My Last Days in Venezuela

This blog update comes to you from onboard my flight to Buenos Aires from Caracas.

My last day with my Host family in Margarita was a nice way to end my exchange experience there. During the day, I made a Pavlova for my family, which although they seemed to like, I didn’t think it was very good. They don’t have caster sugar here, or baking paper. And, if you’ve ever made a Pavlova, you’d probably know that you need baking paper. Due to the sugar not being as fine as caster sugar, it was pretty much impossible to dissolve all of the sugar, which I spent about two hours trying to do. Also, I didn’t have fruit, so on top was just cream. But yeah, my host family seemed to like it, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?

Well, after I’d left the Pavlova in the oven to cool, I went with my family to the Fortin de Juan Griego, located in the town of Juan Griego. I had a nice time there with my family, we watched some of the sun set, and then made our way home.

The last night I had in Margarita wasn’t spent sleeping, due to the fact that I had to finish packing my bags, although I don’t think I would’ve been able to sleep even if I tried. The last few days I had in Margarita were partially filled by pockets of horrible sadness, as I began to realize that I’m leaving my new family, and I have no idea of when I’ll be able to see them again. What’s nice though, is when I came to Venezuela; I came to live with some strangers, who eventually became my Venezuelan family, the people who I’m going to miss a lot.

Before I left, I was told several times that, while leaving New Zealand may be hard (I didn’t really find it particularly hard), leaving your exchange country is going to be a lot harder. It turned out to be true. I don’t think you could ever really imagine how hard it would be, I definitely didn’t think it was going to be as hard as it was, as it is. When I came to Venezuela, it was pretty much just another country. Now that I’m leaving, I’m leaving my second home, Like I said previously, I came to live with strangers who became my family, a random woman who became my Venezuelan mum. I’ve come to love this country, and accept the things I don’t like about it. What perplexes me now, is why Venezuela isn’t a much more popular exchange destination. Sure, it has its problems, but it is a truly beautiful country, with so many different things to see. Beautiful beaches, wonderful wildlife, big cities, and so much more. The people too, generally, are just so open, friendly, and accepting. And no, I’m not writing a promotion for the Venezuelan tourism industry. I know that I’ll return as soon as I can.

Another reason I didn’t sleep was the fact that we had to leave at about 4AM to go to the airport. Once I’d finished packing and was already, I sat around and tried to relax. We left the apartment at about 4.30AM, and made our way to the airport in the early morning darkness. My family took me to the airport, and following the normal airport procedure, bid me a sad farewell. When taking a few last photos, I was told to smile, but I found it a little hard, due to the circumstance.

We arrived to Caracas at about half past seven, and waited around for a few hours for other students from other cities, and then went to the location where our end of stay orientation was to take place. I left a day earlier than everyone else there, due to flight schedules, but while I was there we did some typical activities, and had a chance to talk, in small groups, about how we felt.

I left for the airport a day after I arrived, accompanied by some AFS volunteers, and did the necessary airport things. I went through security fairly quickly; at least compared to a few experiences I’ve had, and then started to walk around looking at shops and stuff. Before I left Margarita, my mum had been looking for a shirt of the Venezuelan Football team, La Vinotinto, in my size to give to me. Neither she nor I were able to find one in Margarita. But, luckily, after asking a few people out and inside the airport if they were sold at the airport, I found one in my size. I was extremely happy to finally get a shirt, and it brightened up a sad day for me. If you didn’t already know, in Venezuela there is a currency control system in place. This makes it pretty much impossible to exchange Bolivares for other currencies outside of Venezuela, so I was stuck with the task of spending the remaining money I had. I went to one store with nice looking souvenir things, and started talking with the woman working there. I told her I wanted to spend the remaining Bolivares I had, explaining why, and then started talking about my time in Venezuela, where I was going and other related things. I bought a small Venezuelan flag, to accompany the other one my family gave me, and a Venezuelan shot glass. I had the exact amount of money to make the purchase. Well, demonstrating the friendliness that so many Venezuelans show, she gave me a nice Venezuelan bracelet type thing for free, and let me keep my last one Bolivar coin as a souvenir.

