For anyone who was concerned....yes, I am still alive! And if you were worried about the story getting boring...fear not...it´s like a fine wine and only gets better! The only problem is that I haven´t written in so long that some of the details have gotten fuzzy or mixed together. Plus, I hate to write super long entries because I feel that they get boring and monotonous...but look at me now...wasting precious words. After waiting for Yaneth´s second brother until the Tuesday after the Saturday that he was supposed to show up the three of us girls decided to head to [View Full Entry]

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It´s been an interesting week of ¨vacation¨here in Venezuela. I only wish I had some pictures and video to go along with the story...it really deserves illustration. I hopped on the buscama with Sharlene and her girlfriend Yaneth on Friday, November 30th and headed to Puerto La Cruz. It was about a 20 hour bus ride so we got comfortable and waited patiently to arrive. The scariest part of the trip was that the National Guard stopped us three times to check everyone for identification and look through our bags. It seemed like everytime I fell asleep only to wake up [View Full Entry]

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Well, it's finally here...much as I can't believe it. The end of the semester has arrived and I have no more school work for at least six more weeks. Possibly longer than that if things work in my favor ;) I'll be heading to Margarita Island tomorrow so I'm not sure when I'll have access to the internet again. Guess only time will tell right! It has been an interesting semester. I have met some great friends here and am very sad to see them go. Several have already left and the rest will be gone within the next week. Makes [View Full Entry]

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Well, another week of interesting and exciting events has passed since my last update. I was originally going to write about my weekend in the mountains, but I have since been provided with much more interesting information. As many of you will know, the country of Venezuela is experiencing a lot of political unrest right now. For those of you who don't know much about what's going on, I'll give you a little bit of background information. Chavez (the president) is in the process of trying to reform the constitution. This is a fairly common occurence in Venezuela. But, it's obvious [View Full Entry]

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Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. ~Mark Twain I had a really fun and relaxing time this weekend. I went out Friday and Saturday night to dance and have some fun and just hang out. It was a weekend for meeting people all over the world. We ran into some other "gringos" on Friday night at El Hoyo. They're studying at a different language school, [View Full Entry]

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So, we went to Caracas. If you ask me how the trip went, it'd be pretty hard for me to give you a straight answer. Let's just say it was interesting (as they seem to go around here). We got out of class at 8pm last Thursday and headed to our houses to frantically throw the last of our things in our bags. Then we headed out for the bus terminal which was about a half a mile from our neighborhood. We arrived just in time to hop on the bus and head out. We were riding on a double-decker buscama [View Full Entry]

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This past weekend passed fairly uneventful, but I haven't updated my blog in a couple of weeks so I wanted to write. I haven't been traveling at all really since my last adventure. Homework, tests, and presentations are keeping me planted here at "home" in Merida. Which is cool because I learn more and more about the city every week. There is always someone staying here with me and we always find some way to entertain ourselves. This usually involves going to new restaurants or clubs. One of my favorite places to go is a place called Sushi Tei. It's expensive [View Full Entry]

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Saturday morning was the first day in a week that I had felt half-way decent. I picked something up on Monday or Tuesday and had been sick since. But, I needed to go to VENUSA to check my email, so I set out for the bus stop. I opted to ride the bus rather than walk because five days of Mantazuma's revenge really wears you out. I brought my camera with me because I always see the most beautiful flowers along my short little walk to the bus stop. As I was walking, the idea began to form in my head..."I'll [View Full Entry]

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After four weeks of being here, a few of us have decided that there is not quiet place in Venezuela. Yesterday was an adventure of a totally different kind. I had decided not to go anywhere this weekend because I just wanted to relax and get some work done. Most of the group went camping in the mountains and I just wasn't ready for another night on the ground/floor. So, after lunch Sharlene and I headed out for Cafe' Croacia, and cute little cafe' about half a mile from our neighborhood. We had some coffee and chilled there for a little [View Full Entry]

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This past weekend was a wild adventure for nine of us here at VENUSA. We heard about a strange phenomenon known as Catatumbo and decided that we just had to see it! There is an area near Lake Maracaibo where it is lightening constantly but with no accompanying thunder. Scientists aren't really sure how or why this occurs, but they suspect that it is due to the change in altitude near this area. So, the nine of us headed to the bus terminal at 5am on Saturday morning with our bags packed and ready for adventure! We took the bus to [View Full Entry]

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