Study Abroad...?

Attention readers, this is your Captain speaking. We seem to have experienced some temporal disturbance, so we are resetting the time and date. The current time is... However long it takes me to post this. The date is 9/15/2011 (or 15/9/2011 depending on where you are). 'We good? Say something, anything... Test 1, 2, 3. Anything but that! *Erhm* ...Very well then, lets pick up where we left off...
Since last I wrote, I've actually made some considerable progress in getting ready to Study Abroad. (I ought to, considering it's been about four months since last time!) Anyway, as of today, I have officially turned in all the necessary paperwork for my application!! YAY!
Such documents included: two references from major professors, a study site form (of the classes you want to take), a language competency test (since I knew I wanted to study somewhere en España), several "I have read this and understand its contents" documents, a copy of my transcript, the application fee, and proabably a few other things that I can't remember off the top of my head (sad, no?). Now that that's done, I have my interview set-up which will be sometime in the next two weeks. Whew!
I have my eyes set on studying abroad in a rather quaint city called Cuenca in the Castilla-La Mancha district in Spain. My application puts me in Spain from roughly mid-January to mid-June of next year (2012), but those dates will definitely change once I get a feel for the city I'm going to. The school there is called La Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (or UCLM for short). The school in Cuenca is a branch school of the main university, sort of like how UNCG is part of the larger UNC system. I'll explain my reasons for choosing this location later, but safe to say I am quite pleased with my choice :) My runner up school is Toledo, but I feel good about Cuenca.
More to follow soon, thanks for skimming by! =^. .^=

The Latest from Kenny

Hello readers! It's been about a month or more since my last post, but school's out and summer's here so I've been busy with other things. I did promise to keep up my blog though, more for myself than anything. Cuba's and Study Abroad's role in my life still continues and shouldn't end just because the class I created this blog did :)
Speaking of, I actually did have some exciting news from Cuba while I was writing earlier blog posts about Cuba, but I had to finish those first before I could get to this latest thing. Those earlier posts aside, I did get a letter from my friend in Cuba and it was coincidentally near my birthday. It was perhaps my favorite present, to have received a more tangible peace of that home away from home. For me, the letter itself, not just the well wishes and sentiments it contained, represent an affirmation of my bond with that place and the amazing people there. And with every letter and e-mail and photo exchanged, that place settles more and more permanently in my heart.
Since I've been back from school, I've been able to e-mail my friend in Cuba more frequently and catch up with what's been going on in our lives. It's amazing to me to see how much we've both changed and how much we've both stayed the same over these almost two years since I left that home. My church is sending another group to Cuba this summer, so I'm hoping to write a letter back to my friend. I'm hoping to share a little bit of my life here with him, just as he has with me. I'm hoping that I can keep the bond I share with that place and the people there alive, one word at a time =^. .^=

Cuba : After

As I alluded to before, returning home after having such a life-shaping experience changed literally everything. The effects are hard to describe, partly because some of my seemingly most stable and set values, beliefs, and feelings about life were so irrevocably altered. These changes I underwent have so completely altered me now, that it is almost difficult to remember what or even who I thought I was before I went on this trip. This coming back experience goes beyond the challenges of reverse culture shock to having to completely re-shape how I was going to live, act, think, and see the world. Sure, crying on my bedroom floor for about a day after I got back gave me an outlet for some of the raw waves of conflicting emotion I was swamped in. But how was I supposed to assmeble something that palely resembled a "normal" life after this? Obviously, I should have learned by then that "normal" no longer applies, ever.
This process of continuing my life has taken a long time. Even to this day, I'll have a flashback to a moment on that magical island, or I'll realize just how differently I approach the world because of all the experiences I had that shaped me. Part of the difficulty I face/d is/was that I wasn't just re-creating my life (there was no earthly way I was going to be able to go back to just being the person I had once been) but I was undergoing an almost constant cycle of re-evaluation of and addition to my life.
One of the most important aspects of coming back is that I have never truly left Cuba behind. All of my memories, letters/gifts, and e-mails to Kenny keep me tied to that amazing place. In a lot of ways, they keep me sane and aware of what's truly important in this sea of routine and normality here. In a lot of ways, embracing what I learned on that trip has helped me keep going.
Eventually, I hope to return to Cuba. I don't know when or under what circumstances that return will be. I don't know how much the places I visited, grew, laughed, learned, and connected with will have changed. Frankly, I don't know how much I will have changed as I've been through college, another phenomenal trip abroad, and whatever else life has in store for me. However, if there is one thing that I can count on, beyond a shadow of a doubt, it is that I will be able to return to one of the most unique families I have ever had the honor of being a part of. And that, is something I am forever grateful for =^. .^=