I think they ways that my exchange has ended have been almost perfect, and I’m quite grateful for that. But I miss Venezuela and my family quite a lot. It's hard to believe it's over and how fast it went.

The End

Hello, I'm writing this on my last night in my home in Venezuela. Tomorrow, at 4AM, I have to go to the airport and fly to Caracas for an end of exchange orientation thing, where I'll stay for a night. The following day I'll be flying to Buenos Aires.

For my last day here, I made a Pavlova for my family, and then went with my Mum and Sister to El Fortin de Juan Griego. It's a fort in a town called Juan Griego. It was a beautiful place. I'll put more photos on this blog later, when I have time, and maybe even write a bit more. It was a nice day, and a good way to end my exchange experience here in Margarita.

Right now is by far the worst I've felt during my entire exchange, actually, the worst I can ever remember feeling. I have to leave my new home and family in Venezuela, and I don't know when I'll be able to return. I'm gonna miss a lot of things about my home here. I'm really gonna miss my mum. She's such a nice person, and has made my exchange a lot easier.

It's complicated, because as I've said before, I have conflicting feelings. I want to go home to New Zealand, but I really don't want to leave. This is easily the hardest part of my exchange.

I'll update from Buenos Aires.

Nearing the End

Hello again. I had planned to update earlier, but I got distracted and/or forgot. But you can all stop crying now and begin to rejoice.

Anyway, I have about a week left here in Venezuela, which is sad. I'm sad about it, but I'm also excited to travel, and excited to return to New Zealand at the end of it all. It's quite strange actually, I'm not sure how to feel. I have conflicting feelings, one moment I'll be quite sad, and the next moment I'll be excited. It's quite exhausting.

We had a nice big AFS meeting thing, where all the people associated with AFS someway in Margarita, came together to hang out, eat, and talk about stuff. I had to get up and speak a little bit about my experience in Venezuela, and it was alright. My Spanish has improved a lot, as you would expect. I was speaking to a few people that are going on an exchange next year, and they told me that my Spanish was really good. That made me quite happy. I've found that speaking and understanding the conversation is much easier when you're dictating the subject. When I'm more passively participating in a conversation I find I don't understand as much.

I think I forgot to tell you all that I went to Caracas for a few days a couple of months ago. I went with my host brother for my host cousin's Confirmation. If you don't know what that is, don't worry, neither did I. It's this ceremony type thing that Catholics, and I think maybe people of some other religions, have to signify the beginning of religious responsibility, or something like that, I'm not sure. The Confirmation ceremony thing was quite boring, but being in Caracas was fun. I stayed with my cousins and I really enjoyed it, they're all very nice. They live in an apartment complex that more of their family also live in, so they can visit and hang out with each other whenever they want. It was nice being around so many people, a change from how it is in my home in Margarita. I played Playstation with my host cousins, which was quite fun. My favourite part was being introduced by my host cousins or host Aunt to other people as "my cousin/nephew", it's nice hearing that.

Anyway, I'm at the point in my exchange when I'm experiencing lots of "lasts", you know, like last time I'll go to school (although that actually happened several weeks ago). It's quite sad. I leave Margarita Island early morning on Wednesday the 25th, and go to Caracas for an ending camp thing, and then I leave Caracas in the afternoon on Thursday the 26th. Just writing about leaving Margarita Island is making me a bit sad. But I have traveling to look forward to, so that makes me a bit less sad.

I've been thinking about things that I'm going to miss, and things that I won't. The things I will miss outnumber the things I won't, which I guess is a good thing, it just makes it harder to leave. Actually, the only thing I can think of right now that I won't miss is seeing stray dogs and cats pretty much everywhere I go. But there are several things that I can think of that I will miss. I'll miss playing football here, my host mum and family, my friends, and I'll particularly miss being able to speak Spanish all the time. I know I won't be able to speak Spanish as much in New Zealand.

I don't really have anything more to say right now, so I guess that's it from me for now. Thanks for reading.

Blog! The Second.

What? Another post so soon? Yes, yes it is, obviously.

