Classes, Site Visits and Basketball! - Business in the USA

We arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday 12^th January. We were picked up from the airport by UNCC students and taken to the Drury Inn, which will be our home away from home for the next three weeks. Everyone came during the day so by the end of the night we had all gathered in the lobby and were getting to know each other. The rest of the weekend was spent exploring the neighbourhood and for some of us adjusting to the time zone.

UNCC campus at night

Monday morning we were picked up and taken to UNCC for the first time. We had a short orientation meeting and a tour of the campus. The campus is beautiful and vastly different to any Australian university. It was very stereotypically American, on our first lunchbreak a group of sorority girls even broke out in dance in the middle of the student union.

The sorority girls breaking out in dance

From a study perspective, our week has been spent visiting numerous businesses, hearing from a number of guest speakers and a number of lectures by UNCC faculty. Two of the guest speakers we got to hear from were, Wayne Cooper, who’s had a lifetime of running international businesses and was also the honourable consult to Mexico for the Carolinas, and also Jim De Piante, a virtual team manager for IBM who was involved in the Watson project (which for those of you who don’t know is a computer that reads books, understands them and ended up beating the two best contestants from Jeopardy ever). We also visited the Bank of America, Chamber of Commerce and K&L Gates law firm.

The group of us with Dana Hicks from Huber Technology

During our time we will participate in two different classes, one a marketing based subject which is taught by a very animated Sunil Erevelles and a communication subject taught by the lovely Sandy Hanson. So far these have been really beneficial and we're looking forward to the next few weeks.

Sally, Cassandra, Marija and Jasmyn at the 49ers game

Culturally we have had the opportunity to go to a UNCC college basketball game, which ended up in a 49ers win! We’ve also got to visit numerous malls and shopping centres around the area and participated in a scavenger hunt in Uptown Charlotte. Today we did a tour of the Charlotte Motor Speedway, the home of NASCAR, which came complete with two laps of the track.

49ers game, which they won!

The hotel is situated in a good spot, there are thousands of places to eat nearby and anywhere else that we need to go the UNCC students have been awesome helping us out with. The hotel staff are fantastic, they know most of us by names already and we’ve even made friends with some of the yearlong residents.

Its great having the education group here as well, there is lots of socialising and fun being had. Everyone seems to be having a great time, both with the study part and the cultural part and there’s lots of professional networking going on. It’s a pretty full on schedule, very busy, early mornings, sleep when you can. We are really looking forward to next week’s schedule. There will be lots to talk about then.

~Cassandra and Jasmyn

The way to Mexico - Health Care in Mexico

After many weeks of my mother freaking out, a goodbye to my amazing, gorgeous girlfriend and a twelve hour plane ride I had almost reached Mexico. I had landed at LAX (the Los Angles International airport). The 12 hour Joseph flavoured man sandwich reminded me of the advice given to me by Rob the AIM overseas guy about online check-in which allows you to pick your own seats ensuring you don’t get stuck between two pleasant but large middle aged males. Being rather new to the whole international travelling thing I knew this wouldn’t be my only error in judgment. I now had an 11 hour wait until my Mexico flight.

I filled in my time by listening to the peoples different accents, buying chocolate bars that I’d heard about on movies like butterfingers, thingamajig and whatchamacallit (they are mostly peanut buttery) and offending the lady who worked at Starbucks by trying to use a 50 dollar ‘bill’ to pay for my venti sized café latte. I was going to take a photo for the blog but I was bitter from the experience and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Starbucks in Australia anyway. So I took a photo of an American police car instead.

Police car, the shotgun in the front seat makes it all the more intimidating

Soon enough I had boarded the plane to Mexico, I had no idea how long the journey took as I slept the whole way. It was nearly midnight and I awoke to different world where people would assume I could speak Spanish. Little did they know I was a lazy Australian who only knew the words I learnt from Dora. Despite not having the ability to communicate properly, everyone I met was very accommodating and luckily, most people I encountered spoke English. Not too soon after a few awkward conversations, I arrived at the airport hotel for some much needed rest or so I thought. As I had just slept for who knows how many hours, I had trouble getting to sleep until about 4 am then proceeded to sleep until 1 30pm. It was now time to taxi my way to my host families place.

