aosta Valley (Italy) <-- clearly having some issues making up my mind... I know I just need to go<em> south</em> from Cologne</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>France</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;">May 16-June 3?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">>Cannes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-Film Festival May 15-26 <-- wierdly enough, this event has become what I'm orienting my whole trip around... not sure why, but ever since I realized I <em>could</em> get there timing-wise, it's become non-negotiable. It also help that Cannes is located on the beaches in the south of France. AND that I can see some of the premieres for free.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">[Slight topic deviation: I've developed a small goal of meeting an actor/producer/director/etc. who I can then entice into inviting me to a VIP-only movie premiere. I'll make sure to update the blog should any progress with that occur....]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">>Nice, Marseilles, other beach towns in southern France</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">[>Biarritz or Bordeaux or Normandy if I find myself with some spare time?]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">>Tours</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">>Paris (and Versailles)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Netherlands</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;">June 3-6</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">•Amsterdam</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> my Europe route is sort of zig-zagging its way up through Italy, looping around Germany (possibly detouring into the Czech Republic), and then cutting down across the south of France, up to Paris, and finally ending in Amsterdam.</span> <span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Definitely a bit bizzare and not at all what I'd have thought I'd be doing even a few months ago. But I always wanted to go through Italy... and I met a lot of Germans, so Germany had to be included.... then I learned about the Cannes Film Fest and had already bought my ticket out of Amsterdam, so there you have it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">And while I'm trying to sound all professional and rational about this thing, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. Yay!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">xoxo, Cleome</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-33815379881006523522013-03-29T01:17:00.001-07:002013-03-29T01:17:41.193-07:00Highlights, High Fives, and High Hopes<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Alright, because I've been so lame about posting on the blog for the past month (or two...), I'm going to hit you with a long-yet-relatively-undescriptive list of <u>Cleome's Favorite Things</u> while having been a volunteer at the Fauzi Azar Inn.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Which I figured I should do before I set off on my true backpacking adventure on Sunday (!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Cleome's Favorite Israeli [fill-in-the-blank]:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b> Ruins~</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•Caesarea- Huge city complex from Caesar's era.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•Megiddo- Where "Armageddon" is supposed to take place.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•Arbel Castle- Crusader castle carved out of the cliffs. A real-life Treasure Island playground.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•Heridion- Kind Herod's castle on (and under) a hill.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Museums~</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•Yad Vashem- Holocaust museum. Surprisingly not as depressing as I'd been expecting.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•Israel Museum- Lots of exhibits and art about/from Israel (duh).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>People~</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•Guests</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">- ones I learned from </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">- ones with crazy adventures</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">- ones I connected with and were fun to talk to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">- ones that became possible contacts throughout the world</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">• My Israeli family I'd seen only once before (and definitely didn't remember). So cool to have relatives in other countries!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">• Locals. Extremely hospitable and interested in showing off their culture. Extremely friendly, for the most part.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">• Other volunteers/staff members. Of course. Who I worked with and chilled with. They're the ones with the most impact on making this experience what it was. Shout out to Jess, Pat, Mike, Jake, Hagai, Elisa, Linda, Yafit, Marwa, Norhan, Maoz, Suraida, Gangaanai, and James.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Hikes and Nature~</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•Yehudea- Golan Heights nature reserve with amazing natural pools and views.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•Arbel Cliffs- Crusader castles.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•Jesus trail- Varied landscapes on a fairly easy (but long) hike.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•walk from kibbutz to Nazareth- a six hour/30 kilometer walk I'm very proud of having accomplished completely on my own due to the lack of public transportation on Saturdays. And I still made it back in time for my shift. Booyah!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Events~</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•going out (Patra, tel aviv, Jerusalem)- always fun</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•visiting Jess- I stayed at her Kibbutz for a day and had a blast seeing her again :)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•peanut butter find- yes, I am including inheriting two jars of peanut butter left by guests as one of my favorite events. Stereotypical American, what can I say?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•learning Arabic- sort of...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•guitar playing at the Fauzi- I <i>have</i> been practicing, Dad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Extended Trips~</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•Jerusalem- Breaking the Silence tour of the South Hebron Hills, seeing Israeli family, free official pub crawl, stalking Obama, visiting museums, walking around, seeing Bethlehem & Banksy originals</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•Tel Aviv- meeting cool people, getting a taste of the nightlife, visiting the old port city of Jaffa</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>First Times~</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•smoking hookah/nargila- didn't really like it, but was definitely entranced by the smoke rings others could make.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•official pub crawl- at 18. In Jerusalem. Totally free. Yeah.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•hitch-hiking alone- during daylight and picked up by a girl. Stop freaking out Mom.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•visiting west bank- my second week I went to the town of Jenin with Jess. It really stuck with me as I honestly hadn't even imagined I'd feel safe enough to go to the West Bank. Clearly perspectives change when you actually arrive in a place you'd heard nothing but negative things about before... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">•staying on a kibbutz- yeah, I really liked the night I spent on the kibbutz with Jess. Do I think I could live on one (or even volunteer there for a couple months)? Probably not. But for a short visit it was incredibly fun to experience a different way of life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And those are just the highlights I could come up with off the top of my head. I've had an amazing time being based in Nazareth, and am conflicted about leaving in a handful of days. On one hand, I've grown comfortable here and have a community, friends, and bed to sleep in that I can call my own. Alternatively, I think my life here is now <i>too</i> familiar. I more or less have a daily routine, talk to the same people (mainly), and have lost the motivation to explore/go on day trips [though being sick the last week may have contributed to that also...]. Anyway, I think it's a good time to be moving on. I'm not yet sick of the place, but I am getting there. Some days have been almost boring, and at times I've wanted to punch a few people in the face I was so annoyed by them... so it's probably best I'm on my way soon ;)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Being a hostel volunteer at the Fauzi has been by far my favorite volunteer experience I've had on my year abroad- I've met some incredible people and had some unparalleled experiences. I can't imagine having chosen anything more fun or beneficial, and I know what I've learned here will help ease me into traveling on my own [regardless of how terrifying that still seems].</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I thank the Fauzi, Nazareth, and all the incredible friends I've made for a great two months volunteering. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And here's to a fucking awesome final two months of my walkabout- bring on the backpacking!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-51750432402121241692013-02-25T06:45:00.000-08:002013-02-25T06:45:03.500-08:00Versus<div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
While my time in Israel has so far followed a similar theme to my time in Central America (volunteering for an extended period/traveling during service work breaks, etc.), there are some poignant differences between life here compared to anywhere and anything I've experienced before.</div>
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<b>Israel vs USA</b></div>
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I'll try not to spew the obvious differences (like the fact that Israel is roughly the size of New Jersey or that the official languages don't include English here), but instead delve a bit deeper into dissimilarities.</div>
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•Israel is a land of extreme differences, in every way: socially, geographically, politically. We all know that the US is famed for the multitude of cultures/ethnicities/traditions it combines, yet Israel has all that <i>plus</i> some. You've got your wealthy citizens living in high rises on the coast, while not even 20 minutes away a Bedouin camp has been erected and the nomads are out taking their goat herds to pasture. (The juxtaposition of a Bedouin shepherd tending the flock while being immersed in a texting conversation via cellphone gets me every time.) Then there is the less comical distinction between Israel proper and the West Bank. The separation (physical or not) of Jews and Arabs. </div>
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Land-wise, Israel's small chunk of the world contains mountains, deserts, forests, seas, the lowest point on Earth (the Dead Sea), and both extremely habited and uninhabited land. An impressive amount of unique ecosystems. </div>
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And lastly, the political extremes found here top probably most places in the world. I'm not even going to get into that.</div>
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•Israel is both more forward and more backward than the US. For example, the amount of solar energy used here far surpasses that of America. And (though I'm not sure that this proves any sort of higher level of modernity) Israel has the largest per capita use of cellphones in the entire world. Yet they drive here almost like the only requirement to pass their test was being able to turn on the car. And separation of church and state (a basic foundation of the US) is essentially non-existent here. Which leads to a bunch of issues, as one can imagine... or hear on the news. </div>
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•People are extremely open. The good kind of openness that moves complete strangers to invite you into their houses for tea or coffee and to tell you about their lives. And the kind of open that nearly reaches the point of hostility when people discuss their political and social views, and urge you to state your opinions on the matter. </div>
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•Religion is paramount. While levels of religiousness differ, the majority of the population attends some sort of regular services, and on days of rest (be it Friday night-Saturday for Jews or Sunday for Christians) cities and public transport completely shut down. Quite inconvenient for traveling, I'll admit. Along those same lines, there is no such thing as a civil union here- you must be married in a religious institution (or alternatively flee to Cyprus to elope). And lastly, everyone wants to know what YOU are. Makes for an awkward situation when I confess to an Arab my mother is Jewish... I generally follow that up by quickly saying my father is Christian and that I personally am non-religious. Which is hard for some to understand. (Don't get me wrong- not everyone is biased for or against one religion/nationality. But in smaller, predominantly Arab cities like Nazareth, it's best to play it safe and not admit Jewdom unless directly questioned.)</div>
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•Guns are on display. I'm still not used to seeing the 18, 19, 20-year olds dressed in military garb casually having their M16's slung across their bodies. And whenever I'm overtaken by a group of them, I feel very uncomfortable. Though if I was raised in Israel I'm sure I wouldn't think twice about it.</div>
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<b>Israel vs Central America</b></div>
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Certain aspects here are surprisingly reminiscent of my time in Costa Rica/Nicaragua. Like how the guys are pretty aggressive, or how the society is relatively chauvinistic (especially out of the big cities). And the copious amounts of stray animals (though in Israel it's cats instead of dogs) or trash in the streets. But being in Israel does provide some novelty.</div>
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•Food is waaaayyyyyy better here. Just look at the local fast foods of choice- hummus, falafel, or shwarma as opposed to McDonald's. And non-fast foods are inevitably more impressive than the ubiquitous rice and beans. The Mediterranean-infused cuisine regularly includes cucumber and tomato salads, fresh goat cheese, tabbouleh, omelets, kebabs, and baked eggplant. And while the selection of fruit in Central America was more impressive, the amount of fresh veggies at any time here is to die for if you're a salad junkie like me. </div>
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Don't even get me started on sweets here. Let's just say it's incredible what they can do with sesame seeds- grind them, spin them with sugar, bake 'em into cookies, the list goes on and on. Yum.</div>
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•The culture is much less risqué here. In Costa Rica, I literally saw people's <i>grandmothers </i>wearing short shorts and lace-backed tank tops. Maybe since it was so much warmer there, the culture just moved away from conservative dress out of necessity. But in Israel (especially the more traditional places), skirts above the knees/without tights, cleavage, and bare shoulders are a no-no. Here's to hoping I'll get to wear the tank tops and dresses I brought in Europe....</div>
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•I'd love to say public transportation here far exceeds that of Central America, but alas I would be lying. I guess the nicer thing is that here they have shared taxis called sheruts as an alternative to the bus system: large vans you can take to places that cost as little as the buses and don't take as long.</div>
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<b>Israel vs Nazareth</b></div>
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You may be wondering about this comparison, as Nazareth is a part of Israel. Let me explain.</div>
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•Nazareth is unlike the majority of Israeli towns. It is a predominantly Arab city, and parts of it appear (at least to my uncultured eyes) almost indistinguishable from the West Bank. The city doesn't shut down for Shabbat (instead, nothing is open on Sunday), Muslim call-to-prayers are heard in time with the tolling of the church bells, and the most common language spoken is Arabic (so much for my "Hebrew for Dummies" book). You're much more likely to see a woman in a burka than a man wearing a yarmulke here. A bit different from the rest of Israel, I'd say....</div>
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<b>Nazareth vs Atenas</b></div>
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The two towns I've had as home bases are quite different, leading to very different experiences and relationships with each.</div>
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•Nazareth is a much larger city, with acclaimed restaurants, bars (sort of), a huge shopping mall, and pretty much any knick-knack you could think of. We were able to find a guitar <i>and</i> a capo in one of the jumbled shops. That would've been left for a shopping trip to San Jose in Costa Rica.</div>
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Plus, as there's more to do in town, it leads to staying out/getting to bed later, and it's harder to force yourself to get out of town. Sort of.</div>
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•While Nazareth is no tourist hot spot akin to Jerusalem, it certainly draws more foreigners than the sleepy town of Atenas did. So not only do you meet more travelers in day-to-day activities (working in a hostel helps that, too...), but the majority of the locals speak English.</div>
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•Nazareth's layout is way more confusing than that of Atenas. After one day of exploration (and yes, getting lost) in Atenas, I had the geography of the town down pat. Here, not only are the Old City streets super twisty and confusing, but once I get a bit away from the Old City I'm completely in unknown territory. I really only venture through the Old City, the restaurant district, the path to the top of Mount of Precipice, and the part of the Jesus Trail that doubles as my running route... anything outside of that sphere, and I could be on Mars. A Mars with atmosphere and civilization....</div>
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<b>Hostel Work vs Orphanage </b></div>
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I've come to the conclusion that I much prefer the volunteer work I'm doing here in the hostel in Nazareth to helping out in the children's home in Palmares.</div>
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•As the local staff I'm interacting with are adults, not only am I making new friends I can talk with, but I'm also meeting people who I can go out with, or who can introduce me to more of the local community of Nazareth. Kids are cute, but their social lives are pretty bland.</div>
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•Along that same vein, I'm meeting just more people in general, as one of the main jobs of working in a hostel is talking with the guests. Some you just exchange pleasantries with and answer questions, while other you find yourself talking to for hours and going out with after shifts. I love that! (Originally I was apprehensive about working in a hostel, as I don't immediately label myself a social butterfly. But either my self-perception is really off, or traveling/working at the Fauzi has stretched my social ease. I've found it pleasingly fun and easy to get into conversations with total strangers. I feel the sociable persona is half a type of act and half genuine until you get to know someone and it's all genuine. A major plus of this increased comfort in initiating conversations with strangers is I think I've essentially become immune to feeling socially awkward. It's become so commonplace it barely phases me anymore, haha.) This work is certainly doing more for my Facebook friends list ;)</div>
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<b>Major Differences in this Trip vs the First Four Months of my Gap Year</b></div>
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Just some general other differences I'm too lazy to try and categorize.</div>
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•I don't at all speak the national language(s) of Israel. The Spanish I started out with might have been basic, but it did allow for communication beyond "hello" and "thank you" (the extent of my Arabic... but I'm working on it!).</div>
