Tomorrow will mark 1 more month left in Venezuela. Que locura vale. I am mostly just really, really sad and nervous about leaving.
Most of my blogs have involved me bitching in some way or another, but I really have come to love Maturin and being a professor at UPEL.
Here is a list of the things I will really, really miss.
-Arriving at school every day and seeing my favorite students
-Getting street food of any kind, especially hamburgers and hot dogs.
- Going out at the Bodegon- a licor store that turns into a dance party after 11. It is located at a gas station. Every time I have been there has been magical.
-Getting to play truco... a veryyy Venezuelan card game
-Getting home late at night to Senora Carmen watching TV in the spare bedroom, thinking she is sleeping, and all of the sudden hearing her greet me and show me a small smile from the corner of her lips that she does so well letting me know that she really does like me.
-Driving around with Fabi and singing along to Reggaeton
-The greeting Senor Juan give me EVERY TIME I come home, as if it has been years since we have seen each other.
-The ridiculous tardiness... ok, I will not really miss this, but rather the ridiculousness of the fact that people don't have a problem showing up two hours late to something
-The laidbackness (is that a word?) I am super uptight, type-A, always wanting to do things well and on time. There just isn't that standard here, and I have learned to embrace it
- Hanging out with people and talking about life in Venezuela or just things we have in common
- When my students enjoy a lesson and seem to understand it
Hmm... more to come later. I have quite a bit of flojera.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
It's been a long, long time
Life has gone on in Venezuela, though I have not really written about it. I don't think I will ever catch up on the last months in detail.
STRIKE:
My University went on strike yesterday. Heads of the university want to decrease the professors salaries by thirty percent, and the profes are not having it. Fair enough, they are not paid well enough as it is. No class this week for sure. I am gone next week and then there are only six weeks left before this is over. Craziness.
THE SUGAR LINE:
About two weeks ago, I entered a local grocery store to buy some chocolate to make some cookies. Instead of the normal calm I usually experience their during mid-day hours, it was madness with lines going all the way to the back of the store (this is walmart size). Why? I only had to look at people's arms to see them each carrying sugar, oil and milk, the rarities in Maturin. The experience left me in awe and I decided to join in the madness and see what it was like to wait in line for sugar, something I would never place any value on when shopping in the US. I waited an hour in the line. The sugar was cheap, and I gave a couple kilos to some people who I know do not have the time to be waiting in hour long lines to buy it.
CUBAN LOVE:
While my documentation and participation in Barrio Adentro has been slim to none, I must commend the Cubans. I have not met one I did not like and who did not make a point to make me feel at home in their clinic. I got to hear the history of Cuba as told by my dear friend and helper Doctora Lis. The history was unfortunately plagued with the US involving itself in Cuba's problems and ended with Cuba being blocked out of trading with most of the world and being left a poor nation. The Venezuelans I know talk about Cuba as if if were the worst country in the world, and as if they do not want their country to be like it, but the Cubans I have talked to have convinced me of the beauty of their country. They understand that Cuba is poor and will remain poor. It has no oil or crude natural resources that the global powers need. But the Cubans tell me that people in their country are happy with what they have. Instead of constantly wanting more, more, more (at least in a material sense), they are happy to take the same as their neighbor gets, whether or not it is a lot. It seems so simple and I really like the idea of a society that is not focused on material possessions. They said that education and health are the most important parts of their society. Hopefully I will get to go to Cuba soon.
Ok... me canse. More to come tomorrow and the next day.
STRIKE:
My University went on strike yesterday. Heads of the university want to decrease the professors salaries by thirty percent, and the profes are not having it. Fair enough, they are not paid well enough as it is. No class this week for sure. I am gone next week and then there are only six weeks left before this is over. Craziness.
THE SUGAR LINE:
About two weeks ago, I entered a local grocery store to buy some chocolate to make some cookies. Instead of the normal calm I usually experience their during mid-day hours, it was madness with lines going all the way to the back of the store (this is walmart size). Why? I only had to look at people's arms to see them each carrying sugar, oil and milk, the rarities in Maturin. The experience left me in awe and I decided to join in the madness and see what it was like to wait in line for sugar, something I would never place any value on when shopping in the US. I waited an hour in the line. The sugar was cheap, and I gave a couple kilos to some people who I know do not have the time to be waiting in hour long lines to buy it.