A Mexican equivalent

My host family is made up of one grandfather (Renae), one grandmother (Mather), their daughter (Claudia, pronounced Cloudia), and her son (Andres) and some other children who I am yet to meet. All who of which were instantly very welcoming and accommodating. There is a Mexican saying “mi casa es su casa” which I am fairly sure translates to “my home is your home.” My host family really means it.  It’s hardly been 24 hours and I couldn’t have been treated better, tasting and enjoying the different meals and having the best bruschetta I’ve tasted. I know this is not a Mexican dish but it was amazing. My host family regularly has international students stay and there is currently a German exchange student (Lena) staying with them as well, which makes me feel so much more worldly.

The stairwell up to my room, I thought this was pretty cool.

All in all I’m already enjoying experience and I am excited to start my program. And next blog post I promise to take more photos other than police cars and stairs.

~Joseph McGrath

Joseph McGrath is completing the Public Health in Mexico Program. Joseph is in his second year of a Bachelor of Nursing at University of Newcastle.

A trip to Iguazu Falls! - Intensive Spanish in Argentina

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“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.”
‒Nelson Mandela

Buenos Aires from the roof top of my apartment

I have spent one week here learning Spanish in classes and I feel as though my language has improved exponentially!

The classes are small about 8 people and we have a lot of oral practice! They are fun, we play lots of games and my teacher is really lovely! I am still absolutely loving Buenos Aires the people are very warm.

I have had a huge week! We spend 4 hours from 9am – 1:30pm every morning practicing Spanish and then we are free to do whatever! On Wednesdays there is conversation club and there is lots of other activities in the afternoons! Last Tuesday we went to a Museum, which showed lots of the political history of Buenos Aires! It is built within the old fort that was built when the Spanish first conquered the province.  

A guard in the museum

I have learnt a lot from the conversations that I have at home with my host mum. She is great, I have learnt about the political history of Evita but from the perspective of someone who lives here! It’s really interesting to hear different angles on history!

On the weekend we went on a trip to Iguazu Falls! -  Cataratas del Iguaçu!
WOW! 4 days later and I am still completely mind blown! It was the most impressive place I have ever been! I cannot comprehend the amount of water that was flowing over the rocks!

Iguazu Falls! The Devil's Throat 'Garganta de Diablo'

We flew there on Friday and first went to the three frontiers, which is a point where Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina all meet, with the river between.

On Saturday we went to the national park and waterfalls and spent the whole day exploring. We went on a boat and went right into the waterfalls getting completely saturated! I saw monkeys and some other funny animals!

Three frontiers

The next day we visited an Indigenous Village where everything is completely self contained. We learnt about the culture of the Guarani people and how they are living today! We were showed some amazing traditional animal traps made of sticks and bark and some beautiful singing.

Some things I have learnt this week include:

·      Buses n BA do not wait for you even if you have your foot in the door.

·      One of my favourite words in Spanish is ‘charlar’ which just means to chat.

·      Dulce de Leche Helado (an amazing caramel Gelato) is incredibly tasty and dangerously addictive.

·      You can never be to full

·      Argentinian time means you can never be late to class (unless its over an hour late)

Ryan and Emile enjoying the waterfalls!

Off on some more adventures this weekend! 

Love Mindy! 

Mindy Davies is completing our Intensive Spanish in Argentina program this January 2013. Mindy is in her 4th year of a Double Degree in Law and International Relations at Griffith University.

The delectable delights of Cusco - Biodiversity in Peru

The city of Cusco

So we have now been in Cusco for just over a week so far. It’s the low season here at the moment so not a lot of people are out and about, which has been good as it feels a little more intimate. The local people have been so accommodating and friendly and always willing to have a little laugh with us when trying to order food off a Spanish menu or barter on goods from the street. There is so much available here in Cusco, anything from the usual souvenir stuff such as alpaca scarves, jumpers and gloves and also various other things such as paintings and food.

