A quick and unorthodox post.

Italy is well proportioned. America is not. I hope there will be a part two for this to be contrasted with.

Proportions (no. 1)

We like to make

ants

of ourselves

to marvel

at the works

our insect

arms have hurled

at the sky.

Stack

the

buildings

higher!

Twenty story

monuments

to the twentieth

story—

if we block out

the sun

electric lights

will soothe

the ache.

We’ll take communion

in the Y

with dropped

ceilings below

the law firm

with Tuscany

in the waiting room

(painted-on vines

and plaster imperfections

for character

and comfort).

they must have delicious wine.

this bread is stale.

One of the taller bugs

raises an arm in praise

and jostles a white panel

from the hanging grid.

David's France Update

So I would say the hardest challenge, by far, has not been anything about France, but simply being away from my friends back home. These first few weeks I've felt very isolated, out of place, and simply wanted the comfort of being around like minded people and close friends. As such, these past few weeks have actually been very good for me, even if they've been hard. I have a lot of time for reflection - not that I don't normally, but being here, being alone, I am gaining a much different (and much needed) perspective. I'm beginning to learn how to stand on my own two legs.

I've had a lot of time to read. I just finished reading Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis for the first time. I'm also reading the short stories of Flannery O'Conner, and have begun My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok. I'm also going through The Heretical Imperative, a book that has given me a great deal of perspective on faith and religion, and outlining it. There's a great bookstore that I've found called Book in Bar. It's a bilingual store, so all of the employees speak both English and French (and so do the books). They specifically try to cater to students who want to improve their language skills, and every month they have a night for people to come to practice either French or English with others. Nonetheless, it's a great place with great coffee, great beer, and great atmosphere.

This past weekend was a nice break from my program as my parents came to visit. They rented a small chateau with some family friends in a small French coastal town called Bormes. It was perched on top of this large hill with an incredible view of the town in the valley, the coast, and the rest of the French Riviera. We relaxed on the beach one day. The next we did some sight seeing, stopping at the basilica where St. Mary Magdalene's skull is kept, and visiting Marseilles, a large French coastal city. But it was definitely really nice to spend some time with my family and introduce them to my host mom.

I'm really enjoying all of my classes so far (except for, ironically, my Philosophy class). My International Relations course is taught by an American expat who used to be in the marines, but now does international consulting here in France. He's extremely knowledgeable on world affairs and world history, and his primary goal is to bring all theories into some frame of reference - so he gives current or historical examples for everything. It's been extremely helpful. My Intercultural Management class, along with my French perspectives class, have both been extremely interesting as the pull out the distinctions between American culture and international culture. In the ways people think, act, interact, their power relations, their conception of time and responsibility, etc.

My French is also vastly improving. I'm sure I still sound like a 5 year-old, but I at least sound like a confidant 5 year-old. My host mom is really good at making conversation and forcing me to practice. It's histerical - she loves Desperate Housewives, so we watch it together (dubbed in French of course).

So, slowly but surely I'm beginning to get settled and not feel so homesick. There are certain people here who I'm beginning to make travel plans with (what's a semester abroad in Europe without traveling?) So we're making arrangements to go to Brussels in 2 weeks, and then Barcelona a week after that. And here in Aix, I just found a hookah bar (which makes me feel right at home) and an oxygen bar (which I've always wanted to try).

So more updates are soon to follow. Unfortunately, one of my camera lenses is not working properly (unfortunately it's my 55mm lens) so I haven't been able to take many pictures. I'll see if I can get it working soon though. Besides that, things are going well. I love you all, and am excited to see you all in a few months.

Peter's 3rd Update - Or should I say, "Yiga's" 3rd Update

Olitya! In Luganda that means “Hello, how are you?” I have to get some practice in because the local family that is hosting me in their home for two weeks is requiring that I learn to speak their language. They even renamed me! Apparently, I am now to be known as Yiga. I don’t know if it has a meaning, but it’s my new name, and the mother of the family – whom I call “Ma’ami” – doesn’t even call me Peter at all anymore. Just one of the eccentric features of my new home.

