The Land Before Time

So I'm going to skip the previously mentioned Puerto Viejo trip and go straight to this past Saturday because, well, what happens in Puerto Viejo stays in Puerto Viejo (not really, but take Nosh's "this is what partying with 19 year olds is like", change 19 to 22-24, and that's a pretty solid summary of the weekend >.< )

Manisha, Randall, and me went white water rafting on the Pacuare river Saturday and it was easily the most fun we've had since we've been here. For any of you rafting enthusiasts, its one of the top 5 rivers in the world according to national geographic and definitely lived up to its reputation. Our guide for the day was named Saci, a dude with 1.5 legs. That's right, 1.5. Where his left knee should have been was a fully formed foot. Don't ask me how, but it was crazy. He used crutches to get around everywhere and would always stop next to knee high rocks so he stand up without the crutches. He was also absolutely crazy, but in a good way. He'd periodically leap out of the raft in calm areas and proceed to pull us in when we tried to pull him back into the raft. We also went down half the rapids backwards just because we could, and we even went airborne one time using a rock for a ramp. It was sweet. Saci had definitely found his perfect job because half a leg really doesn't matter in the water. Randall's a life guard in Cali and Saci easily outswam him.

However awesome the rapids and Saci were, the best part was definitely the rain forest rising up on all sides of us. In some places we'd float by beaches that gradually gave rise to dense trees. In the canyons, the mountains rose straight up out of the water to our left and right, with trees growing directly on the sheer rock faces and the occansional waterfall crashing down on us from 100 feet above. Sadly, none of our cameras are waterproof so I couldn't take any pictures, but it was easily the most beautiful place I've been to in my entire life. At one point in the river was a rock that looks like an on coming fist. If only I could have gotten a perspective shot of me pounding the rock... *sigh* (on a pounding side note, one of the women at our school is here with her kids and her 3 year old gives me a pound everytime I hold out my fist. I'm totally teaching my son that before "da-da"...)

That night was Dustin and Zack's last night in Turrialba so the five of us (them + the rafting trio) decided to go out and celebrate. After pregaming with a bottle of guaro on the curb in true Costa Rican style (hurray for $10 fifths!), we headed to Charlie's, probably the best bar in town. After a few rounds of shots (which they have 5 whole pages of) we discovered the massive food list because, honestly, what do drunk people want more than food? On Dustin's recommendation we got a platter of dank nachos, wolfed it down, and ordered another. My appetite is indeed in full form even outside of my local chipotle enviroment.

From there we made our way to the local discotec which was an experience to say the least. Zack and Manisha started dancing (as we med students are prone to do) but no one else was dancing except for one other couple. Everyone else in the place (75-100 people) was standing around the edge, hanging out and watching those drunk/crazy enough to be dancing to hip hop. Apparently no one grinds outside the US. However, about an hour later the dj started playing salsa music and suddenly the dance floor was packed. Five minutes later it was back to hip hop and the dance floor was again deserted to a mental *facepalm* from myself. We also saw two girls go at it while the security guards & boyfriends tried to separate them. They had latched on to each other's hair while one was beating the other in the ribs with a beer bottle. Pretty hilarious. Around 2 we said our goodbyes to Zack and Dustin and went home for the night.

This Friday we're leaving Turriabla to spend our last week in Dominical, a beach town on the Pacific coast, and hopefully I'll have something more exciting to tell than the non-stories from Puerto Viejo. Only a week and a half until orientation and I'm gonna see you all in Charlottesville. So exciting! Until then, Pura Vida! (basically the all around go to Costa Rican phrase)

Allez!

I'm closing in on my last week in France, and I cannot believe how quickly the summer has gone by. I remember getting picked up from the airport, seeing palm trees, and smelling the Mediterranean air for the first time like it was yesterday. Since my last post, I've done a lot of traveling around southern France, which has been really eye-opening. But, we'll go in chronological order...

First was the Tour de France in Montpellier on July 7. I decided to watch from the beginning of the stage since it was a team time trial, which meant that I would be able to see all the riders as they lined up to depart every 7 minutes, instead of being somewhere else on the course and just watching them fly by. I got there at 8:30am, and the actual racing didn't begin until 2:30pm. My skin was angry that day. But, TdF marketing kept us pretty entertained with lots of caravans that tossed out free food and stuff. It was like a pre-race parade! I snagged some pretty sweet swag like jerseys, hats, inflatable noodes, the usual. It helped that I was a tiny girl in the very front amongst a sea of old dudes. I passed some time by making friends with a professor from Louisville and a family from Australia. And, my dream did come true -- I saw Lance! Of course, they saved him and his team for last. He got the biggest ovation of all the riders, which was really surprising to me because French people HATE him. I was really confused. All in all, it was an amazing day, and I still can't believe I got to cross this off my life to-do list.

The rest of the week was filled with chateau-hopping and zoo/Amazonian greenhouse-visiting. One of Beatriz's friends from Spain came to visit that weekend, so we went out. Bulat gets drunk from one glass of wine, so he's really no fun. After he had one glass, he went into the living room and started watching YouTube videos of Russian songs. What. Beatriz got so drunk (from Calimocho = red wine + Coke) that she passed out and vommed at the bar we went to. So, that's what partying with 19-year-olds is like.

Beatriz and I took our first train trip to Avignon on July 13. It's a typical Provencal city, and it was absolutely beautiful. I think I said, "This is so cute!" approximately 1,000 times on that trip. Avignon is known for being the seat of the papacy a bunch of years ago and having Pont d'Avignon, a bridge which is the subject of a famous French children's song. The Festival d'Avignon, an international theatre festival, was happening when we visited, which made for some hilarious sights. Lots of mimes, weird interpretive dancing, performance art, white people breakdancing, and bands playing in the streets. It was a great place to visit for a day, but I think I would be bored as shit if I lived there.

The next day was Bastille Day! There was a military procession in the downtown square in the morning. Not really impressive, but exactly what I was expecting from the French. They do have some pretty dapper uniforms, though. The fireworks and giant picnic/party were in a big grass field/park that night. It was a very subdued independence celebration, compared to what I'm used to in the U.S. Hilariously, the band that performed didn't even play French songs, but instead played the classic hits of Gloria Estefan, Jason Mraz, and Duffy. But, they redeemed themselves with the fireworks show.