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•I'm supposed to provide all my own food (though we get free breakfast, fruit, cake, and leftovers from the Fauzi, so...) instead of being provided with three home-cooked meals a day.</div>
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•There's a much more extreme time difference between the States and Israel than the US and Costa Rica. Like, eight hours vs one. Which makes it more difficult to communicate with people back home.</div>
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•My schedule changes daily. No set weekly routines of knowing exactly when I'll be working and when I'll be free. I guess for all the inconvenience that gives, it also inspires me to be more active in taking day trips and researching locations to visit.</div>
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•I'm sharing a room with the other volunteers instead of doing a home-stay. First extended dorm room experience?</div>
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•The hostel work (while in no way difficult) is stuff I've never done before, whereas I felt pretty confident I knew how to entertain children.</div>
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•This time abroad I'll be spending equal time volunteering and actively traveling. Instead of just tacking on the traveling at the end (besides weekend trips).</div>
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•Since Israel is a bit further from Minnesota, I won't get to see my family at all for these four months. Sadface.</div>
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•Going out, getting connections through the hostel and local staff, and being a bit more into exploring the town has led me to be much more immersed in the local community of Nazareth. Which is incredibly fun.</div>
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I've loved everything I've done so far, and every place I've traveled. This "gap year" just keeps getting better and better.</div>
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Now I'm off to learn the "Cooking by the Book" remix by Lil Jon. A farewell request from the lovely Mike Chong. Parental advisory suggested.</div>
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xoxo, Cleome</div>
Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-22108233707955428322013-02-19T00:11:00.000-08:002013-02-19T00:11:47.586-08:00The Fauzi<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Alright, seeing as I've been volunteering at the Fauzi Azar Inn for pretty much two weeks now (excluding the days I was in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv), I can finally, with total confidence, give you the gist of the place and my duties as Volunteer Supreme.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>About the Fauzi</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I know earlier I provided some background information concerning the Inn that I took directly from its website. However, now that I've actually seen and experience the place, I can tell you about its history and characteristics with a few more details.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><u>How the Fauzi Came to Be</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Fauzi Azar Inn was originally an extremely gorgeous mansion belonging to a wealthy Arab family, the Azars. However, when the War of 1948 occurred and the state of Israel was created, the majority of the citizens of Nazareth fled to nearby countries- mainly Lebanon. Fauzi Azar (the head of the Azar family and the owner of the house) was the only one in his family, as well as one of the only Arabs in town, who chose to remain in Nazareth- he couldn't bear to give up his magnificent house.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">After successfully living alone for some time, one day disaster struck for Azar- fire! In the process of saving the carpets of the mansion, Azar suffered intense burns that sent him to the hospital and eventually caused his death. The magnificent house sat empty for many years, as the rest of the family didn't want to live there, but couldn't bear to part with it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Inn may very well have remained empty until it crumbled to the ground from lack of use, had a young Israeli backpacker named Maoz not happened upon it. Maoz was a visionary who believed that not only would the house provide the perfect location for a hostel, but the city of Nazareth would be the ideal spot to begin a hiking trail he was developing with an American friend- what would later become known as the Jesus Trail. But convincing the surviving family of Azar that opening a B&B in their old, prized home was a laborious process, so I'm told. Maoz got in contact with the granddaughter of Azar, Suraida, and while she was not convinced by his proposal, she agreed to pass on his contact information to her mother for further discussion. I'm not quite sure how long the issue was debated, or who finally gave in, but eventually an agreement was reached that allowed Maoz to open his hostel, with Suraida as co-owner and her grandfather's named immortalized in the name.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The hostel opened in 2005, and since then has accrued an amazing reputation. [Sorry if the next part sounds like a preachy ad- I'm just not sure how else to convey its awesomeness....] The Fauzi</span> <span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">consistently receives highly rated reviews on travel sites, is top pick in Lonely Planet guides, was awarded an Environmental Tourism Award in 2011, and has received TripAdvisor's "Travelers' Choice" Award for the years 2012 and 2013. Plus, the Jesus Trail is constantly getting more and more press for being an impressive hiking trail that roughly follows Jesus's path as he performed his miracles. Though of course non-Christian pilgrims walk it for the scenery as well. [Oh, and Tony Blair visited the Fauzi a few years ago. How about we start a petition for Obama to come by next month....?]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><u>What Makes the Fauzi Special?</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I'd like to think after five months of staying in a wide variety of hostels, I've a pretty good idea of what a hostel is- and what makes one good or not. Hostels span a wide spectrum, from the crazy party ones on one side to the super chill, laid-back ones on the other. I've discovered my personal favorites tend to lie closer to the party side, but with a good dose of relaxation thrown in as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Fauzi embodies all that a decent hostel should. And then it goes a bit beyond. Features that all hostels tend to have include:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-cheaper accommodations than hotels</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-both dorms and private rooms</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-shared bathrooms</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-an available kitchen for guest use (some are even affiliated with a bar/cafe)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-free coffee all day and some sort of free breakfast</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-a common area meant to foster meeting people</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-routine activities, whether it's trivia night, Sunday afternoon BBQs, open mic night, or a pub crawl</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-help in setting up tours</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-a book exchange</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Fauzi is special (in my opinion), thanks to:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-the unique free old city tour (purposefully leaves out the main tourist attractions, and instead focuses on the local community)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-the amazing complimentary smorgasbord breakfast (delicious, contains a wide variety of traditional Arab and Israeli foods and is cooked by staff with actually culinary skills)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-the history you can feel radiating out from the aged, muraled walls</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-the most in-depth (and longest) reception shpeil I've ever witnessed [I have to learn it by heart- a daunting task]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">-and finally, one thing that I personally am most impressed by, is Fauzi's ties/commitments to the local community. Before the Fauzi, Nazareth literally had 0% gains from tourism. The city used to just be a tour bus stop where religious tourists would get out to ogle the churches and then pile back on to hit the next site. This day-trip tourism for solely the holy places didn't contribute at all to the local economy in Nazareth, and that may still have been the trend today had the Fauzi not opened and begun to market Nazareth as a place to stay for at least a few nights. Some absurdly large (maybe 80) percentage of businesses in the old city are recent developments that appeared only after the Fauzi began attracting tourists who came to see all of Nazareth, not just the Basilica of Annunciation (the largest church in the Middle East). The Inn promotes local restaurants, souvenir shops, market vendors, etc. to its guests, and in gratitude most Nazareth-based businesses give discounts to guests of the Fauzi Azar as a way to say thanks for sending patrons to frequent their establishments.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Enough yapping about the Fauzi, Cleome (we can tell you're infatuated), what do you actually <strong>do</strong>?</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Right, my oh-so-difficult volunteering duties.... I bake cakes. I help with reception and answering the phone/guests' questions. Sometimes I choose which music to play. I take out the trash. I do dishes and make sure there's always hot water available for tea or coffee. I tidy up the kitchen and the lobby. I restock the free fruit bowl. I do whatever the staff (two bosses, four managers, a Mr. Fix-It and a handful of cookers/cleaners) ask me to. I get to talk with guests. I meet really interesting, varied types of people. I play chess with the other staff/volunteers. If nothing's really going on I'll read or write. Or check Facebook. Or plan my next trips out of Nazareth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Pretty chill "work."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now don't get me wrong- what we do as volunteers aids the Fauzi considerably. We accomplish the menial tasks required of running a hostel day to day. And like I said, it's not hard work, but I've had shifts where it felt like I spent the entire six or so hours rotating between washing dishes and bringing out tea trays for newly arrived guests. Just depends on the day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Overall I'm a huge fan of this set-up. I work roughly six hours, five days a week. The shifts are either 7:30am-2pm, 1-7pm, or 6-11pm, so it gives you time to do stuff either earlier and/or later in the day. Plus in your two (generally consecutive) days off, you can get a bit further out of Nazareth than just a day trip. There's usually at least one other volunteer free to hang with, though longer trips are generally embarked upon solo. And during your shift you tend to get free time for about half of it, so it honestly doesn't even feel like work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Plus, the travelers that pass through the Fauzi are incredibly varied. In the few weeks I've been here I've met families on vacation, religious tourists, school study-abroad groups, pro-Palestinian activists/documentarians/journalists, travel bloggers, avid hikers, and plain old curious backpackers that have heard of the Fauzi's amazing rep. I've gotten to meet and talk with incredibly interesting people who've taught me a lot. Or just had amazing conversations with the coolest people. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I'm feeling incredibly lucky right now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Plus, I think I've convinced Moaz to get the Inn a guitar! Life is pretty damn good right now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-43645199217432431702013-02-09T09:55:00.001-08:002013-02-09T09:55:12.751-08:00The Big Intro to Israel Post<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Hello there! It's been a little while since I last posted, and I've finally gotten a good chunk of time to sit down and write, so I thought I'd take advantage of it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I left for Israel a week from today (though technically I've only physically been in Israel for five and a half days, thanks to an amazingly long 19.5 hours of travel time between home and here...) and have experienced a lot of newness in these past seven days. But let's start at the very beginning. It's a very good place to start....</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Flights and Firsts</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So, like I said, it took me 19.5 hours (three different flights) from taking off in Minneapolis to touch down in Israel. I left MN late morning on my first flight and arrived in Newark, NY mid-afternoon. After waiting a few hours in the airport, I boarded the airplane that would jet me away from the US, over the Pacific, and allow me to step foot for the first time ever on <em>another continent</em>. <- That flight was the longest one I've ever been on- seven hours. I flew on SAS, a Scandinavian airline, and was quite impressed by their level of service. Not only did they show recently released movies [I got to watch Argo, what what], but they actually served MEALS on the plane. Free of charge. And they came in the most adorable little portion-sized containers. I was so awed I took a picture, haha.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Although that second flight was great in many ways, it wasn't my favorite simply because </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">1) It was a "red eye" flight, but I couldn't sleep.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">2) There was a freaky amount of turbulence as we were exactly in the middle of our trip aka <u>over the ocean</u>. I won't deny that images of a watery grave briefly flitted past my eyes before I shut them out and mentally chanted <em>think positively</em> over and over again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">3) We changed what felt like a million time zones in those seven hours, and so by the time we arrived in Copenhagen it was 7am in Denmark, while my body still thought it was 1am. After zooming through the cute and sleepy Copenhagen airport [they have hardwood floors, open lounge areas, inviting colors, and a little mermaid statue- how much more adorable can it get?] to find the gate for my third and final flight, I shlumped over and blearily stared at passersby through half-closed lids. Yeah, I felt pretty gross at that point compared to all the sharp-looking European travelers. And</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">4) I was located in the back of this huge airplane, in the middle row of three seats, and I just had to be put with this older guy who (even with the empty seat between us) had stinky farts. Not very conducive for trying to sleep....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">My last flight was about four hours and landed me in Tel Aviv around 2:30pm Israel time on Sunday. Luckily the passport control guys didn't give me too much grief and I was riding in a shared taxi to Jerusalem half an hour later. I arrived at the Abraham Hostel in Jerusalem- recommended to me by the GoEco project- a bit before 5pm and immediately took a shower and tried to sleep. Key word: tried. I was physically exhausted, having at that point slept only about four hours of the past 36, but mentally I couldn't quiet down. I think I fell into a restless sleep around 9pm that night, but certainly woke up the next morning still feeling tired.</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Orientation in the Old City</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Monday was a jam-packed day. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It began with a two hour meeting in the hostel with GoEco (the volunteer agency) representatives. They gave myself and two other soon-to-be-volunteers [we were all leaving for different projects, however] an explanation of our volunteering projects and some basic information about Israel. Then one of them, Yan, acted as our tour guide for the rest of the day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">First, we explored and had lunch in the major Jerusalem marketplace [he managed to get us millions of free samples of cultural dishes by explaining in Hebrew to the vendors that we were foreigners and had no idea what any of the dishes were] before heading out to Jaffa Gate to take part in a free tour of the Old City. [The term Old City in any area refers to the location where buildings, monuments and historical places built hundreds of years ago remain intact and are still used/inhabited by people today. However, the Old City in Jerusalem is one of the most well-known as it contains many</span> <span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">incredibly important religious sites.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I was extremely awed on our walk through the Old City. We hit all four quarters (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Armenian) and our guide was quite knowledgeable about the history of each quarter and their development. It was amazing to think that we were walking through streets and archways that had been there and seen by people for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. And to just actually be in this place I'd heard about for so long felt incredibly unreal. I mean, it was hard to wrap my head around the fact that I was literally standing 100 feet away from the Western Wall. Wow. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Since the free tour was a general overview of the Old City but didn't actually take us into buildings, once it was over Yan guided our volunteer group back to a couple of impressive sites. We watched the sun set while standing on the top of the Austrian Hospice, taking in the scenic view of the entire Old City; we walked through the [amazingly unpopulated] Church of the Holy Sepulchre once darkness had fallen, and then window-shopped in the new mall outside the Old City on our way to dinner. After dinner (my first authentic Israeli hummus experience!) we explored a few more buildings that had nice views (including one incredibly swanky hotel that impressed me almost as much as the Old City had, haha) and then headed back to the hostel to sleep.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Tuesday was the day I needed to catch my bus to Nazareth to actually begin volunteering, but that wasn't until 4pm, so I had a bit more time to wander around Jerusalem. I went out with Antonia, the girl volunteer I'd hung with the day before, and we saw the Western Wall up close (I did indeed put a piece of paper with a wish on it into an unused crack in the wall). We also walked up to the Dome of the Rock (an extremely holy Islamic site) and marveled at the detail and gorgeousness of the mosque. Finally the time to head to the bus station rolled around, and after a bit of messing around with a temperamental ticket machine, I was on my way. </span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Finding Fauzi Azar</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I sat next to a very... talkative... guy on the bus who also happened to be going to the Fauzi Azar Inn. He came in handy, though, when asking for directions [we arrived at night and the Inn is tucked away in a part of the Old City that takes some maneuvering to get to] and in making me feel a bit more secure when hiking past groups of smoking guys in black leather jackets. But finally we found it, and I had arrived to the place I'm going to be calling home for the next two months!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">[I'll be posting specifically about the Fauzi and my duties in another entry very soon!]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I met the other three volunteers that I'll be working with for the next few weeks at least (since two are leaving in a few weeks and new people may be showing up):</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Pat- extremely sociable Australian guy working here for his summer break.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Jess- another girl taking a gap year! She's from London and will spending eight months (until August) in Israel doing a variety of activities. Once she's done volunteering at the Fauzi she's heading to a kibbutz for five months. You can bet I'm going to be visiting her.