So I thought I would post again to tell you all some stuff about the current state of my exchange experience.

 I have about six weeks left in Venezuela. I believe I leave Margarita on the 25th of July to go to Caracas for a Pre Departure Camp, and then leave Venezuela on either the 26th or the 27th. I've very much enjoyed my experience, it's been mostly great. There have been some not so exciting moments, I guess you could even say boring, which would be the right word to describe those moments, actually. Yes, school has been very boring, and thankfully I only have one week left. I have to give a presentation thing in Spanish about my experience here on the fourth of July, something I'm not really looking forward to, I don't really know what I'm going to say.

Anyway, more day to day things. I'm enjoying playing football, although it can be quite exhausting with the heat and humidity. My homelife is alright, but it can be a little difficult at times. It's quite lonely because my host parents work a lot, and I think that has affected how quickly I've learnt the language. I like my host family though, I just feel it might have been easier to learn Spanish had I been in a host family that were at home more often. Also, it's been quite strange, because there isn't really a communal living area, and everyone just kinda watches TV in their own rooms. But despite that, I am speaking quite a lot of Spanish now. Especially with my friends from football. It's much easier talking now that the European Championship is on, as I always have something to discuss. I also appreciate that I don't have to get up in the middle of the night or early morning to watch the games.

Ok, and the most exciting part of this post, my travel plans after leaving Venezuela. Yes, for those of you who don't know, I have travel plans. I'm planning on travelling throughout Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru for about 5 weeks after I leave Venezuela. I'm very excited about it. Here's a map for you all to see where I'm planning on going.

As this map shows, I will start in Buenos Aires, then travel on to Cordoba, Mendoza, Santiago, La Paz, Puno (the city not shown on the map, but shown by the line), Cusco, Arequipa, and finish in Lima. (The little red box at the top is where I am right now.)

Those are my plans, and I think I will return to New Zealand around the 30th of August. I think I'll also be spending one day and one night in Sydney, due to the flights.

Ok, well I'll post again near the end of the month, maybe sooner, maybe later, I don't know.

AFS Trip (Very Late)

Oh, wow, hi there. This has taken me far too long. I'm sorry. I'm going to post much more often now, so hopefully all of my reader can forgive me. That's not a typo, I just don't know if more than one person actually reads this, I hope so.

Anyway, my last AFS trip, which took place from the 20th to the 29th of March, was a tour named Playa-Selva-Llanos, or in English, Beach-Jungle-Plains. This post won't be very detailed and include any photos (at least not right now) like my last post about an AFS trip. That's partly due to the fact that I'm posting from my family's computer and not mine, so I don't have any of my photos. My laptop is at some shop being repaired or something, that's not particularly interesting so I won't bore you with the details.

Beach

Ok, so this trip started much like the last, with me leaving Margarita Island and meeting other AFS students to travel by bus to our first destination, arriving at night. Chichiriviche was our first destination on this trip, where we stayed to enjoy the National Park of Morrocoy. This park has really nice beaches, you know, white sand, clear water. The really nice beaches we went to were actually located on very small islands called Cayos, in Spanish, the most famous being Cayo Sombrero. We took boats to a few and spent the day doing typical beach things. We spent two days, and two nights in Chichiriviche, but unfortunately it rained all day on the second day, so we didn't go anywhere.

Jungle

In the late afternoon of the 23rd we departed Chichiriviche to go to the Jungle part of the trip, the State of Las Amazonas. We stayed in the capital of the state, Puerto Ayacucho, for a couple of days. We arrived in the middle of the day, having travelled all night. That day we went to look at some not particularly interesting things in the city centre, a museum and not much else. On the 25th we went by boat down the river Orinoco, the largest river in Venezuela, and swam in it as well. The following day, the 26th we went for a walk in the jungle and saw some spiders and stuff. The spiders were actually very large, I'll be sure to post a picture of one when I can. That night we left for the final leg of our trip, and my favourite, Los Llanos (the Plains).

