26 January 2012

Week 2: Spanish classes, ancient Pyramids and meeting Leon Trovsky´s grandson!…among many other adventures!

Week 2: Spanish classes, ancient Pyramids and meeting Leon Trovsky´s grandson!…among many other adventures! 

Rebecca Honey blogs from Mexico City on the Intensive Spanish in Mexico program 
 
A panarama view of the beautiful town of Taxco

It’s the end of my 2nd week in Mexico; time is starting to pass more quickly. Last Friday we travelled to the beautiful town of Taxco. I would love to spend more time there; a day trip is far too short! Taxco is amazing, everything from the hilltop colonial Spanish houses, cobblestone streets and VW Beetle taxis racing up the steep narrow streets barely managing to pass each other. 

The Spanish and Health Students at the National Palace
On Saturday we spent the day exploring the heart of Mexico City, visiting the National Palace and admiring the Murals of Diego Rivera, Cathedrals and ancient ruins from the prehispanic times. Of course a Saturday night in Mexico is not complete without tequila, mescal and dancing the Salsa! After only a few classes I only knew a few steps but had a go anyway! Sunday was spent visiting the Teotihuacan Pyramids. Teotihuacan was once the largest city in Latin America in the first half of the first millennium AD, and the larger Sun pyramid is the third largest pyramid in the world! After the Pyramids we visited the Shrine of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe. The place was crowded as a Sunday service was starting and it poured with rain! However, that didn’t stop the ambiance and warmth of the place shining through. 


On Monday we began our Spanish classes. I'm in Una Basico, which is the lowest level, along with 3 others in the Spanish program. The classes are very 'Intensive', I’m learning a lot but we are taking in so much that it’s difficult to remember it all once the lesson is over for the day. I still find myself frustrated that I can't communicate enough and being with Australians most of the time makes it difficult to find people to practice with. I must say though, I couldn’t ask for a better group of people!
In the heart of Cuidad de Mexico
On Wednesday we visited the lovely district of Coyoacán, home of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Casa Azul ‘the blue house’ is where Frida and Diego lived and was transformed into a museum after Frida died. I´m intrigued by the life of Frida Kahlo and extreme honesty and transparency in her art. Just a few blocks down the road is the Leon Trotsky Museum. Leon Trotsky spent his final years in Coyoacan before Lenin finally caught up with him and a visit to is home (now the museum) brought more than expected. A documentary was being filmed about Trotsky’s life and his grandson was there, we were able to meet him and take photos with him. That was definitely a highlight of the week! 

The Sun Pyramid in Teotihuacan
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera's house in Coyoacán

Rebecca Honey is participating in our January 2012 Intensive Spanish program at La Salle University, Mexico. Rebecca is about to enter into her 4th year of a Bachelor Social Work degree at the University of Newcastle.

Anything but pedestrian Prague!

 Anything but pedestrian Prague! - International Law and Human Rights Blog with Lauren Howes

It doesn't matter where you are in the world, getting up on a Monday morning is very hard. Especially when you have had such a fabulous few days in one of the best cities in the world!

It's hard to believe that we are more than a third of the way through our International Law and Human Rights Course. We have had such great experiences already! On Thursday we got to be judges for a few minutes, taking our seat on the bench at the Constitutional Court. A few of us were also lucky enough to get tickets to the National Ballet Company performing the 'Swan Lake' ballet! It was a truly spectacular performance and it only cost $7 AUD!
The whole group on the bench at the Constitutional Court

After a week of anticipation, Friday finally arrived and we were on our first weekend trip away. Two and a half hours later and our train pulled up to the 'hlavni nadrazi' in Prague! We walked from our hotel through the beautiful streets of Prague to the offices of Allan and Overy. We were given a great talk by the office manager of the firm, who spoke about the ethical responsibility of corporate lawyers. This was then followed by talks from representative of Czech NGO's. There were some really interesting perspectives on human rights, and it was great to compare the Australian and European systems of law.

Saturday was definitely the best day I have had so far. We started early and began our walking tour of Prague. Accompanied by our wonderful your guide Wencelaslas, we conquered most of the major sites of the city. From the Prague castle to Charles Bridge, words can't quite describe how beautiful this city is! Standing on the Charles Bridge with a bunch of new friends whilst it was snowing was just amazing! A word of caution though: the streets here are all made of marble. This is very pretty, but when it starts snowing it gets very slippery!