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Mike- Canadian, eh? ...Sorry, he's taking some time off from studying software engineering to travel and has a bunch of short-term volunteer gigs lined up in various parts of Israel. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">(Oh, and there's also a long-term volunteer lady, Linda, who gives all the guided tours. But she's pretty much a permanent fixture as she's been here for four years.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Pat and Jess have both been here for roughly a month and only have a few weeks left, while Mike will be leaving only two weeks before I am. I really like them all, and the vibe is great because there's enough of us that we won't get sick of each other too soon, but not too many that it's hard to get to know everyone. Though I do hope that when Pat and Jess leave, other volunteers show up. I like you Mike, but some new<strike> blood</strike> potential friends would also be nice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The night I arrived was a first-ever movie night, so I dropped my backpack off at the volunteer apartment (about 20 feet up the street) and went back to watch Life of Pi. After the movie I went out for a late-night snack with Pat, Mike, two German guests, and a local named Fadi. The food was good, but I was pretty much falling asleep at the table, so it was relieving to just head back to the apartment and go to bed finally at 2am.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Navigating Nazareth</strong> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Wednesday began with free breakfast at the Fauzi and then a guided tour of the Old City. It was a great, alternative tour that ignored the holy places (since you can do that on your own) and instead focused on getting to know the locals and the back roads of Nazareth. It was a great introduction to this city I'm going to be based in for the next while. I then grabbed lunch with Mike, hung out and explored the city some more with Jess, and had the most touching hospitality experience I've felt in a while. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A local Christian Arabic family that Mike and Pat had met earlier had invited them to dinner, and since I was free, both I and a Fauzi guest Jackie were invited along. However, when we got to the family's house after running through the winding alleyways in the pouring rain, we discovered that the electricity in their area was completely out. No lights, no heat, no nothing. Certainly no cooking, we surmised [<- like my word choice, Pat&Mike?]. But the family surprised us, and after an hour of sitting in the candle-lit living room <strike>exchanging broken English and Arabic</strike> talking with the daughters Ruth and Jessica, we were informed dinner was ready and we were ushered into the kitchen. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">An amazing spread of traditional Arabic food lay on the table before us. The four of us sat down with Ruth and the dad, Adell, and had a wonderful meal highlighted by lamb, rice with a special yogurt sauce, and Italian champagne. The food was very tasty (and they managed to magically heat it somehow- candles?), but there were about a million dishes and each was heaped onto our plates in such great quantities that I couldn't even finish half of it. After dinner the electricity came back on (of course) and we moved back to the living room to join the rest of the family (mom, brother, Jessica and fiance) in smoking hookah (first time for me!) and listening to music. And when we finally excused ourselves after lavishing thanks upon the family, the brother insisted I take the sweatshirt of his I'd been wearing for warmth as a parting gift. To be honest, I'm a little wary that somehow I've bound myself to a romantic obligation... but I'll admit its oversizedness had come in handy as a makeshift tent-like changing room, as there is no real privacy in our tiny volunteer apartment. Alla in all, I was incredibly touched by their generosity in feeding four guests (two of which had been perfect strangers before that meal) in the middle of a power outage. And we have plans to go back soon and learn how to make authentic felafel, so yay! Free food and good company is always something to look forward to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Experiencing Everyday Events</strong> <span style="font-size: x-small;">enjoying the alliteration of the section titles?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Thursday I was shadowing Jess on the afternoon shift, but beforehand we walked up a scenic hill named Mount Precipice and on the way to the Inn stopped by a small cafe for Qatayaf (a traditional Ramadan sweet- essentially a small pancake filled with either soft cheese or walnuts, fried, and then drizzled in syrup. As delicious as they sound). We were kept at the Inn for a while after our shift had technically ended, so just came back to the apartment and slept after.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Friday I attempted to find the Jesus Trail (a hiking trail that starts at the Fauzi- more on that in the next blog post!) and failed dismally- got a good run in anyway, though. Then half slept half read in the sun, and was on evening shift with Mike. Bed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Today I hiked the Jesus Trail with Pat and Mike and five Fauzi guests. Luckily we didn't get lost, as Pat is an expert Jesus Trail navigator. The first leg takes roughly four hours to walk, and really is pretty gorgeous once you get past the highway. We hitched back to Nazareth (a somewhat depressing only 15 minutes away by car) and grabbed a late lunch before coming back home to chill.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I can't believe I just used the word "home" so naturally. I must really feel pretty comfortable here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Tonight we're heading out to a local restaurant to see some sort of music. Maybe dancing will be involved? Whatever it is, should be interesting. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Off to find Mike and ask him about that stir fry he's supposedly making....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span><br />
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Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-41024587617587645802013-01-24T09:10:00.001-08:002013-01-24T09:10:55.650-08:00Coming Up Next<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My plans for the rest of my "walkabout" have changed a lot since a few weeks ago, not to mention last fall before I'd even embarked on the first part of it.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[I just went back and reread <a href="http://www.shewalksabout.blogspot.com/2012/07/grand-plan.html" target="_blank">my predicted plans for the year</a>... wow have those been tweaked a lot.]</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I got back from Costa Rica at the beginning of January and set a goal for myself to be off on the next part of my adventure by the beginning of February. I gave myself a month to relax, be at home, have parents, see friends and figure out what the heck I was going to do next. And where I was going to go. And for how long. <- I had a lot to figure out.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><b>Wait, Cleome, I thought you were going to Europe for four months to backpack around?</b> </i>Yeah, let me finish. As I was saying, I'd been thinking hard about my next steps, and for a multitude of reasons ended up coming to the conclusion that I actually didn't want to aimlessly backpack around Europe for that long of a time. Because, like:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1) It's still cold in much of Europe at this time of year. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2) The tourist Schengen Visa is only good for three months out of any six month period (and I don't want to try and jilt the authorities, thereby risking never being allowed into the EU for the rest of my life). And the visa includes most of the countries I actually want to travel through.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3) Thanks to actually having traveling experience now (yay!), I know that straight traveling for one month, let alone four, is exhausting. AND</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4) Europe is ridiculously expensive. More than I was originally imagining. I'm a soon-to-be poor college student- I can't be going into debt <i>before</i> starting school.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So I was pretty jittery for a while, as I had no real idea of where to even start now that my semi-solid plans for February-May were out. You'd be surprised how hard it is to decide on a course of action when you can do </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>essentially whatever you want</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. It'd be great to use the time I have to work on maintaining my French or Spanish, or participate in something that might serve to guide me/provide me with experience for a future career path [not that I have any idea what that would be], but.... Honestly, when you really have no limitations, there are about a jillion amazing things you <i>could</i> do. And you don't want to squander this awesome opportunity by choosing something stupid, or uninteresting, or pointless, or or or</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sorry, but as you may be able to tell, I was a bit fragile concerning my future plans for a while. However I managed to calm down and reason rationally with myself, and figured out a few things concerning what I did want to happen on the next part of my year off:</span><br />
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<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I realized I wanted to do another volunteering project for at least part of the rest of year. I just like feeling useful and helping others. But while an organization in Ghana serving to educate the local population about HIV/AIDS and trying to prevent the spread of the disease sounds incredible [trust me, I looked it up], I don't feel like I necessarily have to be volunteering in a super intense situation trying to save lives to feel successful. I really loved the type of volunteering I did at the orphanage- helping out but also being able to have my own life in the community. (Also, I'm currently done working with children. I'll be doing that this summer as well and I just need a break.)</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am really interested in going to a country where the primary language is not English. Or another language is spoken prominently, at least.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ideally, I'd go somewhere that is still close to Europe, so I could maybe travel there after volunteering.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And I didn't want it ("it" being the flight, program, living costs, etc.) to be extraordinarily expensive.</span></li>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Somehow [don't ask me how], this all lead me to determining a location: Israel! Now I just had to find a program that was affordable, open to 18-year olds, and sounded interesting....</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Idea 1: Eilat Hotel Volunteer</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Summary: A 5-month program where I'd live/work in a hotel in a southern resort city with a bunch of other volunteers from all over. Hebrew lessons would be included, as well as a public transportation pass. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I quickly ditched this idea as a 5-month long commitment was just too limiting for me.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Idea/Attempt 2: Kibbutz Volunteer</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Haha, yes, "attempt" is the key word here. This plan was <i>almost</i> a go, until about two weeks into the process of applying.... </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A kibbutz is a uniquely Israeli socialist-type community (all members work for the community itself). Historically agriculturally-based, many kibbutzim have branched out into tourism and industrial work. But the majority accept volunteers for 2-6 months at a time simply because there are more jobs than members available to do them. Living there while working is free (room and board all payed for), but you make no money and the work is often quite demanding, with long hours and can often be tedious [for example, stuffing pillows in a hot, windowless factory for eight hours a day? No thanks]. But there are always lots of volunteers who come from all over. Plus the members of the kibbutz are more often than not pretty interesting. It's supposed to be hard work, a bit isolated, but a lot of fun, too.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Anyway, after sending in all my forms in record time (<i>and</i> my full placement payment), they informed me that I was apparently ineligible for the program. Because of my age: 18.5 instead of 19. Get this- all kibbutzim welcome volunteers aged 18-35, except for Americans and Canadians. WE have to be 19 in order to join. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Anyway, after some frustrating back and forth with the Israeli office leader (who is very firm in her "no exceptions" rule), it became apparent that being a kibbutz volunteer just wasn't going to work out right now. Which maybe was for the best, as it required me to step back, leading me to-</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">WHAT I'LL ACTUALLY BE DOING. (Just got confirmation!)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Idea 3: Ecotourism Development in Nazareth</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Third time's the charm, huh?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm going to be volunteering at the <a href="http://www.fauziazarinn.com/" target="_blank">Fauzi Azar Inn</a> for two months, beginning February 2nd. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px;">The Fauzi Azar Inn is a beautiful 200 year old Arab mansion that was converted into an inn in 2005. The Fauzi Azar Inn promotes ecotourism in Nazareth and works with the community to contribute to its development in various areas. The inn uses local resources to create new work places, to raise the self- image of the local community, and to encourage economic growth while preserving the universal values of natural and cultural preservation. The aim is to introduce in Nazareth, which is the largest Arab city in Israel, a new model of tourism and thus "bridge the gap" between Arabs and Jews. At the same time the Inn is creating a model for increased tourism along the Israel National Trail (Shvil Israel) and the recently completed Jesus Trail in order to promote both trails and the corresponding economic potential.</span></span></blockquote>
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<a href="http://www.goeco.org/project/10/Volunteer_in_Israel_Ecotourism_Development_in_Nazareth" target="_blank">Source</a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Volunteering duties include hosting guests and reception work, working in the kitchen, maintaining hiking trails, and guiding tours of the old city of Nazareth. I'll be sharing a nearby apartment with the other volunteers (three others, I think?), and have all the time when I'm not working to explore the city of Nazareth, not to mention the rest of Israel.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Nazareth appears to be a very interesting part of Israel. </span>It is located in Northern Israel, near the Sea of Galilee, and is supposed to be very beautiful. <span class="Apple-style-span">The city contains the largest population of Arabs (both Christian and Muslim) in the country, yet there is still a Jewish presence in the north of the city, which should make for a complex melting pot of cultures, opinions, and ideas. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yeah, I'm going to work in a renovated mansion, bridge the gap between cultures, and meet a bunch of cool travelers. No biggie.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>After</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After volunteering through the end of March, I'll take some time to explore the parts of Israel I haven't gotten to yet (maybe hit up Egypt for a bit?) and then fly over to Western Europe [<i>finally</i> the European aspect of my trip comes into play]. I'm free until the beginning of June, at which time I need to come back in order to work over the summer as a camp counselor, so I could potentially be in Europe for six weeks or so. Clearly the last few months of my free time need to be molded into shape a bit more, but there's plenty of time for that.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm just incredibly relieved to finally have a semblance of a plan for the rest of the year.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">SO. EXCITED. And I should probably start getting all my crap together.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">xoxo, Cleome </span></div>
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Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-23208236706659334722013-01-21T18:09:00.001-08:002013-01-21T18:09:27.661-08:00Things I'm Missing About Latin America (?)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-The unpredictable bus schedule that consistently demanded improvization in order to figure out what the hell I needed to do to get where I was supposed to go.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Bus trips that inevitably took at least three hours longer than anticipated.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Not possessing a key to the lock or the front gate, and therefore being effectively locked in or out of my own home.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Paying for public bathroom use.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Rice and beans 3x each day.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Needing to throw the toilet paper in the waste basket instead of the toilet.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Roosters and dogs being my 5:00am alarm clock.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-"Cold" and "extremely cold" showers being the only temperature options.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-The intense whiff of cologne that accompanied the passing of every single male.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-The lack of sunset/sunrise [yay for being almost directly on the equator].</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Inevitably spending anywhere from 16-20 hours of any weekend trip on a bus/waiting for one.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Ants <i>everywhere</i>. Even somehow in my contact solution container....</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-My nighttime gecko friends that lived in the walls of my room and scurried around at night, making unexpected noises.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Meeting cool travelers.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Never knowing what was going to happen.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Making new friends every day.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Going out dancing.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Hearing/speaking a language other than English.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Experiencing another culture.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Rarely being bored.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Warmth.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I want to be <i>out</i> again.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-21405349255681265572013-01-14T21:19:00.000-08:002013-01-14T21:20:01.520-08:00Nicaragua <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So I went to Nicaragua for 10 days... alone.... And it was <i>awesome</i>.</span><br />