Los Llanos

We arrived to our destination in the early hours of the 27th, and were able to relax for a few hours before going to see the beauty of Los Llanos. We went walking around our motel/hotel thing, which was really in the middle of nowhere, to view lots of wildlife. My favourites were the crocodiles and the capybaras, which are really cute. We were also able to see and hold a piranha, but don't worry, it was dead. Later in the day we took a boat down a river to see a lot of crocodiles, and look for an anaconda, which we failed to find. That night, like the last night of the other trip, we had a party to mark the end of the trip. And, due to many people voicing their disappointment at not seeing an anaconda, we were able to go out early in the morning of the following day to try to find one. Luckily, we did find an anaconda, which meant that I was able to actually hold a giant snake. It was pretty awesome. We only spent one full day in Los Llanos, which I thought was lame. I would have much rather spent more time in Los Llanos and less in Chichiriviche. That day, the 28th, we began the journey home.

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip, maybe even more than the last. I'm sorry it has taken me so ridiculously long to do it. I will add photos when I can, and even a video of a crocodile, and photos of the anaconda along with photos of other things. My next post will be in the next few days, so check back soon.

New Post!

Yeah, it's going at about one post a month now. There's not that much new stuff to write about anymore.

School is still boring. I don't do any work in class, so there's nothing for me to do. It's the same for a lot of AFS students in Venezuela though.

I'm supposed to be going on a trip next week with AFS, but I'm not sure if that will happen. Apparently we need at least 35 people to sign up for it, and I don't know how many people have signed up. It was supposed to be from the 7th of March to the 15th, but they delayed it because not enough people had signed up. Hopefully it happens though.

I joined a football team. It's really fun, I really enjoy playing here. Not that I didn't enjoy playing football in New Zealand. It is better here though. I have practice three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from 7 until 9. And instead of paying the subscription fee thing, I just go help my coach with the younger kids practices. That's from 5.30 until 7 on Mondays and Wednesdays and is pretty fun as well.

Ok, so that's all for now. I will update this blog again at some point in the future.

La Gran Sabana

So from the 18th to the 26th of January I was on my first AFS trip, to La Gran Sabana. It was pretty awesome.

The Route - Margarita > Puerto La Cruz > Puerto Ordaz > Upata > Somewhere > Santa Elena De Uairen > Some border town in Brazil (not on map). On the way back we went to Ciudad Bolivar instead of Puerto Ordaz (blue line)

The Beginning

On the night of Wednesday the 18th, I went by ferry from my home island of Margarita, to Puerto La Cruz. The ferry took about four hours, and wasn't very interesting. We arrived in Puerto La Cruz at about 11PM, and went to the apartment of an AFS volunteer to wait for the bus to take us to Puerto Ordaz. That bus ride took about five hours and we arrived in Puerto Ordaz at about 8AM or something.

Puerto Ordaz - The 19th

A Monkey!

So we arrived to Parque Loefling in Puerto Ordaz in the morning on Friday the 19th. There we had breakfast and walked through the park looking at stuff. There was kind of a zoo thing throughout the park, so we walked through looking at the animals. There were lots of little monkeys in the park that were pretty fun to look at. After we had breakfast some of them jumped down onto the tables to steal the leftovers, and they were fun to give food to. We also saw some birds, crocodiles, and what I think were a pair of leopards, although I'm not sure.

We then went to Parque Cachamay, which didn't have any cool monkeys, but was still quite a nice park.

After that we had lunch and then went to the Eco Museo (Museo=Museum). The museum had a bunch of stuff about the hydro power history in Puerto Ordaz, and some other stuff.

Following that we went to the Centro Comercial Orinoquia (a mall), which is pretty huge. We just hung out there for a while before leaving for the city of Upata, where we stayed the night in a hotel.

Day 2 - Camp Kama-Meru

The next day we left to go to our camp, Campamento Kama Meru. We stopped at a small town on the way, but didn't do anything particularly interesting. There was this old lady that yelled at us angrily, I didn't really catch what she was saying, it was pretty amusing though. The driving time was about 8 hours, and we arrived to the camp at some time that night. The camp didn't have hot water, which kinda sucked, but otherwise it was good.

Day 3 - Waterfall!

