the AMAZING trip

Here it is, Halloween night, and there is not a thing going on this city. Movie theaters are closed, bars are closed, restaurants are closed, everything is closed, all because of the election. Well, everything except for this little whole in the wall internet cafe Steph and I found in the neighborhood we used to live in, where we ran into two other bored Americans we know, also lured out of their homes after spending the entire day indoors due to the torrential downpour and the fact that nothing is open.

So, about my AMAZING trip - I don't think I've mentioned yet that I went on an amazing trip. Along with my friends Anna, Brigid and Erin, I went to Lake Maracaibo, which is about a three hours drive away. We went with a local travel agency in town that does adventure tours, so we had a guide and went in a jeep and had all our meals provided, etc. As I said the other day, our guide, Cesar, was the coolest. He really made the trip; he was knowledgeable and funny and just a cool guy to hang with. There was a middle-aged biology teacher from L.A. with us, traveling around South America on her own. We had a really good group.

We started out on Friday by making some stops at some "cultural sites" - we went to a sugar cane factory and a coffee plantation, which was really cool. I learned that coffee beans grow in berries, which makes sense but I never realized it before. We also visited a xerophytic forest, where there were cacti growing so tall that they had bark around their trunks and moss growing on them and plenty of tarantulas hiding in holes in the ground. We also stopped for lunch in a little village in the mountains, where we "investigated" a whole in the wall bar with its own little "disco," which just shows that even tiny Andean mountain villages have some sort of nightlife.

After that, we drove to the lake and for the first time since I've been in Venezuela, there were no mountains in site. Eventually we got to the port town and met up with our boat guy, Eddy. We loaded up the boat and headed out on the channels that lead to the lake, and we saw tons of red howler monkeys in the trees, and birds and even some iguanas that Eddy spotted from the boat while it was speeding down the middle of the river. That night we stayed in a house on stilts on the lake (literally ON THE LAKE - we had to take the boat to get there). We had an awesome dinner of fish and crabs and grilled vegetables and the park ranger who lived in the house told me all about the National Parks of Venezuela (did you know Venezuela has the most national parks of any country in the world?).

After dinner, around 9 pm or so, we went back out on the boat again, with flashlights, LOOKING FOR CROCODILES, and oh, did we find crocodiles. We had to shine our lights out across the water of the river, looking for a flash of red in the dark - the red was the eye of a crocodile. Then the boat guy would just shine his light directly into their eyes, blinding them, until we were close enough where our guide could grab them out of the water. We only saw little ones, one or two years old, but it was still pretty awesome. Cesar, being a herpitologist and all, taught us all about each one he caught. We also saw some snakes, and our guide pulled a boa constrictor out of a tree for us to look at. After spending the night in a hammock open to the breeze, we went out in the boat the next morning, and saw dolphins and fishermen bringing in nets of crabs and catfish, and plenty more birds. And on the ride home, we saw a guy with an American crocodile he had caught, selling it on the side of the road, and our guide bought it for about 50.000 Bolivares (roughly the equivalent of $25) and we took it back to Merida in the jeep with us in the cooler! I rode in a car for two hours with a crocodile!

My main interest in going on this trip was to see this thing called the Catatumbo Lightning Phenomenon. It's "eternal" lightning that happens approximately 300 days of the year, without clouds, without rain, and without the accompanying thunder. This phenomenon occurs nowhere else in the world and there is no solid explanation for why it happens. But... because of rainy season, I didn't really get to see much of the lightning, only a little bit at night when I was drifting to sleep in my hammock. Ironic that the lightning wouldn't be visible because of rainy season...

Anyway, that was a long story and I even tried to keep it brief! Looking back on it a week later, I still can't believe that I was there and did those things... I wasn't exaggerating when I said it was amazing, all caps. It really was an incredible experience.

Tomorrow is the first day of November, which marks the beginning of my last month or so here in Venezuela! Oh me oh my!

pictures

Since I don't have a digital camera, no one will be able to see my photos until I return to the states, muhaha!

However, here are some pictures, taken by Jami, one of the American students I go to school with. Most of them seem to be just random pictures of people out partying, so take a good look at the crazy people I've been hanging out with for the past weeks.

To point out some people: In the first group shot (the first picture I'm in), Jami is the fourth from the left. The girl in the middle with the platinum blonde hair wearing the yellow shirt is Anna, the Swedish girl, and my closest friend here! In the three pictures after that (of three girls, including Jami), the girl in the middle, wearing the white shirt, is my roommate Stephanie. There are other assorted pictures from the beach, as well as a soccer game, a bullfight, Jami's host family, and Merida, etc.