Cuba : During Part III

Another huge and unique part of my trip to Cuba was being immersed in the richness of their culture. This was one of the things that I'd been looking forward to the most, partly because I simply love experiencing new/other cultures, partly because I'd heard so much about the generosity of Cuban culture from previous pilgrims to Cuba, and partly because I knew I wanted to immerse myself as much as possible into their culture because it was a once-in-a-life-time opportunity. As excited and somewhat mentally prepared for losing myself in their culture as I thought I'd been, the richness and uniqueness of their culture took me by storm.
Perhaps one of the greatest aspects of their culture is that it still shapes who I am today. To be brutally honest, I can't really adequately capture my experiences there. The experiences I had with the Cuban culture were my own, and what poor descriptions I can provide can't really do those experiences justice. Once I'd been embraced by their culture, it almost felt like I was living in a different state of mind... What I had considered as normal had changed, what it meant to be a friend evolved into something such deeper, how I saw myself because of how others saw me changed my view of myself dramatically. I saw just how culturally bound values and things that are important were. But those thoughts are just a fraction of the metamorphosis my own sense of the world underwent through being embraced by the Cubans there. In short, it felt like the meaning of everything had changed. This was not just because I was speaking through a language that wasn't what I grew up learning, but more importantly because I was experiencing a new and different yet no less valid way of life.
This new way of life began with meals. I learned a lot of my Spanish at the table, chatting with my Cuban friends during the sobremesas. I learned this amazing rhythm game that we drummed along to on the table, the small saucers of cafe clinking with the beat of the table. I learned the sounds of animals in Cuba, and on the other hand how ridiculous animals sounds in the EEUU are.
I learned first hand about the cultural subjection of certain social issues. All of us watched a film where there was a fight between two women and there were a few short scenes of prostitution. It fascinated me how the kids from the US were more visibly uncomfortable with the sexual scenes yet how the Cubans reacted incredulously to the cat-fight. That movie showed me more than what type of "issue" is worse in Cuba, it also taught me a lot about myself and my culture. Obviously, I may has well have left my pre-conceived notions of normality at home.
Perhaps one of the things that fascinated me most about my trip to Cuba was a short memory of a mural in the lower side of Matanzas. The mural was simple, yet its messages and symbolism incredibly profound. It was a quote from Cuba's president, Raul Castro. The effect this mural had on me wasn't so much due to the words that Raul Castro spoke, but it was the strange sense of history that ignited in me. For me, that mural was like a time-capsule, a snap-shot, a thing that made abundantly clear to me the raw power of history. Everything about it captivated me, from the Spanish text to the stark image of fresh blue paint flanked by decrepit houses. For once, I could truly see with my own eyes what I'd only learned about in school, the Cold War, the US Embargo of Cuba, the Cuban Revolution, the Communist Government... These topics are enough to start me off on an hour long tangent on a good day, but ever since that day, history took on a completely new form of meaning for me. It was alive.
Yet as meaningful and life changing as all of these experiences were for me, losing myself in the richness of Cuban culture, the table games, and the more complicated culture-bound issues each of us faced, all of these aspects of my trip were highlighted and surrounded by the sheer generosity and sincerity of the people. I firmly believe that I have had some of the most important conversations of my life with people there that I had considered almost strangers the day before. This belief goes beyond whatever it was that my friends and I spoke about onto a much deeper, more beautiful level of friendship. Every conversation seemed to skip past the tedious and safe-zones of small talk, hitting instead on what was really on your mind. The pace of it all was astounding. Maybe part of the reason we all became so close was because we weren't going to be there for more than ten days, but regardless, the level and truthfulness of the friendships I created with my Cuban friends is nigh unfathomable. This simple, honesty characteristic became one of the most crucial pillars of my trip... So leaving that beautiful rawness and sincerity behind became one of the most difficult and heart-wrenching changes I had to face as I returned home, feeling almost like a stranger to my own country  =^. .^=