CUBAN LOVE:
While my documentation and participation in Barrio Adentro has been slim to none, I must commend the Cubans. I have not met one I did not like and who did not make a point to make me feel at home in their clinic. I got to hear the history of Cuba as told by my dear friend and helper Doctora Lis. The history was unfortunately plagued with the US involving itself in Cuba's problems and ended with Cuba being blocked out of trading with most of the world and being left a poor nation. The Venezuelans I know talk about Cuba as if if were the worst country in the world, and as if they do not want their country to be like it, but the Cubans I have talked to have convinced me of the beauty of their country. They understand that Cuba is poor and will remain poor. It has no oil or crude natural resources that the global powers need. But the Cubans tell me that people in their country are happy with what they have. Instead of constantly wanting more, more, more (at least in a material sense), they are happy to take the same as their neighbor gets, whether or not it is a lot. It seems so simple and I really like the idea of a society that is not focused on material possessions. They said that education and health are the most important parts of their society. Hopefully I will get to go to Cuba soon.
Ok... me canse. More to come tomorrow and the next day.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Haves and have nots
Rather than update you on my life, I decided
Venezuela is a place that has some strange things going on. Here are the ones I would like to discuss here:
Things that are missing in Venezuela on a daily basis:
-SUGAR This one is serious, so serious that I brought it from the US. I also lugged 4 kilos across the country to give to my host mom. I am kinda really proud of that. The other Fulbrighters and I hoarded small packets in México too. Like I said, actually a kind of huge problem.
-Harina PAN. This is the type of flour that Venezuelans use to make their staple dish, arepas. I actually recieved a text telling me that Harina PAN had arrived at a store. This one is not so hard for me, but man, sucks for people who like Arepas.
-Electricity-- Read a previous post for intense detail. Yeah, it kinda just comes and goes when it wants. Makes it real difficult to teach a class when it is like 100 degrees outside and the AC goes
--Water-- ok, this one is not affecting me so directly, but I know lots of people who it is affecting. Again, 100 degree weather and no shower= hot mess.
Milk sometimes goes too... that one is really, really hard for me.
Things you can always seem to find:
-Straws--So this country has no sugar, no flour, but you can bet your bottom dollar you can find a straw. No matter where you are, if there are drinks for sale, there will be a straw. If there isn´t, your sale does not count. DRINKING FROM THE BOTTLE OR CAN? no way! that is not acceptable. I have seen people get REALLY mad when there are not straws available, so mad that they refuse to purchase beverage with said person. Maybe this is the one thing Venezuela will never lack...
I have gotten really into straws though. They are pretty awesome. Maybe Venezuela is onto something here.
-Fanny packs-- Ok, fanny packs are a big joke in the US. I think we used them in the 90s or something, but now the only time they are mentioned is in a context of jokes and laughter and VH1 shows about the good old days. They are, however, huge and in style in Venezuela. There are several Venezuelans who I cannot imagine without their fannypacks. There are even mall vendors whose sole work is to sell fannypacks. Again, this abundancy is something I enjoy. And hey, what better way to gaurd your things than to have them hanging of off your waist line?
--Blackberries! SO many people, regardless of socioeconomic status, have blackberries. And if they do not have one, the goal is to get one. As I pull out my cheap, battered phone, I always feel good knowing that the robber will probably jack the blackberry from the girl next to me. Enough said, I think.
Ok, thats all for know. My attention span has shortened significantly, wouldn´t want to wear it out!
Venezuela is a place that has some strange things going on. Here are the ones I would like to discuss here:
Things that are missing in Venezuela on a daily basis:
-SUGAR This one is serious, so serious that I brought it from the US. I also lugged 4 kilos across the country to give to my host mom. I am kinda really proud of that. The other Fulbrighters and I hoarded small packets in México too. Like I said, actually a kind of huge problem.
-Harina PAN. This is the type of flour that Venezuelans use to make their staple dish, arepas. I actually recieved a text telling me that Harina PAN had arrived at a store. This one is not so hard for me, but man, sucks for people who like Arepas.