This weekend is Halloween and VEN-USA is having a party tomorrow night... and the cultural activity for the week is carving pumpkins! So tonight Venezuelans will learn what it feels like to bury their hands in lovely slimy pumpkin guts. Mm, pumpkin guts. Then the rest of the weekend will probably be kind of slow, as city and state elections are being held here on Sunday and everything is closed on Saturday night and all day Sunday... it's rumored that the buses might not even be running, which doesn't make a lot of sense because that prevents a lot of people from voting.

Either way, I'm glad that the election is almost finished with here, because it's been quite the hoopla. There are signs everywhere and there are these jeeps that drive around, decked out in the signs and colors of whatever political party, and they have megaphones blasting music and political slogans and jingles and it's insane! I get handed at least five fliers everytime I walk down the street, even though I tell the people handing them out that I can't vote here anyway. They just tell me to give them to someone who can. I don't know, it seems the political propaganda here is way more intense than I ever remember it being in the States... but then again, I am not there right now, and November 2 is almost upon us!

Anyway, that's about it. I will write about my AMAZING trip... someday.

I might be a dirty girl for the next 7 days

Holy AMAZING weekend. Not going to go into all of it right now, because I know I would get carried away, so maybe tomorrow or sometime later this week. But believe you me, it was AMAZING - there was hammock sleeping and boat riding and monkey viewing and dolphin chasing and crab eating and snake touching and crocodile holding. That's right, you heard me. There was not only touching but HOLDING of a crocodile. I HELD A CROCODILE. And I might have become slightly infatuated with Cesar, the Spaniard who was our guide for the AMAZING weekend, not only because he's an anthropologist and a herpitologist, but also because he did a hilarious impression of Gollum. But yeah, more about my AMAZING trip later.

On Saturday, after the AMAZING trip, I went to a birthday party for Jailynn (one of the English teachers at my school) and Brian (one of the American students I have classes with). Jailynn lives in this beautiful house with a couple other English teachers and a Venezuelan, and the smelly dog Aldo, who tried to hump me at a previous party. There was cake and music and bilingual conversations and a PIÑATA! A Hello Kitty piñata, no less. After the birthday kids took their swings at the piñata, someone made the foolish decision to blindfold me and spin me around with the large stick in my hands... and then I nearly took out their television! Everyone was yelling and I thought that I must be really close to hitting Hello Kitty, but apparently they were just yelling for me to stop. Anyway, the birthday party was pretty fun.

And my house has no water. For eight days. The water was out in the whole city for 24 hours from Thursday-Friday, and now it's back on. Except in my neighborhood, which is one of the nicest neighborhoods in the city, so it doesn't make much sense. I got back from my AMAZING trip on Saturday and at that point hadn't taken a shower since Wednesday, and I was sticky from bug spray and sunblock and sweat, and there was STILL no water at my house. The firemen had come, even, and filled up with water every single pot, pan and large bowl my family owns, just so we could have some for cooking and drinking. I had to go to Anna's to take a shower before the birthday party. I felt really bad for Stephanie because she got home yesterday after being in Los Llanos (the plains area of Venezuela) for four days, where she rode horses and held an anaconda and touched all kinds of animals and got really dirty, and she couldn't take a shower. The water comes and goes (which almost makes it more frustrating), but it was on for a little while this morning so we both got to shower really quickly before it went off again. But agh! We have to suffer, waterless, for 7 more days!!

Anyway, that's all for now. I will write about my AMAZING AMAZING trip later.

Oy, what a fun, yet frustrating weekend. Or maybe it's the other way around, I'm not really sure.

Have I ever mentioned how I love my "new" host family? They're really great. Have I ever mentioned how I hate the cash machines here? They're really not great. I know I said on Friday that I was going to go paragliding and bungee jumping and all that, and I really wish I had some great things to say about how much fun that was, but I couldn't go because the cash machines have not been working here... so I couldn't take out the money I needed to pay to go paragliding, and the agency didn't take credit cards or anything.

Not only are the cash machines not working, they are essentially ripping people off. I tried taking money out and then got an error message, saying it couldn't complete the transaction because it couldn't communicate with my institution. This happened to two other American students I know, Sara and Ryan, and they both had money deducted from their accounts, even though they didn't actually receive that money. Sara had over USD 600 taken out!!! Sure enough, I just checked my bank statement online and I had USD 78 withdrawn, but I never actually got that money. Arg, how frustrating. Gah, now I don't want to use the ATM here ever again, and yet going into the bank to take out money is a ridiculously complicated process. Oh well. :(

Well, despite all that, and not getting to go paragliding, it was a pretty good weekend. On Friday night, the power went out at my house (this happens a lot, actually) and my family was out, so Steph and I lit candles and talked in our kitchen. Then our family came home from Bible study (have I mentioned how they're Jehovah's Witnesses? In a country where 97% of the population is Catholic?) and we all talked and ate hot dogs til the power came back on. Then on Saturday night, Steph and I ended up babysitting our two "nieces" and one "nephew" for an hour and a half, and that was really fun. Mariana is our niece who lives with us, she's 8; then there's Genesis, she's 12 and Jose Alejandro, who is 2 and really, really cute. He makes me miss my nephews. We made them grilled cheese and taught them words in English. I also went out on Saturday night to an Clover's, which pretends to be an Irish pub, but really isn't, because this is Venezuela. It's not even owned by an Irish person. Who are they trying to fool?