Another Experience Abroad

Hey readers! I figured I'd give you guys a siesta from my own reflections about my journey to Cuba with an interview about another student's experiences abroad. Click the cat and enjoy! =^. .^=

Cuba : During Part II

The biggest component of all those small moments was unquestionable the Cubans. They made that trip. I am a firm believer that people help put life into nature and that it is only through interacting with the real people that you're able to get something as close to a cross-cultural understanding as you (with your own biases) can get. I consider it an honor that I was able to meet and to get to know the Cubans that I met. They taught me so much, the extent of which I am still (delightedly) discovering. Specifically, I developed such an appreciation for the richness of their culture. That's the beautiful thing about culture, they're like colors. If you can open yourself up to another's culture, not only will you learn about the life and the colors within that culture, but you will also learn about your life and your colors because you will now see things as colored by their culture in harmony with your own. Most importantly however, they've taught me about the importance of sincerity in relationships and just how rewarding nurturing a relationship can be.
I met many amazing people there, each of them had unique stories and experiences to share with me. However, the person that I connected with the most was a college student named Kenny. How we became friends is actually a funny story because the first time I tried to talk to him was the second night that we were there (the first full day). I was still not used to the accents and the culture shock of complete Spanish immersion was still affecting my speaking confidence. I was pretty exhausted and it must've showed. Kenny noticed this and asked me if I was feeling alright. I then proceeded to spend the next hour trying to communicate that I was tired at that moment but that after I drank the cafe I would wake up because of the caffeine. Who knew this epic failure would set up such a great friendship?!
Over the rest of the trip, Kenny and I became closer over every joke, conversation, and game that we shared. We talked about what we believed in as far as religion goes and what we thought were the most important things to try and get out of life. I showed him pictures I'd brought and told him stories about my growing up. He told me about his school and his love of poetry, especially by Walt Whitman. By the end of the week, we were so comfortable speaking around each other. He'd gotten used to my horrible grammar and I'd stopped letting mistakes slow down my rhythm of speech. It was a transformation that even today I marvel at.
Parting company with Kenny was unbelievably difficult. Part of me was frustrated because of how fast friends we'd become only to see me having to leave, but I was much more sad than upset. I was incredibly sad. I was leaving this amazing place and even if I was able to come back in some more distant future, my experience then would be different from the one I'd come to love in those ten days. Eventually though, I did get on the bus back to Havana and from there the plane back to the States. Eventually the sadness of leaving the people, of leaving my friend Kenny, became more dull. But I am elated to say that I have and will never forget Kenny.
We still keep in touch through e-mail and through occasional presents we send each other via new groups that go down to Cuba. I'm so glad that I'm able to stay in contact with him, considering our countries are not on good terms and the Internet connection there is spotty. The Internet has helped maintain our strong friendship which continues so grow with every story we share. Those e-mails keep me tied to Kenny, to the Cubas, to that amazing place, to those memories. Most importantly though, they keep my drive to learn about cultures heartily alive as the case and point example of how losing yourself in another culture will show you more about life than you could ever know =^. .^=