-Electricity-- Read a previous post for intense detail. Yeah, it kinda just comes and goes when it wants. Makes it real difficult to teach a class when it is like 100 degrees outside and the AC goes
--Water-- ok, this one is not affecting me so directly, but I know lots of people who it is affecting. Again, 100 degree weather and no shower= hot mess.
Milk sometimes goes too... that one is really, really hard for me.
Things you can always seem to find:
-Straws--So this country has no sugar, no flour, but you can bet your bottom dollar you can find a straw. No matter where you are, if there are drinks for sale, there will be a straw. If there isn´t, your sale does not count. DRINKING FROM THE BOTTLE OR CAN? no way! that is not acceptable. I have seen people get REALLY mad when there are not straws available, so mad that they refuse to purchase beverage with said person. Maybe this is the one thing Venezuela will never lack...
I have gotten really into straws though. They are pretty awesome. Maybe Venezuela is onto something here.
-Fanny packs-- Ok, fanny packs are a big joke in the US. I think we used them in the 90s or something, but now the only time they are mentioned is in a context of jokes and laughter and VH1 shows about the good old days. They are, however, huge and in style in Venezuela. There are several Venezuelans who I cannot imagine without their fannypacks. There are even mall vendors whose sole work is to sell fannypacks. Again, this abundancy is something I enjoy. And hey, what better way to gaurd your things than to have them hanging of off your waist line?
--Blackberries! SO many people, regardless of socioeconomic status, have blackberries. And if they do not have one, the goal is to get one. As I pull out my cheap, battered phone, I always feel good knowing that the robber will probably jack the blackberry from the girl next to me. Enough said, I think.
Ok, thats all for know. My attention span has shortened significantly, wouldn´t want to wear it out!
Monday, February 8, 2010
MEXICOOOOOOOO
Spending some quality time in the DF. Its really, really pretty. More to come soon. We trying to go out salsa dancing tonight. Venezuela's ETAs are awesome:)
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Bad at this.
Wow, not doing the best job keeping up with this thing.
Here it goes, short but sweet:
Going to Caracas Saturday, Mexico Sunday AND Los Angeles. Woo. Tired just thinking about it, but I am super excited.:) Rachel and Molly come to visit me the week after.
Things are pretty normal. Started dancing a little salsa and trying to work out to get back in shape. School continues to be the same struggle, holding events and that one comes to. I am still yet to form any schedule in my life, but I am continuously learning to be better about going with the flow.
Hopefully I will have more time in Mexico to update more!!
Here it goes, short but sweet:
Going to Caracas Saturday, Mexico Sunday AND Los Angeles. Woo. Tired just thinking about it, but I am super excited.:) Rachel and Molly come to visit me the week after.
Things are pretty normal. Started dancing a little salsa and trying to work out to get back in shape. School continues to be the same struggle, holding events and that one comes to. I am still yet to form any schedule in my life, but I am continuously learning to be better about going with the flow.
Hopefully I will have more time in Mexico to update more!!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Yep.
So before picking up where I left off, it might be a good idea to update you on what´s going on in Venezuela. Some mad stuff has recently gone down and it would be a shame to go on and on about my vacation and not let you all know about this.
Money: At the beginning of the year, Chavez decided to devalue the currency. Generally, it was devalued from 2.12 to 4.3... 100 percent ladies and gentlemen. This means that tecnically, prices should sky rocket. I did go with a friend to by 4 razor blades and they cost $160 BsF... about 25 USD. Ahhh. That is the only thing I have really noticed as absurdly expensive so far,but Venezuelans are flocking to the store and buying any sort of good they can before all of the prices go up. A friend I know if buying a car and the dealer told him to buy it by the end of this week, because the price would be twice as much on Monday.
Electricity: There are also some major problems with electricity and there has been rationing around the country. I lose power where I live for 4 hours 3 days a week, every other day from 6-8am and 6-8pm. Apparently, the place that supplies about 70 percent of Venezuela´s electricity is in really, really bad shape so something must be done to conserve energy or the entire system will collapse. Thus, every city lose power to conserve.