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I'd been thinking about what to do after my volunteer program ended the last week of November, and after much debating decided going to Nicaragua would be</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1) fun</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2) a chance to see a new country, and</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3) not completely terrifying as I'd met a girl who was working in Granada, and so at least had <i>one person</i> I knew who I could go up and hang with for a bit.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While I'd been traveling nearly every weekend before my Nicaragua trip, the thought of backpacking solo still scared me up until the point that I crossed the border between countries. There's just something a little more ominous sounding about "backpacking in a different country completely alone for the first time" than "traveling for the weekend with my bestie Lindsay." At least for me there was.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But I shouldn't have worried. I survived for 10 days and made it back to Costa Rica in time to meet my family at the airport- and managed to have fun while doing so.</span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nica Adventure, Cliff Notes Version</span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">Saturday</span></u>, December 1</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Left at 5:45am for San Jose. Was informed the direct buses to Granada weren't available until Monday. Decided to bus-hop instead. Met American named Sherry at the border who was also going to Granada. Had a tiff with officer in border control window- he "forgot" to stamp my passport. Was denied entrance to country by immigration official and had to return to office for another stamp. Finally boarded bus with Sherry to Granada. Arrived and split off from Sherry to go to hostel where my friend Nonny was working. Set stuff down. Went out with Nonny and friends for dinner/clubbing. Slept at Nonny's friend's house (without Nonny- looonnggg story...). Great first night in Nicaragua.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13; text-decoration: underline;">Sunday</span><span class="Apple-style-span">, December 2</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Recovered. Explored Granada a bit. Ate typical Nicaraguan "frito." Slept early.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #e69138;"><u>Monday</u></span>, December 3</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Accompanied Nonny to her volunteering project. Played with kids. Sang the Beatles. Went out for drinks. Packed.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #741b47;">Tuesday</span></u>, December 4</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Said bye to Nonny and left Granada. Ventured to Isla Ometepe [large island home to two enormous volcanos] by chicken bus and ferry. Felt very alone. Set up volcano hike with guide and a French-Canadian guy named Julian. Tried to sleep in a hammock while listening to a man in the Russian Mafia talk about drugs. Restless night.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #a64d79;">Wednesday</span></u>, December 5</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Woke up at 4am for 5am tour. Ate a pb&banana sammich. Completed an 8-hour volcano hike [5,250 feet up, active volcano, extremely windy]. Felt accomplished and exhausted. Showered and slept.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Thursday</span></u>, December 6</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Left island for the beaches of San Juan del Sur with my bodyguard, a 29-year old Brit named Romy. Super cool guy. Arrived at crazy hostel in every sense: renovated mansion= crazy luxurious, up on a hill= crazy gorgeous views, party hostel reputation= mentally crazy people. Yikes.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #073763;">Friday</span></u>, December 7</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Beach day with Romy! First hitchhiking experience and I was immediately obsessed. Gorgeous water, beautiful day, amazing beach. Located delicious, cheap tacos. Went to major gringo beach party.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #674ea7;">Saturday</span></u>, December 8</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Switched from hostel to dirty, sketch hotel. Switched from hotel to other hostel in town. Breathed a sigh of relief. Met new friends (Max, Simone, Astrid, drunk naked Australian dude, etc.) and walked to the Jesus statue on the hill for sunset. Most delicious shot EVER: rum in a passion fruit half with sugar on the side [thanks Romy!]. Party hopped, night swam in ocean, watched Beerfest [<- pretty funny], didn't sleep much. Fun night. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000;">Sunday</span></u>, December 9</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Early morning run, another beach day with Romy and Max. More hitchhiking. Sunday BBQ at hostel. Packed and early night.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f1c232;">Monday</span></u>, December 10</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-Left for the border on chicken buses with Romy. Border crossing and parting from Romy. Sad. Sat in a bus aisle for four hours to San Jose. Made it back to Atenas after dinner.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A great trip.</span><br />
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<b>Nica vs Costa</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A surprising amount of animosity exists between Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans- mostly coming from the Ticos. I think this mainly has to do with how many Nicas try to enter Costa Rica illegally, but any time something bad happens in Costa Rica it's blamed on the Nicas residing with the country, so maybe their negativity is justified.... Yet despite all the teasing I received from my Tico friends about wanting to visit Nicaragua, I have to say I was quite impressed by the country and in many ways it gives Costa Rica a run for its money.</span><br />
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<u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Major Differences I Observed:</span></u><br />
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<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Accent- Nicaraguans speak Spanish slightly differently, leaving me saying "que" a lot more than in Costa Rica. I just wasn't used to it at first.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Buses- Nicaraguan buses suck, frankly, compared to those of Costa Rica. They're converted school buses instead of greyhounds, which pretty much makes all the difference. Nica "chicken buses" have seats that are smaller, less comfortable, and much more cramped [one of the better times to be short: leg room!]. Also, there either tend to be less seats on Nica buses or just tons more people- every bus I rode was invariably packed to the brim with people. So much so that if you sat next to the aisle, you couldn't escape having one of the standing persons' asses in your face. 'Twas lovely. Also, Nica buses picked up food vendors literally every five feet, meaning there was always someone attempting to entice you into buying something. That happens on Tico buses as well, but only at designated rest stops. [Okay, to be fair some of these differences make Nica buses more fun and entertaining, but if you're existing on three hours of sleep and just trying to get home, they make the ride seem <i>a lot </i>longer....]</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Animals- farm animals roamed a lot more freely in Nicaragua than I've really ever seen in Costa Rica. Buses would have to weave between herds of cows, horses were ties to almost every fence post, and spotting a pig rooting in the bushes by the side of the road was not uncommon. I liked that.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Cost- without a doubt, Nicaragua is so much easier on the wallet if you're trying to travel on a budget. Hostels, food, drinks, transport- all was MUCH cheaper than in Costa Rica. Bananas were literally $.04 <- you can bet I ate a lot of those. And there were some $.25 tacos in San Juan del Sur that were to die for. Yummmmm.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tourists- compared to the most visited areas of Costa Rica, the touristy parts of Nicaragua are still pretty devoid of foreigners. Of course it's not like I was the only gringo in the places I went, but the locals were much more prominent, as was their culture. Costa Rica's popularity and relative prosperity has definitely westernized the Ticos' way of life.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Places to Go- while there are certainly some amazing places to hit in Nicaragua, there appear to be less locations than in Costa Rica. I was only in Nicaragua for 10 days and saw only three different areas of the country, but I pretty much hit all the "worth seeing" places besides one or two. In Costa Rica there are many more spots to go visit that offer significantly different environments, wildlife, and experiences from each other. I traveled to seven different location in Costa Rica over two months and still have a sizable list of areas I'd love to go check out.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Overall, both countries are amazing, of course. But for a shorter trip or one done on a more limited budget or one in which you're trying to get a taste of a significantly different culture from the US, then I'd recommend Nicaragua over Costa Rica. Costa Rica has some of the most gorgeous natural landscapes in the hemisphere, but the country is more expensive and definitely more Americanized. I'm certainly not upset about having been based in Costa Rica- I'm just saying that were my traveling situation different (i.e. not volunteering and solely backpacking), I'd probably have spent more time in Nicaragua than Costa Rica. But since I had the luxury of being based in Costa Rica and getting to explore the beautiful country, I'm extremely grateful.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I can't wait to get on the road again.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span></div>
Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-6475854592441367792012-12-12T13:23:00.001-08:002012-12-12T13:23:22.654-08:00Weekend #7: Nada<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This was the first real weekend [November 23, 24, 25] I stayed in town. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lindsay left on Saturday morning. It was triste. She cried. I cried. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And that's all I have to say about that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-6371972651272966342012-12-12T13:23:00.000-08:002012-12-12T13:23:01.559-08:00Weekend Trip #6: Bocas Del Toro, Panama [!]<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Panama</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let me just preface this post by saying that mine and Lindsay´s trip to Panama is hands down my favorite travel adventure (so far). So excuse my love radiating from this recap. I just can't contain it....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dates: Thursday, November 15- Sunday, November 18</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First, let me discuss the rationale behind embarking on a nine hour trip, dealing with the hassle of leaving Costa Rica/entering Panama, and venturing to a place that was reputed to have a relatively similar atmosphere to Puerto Viejo [a place we'd already been]. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1) The destination was not just Panama- it was Bocas del Toro, a collection of islands in the Caribbean off the coast of northern Panama.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2) It was Lindsay's last weekend, and we wanted to end with a memorable trip.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3) Islands=water and beaches. And we could finally get that snorkeling trip in.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4) We'd heard it was really cool.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5) Did I mention we'd be going to PANAMA? An entirely different country?</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <- yeah, pretty syked about that aspect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We figured that if we were already springing for the trip by taking a day off volunteering, we may as well go <i>extreme </i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">luxury and book a tour there as well. The tour included transportation to and from the islands [provided we got to Puerto Viejo on our own], two-nights of accommodation [we got to choose our hostel], and a 9:00am-5:00pm snorkeling/dolphin watching/catamaran trip on Saturday. We researched how much it would cost us to book all that stuff ourselves, and figured we'd be paying roughly $30 more for using a tour company. An essentially hassle-free [and hopefully transport issue-free] weekend for $30 extra? We were sold.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[I've been trying to keep my weekly spending, including on the weekends, below $125. The tour package alone cost $140, so I knew I'd be going over budget. The week ended up costing me roughly $230- but it was so worth it. Plus I made up for it by not going anywhere the next weekend.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>Setting Off</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thursday after volunteering, Lindsay and I headed straight into San Jose to catch the 2:00pm bus to Puerto Viejo. We made it to San Jose [after being passed by the first bus headed there because in trying to flag it down, I accidentally put my thumb up- international hitchhiker symbol. The bus passed us with the driver rubbing his fingers together on one hand, demonstrating that we had to pay. Oops...] with plenty of time to spare, the bus showed up on time, and no major excitement occurred on the ride down. For once, our transportation [at least the first part of it] had worked out. Good omen?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We had decided to once again stay at Rocking J's for the night, thinking we could handle the crazy party hostel if it was only for a day. But our experience there this time around was <i>completely</i> different from when we'd stayed there five weeks ago [wow does time fly]. For one, we got in around 6:30pm- a much more reasonable hour than last time. When we arrived only a handful of people were milling around, no tents were set up on the green, and the bar's music was much more mellow. As Lindsay and I checked in, a man of about 50 [obviously of some importance there] came over and introduced himself as J- as in the "J" of Rocking J's. He told the clerk to give us some icees, and then invited Lindsay and I to create a mosaic or a mural [or both], and to come on a tour of the mysterious building out back called the Ark. We politely declined making art, but figured a tour of the Ark couldn't hurt. Boy were we in for a surprise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>J's Ark</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm not even sure how I can go about describing the Ark in a way that makes sense. I'm going to preface the description by saying that the Ark is a rich mad man's response to the Mayan-predicted end of the world. Amazing but incredibly insane. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me [didn't realize I'd want it], so the inside exists only in my mind. But here goes an attempted description of the Ark in all its glory.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Ark sits behind Rocking J's, in a large, grassy area. From the outside it resembles a three-tiered, mural-covered pyramid. Its foundation is made up of seven enormous shipping crates that have been welded together so that the Ark can float. The building has been worked on for the past year and a half, and still the top two levels are under construction. But even without being finished, it's clearly the work of a mad genius.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Like I said, the Ark has three different levels. The top two make up what will become J's house, and are made completely out of handcrafted, recycled wood and mirrors. His private space includes a secret artillery room [entered by pressing some button in the living room, and fully equipped with any video game-obsessed youth's weapons/accessories wildest dreams. I'm assuming much of it is illegal...], artwork from all over the world [personalized so that every piece includes a picture of his dog], and an "ice room"- an airtight location where everything needed for a bar will be made out of ice. The public bottom level [for the lucky souls who make it onto his boat before the floods come...] has four different spaces, each located inside one of the shipping containers and entered through a trap door at the top. One serves as a medical center [complete with specialized enough equipment to perform surgeries], one currently [!] contains $15,000 worth of dried/dehydrated food in enormous bulk bins, one is a dorm with 12-15 bunks, and the final space [and most bizarre] is a recording studio- complete with expensive instruments, tie-dyed and soundproofed walls, floor to ceiling mirrors, and state-of-the-art recording equipment. Like I warned you- it's absolutely insane.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The entire tour [which consisted of Lindsay and I, and a neighbor couple of J's], Lindsay and I would make incredulous eye contact and whisper either "I'm scared," [Lindsay] "This guy is crazy," [Lindsay again] or "Don't let him hear. We'll discuss this later," [me]. The tour lasted two hours, and by 9:00pm we were not only sufficiently freaked out, but starving as well. We thanked J for the... incredible... tour, and hurried out of the hostel to grab some dinner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The night was insanely calm for Rocking J's [pretty much a normal hostel where people shut up and went to bed by 10:00pm]. The only excitement of the night occurred when Lindsay spotted a cockroach in her bag, and proceeded to spend the next 30 minutes alternating between shrieking and reaching into her bag to pull stuff out. I was quite helpful and held the flashlight over her backpack.... Plus said encouraging things. She eventually found and squashed the offending insect, and then we headed to our hammocks for a surprisingly decent night's sleep.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>Border Crossing [My First on Foot!]</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">7:30am the shuttle pulled up to Rocking J's, and Lindsay and I crawled in. We were joined by two Australian surfer dudes [Kain with his three boards, while Zac only brought two], and a Swiss German guy, Kevin- while none of us talked all that much on the way to the border, we'd end up hanging out quite a bit over the weekend. It took about an hour to reach the border, and I think all of were surprised when we finally hit it. It didn't appear at all like you'd expect the division between countries to look [maybe this was just my American ignorance coming into play, but I was expecting barbed wire, policemen, and guard dogs.... Oh, and also a luggage-checking station]. The entire crossing process consisted of a small office on the Costa Rican side where you filled out an immigration form and got an exit stamp, a rickety ex-train bridge with planks missing that you walked over, and an office on the Panamanian side where you got an entry stamp. The Costa Rican side moved along fairly quickly, but the Panamanian side was experiencing... difficulties, and the line literally did not move for over an hour. Finally the window opened, though, we got our stamps, and were whisked off in another shuttle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We arrived at the dock around 11:00am, and after waiting for a bit, were shown into the least ferry-like ferry I've ever seen. Compared to the huge boat we'd taken getting to Montezuma [three stories, with the bottom level large enough to transport multiple semi trucks], taking this "ferry" was essentially the equivalent of hopping in the back of an already-crowded pickup truck- except on water. Not only was the boat the size of a large van, but our trip included a large group of [intoxicated] local teenagers toting booze, who spent the ride shouting to each other and singing at the top of their lungs. That's not even taking into account the actual <i>ride</i> itself- a jolting, bumpy experience where I more than once feared we'd capsize [Lindsay and I later agreed the trip felt like you were falling down stairs on your butt]. I was quite relieved when we made it to Isla Colon- the main island- in one piece.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>Bocas</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When we arrived at midday, the islands' Independence Day celebration had already begun: parades, gunshots, fireworks, you name it. While it was tempting to stick around and watch, hunger and the need to be relieved of our backpacks won out, so the five of us decided to catch a water taxi to the island where our hostel, Aqua Lounge, was located- a $1, minute-long trip.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Before booking our tour, Lindsay and I had done a bit of research on places to stay. Aqua Lounge topped the list on most sites we checked out. It's essentially the Rocking J's of Bocas- a major party hostel, best known for its crazy nights, and THE water trampoline. There turned out not to be that many beds in the hostel, though, so our party was lucky and scored the last few spots when we turned up. Lindsay and I ended up in a dorm with a large group of Israeli guys, some French dudes, and a pair of 18-year-old surfers [Jordan from Canada, and Yotom from Israel]. We said hi to everyone as we put our stuff away, but left right away to find a place to eat. On our way out the back door we ran into Ben from Montezuma- we'd been in communication with him about our plans to go to Bocas and thought there was a 50/50 chance he'd show up. It was nice to see another familiar face; the three of us headed out to grab some lunch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After lunch [a laborious process of finding a restaurant and waiting for food that took us until 3:00pm], we just hung out at the hostel, talked with the guys we'd ridden down with, swam, and relaxed. Around 6:00pm, Lindsay and I decided to head to the main island for some exploring/dinner, and managed to convince Ben, Kain, Zac, and Kevin to come along. Turned out to be a good thing we left for dinner so early- we wouldn't end up eating for another three hours anyway.