Cuba : During Part I

The 10 days that I spent in Cuba passed by faster than I ever wanted, yet they remain 10 of the most important days of my life. In Cuba, I was able to interact with members of my group but more importantly with the Cubans themselves. We did many activities together during those days, all of which have stuck with me for one reason or another. Certainly the history nerd in me was thrilled beyond belief to tour the famous Teatro Sauto, which is the theatrical epicenter of Cuba. They were refurbishing the theater, and the only thing that eclipsed the perfect acoustics and the tone of the grand hall was the circa 19th century system of gears in the basement that are still to this day able to raise the floor of the theater over 1 meter into the air, thus turning the theater into a ballroom. It simply blew my mind. We did one or two other touristy things in Cuba, like visiting the higher-end beaches on the island and swimming in natural caves. Those events were phenomenal in that they let me appreciate the incredible natural beauty of the island. But as pleasant as those beaches were, those are not the most significant moments of the trip for me.
The activities that meant the most to me were simply getting to know the city of Matanzas and it's inhabitants on a personal level. These were the smaller moments, the things we did more frequently, like going down to the tienda on the square to buy mango juice cartons and ice cream (which is strangely enough monopolized by Nestle). The smaller moments were staying up during the mid afternoon siesta everyday to walk around the Cairo Center (which was a small building attached to the church where my group stayed), speaking my imperfect Spanish to the endearingly patient friends I made about everything from Al Capone to the formation of mountain ranges, sitting out on the stoop of the Cairo Center to watch the setting sun filter though the telephone wires that laced the street, and of course the constant hum of hospitality that warmed the air just as much as the Caribbean sun. These smaller moments, these snapshots are the memories that I treasure above all else, the things that have and will continue to sustain me until I can once again return to that beloved place  =^. .^=

Cuba : Before

Most people are very surprised when I tell them that I have traveled abroad to Cuba. Typically, their first reaction is shock. Then they ask, "How did you manage that?" or "Why?" As to the first question, I am quite willing to explain that I was able to go at all to Cuba through the partnership that my church has with a church in Matanzas, Cuba. This partnership was forged over many years and every other year a group of youth from my church is able to go to Cuba on a religious visa. As to the other question, I explained to others that I have always loved to get to know and learn about people, especially those from a different country. This characteristic was forged more securely from my trip to Guatemala and from the experiences I gained there. More specifically, I began to really develop excitement about the trip as we began to plan out the logistics of my group and as the date of the trip came closer. My group traveled to Matanzas in 2009 and I can safely say that this trip has been one of the most influential experiences of my life =^. .^=

Japan Panel Response

So, remember how I had asked in my first post about the status of Japan? Well, I had a great opportunity to go to a panel that the Honors College was hosting about the status of Japan in respect to the media coverage and the implications of the disaster. I wished they covered more about the time line of events, but their focus on the media coverage, particularly in by the US of the event sparked equal interest in me.
The panel leaders spoke briefly about the geology of Japan and how it's an earthquake prone area and the compounded dangers of the domestic nuclear power plants that humans have put there. From this, they spoke about how Western countries are focusing on the radioactive dangers of the plants whereas other nations are treating the earthquake and tsunamis as natural disasters. The speakers elaborated, citing Perrow's "Normal Accidents" to explain the media coverage phenomenon that focuses on the radiation instead of the quake. Perrow claims that before WWII, disasters such as the quake were largely localized, could be corrected by natural circumstances, were quantifiable in their damage, and people could move away from damaged zones. Case and point; coal mines. Coal soot covered local areas, after they were shut down the coal soot would eventually be removed by natural forces such as the weather, one could estimate the damage from the soot and the loss of labor, and if it was bad enough citizens could leave. However, Perrow explained, disasters related to nuclear power are the opposite. Radioactive fall-out is insidious as it spreads around the globe, it lasts far longer than humans and because of the nature of its damaging effects it is difficult for natural forces to correct, estimations on the damage are incredibility difficult because of the scale and effects of the damage from the radiation, and since it has the potential to spread everywhere, there is no escape.
This panel definitely shed new light on the developing catastrophe in Japan, particularly in light of how Japan is considered a 1st World Country. Still, while this discussion may have satisfied one question I had about Japan, it has invariably ignited many other questions, questions that that we all must answer for ourselves =^. .^=

