live simply... so that others can simply live.

The past few days have been incredible. We spent more time at the pool, went out, cheered on Magallanes in the baseball Venezuelan series, and then took a two day excursion to aguas termales or hot springs. We even had time to do our laundry for the first time! It was pretty easy and painless. Although the baseball team we wanted didn't win, we had fun wearing shirts and cheering loudly. I was surprised and excited at how big of a deal baseball is here.

Our trip to aguas termales was AMAZING. We took about an hour jeep ride to the base of the mountain, hiked about 45 minutes to the top of the mountain where we camped and visited the hot springs. The hot springs were so natural and peaceful. We spent most of the night hanging around a fire and appreciating nature. It was quite magical to wake up to a beautiful view of mountains :)

Tomorrow we return to school. Hopefully we will have a full week this time :) Things have calmed down quite a bit here recently so I hope it stays that way. I am actually very excited for this week. I feel like I learn so much in my classes. Tuesday we have dance class, and Wednesday we have Venezuelan cooking class. Our parents are supposed to come home Thursday... CROSS YOUR FINGERS!

LOVE KELSEY.

mucho caos en la calle

The past few days have been a little crazy! There has been a lot of protesting in the streets and unfortunately two students from the public university have died. Luckily, I attend the private university in the city, but obviously it affects everyone. Therefore, we have been suspended from school for a few days until things calm down and we need to be VERY careful. It is so crazy... the national guard is just camped out on the street to stop anything that may start. The biggest form of protest that I have physically seen has been tire fires in the streets, but it is still really scary, especially being a GRINGA which means AMERICAN>> we stick out like sore thumbs. The reason for the protests is because recently Chavez has dropped 6 tv channels, devalued the dollar, issued power and water outages, and neglected to clean up the garbage on the streets. In general, people are just frustrated with all of the unnecessary changes.

On top of the chaos in the city, there was a loss in our host family. We are just trying to be supportive of the family, as we attended a mass service tonight, and are awaiting our REAL parents arrival. They are currently in Caracas trying to get tickets home.

I absolutely LOVE my classes and the people here. I am actually sad that classes are suspended which is a really weird feeling. Tomorrow we plan to go to the pool again and this weekend, the hot springs. Tonight we had such a fun time with our "aunt". We drank some wine and just laughed. I think it was really good for our aunt to relax and smile since she has had such a rough week with her uncle dying. We also gave her a candle and Jack Johnson CD and I think she really appreciated it. She is so funny and cute.

Overall it has been a little more difficult lately since we have kind of been on lockdown and for the first time in the past week, I felt unsafe. But I think once the city calms down, things will be much better. Whenever I get down I just look outside and see MOUNTAINS and SUNSHINE and everything seems to be much better :) I am also thankful that I don't have a parasite because 3 people in our program do and they are miserable :/

anyways.... sorry if my English is bad. I am finding that when you speak two languages, you start to struggle in both! :)

she's only happy in the sun

We spent a lot of time exploring the city this weekend. Mercado principal, el centro, the pool, etc. Mercado principal is basically the market place. I got a bracelet, a purse, and a dream catcher. There was a lot of cheap trinkets and souvenirs and its only a ten minute walk from my house so I will be back! Then we ran errands with our aunt and met our grandma. She was so welcoming and lives in a really quaint neighborhood with lots of kids and family. Then today we spent 5 hours laying by the pool. It was so relaxing and we got LOTS of color! Tomorrow = first full week of school. I have class at 8 am... YIKES!

Just a quick update. Peace, love, and sunshine :)

Let the good times roll....

Soo I have had a lot of firsts since my last post-- first day of school, first arepa, first night out, and overall lots of exploring. We live about a 20-30 minute walk from school so when the sun is up it is perfectly safe to walk, plus a good way to exercise. The sun beats down on us as we trek to school; of course receiving lots of whistles and hollers that we just simply ignore… it’s their culture.

I had Politics and Geography for the first day of school. I already feel like I will learn so much because the NATIVE teachers just lecture in Spanish, are extremely knowledgeable/kind/understanding and there isn’t all of the busy work that I find at Minnesota. I am also taking Children’s Literature, Film Criticism and Linguistics.

The food here is really good and the portions are a lot smaller which is good! An arepa is a flat bread type pita stuffed with different things. They also have tajadas which are fried plantains. We found a bakery which is really close to our house where I think we will spend a lot of time! They have GREAT food and DELICIOUS coffee! It feels like I am at home when I am there.

Last night (Thursday) we finally went out! We met lots of Venezuelan students from VENUSA that went with us, they are SO nice and really want to take care of us. There was a big group of us which was better and safer. We went to 3 bars... bananas, poco loco, and one more that I don't know the name of. There was a really important baseball game going on so everyone was cheering which was really exciting! and the favored team WON! :) Lots of dancing, drinking, hanging out with friends, and good times.

Today we ventured out to the grocery store which was nice. It is very close to our house. And tonight we have nuevos encuentros and a BBQ which is where we get paired with Venezuelan students as a learning experience/buddy system. Should be fun! They are really cool people. Then our new friend Isbelys is taking us out.

I love the location of our apartment and there are 5 of us living in the building which is very convenient.

Hope all is well with everyone at home! :)

WE MADE IT! sorry such a long post.... :)

Sooo.... I am finally here! What a relief :)

I will start from the beginning.....

The travels overall went very smoothly, everything was on time and no luggage was lost! We flew four hours from Miami to Caracas, one hour from Caracas to El Vigia, and a two hour bus ride from El Vigia to Merida... the buses truly are FREEZING!

