Blog!

Hello again. It's been a while since I last updated this, I haven't been particularly busy or anything, just kinda lazy. Some stuff has happened, so I have actual stuff to talk about this time.

About three weeks ago, or something like that, I had this AFS meeting activity thing that lasted all day and was pretty boring, so I'm not actually going to talk about it. But the day after that I went to this really nice small beach. It's probably my favourite beach in Venezuela so far. It doesn't have all of the tourist commercial stuff, it's just a beach. That's why I like it. I went snorkelling for the first time. It was super duper fun. The water was quite clear, so it was cool swimming around and looking at the fish and stuff.

Then like, a week later, we had this activity where we bought some toys to donate to poor kids. So we went to the Newspaper that was running the program and donated the toys, and then we got our photo taken. I assume they put it in the Newspaper, or are going to, but I forgot the name of it, so I don't know. The day after we had this Christmas dinner thing, which was alright. I don't really like Venezuelan food very much.

I finished school on the 13th, so now I'm on holiday until sometime in January, I'm not sure when.

I can't really be bothered describing the trip that I'm going on next month, so I'll just talk about it after I've gone on it.

I can't think of anything else to talk about, it's raining a lot right now, like, everyday. Ummm, that's pretty much it. I'm not making any promises on when I'll next update this.

Just Four Days Later

Nothing huge has happened, my last post was very small, so I felt I should post again with some general information and other stuff.

Alright, my school. I go to a school that is pretty close to my home, a ten minute-ish walk. The school is very small, I'd guess that it has around 100 students, which is quite a change from the 2,500ish at Avondale College. My school schedule confuses me. They gave me a timetable, but now I'm pretty sure that was just to confuse me. Some weird joke. Crazy Venezuelan school people and their weird jokes. The classes are boring, mostly due to the fact that I don't really understand what the teachers are saying. Also, teachers here mostly dictate information to you to take notes, instead of writing stuff on the board and using powerpoints. I take Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Spanish, English, Geography, PE, and maybe some other stuff that I can't remember right now. PE and English are the only classes I actually do anything in, and I don't even consider PE to be a real class. Here kickball is a real sport. It's kinda lame, similar to baseball, not that I'm saying I think baseball is lame, but I do.

The weather here is pretty nice, but that's subjective. It's easy to like it one day, and then hate it the next. The heat is intense. For some reason we do PE in the middle of the day. I don't even have to do much to start sweating profusely, it's disgusting. Occasionally it rains, and I've experienced quite a bit of thunder and lightning. 

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but power cuts are quite common here. It's pretty annoying, but they usually don't last very long. 

In Venezuela Lunch is the main meal of the day, not dinner. I usually have Lunch after I get home from school, and then we have dinner sometime after my host-mum gets home from work. I've just been having cereal for breakfast, so no change from New Zealand there.

I recently received an email concerning my first AFS trip. It gives me lots of information about it, but I can't really be bothered writing about it right now, maybe I'll write about it in my next post. The trip is from the 18th of January to the 26th of January. It's looks quite exciting, and it costs something like 3500 Bolivares. Currency exchange here is super annoying. For some reason the Government controls it, and the acquisition of foreign currency not through the government is illegal. If you exchange USD to Bolivares officially, then you get 4.3 Bolivares for ever US Dollar. But if you do it on the street, then you can get 8 for every US Dollar. So depending on where the money for the trip comes from, it could cost me like 1000 dollars, or like, 500. I have to pay for a flight to get to somewhere for the start of the trip as well, I'm not sure where though yet. Also I have to take spending money, so it's a pretty expensive trip, it looks great though.

That's pretty much it for now I think.

Another Post

Hi, I realise that I'm a week late, but I kinda just forgot to update this. There hasn't been much happening.

On Wednesday night, my family went to Miami, leaving me to stay with my contact person, in La Asuncion, until Sunday, tomorrow. They bought the tickets back in June because, being around Thanksgiving, it's a very busy time.

School has been easy, and boring. The teachers don't make me do any work in class, they don't really care what I do. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but if one of your teachers doesn't show up that day, then you don't have class. On Thursday I had school for two hours, just two hours. There's not even any point to that. That's retarded. I'm not saying I don't like that it was for two hours only, but having to get up at six in the morning for two hours of nothing at school, it's just a little annoying. Monday that week I was supposed to finish at three, but I finished at like, 11 instead.

