First Week

I've never had a blog before, and never intended to, but its much easier to explain a 'great' drawn-out story to many people than a shortened exhausted story to everyone I know. So here is a bio of my first week here.

Flying out was a long trip. 40 hours from my old house to my new house; 6 hour layover in Houston, 11 hour layover in Caracas, 2 hour bus ride to the city and an hour late host family. All was well when I could finally lay down. Sleeping was hard. I dropped out around 1 AM. I was awoken at 5 AM to what sounded like a five second long gunshot. I am later told that there is a festival coming up, Feb 2nd, to celebrate baby Jesus. And from now til February the second, firecrackers are set off at all hours. Its the American equivalent to the Fourth of July... for a month.

I live in an area called "El Centro" (the center). It is the downtown of Mérida. Just like any downtown, stuff is happening all the time. It is very close to all the bars, restaurants, shops and crazy protesters. It is nice because I am in walking distance to the school and all the Americans go there to shop and party. Its hard because it is the most dangerous part of the whole city. It is where all the riot police and national guard hang out with shotguns and riot shields in tow.

The power goes off all the time. The Gúri dam, which is one of the largest dams in the world and fuels Venezuela, is running low on water. One paper said its expected to sustain for 85 more days without rain. I'm here for 95 at least. Let's hope for rain. Mandatory blackouts occur roughly 3 times a day for 2 hours. This means no light, internet, and sometimes no water.

Riots are habitual. Mérida is a student town. The students are often labeled the ones rioting. Tires are always on fire, kids yelling "we want light." In my humble opinion I think they are a bunch of ten-year-olds stomping their feet and complaining about everything they don't like, which happens to be everything that has happened for the past 10 years. They are the epitome of Einstein's definition of 'insanity'. Kids doing the same thing, and expect different results. Burning tires, throwing rocks at windows, nothing that is safe for an American to be close to. But I don't want to offend anyone, nor do I want to argue about it.

The reason for these riots and two kids dying (which is unusual for riots, even in Venezuela) is because Chavez censored 6 national channels because they have not been airing his 4-hour daily speeches. This is the reason for the huge uproar in the city. And the mobilization of the Venezuelan National Guard. And the riot police at every corner.

On the brighter side, I love it here.

I arrived on Monday night. Met my host family. I have a host mom and a host brother. My mom speaks no English, my brother, Jimmy, speaks English pretty well, although I refuse to speak to him in English when we are in the house. I had little interaction with him the first night. And after the 5 AM gun scare comes a new day. Tuesday morning we had an orientation for our school, VEN-USA. It was, as many things are here, late and very specific. Nothing amazing. That night I went home and had a 2 hour conversation in Spanish with my host mom. I went to bed that night thinking in Spanish. Que loco.

Wednesday comes and we have a trip into the mountains, leaving at 9 AM and returning at 7PM. Quite fun, you can see the pictures from my facebook page here, http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=375637085482&ref=ts . We traveled way into the mountains and stopped at a lot of little shops and a roadside diner. I tried a little bit of rock climbing, surprised to find others had left holds on the rock. Next we went into this National Park called 'Sierra Nevada' in the Andes. It was very fun there. I went swimming in cold, cold water. I horse back riding, along with five others. Walked through a huge clouded coniferous and deciduous forest. Saw some native trout. Climbed everything I could see. We all drank some of the stream water, which is clean and delicious. Trying to put out of my mind what fish do in it. Then we went through a little bog area with the most serene lake/pond I have ever seen. Stopped at a waterfall then dropped down to the bus. About a 3 hour hike. Amazing. Everyone went home tired and crashed that night.

Thursday, the 21st, came the first day of class. Spanish class for 2.5 hours. I really enjoyed it. That afternoon, around 3, a bunch of students (when I say students, I mean rioters who are primarily students at the different Venezuelan schools around here) set fire to some tires right outside of the school, which is on a busy street, and backed up traffic and stunk up the air for a few hours. That night I went out for the first time...