A little background before I continue. The Uganda Studies Program sets us up with local homestays for two weeks at the beginning of the semester. So, my regular home, a dormitory on campus at Uganda Christian University, is temporarily replaced by a home 20 minutes away in the Mukono Town. I walk to and from the university, where I continue taking my normal classes. In two weeks, I’ll living on campus again, but for now, I am like a regular family member, living with Ma’ami, Ta’ata, Julius, Jonathan, Edward, and Juliette.

I have now been living with them for three days. My older “brother” Julius is the closest to my age, at 23. I am staying in his room and do most of my activities with him by my side. His younger brothers and sisters are very nice, and they even bring our food directly to our room. Julius is a water engineering student at a local university and enjoys basketball, television, and spending time with his two close friends, Brian and Freddy. The four of us have spent the last two evenings together, and tonight we are going to watch an English soccer match downtown.

I don’t see much of the father during the evening, but the mother is ever present and as boisterous as any woman I’ve met. When we were introduced, I extended my arm for the traditional handshake greeting, but before I knew it I was being bear hugged – twice – and then given a very firm handshake. She is large, loud, and extremely welcoming. Last night, when I said I was full from all her food, she had me run laps around her yard, “so the food will spread throughout your body faster.” I’m not sure if it worked, but it had us all laughing. She also gives me candy every morning as I walk by her shop to go to my classes. This morning she gave me cough drops.

The homestay has its own challenges to go along with the great hospitality and laughter, including frequent power outages, the language barrier, cockroaches, and sudden deluges of rain that feel like hail storms. But overall, it has been a good experience. On Saturday, I will not have classes, so I will spend the whole day with the family, watching television, working in their shop, and visiting a local school to play soccer and take photos. I’ll have a lot to say about all of that next week, I’m sure. Bye for now!

Peter's 2nd Update - Classes, Weddings, Soccer, Paint, and Bad Food

Hey everyone, thanks for reading our blog and taking an interest in the world outside of Gordon College/America. This blog has the promised updates about weddings, soccer, paint, and food.

But first, I’ll say a word about academics here in Uganda. My time at UCU has not been so different from Gordon College because I have three of my five classes with American lecturers. My East African Politics and African Traditional Religions classes are with Ugandan professors. Their thick accent and unstructured lecture style makes paying attention a minute by minute struggle, not aided at all by the heat and humidity and the formal clothing we must wear to class. But this is Uganda! African university students dress sharp and take classes very seriously. For them, it is a great privilege to attain this level of education, since most Africans do not have the time or money for university study.

OK, so I promised to talk about some of the cultural differences that have intrigued me since coming. First, weddings. I had a long conversation with a UCU student about Ugandan weddings, which can have up to 800, 900, or even 1000 guests, if you know that many people. The groom must pay a dowry to the bride’s family, which is generally a certain number of cows. One of my new friends here may have to give his bride’s family up to 40 cows just to seem worthy of marrying her. Also, the groom and bride may never have been introduced to one another’s families before the week of the wedding. Some similarities though: white dresses, tuxedoes, church services, lots of food, and dancing.

I also mentioned soccer. So, I am the only American student who wants to play soccer while here. In my first match, I was the only white person among the 22 players on the field, which I think made my game-winning goal seem pretty amazing. It was not, however. And the following day, I played another group of Ugandans, who were much better than the team I played the day before. They almost never make mistakes. However, they also don’t pass as much as I was expecting, and they don’t speak any English while on the field. Only Luganda. So it’s easy to get lost out there. 

I also said I’d talk about paint, cell phones, motorcycles, and bland food. Ugandans seem to have three or four main commercial practices. Paint companies, cell phone companies, and motorcycle transportation (called boda-bodas). (The 4th is banks. There are banks everywhere, it seems.)Anyway, the paint and cell phone companies paint their advertisements on random stores and houses along every major road. It’s really attractive, actually – much more so than American billboards and signposts. The motorcycle-taxis/boda-bodas are the leading cause of deaths in urban areas because the drivers are completely reckless. I’m not allowed to ride them, needless to say. 