A Peruvian dish, Alpaca!

Lunch and a show

 The food has been mostly good, although a few of us have been a little sick but nothing too serious mostly as a result of the altitude. We even had a band come in during one of our meals and played a few songs for us. We have all been missing a few things that are in the Aussie staple diet such as fresh milk, unfortunately there aren’t a lot (if any) dairy farms here in Peru making the finding of fresh milk difficult. I have been told that a lot of Peruvians are actually lactose intolerant, hence the abundant supply of lactose free UHT milk. Cusco has been a great city to stay in with the streets being fairly clean and safe. The group of people on the program have also been a lot of fun and are getting along great so far.

The Biodiversity in Peru gang

We have also now started classes which have also been fun. The set out is quite different to what I am used to, however I suspect this is a result of it being in its short program version rather than a semester long unit. The university here have been accommodating and the lecturer fun and engaging. I was a little worried that there would be issues with the language barrier or at least not being able to understand the lecturer with his accent but this hasn’t been the case at all. Leo has been an awesome lecturer so far and has helped us to understand more of the culture and to immerse us in it as well.

Traditional Peruvian dance at our orientation

Main square in Cusco

In addition to our in class activities the uni also set up a friendly soccer match with a group of Americans who are here to study full time. Unfortunately we lost. Not to make excuses, but they did have mostly guys on the team (compared with our one man team) as well as two of the university employees who happen to be very good.  We have a volley ball match lined up for this week. Hopefully Australia can come back and win… To be continued.


~Kerri-Ann Hudson


Kerri-Ann Hudson is participating on our Biodiversity in Peru program this January 2013. Kerri-Ann is in her third year of a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Management at Edith Cowan University

A very warm welcome to a chilly Vichy! - Intensive French in Vichy

My first week in Vichy has been better than I could have anticipated. The train from Vichy to Paris was a very pleasant ride. I shared a carriage with a little girl and her father and on my left sat an old man whose face carried many stories. I was captured by the gentle nature of the young girl opposite and the way she ate her baguette.  To my right I looked out the window, green grass, grey skies and brick country style homes. I surprised myself by carrying a conversation in French with the two gentlemen for a good part of the trip. As I stepped onto the platform at Vichy I had a grin from one ear to the other. This simple human interaction had brought priceless satisfaction. I arrived on Sunday evening greeted by my host father who brought with him a beaming smile and a lot of French!

I was overflowing with uncertainty and nerves but that soon passed as I walked into a very warm home and a massive cuddle from my host mum. After the first night I couldn’t have felt more at home. I said to myself “this is too good to be true.”

I have enjoyed my first week of classes at Cavilam where each class has  been different to the previous. Unlike the structure of classes at home each lesson we cover something different, which I really enjoy. We learnt about ‘La Gallette Rois’ one day and the next we made a calendar marking the national celebrations in each of our countries. We presented an ‘expose’ or a presentation on a significant festival within our home country and used computers to view videos and practice comprehension. This comprehensive range of learning methods made each day new and interesting.

I’ve already made a huge group of international friends. We are Australian, Portuguese, Brazilian, Swiss, Dutch and Korean. Cavilam offers plenty of extra curricular activities so when we aren’t in class we’re either doing sport, going to the movies, meeting at the local café or learning to salsa dance. On Wednesday we visited nearby Thiers and on Saturday we made a day trip to Dijon and Beaune.

  I’m looking forward to week 2!

~ Emily

Emily Jay is currently completing the Intensive French in Vichy program this January 2013. Emily is in her 3rd year of a Bachelor of Arts at University of Newcastle

Baclava and the Hagia Sophia - Political Change in the Middle East Week 1

Me and fellow AIM Overseas students in front of the Hagia Sophia

 After departing Australia shortly after Christmas, embarking on a long flight to Europe, I found my self exhausted and in need of some appetising food that did not replicate that of airplane food… but regardless, I was ready for a journey that would be both adventurous and enthralling.