Our walking group with the city of Prague in the background

After such a big day on Saturday (and for some, a very big Saturday night!!!!), Sunday morning was very early. We checked out of Hotel Evropa and caught the train to a little city about an hour out of Prague. Kutna Hura contained a fascinating church that houses the bones of 30000 plague victims. These bones had been turned into works of art - everything from pyramids to shields and chandeliers. Honestly - it was a little bit creepy! We finished up the day visiting a beautiful church and eating deep fried cheese!


 

I've found out there are definitely some things I take for granted in Australia!

• Laws about smoking! The Czech Republic has no laws about smoking - you can smoke anywhere! This includes inside in shopping centres and restaurants!

• The natural beauty of Australia - especially the beach! The Czech Republic is a beautiful country, but it's landlocked! I definitely miss seeing the beach.

• Vegetables. I love salad and vegetables. But nothing is served here with vegetables! I have eaten a lot of potatoes, bread, meat and cheese, but not much else!

• Shower screens! No shower has a shower screen over here. Let's just say I have learnt the hard way not to put any dry clothes anywhere near the shower.

I'm very excited for the week ahead. We have a lot of really interesting activities scheduled! Until then!

The gorgeous Prague Castle


A shield made of bones at Kutna Hora

The group in Kutna Hora


Charles Bridge in Prague
Lauren Howes is participating in our January 2012 International Law and Human Rights program at Masaryk University, Czech Republic. Lauren is about to start her 5th year of a Bachelor of Laws/Medical Science degree at the University of Wollongong. 



24 January 2012

Health in Mexico article

Edith Cowan University (Perth) have written the following article about their student, Antoinette Hays, and her experience on the AIM Overseas 'Health Care in Mexico' program.

http://www.ecu.edu.au/news/latest-news/2012/01/mexican-adventures

23 January 2012

Mexico City changes lives! - Public Health in Mexico Blog with Kahlia Hickey

Hola!

Well ALOT has happened since my last update! Firstly we visited BRIMEX Community Health Centre, which is a connection of the private ABC Hospital. The hospital had many different units, including high-quality cancer services & bariatric services.

We then visited Coyoacan, here we went to the Frida Kahlo Museum, it was an amazing place to visit!






From here, we made our way to the home of Leon Trotsky. While there we viewed some amazing photographs & personal items owned by himself & his wife. As we made our way out to the garden area, we saw a film crew. This film crew were 60minutes, filming a segment on Leon Trotsky’s grandson! He was there! This was pretty amazing to meet someone who lived in the home & witnessed a lot of events!








The next day, we made a visit to the largest HIV/AIDS Clinic in Latin America! The visit was a huge eye-opener and we were introduced to some amazing people making real progresses in the world of sexual health. We also viewed some extremely advanced material!




January 20th was a day that changed a lot of lives. We visited a Public Hospital, here we viewed nutrition, psychology & emergency. We were fortunate enough to make our way into surgery to witness a C-Section! It was one of the most surreal experiences!




Yesterday we went to Xochimilco! We visited Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera’s connected homes..



We then went to Dolores Olmedo Museum..




Then came the floating gardens!!



Bring on the next 12days!





Kahlia Hickey is participating in our January 2012 Public Health in Mexico Program at La Salle University, Mexico. Kahlia is going into her 2nd year of a Bachelor of Nursing degree at Victoria University.

Week two - International Relations and Politics in the EU Blog by Sophie Ootes

WEEK 2
From Friday until Sunday we had a long weekend of travelling. On the Friday we rose early and hurried onto the bus in the cold dark hours of the morning. Most people slept on the way to Brussels, and awoke to beautiful old buildings lining the streets and lots of traffic.





That day we were to visit the European Parliament and the European Commission, which we had just been learning about in our course. At the Parliament we were greeted by a very enthusiasitc guide who gave us a lecture about the various European bodies. Many of us were surprised to have a lecture as on our itineries it stated that we would ‘visit’, and in our minds that meant walking around and seeing things!! However the lecture was very informative, and helped us to consolidate what we had learnt in class as well as giving us extra information, and the chance to ask lots of questions. The building that hosts the European Parliament is very interesting in itself, as you can see:



After our visit, we all parted ways for lunch. I ended up at a cute little French-speaking Italian resturant where we had filling pasta dishes. We then headed to the Commission where we had to whip out our passports for identification. Dario collected them all up, and we came to the concensus that he was going to sell them to the black market and run away!