So, on day 3, we had breakfast and took some Jeeps to an Indigenous village named Iboribo, located on the banks of the river Aponwao. We then took small boats to a place from where we walked to Salto Aponwao (Aponwao Falls). We then spent our second and last night at the camp.

Day 4 - Some More Waterfalls!

We went to some nice waterfalls. Yeah, they were nice, most waterfalls are. They weren't particularly interesting though, so I can't be bothered writing about it. We then made our way to the town of Santa Elena de Uairen, arriving at some time at night to a motel like place, I'll call it a motel. It had hot water, which was nice.

Day 5 - El Abismo! (The Abyss)

On the fifth day we took some Jeeps through a village called El Pauji, to a small mountain thing. We walked up the mountain, which took like, 25 or 30 minutes, although I can't really remember, it might have taken longer. At the top was a really super awesome view of the jungle and other mountains and stuff. After that we went to a small waterfall, from where we could jump from three metres into the water. It was pretty fun, I enjoyed it.

Day 6 -Brazil and the Way Back

So on the sixth day, we left in the morning towards the Venezuelan-Brazilian border. We then went to the Brazilian border town of Vila Pacaraima. We stayed there for a couple of hours and had a nice lunch, and then made our way back to the town of Upata, where we stayed for the night.

Day 7 - Ciudad Bolivar

On the seventh day we went to Ciudad Bolivar, a historic city named after Simon Bolivar, who also has the State of Bolivar named after him. He also has the currency named after him, Bolivares. Oh, and the full name of the country, The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We first went to the Museum of Modern Art. It was pretty interesting, but I'm not a big fan of modern art. We then went to Plaza Bolivar, La Casa Congreso de Angostura, and the Museo Prision de Piar. It's a very historic district, and the buildings and stuff are very nice looking. I couldn't take any photos though, because the AFS people told us not to take our cameras and other expensive things because the area is dangerous. I think they were just being cautious though. Following that we went to La Casa de San Isidro, which was a pretty nice place. We then had dinner and had kind of a closing ceremony. After that we started the drive back to Puerto La Cruz, which took about 4 hours, and we arrived at about 11pm. We went to the same apartment that we were in at the start of the trip, and had a nap.

Day 8 - The End

So after sleeping a little we woke up at about 5am to go to catch the ferry back to Margarita Island. The ferry ride was about 4 hours, which I mostly slept through due to being extremely tired, arriving home at about midday. 

And that was my AFS trip to La Gran Sabana, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'll try to update my blog before the end of the month.

Overdue

Ok, I know, it's been more than a month since my last update. I've been busy at times, but mostly just lazy. I've kinda just been procrastinating updating this. But now I'm doing it, so we can all just chill, all two of us. This update won't include stuff about my trip and most of January, because I can't be bothered at the moment. I figure I should just tell you about Christmas and stuff.

Ok, so we celebrated Christmas on the 24th by going to my host grandmother's house for dinner and stuff, pretty normal, not that interesting. The traditional Venezuelan Christmas food is a Hallaca. I'm just copying the wikipedia description, because it's exactly what I had. It is a mixture of beef, pork, chicken, capers, raisins, and olives wrapped in maize (cornmeal dough), bound with string within plantain leaves, and boiled or steamed afterwards. I'm not a big fan of it. It tastes kinda weird. We also had pork, and turkey, at least I'm pretty sure it was turkey, I can't really remember it. We had a similar dinner for New Years, which was at the house of my host dad's parents. That was pretty good. Lots of people, my host dad has a large family, with lots of little kids, which would suck if I disliked kids, but I don't really mind them. Except when there are more than two of them, which there were. But New Years was pretty good. I haven't gotten Homesick yet, which is good. I miss New Zealand and stuff, but I haven't suffered from my idea of homesickness.

*Oh, I forgot to mention that I made Afghan Biscuits for my family, because Afghan Biscuits are from New Zealand. They all seemed to like them, and I thought they were pretty nice.

Ok, so it's a short update, but I'll write more in the next couple of days. I'll also add a photo or two to this after I've slept a bit, it's quite late right now. And I'll write about my trip and the rest of January in my next update in the next couple of days.

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.