Let's Go to the Beach, Beach

During the Week BI (Before Internship)!

Play Time

During the week, the students of session 1 went to their shifts at the hospital and I just kind of hung around around all morning. They would normally get back around noon because after their seventh week here, the glamour and excitement of spending the entire day at the hospital faded. Honestly, a lot of the students even ended up skipping on some days. I think that's kind of wrong since you came here for the hospital experience, but I'll save my judgements for when I get further into the program and am in their shoes. Sleeping in late was nice after having to get up at 7 am every morning when I was in Italy. By the time noon rolled around, I would be all set to hang out with the students who got back from the hospital.

The American Food Section: SnackPack Pudding, Poptarts,
Cinderella Fruit Snacks, and Ramen Noodles

During the day, I did different things. We went grocery shopping together sometimes. The store here is called SolMar and the generic brand of the food is actually awesome! Because we want to save money on this trip, we do a lot of the cooking ourselves. I was really excited because I felt like this would be the perfect opportunity to learn how to cook! There were five of us who would plan meals out together and then buy the groceries. One girl Edith would cook the meals for us. It was a sweet deal. (So much for learning how to cook though.) We had teriyaki chicken, lemon chicken, quesadillas, veggies, etc. It was healthy and cheaper!

Claire and I heading back from the pool! She's in Session 2.

Some days we'd go out into the town together. They were nearing the end of their trip, so they often went souvenir shopping. From all the exploring, I really got to know the streets of the town well which was super nice. Eventually, two more girls from Session 2 flew in early and I got to spend a good amount of time with them. We all felt so wise and ahead of the game for having come to the program early. Together, we saw the main church which was breathtaking. We also went to the pool in town which had a low entrance fee and was next to Portas dos Mar (the marina area in town with restaurants and bars). The pool is super beautiful with a high diving board that I jumped from. The water is sea water, so also very cold! Next to the pool, you can swim in the bay area but we didn't get over to that part. Even after laying out for a bit, I don't think I'll ever be able to rid of this shorts tan line! UGH.

Me and my fellow Dukie Maria!!! The program
is filled with UNC students, so we stuck together ;)
She's also Puerto Rican so she's always speaking
spanish. But, her accent is too strong for me!

Kash and I overlooking Portas dos Mar

The days started to get really beautiful and sunny here. (Apparently, it rained the whole time during Session 1 which was a serious bummer for them.) One day, we walked to the beach which was about a 25 minute walk. Though, Sao Miguel doesn't seem to be too fond of sidewalks so I spent a lot of time hugging houses and praying I wouldn't be run over. The beach has black sand due to the fact that the rocks here are volcanic rocks. It was the first beach I've been to with black sand! The water was frigid but bearable. For some reason, my hands were what was especially cold. They say the ocean here compares to the Northeastern waters in the States, which I would have to argue is true. It reminds me a lot of the ocean at my home in the Jersey Shore. Except the waves are bigger and there are no shells on the beach. The water is also super clear. The lifeguards here walk around rather than staying at their post. Their post is this really weird contraption without any back rests or anything. (Maybe that's why they walk around.) I'll have to take a picture sometime. Also, typical me wore a sports bra in the water because I wasn't about to pass up body surfing in these awesome waves! Though, the waves were best near the surfing lesson and even a good distance away from the students, I almost got hit by them. There was one paddleboarder and a couple of sailboats out, and it made me hope that one of my doctors will invite me to go boating while I'm here (one girl in session 1 was invited.) Keep your fingers crossed!

Here are some ridiculous pictures of Trent:

MOM

Delicious

Trent buys his elephant man
 thong for 2 euros

Getting (Relatively) Serious




The students had been telling me to come to the hospital for quite some time now, but when I spoke to Joao about it, he said not to go because of administrative reasons. (Though I totally could have went.) Instead, I went to Base5 where the students teach the locals English. Base5 was about a 25 minute walk away in this cute, little library. I went with Trent and Maria who taught English to beginner level students. I'm not sure what I expected, but I didn't think all of the students would be around my age. During my limited time here, I felt like a lot of the locals knew a good amount of English and figured that was from school. However, if it were from school, the students my age would have been able to speak decently. I definitely expected an older crowd of people who didn't get the "new curriculum", but apparently I was wrong about there being a curriculum at all. It turns out the locals who know English are those who have family in the States or Canada (there is a high population of Azoreans in Massachusetts and Canada.) Portugal has the fourth worst English speaking ability in Europe.

The students were fabulous and so were the teachers. They end up having to be super animated in order to convey what they are trying to explain. They also create programs entirely on their own without any sort of textbooks or administrators to guide them. There are no whiteboards or chalkboards or anything. They end up writing makeshift textbook assignments in their own notebooks. This is all because the Atlantis Project was really not planned too greatly. Thank, Joao.