I found the Commission slighty less interesting than the Parliament, although I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it. I think we were all just very tired from the early morning, the travel and all of the information from the morning’s lecture so it was difficult to fully concentrate!

After checking into our hotel, we all went out to a pub (Delirium Cafe) to trial the Belgium beer! It had a great atmosphere, and in a count conducted in 2004, they had 2004 different varieties of beer! Our dinner that night was 10 euros each for a drink and a beef steak, salmon steak, chicken or lasagne! Yum!

On Saturday morning the Psych kids joined us, and we had a historical tour of Brussels, which felt to me like a cross between Paris and Amsterdam, with the addition of some areas of big glass buildings. But not ugly modern buildings. I felt that everything fit togther quite nicely, and found out later that there is a law for building, where you must consider your surroundings when you build. We need to adopt the same idea in Australia. Anyway, back to the tour:

  • In the main square where we were, there is a huge catherdral-type building which is actually the town hall! Many people are married there, and the many tiny statues and carvings tell stories – eg. One pillar had a carving of a man and woman kissing, the other side of it had the man and woman with kids, the next pillar had the man at the pub drinking, the other side had the woman throwing him out of the house with the furniture, and the next pillar had the man alone doing the chores for himself!! I still think she should have kept the furniture, but each to their own.





(2nd pic is of some of the old buildings in the main square)

  • We were taken to the oldest undercover shopping mall in Europe. It was filled with expensive fashion stores, chocolate shops and cafes. Halfway down the mall, there was a slight change of direction, and apparently it was designed like that so that people would be curious about what was around the bend and wander further in to see!
  • We visited Manneken Pis (the boy who pees) and also his female counter part. There are many stories behind these two, and it is unknown exactly which is true. When we arrived, the boy was dressed in costume but was not peeing. A man had to climb over the fnce and fix the piping so that the fountain worked. Both statues are normally naked, but the boy is dressed several times a week in different costumes. The girl was placed where she is (down some little side streets to entice tourists into that area and help the bars and resturants there. She is locked behind a grill so that no one can steal her.





Pick the real Manneken Pis!

After the tour we had a few hours of free time to explore and grab some lunch. We all parted ways, and some of us headed back to the chocolate shops! The chocolates were very tasty! We also stopped into the Tin Tin shop, and realised that some of our group obviously missed out in their childhood by not knowing the adventures of Tin Tin and Snowy!

We had lunch in an Ethiopian resturant where we enjoyed a range of meat and vegetable dishes which we wrapped up in pieces of pancake and ate with our fingers! With full stomachs, we left Brussels and bussed to Gent where we had a quick stop to walk up the Belfry tower which gave us a wonderful view. We then drove to Bruges, our final destination for the weekend.

Sunday morning we had a historical tour of Bruges. Bruge is a small town of about 20 000 people who live there permanently and then 2-3 million tourists who come every year. It is a quaint little place, with beautiful original and restored buildings, horse and cart taxis, lovely little cobbled streets, and very cold weather!! I think Sunday was the coldest day (or definitely very close) that we’ve had during our trip! Other than the beautiful buildings and atmosphere, the highlight of Bruges for me was definitely the brewery visit to Halve Maan brewery! The guide we had was just fantastic, and really made the experience memorable with her amount of knowledge and her great sense of humour! A couple of interesting things that I learnt:

  • For tax purposes, beer is classed as a food, while wine is a drink. This means that drinks such as Port are very cheap and popular, while beer is comparatively more expensive despite the lower alcohol content.
  • When they used horse and carriage to transport the beer, the drivers were given 7 beers a day. They would then normally get a beer or two at every place they stopped, and so would often end up drinking a carton of beer a day! When the company started moving towards trucks, these drivers were very against it because they couldn’t drink this much, fall asleep and trust the horse to take them home. Sometimes if the drivers were inside drinking too much at a stop, the horses would get frustrated and go home without them. For this reason they had to change the routes every couple of weeks!
  • Hops is related to the nettle, and so the pickers would get very irritated skin from it. It also apprently increases female hormones and raises labido! A pillow filled with hops is also supposed to help with sleeplessness. In the words of our guide, this all led to the picking women having ‘huge balconies and lots of children’.



Altogether it was an amazing weekend and I had an absolute ball. Despite our itinery being great in itself, the people there made it even better. Everyone in our program gets on well with everyone else and all are happy to give a helping hand, share some knowlegde, the cooking, have a few drinks, and speed walk to uni together in the mornings when we are running late!