Guatemala : After

My trip to Guatemala taught me many practical things such as how to travel smartly in a foreign country and to be more confident in my ability to speak in Spanish. More importantly however, Guatemala taught me the value of direct cultural immersion, the new points of view and understanding about the world and its people that one can learn, and a richness and appreciation for the uniqueness of a culture that can be so different and so similar to my own. This trip affected me because it let me see just how much I thought I knew about the world. It opened my eyes just that bit more to what life has to offer for me and for everyone who is wiling to simply lose themselves so that they can find themselves, better than they were before =^. .^=

Guatemala : During Part II

The other aspect of the trip which also had a profound effect of me was the cultural side. While I gained many cultural insights into the Guatemalan people, I still feel, even now, that my experience was different because I was a tourist, a student, and an American. The scale of these realizations wouldn't fully hit me until I traveled later to Cuba. Because I was much more immersed in the culture there, I gained a completely new perspective from the people. But that is for another post later :) Nonetheless, these cultural insights (or shocks rather) still taught me a lot about how different the world can be. Speaking bluntly, the degrees of poverty that I saw in Guatemala were simply more frequent that what I was accustomed to seeing in the US. It wasn't that I was culturally ignorant or that I didn't understand my standards of living in comparison to theirs, but the reality of it was something I hadn't truly realized. It was a cultural awareness I had not reached, a sociological mindfulness that I now treasure becuase I saw it first hand.
While I was in Guatemala, I also gained an appreciation for hand-crafts. Maybe this appreciation grew because I actually met the creators of these crafts and I saw how skillful they were, or maybe it was the incredible simplicity and beauty of the crafts. Nonetheless, and as a reminder of this tip, I purchased a wallet. I still use this wallet and in this wallet I still have the strip of tape that has the name of my wallet's maker, Julia. My wallet and my memories of Guatemala and what I learned from the culture and the people there remain important to me. Basically, I can know that a culture is unique but I cannot understand what that means until I experience it myself. Guatemala proved to me that the experience of learning about cultures is truly an eye-opening and amazing phenomenon, wherever you go and from whomever you meet =^. .^=

Guatemala : During Part I

I was in Guatemala for about a week during over the Thanksgiving Holiday. In that time, I improved my Spanish skills (through just interacting with citizens and through help from my Spanish tutor), visited several tourist spots (including Mayan ruins and a volcano), painted a mural at a child-care center, and explored the city of Antigua. What initially caught me off guard was the language barrier, as I had somewhat expected it would. It was my first real time being immersed in another culture where English was not the first language and communicating even basic things became all the more difficult and all the more important. Example: when I got locked out of my room three times because I forgot my key. The first time I just climbed in through the window, which is not sketchy right? The second time I just waited till my roommate got back and tail-gated in with her. By the third time however, I mustered up the courage and the minimal language confidence I had to ask the manager of the hotel for the spare key. It was nerve racking, but I was very glad I went ahead and asked. The manager was very sweet and from that simple interaction, I gained a lot more confidence to speak to others during the trip. This helped me later when I spoke to the tour guides at the Mayan ruins in Tikal National Park and at the Pacaya Volcano. I was able to learn a lot more about the Mayan civilization and the Volcano, which had a profound effect on me because I was simply able to be there and stand next to these massive things that contained so much history and I knew beyond a doubt that they were real. The simple experience of being in a place where these things were real was so incredible. I could truly see then how diverse, exciting, and frankly cool the world is. This excitement about being in Guatemala remained with me and continued to grow far after I returned home =^. .^=