After spending some time in Germany, it was time to depart for Istanbul. I was feeling rather nervous and unsure on what to expect, but was ready to embrace the culture!

Arriving was much like arriving at any other airport, until I began the taxi ride to the student accommodation, which I was to spend the duration of my trip. This taxi ride started off as a culturally shocking experience, with crazy traffic conditions and constant honking of horns, but remarkably the taxi driver knew the roads well and manoeuvred his way through what appeared as complete anarchy. After arriving at my accommodation, it was nice to finally be acquainted with Australians, sharing stories of arrival and first impressions of what has become a very enchanting and remarkable city.

A shot of the Blue Mosque from a window in the Hagia Sophia

We began our first week of classes, meeting professors and starting to learn about the “Political change of the Middle East”. At this point, Istanbul was experiencing heavy snowfall, which had added an extra exciting element to the beginning of the trip.

Loving the snow at Bogazici University

Exploring the local streets of Ortaköy where the accommodation is located was a culturally enriching experience, meeting many different Turkish people, eating various foods of the Turkish kind. Indulging in local Baklava and Turkish delight, my sweet tooth had already kicked into gear, but there was nothing greater than eating such amazing food in its traditional location. The friendly smiles of the Turks and embracing attitudes made the cultural clash and language barrier something of little concern!

The stunning Hagia Sophia

Exploring the beautiful Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia was a marvellous experience. These venues demonstrated exemplary architecture and spirituality of Istanbul, indicating the wealth of history and culture of such a vibrant location in this world! The sound of the “call to prayer” coming from the Mosques on a regular occurrence throughout the day was something enchanting, bringing about realisation of the beauty of belief and culture that spreads throughout the world.

Admiring the Mosque's beauty

Having completed our first week of classes, and beginning the exploration of a diverse city, my knowledge of the Middle East and Turkey has grown substantially already. The history of Turkey and the Middle East is one that is rich, complex and forever changing and I look forward to continuing the adventure for the last two weeks of the program. 

~ Adam

Adam Saunders is completing the Political Change in the Middle East program at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. Adam is in his 4th year of a double degree at Griffith University

Goedidag from Maastricht! - Positive Psychology

After spending an action-packed New Years in Amsterdam with all the CRAZY fireworks, I finally packed my bags on the 3rd of January to head to Maastricht, a 2.5 hour train ride south of the capital. Our arrival in Maastricht was greeted with a light shower of rain that would remain constant over the next couple of days, but even that didn't lessen my excitement - after so much anticipation I was finally about to start my Positive Psychology journey!

The main entrance to Maastricht trainstation

I caught a taxi to the guesthouse accommodation with another student, but as the taxi began to pull up to a hospital entrance we became unsure of how well our driver had understood our English directions. Strangely, it turned out that the student accommodation is located within the hospital itself, who knew! As I was staying in the shared accommodation I was expecting a room similar to that in a hostel, so therefore I was pleasantly surprised to find that my room was quite spacious. It even had a kitchenette and bathroom sink, as well as a desk, bookcase and wardrobe for each person.

My roommate arrived not long after with some others from my floor, most of which were also Australian. We later discovered there were also a few Americans from North Carolina doing courses over here, so it's been interesting to hear about their college experiences compared to our experiences in Australia.

Braving the cold and crazy cyclists on our first morning

The next morning started with a guided walk to one of the university campus buildings located in the city centre. Unlike most universities in Australia, such as in my hometown of Newcastle, the university buildings here are located throughout the whole city of Maastricht rather than being located together in a central campus setting. This means that to get from building to building you get a beautiful scenic view of Maastricht. It also means that if your building is located on the other side of town, as the psychology buildings are, then it can take up to an hour to walk there. The majority of students however overcome this in a very Dutch manner - bicycles!

My beautiful bike!