Having not remembered how I learned English, it was really interesting to see how it was taught. They were teaching the present perfect tense and past perfect tense, etc. I don't even know what that is. When we speak, we just know how. We don't know what the different tenses are called. It made me realize why I find Spanish so difficult. At the end of the lesson, we played Charades so that they practiced the vocabulary they just learned. The students had such a blast, and I was kind of proud because charades was my idea. We laughed so hard. At the end of the class, the students invited me to come to their last class the next day and a dinner that followed. It made me so happy to be included even though they had only met me for a day! I ended up coming of course. Trent gave his students an exam on the last day, and Maria played games the whole time. She also had a cute make-shift graduation ceremony that followed. We ate sweet bread and quejadas to celebrate, and then headed off to dinner at the restaurant!

Time for a Nice, Warm Bath

June 16th, 2013
My very eventful first day in Sao Miguel was followed up by another very eventful day: Tour #2. After a bus ride filled with everyone's old camp games, we stopped at Furnas where there are natural hot springs. I stepped off the bus to the sweet, sweet smell of rotten eggs. Thank you, sulfur. The group had already been here so we only briefly stopped. I was okay with that because I knew I would be coming back in session 2. What's really awesome about these hot springs is that apparently the locals use them to cook! They come there with pots of food that they lower into the water. They then take them back home to their families, ready to eat with the meats falling off the bone.

We then stopped by the Lagoa das Sete Cidades (Lake of Seven Cities) or the Twin Lakes. The group had also already been here, so it was a quick stop. There are two lakes right next to each other, divided by only a narrow strip which now has a road on it. To the left, one lake is green and to the right, the other is blue. I don't know why they're two different colors. There were some guesses about algae being greater in one. Yesterday, I was told that the trees reflect onto the green lake and the sky reflects onto the blue lake. Maybe that's it? They're really beautiful and there are also some great trails around the lakes. Too bad we never spend long at these places! At the lake, we also met this German man who was fishing. He was great and he now lives here! Below are some pictures of the green lake. The weather in the Azores is a constant battle between sunshine and fog. At this moment, there was some serious fog as you can see. I'm also not too sure about this, but I think these lakes are craters of volcanoes. The whole island is pretty much volcano. 

Next, we stopped at some more gorgeous lookout points. The wind was so strong that I thought it was going to blow me over. These points overlooked North Beach, which has gigantic waves. A kid named Ian from UNC came to North Beach to surf (and sometimes with his doctors at the hospital! I hope I get to become friends with mine!) He brought his board all the way from the states, which is impressive.

Our last stop on the trip was to one of the most awesome places I've been yet. It's killing me, but right now I cannot remember the name and google isn't helping. The bus parked at the top of this mountain and we climbed down road after road. Only after we got to the bottom did we think about having to walk back up to the top at the end. Oh, boy. We finally came down the mountain to a beach of rocks. There was this outcove in the rocks that made a sort of pool in the water. Here, it was a natural hot bath. However, the waves from the ocean would roll into it, and there would be a mix of hot water and cold water. It was probably one of the most interesting sensations I've ever had. One second it was hot, the next freezing. Your left side would be in the cold and your right in the hot. It was so weird. The waves were also constantly crashing in and it was really fun to swim up against them.

As if the day couldn't get any better, on the drive back to the dorms, we saw a huge rainbow. I know what you're thinking right now: there's nothing too special about a rainbow. But this rainbow was out of a movie. First of all, it was a full rainbow of 180 degrees. You could see where it would touch the ground on both ends. Then, as if that wasn't good enough, we drove under this rainbow!!!

I'm in the Times of Adam and Eve

Like I said earlier, I arrived in the Azores on June 14th, two weeks before my internship started. After a month of non-stop walking and learning more about about Ancient Rome than I ever wanted to know, I   hopped on a flight to Sao Miguel island to rest/play for two weeks before I would have to start work again. I arrived in this tiny little airport, walked down the tiny little hall, and realized that after a 30 second walk,  I was already released onto the street. I desperately searched for anybody who spoke some English, asking them where customs was. I really thought I had accidentally committed some crime by skipping through any sort of formal passport check process, and I really did not want to have to be kicked off the island and sent home when they found this out. However, my naive self learned that you don't need to go through customs when you travel within the European Union. Figures! Although I was definitely relieved (and embarrassed by the desperation in my voice when I asked the stranger), I was so disappointed I couldn't get my passport stamped!

On the taxi ride to the dorms, I already had the feeling I was really going to like this place. Even though we were driving through the not-so-nice part of town, I couldn't help but smile. There were cows on the side of the road, I could see the ocean to the right and the hills to the left, and I had this feeling that inside these little homes were people who were very different than any I've met before. After 10 minutes, I arrived to the dorms and met some of the Session 1 students who were playing basketball. Little did I know these people would become such good friends!


Saturday June 15th- Daytime
On the first weekend here, I got to go on two tours of the island with the session 1 students. The little city of Ponta Delgada was nothing compared to what I was about to see. The bus took us through the mountains displaying the most spectacular views I have ever seen. The land looked untouched. There are literally cows everywhere in Sao Miguel. They're not even fenced in, and sometimes they'll just start walking down the street. (I have yet to take any pictures of the cows though because I felt like I needed the perfect cow picture. I did take a horse picture though!)