This weekend I'm going on a trip to Lake Maracaibo, which is the largest lake in South America... there I will sleep in a hammock in a house on stilts... and see (hopefully) monkeys and freshwater dolphins and maybe some crocodiles... and the Catatumbo Lightning Phenomenon!

I voted

Imagine that title in white, all capital letters on a round red sticker right smack dab in the middle of my forehead. For all those of you who were worried (because I know I was), my absentee ballot finally came yesterday and I filled it out as soon as it was in my hands, then promptly turned it over to Rosa, VEN-USA's representative in the U.S., to take back to the States with her where she will drop it in a mailbox and it will be on its merry way to the Minnesota election officials! Hooooooray!

I really didn't think it would make it here on time, or really, at all. Or it would show up on October 28th and there would be no time for me to get it back to the States. Then my plan was to write a fiesty blog, directed at no one in particular, just saying that if there's anyone out there thinking about NOT VOTING, whether because they think it's a waste and it doesn't make a difference anyway, or because of pure laziness, or because of just not caring... they should think of me, NOT VOTING because I'm in SOUTH AMERICA without an absentee ballot, and go out and vote, no matter who for, just to exercise the right every American citizen is granted once they reach 18. And even now, though I did get to vote(!), everyone still has to do it. DO IT! NOVEMBER 2! Ok, fair warning.

So tomorrow, I think I'm going paragliding, which I have wanted to do before I even got here. It's a package from one of the local tour agencies, and Jami, the girl who arranged it all, just told me it might include wall climbing and bungee jumping, as well. Eek! This may be the end for me everyone! Wish me luck!

Hey! Yesterday was my blog's one-year anniversary. Happy blog birthday, then, I guess! Also, I've written nearly 100 posts. Here's to another year of blogging.

Yesterday was also Dia de La Raza here in Venezuela, a.k.a. Columbus Day. They don't call it Columbus Day here, however. Dia de La Raza literally means Day of the Race - referring to October 12th, the day Columbus first reached some part of the Americas (a tiny island in the Caribbean) as the beginning of the creation of the Latin American people from the European conquerors, the indigenous tribes of Central and South America, and the slaves that were later brought. Sometimes it's also called Dia del Encuentro de Dos Mundos (Meeting of Two Worlds), but some people dislike this name because it implies that the conquerors and the indigenous people were on equal footing. Sorry for the history lesson.

Anyway, I didn't have school yesterday so I celebrated Dia de la Raza by walking around downtown for 7 hours or so, getting sunburned and eating ice cream and running into half the people I know here. It was really nice! And then I realized I have less than two months left here. That's just plain nutty.

did someone say "American Cooking Night!!!"?

Last night it rained and rained and rained, OF COURSE, but that is not the point of this story. Last night was "Cultural Activity Night" here at school. Every week they have some sort of planned activity to bring the Americans and Venezuelans together with some silly, I mean, meaningful, cultural thing. One night it was "Sangria and Cheese Night" (sangria, I would like to point out, is not even Venezuelan, however tasty it might be). Another night was "Salsa Dancing Night," which was kind of fun and/or embarassing, depending on your point of view. We Americans have a sad lack of rhythm, let me just say, and some were really shamed by their awkward steps. I, on the other hand, really enjoyed the salsa-ing and embraced my lack of grace wholeheartedly! Look at me, my feet said, we can't dance but we're still having a hell of a time!

Anyway, last night was "American Cooking Night!!!" The sign-up sheet for the activity really had three exaclamation points - "American Cooking Night!!!" Ooo, "American Cooking Night!!!" Wow!!! So, so exciting!!! I can hardly stand the excitement!!! I got all worked into a frenzy over American cooking!!! I wonder what we will eat for "American Cooking Night!!!"??? Maybe it will be chocolate chip cookies, since this country produces a sad lack of chocolate chip cookies!!!

And do you know what we ate, for "American Cooking Night!!!," by any chance? Do you know? Not chocolate chip cookies, oh no, my friends. We had a nice, big, steaming bowl of... wait for it... I know you're excited... buffalo wings!!! Woo-hoo! That's some downhome American cookin', that is. Mm, I love me some buffalo wings.