We left to go out at around 9 from the school. Basically what ended up happening was the most sketchy night I've had in a while. Walking from one bar to the next, trying to find the way there, given directions in a language I barely understand. Everything was close, within several blocks, but being in a new city made it hard to navigate. We went from a fancy cocktail bar to a sports bar. This is where I bought my first Venezuelan beer. Antsy to try them and judge them against my own, I ordered three separate 500 ml (16 oz) bottles. I soon found Venezuela lacks good beer, however, its not terrible. After about 30 minutes, a few pictures, people calling us Gringos, 3 beers, and me yelling "VIVE CHAVEZ" (trying to yell "guevara" instead) during the last pitch of the baseball game later, we decided it was a good idea to leave. I wrapped up the night at a Irish pub style bar. Around 1 AM

Between walking down darkened, power outed streets I had my Harry Potter moment of the trip.

I was walking down the darkest street imaginable, whilst headed to my house, when I hear a repetitive 'tink'-ing sound. As I cross one street and get closer to the next it becomes more pronounced. It is as repetitive as raindrops on a roof, but changes in loudness and is being mixed with chants. As I approach this dark intersection, I slow down, not wanting to turn the corner onto a riot, or wand wielding death eaters. I slowly creep around the rounded house that made up the corner of the street. I see three huge fires of burning tires alight in the street. 200 feet down the street are people walking around them and clinking beer bottles together. Déjà vu hit me as I think of the Death Eaters (in which Americans are mudbloods) from Harry Potter. Deciding it to be the best decision and not wanting to attract attention, I nonchalantly swag across the street, doing my best to look tough. Looking over my shoulder, I see the people chanting among flames. The moment I am out of view I fly the half block walk to my house. Fumbling with my keys and terrified that I was followed, and I hear chanting getting louder. Finally I pull out the right key, flip the lock and I am safe inside the apartment. Looking out the window I see a group of 15 people walking down the middle of the street chanting. I can only imagine how people drink here and still make it home.

Friday is the BBQ with the Venezuelan students at VENUSA, who are few and I rarely see. A speed-dating style meet and greet is set up so the Americans can work on Spanish and vice versa. BBQ is scheduled to begin at 8 PM, but being here, it started at 1030. Mix and match of beef, pork and blood sausage. Coleslaw on the side. Delicious. That night I checked in early.

Next morning a friend and I climbed into the mountains for 3 hours. 2 hour hike up, 1 hour down. Totally killed me, I was destroyed after that. On the way back we met up with this travel adventure store. The owner is Swiss and there is a pretty Danish girl that works there a lot (and I happened to be wearing my 'Denmark 2006 soccer tournament shirt'). We sign up to go canyoning, you have to google it. It is rappelling down waterfalls.

We left at 9 AM on Sunday morning. 20 minute drive directly from the game crazy taxi. 30 minute hike and we are there. We wore really thick neoprene wetsuits with a climbing harness attached. There were three waterfalls we rappelled down. In order, 20 feet, 50 feet, and 90 feet. The water is pounding on top of you. At most parts it is adrenaline and fear, in retrospect it was fun, but at the moment it was terrifying. The best part of the trip I cannot adequately without pictures. There was a waterfall slide that took you down about 30 feet and out about 5. Our guide told us to wait where we were. He walked around and checked the water for any new obstacles i.e. rocks, branches, alligators. Next he yelled at us to "go". Very hesitantly I slide my butt over onto an area where the water was slowly flowing over the edge of this waterfall. It was covered in algae and quite slippery. The most intimidating part was that my landing spot, where I would be falling 30 feet, was in arms reach of our guide. The part that got to me was that he was in waist deep water. Was the water deep enough there for me to lan--- And before I knew what had happened, I was plunging into 15 feet of water. I nearly shat myself.

Everything was safe, I popped up and was grabbed by the guide. He yelled "¿que paso?" over the roar of the waterfall. Totally stunned I paw for a surface to grab on to. Once safely out of the water we did it three more times. Amazing. And it is more fun in the rainy season, the guide tells us. Guess this is a 2 part trip.

Rappelling down the 90 foot waterfall was annoying. But at the base there was a car sized hole that we could not find the bottom of. Upon leaving we see a few Blue Morpho butterflies way up in the air. Several were blue, one was brown, and one was a black/blue. It was magnificent to see them in real life and outside of pictures and the Butterfly House (which is run by a narcisistic wannabe ladies-man... ahem) at the State Fair.

First week was a blast, I want all my family and friends to be here so they can experience this with me.

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