Tip of the week
You can’t get tap water in resturants in Belgium!! Though unlike a number of countries that can’t drink tap water, buying still water is very expensive. Frustrating.

Fun fact of the week
The highest point in the Netherlands is 323 metres high and is therefore called a ‘mountain’.






Sophie Ootes is participating in our January 2012 International Relations and Politics in the EU program at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Sophie is about to enter into her 4th year of a Combined Bachelor of Arts/Laws degree at the University of Adelaide.

Week 1 update - International Business and Advertising blog with Savannah Lorenzin


Group photo while on our guided tour

Hello again everyone!

What a crazy first week it has been! It has felt like there has been a bit of everything jammed into just one week: arriving to a new and exciting city, meeting so many amazing people, learning French, ‘corridor’ parties, going to class in a whole new university, discovering the awesomely gigantic Carrefour, French cooking classes, the night life of Tours and so much more!

I’ll start from the beginning when I first arrived to Tours; my first impression of this beautiful town was just that: beautiful! It is a town that mixes old worldly charm with modern architecture in a truly captivating way. On our second day in Tours we were taken on a guided tour of the city and discovering the old historic buildings and cobbled stone roads was just incredible!

We all had a survival French class on Monday which was interesting, where we learnt things like the alphabet, numbers and phrases such as je suis etudiante (I am a student). Our teacher for that class could barely speak English, yet she was such an incredible teacher and managed to convey what she wanted to say perfectly!

Our first week of class at ECSEM University has been great so far, we have a group assignment and an exam this Wednesday but it has all been really interesting stuff so hopefully it won’t be too bad! Our teacher Michael Yorke has been fantastic and has even given some students nick-names (mine is Tinnie in reference to the few beers I had on our welcome dinner! Haha)

One thing I did find interesting was how long we get to have for lunch. I have been told it is a part of French culture to take long, leisurely lunches which is very different to how it is done back home. And everyone at the Uni have been lovely and are more than happy to help if you somehow get lost, although sometimes it takes a lot of sign language and patience to do so!

As I mentioned before, we have all been allocated into groups made up of Australian and French students to complete our assignments which has been keeping us busy over the weekend (some while also nursing a very sore head- myself included.) But we are all so lucky to have come over with an incredible group of people, and can easily work together and help each other out!

So the first week it has been a little challenging in regard to the work we have been given, but that is quickly forgotten by the loads of fun that has been had!!

Au revoir til next time!
Savannah xxx


Beautiful fountain in town



A church in Tours


Cathedral of Tours


Thao, Julia, Yuki, Koki and Krystal in our cooking class



Awesome night out!


Koki, Sarah and myself studying up a storm



The best buskers you will ever see and hear!



Savannah Lorenzin is participating in our January 2012 International Business and Advertising program at ESCEM, France. Savannah is going into her 4th year of a Bachelor of Management Marketing degree at the University of South Australia

Or as we say in the Netherlands… - International Relations and Politics in the EU Blog by Nathan Johnston


[We are all] like tea bag[s]. [We] only know [our] strength when put into hot water. - Nancy Regan.

It seems that I’ve developed a habit for starting each post with a quotation, and in the end they are but snappy summaries of my week…but as we say in the Netherlands Al regende het varkens, je krijgt er geen borstel van, literally meaning Even a rain of pigs doesn't give you a brush and figuratively meaning, that me using someone else’s words doesn’t really count as a blog now does it? So here we go…

Last time I left you we had all arrived back at our own little palace, the UniMaa Guesthouse, a day before we would start the whole course. A quick word about the Guesthouse to anyone thinking of coming on this course in the future, we think it’s an old mental institute, that might be because all of us here are a bit batty ourselves, or maybe it’s the ghosts we’ve seen walking around, either way the rooms are actually really spacious and equipped and it’s fun to try to scare your roommates with a few mental stories here and there! I guess that’s what that first week was for though, getting the vibe of the place, becoming realmates with your roommates (just a shout out to my corridor, GroundControl!) and getting a sense of friendship in the group…because little did we know we’d need it when the course put us through our paces.