That weekend, the three of us took a day trip to Marseille, which might be my new favorite place on Earth. It's the third largest metropolitan area in France. I have entirely too many great pictures and stories from this trip, so we'll just have to talk about it in person. Marseille has been populated for like 30,000 years or something crazy like that, so there was tons of history in the city. So, clearly, it was an orgasmic experience for me.

This past weekend, we visited Toulouse and Nimes. Bulat missed the train to Toulouse because he drank 1 1/2 glasses of wine at the city festival the night before and was too drunk to get to the station on time. So again, this is what partying with 19-year-olds is like. The train ride to Toulouse was my favorite so far; there was so much beautiful French countryside to see, and I finally got pictures of sunflower fields! Toulouse is the 4th largest city in France, and its more modern than Marseille. So, I'm glad I got to a different region of the country. Nimes is also really old and really Roman, and there were three major tourist attractions we saw: The Arenes (the most well-preserved Roman colosseum in existence), La Maison Carree (another really old Roman building), and La Tour Magne (a Roman tower that had spectacular views of the city, Mont Ventoux, the Alpilles, and Pyrenees. The Arenes was my favorite because it was awesome to imagine all of the gladiator battles and bullfighting that happened inside.

During the weeks, I've just been frolicking and reading in city gardens, going to the city music festival, and oh yeah, doing a bit of research here and there. The other day, I watched a neurosurgery - partial frontal lobectomy for a glioma. The patient was awake because they were testing him for speech in his frontal lobe, and there were times that they stimulated his frontal lobe and he went into speech arrest! Crazy!

Over the next week, I'm planning to go to the beach, take more pictures, eat my fill of baguettes, croissants, and cheese, and be emo about having to leave.

See y'all soon!

SO FUNNY

Now that I have some semblance of internet, I have been reading all of your entries to catch up with what you guys have been up to the past few weeks. Needless to say, I laughed loudly and uncontrollably, much to the chagrin of my teammates here.

Lesotho is a very interesting country. It's weird, mostly because it's one of the few homogeneous cultures left in Africa. White people (and Asians) really stick out here, because everyone else here is native Basotho. But I'm not the only Chinese person, because every grocery store in the country is owned by a Chinese family. I wish I were kidding. They're all really surprised to see me when I go grocery shopping, and several of them have invited me over to their houses for dinner sometime. I haven't gone to any Asian dinners yet, but I'm definitely going to try to before I leave.

I'm also caught in a dilemma because I've taken well over 1000 pictures since I've been here, and I'm going to have to sort them out before I come home, because there's no way I can post all of them on Facebook. My desire to be a National Geographic photographer is truly a curse on me while I'm here. Ah well, some things can't be helped.

I miss all of you guys incredibly, and I can't wait to see you in just two weeks!

from bad to very very good.

SOOO starting on monday I was not feeling so well...got a little sick after eating my oatmeal and then felt bad during the morning but well enough to eat a good size dinner that night... BOY WAS THAT A MISTAKE

spent the morning with my head over a plastic bag or in the bathroom on Tuesday...yuck Finally by the afternoon I wasn't getting too sick anymore and mananged to call up the airline just to see how much it would cost to switch my flight earlier since we were leaving san mateo earlier (we left this morning and are now in xela :) ) ANDDDD IT WAS FREEEEEEE.99!!!!!! So I will be in good old AMERICA on SUN! wahooo.

Anyways back to monday... so we invited this doctor and his wife,mph, over for dinner on monday since they just got into san mateo that day. We were discussing the problems in San Mateo and what needs to be considered when doing a project there and Tania starts explaining how alcoholism is a huge problem here... literally right after she says this Erin opens the kitchen door reaches into the fridge and we hear a KA-CHHHHHHH... she opened up a beer HAHAHAHA so funny

RIGHT NOW im in xela!!! trying to upload my pictures since they are all on Jon's computer

you guys sound like youve had awesome times!!! miss you all!

res= head of cattle; head of other animal

so these are old diary entries that I didn't have a chance to talk about because the internet was down for awhile:

Jon and I finally ate at the pizza place!!! QUESSSOOOOOO!!!! so we get there and are asked if we want pollo (chicken) or res on our pizza. we both are like what in the world is res? we ask her she shrugs and says "es res". so jon whips out his dictionary and it says head of cattle or of another animal HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... needless to say we order a pizza with just cheese. As we are waiting Jon mentions that there are a ton of flies, i see him looking at all the ones zooming around the room. THEN I look up and see one of those sticky fly catchers out of jon's view that is absoutely COVERED in flies... like there was no more space on the tape for another fly. I immmediately say I wish I hadn't seen that and jon goes what and looks at what im looking at... we both shudder. pizza was delicious... first taste of dairy in a while. then we end up buying cheese from her the next day! muahaha we found a cheese source.

More Asian craziness, divided up into chapters for your convenience.

A Trip within a Trip - Hong Kong

So as soon as we get off the subway from the airport and walk towards our hotel, all we see EVERYWHERE are strip clubs (that we find out later are NOT actually strip clubs) and hookers. We're just thinking "man I never knew Hong Kong was this seedy". The first night we're pretty tired so we just get some food and crash. The next day we do some touristy stuff that I won't bore you with. It was cool, but typical sightseeing. But that night... we go to Bar 7...