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>Celebration!</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We manage to arrive on Isla Colon at the exact perfect moment to watch the Independence Day Parade. The streets were swarming with people- everyone from every island had come to congregate on Isla Colon for the evening. The parade was made up of at least five separate groups of baton twirlers/drum lines [each with their own distinctive outfits], and in between each group, random guys would be walking around spraying fire from a can [seriously], or lighting off fireworks in the middle of the crowd- one batch of pyromaniacs lit theirs off so close to us, I could feel the hot ash raining down. The atmosphere was incredibly festive, and the music was so invigorating I don't think any of us stopped bobbing to the beat the entire two and a half hours we stood there. Our group definitely stood out- some of the only foreigners, and consistently exclaiming about something in the parade. We were probably just as interesting a spectacle for the Panamanians as the performers....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Eventually it got late enough that we needed food- fast. We searched the main road for a cheap rotisserie chicken place that had been recommended to us, and after successfully annoying the workers [mainly thanks to Kain's "chicken dance" while attempting to convey his order...], we sat down to the best chicken I can remember having. Ever. The delicious French fries that accompanied the meal didn't hurt, either. Having satisfied our bellies, we wandered back up the street to catch the parade's finale, in the process simultaneously meeting another group of travelers and losing Kevin. After pacing the streets shouting "Kevin from Switzerland!" at the top of our lungs for 20 unsuccessful minutes, we gave up looking for him [<- terrible travel buddies, I know], and headed to a local bar/dance club. [Hey, Kevin eventually made his way there as well, so it all turned out okay. Stop with the guilting.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ended up seeing most of the others from Aqua Lounge at the bar, and we danced insanely for a few hours. Hot, sweaty, crowded- and so much fun. Eventually Lindsay and I headed back to the hostel, though, to try and get some sleep before our tour <strike>the next</strike> that morning. The hostel ended up being too hot and loud to really get any sleep, but it's the thought that counts, right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>Yes I Will Lounge on a Catamaran for Seven Hours</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">^That's exactly what Lindsay and I did from 9:00am-4:00pm on Saturday. With a bit of dolphin watching [I saw one's back] and snorkeling [for, like, 20 minutes] thrown in. But the day was spent mostly sunbathing [and burning] on a catamaran. We lucked out with the weather- apparently it was the first gloriously sunny day in over a week. Success!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Saturday evening Lindsay and I showered and headed into town for an early dinner. We had okay sushi, but really delicious martinis, so overall dinner was good ;) Then we headed back to Aqua Lounge because that's where the big party was going to be. Plus it was Ladies' Night, which in Latin America means free drinks for girls for an hour. I ended up heading back to Isla Colon for about an hour with Jordan and Yotom- searching for an Internet cafe for Yotom- and we made it back to the hostel at the very end of Ladies' Night [literally, we arrived at 10:33pm, when free drinks were supposed to end at 10:30pm]. But somehow I managed to squeeze in getting three free drinks- two of which I gave to the guys, no worries Mom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Saturday night was essentially a repeat of Friday- but much more fun, for some reason. Lots of dancing, meeting people, good music, etc. The bar closed at 3:00am and all non-guests were kicked out, but the rest of us staying at the hostel continued to hang out. I ended up crawling into bed around 5:00am, while Lindsay didn't come into the dorm until 6:20am- 20 minutes before we had to wake up to catch our ferry back to Costa Rica.... We both were feeling really great when the alarm went off at 6:45am.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ferry to dock, shuttle to border, second shuttle to Puerto Viejo, just missed early bus to San Jose, waited for five hours until 4:00pm for bus to the capital, waited at sketchy station until 10:00pm for bus back to Atenas. Was asleep before head hit the pillow, and waking up Monday was brutal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I feel like our trip to Bocas del Toro was my favorite because it had all the aspects of what traveling <i>should</i> be like. Parades, fireworks, music, dancing, delicious & cheap food, fun people to group up with, gorgeous scenery, late nights, and a bit of relaxation, just for kicks. In one word: amazing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And did I mention we went to PANAMA???</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-5134422934200149122012-12-11T12:34:00.000-08:002012-12-11T12:34:21.697-08:00Weekend Trip #5: Monteverde<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This trip occurred the weekend of Friday, November 6- Sunday, November 8. We only were out of town through Saturday, though.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Monteverde</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Monteverde is best known for its famed cloud forest. The town itself is actually called Santa Elena, but they're essentially two names for the same place. Lindsay and I decided to go to Monteverde in order to accomplish a specific goal: zip line! We'd heard from multiple other travelers that the zip lining course there was gorgeous and really fun. While Lindsay had zip lined her first weekend here [the one trip she took without me], her experience was lackluster, so I managed to convince her it'd be fun to try again; I, on the other hand, had never been.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We figured this weekend would be a good one to hit Monteverde, because our services as volunteers were required in Atenas Saturday afternoon, so we could only stay over some place for one night [we'd promised the volunteer coordinator we'd help set up for a major dance recital she was putting on through the community center]. Since we'd booked a 7:30am tour for Saturday morning, we felt confident we could both fit in zip lining <i>and</i> helping with the recital.... Yeah, to assume things makes an ass out of u and me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><u>Let the Chaos Commence</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By this point, it's a given that our carefully researched transportation information would fail us, so Lindsay and I barely glanced at the route from Palmares [where we'd be starting from right after work] to Monteverde. All we saw was that a direct bus existed from San Ramon, so figured we'd just head into the town and go from there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We debated about stopping for lunch at a small restaurant, or /soda/, that we always pass on our walk to the Hogarcito, but decided we could wait until we got into San Ramon- a wise decision we'd realize later. We made it to the bus station in San Ramon around noon, and ambled over to the dollar store where our "informer" works [<- a nice lady who's helped us out in terms of bus schedules at least three separate times. We've come to feel so thankful for her, we legit discussed bringing her a flower that day. Maybe it was better that we forgot to...]. But when I asked her about the direct bus to Monteverde, she looked very confused and shook her head. No, there was no direct bus to Monteverde. You had to catch a bus to Puntarenas first, and then find one to the cloud forest. Lindsay and I thanked her, and made our way to the other bus station to catch the 2.5 hour bus ride to Puntarenas. Figures it wouldn't be as easy as a "direct bus."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We took the 12:35pm [which showed up closer to 1:00pm] to Puntarenas, getting in around 3:00pm. This is where our decision not to grab lunch in Palmares proved itself to be a life-saver: <i>there were no more buses from Puntarenas to Monteverde on Friday</i>. What? How does saving 20 minutes by not having lunch make a lack of buses any better? Here's how: while there was no bus to Monteverde itself, there was a bus leaving at 3:15pm to Liberia, and we were assured that the driver could drop us off at the entrance to Monteverde- whatever that meant. Had we sat down and gotten a real lunch, we would've had to spend the night in Puntarenas. So yay for not eating!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Another traveler also happened to be in our exact situation [a guy who's social skills had severely regressed thanks to just coming from 8 weeks of volunteering in the jungle...], so the three of us boarded the bus to Liberia. An hour into the ride, the bus pulled over beside a gas station, and we were informed <i>this</i> was the entrance to Monteverde. Huh? Extremely confused, we exited the bus and were immediately enshrouded in the dust cloud the bus left behind. We walked over to the store inside the gas station and asked the lady behind the counter how to get from there to Monteverde. She assured us a bus would arrive at 5:15pm, and we'd just have to flag it down. That gave us an hour to wait at the gas station, which we passed by becoming friends with the clerk [a motherly Nicaraguan named Maritza], and encountering yet another backpacker trying to get to Monteverde- Nonny, a volunteer in Nicaragua who was in Costa Rica to renew her visa.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So darkness begins to fall, 5:15pm comes and goes, and we've yet to catch a bus to Monteverde. We're sure we didn't miss it because a few locals are also waiting by the gas station, and just as Lindsay's on the verge of a panic attack- an empty tourism van drives by, backs up, and the guy inside says he'll take us to Monteverde for $4 each. We're so relieved to have a ride there that we just nod and climb in- turns out we payed $2 less than if we'd caught the public bus, anyway. It turned out to be a good thing we were in a small van, since the road was quite pockmarked by potholes, the street was scarily narrow, and [most noteworthy] the weather was <i>terrible</i>. By terrible I mean it was sleeting and windy and cold. But for Costa Rica, where even in the rainy season there's only precipitation a few times a week for a couple hours, the cold and the wind felt extremely foreign. [Lindsay later remarked it was almost refreshing to experience something other than heat and sun. Not sure if I agree, but I know what she means.]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We were dropped off in the center of town around 7:00pm, and said goodbye to Weirdo and Nonny [though we'd convinced Nonny to sign up for the same zip line tour as us, so we planned on seeing her again], as we'd all booked different hostels. Our hostel turned out to be small and sort of dumpy, but the wifi worked, an adorable fluffball of a dog lived there, and the guy who ran the place was totally awesome and into having a good time [he offered us shots even before we'd checked in...]. Plus, we'd find out later that the free breakfast was an amazing smorgasbord of food. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While grabbing dinner at a nearby restaurant [having braved the wind/rain to get there], Lindsay and I developed our new favorite time-passing game to play [trying to name all 50 states, and then their correct capitals. You may scoff now, but I dare you to try. We've tried it on other Americans, and most people can only make it to the low 40's before giving up], and then raced back to the hostel. We were content to just relax, seeing as we had to be up early tomorrow, but not having some sort of fun on a weekend in a hostel is pretty much impossible. The five other guests plus the host and Lindsay and I ended up playing some card games, and then Alonso [the person in charge of the hostel] suggested we go out to a bar in town. It wasn't an extremely appealing offer, but Lindsay and I figured we'd be stuck videotaping a little kids' dance recital the next night, so we might as well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The bar we went to was sort of a weird situation because 1) you had to pay to get in [the first time I've come across that in Costa Rica- luckily, Alonso was nice enough to pay for Lindsay and I], and 2) there was a live band playing Latin music, but barely anyone was dancing, Tico or not. Luckily, Lindsay and I always bring the party ;). But actually. After hanging off to the side for a bit, we were both invited by Ticos to go dance, and after that I never left the dance floor- just swapped one partner for another. Eventually everyone had had enough of dancing, though, so we snuck downstairs for a quick game of [terrible] pool, and then headed back to the hostel and hit the hay.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><u>Into the Jungle...</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Saturday morning Lindsay and I awoke to our alarm blaring at 6:15am. We were getting picked up at 7:00am for our tour, so we wanted to give ourselves enough tine to wake up. Unfortunately, the day didn't look promising. Especially not for zip lining. We'd been hoping that the wind and rain would've died down overnight, but no such luck- it was just as nasty and wet and gray as when we'd arrived. After much debating about whether zip lining in these conditions would be worth it [we already knew it was going to be miserable, but the question was whether the tour would be cool enough to outweigh the misery or not], we decide to just go for it- we had come all this way to zip line, after all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We were picked up by one if our guides, grabbed Nonny at her hostel, and headed out to the forest. After being suited up in harnesses, gloves, and helmets, we signed our waivers and were off! The two guides showed the three of us [the only people on our tour] to a huge Tarzan swing first, which swung you through a clearing out over the tree tops- extremely exhilarating. Then we began the actual zip lining. There were 15 cables we zipped on, as well as a huge fig tree we descended and then climbed up through. Zip lining was fun, and even in the not-so-great weather, the views were amazing. However, besides the first and last few cables [one of which the wind was so strong it stopped me 15 feet from the ending platform, and I had to pull myself the rest of the way], zip lining itself wasn't all that exciting. I guess I was just expecting something a bit more adrenaline-inducing. We had a good time, though. And luckily the weather eased up throughout our time in the tree tops, until eventually we could see bits of blue sky and the rain had pretty much stopped. The tour took about two hours, and afterwards we thanked our guides, stopped by the bus station to buy tickets to San Jose on the 2:00pm bus, and headed back to the hostel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><u>...And Out to the Town</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We spent the time between the tour and catching our bus chowing down on our hostel's free breakfast [bananas, chocolate cereal, peanut butter, bread, and coffee- what more could you ask for?], visiting the local ice cream shop, and checking out a souvenir store. Eventually we said goodbye to Alonso and Nonny, and walked over to catch our bus. The ride took four hours to get to the highway leading to San Jose. Remember, we were supposed to be back around 5:00pm to help set up and then attend this dance recital. We figured we probably wouldn't make it in time to set up, but we could definitely be there to help clean up around 9:00pm, no problem, right? Not quite....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We <i>would've</i> made it, had it not been for a bridge that was down. Thanks to being unable to continue on its normal route, our bus turned off the road we were familiar with [and where our sketchy highway stop is located] and instead headed to downtown San Jose. As soon as we realized where we were headed, we knew we were screwed. Going into San Jose was an hour more bus ride in itself, not to mention the amount of time we'd have to wait at the bus station to then catch another hour-long bus back to Atenas. Grrr. We got into the capital around 7:00pm, and [thanks to being escorted by a kind, young, paramedic-to-be] made it to our bus station only to learn that we had an hour and a half to wait before the next bus to Atenas. We sat in the creepy station trying not to fall asleep [by trying to name the state capitals, actually], and finally hopped on the 8:30pm bus home. Needless to say, we arrived well after the dance recital ended.... We're sorry, Tina!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><u>A Day in Atenas</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sunday, November 8th was the only entire weekend day Lindsay and I spent together in town. It was actually quite relaxing to wake up and not have to do... anything. No volunteering, no bus rides :to miss:, no nothing. We spent out free day just chilling in the morning, venturing out for iced coffee (her) and scalding hot coffee (me), and then she accompanied me to the grocery store [ohmygodilovethoseplaces] so I could buy ingredients for the chicken & wild rice soup I was making. <- I'd brought wild rice down as a present for my host family, but seeing as they didn't even know it existed, I offered to make them a meal with it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The soup took me four hours to make. I attribute this to 1) I hadn't cooked in over two months, 2) I'd never actually made the soup before, and 3) only one burner worked on the stove. But by 7:00pm there was piping hot soup ready, and while it didn't look or taste anything like what my mom makes at home [oh the joys of eyeballing measurements and improvising ingredients], it was still deemed "rico" by my host family, so I guess it was successful. Or they just were kind enough not to hurt my feelings....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yep, the weekend of zip lining and soup. Pura vida.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span><br />
Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-66940360106287946372012-11-26T11:39:00.001-08:002012-11-26T11:39:13.482-08:00Weekend #4: Montezuma [aka The Non-Existant Post]<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've written about this weekend in immaculate detail TWICE now. And both times the posts magically deleted themselves. Incredibly frustrating. I know the third time's normally the charm, but I just can't. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So I'm giving you a Cliff notes version instead. [And maybe someday I'll come back and write the real thing. Or you can just fill in the blanks with your imagination.] </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dates: November 2-4 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Place: Montezuma- small beach community on the Pacific side </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Story: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Supposed to run a marathon, plans fall through, decide to go to Montezuma since Emma [other Hogarcito volunteer] and friends were.
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Continuing theme of transportation issues. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Involving three buses and a ferry this time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lindsay and Emma sick. I share room with both. Go to sleep Friday not sure if I'll wake up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Wake up. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Search for snorkeling tour. Boats left at 9:00am, we asked at 9:30am. Screwed. Damn. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Local man says he can take us snorkeling. Falls through. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Meet Ben from Texas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Local man says he can take us [now six with Ben and Emma's three friends] snorkeling. Boat won't start. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pout. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Visit waterfall by fording river and climbing through jungle. Scenic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jump off rocks into water. Tarzan swing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[Insert witty bracketed comment here.]