And finally, the food. I have never much liked beans, rice, or squash-textured foods. However, those are the staple foods here, so I’ve had to adjust quite a bit. Ugandans have grown up eating huge bowls of baked beans along with even bigger platefuls of rice, matooke (like squash), and posho (a tasteless white substance). Because I have not, every meal is a struggle. Fortunately, I can find occasional rest for the palate at the roadside markets selling samosas, donuts, bananas, and fried cakes, which cost about 10 cents each.

Thanks for reading! More pictures are coming soon. Send me an email sometime letting me know about what you’re up to in America…or France, Italy, South America, China, Israel…

Pictures from Nigel

Update from Nigel

我的朋友，你好。Hey Friends!!

So… after having a rough start in China—possible H1N1 and almost losing my wallet—it is so nice to finally be settled. I am living with a host family a few kilometers from the university. It’s kind of far so some days I walk the whole thing—about one and half hours—and others I do half walking half taxi, but I plan on buying a sweet pair of roller blades soon. Biking seems too dangerous; I’d rather blade (yes, I just said, “blade”).

My family lives right by Olympic park. Basically, I’m living in a brand new apartment complex that was used to house the Olympic athletes. Pretty cool, right? My host family has two children, one of which is still in high school and at home. She speaks some English which is a huge help, but most of the time I have to speak Mandarin/use makeshift sign language. 

My life here is pretty nonstop. I have class Tuesday through Friday, and on those days, I have 5 hours of one-on-one Chinese class and am not allowed to speak English at all. On weekends and skyping with friends/family, I can speak English. This has been both a frustration and a blessing. On one hand, my Chinese is improving exponentially. However, sometimes not being able to communicate with other American students is quite the inconvenience and isolating.

I can deal with the isolation and language frustration. What I’m worried about is burnout.  Five hours of one-on-one Chinese is very draining—the teaching only speaks in Chinese, and I have to use every ounce of brain power I have to understand her. In addition, I have to memorize about 30 Chinese characters a night. Every day before class starts I have 听写 (literally “hear-write”) which is where the teacher reads the new words for the day and I have to write the characters from memory. So when I’m not at school, or traveling to and from, I’m either memorizing characters or sleeping, and eating sometimes. So, please, pray that I am able to just keep up and not get completely overwhelmed.  Thank you for keeping me in your prayers!

下一次， (until next time)

Nigel

Ps.  I’ve included some pictures. The first few are of my home (the complex), my room, and my route that I take to school. The rest are from spending the evening at Hou Hai (a popular tourist and local venue) with my sister and some of her friends—we had quite the night, taking a boat ride, eating a huge meal (Peking duck included), and hitting up a local bar.

Week 1 Update - David

So I've been here a week as of Saturday.  So far my time here has been challenging as I've been working through the difficulties of dealing with another language and another culture, of trying to make new friends, and of being away from my close friends back home.  While trying to embrace every moment I have here, I feel as if I've been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster as one moment I find my time here to be incredible, and another unbearable.  I'm sure I will settle down as I develop friendships here, improve my language skills, and begin to find my own place here in the multicultural city of Aix-en-Provence.   

My program, Institute for American Universities, hosts students from Universities and Colleges from around the US.  While I try to be someone whose nonjudgmental and accepting, I have never been so acutely aware of the distinction between Gordon and other colleges.  The drinking culture they share is just not one that I fit and I was really worried at first about whether or not I would be able to make any good friends, or if the next three months would be completely unbearable.  But I’m beginning to meet some cool students in the program who I get along with. 

My host situation has been incredible.  My host mother is an older retired lady whose children have moved out of the house.  She’s hosted many students in the past and is already used to many of our odd cultural differences, and as such is very courteous.  I’ve been able to communicate with her much better than I thought I would.  I’m beginning to realize she understands more English than she let on at first, but thankfully she only resorts to it when there is something important she needs to say, otherwise she sticks to French.  She explicitly says that she tries to speak French with me so that I can have practice, which I thank her for profusely.  She makes excellent food, and every evening after dinner she always serves some cheese and bread (right now we’re going through a block of camembert and Roquefort). 

