South America, a world so far away from my world and what I´m used to. Never before in my life have I thought that I would be travelling to this part of the world and yet here I am. It´s been a week so far and what an experience it has been. From surviving a 30 hour flight plus transits and sleeping on the floor of the Miami airport terminal to surving a 15 hour boat ride along the Amazon river, I have to truely say that so far, this has been a really eye-opening vacation. Right now, I´m in Lima and it sure is a very different place from Iquitos, Peru and Leticia, Colombia (where we were for the last week). Everything in Lima moves so quickly, especially the traffic. Travelling by the buses can be compared to a roller coater ride; you never know how fast it´s going to go, when it´s going to stop (or how suddenly for that matter) and when it´s going to swerve to the left or right. I found myself gripping tightly to the seat everytime I´m on a bus. A bus ´conductor´ hang out of the door yelling out the destination and if you hear the name of your destination, you can just hop on the bus (travel insurance not included).
Lima is a really growing city filled with old grand colonial buildings, but other than that, it´s pretty much just like any other cities; fast, crowded and noisy, not a minute goes without hearing the honking of vehicles. It´s still pretty cheap comapred to most European cities and every place can be conveniently reached. The best thing to do is to jop on a bus, which goes to places on the outskirts of Lima and you´ll be amazed at how different these places are and it´s very noticible now much more advanced Lima is.
Iquitios is a totally different story. I guess that I can compare it to some parts of Malaysia maybe 20-40 years ago, but the friendliness of the people more than makes up for it. I feel that that part of my travels deserves an entry of its own.
Tomorrow, we´ll be heading to Pisco, where we´ll be taking a boat to sail around the islands and hopefully catch more than a glimpse of the sealions there. I´m guessing that the 4 hour bus ride to Pisco will be somewhat of an adventure. Stay tuned!
Tuesday 6 July 2010
Friday 29 January 2010
How important is a language?
I haven't been writing in my blog for a long time and I think that it's due time that I put all these thoughts that been running through my head onto paper (well the electronic kind anyway)
My partner celebrated his 32nd birthday on 1.12.2009 and this was the 2nd time that I celebrated with him and his family. From what I remembered of last year, it was really awkward for me as I didn't know his family that well and my level of dutch was not at a level that it allowed me to converse with me and all I remembered doing was answering 'ja' or 'nee' and basically hanging out with the two toddlers as they were not able to converse as well (although for a far different reason). But after also a year here (and months of Dutch lessons), I felt more like a part of the family and like a real honest. I even baked two pies; an apple pie, because whats, a Dutch birthday without apple pie, and a chocolate cake, because lets face it, I was actually baking it for myself. It made me realise how important knowing and being able to effectively use the language is. I'm glad that I put in all that energy, money and time (and not to mention many hair-pulling hours) into it. For the last couple of months, I've been using the Dutch language more often and also more readily, to make appointments, to ask for information, and especially during my salsa trainings. It's come to a point that when my salsa trainer explained something in English, I sometimes feel like telling him to say it in Dutch. At the beginning of my stay here, and to be honest, even up to a few months ago, I never thought that I would be comfortable with the language. Don't get me wrong, I still have a long way to go in terms of mastering the language, but I also feel that it's not such a big obstacle like it used to be (I've noticed a lot less tears involved). I'm currently doing a class for 3 times a week and this time around, there's plenty more homework involved and at the end of the week, I've noticed how much more tired I am but it is all worth it. AT the end of April, I will have completed level B2 and home to take my NT2 Level 2 exam by September as this is what is needed in order for me to be a high school teacher.
So, if you don't see me so often on here, you know I'm up to... conjugating those verbs and using new words in sentences.
My partner celebrated his 32nd birthday on 1.12.2009 and this was the 2nd time that I celebrated with him and his family. From what I remembered of last year, it was really awkward for me as I didn't know his family that well and my level of dutch was not at a level that it allowed me to converse with me and all I remembered doing was answering 'ja' or 'nee' and basically hanging out with the two toddlers as they were not able to converse as well (although for a far different reason). But after also a year here (and months of Dutch lessons), I felt more like a part of the family and like a real honest. I even baked two pies; an apple pie, because whats, a Dutch birthday without apple pie, and a chocolate cake, because lets face it, I was actually baking it for myself. It made me realise how important knowing and being able to effectively use the language is. I'm glad that I put in all that energy, money and time (and not to mention many hair-pulling hours) into it. For the last couple of months, I've been using the Dutch language more often and also more readily, to make appointments, to ask for information, and especially during my salsa trainings. It's come to a point that when my salsa trainer explained something in English, I sometimes feel like telling him to say it in Dutch. At the beginning of my stay here, and to be honest, even up to a few months ago, I never thought that I would be comfortable with the language. Don't get me wrong, I still have a long way to go in terms of mastering the language, but I also feel that it's not such a big obstacle like it used to be (I've noticed a lot less tears involved). I'm currently doing a class for 3 times a week and this time around, there's plenty more homework involved and at the end of the week, I've noticed how much more tired I am but it is all worth it. AT the end of April, I will have completed level B2 and home to take my NT2 Level 2 exam by September as this is what is needed in order for me to be a high school teacher.
So, if you don't see me so often on here, you know I'm up to... conjugating those verbs and using new words in sentences.
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