Going around in Hong Kong we realize that most of Hong Kong is your typical metropolis with really nice shops, restaurants, and buildings. We just happened to get a hotel in what seemed to be the red light district of Hong Kong. The second night we go out to a busy area of bars and clubs. Apparently some Beer Fest was going on while we were there so the streets were ridiculously packed. It seriously was packed like Mardi Gras. Beers on the street or in the bars were at least $6 US, so since there are no open container laws we hit up a Bar 7... 7-11 that is! So we spend at least an hour buying cheap beers at 7-11 and drinking them right outside while chatting up some new friends. We later head to a bar for a while, but Bar 7 was definitely the highlight of the night :-)

The crowded street by the bars and clubs

A Trip within a Trip within a Trip - Macau

Macau was a Portuguese colony in China so it has a cool mix of Chinese and Portuguese buildings and culture. It also happens to be the Las Vegas of Asia. Macau is just a short 1-hour ferry ride from Hong Kong, so we go for just a day during our HK trip. During the day we do the typical tourist sightseeing thing, but then we hit up the casinos. I really want to play some Texas Hold 'em, but the minimum to play is about $130 US and I don't want to risk that much so I go play blackjack with about $70. I manage to get that up to the minimum for poker so I take my chips away and try my hand at some hold 'em. I play pretty tight, while there's some Japanese guys there betting pretty crazy, like betting all-in pre-flop with $300. Anyways I manage to come away from the table with about $220, so all-in-all up $150. We head back to HK and decide to explore the "strip clubs" to celebrate...

Grand Lisboa - second tallest building in Macau and where I would win my millions

Hong Kong Hookers

So right back at our hotel in the midst of HK's red light district, we go into one of the "strip clubs". To our disappointment they are not strip clubs at all and the girls dance around in bikinis while looking extremely tired and depressed. There's no such thing as just dancers here, they're all hookers and the clubs are all fronts for prostitution. So I'm extremely curious about how this all works so I approach the mother figure of the place, aka the pimp, to ask about getting a girl for the night. She takes me aside and lets me know that I can have all my desires fulfilled for several hours for 2600 HKD (about $350 USD). I tell her I'm just a student, I don't have much money on me (she tells me I can use a credit card!), my credit limit is too low, Amsterdam is a lot cheaper, etc. and haggle her down to $1500 HKD (about $200 USD). Then I tell her I changed my mind and can't afford a girl and go back to talk to Sunny and Laura. A moment later, momma pulls me aside and tells me that I'm very tricky, that I never planned on getting a girl and just wanted to investigate... she wasn't really angry or anything, but I decided that we should probably leave at that point. Then in the middle of the night while Sunny and Laura were sleeping I snuck back into one of the clubs and bought one of the girls... no I'm jk... what happens in HK stays in HK, except for syphilis... and I don't want that shit!

Karaoke Clubs in Taiwan

Since karaoke is all the rage among Asians, we went to a karaoke club to check it out and sing the night away... it was actually pretty awesome! You get your own little room for your group, which was pretty comfy with great mood lighting... from the way the place looked I seriously thought some strippers were going to come in and give us lap dances. Beers are also real cheap with prompt room service and there's a great table in the middle of the couches for drinking games! Needless to say I drank many beers so that I would not be self-conscious about my awful singing skills :-)

Sunny, Laura, and Laura's friend singing their hearts out

Teaching English

Today was actually my last day teaching English here. It's pretty nice not having to worry about lesson plans and getting up early, but it was kinda a bummer too cuz those kids were so freakin adorable and now I'm not making any more money... they were paying me $18/hour to just play games with my students! I could even go into class hungover! Anyway, last night I bought some little gifts for my kids which were about 50 cents a piece and they were so excited about them it was ridiculous. I also had to pretend the whole time that I didn't understand any Chinese so that the students would always try to speak English to me. Near the end of class today I started speaking Chinese to them, which was once again cause for ridiculous excitement... aww I'm gonna miss them :-(

Gifts for my students

My Kids!

A Beautiful Country, Delicious Food, and Magical Water

Hola amigos! So me and Manisha flew into Costa Rica on Saturday and this place is sweet. Everything is so cheap! Absolutely delicious lunch: $2. Hour of internet at an internet cafe: 60 cents. Seeing people walk around with blunts in their hands: priceless. So we spent our first afternoon walking around San Jose. Cars here have the right of way and have no problem hitting pedestrians, and the gutters on the side of the road are 2 ft wide and a foot deep. Needless to say Manisha had a few near death experiences that first afternoon.

We met some other people in the same program at our guest house later that day. Alex is a med student at drexel, Eleanor is doing a post bac at columbia, and Sarah who's from Cali and is only 17 and a senior in high school but really wants to learn spanish. That night we went out to El Pueblo, the local hotspot. It was a square block that was pedestrian only with 4 or 5 bars and 4 or 5 clubs. We jut went to one of the bars and watched the shinnanigans through the window... to give you an idea, two girls walked out of a club wearing black bras and underwear with pink garders and fuzzy boots.

We felt bad about corrupting the 17 y/o but she said she'd been drinking since she ws 15 so we decided not to worry about it. Then when we got our first tequila shots and started pouring salt on our hands she looked at us like we were crazy. Needless to say we taught her how to really take tequila shots and at the end of the night she was struggling, as in Manisha slept on the top bunk b/c Sarah couldn't make it all the way up there.


Alex, Eleanor, and Sarah are all at different sites in Costa Rica, so we left our new friends the next day to go to Turrialba where we're going to be for the rest of the time here. Its a small town about 4 hours from San Jose. The best part is that, unlike the rest of Costa Rica/central america, the water is clean here so we could drink it without worrying. Its really awesome not having to brush your teeth with bottled water, which I had been really worried about doing.

I absolutely love my host mother. I was really worried at first since she's 60 and its just the two of us so it might be awkward, but she's super nice and I can actually talk to her now that I've learned some Spanish. And she doesn't have any cats (which was a surprise). Just in case any of you are thinking about coming to central america and think your other random romance language will get you by... it won't. I was completely lost relying on my Italian that first day. I was also really worried I'd eat too much and bankrupt my host mother, but apprarently her son (who just left for college a few days before I got here) eats twice as much as I do so its all good.

Spanish school is a lifesaver here. I'm of course in the super dumb kids beginner class by myself... even Manisha is a class above me since she actually bought a Spanish book and learned a few words before coming here. The other medical kids here in Turrialba are really nice, but there's a few kids in the teen program that clearly don't want to be here. Apparently they got sent here as 'punishment' by there parents, one guy for drinnking and partying too much (he's 15) and the other a girl for stealing a car. Too bad punishment wasn't this sweet when I was in high school...