This weekend my program hosted trips to Nice and Cassis, two beach towns in southern France.  Besides exploring these towns a bit, most of our time was spent laying on the beach and swimming.  Aix is also a picturesque French town: a few centuries old, cafés on every corner, and bakeries and pastry shops next to them.  My program is in the center of town, and I have to walk about half an hour each day to get there – which I typically enjoy. 

So, in sum, I am still adjusting to my new (and I keep reminding myself – temporary) home and trying to make sure that I take as much advantage of my time here as possible.  I’m beginning to figure out a routine here, and I know that I’ll be able to be on skype Sunday nights around midnight (6pm for most of you).  I’ll try to figure out another night of the week that I can do that as well.  I love hearing updates from all of you, and promise I will write back (even if it isn’t expediently).  

David

A quick look at Italy.

Class is now in full swing. Renaissance Art History this month.
It is very, very interesting, but also quite challenging, as I am a complete amateur when it comes to this particular subject. I have no idea what the heck I'm looking at for the most part. We have a good professor though, and he makes it pretty easy to understand. The whole guiding theme of this course is that, in stark difference to our current culture, the culture of the Renaissance had a very distinct set of shared symbolism that allowed even those that were totally uneducated to access the truths portrayed in this art. So really, the course involves learning to view these huge, sprawling Renaissance artworks through the eyes of a viewer of the times. It's really quite fascinating.
Also, I've learned a tiny bit of Italian. I can order a cappuccino, I can buy envelopes and stamps, I can apologize for being a dumb American, etc...
The food has not ceased to be amazing.
Over the last couple weeks, I have had the opportunity to see quite a bit that I wish so badly you could all be with me to witness...
The huge black stones of the Roman roads in Rome.
The olive groves in Assisi.
The aerial view of the huge piazza in Siena.
Most of all, however, I want you to see Orvieto itself. In my opinion, Orvieto is the most beautiful city I've ever seen. There is nothing that compares to this tiny town on top of a long and narrow mesa. The colors here are indescribable—so many shades of orange and red and tan, contrasting with the beautiful deep green of the leaves and the shutters, the fading blue of the distant mountains. This place is unreal.
As soon as I get some pictures uploaded, I will post a link so you can see them.

Update from Peter

This fall semester I am studying abroad in Uganda. I have always wanted to spend a semester in another country, and African politics, culture, and spirituality have been on my mind for a few years. It is amazing finally to experience it firsthand!

I have now been in Africa for two weeks, and so far I have been very busy. In the first week, I settled into Uganda Christian University in Mukono, where I am studying African politics and religions for the next three months. There are 45 other American and Canadian students participating in this semester, which is called the Uganda Studies Program (USP).

After our first few days on campus, our entire group got up at 4 a.m. for a 15 hour bus ride to Rwanda, a tiny but incredibly country to the southwest of Uganda. I stared out the window literally for hours at a time, captivated by the gorgeous hillsides, valleys, and smiling children. We spent one week in Rwanda, learning about the 1994 genocide that left one million Tutsi men, women, and children murdered by members of the Hutu ethnic group. Like many other students here, the only foreknowledge I had of the genocide was from the Don Cheadle movie Hotel Rwanda. I recommend it as an accessible introduction to the mind numbing three month long massacre.

The deeper history behind the genocide and the last 15 years of fallout are complex, so I’ll challenge you to do your own research if you’re interested to know more. After all of the lessons I learned from memorial sites and survivors’ testimonies, I am somewhat speechless. Loving neighbors suddenly began butchering each other, church leaders abandoned their congregations and even participated in the killings, women were raped with spears and machetes, infants were smashed against walls – and all the while, the world’s most powerful countries, the United Nations, and Rwanda’s neighbors did nothing to prevent it.

Rwanda is not just a country of tragedy, of course. Thousands of killers have repented, and thousands of victims have forgiven. The country is beautiful, well organized, and surprisingly free of government corruption. But I don’t want to sugarcoat what happened in 1994. Humans suddenly became guilty of the basest atrocities. Thank God for giving us hope beyond ourselves.