When we arrived to VENUSA (the name of our school) a woman was standing with a sign that had our names on it.... at first it was very awkward and we were very nervous! In the taxi we found out that she was actually our host mom's sister because our parents had to go out of town on an emergency until saturday! However, our host "aunt", if you will, is 26 and very nice and fun! and we have heard very good things about our parents too. When we arrived the power was out and we had to carry our heavy bags up 3 flights of stairs... OY! But once the power turned back on we had time to straighten our room and get situated. As soon as we were done we PASSED out as we were running on hardly any sleep! We each have a twin bed, share a closet, have our own bathroom together, a TV, wireless internet, and overall all of the basic necessities! It is a little smaller than I expected but I cannot complain. And we have purified water and pretty yummy meals! :)

Today, Tuesday, we had to be at school at 9 am for orientation. We learned a little about how things work and signed up for classes. The school is basically one building with 3 floors. There is a pool table, wireless, lockers, a cafeteria, and my favorite part: HAMMOCKS! For lunch we got a 2 hour break and sat outside in the BEAUTIFUL weather and had empanadas, yummy! Unfortunately we had to take a spanish placement exam which was a little harder than I expected but oh well! I will improve over time :) Then they took us on a tour of the fun part of the city. It is very crowded, lots of shops, lots of traffic, and lots of spanish. They also took us to an ice cream parlor that is known for their number of flavors.... AROUND 800! I had coffee and sangria and tried someone else's BEER flavored ice cream-- SO WEIRD! Then we returned to VENUSA to end the evening.... unfortunately there was a fire and riots in the street so we had to wait much longer until we could safely get home. Don't worry Mom! It was just the motorcyclists that are trying to protest against Chavez's new rule enforcing that they wear orange vests which are very expensive! How crazy! But they keep us very safe at VENUSA. We finally safely got home in a taxi, had dinner and now are here! :)

Tomorrow= 4 hour hike in the mountains and I cannot wait! Then I think we are going to venture out tomorrow night for the first time. By then I should have an activated Venezuelan phone which will make things much easier.

Overall, things are going GREAT! I have met amazing people and am in love with the weather. I am looking forward to taking many trips to the beach, going on adventure tours, and improving my spanish! I already feel 100x stronger after 2 days! So it only will go up from here!

MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU ALL!

<3>

and the journey begins...

We made it successfully to Miami where it is cloudy, rainy, and very humid but much WARMER and more pleasant than NE or MN. We have met around 8 other students joining us on our journey and they are VERY nice. Everything went very smoothly besides the Fox channel not working at the hotel for the Vikings game... thank goodness for nfl.com! haha I think we are just going to lay low today in the hotel and try to catch up on sleep since we have to leave for the airport at 2:30 AM! YIKES! Although everyone is already speaking Spanish to us here in Miami, tomorrow is when the real emersion begins. I will have updates as SOON as I get settled in and have access to internet. Safe travels :)

Merida Forecast... rough ;)

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
80° F | 51° F	80° F | 55° F	78° F | 53° F	78° F | 51° F	80° F | 53° F
Clear	Clear	Chance of Rain 20% chance of precipitation	Clear	Clear
Hourly	Hourly	Hourly	Hourly	Hourly

History in the Making- Darius Rucker... 10 dias

Don’t move Baby Don’t move
Awww look at you
I just want to take this in
The moonlight dancing off your skin
Our time Lets take our time
I just want to look in your eyes
and catch my breath
Cuz I just got a feeling

This could be one of those memories
We want to hold on to, cling to,
one we can’t forget
Baby, this could be our last first kiss
The door to forever
What if this was that moment
That chance worth taking
History in the making

Inside, baby inside
Can you feel the butterflies?
Floating all around
Cuz I can sure feel them now
Tonight, maybe tonight
Is a start of a beautiful ride
that will never end
And baby I’ve got a feeling

This could be one of those memories
We want to hold on to, cling to,
One we can’t forget
Baby, this could be our last first kiss
The door to forever
What if this was that moment
That chance worth taking
History in the making

Right here, right now
Holding you in my arms

This could be one of those memories
We want to hold on to, we want to cling to,
One that we can’t forget
Baby, this could be our last first kiss
The door to forever
What if this was that moment
That chance worth taking
History in the making

^^ It is exactly one week from my return to Minneapolis... which means I am only 10 days from the big day! Packing is a lot of work but very exciting. I need to remember that it is possible to get by with very little, considering I went 7 days in Israel without ANYTHING. The song above has recently become my favorite. It was playing in the car as I sadly took Ben to the airport... but it is actually quite uplifting. I have a lot of mixed emotions: nervous, scared, confused, unsure but above all, EXCITED! I am mostly excited for the culture and the adventure aspect... and I am nervous about my host family, security, and difficulty with the language!

The above song talks about how we don't have forever so we need to live in the moment, especially in relationships. I think being apart from everyone will only make me stronger. I will be so busy that 4 months will go very fast, and the relationships that are worth lasting, will be just fine! Almost everything I have done in my life has been by instinct, spontaneity, fate, and destiny and it has pretty much all worked out for the best. Going to Minneapolis for school has found me the best friends in the world, going to Israel and then Canada has found me the best boyfriend in the world, and now I am confident that Venezuela is going to find me something special as well (of course not replacing the two above discoveries!) Anyways, I plan to try to keep up with this blog as much as I can although I understand time will be limited and unfortunately Venezuela is known for many power outages (it will make for good stories).

Thanks for reading! and if I bore you... sorry! You don't have to read it :) It is also going to be a journal for myself so that I can look back on it years from now and remember my experience!

KELSEY <3