Our first Dutch bicycle experience was certainly eye-opening as many students hadn't ridden a bike since childhood, but despite this and after many wobbles and near misses, our group of close to forty cyclists managed to complete the hour round trip relatively unscathed. We must have looked quite a sight to the locals, crawling along at snails pace until we got our confidence up, and constantly forgetting that we needed to stick to the right side of the bicycle lane instead of the left.

Fellow shared accommodation students; Amy (left) and Kylie (right) with their brand new bikes

As we didn't have any activities scheduled for the weekend several of us set out to explore the town by night, and as most of the christmas lights are still out it all looked absolutely beautiful. Maastricht is home to over 350 bars, so we found the nightlife to be quite active and even came across a bachelor party, which was quite interesting to say the least...

This is about half of our pack of nervous cyclists on our way to uni for the first time - the rest were behind me!

By the time Monday rolled around we were all very excited for classes, and our first lecture didn't disappoint! Our crash course introduction to Positive Psychology left us all eager for the rest of the course, and it seems like our time here will be over before we know it! Our second day of lectures introduced us to mindfulness and meditation, which I was fascinated by as I have not personally meditated before and have always been intrigued by it. I found the experience very enlightening in regards to both learning about myself and my thought processes, as well as learning about the process of meditation itself and how it can be used to benefit other people.

Our first lecture in the brand new psychology building!

With upcoming trips to Belgium and Amsterdam I'm sure there will be many more adventures to come! Our first round of assignments is also impending and hopefully the first snowfall of our visit! I'll keep you all posted.

Amy Bartolacci

Amy Bartolacci is completing the Positve Psychology program at Maastricht University running this January 2013. Amy is in her 4th year of a Bachelor of Psychology at University of Newcastle.

Feliz año nuevo from Buenos Aires! - Spanish in Argentina

I arrived in ´the Paris of South America´ on New Year´s Eve after spending 32 hours in the air, stopping in Dubai and Rio de Janeiro. This is Rio airport. It has three gift shops selling nothing but Havaianas, no airconditioning, and architecture that appears to have been influenced by shipping containers.

The excitement of Rio Airport

At the airport in Argentina, I loaded my overstuffed backpack onto my back before realising that I was supposed to remove it to go through a security checkpoint. Unfortunately, there were no chairs for me to sit down and dump the backpack. An unfriendly-looking Customs official gestured for me to remove the backpack, which would not happen without me falling over. Unable to recall the Spanish word for ´heavy´, I resorted to repeating the phrase ´I am a turtle´ whilst flailing my arms about and miming falling over backwards. It worked!

After I checked into my hostel I took the longest (and coldest, which is apparently common in Buenos Aires) shower of my life, I wandered off to a nearby street party underneath a monument called the Obelisco. A group of girls saw I was alone and offered to keep me company. I´d heard horror stories about the difficulty of understanding Argentinian Spanish, so I was glad that I could understand most of what they were saying. As it turned out, they were actually from Mexico. (And Argentinian Spanish is every bit as incomprehensible as I´d been warned.)

My new Mexican friends

Over the next few days, I learned the following interesting facts about Buenos Aires:

- Most people speak no English, including customs officials, cab drivers and the people who work at McDonald´s. I don´t mean ´not much English´, I mean No English. My phrasebook is my new best friend. 

- Due to inflation, coins are worth less than the metal they´re made of and so they ´disappear´ from circulation. However, coins are also essential for buses and laundromats, so everyone hoards any coins they come across. As a result, coins are even rarer - and more sought-after - than hot showers. 

- Due to the coin shortage, hundred-peso bills (worth about $20) are nigh on impossible to break. These are the only bills that most ATMs dispense, which can make buying things difficult. Also, plenty of notes are fake, and you need to check four different features (watermark, raised print, metallic seal, iridescent ink) before accepting one. As a result, checkout lines in Buenos Aires move very slowly.

- An important note for prospective travellers: some places do not accept credit cards with a security chip, so it is good to have a backup card with no chip. Being shouted at in incomprehensible Argentinian Spanish after I tried to pay for lunch with a hundred-peso bill and then a chip credit card is not an experience I would like to repeat. 

