Study Abroad Programs Blog

7th Week Recap

By Kent Truckor - Guest Blogger studying in Valencia, Spain Hola, Seven weeks down - so far so good! This weekend it looks like we might be making it to a festival in one of the small pueblo outside of Valencia. This time of year and into September there are many festivals in the small pueblos throughout Spain. I am excited about this because back home in the summers - the small towns that are arround where I live have festivals as well. It seems like there is a point in summer where weekend after weekend there is a festival happening somewhere and I am excited to partake in it here because I missed all of mine back home. The festival is in El Puig, which is about 20 minutes north of Valencia by car on the coast. I have heard that they are good times with plenty of food, drink and music. Also, each little pueblo has the running of the bulls which I have never seen before but I figure could be good to check out. It is unclear if they have a hostel or any such sleeping arrangements so we might just sleep on the beach, we'll figure it out! Next week is my eighth week here and as always the faces change at the school and people come and go. I feel that it is important that I branch out into other forms of experience here; whether it is in volunteering or maybe taking a class or two at the local university. I feel that I have gotten a pretty good handle on what the area of Valencia has to offer and I am willing to change things up some now. I imagine my classes will still keep me busy at the language school - however a change never hurt anybody. Today one of my roommates leaves to return back home and start university. It is weird, interesting to see the changes of roommates and people as they come and go. You get to know them it seems in a rather short time, but in just that short of time, it is time for a change again. This is very much as how life goes I figure and it doesn't bother me as much, it is just interesting to see. It seems the people of Spain are accustomed to this and take life as it comes, which I figure is a pretty good method from what I have seen.

Interesting Locals

By Bradley Rehak - Guest blogger studying in Quito, Ecuador Having given a brief description of the cloud forest reserve, I'll now describe some of the interesting details of the location, that is, the interesting inhabitants that make up the forest and that draw people to the refuge. A tree that largely dominates the secondary growth areas in the cloud forests of Ecuador is known in English as the dragon's blood tree, or merely drago in Spanish. Why? When one jabs something sharp into the bark (such as the small knife that the guides use so the tree will heal quickly) it quickly begins to ooze sap, a sap that happens to look and flow almost exactly like blood—almost as if it were the backdrop of a horror film. The sap can then be rubbed on one's skin, causing it to turn white and foam. This is done because it is an effective antibiotic; the many old scars in these trees attest to its capacity in this from machete wielding locals who sold the sap to Western pharmaceutical companies. Another tree has bright green leaves with red tips that make it appear to be dying; in fact the color is a signal for hummingbirds to feed, as the flowers of the tree hang hidden below the leaves. Hummingbirds happen to be one of the most populous inhabitants of the area, and there are dozens of species of them here as well. It's impossible to walk around the trails without one of these birds buzzing, literally, past your head every once in a while. The sound is that of a giant mosquito, and therefore takes a while to become accustomed to. The secropia is the easiest tree to pick out (at least when it's full-grown). In adulthood the leaves acquire the ability to reflect light, and therefore appear as bright white spots in the forest when viewed from far away. As young trees, however, they look completely different, as the leaves grow from being the size of a hand to the size of a large piece of poster board. My favorite species of wildlife was the tapaculos, which means show-ass. These birds apparently have the habit of sticking their butts up in the air and then back down quite rapidly and continuously—a fact which I was unable to verify because they are difficult to spot. More heinously, they have a cry that sounds almost exactly like that of a member of a Mexican mariachi band, the guy that yells "rrrrrrrRRRRRRRR AH HAAAAA!" The birds lack the "AH HAA" part, but their trill lasts for ten seconds or more, rising in pitch the entire time. Needless to say, it gives the impression that while walking through the forest one is really entering a raucous party.

My First Exam

By Kent Truckor - Guest blogger studying in Valencia, Spain I just completed my first exam for level one at the school. I think it went fairly well. It wasn't the slam dunk that I was hoping for but none the less I am happy with the performance. What I was most happy with was the conversation section. This makes me happy because this is why I have come here - top be able to converse with people who speak Spanish. Granted it was not on the level of how conversations go outside of school - a little slower speaking and more topics that are general. However, I understood everything that she was saying to me and was able to converse with her for 10 minutes or so fluidly. I am very happy with this. The other parts of the test included: reading, listening, grammar, and writing. I am pretty happy with how these parts went as well however, grammar through me a couple curve balls that I wasn't expecting. Either way, one hurdle down and on to the next. If all goes to plan I should have the ability to complete four levels of classes while I am here. That would put me at the conclusion of B2, a very good place to be. The levels that proceed from what I have heard are for mastery of the language and I figure I have the rest of my life to do that - of which I am pretty confident it will take :) It is interesting for me now to think about where I am now and where I was when I first came here. My first day here I did not understand much at all and now I feel like I have made great leaps forward. There are times when I am listening to Pepe that I don't feel as if he is speaking a foreign language anymore which is a cool feeling. Then there are times when I don't know what the heck he is saying, haha. I am happy with the progress made so far and look forward to learning more tools to use with the language so that I am able to converse more effectively with others. This weekend, which is almost here - the weeks are cruising at this point we might try to hit a festival in a small pueblo near Valencia. Many pueblos this time of year are holding festivals and I hope to make a few before the summer is over. One festival that I don't want to miss is the tomato fight held at the end of august. I have yet to figure out where it is, but I want to partake in this event with a passion. I figure it is something I can tell my grandkids :)

Cloud Forest

By Bradley Rehak - Guest blogger studying in Quito, Ecuador. Seeking some natural beauty and a bit of a break from the big city, I spent last week in the cloud forest, in a refuge called Bellavista. Originally a small farm, the land was bought by a conservationist couple (the man English, the woman Colombian) after winning a competition for it against a logging company. While finishing up other projects in oversees locations such as Madagascar, the land was inhabited purely by cows and chickens, which made the area appear inhabited by farmers while the owners were away. They returned after a couple of years and began constructing lodging for ecotourism, building trails and protecting and learning about the wilderness. The refuge is about a two and a half hour trip from Quito, that final half hour by SUV through rudimentary mountain roads switch backing up a mountainside. One finally arrives at a set of buildings built out of bamboo poles and thatch roofs. The buildings are interconnected with thatch-covered walkways as well. The walkway leads out along a spur to a geodesic dome that is the center of life in the refuge. The main area of the dome serves as a restaurant/dining room for the guests, while a large portion of the lodging, perhaps for thirty people, is located above the dining area and accessed by a set of stairs and then ladders to the top two floors, which are hostel-style dorms. The top floor is completely surrounded by windows, which offer an excellent view of the neighboring mountains and valleys. There are six other buildings located on the reserve, which serve to house some of the workers, guests that overflow the main lodging, and researchers who require a more isolated sector of forest. Running through the entire area is a system of trails, most of which were built strictly for tourism and therefore offer breathtaking views, access to important indigenous plant and animal populations, and a range of difficulty levels for all levels of fitness and ability. There are four waterfalls in the area as well, which serve as endpoints for some of the trails. Everything in between and among these man-made features is forest, most of which is secondary growth but also some primary growth. In all, the reserve encompasses 700 hectares (about 1700 acres) of beautiful, cloud-encircled wilderness.