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Meet Marcos and increase crew number to seven. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Go to top of waterfall. Swim. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lindsay is a daredevil. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lindsay Lindsay Lindsay. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'mobsessedwithLindsay. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">35-foot jump. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lindsay before jumping: So excited.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Me: I do not condone your actions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lindsay after jumping: Ouch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[And here.] </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Spotted- breathtaking view and monkeys. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dinner. Nomnom. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ubiquitous night out. Dancing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Unintentionally played hide and seek. Where did everyone go? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lazy Sunday. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Attempted beach run. Hot & sharp rocks. Ouch. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Transport home. Problems.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Return late. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Token sarcastic ending comment. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Good time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-13555465173083484902012-11-24T20:24:00.001-08:002012-11-24T20:24:08.240-08:00Travel Tips I Picked Up, Take 1<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Take advantage of [but don't go overboard] on free food. While traveling, unless you're in a home-stay with a predictable three meals/day schedule, there's often no way of knowing what or when your next meal will be. For instance, in Monteverde the hostel provided breakfast for no fee. While Lindsay took one approach and, as she calls it, "ate for hibernation," I went the other route and made myself a peanut butter & chocolate cereal sandwich for the road. It came in handy.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Eating out can get ridiculously expensive. Then again, cooking takes time and energy.... </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Alcohol is usually involved in meeting people. Therefore, plan on drinking at any and all moments [and budget that into your expected spending]. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Most locals are quite nice and want to help travelers out. I can't tell you how many times people have offered to guide us places upon being asked for directions, or how accommodating people can be if there's a problem. Or just how thoughtful people can seem when you're overwhelmed in a foreign post office collecting a package, and they offer you a piece of candy because you look completely lost/bewildered [I know this goes against the whole "don't accept candy from strangers" wisdom, but different circumstances call for different types of advice]. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bank schedules differ all over the place, so make sure you leave plenty of time to deal with money transactions that need to occur in a bank. Luckily, most ATM's are 24 hours. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ALWAYS have your passport [or a copy] on you while traveling. Very important. You really don't want to spend a needless five hours in a police station trying to convince the officers that you're not here illegally- you just left your passport in your hostel. <- I´m not speaking from personal experience here, but I did have a close call in Puerto Viejo during my first weekend trip. Luckily, the policeman glanced at Dean and Lindsay´s passports, and overlooked me. I guess I just don´t have a face that screams "I´m a fugitive." But seriously, I doubt getting deported is on anyone´s to do list.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Reading generally deters people from trying to interact with you, so by all means do so if you really don´t want to be approached. However, if you´re trying to meet people, a book could also be used as a tool, because you can set it down once you feel ready to begin socializing.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Having no set plans generally leads to the best time traveling, experience-wise. By not having a concrete schedule, you allow yourself to be more open and available to spontaneous opportunities that eventually make really good memories/travel stories. Though doing a bit of research about the locations in which you will be stopping also helps for moments of boredom, or should other opportunities not surface. [I think a large part of why I had no fun for my half-day in San Jose is due to the fact that I had no idea what there was to <i>do</i> there. If I went now, I know to go visit the National Theater and the Gold Museum.]</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Taking the laces and soles out of wet tennis shoes helps them dry much faster than they would´ve otherwise. Like, overnight.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Those are a few of the lessons I´ve learned/picked up/been shown. Many more to ensue, I´m sure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span></div>
Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-62411353914089458712012-11-24T14:02:00.004-08:002012-11-24T14:02:38.473-08:00Shout Out<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lindsay, I love you and I´ll miss you. My trip wouldn´t have been the same without you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Keep in touch!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-77927070493370205632012-11-24T14:01:00.001-08:002012-11-24T14:01:10.514-08:00Weekend Trip #3: Manuel Antonio<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've realized since I'm posting about these weekends so long after they happened, maybe dates would be a helpful detail. Right? My Manuel Antonio adventure took place the weekend of October 26, 27, and 28. [I realize this is almost a month behind, but bear with me- I'm slowly but surely working on becoming up-to-date.] </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Manuel </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Antonio</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Manuel Antonio is one of the most well-known national parks in Costa Rica. It's famed for the abundant amount of wildlife you can see there, as well as its three gorgeous beaches. While there are about a gagillion national parks in Costa Rica one could visit, the reason Lindsay and I [by this point Dean had gone] chose Manuel Antonio was because the large group of other volunteers we'd met the weekend before at La Fortuna (plus Floris, Jo, and this guy Sindre they'd picked up) were all going to be there as well. It was going to be one big reunion party. With a bit of nature on the side.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>Getting There aka The Worst Travel Mishap of Them All</u> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That title up there doesn't sound too promising, huh? Well you can decide for yourself after reading about how you'd categorize it. Here's what happened: So using our young, intelligent, technologically-capable brains, Lindsay and I had looked up buses from Atenas to Manuel Antonio on our friend thebusschedule.com, and had learned of the existence of a direct bus, leaving Atenas at 3:00pm. So we did our normal volunteering on Friday, got home and had lunch, and met up around 2:45pm at the corner to walk to the bus terminal together. Of course [having the amazing transportation luck that we do], it turns out the Manuel Antonio bus didn't stop at the central bus station. No, you had to flag it down on the side of the highway on the edge of town, whenever it happened to pass by. Hearing this, we raced to the highway stop, just in time to see a bus zoom past two seconds before we got there. Damn. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Obviously at that point we were not in our clearest frames of mind. We'd just witnessed the only bus of the day to our destination whiz past, and had no idea what to do. So naturally, we panicked, causing us to make a rash decision- one that would cost us three hours of needless travel time. We ended up flagging down a bus to San Jose that pulled up a few minutes after we got to the stop. We just jumped on, not really paying attention to the fact that the Manuel Antonio bus was heading in the opposite direstion of San Jose- we just figured that we could get anywhere from San Jose [which is true, so our wits hadn't completely fled us]. After an unhappy hour-long ride to the capital [filled with attempting to communicate in Spanish via texting with Lindsay's host sister about bus schedules], we arrived and jumped off the bus, racing over to the police stationed at the stop and asked how to get to Manuel Antonio. We learned that we'd want to find a bus to Quepos [a town 15 minutes from Manuel Antonio], but those buses left from a station all the way across town... great. Luckily the police guy we talked to was nice enough to find us a cab and tell him where to go [which also hopefully deterred him from cheating us]. The cab ride was not fun: it was through a clogged, noisy San Jose on a Friday afternoon; the cabbie appeared to be taking the longest route possible, and Lindsay and I were both still worried about actually finding a bus to take us there- at that point we were just hoping something would work out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our luck finally improved when we hit the bus station. The cab driver accepted less money than the meter said [we were only a few bucks short], there was a bus to Quepos that was leaving at 5:00pm [right when we arrived], and we got the bus to ourselves. No joke. An entire greyhound for just the two of us. It felt a bit creepy, but we just shook our heads and went with it. [While the bus eventually picked up some other people, by the time we were two hours into our four-hour ride we were once again the only two passengers.] We both kicked ourselves when the bus passed Atenas around 6:40pm, since it meant we'd wasted three hours and $10, but maybe it was meant to be, becuase thanks to being essentially chauffeured to Quepos, the bus driver was fine with stopping for us at a gas station when we had to pee. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>The [Real] Weekend Begins</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We got into Quepos around 9:00pm, caught the bus to Manuel Antonio at 9:30pm, and aririved at our hostel [and into a welcoming party] just before check-in time ended at 10:00pm. After putting our stuff away in the dorm room we were sharing with Floris, Jo, and Sindre [whom we were introduced to], all 10 of us [our dorm and the Canadians] headed out to a nearby bar for Ladies' Night. We all had a fun time talking and dancing, and headed back to the dorms around 2:00am for some much needed sleep. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Satuday was national park/beach day! After a free breakfast of flies with a side of pancakes [not kidding, unfortunately], we all suited up to get out in the gorgeous day. We wandered through the national park trails for about half an hour [being cheap and just listening in on groups that had paid for guides]. We saw snakes, lizards, spiders, monkeys, birds, and a racoon. But nothing too impressive [though at the end we saw a sloth with its baby, so that was really cool]. Then we checked out the three beaches contained in the park. The first was nice, but crowded. The second was small and secluded, but not very good for swimming. The third was perfect: empty, big, good-sized waves, warm water, and beautiful white sand. We spent a while there, doing flips, chicken fighting, and body surfing. By that point we all were pretty hungry, so we decided to leave the park and grab some lunch before heading back to the hostel to wash up. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>Crocodile Crossing</u> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In order to leave Manuel Antonio through the back entrance, you need to cross over a 10-foot wide river. There are rowboats sitting there to take you across, and you're supposed to tip the guys who give you a lift. Fair enough. However, the boat handlers that day were feeling a bit tricky, and when we climbed in they informed us it'd be $10 to cross this stream that looked like you could nearly jump over. We all looked at each other in disbelief, and hauled ass out of the boat. While the guys informed us it was way too deep to wade through, an adventurous member of our group hoisted his backpack and shoes over his head, and made it to the other side no problem. The rest of us followed suit- we were already in our bathing suits, so who cares if we got wet. [Me being shorter than the average guy did find the crossing a little harder- at its deepest the water came up to my chin- but I made it just fine.]. It was only when we hit the other side of the river, connected to the public beach and main road, that we saw the signs that said "Peligro: Cocodrillos" <i>Danger: Crocodiles</i>. Ooohhh. Well if one of us had gotten attacked, we probably would've regretted not paying the $10, but seeing as it all turned out okay, it was definitely worth getting wet. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lunch was where everyone got their tans from that day. It was HOT. And very sunny. Towels were used as <i>very</i> attractive head coverings, and the sun even inspired three of the girls to go into a nearby store and buy fedoras [only $10! Don't tell...]. After a </span>loooong<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> wait, we got our food, were charged a ridiculous amount of "tax," and headed back to our hostel to relax a bit before nighttime hit. We ended up cooking at the hostel- a delicious </span>mish<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">-mash of food that included guacamole, pineapple (cut by yours truly), tortilla chips and cheese dip, and sausages. Oh, and Lindsay bought me a ginormous carrot, because I asked for it [thanks sister!]. </span>Tiaan<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> said grace [?] and then we dug in, polishing off the huge spread. We then played some card games, swung on the Tarzan swing, and danced down on the pool grounds. Eventually [it was Halloween weekend after all] we headed out to a costume party at a nearby bar [sans costumes, unfortunately- we were so </span>under dressed<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">]. We listened to the live band and had a good time, knowing that in the morning we'd have to say goodbye for probably the last time- we were all headed separate ways/half the group was leaving Costa Rica soon. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sunday morning we once again chowed down our free breakfast of pancakes & flies, and then had a leisurely pack up/goodbye time before hitting the bus to </span>Quepos<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. We hooked a direct bus from </span>Quepos<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> to San Jose [though we were planning on getting off at the roadside near </span>Atenas<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">], and zoned out for the four hours it took to get back "home." <- one of the few weekends we made it back before dark</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A fun time, with <strike>the sunburn to prove it</strike> just kidding, Mom ;)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-29791359874480774352012-11-14T12:05:00.001-08:002012-11-14T12:05:43.874-08:00Weekend Trip #2: La Fortuna <span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>La Fortuna</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">La Fortuna is known as a tourist destination {in high-season anyway} as it is the town closest to the Arenal Volcano and its surrounding national park. The Arenal Volcano was Costa Rica´s most active volcano (and one of the top ten most active ones in the world), but since 2010 its explosions have died down, and it has been pretty quiet since {though it did erupt unexpectedly in 1968 and destroy the small town of Tabacon, so you never know...}. Lindsay, Dean, and I decided to go there because both Lindsay and I had never seen a real, live volcano before, and Arenal is quite well-known.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dean once again took off Thursday night, saying he may or may not be traveling with us that weekend. He said if he was at the hostel on Friday night, then he´d be there, and if not we were to presume he was off at some other destination. I fully expected him to come to Arenal, but Lindsay had her doubts. We´d find out in no time, regardless.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><u>The Journey</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Friday afternoon Lindsay and I went directly from volunteering at the Hogarcito to the major bus terminal of Palmares. We´d done some research {using the handy-but-not-always-reliable busschedule.com} into transportation, and discovered that a bus left from San Ramon (a large town 10 minutes away from where we volunteer in Palmares) at 12:30pm, so we planned to take the 12:15pm bus from Palmares in order to get there on time. It probably all would have worked out, except that the 12:15pm bus from Palmares didn´t end up appearing until 12:25, meaning we missed our connection in San Ramon by about 20 minutes by the time we´d located the bus station. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After talking to a nice lady working in a small store at the bus station {she´s now become our go-to helper whenever we end up in San Ramon}, we learned the next bus to La Fortuna was at 4:00pm- meaning we had an almost three-hour period to entertain ourselves in San Ramon. Fortunately, in the never-ending search for an American-style iced coffee {have I mentioned Lindsay´s obsessed with iced coffee? In Costa Rica they always blend the ice into the coffee, and sometimes add ice cream- it results in a tasty drink, but not exactly what she´s looking for...} we happened upon a University museum with a few art and biological exhibits. We wandered around there for a bit, though once we saw a preserved human fetus in a plastic jar, we were pretty ready to get the hell out of there. We then spent the next few hours tracking down the McDonald´s we were both positive we spotted on the bus ride into town {don´t judge}. You´ve no idea how accomplished we felt when we eventually found it,and in celebration bought french fries (Lindsay) and a twist ice cream cone (me).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thus sated, we headed back to the bus station in time to catch the bus and finally begin our journey to Arenal. We arrived four hours later in the dark- no stunning view of the looming volcano for us yet. After being accosted by tour guides, we extracted ourselves and made our way to the hostel. We walked inside and were greeted by the sight of Dean {! told you so, Lindsay}, already hard at... work... hanging out with a large, rowdy group of people. Lindsay and I checked in, dropped our stuff on our bunk beds, and headed out to join the party.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><u>Friday Night Meet & Greet</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The people we saw Dean with turned out to be a fun bunch of volunteers based in San Ramon {of all places}- </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">four Canadian guys (Bryan, Ryan, Ryan, Tiaan) and one American girl (Kelsey)</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. Also amassed in our new group of friends was a British girl, Jo, and a Dutch guy, Floris. They all introduced themselves, and quickly invited Lindsay and I to sit down. The rest of the night is just one big, enjoyable blur. After talking and joking around for a while {and being invited to chill with them in Manuel Antonio the next weekend}, our group decided to hit the pool for a late night dip {during which chicken-fighting and the origin of our motto "Pop a tit" occurred...}. We then returned nice and soggy to the common area to meet with some more hostel guests. Everyone had stuff planned for early the next morning, though, so by 2:00am we decided to call it a night and go to bed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>On the Road to Cerro Chato (and Other Natural Wonders)</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Saturday morning Lindsay, Dean, and I awoke relatively early {it´s actually ridiculously hard to sleep in in Costa Rica, thanks to the early morning sunrise and rooster crows}, and met up with Floris (from the night before) to plan our day´s adventure. We were positive that we wanted to check out the Arenal waterfall, as it was supposed to be gorgeous, and had also heard about this hike up a small,</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> extinct volcano right next to Arenal that provided a great view of the active volcano- and a lake-filled crater existed at the top that you could swim in. The smaller volcano was known as Cerro Chato.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At Floris´s suggestion, we decided to rent bikes and ride to the entrance of the waterfall (only a 30 minute trip, or so we were told)- that idea was doomed from the beginning. We did manage to find four, seemingly functional bikes to rent in town, but our luck went downhill from there. As soon as we passed our hostel, Lindsay´s chain fell off, <i>twice</i>. And the second time Dean attempted to fix it {as the rest of us stood on the side of the road, sweating in the hot sun}, he cut his thumb and had to run into a nearby restaurant for some antiseptic to wash it out. After 20 minutes of fruitless tinkering, we called it quits and decided to go exchange her bike for one that actually worked. But, as our luck would have it, the rental place only had those four bikes. And the one up the hill had two bikes out front, but actually they were reserved. And the hotel over the bridge that rented bikes didn´t have any left either. Lindsay was extremely frustrated after our third unsuccessful visit, so I decided to give the guys my bike to return as well, and said we´d meet them {who were still so intent on biking} at the waterfall- the girls were taking a taxi. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Turns out our decision not to bike was the right one to make. Lindsay and I arrived at the waterfall a bit after 11:00am, a whole 1.5 hours before the boys did. As we climbed down the 493 steps to the falls, admired the beautiful 70 meter cascade of water, swam in the natural pool there, and sunbathed on the rocks nearby, Dean and Floris were {so they say} struggling up an incredibly steep, difficult hill in order to reach the entrance. I´m pretty sure they got lost and went the long, wrong way to the falls, as our cab ride was only 10 minutes and the roads we took were relatively flat. But anyway, the bike trip was apparently so exhausting that the guys could speak of nothing but how tired and sore they were the whole rest of the day. I kid you not- the. whole. day. Lindsay and I eventually just tuned them out....</span><br />