The only challenge on that first Monday morning though was getting used to waking up at a respectable hour. It seems we’d all been lulled into a false sense of security by our Australian holiday season and the lifestyle of your standard dirty backpacker. To shake the sleep from our eyes however: a day of touring the beautiful little historic hub that is Maastricht. What a town. Middle aged walls half buried, a striking red church clock tower adjacent a 13th century cathedral, the secret to why we toast drinks ‘to our health’ or buy our mates ‘a round’, a sea of Roman aged tunnels leading all the way to the Belgian border, the elegant Apostelhoeve winery and of course our beloved Vrijthof, or as we say in the Netherlands…oh wait it’s just Vrijthof. But as I said, this was all just the calm before the storm…





The electric Professor Matt Heckman is a force to be reckoned with. For those at home thinking of coming over, I don’t mean to scare you but the dynamic speed and content of this course mesmerised me on the first the day. He manages to bring together law, economic, international relations and politics in a homogenous program that while I have found challenging (let’s face it I could just be a bit more simple than the other students) I have equally found rewarding. On Wednesday, after our jaws had been scooped up off of Tuesday’s floor, we were keeping pace without any chance of being bored, but as Nancy Regan has said, how do we know ourselves until we’re placed in some hot water?

Luckily, we had some student guides to help us cool off. Our traditional Dutch ‘Pancake Night’…or as we say in the Netherlands Pannenkoeken Avond…soon turned into an indoctrination into the culture of the Netherlands that was not only joyfully taken, but proactively craved. Despite our Aussie Masterchef team of myself and Sophie outshining the Dutch students in the realm of whipping up a pannenkoeken feast, the night lead to something else traditionally Dutch…a spot of drinking! We struggled to learn to count from five backwards in Dutch in order to play a certain party game, but now that the night is over, I struggle to count up from one. Veive, Veer, Dree, Drei, Eine! We were also introduced to the Highlander, one of our most beloved institutions in the whole of the Netherlands, a night some of us will never forget and a select few will never remember!



So after the week that was, we find ourselves sitting in Brussels on a group weekend trip, post the hectic week of learning. But don’t think that Brussels is an exception to the week’s rule, just as much learning has occurred here at the European Parliament and European Commission as has occurred in our familiar little multi-coloured lecture hall. After visiting the world-voted best and biggest bar in the world with the world’s largest selection of beers, it was a necessity to visit the adjacent bar that conveniently contained the world’s largest array of Absinth. This cosy little corner contained Absinthe ranging from a mere 30% alcohol content l to a colossal 92%. With the sole pure intention of blog investigation, I thought it necessary to join some friends who were sampling said 92% absinthe shot. Suffice to say my sinuses are now clear.



With an historical tour of this amazing city to get to, and another day of bathing in history and information to enjoy I guess it’s time I said goodbye for this week…or as we say in the Netherlands, HOI HOI!









Nathan Johnston is participating in our January 2012 International Relations and Politics in the EU program at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. Nathan is about to enter into his 2nd year of a Combined Bachelor of Laws/International Studies degree at the University Wollongong.

19 January 2012

Week 2: Teotihuacan and a little more! - Spanish in Mexico Blog by Callie Barrett


View from Temple of Moon


What a week the first week was! The highlight for me was the visit to Teotihuacan and climbing the Temple of the Moon. Many people have seen images of this incredible place, which was initially built by the Olmecs and then 400 years later was re-discovered by the Aztecs (see Arnoldo, I was listening ha). Although the ruins are filled with people, you are still filled with a sense of the might and power this sacred place once wielded. It is very mysterious, with the enormous Temples of the Sun, Moon and the Basilica perfectly aligned to reflect the 3 stars that make up Orion's belt, this is the same alignment of the 3 major pyramids in Cairo, Egypt. The steps are steep, but it's not only the climb that takes your breath away once you reach the top of the pyramids. I can only strongly recommend to everyone to visit this place if you get the chance.

After Teotihuacan, we visited the Basilica De Guadalupe. The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is the most important religious image in Mexico. The Basilica was filled with thousands of Mexican people making pilgrimage from all over the country and despite the rain, the sense of hope and love that filled the building was incredible. All in all it was quite moving and humbling to be in the presence of such faith.


Virgin of Guadalupe


This week, so far we have started our Spanish classes and today we're off to Coyoacan to see the Frida Kahlo Museum...update to follow :)



Aussie pride on top of the Temple of the Sun





Callie Barrett is participating in our January 2012 Intensive Spanish program at La Salle University, Mexico. Callie is about to enter into her 4th year of a Bachelor of Arts (double degree in Spanish and English) at Flinders University.

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