Okay, I know there are buffalo wings fans out there (talking to Amanda, here) and there really is nothing wrong with them. I have nothing against the personally or anything, in fact, I enjoy the occasional buffalo wing. But the thought that buffalo wings somehow represent American cooking here sort of makes me cringe, I guess. That's like saying that Buffalo Wild Wings is there very pinnacle of American cuisine, and that just can't be true! Can it? Oh well, I guess if buffalo wings is American cooking!!! for Venezuelans, that's okay with me.

ah, winter in a sub-tropical country

Last night it rained and rained, for several hours, and my laundry was hanging out to dry in the backyard, of course, because it wouldn't, it couldn't be any other way, clearly. Don't you know, silly, that once you put your clothes on the line and leave the house, it's only a matter of time until it starts raining? And, of course, you must be far away, sitting in class for several hours with no chance of rescuing your defenseless clothes once the rain begins. OF COURSE.

It wasn't so rainy the first few weeks I was here. It was sunny all day and then there was a light shower, a sprinkling, really, at night. However, in the past two weeks, the amount of rainfall during the late afternoon/early evening/nighttime has grown in noticeable increments until sometimes when I'm going home at night, the water sloshes up into the buses. It seems my feet and the bottoms of my pants are forever wet. This is what they call winter. Have I mentioned how it's rainy season here? And it never stops with the rain and the water falling from the sky and the wetness? The infinite wetness everywhere? The rain that is slowly sapping my will to live? Now I know how Anne felt in Munster with the rain rain rain. Hell, now I'm beginning to understand how Noah and the fam felt, except I don't have to share a boat with a bunch of smelly animals.

I'm finally starting work on some of my term papers that are due at the end of the semester. I have one for every class, and some of them I am more excited about than others. For Latin American Folklore (with Prof. Vincent MORLEY), I am working on a paper about traditional medicinal plants and herbs of the region. It's more interesting than it probably sounds; I can't say the same of the class itself, however. I just feel like it's a waste since all Sir Morley does is just ramble on forever, sometimes repeating himself and nothing has any relevance to anything else we talk about. He's a nice man, if a little crazy, and he knows more about Venezuelan folklore than most Venezuelans, I imagine, but I don't feel like he is a very effective teacher. Anyway, I have four other term papers to write and no real idea what I'm doing yet, except for Children's Lit. I suppose I should get on that. At least I no longer feel like I'm just on vacation and I realize these classes actually do count for something.

As for the night life, Danielle , I guess I haven't really talked much about that. The night life is pretty thriving here, even though this isn't a huge city. Going out, dancing, and drinking are big parts of the culture here, not just for young people, but for middle-agers as well... it just kind of depends on where you go. There are several big discos that are similar to American ones and that play American and European pop and techno, on top of the usual salsa. (Salsa and merengue are the most common music/dance styles.) Then there are tons of bars all over, some with live bands and dance floors. ¿Que mas? My favorite place to go out here is el Hoyo de Queque, which is more like a bar but has a dance floor... it also has live bands and is packed on the weekends with ULA (University of the Andes) students and usually some European and/or American tourists.

Venezuelan fun fact time!:

Venezuelans, typical of most Latin Americans, have a very relaxed sense of time. If they have an appointment or are meeting someone, it's not unusual for them to be at least 20 minutes late and think nothing of it. When they say something is happening mañana, which literally means tomorrow, it could mean it's happening tomorrow, or the next day, or maybe four days from now... maybe even next week, eh, who knows? Not a single movie I have been to has started on time. The closest was once when a 7:30 movie began at 7:40.

Still alive and still non-parasitic, coming to you directly from Venezuela. I just had one of those weekends where nothing seemed to go according to plan, and yet all the mishaps made for funny stories because I probably had more fun than I would've if everything had happened how it should have. If that makes any sense. Some highlights of my misadventures:

-a going away party for two of the English teachers from my school at their amazing house where I was...
-humped by a very rained on and smelly golden retriever named Aldo
-had the lower half of my body completely soaked because it was raining so hard the streets were flooded (there are no storm sewers)
-tried to see a movie that turned out to be playing NOWHERE despite seeing it on a theater's marquee
-talking with various taxi drivers, every one of whom mentioned not liking President Bush
-falling in a small manhole and having my ankle cut up, in front of the police who stand guard outside the mayor's house, who laughed at the stupid gringa
-trying to play bingo at Rotary and not succeeding because things never start on time here... bingo supposedly started at 6 but the first game was not played until 8:30... oy, these Venezuelans
-yelling out "bingo!" at a very inappropriate time and having all the elderly Venezuelan Rotarians stare at me

But for now I have to run to class. More later.