Guatemala: Before

My first international trip was to Antigua, Guatemala my sophomore year of high school. Although I'd traveled before, those travels were all road trips to different states in the US. As interesting and culturally revealing as those in-country trips were, I was really looking forward to this particular trip because it was my first trip abroad. Even before I landed in Guatemala City, I experienced many differences between this trip and the traveling I had previously done. One of the first things that I experienced was simply the different atmosphere of the trip. I had always traveled with family members or friends on trips that weren't thousands of miles away. Furthermore, I had simply never traveled that far from home before. Those two aspects when combined with the more academic nature of this trip set a very different tone for me. This tone affected me because it felt a lot more serious than trips in the past. This seriousness was reflected in the differences in packing (with a passport carrier stowed on my person), the precautions we received about the country (not to drink out of the faucets), and the academic nature of this trip (we took Spanish lessons every morning at a local school). Despite these differences, I was still excited to go because it simply was an opportunity to see a different part of the world and to see just how little I knew about the world. With all of these things on my mind, I boarded the airplane with loads of excitement and mild trepidation, hoping for the best yet only having an inkling of how much this trip would change me. It was my first step outside the US, but more importantly it was my first major step into the the world of international travel and cross-cultural understanding. =^. .^=

Road Trips

My first experiences with traveling were in-country travel. I have been to many states (I believe about 16) across the US as a tourist, mission worker, family member, or student. One of the things I grew to appreciate about the US was the diversity I found, the beauty of the country, and the history that we have within our own nation. I know I've been to a fraction of the places to visit and done fractions less of all the interesting things to do, but I can safely say that my foundation in traveling within my own country has ignited in me a desire to travel abroad. I realize that travel abroad is much different and that the US is comparatively an infant to other civilizations in the world, but I have learned some interesting things about my own culture as I have traveled in the States. These cultural insights burgeoned from forests of Acadia National Park in Maine, were carved from the stone of the White House, homegrown from the marshes of South Carolina, were warmed from the hot sun of Texas, and even brought to life from the halls of my own state's capital (15 minutes from my house, mind you). With each new aspect of my culture, I realize many important things. Each insight helps me understand the world I have grown up in, how that world has affected me, and maybe a bit more about the unanswered questions of life. I look forward to international travel for all the new lessons I will learn and the experiences I will have, but there will always be a part of me connected to the States for good or for ill. After all, I am traveling with a US Passport =^. .^=

Clarification

Sorry guys if I caught you off guard with my first post. I kinda got lost in my head ^.^* I guess those questions I posed to myself and to you were just the tip of the iceberg about things I wish I knew about the world and the beginning of me learning the answers to them. As you can probably tell, I love the diversity, randomness, and sheer variety of things life has to show me and I hope to cover but half of what it can show me in my life time (unless they can come up with a way to reduce aging). I digress, so moving on to the actual purpose of this blog, I believe the best way to answer those questions is to simply learn as much as I can through other cultures and my own. If I can broaden my horizons, and learn with an open-mind then maybe I can contribute something more meaningful to the world. Amassing this knowledge base is only half the battle though, what I do with it is the other half. So for now, while I'm going to keep documenting my experiences with traveling and cross-cultural awareness, I hope to add to my experiences as I Study Abroad. Someday though, I hope to be able to apply this knowledge, but as to when, what for, why, and how, I've no clue. Considering all that life can offer though, I'm sure I'll find something =^. .^=

Why?

I live in the 21st Century. I have a microwave and access to the Internet. Do I need to leave my room? Can I tell you what the latest news update is on the tragedy in Japan? What is the population of Tuvalu? Do I know about the politics of Uganda? How many acres of the Amazon will disappear by the time I finish posting this? Why is there this Colonial proverb: "You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats."? Just how interdependent are the economies of the world? What will happen to the workers in my state if the new Super WalMart doesn't open up a quarter of a mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway? Why is there a Communist Theme Park in Lithuania? What do I know about Operation Enduring Freedom? Why does copper make fireworks blue? Why is it that I can correctly spell and name all of the original 150 Pokemon in a game of Sporcle but I cannot tell you when or how to grow a carrot? Can I file my taxes by myself? Was Carlos V correct when he said that English is the language of business, German the language of horses and war, French the language of love, Italian the language of music and birds, and Spanish the language of God? ... Just some questions to think about I suppose. After all, it's not like I'm going to leave my room when I have the Internet. EXCUSES.  =^. .^=