The first night was 'Welcome Drink' at this bar called Ole Ole and the school pays for the first round. That was where I was first introduced to guarro, a Costa Rican liquor. Think vodka but it tastes 100 times better, the stuff goes down like water, which ends up being really bad for you if you're not careful. I'll bring a big bottle back so we can play the game with it and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Last night we had mystical fruit (direct translation). Its looks like a pommegranet seed but bigger with a slimy seed in the middle. It tastes a little tangy but the best part is after you eat it everything tastes really sweet for the 2 hours. So last night we sat around eating limes and drinking even more delicious than normal guarro. That's about it for now, though Manisha's host mother keeps shall we say suggesting that she hang our with her son more... awkward (for her) yet hilarious (for the rest of us).

Anyway, that's all for now (as I'm looking over this its actually super long). We're going to Puerto Viejo, a touristy beach on the carribean side, this weekend. The only thing we've heard about it from the other med kids is that its awesome and everyone there is high so we should have some interesting stories when we get back. Hasta luego!

no hay

HEYYYYAYAAAAAAA
so the internet is actually working in san mateo surprise surprise! We kept asking at the association and they kept being like no hay internet because of the rain....and if it was sunny they didnt really have a reason... but we found another place that has it! (apparently a total of 3 places in san mateo have internet) wahooo! wow so a lot has happened.
jon and i graduated celas maya spanish school! woot woot fastest diploma ive ever received...up to that point. so we had a dessert party at the school and went to a chill ¨bar¨ to drink a little with nosotros amigos.

after celas in xela we went to a few cities around the lake which was AMAZING! soooo warm and pretty out and we bargained for various things in the market. although it was really lame that 5 year old kids would pester us to buy something every 2 seconds and almost curse at us if we said no. so at the first town pana they had this nature reserve that had cables extremos!!!! so we signed a waiver hiked up the side of a mountain and zip lined 8 times down to the starting point.... it was awesome! at the end they gave us....wait for it.... a diploma hahahahaha jon and my goal for the next week was to try and find as many activites that handed out diplomas as possible... unfortunately we found no more. we visited a few clinics around the lake (the real reason we went there) and then took a chicken bus back to xela... they dont actually have chickens did i already mention this? they are renevated US school buses. i got so motion sick apparently i had a sheet white face at the end and we rushed to the market to get some gingerale...my saviour.

so took dramemine on the way to san mateo to avoid the nausea again fell asleep half the time it was like an 8 hour trip. got to san mateo and it was 7.30pm and raining and dark. we walked down this slippery mud path to the house we are staying at. jon had to carry my suitcase cuz it was too heavy for me...i felt uber bad. so i was a little shocked when i got to the house. the yard is full of corn stalks, 3 piglets and various chickens and chicks which is kinda cool. but the bathroom is like an outhouse with a shower right next to it and the whole house is freezing and everyone tracks mud everywhere cuz the yard is mud. my room has an old mattress which i think is just the boxspring part cuz its liek wood planks horizontal under a cover. the door to my room doesnt shut all the way which leads me to the next topic....

we have a thief! someone broke in to our house...with keys... one day and took tania´s chocolate and her giant box of condoms that she was planning on leaving for the health center. then last night i heard the door banging and i think opening and noise in the house at like 1am or 2am it was scary! and the whole time i was like my door does not lock...what do i do if they come in here!!!! yikes we still havent figured out what to do but i think we are going to set up traps that will tell us that someone entered in the night to make sure its not a figment of my imagination. also this morning the rest of our loaf of bread was gone... weeeeird.

so the town is interesting a lot of people just stared at us the first few days with looks of death which made me really uncomfortable... now some are being a lot more friendly and we´ve gotten to talk to a lot of the town. pedro´s fried chicken and fries stand is a popular place but im currently boycotting it cuz he added a gringo tax (meaning he charged us foreigners more money for the same food as others got)

water and food are a commodaty here... we use a filter in a bucket to clean our water.. no problems yet knock on wood. and any food that doesnt have a hard shell we have to boil for awhile to make it safe to eat... i have been eating rice, avocados, bread, and my last tiny bits of pb&j that i bought in xela. the only cup of noodles here is the shrimp flavor... now i ask why on earth would you choose the shrimp flavor as your only option...why not go a little safer with chicken?? sigh... jon and i have decided to buy ourselves treats everyday to up our spirits.

its usually cold. its usually raining. but right now there is sun!! which is amazing. i added on a third pair of socks to my feet last night to give you a picture.... hahaha

miss everyone!!! 17 days left...

Our favorite jew

Just FYI, if anyone wants to check out Randy in the natural setting of his homeland, go to http://www.israelfree.com/group_trip.asp?tourid=1272&name=OR-20-123%20NYC

You can click photographs and see him in some, or e-mail him through the website.

Funday

Last night at 11:53 Neil and I "dared" eachother into going to Virginian for Sunday Funday. We quickly changed out of our respective pajamas and he picked me up. We half expected Ehsan, Izzy, Anoop and them to be there--sadly they didn't make an appearance. We were 2 of like 7 people! It was awesome, they practically had drinks waiting for us at the door. For the first time ever Neil actually went drink-for-drink with me, so after many bourbons and gins (and a little beer) we went home pretty happy. I still made it into work "on time", which is what I dictate for myself but I'm proud to say it was 10 am after going to bed at 6:30.
On a side note, Lindsay and Colleen made it to C-ville :) but I didn't get to see them much (Colleen at all) because I was driving with my brother that 18 hours to bring his stuff from Keesler Base. Still nice to catch a glimpse of Linds, but too bad I'll be out of town again when she comes in a couple weeks. Interestingly, if you ever need a way into Lindsay's heart, it's by stealing her own stuff and then gifting it back to her. So we've decided this coming birthday we'll steal her pump a couple days before hand--she'll be SO grateful. Success!

Already finished one jar of Nutella.