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After letting the guys rest and take in the exquisiteness that was the waterfall, Lindsay and I told them we were heading back up the 493 steps to the top in order to start the hike up Cerro Chato. They moaned and groaned and acted like big babies, but eventually convinced each other that, though they already done the equivalent of 15 workouts thanks to the bike ride, they could <i>probably</i> make it up Cerro Chato. I think they mostly just were afraid of being showed up by two girls {and possibly missing out on something really cool}. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We payed our entrance fee and met another American couple who were also starting the hike at the same time, so the six of us set out up the volcano around 1:00pm. All of us had heard that the hike was steep, grueling, and would take about two hours to make it each way; we initially scoffed at that- WE were young, fit, and determined. How hard could this hike actually be? Answer: very. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Okay, so the beginning of the climb was fine. We all joked about how, if this was considered hard, we'd be back in an hour. We kept up a good pace and admired the great views we were getting, as well as the lush trail we were following. Then, about 20 minutes in, it began to sprinkle. And everything went to hell. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><u>The Hike from Hell </u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Right after it started sprinkling {which was actually welcomed at first, as we were all damp with sweat at that point anyway}, we hit the part of the hike that switched from a relatively flat, well-defined path, to steeper, grass- and mud-covered hills. By a bit into that portion of the hike, the rain had increased to a pretty heavy downpour, so rain was not only dripping off us in rivulets, but coming down the hill in small streams as well. Conversation dropped off, and we all focused on making it up the hill without slipping and falling on our asses. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Eventually we had climbed high enough to where we'd reached the jungle near the summit of the mountain. Unfortunately, it was also the most challenging part of the hike. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Imagine doing a lunge up a stair. Then another. And another. Endlessly. Now, let's be creative and add in some other fun stuff. Torrential rain? Check. Waterfalls cascading down each step? Got that too. Slippery mud, trippable tree roots, extreme elevation? Yes x3. Now take how you'd imagine you'd be feeling after 45 minutes of that, multiply it by 50, and you'll be close to how I felt. It got to the point where I seriously contemplated turning around- Dean and Floris had after 15 minutes of being in the jungle portion- and all that kept me going was the promise of a lake-filled crater at the top {and the ability to brag about making it all the way up later. Assuming I actually survived the journey}.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Finally, relieving-ly, we reached a flat spot at the top of Cerro Chato from which you climbed down through the forest for only about five minutes to reach the crater lake. We came into the clearing at the beach on the lake, and gasped in amazement: the water was bright green. I'd never seen anything like it before. It was so beautiful I wish I could show you what it looked like, but of course my camera had run out of battery 10 minutes into the hike.... The four of us: Lindsay, the couple, and I {the champions who made it ;)}, stripped down to our undies and dove in. We had a group of local kids- the only other people there- take some pictures of us, and then decided we should head back before it got dark. Regretfully we began the climb back, but when we reached the flat spot at the very tip again, it was as though the clouds had been waiting for our arrival to clear. We had the most breathtaking view of the Arenal volcano- it was such a serendipitous moment, and it made the entire, hellish climb worth it {the lake was cool, but I was a bit underwhelmed}. I still have a hard time believing that happened. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The climb back down was exhilarating in its own way. Luckily it had stopped raining by then, but the steps {not to mention our clothes/shoes} were sopping wet and muddy, making our "climb" down more of a jump-from-step-to-step-and-hope-you-don't-end-up-slipping-all-the-way-down sort of game. {We took a clue from the local kids who literally ran down the mountain, every once in a while falling and laughing hysterically- the Costa Rican version of skiing, I suppose.} We made it back to where we´d started about four hours after we began. In one piece, but a lot more worse for the wear. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The couple was nice enough to give us a ride to our hostel in their rental car, and once we arrived we both headed straight to the showers {my first hot shower in over a month, and it was <i>glorious</i>}. Lindsay and I headed out to grab dinner in town with a few other girls from the hostel. We both ordered HUGE <i>casados</i> (the typical Costa Rican dish: rice, beans, fried plantains, meat, steamed veggies, and a green salad. This one was premium and included mashed potatoes with cheese, tortilla chips, a tuna salad, and a beet salad, as well}, and you better believed we devoured them all in record time. The other girls sort of exchanged horrified glances at our maniac eating until we explained that we'd had nothing but raw green beans since breakfast, had gone on this incredibly exhausting hike, and were therefore starving. They understood after that. That night we were supposed to go out dancing around 11:00pm with a group of guys we´d met at the waterfall... but we had both fallen asleep by 8:30pm, and didn't wake up until morning. Oops. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u>Sunday</u> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">After a nice, relaxing brunch with Floris, Jo, and an Australian named Lucy, Dean, Lindsay, and I packed up our stuff, said our goodbyes, and headed out to catch the bus back to Atenas. No major horror stories about transportation this time- though the bus situation didn't go exactly according to plan, the longest we had to wait for a connection was only an hour, and we made it back to Atenas by dinner time. The worst part of the trip home was having to stand on the bus for the 45 minute ride from where we got off on the side of the highway {a sketchy stop, but it saves us an hour of going into and then back out of the city of Alajuela} to Atenas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">All in all, a fun, successful weekend. Though my thighs could feel that hike for days after.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Ouch. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-27106430690689422212012-11-11T16:14:00.000-08:002012-11-11T16:14:43.944-08:005 Things I've Learned About Myself [While Traveling]<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While I entered my gap year fully expecting to grow and mature thanks to the new experiences I'd be having, I guess I wasn't really conscious of the fact that traveling would make obvious certain aspects of my character. Here is just a random sample of new-to-me facts about... well, me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In no particular order:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1) I (like the majority of the American adult population [not to mention Europeans, Costa Ricans, and the like]), have become one of those people who just can't function without that daily cuppa joe in the morning. Honestly, coffee is a MUST for me now. I'm not sure if it's a mental thing or what, but when I don't have "cafe con leche" in the morning, I get a slight headache and my brain feels a bit foggy. Maybe it's actually the altitude... but I've been relying on the placebo effect of believing strongly enough that coffee helps it to get by. Whatever works, right? I absolutely detested the taste of coffee before I came to Costa Rica, but now I can't get enough. Haha, watch this be the most significant, long-lasting effect of my time here. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> 2) I actually am a very safety-oriented person. Don't get me wrong, I like the adrenaline rush of doing crazy things as much as the next person- I just don't want there to be a significant possibility that I could get hurt and/or die in the process. For example: when mountain biking up and down rocky, uneven dirt roads <i>in the rain</i>, I've found I actually would prefer to be wearing a helmet/pads rather than not [Anri, aren´t you proud??]. Especially after falling once.... Or when cliff jumping, I'm fine doing the 10-foot jump- but I'll go ahead and skip the 35-foot one into a pool of unknown depth. [Lindsay, it's all yours.] So I guess in some ways that may make me a bit of a wimp, but at least I'll still be here when all you daredevils have gone and broken your necks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3) I am a HUGE fan of dancing. There have been multiple occasions where my "entire demeanor changed in the blink of an eye"[according to <strike>Lindsay</strike> my best big sister ever!!!] once a danceable song by American standards was played. And I've even gotten into Latin dance: salsa, meringue, barchata. After a certain point, I don't care how ridiculously white and uncoordinated I look- if a guy asks me, I'll do my best to keep up with his hip movements and spins. What the hell, it's fun. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4) Turns out, despite my often sarcastic and cynical nature, I actually posses a pretty positive, optimistic outlook on life. Regardless of the fact that out of the past 12 long bus trips I've been on [getting to and from weekend locations], only <i>two</i> have gone according to plan, I always manage to find mine and Lindsay's inevitable transportation disaster comical, and I don't get bent out of shape about it. Maybe it's just a response to Lindsay's tendency toward anxiety when shit like that happens, but I've been quite surprised at my ability to stay calm and positive about the fact that we <i>will</i> get through whatever the problem is. Since I have the ridiculed I-think-my-life-is-a-movie syndrome, I guess I just always feel like any bad situation I get in will eventually reach its happy ending. Maybe not the most realistic thing, but it hasn't burned me too badly so far....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5) I have a weird foreign supermarket fetish. Honestly, I could spend <i>hours</i> wandering up and down the aisles of any Costa Rican food store. Doesn't matter that they're all essentially the same- they still just have this strange allure for me. I love checking out all the different foods they have compared to the US, how the store is laid out, and which products are most valued. I mean, in the States, there are aisles carrying only breakfast cereals [a bit ridiculous when you think about it]- here, you'd be shocked to see how many different kinds of white rice and mayonnaise spreads exist. I just find it mesmerizing. It's weird, I know. But on the plus side, I think I just discovered my ticket to traveling cheaply through Europe- walking through supermarkets doesn't cost a thing. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Don't judge me, I bet you harbor strange fetishes as well. You just don´t know it yet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> xoxo, Cleome</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com03, Atenas, Costa Rica9.98159 -84.3803719.9503135 -84.419853 10.012866500000001 -84.34088899999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-76763452005418391772012-11-05T19:26:00.000-08:002012-11-05T19:26:19.462-08:00Weekend Trip #1: Puerto Viejo<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Indisputably, my weekend adventures get a lot more crazy and exciting than anything that goes on in Atenas during the week. {Though last week an earthquake of magnitude 6.2 rippled through the town- didn´t do any real damage, but I certainly felt it up in my already-shaky second story room. I guess that<i> </i>could be considered exciting....} I definitely enjoy planning them and anticipating all the fun during the week. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Time passes weirdly both fast and slow here, but before you know it, it´s Thursday and you´ve got to look up bus schedules and pack your bag for the weekend {which starts Friday}. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Generally, how we {Lindsay and I, with Dean being included the first couple weeks} decide where we´re going for the weekend is based purely on recommendations we´ve received from other travelers. Rarely do we go somewhere because we´ve researched it or read about it in a guide book. Though sometimes we do choose places based on activities we want to do/things we want to see, so I guess it really does depend. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But anyway, without further ado, I present the recap of my first weekend of traveling:* </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Weekend 1- Puerto Viejo/The Carnaval that wasn´t...</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This weekend was a special one, for multiple reasons. For me, it was my first chance getting to travel and explore Costa Rica without trying to reach one volunteer gig or another, my first time traveling with Lindsay and Dean {the first time </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">they´d traveled together was the weekend before}, and my first weekend getting out of Atenas {which I was eager to do, as the one before had been rather miserable}. Also, it was a three-day weekend, thanks to the Exchange of Cultures Day on Monday (their Columbus Day, except he´s not very well liked around here). The goal was to make it to the city of Limon (a port city on the Caribbean side, just a bit south of where I volunteered with the turtles) for this grand event called Carnaval. It´s sort of funny- while Lindsay, Dean, and I had heard extensively about the existence of this festival from multiple sources, no one seemed to know exactly what went on during it. But one thing was certain: it was going to be crazy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Limon itself was a city already known for being a bit insane. It was a dangerous place to walk around, especially at night. Lindsay had told us about her friend who was held up at gunpoint there, and even the locals cautioned us about the place, citing numerous thefts and murders. To be honest, we were a bit sketched out- I mean, when even Costa Ricans don´t feel safe in a city, you know as a foreigner you´d be stupid not to feel at least a bit of apprehension. Also, putting the safety precautions aside, almost everyone we talked to who´d already been there sort of made a face when we mentioned we were going, and told us in no uncertain terms that "Limon es feo,"<i> Limon is ugly. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While all the negativity about our trip in no way deterred us from seeing the city, or the Carnaval, we did concede to book a hostel in the town of Puerto Viejo (an hour away) instead of Limon itself. We figured it´d be cheaper and places to stay would be more available {plus Lindsay and I could breathe a little easier knowing we wouldn´t have to sleep in a city of murderers}. So our weekend plans were set, and on Thursday we called a hostel {recommended to us by Lindsay´s friend who´s lived in Costa Rica for over a year} to reserve three hammocks{!} for three nights. It was on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since Dean´s volunteer position had Fridays off, he left Thursday night for Puerto Viejo, leaving Lindsay and I to make our own way there after working at the Hogarcito on Friday. We researched bus schedules and figured it´d be safest to catch the 2:00pm bus to San Jose, where we´d transfer bus stations and then take the 4:00pm bus direct to Puerto Viejo. We anticipated we´d arrive around 7:30pm- a good time, as it would leave us a few hours in which to get dinner and chill before going out for the night. If only things had worked out that well....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Friday afternoon, Lindsay and I get back to Atenas a bit after 1:00pm, and we race home to eat lunch and finish packing. Since I needed to go to the bank to change some dollars into colones before our trip {imperative as banks close around 4:00pm in Costa Rica, and aren´t open weekends}, we decided we´d just meet at the bus station around 1:50pm to ensure we got a seat. I scarfed down lunch, grabbed my {newly purchased, daypack-sized} backpack, and headed to the bank with 15 minutes until I was supposed to meet Lindsay. As soon as I entered the bank, I felt a sinking in my stomach- this was going to take more time than I had, I could just feel it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I was guided to a square formation of chairs by an armed guard, and sat down at the end of the "line." I was four rows back and three chairs in. The square itself had eight rows in total, with six chairs in each row. Watching the line move would´ve been quite funny, had I not been so anxious about the time: every time the person in the first chair got up to walk to an available banker, the second person would move one chair over, with everyone in the following chairs doing the same thing in a sort of slow-moving wave. While this snaking line of chair transfers was actually moving at a pretty good speed, I ended up leaving about six chair-moves in- there was just no way I was going to make the bus if I stayed. I figured I could find a bank in the two hour "layover" we had in San Jose, so I wasn´t too worried about not having any colones on me at that point. I just had to find one before the bus from San Jose, or I´d be screwed for the weekend {I stupidly didn´t bring any card for an ATM with me <-- travel mistake I won´t make again #1}.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We reached San Jose a bit after 3:00pm, and hailed a cab to take us to the Caribeños bus station, stopping for a quick detour by a bank. Only problem was the cabbie managed to find us the least-functional bank in the city. I´m not exaggerating- out of the five possible attendant windows, only one was being manned. On a Friday before a holiday weekend. What the hell. I left after standing in the line-that-didn´t-move for 15 minutes. I just hoped Lindsay would be fine covering me for the weekend, and I´d pay her back once we returned to Atenas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We finally pulled up to the bus station, and it was<i> packed</i>. So many people, travelers and locals, obviously had big beach plans for the upcoming three-day weekend. We raced to the ticket booths, where Lindsay stood in line to get us tickets since I had spotted a bank in the terminal where I figured I´d make one last-ditch effort to convert my money. I ended up asking the two guys in front of me if I could budge them, since I was worried about running out of time and missing the bus. While the men complied, I needn´t have worried: the bus ended up leaving an hour late. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was relieving to finally be on the bus to Puerto Viejo, but the bus ride itself was probably one of the craziest rides I´ve ever been on. Since we left around 5:00pm, by the time we reached the city limits it was already dark, so the majority of the trip was pitch black {the personal lights on Costa Rican buses never work}. Our driver was a maniac- ridiculously fast, especially on the twisty turns of the mountain paths, and had no regard for trying to avoid potholes. Lindsay and I were sitting in the second row from the back, meaning we got to feel the worst of all the bumps. And the people around us were hilariously terrible travel-mates: the people across from us decided to listen to bad Latin music on full blast on their headphone-less iPod, while the guys behind us decided the bus ride was the perfect time to smoke a joint. We spent the entire ride in and out of a weird, dazed sleep, the window wide open for some fresh air. By the time we reached Puerto Viejo, we were exhausted and just wanted to hit the hammocks of our hostel and sleep.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Little did we know that sleep is not an option at Rockin´J´s. I kid you not- search "top party hostel Costa Rica" and see what turns up. Yeah... we weren´t aware of that when we booked the place. For <i>three</i> nights. Lindsay and I showed up at 10:30pm {I almost walked directly past it because I assumed from the noise and people spilling outside that is was a club}, and stepped foot into a massive party. People {noisy, drunk, high, and covered in face paint} were everywhere: dancing at the bar connected to the hostel, playing pool, smoking joints, smoking hookahs, playing beer pong, sitting at the tables mixing drinks... you get the idea. I feel like I experienced my first frat party in Costa Rica- except this one was held on a Caribbean beach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dean spotted us and came over to show us to our hammocks {lucky us, we got the three closest to the bar, yayyyyy}, and then introduced us to some guys he´d met and had been hanging out with. While we were mostly very confused about what the hell was going on, and annoyed we couldn´t just go to sleep, Lindsay and I actually ended up having a pretty good time socializing. And when the music was <i>finally</i> turned off at 2:00am, we fell into our hammocks, ready to rest up in preparation for the Carnaval the next day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All three of us woke up bright and early {like 6:00am- I tell you, this hostel just doesn´t allow you to sleep}, and after breakfast caught the 9:00am bus to Limon for the Carnaval. We were expecting to arrive and be accosted by music, crowds, parades, dancing, vendors, and just general craziness {ironically, almost exactly what we experienced the night before}, but were instead greeted by nothing of the sort. The city was essentially just San Jose on a smaller scale- a dirty, unexciting, completely commercialized handful of streets. The only evidence of any sort of celebration were a few closed tents set up on the sides of streets, and a parade that involved people dressed as clowns going around hitting bystanders with sticks. We wandered around for a few hours, were thoroughly disgusted by the lack of excitement**, and left. After an hour and a half standing-room-only {we were the standers} bus ride back, we grabbed a late lunch, and then hit up a nearby beach until it got dark. We congratulated ourselves on having chosen to stay in Puerto Viejo instead of Limon for the weekend. If it had been the other way around, I think I might have melted in a pool of disappointment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Puerto Viejo is a really cool place. It´s where all the newly-freed slaves of the Spaniards congregated way back in 1800-something {don´t quote me on my historical accuracy- I´m on vacation after all}, meaning it developed it´s own Bahamian atmosphere, very separate from the rest of the country. There´s a strong reggae, laid-back feel, and lots of dreadlocks and marijuana are present. Everyone there, locals and travelers alike, were friendly, and I never felt paranoid about being robbed {like I had in Limon}. Yeah, there were many tourists- especially from the surfing/bro/stoner/frat guy population- but they only somewhat tainted the otherwise pristine scenery, haha. Given that explanation of Puerto Viejo, you´re probably not surprised that another night of craziness {that involved going to a local club and literally starting the party there} ensued Saturday night. Twas fun ;)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sunday was our beach day. We rented bikes from the hostel, and after a few false starts {luckily Dean knew how to put chains back on uncooperative gears} embarked on an hour-long ride to the southern-most beach on the Caribbean side, named Manzanillo. The beach was gorgeous and untouristed, with amazing white sand and warm water. It was also cool, because we were only an hour away from the Panama border- we all regretted not going into Panama after we looked on a map and saw how close we´d been. But after biking back we were all exhausted {bumming it on the beach does that to you, haha}, and Lindsay and I took a nap, while Dean went off and did whatever. When we woke up and realized it was almost dinner time, Lindsay and I dressed up to go eat a classy meal out... and then promptly got soaked in a torrential rainstorm on our way back to Rockin´J´s. Oh well, cést la vie. We chilled at the hostel until about 10:00pm, when {the always health-conscious} Dean declared he was leaving to go find a hamburger. Lindsay and I went with him, and on our expedition we ran into a bar called The Lazy Mon {<-- really playing up the reggae vibe, huh?} that was having an open mic night. We ended up staying there through an awesome fire-dancing show, before we decide to call it a night and headed back to sleep.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Monday we were planning on stopping for a few hours in Cahuita national park before returning to Atenas, but ended up deciding in the morning that we just wanted to get back into town. We lucked out transportation-wise on the way back- we managed to hit every station right before the bus pulled out, meaning we didn´t have to wait around and waste time. We arrived in Atenas a bit after 1:00pm, tired but happy about our successful weekend away. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I think it was an early night for all of us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So that´s my long-winded story of my first weekend trip- and first real taste of being a backpacker- here in Costa Rica.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I´m exhausted just typing all that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*I had originally titled this <u>Weekends 1, 2, 3,</u> since I´d naively assumed I could fit their recaps all into one large post. But when the clock read two hours after I´d started, and I was only just getting to trying to change my dollars into colones, I realized I had grossly underestimated how much I´d write. Or maybe just how much I´d remember. Anyway, all this is to say that I´m working, slowly but surely, on recapping my earlier weekends here. It just takes time. A lot of it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">**Oh, and apparently there actually <i>is</i> a cool Carnaval that happens in Limon. It´s just that all the excitement doesn´t start until dark, and that the real deal was actually the weekend after when we visited- we´d caught the lamer, more tame "Children´s Carnaval."</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-82459093985210262982012-10-19T05:32:00.000-07:002012-10-19T05:32:22.629-07:00Mail Me Maybe?<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hey, I just updated the Contact Exchange page, but just to make it entirely clear and obvious, here´s the address with which you can mail me things. Honestly, it doesn´t just have to be letters- <i>whatever</i> you want. I will appreciate it all.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Cleome Bernick-Roehr</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Su Espacio</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">En frente de la bomba Coopeatenas</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica 20501</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This offer only stands for the limited amount of time in which I´m actually based in one place this entire traveling adventure. So don´t waste this month-and-a-half-long opportunity.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I´ll be waiting with bated breath.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span><br />
Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8160064990205818685.post-41808693009436427632012-10-18T17:43:00.000-07:002012-10-18T17:43:06.257-07:00Atenas- Intro and General Life<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I guess it´s about time I posted about the second part of my time {of service} in Costa Rica- I <i>have</i> been here for two weeks (since October 5th) now....</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Atenas</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So alrighty, I´m now stationed in the small, mountain community of Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica. The town is one hour west of the capital (San Jose), meaning it´s located nicely in the very center of the country. The town itself is pretty sleepy and uneventful- there´s exactly one {unpopular} sports bar, one church, one "mercado," and one bus station. Although if you were looking for shoe stores or dental clinics, Atenas is the place to be. But I didn´t realize exactly how small it was until I set out my first day here to explore the place, and ended up walking down every street in town in less than two hours. Definitely a change from the Twin Cities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While the lack of activity and excitement at first made me hesitant about whether or not I was going to like it here, I´ve decided that the comfort of a small town is a much better place for a home base than some large, crazy city. Especially after a fun-filled weekend of traveling (<-- more on this later), having a safe, quiet town to return to {and recover in} is quite welcome. And it´s nice to be able to walk around at night (though, yes, usually with at least one other person), and not feel like I´m going to be molested by every guy I see. {However, while the guys´ manners here are better than on the beach, or in San Jose, walking around is still always accompanied by whistling/hissing/honking- men in Atenas just don´t feel the need to enter your personal space as much.}</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Familia Nueva</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So what exactly is my home base like? Well, I live with Arelis Rodriguez (my "mom" while I´m here) and her two boys, Alejandro (17) and Fernando (almost 16). They´re a middle-class family who have a house only five minutes from the center of town. I´ve also gotten acquainted with the grandparents, aunts, cousins, etc., since staying connected with {extended} family is a big thing here. And interestingly enough, no one in the family really speaks English. They´ve been having {primarily American} volunteers living with them for at least five years now, but from what it sounds like, there´s always been some communication issues, since most of the volunteers haven´t spoken much Spanish. They were happily surprised that I could hold at least basic conversations.* And my Spanish has definitely improved since being here. I just need to work on verb conjugations and some vocab, and I´m golden.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*Funny story: the first night at dinner, I was sitting at the table alone (having been served first). The younger brother grabbed his plate and sat down awkwardly next to me, and then looked up and asked in Spanish if anyone else was going to come sit at the table. When his mom asked why, he replied "So I won´t have to eat alone." I looked at him pointedly, and said in {halting} Spanish, "You are not alone. I´m here." It caught him so off-guard, and everyone started laughing. He mumbled a sorry to me while looking down at his plate, cheeks red. He confided to me later that he had no idea I could understand what they were saying.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From speaking with other volunteers about their families- and specifically their host moms- I´ve realized there are two general types: those where the host mom babies the volunteer, and those where the host mom doesn´t. I´m experiencing the latter; it´s a good thing. I´ve just come from 18 years of having a mom {I swear, nothing negative is implied here, Mom}, and it´s a nice change (plus what I´m sort of looking for in my year off) to be an essentially independent being. Arelis is nice and I like her a lot (and she´s a good mom to her boys), but besides cooking and changing my sheets, she lets me take care of my own shit, <i>sola</i>. Which is just how I want it. I mean, I´ll soon be traveling entirely alone in Europe, and it´d be a lot harder to visualize taking care of myself if I´d been under motherly care up until that point. {I think the reason she´s not a babier is because she´s pretty young (about to turn 33), and still has kids at home, so I in no way represent a chance to have a child living at home again- she´s currently got two.} </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have my own room upstairs to sleep in, but when I´m at home I generally spend time downstairs in the living room- reading, talking, using the computer, or watching dubbed American movies/over-the-top dramatic Spanish soaps on the TV {which is almost <i>always</i> on}. Besides the first few days, I haven´t spent too much time at the house. Generally I´m out volunteering, at the community center through which the volunteer program is run, taking dance/exercise classes, running, or hanging out with the two other volunteers currently living here.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Arrival</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Right now, I´ve completely settled into a good routine here, and am really happy with how everything is going- but it wasn´t always like this. The first three days I was in Atenas, I was miserable. I felt homesick, awkward, unhappy, uncomfortable, bored, etc. It was just not a good point in my trip- but I´ve found that´s pretty common of {my} transition periods.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I think I was feeling so down because I´d just come from the turtle project, where I´d gotten familiar with the routine, I had met some great people, and I was having a lot of fun. Instead, I found myself in a small, boring town {with <i>no</i> beach} where I didn´t know anyone, was living in a home full of strangers who spoke only a foreign language, and {since my time at the orphanage didn´t start until Tuesday, and I arrived Friday afternoon} I had essentially nothing to do all day. I found myself doubting my decision to stay in one place for a whole two months- a lifetime, considering I´d only done a little over two weeks at the turtle place. Plus, I could finally make contact with my family (and friends) through email, facebook, and Skype, and I suddenly felt an overwhelming need to speak with my family, and hear their voices. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But luckily, literally the day after I Skyped with the fam for my first time ever {a horrendous ordeal... long story short, bad internet connection + confusion about whether or not to press the microphone button on the headset when speaking = major frustration/possible tears}, it all changed for the better. I had my orientation with the volunteer coordinator, was given a mini tour of the town, met both Lindsay and Dean {which was an amazing experience, considering just learning of their existence filled me with joy, aha}, had my first Spanish class, and went out that night to the sports bar where I ordered my first "legal" beer. A life-changing day, let me tell you. And from then on, I´ve been in an extremely positive state of mind. It´s amazing the difference one day can make {<-- a thought I´ll be storing for later use in Europe}.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">{Week}Day in the Life {of an Orphanage Volunteer Living in Atenas, Costa Rica}</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is my general schedule Monday-Friday morning:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5:30am- wake up {usually naturally- it gets light/loud outside early}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6:00- run</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">7:00- shower, eat breakfast, fill up my water and grab a snack for later</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">7:45- meet Lindsay {more on her later} and walk to the bus station</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">8:00- get on the bus to Palmares {where the kids´ home is located}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">9:20- arrive at the childrens´ place after a 20 min. walk from the bus stop</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">9:30-11:40- play with kids!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">12:15pm- catch the bus back to Atenas, eat aforementioned snack</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1:20- arrive home for lunch, write emails/blog posts, read</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2:30- head to the community center Su Espacio with Lindsay for Spanish classes (the first week)/ independent-study (now)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4:30- Spanish studying ends, leave either for home or to the town center {if I need to buy something}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After 4:30- dinner happens sometime between 6 and 7, and some nights I´ll go out to dance/spinning classes, to the sports bar, or out to hang with Lindsay and/or Dean, Otherwise it´s more writing/reading/relaxing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">8:00-10:00pm- bedtime occurs within this window, on average around 9:00 or 9:30, but last night it was 7:30, and the night before it wasn´t until 11:00 {since I was watching the Costa Rica vs Guyana "futbol" game- veerrryyyy important; luckily they won}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Repeat</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The weekends are when the schedule goes out the window, and craziness ensues. I´ll have to go over those in a different post, haha.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Other {Important} People</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not sure how surprising this is, but I may actually interact more with the two other volunteers stationed here right now than my host family.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lindsay and Dean are the two other volunteers in Atenas right now, and with whom I´ve been spending lots of time with (especially {as Dean likes to point out, in a total show of FOMO, aka <u>f</u>ear <u>o</u>f <u>m</u>issing <u>o</u>ut} Lindsay). They´re both American, in their early 20´s, and pretty cool. Lindsay is not only volunteering for almost the exact same period of time as me (she´ll be leaving only one week earlier), but she´s also working at the childrens´ home- we´re together a lot. Dean is teaching English in the community center, and actually only has about 1 1/2 weeks left here in Atenas. But Lindsay and I traveled with him last weekend, and I´m pretty sure we´ll be doing so again this coming one, so I´ve definitely gotten to know him. It´s fun having the three of us together- we´ve got a good dynamic going: Dean meets people, who then invite Lindsay and I to go do stuff, and we bring him along. It´s also become a thing to make fun of him, so Lindsay and I are a little worried about how we´re going to pass the time once he´s gone....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I´m so glad there are those two to hang out with here, because like I learned at the turtle project, it´s the people who really help make an experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So yeah, that´s my situation for the past few weeks now. I´ve officially been in Costa Rica/away from home for more than a month, and I honestly couldn´t tell you whether it feels like I´ve been away for shorter or longer. My perception of time has gotten so screwed up here. But however long it´s been, I´m not ready for it to end anytime soon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Off to a spin class with Lindsay {Dean, feel the FOMO}.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">xoxo, Cleome</span>Cleome Raehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02523263908576748086noreply@blogger.com03, Atenas, Costa Rica9.98159 -84.3803718.979367 -85.6437985 10.983813000000001 -83.116943499999991