RCTV: A Venezuelan TV station was shut down (again) because it refused to comply with some regulations that Chavez set up. This created some major protesting throughout the country, specifically in the Universities, where who are outraged that the station was shut down. There were some innocently killed students from the protesting, that led to more protesting. RCTV is the same station that Chavez claimed was involved in the attempted coup in 2002 and so he removed it from the ait then as well. I honestly have no idea if that was ever proven to be true. It is a sad, sad situation though.
Reading all of this, be aware that most of this is going down in Caracas. I live in Maturín. It is far away from the center of everything and much more tranquil. I live with an elderly couple (who I should really dedicate a blog to, as they are two of the most wonderful people I have ever met) who is extremely concerned with politics and make sure that I am up tp date on my information, but I do not feel the intensity of the politics so much in my city. It would actually be semi-easy to go day to day and not think about any of this.
Needless to say, politically, there is A LOT of tension. I will continue with my vacation story soon, just wanted to update!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Christmas vacation: part 1
It has been a long time since I have written and stuff has gone down, including Christmas, New Year´s, lots of traveling and work back in Maturín!
I would like to start with Christmas in Maturin. Strangely enough, Christmas is not as big of a deal here as New Year´s so it was hard to get into the Christmas spirit. Things Venezuelans associate with Christmas (gaita music, el plato navideño and buying new clothes) are also not things I associate with Christmas, so that also made it difficult to get in the spirit. The weeks before Christmas turned Maturin into a hellish place where it took an hour or more to get from the center of town to the Uni and where the malls became overwhemlingly crowded with people trying to find last minute gifts. I was not a huge fan of this and tried to avoid the center and shopping malls as much as possible. I was, however, a fan of the amount of parties I got to go to in Venezuela for Christmas. Starting in December I went to about one party a week. I ate A LOT and got to learn a lot about Venezuelan culture during the holidays. I also got to spend a lovely Christmas with the Marcano family. I love and appreciate their kindness a lot!
I then left Maturín to spend some quality time with some other Fulbrighters. It was honestly one of the highlights of my time here in VZ. It was nice to really get to know them better and to just get out and explore some parts of VZ.
Our trip started with some really beautful beaches in the western part of Venezuela, a trip to the mountain town Mérida and a trip to Los Llanos. The beach included escapades of three gringitas going around and making lots of random Venezuelan friends and spending our days relaxing on the beach. Good times. We spent New Year´s there which is a very family oriented event in Venezuela and I spent it with Anna and Emma, 2 gringas. We decided rather than being cooped up in our posada, we would go out on the town. We stumbled upon party after party of venezuelans celebrating the New Year. We made quite a spectacle of ourselves, but it was great fun.
We then took a bus habilitado to the mountain town of Mérida. We got our bus tickets the day of, and unknown to us, a bus habilitado is a bus that they decide to send at the last minute because of demand. It was also a microbus, which is a normal bus that goes around cities usually, not the nice overnight bus, so we knew it was going to be very unconfortable ride from the get-go. It was questionable at the time of arrival to get on the bus whether there were enough seats for everyone who had bought tickets. Thus we asked Antoni to shove his way onto the bus to assure that we got seats. There were three of us, so we ended up sitting in the vey back row of the bus. Unfortunately, the bus lacked shock absorbers. You know those 3-D chair things you sit in at theme parts that move around with the movie screen? It was kind of like that, only without the movie and for 12 hours. I remember thinking it was ridiculous that the girl next to me popped a valium. Looking back on it, she knew what she was doing. She was fast asleep and I was not. But we made it safe and sound, the most important thing.
Once in Mérida, we did some exploring of the city and I got to see the normal sites and eat the typical andian food. Mérida is truely a Venezuela gem. It is laid back, well-organized and has a culture all to its own. It is relatively safe by Venezuelan standards and the weather is relatively cool. We went to the zoo, ate some new foods, which I will list below.Coromoto is an ice cream shop with 860 flavors, and has the Guisness record for that. Of course, we went there. It has really odd flavors like octupus, salmon and ground beef and then more normal flavors like oreo and chocolate. I tried black bean, pumpkin and tostone (fried green plantain) and then Cri Cri, which is a delicious venezuelan chocolate bar.