It's hard to believe I've already been here twelve days! Here's a rundown of what I've been up to.
- Musee Fabre, the major local art museum. I saw some Monet and Matisse!
- Eating lots of crepes. I even had a ratatouille crepe! Can you get any more French?
- Beachin' it at Palavas. And Angie and Bob, I did see boobies on my last trip. Nothing to get too excited about though.
- Montpellier's version of Fridays after Five called Les Estivales. So much amazing food and wine and fun street performances.
- I ordered my first sandwich on a baguette at a sandwicherie. The people here are much nicer than I expected them to be. If I attempt to speak French to them, they'll either talk back to me really slowly, or just reply in English. Less work for me!
- Exploring France's oldest botanical garden (1593), the Jardin des Plantes.
- Visiting a medieval fortress city, Aigues-Mortes. The foundation apparently dates back to 102 BC! That's crazy. I walked around the top of the entire thing. It took about an hour and a half.

Next up this week, the Tour de France is coming through on Tuesday! I don't think many of you know about my Lance Armstrong obsession, but I haven't been this excited about something in a long time (I mean, since Foxfields). I just hope I get to actually see the time trial instead of getting caught in the gigantic mosh pit of dirty French people that I'm sure it will be. Suzie (our student chaperone here) told us about a White Party that her friend is having on Thursday night at a private beach, so we might get to go to that! I mean, it's probably the closest I will ever get to partying with Diddy and Jay-Z in St. Tropez.

And the biggest news of all, the two other exchange students are here! Beatriz is a 19-year-old medical student from Zaragoza, Spain, and Bulat is a 19-year-old medical student from Kazan, Russia. So, as you can see, I'm hanging out with two teenagers. They always look to me to make plans for the activities of the day/night, so even in France, I'm the social chair.

They've been pretty hilarious so far and done their fair share of dissing the U.S. and A. For example, Beatriz just can't seem to understand why we have four years of college, and Bulat doesn't get why we make such a big deal out of getting our white coats. Bulat has also used the phrase "the republic" a few times (referring to Russia), and I lose it every time. They both get fired up talking about stereotypes of their countries, which has led to me making a lot of Russian jokes in a Borat voice and pretending to be a bull. Bulat carries a backpack with him everywhere, and on his first trip to the grocery store, he bought a can of peas, apple juice, and POTATOES (did you read that, Sunny?!). He's also been sunburnt for three days because he didn't put on any sunscreen when we went to the beach (even though I told him he should), because he's from Russia and has never gone to a beach! We had wine night at my apartment last night, and one glass in, Bulat declared, "I VILL BE VERY DRUNK TONIGHT!" English words I have taught him include cork, tan, and slippery. Ok, I'll stop with the Bulat stories now.

Here are Bulat and Beatriz! In typical Russian style, Bulat doesn't smile in any pictures, even though he has a big, goofy grin on his face AT ALL OTHER TIMES.

Beatriz and me at the Jardin des Plantes. I'm teaching them to do poses besides the standard "stand in front of whatever you're taking a picture of."

Me inside one of the Aigues-Mortes ramparts that looks out onto a canal.


Ok, time for one more chocolate croissant and bed. Bonne nuit!

Taipei partying absurdities

So Wednesday night was the first time we went out to party, and all of Wednesday through Thursday morning was a serious marathon. To preface, I found a job teaching English to a class of kids about 8-12 years old. It's during the week Mon-Thurs from 9:30am to noon. So Wednesday morning I wake up at 6:30am to go workout before I have to teach. I go home and shower real quick and go teach, and then I meet up with Sunny and Laura and go with them and Sunny's family friends to Yangmin Mountain where we eat some delicious food and hike. Then we eat some more delicious food after hiking (eating is almost a constant activity here).

We part ways and I go home and power nap for 30 minutes and shower and then I'm out the door again for our first night clubbing in the city. Clubs here stay open until 4 or 5am! So we go out with one of my cousins and her friends to a club called Room 18 which is cool. We meet some people with names like Angel and Barbie (we didn't go to a strip club I swear, people just adopt really interesting English names here). Anyway, we do the typical club thing with partying, meeting new people, and dancing until about 3:30am. All the while I'm thinking about how I have to teach at 9:30 in the morning and how miserable I'm gonna feel. I end up getting home and to bed at about 4:30am. So to recap, I had a 22 hour day with working out, hiking, teaching, and partying... but even then I didn't get to sleep long...

I sleep for 3.5 hours, wake up with a massive headache and nauseous, throw some clothes on and head to school. The entire time I'm teaching I'm just hoping to god I don't throw up or just fall over and pass out in front of my kids... it was miserable. At least the kids are super cute and awesome (though rowdy at times). That day on my way back to class from the bathroom during their break, all the girls were hiding around a corner and jumped out to scare me. Then they ran back to the classroom ahead of me and jumped out to scare me again there. I'll have to get a picture of my kids to post. FINALLY at noon I head home and pass out for 5 hours.

Last night we went out again under much better circumstances... no teaching in the morning so I could sleep in, and the club we went to was all you can drink for just a $6 cover for the girls, but $18 cover for me (still not too bad considering the amount I drink) Here's some pics :-)

Girl on the right is Laura, Sunny's friend who goes to EVMS. Girl in the middle is my cousin Yo Chi who doesn't drink all that much but I'm kinda worried we're gonna turn her into an alcoholic by the time we leave. That mini keg had 3800 mL in it, about 11 beers and only cost $18. This was before the club when we went to this restaurant and bar that's basically attached to the factory that makes Taiwan Beer.

I crashed with the girls last night since it would've been a $10 taxi at least to get home by myself instead of the $5 taxi split 4 ways to crash at their place. The other girl is Laura's friend from EVMS. We slept 4 in that bed haha

Miss you all!

Wild Africa

So I haven't posted on this thing since I opened it, mostly because I have had so many long stories that I've just been posting on my own blog. But, here are a few highlights that also serve to prove that nothing in my life makes sense anymore.

1. Matt Bishop and I were on the same flight to Madrid, where I had a 15-hour layover, so I hung out with him, his brother, and his brother's friend in Spain. IN SPAIN. What are the chances? I just calculated it: 1 in 18380490314839104835.