I can't think of anything else to write, when I'm out doing stuff, I think of cool stuff I could say, well not cool, really just stuff. But then I just forget when it's time to write it. I'll probably update this blog again tomorrow with some more information and stuff.

Caracas!

Hello to whoever reads this. I now feel a little bit less silly, so thank you for commenting, all three of you, ha.  I think I forgot to mention that I had to get a haircut a few weeks ago. It was fine, nothing horrible.

I didn't end up making afghan biscuits because we couldn't get the ingredients in time, but it didn't matter. My little presentation went well, people laughed when I told them that New Zealand had 30 million more sheep than people. Apparently I have another AFS meeting on Sunday, so I can tell you about that next time I update this.

Last Thursday night I flew with my family to Caracas and stayed until midday on Sunday. The first night we stayed with cousins and stuff. They have a very nice apartment, and I got to play Fifa 12 for the first time with my cousin (NZ vs. Brazil 1-1, oh yeah). Security is quite important in Caracas, as you would expect of a city with such high crime rates. Their apartment complex was fenced off and had guards and stuff. Every apartment complex/building I've seen is fenced off with quite a bit of security, not just the ones in Caracas actually.

Me with my Mum and Cousin.

View of some of Caracas from the cable car

Anyway, the first day in Caracas I didn't do anything, just played playstation while the others were off doing important things, but that night we went to my Uncle's apartment, and we stayed there for the next two nights. Saturday was the most interesting day. We went to El Avila National Park or Waraira Repano, which was pretty awesome. The national park covers part of a mountain range, and we took the cable car up to the top. The cable car is quite exciting, it takes you up the mountain at 2,135m above sea level, at least that's what Wikipedia tells me. At the top there's a whole bunch of stuff. There's a big walk way that you, um, walk on, obviously, to take a look around, and shops, street performers, and food places. Turns out that some people enjoy hot chocolate with bits of cheese in it. I don't know why.  Anyway, there are photos on Facebook that my mum kindly took and uploaded, and I got a few scenery shots with my iPod, which should make them easier to upload, but not as great quality. I still haven't got an adapter to charge my camera with, but I will soon.

Um, what else is there?  School is still going pretty well. It's very nice having 3 day weekends every week. I can't think of anything else. This was going to be uploaded on Friday, but I lost my internet, so it being behind schedule isn't my fault. If you want to view more photos, just go on my Facebook page.

An Uncreative Name

Hello again. I don't actually know if anyone reads this, so at times it feels strange writing it, kinda like an online diary. If you wanted to, you could comment on it, make me feel a little bit less silly.

So I've been going to school for three weeks now, and I've been in Venezuela for almost two months. It's been pretty great, school is good. Class is quite boring, but everyone is really nice to me. I feel bad when someone says hi to me and I don't know their name. It happens quite often The teachers mostly just dictate information to the class to take notes. English and Chemistry are the easiest subjects, I've already studied the stuff they're doing in Chemistry, so it's still quite boring, but for different reasons than the other classes. Having school for eight hours a day is really tiring, but not having school on Fridays almost makes up for it.

I went to the movies again to see Transformers. I don't know how long it's been at the cinemas here, but it seems Venezuela is quite far behind when it comes to movie releases. The movie is pretty awful, and really long. I've also discovered that going to the movies is much cheaper here. It cost me 20 Bolivares to see Transformers, which is less than five dollars.

The Sunday after that I went to a couple of beaches and this National Park where we took a ride on a boat through this thing. I can't even remember the name of the National Park, and I don't know how to describe how it was. Kinda makes it pointless that I'm even writing about it, I don't know why I am.

Tomorrow I have an AFS meeting thing. I have to do a brief presentation about New Zealand and bring some New Zealand food. The presentation thing is easy, but the New Zealand food thing isn't. Even right now, the only New Zealand food I can think of is a Pavlova. I would make a Pavlova, but it takes so much time and effort. So I googled New Zealand food, and I know that you're thinking I should have found this stuff out before I left New Zealand, and, you know, that's a good point. I guess I just forgot, but is there even such a thing as "New Zealand Food"? You know, Italy has Pizza and a bunch of other stuff, but what does New Zealand have? Yeah, it's because we're really just a British country, and you'd like to say Fush and Chups, but that's British, at least Fish and Chips are. Umm, anyway, I googled New Zealand food, and it turns out that Afghan Biscuits are from New Zealand. I don't know if you knew that, you probably did, but I didn't. So that's what I'm going to make, I hope it'll be acceptable. Biscuits aren't much of a meal, but biscuits are easy to make, so I'll make those tomorrow.