Some other food I ate was:
Vitimina: Liquid cake, with an alcoholic twist. I am a huge fan.
Arepas Andinas: Like the traditional venezuelan arepa, but made from wheat flour rather than corn flour, really delicious
Pastelitos: Not so common in the oriente, they are like empanadas but smaller and slightly more tasty
Levantón Andina: An aphrodisiac drink they sell that contains about 80 ingredients
I will continue writing about my Christmas break journies again tomorrow. Just to get you excited, it involves anacondas and bollywood dancing.:)
I would like to start with Christmas in Maturin. Strangely enough, Christmas is not as big of a deal here as New Year´s so it was hard to get into the Christmas spirit. Things Venezuelans associate with Christmas (gaita music, el plato navideño and buying new clothes) are also not things I associate with Christmas, so that also made it difficult to get in the spirit. The weeks before Christmas turned Maturin into a hellish place where it took an hour or more to get from the center of town to the Uni and where the malls became overwhemlingly crowded with people trying to find last minute gifts. I was not a huge fan of this and tried to avoid the center and shopping malls as much as possible. I was, however, a fan of the amount of parties I got to go to in Venezuela for Christmas. Starting in December I went to about one party a week. I ate A LOT and got to learn a lot about Venezuelan culture during the holidays. I also got to spend a lovely Christmas with the Marcano family. I love and appreciate their kindness a lot!
I then left Maturín to spend some quality time with some other Fulbrighters. It was honestly one of the highlights of my time here in VZ. It was nice to really get to know them better and to just get out and explore some parts of VZ.
Our trip started with some really beautful beaches in the western part of Venezuela, a trip to the mountain town Mérida and a trip to Los Llanos. The beach included escapades of three gringitas going around and making lots of random Venezuelan friends and spending our days relaxing on the beach. Good times. We spent New Year´s there which is a very family oriented event in Venezuela and I spent it with Anna and Emma, 2 gringas. We decided rather than being cooped up in our posada, we would go out on the town. We stumbled upon party after party of venezuelans celebrating the New Year. We made quite a spectacle of ourselves, but it was great fun.
We then took a bus habilitado to the mountain town of Mérida. We got our bus tickets the day of, and unknown to us, a bus habilitado is a bus that they decide to send at the last minute because of demand. It was also a microbus, which is a normal bus that goes around cities usually, not the nice overnight bus, so we knew it was going to be very unconfortable ride from the get-go. It was questionable at the time of arrival to get on the bus whether there were enough seats for everyone who had bought tickets. Thus we asked Antoni to shove his way onto the bus to assure that we got seats. There were three of us, so we ended up sitting in the vey back row of the bus. Unfortunately, the bus lacked shock absorbers. You know those 3-D chair things you sit in at theme parts that move around with the movie screen? It was kind of like that, only without the movie and for 12 hours. I remember thinking it was ridiculous that the girl next to me popped a valium. Looking back on it, she knew what she was doing. She was fast asleep and I was not. But we made it safe and sound, the most important thing.
Once in Mérida, we did some exploring of the city and I got to see the normal sites and eat the typical andian food. Mérida is truely a Venezuela gem. It is laid back, well-organized and has a culture all to its own. It is relatively safe by Venezuelan standards and the weather is relatively cool. We went to the zoo, ate some new foods, which I will list below.Coromoto is an ice cream shop with 860 flavors, and has the Guisness record for that. Of course, we went there. It has really odd flavors like octupus, salmon and ground beef and then more normal flavors like oreo and chocolate. I tried black bean, pumpkin and tostone (fried green plantain) and then Cri Cri, which is a delicious venezuelan chocolate bar.
Some other food I ate was:
Vitimina: Liquid cake, with an alcoholic twist. I am a huge fan.
Arepas Andinas: Like the traditional venezuelan arepa, but made from wheat flour rather than corn flour, really delicious
Pastelitos: Not so common in the oriente, they are like empanadas but smaller and slightly more tasty
Levantón Andina: An aphrodisiac drink they sell that contains about 80 ingredients
I will continue writing about my Christmas break journies again tomorrow. Just to get you excited, it involves anacondas and bollywood dancing.:)
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