2. I've seen (and tasted) pretty much every game animal there is in South Africa. In case you were wondering, zebras and warthogs aren't just cute; they're DELICIOUS. Also, I played with baby lions and baby tigers and they are the most cuddly yet potentially deadly animals I have ever encountered.

3. The babies at the orphanage that my friend Russell works at are ADORABLE. Unfortunately, I'm not permitted to post pictures of them on the internet, because their future parents don't want to see pictures of their children on random websites. I'll just have to show them to you when I get back... or, I could just steal one and bring him or her back to the States with me.

Also, I've noticed that several of you have written posts but only saved them instead of publishing them. That's right; I'm talking to you, Lindsay, Sunny, and Coop. I'm giving you guys the chance to delete them; otherwise, as administrator, I'm going to publish them for all the world to see. Because I wield that kind of power. BWAHAHAHA!

Okay, that's my update. I hope the rest of you have slightly more control over what is happening in your life right now than I do, but from your posts, that doesn't seem to be the case...

Lost in Translation?

Today, I was locked inside of a convenience store for half an hour.

Laura and I went out to get breakfast and wait for Bob by the subway station before we went to Danshui and a fisherman's pier (kind of like a boardwalk...but much tastier than those sorry American excuses for street food!). We got lunch at a 7-11 for $50 and $80 Yuan (~$1.80 and $2.10 USD, respectively...booyah!) We gave into our innate American-ness (ironic, I know I just made fun of America...whatever, it's my right) and sought shelter from the hot hot heat in a Starbucks where we knew there would be air-conditioning.

I have to preface my anger at Starbucks by saying that up til then, we'd been consistently buying delicious tea from street vendors all week for about 85 cents. Starbucks charged me $100 for a tazo tea (which I didn't even really want in the first place). Anyway, so I'm kind of annoyed that I spent more money on a stupid tea than I did on my entire lunch, but we go sit upstairs and wait for Bob's arrival...this is 1:20 pm. Two minutes later, a barista comes upstairs and makes an announcement. I couldn't understand it all (let's be honest, I'm on the same literacy level as my 6-year old niece), so I interpret her speech as she's saying something about a group coming into the Starbucks for 30 minutes, and that we won't be able to leave the upstairs in the meantime. I also hear something about the possibility of lights flashing on and off, but was also told to not be alarmed, that at 2:00 we could exit the building. No one else seemed to be particularly surprised or annoyed, but we decided to leave just in case. So much for air conditioning, what a rip-off. Sorry this isn't making sense, just follow me.

So anyway, we leave by 1:30 so that we wouldn't be trapped inside the Starbucks in case Bob arrived during that time. We're walking up the next block when a policeman starts blowing his whistle at Laura and forces us into the nearest shop (which happens to be a convenience store). They're closing the corrugated metal doors and everything, so I'm kind of panicking, thinking of worst case scenarios (i.e. we're being bombed, there's a shooting somewhere, I don't know what happens in Taiwan?!?!). I kept asking people what exactly was happening, since no one seemed particularly upset, and my rudimentary Chinese got me as far as something that sounded similar to (but was not, in fact) a "performance" of some sort coming through town that you had to be indoors for.

So I thought to myself, this is strange, why would you have to be indoors for a street performance? Maybe there's a famous personality coming through town? Then I thought, does this sh*t happen every day?

I took some pictures of the before and after of the streets during the 'performance' that I'll put up later. Bob called me pretty confused and was unable to exit to the street from the subway either (literally there was no one on the streets). They let us out at 2 pm, as promised, and we met up with Bob, went about our way, still seriously confused. Poor Bob said that he had had the most boring 15 minutes of his life...at least I had hilarious cleansing products and condoms to look at.

We consulted with Laura's cousins tonight after getting back from Danshui, and I have to give myself SOME credit, I was pretty close. We just happened to be in Taipei during the one time of each year that they close down all the street to have military street rehearsals.

What?

Anyway, I guess 'performance' is pseudo-close to 'military rehearsal'. Illiteracy sucks.

just breathe

so friday night we had graduation feista for the people who were leaving, wine, cheese, chips plus... musical chairs! hahaha so funny...also the losers have to do various embarassing things when they get out. then we all went to a michael jackson tribute party at a bar where they planned all his music videos...man were they crazy! i had only seen thriller and let me tell ya that was one interesting dude.












yesterday i got up at 4am to join some other ppl at 5am to climb a volcano! so we hiked up santa maria in order to view another volcano called santa aquito not sure about the spelling. well apparently it is like the most active volcano in guatemala and erupts all day long so we got to witness an eruption!

and then a huge cloud that rose above us and we were joking about how it looked like it was just going to crash down on us...then like 10 minutes later it starts raining ash. it was crazy! but omg it was the hardest hike ever...i kept having to stop the 5 of us and be like hold....on....i ....cant...breathe- the altitude is insane i think we were at 2,800 meters or something like that. im workin those red blood cells

i have an awesome teacher this week for spanish school...shes hilarious
just to let you know there are certain phrases that are fine to say in spain but in latin america they are slang for sexual things...
likeeee
coger which usually means to take or to choose means to have sex with
estoy calienta...which usually means i am hot because of the weather means i am hot sexually

Je ne parle pas francais

Bonjour! I'm alive! After a few ridiculous flight mishaps and Delta losing our luggage for three days, I'm finally getting settled into life in Montpellier. My first meal was a baguette, croissant, Nutella, and cheese.
I'm learning to recognize more French words, but I still don't know how to say anything really. My mom and sister are still here on their vacation, and they're leaving Wednesday, but the other exchange students are supposed to be here by then, so hopefully I'll have friends.

Today was my first day of "work." My professor is really nice; he tries to explain everything to me in English, but sometimes things come out hilariously. His research is really interesting though (cognitive evoked potentials in Alzheimer's), and he knows of Dean DeKosky, so he thinks I'm from a legit school. If only he knew about my medical school life...