I should apologise about the lack of pictures on here and Facebook. Right now I need to get an adapter to charge my camera, and the photos I have already take ages to upload. I need to make them smaller and then upload them. I promise I'll do that before the end of the month. I'm sorry.

That's pretty much it for now. I'll update in two weeks or less.

More Stuff

Hi, it's been a while since my last post, sorry. There hasn't been that much to write about though, so it's not my fault. I guess I'll describe the events of the past weekish in Chronological order, that makes sense.

So last Saturday was my first AFS Margarita meeting. It was fun. The other AFS students hosted in Margarita (A swiss guy and two Italian girls, I don't know if I've mentioned that) and I were taught how to make Arepas, one of the traditional Venezuelan foods. Venezuelans seem very proud of their Arepas, almost every Venezuelan has asked me if I've tried one and react with amazement when I tell them that I think they're alright, and not super duper fabulously awesome. The meeting itself wasn't really a meeting. It was just everyone gathering to talk and hang out, quite different from the meetings of AFS Waitakere.

The following Monday was my first day at school. I got up at about 6 in the morning (obviously in the morning) to get ready for school. I'm pretty sure all schools here have the same uniform, I think it's a government thing. They use different colours for different age groups. The high school aged students wear a beige polo shirt, long dark blue pants and black shoes. When I got to school, I realised how super tiny it is. I think the school could fit into Avondale College at least twenty times, probably more. People are pretty amazed when I tell them that the school I went to in New Zealand has almost 3000 students. I think my school here has about 200 students, maybe that's over estimating. Anyway, so everyday here starts with the students of the school gathering to sing the National Anthem and listen to some teachers say something. On Monday I had school from 7 to 11.30ish, but usually on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I have school from 7 to 3. On Thursday from 7 to 1ish, and I don't have school on Fridays. Not all schools have the same hours though. Other schools might go from 7 to 12, five days a week, and others might go from 8 to 4, four days a week. It depends on the school. I've been getting a lot of attention. It's a little overwhelming at times, having like 15 people gathered around me asking me questions in really quick Spanish. Fortunately there are a few people in my class that can speak English that are helping me out. The school is quite close to my house, so I walk home everyday, but get a ride to school in the morning. I can't think of anything else to say about school.

And last night I went to the movies with some friends from school. We saw Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, it was pretty good.

There's not much else to write about, so that's pretty much it. I haven't put photos up yet, I will eventually, my goal is to put some up before the end of the month. Everything is going pretty well, it'll probably be at least two weeks before my next post. Maybe that'll be my schedule, an update every two weeks. Ok, so check back in two weeks.

Venezuela's my beach.

Ha! See what I did there?

I've been in Venezuela for two weeks now, or dos semanas, in español. I'm loving it here, and I'm looking forward to school on Monday. Other people don't start school until October, but I'd rather start school earlier, so I'm glad.

On Monday I went with some other AFS students and volunteers to Playa El Yaque, a beach that is apparently really good for wind and kite surfing. It was fun, I used my new camera in the water for the first time, but I didn't get any good pictures. I prefer Playa Parguito over El Yaque, but I've only been to each once, so that could change. We stayed at the beach for the day and then we all went back to the holiday apartment of one of the volunteers. We hung out by the pool, and then we had dinner. It was a fun day.

Part of Coche

And yesterday we went to the small Coche Island for the day. We took a ferry from Margarita Island to Coche. The ferry stopped somewhere on the way, and we were able to jump off the boat into the water and swim around, it was awesome. When we got there we lazed around on the beach, went for a swim, and did normal beach stuff. We went on a walk with a guide to this natural mud spring(?) place and put mud all over ourselves. Apparently the mud is good for your skin. The island is a paradise. I was told that the water is usually very clear, but because of a storm it was more cloudy and unclear than usual. I'll have to go back sometime.