After stopping at some lookouts on the side of the road, we went to a tea factory. Sao Miguel produces its own tea and pineapples. For anyone who knows me well, you know that these are absolutely in my top five as far as foods and drinks go. I got to see how they make the tea and even got to try some! I tried some green tea (my favorite kind) and orange-black tea. Although they were good, I kind of thought it didn't taste like tea. It was just really watery. Nevertheless, a cool experience!

We continued on our journey to go for an hour hike on one of Sao Miguel's many trails. I got to take in the nature and meet some more of the other students. Although the group had already been here for four weeks, I was welcomed with open arms. I was seriously so lucky to come into a group with such great people. On the tour, our tour guide Danny showed us where there is supposedly holy water in the mountain. I don't really think you're supposed to drink holy water, but Danny did anyway. Danny also played with all the machines at the tea factory. He thinks he owns half the island and always reminds us that. I love him.

We got to the part of the hike where you could see the water. I really can't begin to explain how beautiful it is. I just constantly kept thinking that this is what the Earth looked like in the times of Adam and Eve. There are wild flowers everywhere. They're the kinds you find nicely kept in our gardens back in the States. I know this is obvious, but I just never realized at one point those flowers were wild. I just never thought about it before.

After the hike, we went over to see a waterfall but unfortunately didn't have much time to explore. I would have loved to hike some trails around there and to climb to the top.

We then made our way over to the restaurant for lunch where we met the leader of the program Joao. The students of session 1 have a strong distaste for Joao, and I felt kind of sorry for him. He's a nice guy, just really disorganized. After lunch, we went inside the first church in the Azores. It was small, which was nice after seeing the beautiful but overwhelmingly gigantic churches of Italy.

Saturday, June 15th- Night time

That night, I went out with the students to this beach concert at Villa Franca. Villa Franca is this tiny island off of Sao Miguel. I haven't seen it in the daytime yet, but I've heard it's beautiful. I really didn't feel like dressing up so I threw on jeans and a tanktop and as soon as I saw the other girls, I knew I was wildly underdressed. But for some reason, I didn't care too much. I also didn't feel like perpetuating the American stereotype at that moment, which is that American girls are easy. When we got to the concert, I had my first introduction to what Azorean guys can be like when you go out at night. Obviously, they really believe the American stereotype. Two guys came up to my one friend and one said, "My friend wants to touch you" in his Azorean accent. I didn't know whether to be repulsed or laugh really hard. It was so blatant that it was funny. Apparently it's always like that since their English is broken. They really get straight to the point. (On a side note- one time when my friends went out, this midget went around pinching their butts. Her telling the story was priceless because at first she didn't see him there.) (**Also as a side note to any family members reading this, I swear the Azores are safe! There are creepy guys anywhere when you go out! And I'm smart, I promise.)

The music was really fun. It was all in English, but a lot of it I didn't recognize. Still, it was fun to dance and be in a whirlwind of Azoreans. Corinne May and Homa Boms, if you're reading this, I just want to personally tell you that without you two, I go back to my awkward white girl dancing. I just couldn't break it down without you. I went home dead tired but content.

Introduction

Hello! Welcome to my blog detailing my time interning in the Azores Islands this summer! This blog has two main purposes: 1) It will essentially serve as a journal so that I can remember and reflect on all of the wonderful details of this trip and 2) It will keep all my friends and family (you!) updated on how and what I am doing!

So some background information:

What am I doing in the Azores Islands?

I am in the Azores Islands as an Atlantis Project Fellow. The Atlantis Project is an internship program open to students around the world, giving them the opportunity to either shadow doctors in a hospital, to study the Portuguese language, or to teach the local Azoreans English in a program called Base5 (or do some sort of combination of the three, which is what I am doing!) The summer is divided into three sessions of the program, all about six weeks long. I am in session 2 which starts today, June 25, 2013 and ends in the beginning of August. However, I arrived in Sao Miguel of the Azores Islands on Friday, June 14, 2013 after spending a little over a month studying abroad (and stuffing myself with carbs) in Italy! Therefore, I got to spend about two weeks with the students of session 1 in Sao Miguel, getting acquainted with the program and the island. It was super helpful because I got to learn all of their wisdom. They were also just fantastic people, so I had a blast.

Where and what are the Azores Islands?

In case you're wondering where and what exactly the Azores Islands are, I will tell you! The Azores Islands are located here in between Europe and the North America in the middle of the Atlantic ocean as seen below.

There are nine islands, and I am staying on São Miguel, also known as the "green island", which is the largest and most populated island with about 150,000 inhabitants. The Azores Islands are owned by Portugal, and therefore everyone speaks Portuguese. When the locals refer to "mainland" here, they mean Portugal. There is also a very large Azorean population in Boston, Massachusetts. By no means are the Azores a third world country or anything like that. They're part of a successful nation (though Portugal is in the middle of a horrible economic crisis, much worse than America's.) They have also been named the top ten places to travel! Though, they have not yet been flooded by tourists like the Caribbean has, which is really nice.

 If you want to learn a little about the Azores or love learning about culture and travel, watch this travel channel episode! It's the show "No Reservations"- Anthony Bourdain. It's fascinating.
 http://vimeo.com/35670303

TTFN!