I promise that all of my blog entries won’t be this intense! But this is what I’ve been experiencing so far, and I think I owe this kind of honesty to the survivors who hosted us and shared their tragic testimonies. Their stories are overwhelming but incredible.

Check back next week to read about Ugandan weddings (500-1000 guests and bridal dowries of 40 cows!), my experience as the only American playing soccer against 21 Africans, the strange Ugandan fixation on paint, cell phones, and motorcycles, and the blandest combination of foods I’ve ever had to eat. Until then, peace!

First few days in Italy: Home, Rome, etc...

So after almost a week, I've had a bit of time to gain my bearings, have a few gelati, and get over the jet lag.

Orvieto is unbelievable. If Walt Disney knew what this town looked like, he would need to romanticize American portrayals of Italy even more. Everything about this place, from how and when the people eat, how they interact in community, to waking up, looking out the window and realizing you're on the edge of a cliff surrounded by vineyards and olive groves, mountains and little country villas, has surpassed what I was expecting.

I have finally settled into my room:
My bed is tucked in the corner behind the dresser. I have to finagle my way in and out every morning and evening, but I am in Italy, so it's okay. Also, our whole living area is an IKEA catalog.

If you have any more specific questions about where and how I am living, ask, and I will gladly answer.

Rome.
We went to Rome for the day yesterday. It was quite amazing. Our first stop was an early Roman art museum. We saw things like this:
(This was painted in the first century B.C.! These techniques were completely lost until the Renaissance. It is unbelievable that this degree of realism can be found in paintings this old)
And these:




After the art museum, we had the most phenomenal gelato a human can make with his mortal, imperfect hands. It is the closest to perfection we as the human race have ever come.
Then, we walked to the Parthenon.

The most impressive part about the Parthenon is the ceiling.

Then there were the ruins of ancient Rome, the Colosseum, and La Bascilica Di Maria Maggiore. I'm sure pictures of those will show up somewhere at some point.


Well, that's all the time I have for right now. I hope you are all doing well. Please don't hesitate to contact me about anything, or just to say hi.


-John

Nigel's Pictures from China

Update from Nigel!!!

Hello from Beijing!

Hope you all are having a better start of the semester than me; my first few days have been rough. For starters, Peking University campus is huuuuuuuge. It’s probably the size of Wenham, no joke, and no one speaks English. But that’s just the beginning. Besides being sick when I got off the plane, on my first day, the ATM took my card and wouldn’t give it back (I got it back a few days later). After a day of orientation we took a small trip to Chengde for a few days to see the Wall and some temples which was cool, but I still felt sick. The day we got back, I realized my wallet was gone. This was the last straw. I went to the office and told them I was ill with a fever and that my wallet was gone… They brought me to a “special” clinic (the ones for people with possible swine flu) and was given a face mask. After taking a blood test and chest x-ray, they sent me back to my room under quarantine until they had results. Crazy right?!

But in all this God is faithful….. The morning I realized my wallet was gone (and the day I was first quarantined) I prayed to God that He would bring me my wallet, because I couldn’t find it; I asked for a miracle. That night, when I was down, alone in my room and isolated, a girl from my program knocked on my door and handed me my wallet w/ all my money intact! And as I type to you now, I am off quarantine-- I’m on the mend! Praise God!

School starts on Monday for me and I will hopefully moving into my host family soon, once I’m a bit better. Hope all is well in the USA. Please continue to keep me in your prayers.

Nigel

Finally Here.

Well folks,
After a couple airport snafus and a total of fifteen minutes of sleep on the airplane, I am in Italy (and with all of my stuff with me and intact!). It was truly about as event-less and speedy a trip as I could have realistically hoped for. I'm really too jet-lagged to try describing anything with any small degree of accuracy, so suffice it to say for now that I am quite excited for what this semester has in store. I'm with a really cool group of people in an equally wonderful place.

I'm sure I will have MUCH more to say once I have slept a bit, but for now, I have misspelled a third of the words that I've tried to type and that's a pretty strong indicator that I'm about done.

I love you all.

Ciao,

John