Pepo

Ollie

Here in Venezuela there are a lot of stray dogs. They're not dangerous or anything, as far as I know. There was this dog on Coche that was hanging around the beach. His name is Pepo. He's a cute little scruffy dog, not as cute as Ollie though, who I miss, maybe the most. Don't tell my mum.

So, I have 3 more days, or tres mas días, left until I begin school. I'm excited, and I'll update my blog after I start school.

(Correction : I actually don't start school until the 3rd of October)

Camp and Porlamar

Wednesday 07/09/11

Part 1 – Camp

I arrived in Caracas on Friday at about 3ish, I think, and met some Venezuelan AFS people. I had to wait around for other exchange students from Europe for a few hours, and then we all had to wait for a bus to take us to the camp. We left the airport at 9ish and drove for a few hours to get to the camp. The next day was a bunch of team building stuff and information about Venezuela, nothing interesting. I didn’t really enjoy the camp; it was difficult for me at first because I’m the only AFS student from New Zealand, the only natural English speaker even. So to begin with, talking with other people was difficult because people were sticking to their country groups and speaking their native languages. We stayed at the camp until Sunday morning, and then we went back to the airport to fly to our respective chapters, mine being Margarita.

Part 2 – Porlamar!

So I arrived in Porlamar on Sunday afternoon to step off the plane to a blast of heat and lots of sun. I met my host mum, brother and sister after getting my suitcase, and we drove home. It’s really really nice here. Margarita Island is beautiful, and my family live in a nice apartment building with a pool.

 I went to the mall with my family on Monday, which was amazing. The mall is incredible. Super busy, but way better than any mall in New Zealand, I’ll take some photos next time I go. I haven’t taken any photos yet, but I’ll definitely start taking some.

 I went to the beach today, Playa Parguito. It’s a really nice beach and has a bunch of stuff. There are restaurants right by the beach, people who can bring you drinks, loads of people walking around trying to sell you stuff, it’s a great experience. The beach was really busy though, not that it matters that much, it was still great.

Tomorrow my host sister and host cousins leave to go to Caracas, which I'm a little sad about. My host sister is leaving for Canada on Sunday from Caracas for her exchange. It’s going to be pretty lonely around the apartment during the day; it'll just be me and my host brother, but my host brother is cool as well.

I played card games with my host sister and cousins on Monday, which was hilarious and super fun. Them trying to explain in Spanish how to play the games was great.

School starts on the 19^th, so I have over another week of lazing around the apartment. I don’t know what I’ll do until then, so my next post will probably be about my first days of school.

Buenos Aires

As I write this I sit in an apartment that belongs to some AFS volunteers and former participants in Buenos Aires. My flight from Auckland to Buenos Aires was long, but luckily I managed to get some sleep, and was sitting next to a cool Australian dude who was going on a trip across South America.

My plane landed in Buenos Aires at about 4pm local time, and I went through customs to meet an AFS volunteer who escorted me to the apartment that I am in now. I've been able to have some food and a shower, so that's pretty good.

I've had mixed feelings about my experience so far, jumping between nervousness, excitement, and a little bit of sadness, but I feel pretty good right now.

My flight to Caracas leaves at about 7am tomorrow, I'll have to get up really early, so I should get some sleep. My next post will probably be from Porlamar. Goodbye until then.

El Primero

This is the first of what should be at least a few blog posts detailing my experience in Venezuela on an AFS Student Exchange. My name is Nikolas Rusten. This is my story.

Venezuela - Isla Margarita

Tomorrow I will leave on what should be one of the best experiences of my life. I've known that I would be going to Venezuela for more than eight months, and for a couple of months I've known that I would be going to the Island of Margarita to live with a Venezuelan Family.

My host family live in the city of Porlamar, the largest city on Isla de Margarita with a population of about 100,000 according to Wikipedia. I've been in contact with my Host-Mother for just over a month, ish, and she seems really nice. I don't think my Host-Family speak any English, but I'm actually rather thankful for that. I've been learning Spanish and have enough to get by without any disasters, hopefully.

I leave tomorrow on a 12 hour plane flight to Buenos Aires, where I will spend the night, and fly to Caracas the next morning, for a two day arrival camp thing.

My next post might be from Buenos Aires, so goodbye until then.