I've gotten to explore the city a pretty good amount so far. I have a tramway card, which is crucial to get around the city since it's 90 degrees and sunny here all the time. And yes, the Ligne 2 tram is called "flower power."
Montpellier is a really old city, and it actually has the oldest, still-functional medical school in the Western world. They've really tried to hold on to the French culture as much as possible, hence, no one here really speaks English that well. So far, I've seen two accordion players, a lady dressed in black and white stripes head to toe, lots of men wearing crazy hats, and almost everyone walks around carrying a baguette. I'm determined to get pictures of all these things.

Here's a portion of downtown: the Charles de Gaulle Esplanade. You can see the blue "swallow-covered" Ligne 1 tram in the left corner. There's a carousel. Monoprix is the supermarket in the bottom right corner. Everything is so expensive here! I hate the Euro!

Here's a typical Montpellier street. Little boutiques, markets, and sandwicheries are all along them. There are also a couple of McDonald's. And Neil, there are so many doner kebab places! I haven't had one yet, but I will.

Here, I'm sitting on top of the Corum, another opera house downtown. It's a pretty sweet view of the city.

I saw the Mediterranean Sea a couple of days ago! My mom, sister, and I decided to take an adventure and ride the tram and a bus to the beach. It's pretty hilarious trying to do this when none of us speak French, know the bus route, or know where in the hell we're going. But, we just followed everyone else in bathing suits and ended up there!

Alright, gotta save some pictures for future posts. Hope everyone is doing well! Miss you guys!

veryyy niceeee!

for nosheens benefit:
i forgot to mention we went to salsa yesterday and i danced with a guatemalteco and he would randomly say VERY NICE! in borat fashion....and i was like do you know where thats from (he didnt speak english really) and he was like no, ppl just say it its a common phrase..i was cracking up.

alright adios

una semana ha pasado

holllllllaaaaaa
or halo

yikes i can´t believe its been almost a whole week...
so we went to the hot springs yesterday i´ll try and figure out how to share my picasa album to you guys. first we took a public bus to get there which are basically old school buses from the US that have been painted and altered in certain ways to fit their use. My favorite part is like a tassel hanging in the middle near the front for the driver to pull in order to honk....which they do here A LOT... like really a lot... honking equals annoyance, hello, we are here, im coming through, im going fast... and basically for any reason you can think of
so anyway we ride the bus to this town which is mostly indigenous people and then julio who is our instructor taking us on this trip asks around for a ride to the hot springs. he finds this guy with a pick up that is used to carry produce or flowers to drive us up there. for a 15 minute ride jon, this girl kathleen, and i ride in the back, bruising our tailbones every time we hit a pothole or speed bump. it was a really pretty view the whole time tho. we got there and there was a big pool that was filled with naturally hot water that was reallllly hot... it was nice
and had a gorgeous view of a giant mountain, which my teacher told me was a volcano and banana trees everywhere. that was a blast, the only problem was when i got out of the pool into the cold i felt like i was going to pass out and vomit... and i kept being like come on body you cant do this in guatemala... i feel better today tho

a few days ago we made CHOCOLATE! from absolute scratch. they had the cacao beans and we roasted them on the stove and then peeled EACH ONE separately. we then took them to a mill in this person´s house and ground it, adding it to sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and eggs. after it was ground several times we spread it out on the table and proceeded to palmarlo or pound it with our hands...which took....a very...very...very long time... like hours we were all sweating from pounding it and then you have to make it into little tortilla shaped things and then you are finally done. you can then add it to hot water to make hot chocolate. the teacher said we would all die of hunger if we had to rely on chocolate made by ourselves...hahaha sooooo true. that shit is hard work...i appreciate chocolate a lot more now (and secretly so does jon) trying to figure out how to upload pics
i will update you all mas tarde.

hope you guys are all having a wonderful summer! miss you all!
ps. jon loves chocolate

Love, Sex, Magic

So upon our arrival, my uncle gave me a cell phone to use (in case I get abducted, or an air conditioning unit falls on my head, per my dad's impressions of Taiwan's top 2 hazards).  The phone is set to be in Chinese, naturally, but the problem was that he didn't know how to change the settings to be in English.  Seeing that I can't read more than 10 words of Chinese, we gave up until we found someone bilingual, and had just been using the phone in the Chinese setting, blindly pushing buttons and hoping that we called the right person (not exactly what happened... a lot of accidental calls were made).

Anyway, at lunch yesterday with my Aunt-in-law and her sister who Laura and I just met, we received a text message reading "Sunny! (Chinese character, chinese character chinese character etc., etc., etc.)"  I showed it to my aunts in case it was important and I needed to know what it said.  They both looked at it and frowned disapprovingly... "Have you been doing anything bad on that phone?" (No, I had just got it the day before, I hadn't had time to do anything bad!) "Then your UNCLE has been doing bad things on that phone!!"  This would be feasible, as his surname is Sun, and who knows what nicknames his friends give him?...

Anyway, they wouldn't say what the message said, but we assumed that it was some sort of lewd advertisement.  We met up with Bob later on in the day, at which point the mystery was solved.....  He had sent me a text but just messed with keys in Chinese to send to me.  Apparently he has quite the talent for naughty words, because as my aunts so eloquently put it, "There is a SEX!  And a LOVE!" (In the text...)

So anyway, for Bob "Moral Mountain "Hsia ....... Button mashing WIN!!!

oh yeah.  it's consistently 95% humidity all over this entire island.  Never have I ever sweated so profusely and consistently as I have this week.  Ick.

In Taiwan!

So here's my first post from Taiwan. Flew with Sunny and her friend Laura over here, total of 17 hours of flying time. I was awake a total of about 28 hours with about 3 hours of sleep on the flights, and I still had a horrible time sleeping last night because of the jet lag. I slept for maybe 6 hours and got up at 7am because i couldn't sleep anymore. There's no AC in my room and I swear it's the hardest bed i've ever slept on. It's like an inch of foam on top of wood, and they put down a bamboo mat over top of the 1-inch "mattress", why the hell would I want to sleep on top of a bunch of bamboo? I quickly removed that thing and just slept on the foam. Anyway i'm gonna start exploring around here today and find out what's fun and where to get a beer, I'll let you all know what craziness I get into... btw apparently this website knew that I was in Taiwan because all the website buttons were in chinese and I had to click on random things to figure out how to start a new post.