- There are SO MANY DOGS HERE. Also, many people hire dog walkers, so packs of dogs are a common sight. Given the terrible traffic, I think that the use of Arctic-style dogsleds for transport will begin soon.

Dogs are everywhere!!

After spending a few days at the hostel, on Saturday I arrived at my homestay. My homestay family don´t speak English, so my phrasebook accompanies me to the dinner table. Tonight we had a conversation where my host mother, unable to find the words ´monkey´ or ´butterfly´ in my phrasebook, instead mimed jumping around in monkey-fashion and flapping her arms like a butterfly. I am beginning to suspect that the ´I am a turtle´ incident at the airport may become a common occurence here.

My room has a lovely balcony overlooking the barrio (suburb) of Recoleta.

My balcony

I start classes tomorrow, in a beautiful building just near the Congresso government house. I haven´t taken a photo of the school yet, but I do have a photo of this amazing building near the Casa Rosada. It houses the Ministry of Defence, and the giant tank parked out the front really adds to the ambiance of the place.

Ministry of Defence

Buenos Aires is a beautiful city with a lot of idiosyncracies which can be frustrating, especially for travellers who aren´t confident with speaking Spanish. That said, pizza costs about a dollar, so it´s definitely worth visiting.

Hasta mas tarde,

Jayne


Jayne Krempin is currently on the Intensive Spanish in Argentina program running in January 2013. Jayne is in her 3rd year of a Bachelor of Science at the University of Newcastle.

Buenos Aires Arrival - Spanish in Argentina

It is new years day and I have slept very little after spending the night out at the beach with some friends and I have to get on a plane and fly to Buenos Aires at 8:45pm. My stomach is churning a little at the thought of it, I have only ever travelled overseas once before and it was not alone. But I am very excited. 

The plane trip was less than enjoyable being very packed out from Brisbane to Dubai (14 and a half hours), but after getting through that first half it wasn’t as bad, on to Rio for 13 hours and then just 2 hours from Rio to Buenos Aires arriving at 7pm. After the long journey and lack of sleep the airport is a little overwhelming but in a good way. Walking out of customs there are hundreds of people waiting to meet their loved ones, people yelling and taxi drivers offering rides on your way out. 

I caught a shuttle bus to my hostel the Estoril Terrazas in Avenida De Mayo, after nearly missing it because of my bad pronunciation of Mayo, (luckily an Australian traveller who I had met just earlier helped me out because he had spent lots of time in Argentina) I was dropped outside and feeling adventurous!

I walked up 6 floors of a beautiful old winding staircase checked in, and then because it was very late I had a shower and slept. (My eyes were falling out of my head from lack of sleep as the Hostel manager Nacho attempted to explain and show me around).

The view that I woke up to on my first day here.

 Waking up and looking out the window the first thing I was struck by was the amazing architecture! Then walking out for breakfast I could choose to sit on the rooftop of the backpackers and enjoy a view of the whole city.

The cobble stone streets in San Telmo

After chatting to some Aussie travellers over breakfast I headed off for a walk to San Telmo a historical part of the city, the streets are cobblestone and the building I am not sure which era they are from but they all have little terraces, bright colours and some with murals on them as well. Here I wandered around checking out some artisan stalls and attempting some broken Español with the artists, making friends and getting help improving my Español.

Street art in San Telmo

Meeting my host family -  after a 10-minute walk from the hostel to Monica’s apartment I was welcomed into a very sweet apartment and made to feel totally at home. Including a very strange but loving cat called Rubio who likes to try to go in the bath and jumps on top of high cupboards.

Historical courtyard in San Telmo

I still have another day until classes start so I will write again soon once they have started.  

Love, Mindy

In Centro I was watching as buses and cars gave way to an old man standing in the middle of the street. 

Mindy Davies is completing our Intensive Spanish in Argentina program this January 2013. Mindy is in her 4th year of a Double Degree in Law and International Relations at Griffith University.