Love,

Bob "Moral Mountain" Hsia

(That's what Sunny's mom told me my name translated to haha)

bien vinidos a guatemala

Wow...so much to talk about.
lets see flight went well on sat- i was super lucky and my aunt got me first class tickets w her work miles sweeeet - the food was delicious on the plane and the last flight i sat next to a pilot- he was being sent down to guate to pick up a broken plane. no kidding....
so we get to guatemala go through customs stuff and go outside and there are like a hundred people lined up waiting for ppl it was crazy!found our names and the person from the bed and breakfast that we were staying at drove us to the place in a van very similar to my family´s old moon unit like old old white toyota van it was sweetthe bandb was really cute had this garden in the center... jon and i ordered chinese food for that night i think it cost 5bucks total
next day we took a bus to xela which took about four hours and i started feeling a little nauseos towards the end... there were a lot of turns i tried to capitalize a lot but this keyboard is different and i cant figure it out lol
so met my fam they are really cool the oldest daughter is a 5th year in medical school- they have 6 years of schooling here but i think that includes residency? not surewe watched a mexican version of american idol last night en la tele because they knew a guatemalan girl that was on it... it was really funny to see their reactions to everythingate a delicious guatemalan lunch at a restaurant and w this fresh papaya juice yummmmmmtoook a FREEEEZING shower last night not becuase the water was cold but because the air was and the window was open i think it was like 40 degrees
ahhh necisito salir para clase adios!

Au revoir!

I can't believe I'm leaving so soon! My flight out from Dulles is at 11am, and hopefully I'll arrive at Montpellier on Wednesday afternoon. I've been talking about going to France for so long; it's weird that it's finally here.

I tried cramming as much French into my brain as possible before today. So far, I know how to say things like "I am American", "I speak a little French", "Hello, how are you, very well, thanks", "Where is ___ Street/Boulevard?", and "It is here/over there." I have 6 more lessons on my Basic French CDs, so I'm planning to listen to those during the long flights. I bought a Lonely Planet French phrasebook, and I was surprised to find four whole pages dedicated to romance and sex! So, if I want, I can also learn to say "harder", "faster", "That felt amazing/wonderful/weird", and "I never want to see you again!" Great success!

Speaking of great successes, I hope that I can control my inner Borat on this trip. There will be a Russian student named Bulat on the exchange with me. I can only imagine the hilarity that will ensue.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Winter

Alright guys, I'm off! Here's to hoping that I don't get eaten by a lion!

Radio Reminders

As I was driving home ridiculously late, the radio seemed to only remind me of how awesome we are and how much I miss you guys:
1)Carrie Underwood=Lindsay
2)Byron's favorite Matt Nathanson's "Come On Get Higher", only because of "I see angels and devils and god, when you come.... ...... ......on, hold on". Byron would like that
3)Total Eclipse of the Heart! Finally! The sad thing is I knew all the real words, but kept laughing at the literal translation music video playing in my head :)
4)Did anyone know that Dirty Dancing was my favorite movie when I was 3? Wait, this doesn't surprise you? But... why not? (Anyway the song was on, and it's still as awesome as it was 20 yrs ago)

And it's only day one...

I was kinda excited to start working today because I had way to much family time this weekend w/ my little brother's graduation. Of course I stalked Sam's pics on facebook and you guys had way more fun on friday night than I did w/ my aunt I can't stand.



So my day didn't start off too well. I left my lunch at home, spilled coffee on my white coat, and then the person at the front desk had no idea who I was and made me sit in the waiting room for 20 minutes. Once I got going it was a pretty eventful day. ( Some of my stories w/o making too many patient confidentiality violations) I started out my day w/ a 2 1/2 yr old with a previously undiagnosed ASD and a IV/VI murmur; totally got pimped on how to gauge a murmur. Other highlights: A 5 yr old who had eye trauma and was told by an south am. hospital it would get fixed when he got to the states; a drug seeking felon; a woman who said BP 170/110 was low for her; a guy who thought he had an STD for 3 yrs; a girl who was missing part of her kidney, part of her lung, and spleen after a drive by shooting; and I got hit on by an illegal immigrant. That was day one, don't know if I'm excited or scared to go back tomorrow

Sorry I didn't catch some of you guys before leaving for the summer. I miss you all already. I'll be back on saturday, for those of you still in cville :).

Since blogging is such an asian thing, I'm training for my Taiwan trip by posting this... my first blog post ever! God I hope I don't become too asian and start buying Hello Kitty shit over there.

-Bobaloo "twinkie" Hsia (yellow on the outside, white on the inside... for you white kids who don't know the lingo)

Randos

Nate Poiro made ridiculous homemade apple pie, cappucinos, and fresh mojitos for everyone still in C-ville last night. THEN he let Sam and Lee trick him into having movie night at his place. Woe to people who missed amazing food (Randy also got fed ribs) and The Running Man--the only movie other than Predator to have two governors in it. McGrady's Trivia tonight, but getting more and more lonely/sad because Nosh and Sunny left today :( Sam leaves Thursday, which leaves us with so few people... I expect those of you left to really step up the entertainment; actually, I demand it!

preparations

So I went to staples to get copies of my passport made and laminated...I go up to the lady at the desk and tell her what I need and she looks at me like I'm a criminal who is planning to give a bunch of illegal immigrants copies of my passport and says "WE canNOT laminate government documents"....YIKES, hope the rest of my packing and preparing goes a little smoother

Inaugural Post

Here it is: our summer blog. I decided on Acute Onset because I thought it would be a cute name. Ba dum, chi! Anyway, I hope everyone posts and everyone posts often, because I want to know what everyone is up to during our last summer vacation.

I'll start: I'm in HSL 1326 right now. That's right, I'm back in the library, because it is the closest thing I have to a home. I'm with two of the girls that I'll be going to Lesotho with, and we're doing research on HIV/AIDS. Hopefully, I can at least act like I know something about the disease by the time I have to teach the Basotho people all about it.

Welp, back to work for me... HAGS and KIT!