Power of Nature, Lord of the Rings and Green Religion

Hey folks,

lets enjoy the first complete touristy post. I would like to share my experience of my trip to the Little Qualicum Falls, Cathedral Grove as well as Cameron Lake. The best thing about it, there are pictures made with my new phone, so if you are too lazy to read just watch them ;)

So last weekend me and Laura (another student from CBS) to get out in the nature. First stop: Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park :) A small little park on the way to Tofino. Gladly Laura has a car so transportation was easily organized. The distinctive about the park is of course the falls, you can hike along the small river seeing its full size. We started with the lower falls which where not as high falling and therefore maybe not as powerful, but somehow the feeling was nicer. It felt more beeing outdoors, because of less trails and less people. In addition, the totally clear and in some places calm water was inviting to go for a swim. And trust me, I would have gone sadly the weather was as good as a few weeks ago and 15 degree is not my preferable temperature for swimming. Afterwards took a small hike to witness the full power of the river at the upper falls. It is always again impressing me with what kind of power mother nature is able to come up. Lovely how the water carved its way through the stone building a little canyon aside make it even easier to watch from above.
The hike is easily done in one hour and something like a hidden hint for people who want to flee from big amounts of tourists.
After a nice picnic in the forest near the falls we decided to proceed to Cathedral Grove, stopping on our way at Cameron Lake. The lake is easily accessible located direct next to the route. We found a few nice spots again crystal-clear water. Even tough is near the traffic some spots are hidden behind trees and therefore nearly calm without any noise. The best about the place where the somehow mystic weather conditions, big fog clouds at the edge of the lake swirling over the peaks of the mountains. It felt a bit like a scene in the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. Maybe you can find the trail of the Hogwarts Express on one of the pictures?
Next stop: Cathedral Grove! I once went before their on my day trip to Tofino with VIU, but this time we spent more time exploring all the trails. It sounds a bit like a somehow religious building, but actually it is not. It is one of the sadly less common ancient forests or rain forest here on Vancouver Island. The forest is older than any of us, the oldest tree are approximately around 350 years old and even their ancestors were their before. The high trees are shutting the light out and the tigthly growing trees leaves the impressions of a building... The atmosphere works in that direction as well leaving you with a picture of a nature cathedral ;)

Just another awesome day on Vancouver Island and now enjoy the pictures :)

 

First Days in Seoul - A different World

First Days in Seoul


After a long sleepless flight, I finally arrived at the destination. Well that is at leat what i thought when my fellow student Jan and I left the airplane and took the train to Seoul City Station. As soon as our paths parted the nightmare started right away. I was really nervous as i booked a homestay and was supposed to live with a family. The final subway station had 3 floors and it was impossible to orientate by myself. Of course the last 500 meters did not have any escalators and thank god a young woman realized that i could need some help with my luggage. Thanks for that.

Help, was exactly what i needed 15 minutes later, circulating in a really strange area. NOONE was able to speak english and with hands and feet i tried my best. 8 Korean women and men tried to help me and finally i just stood in front of a new modern building. where i went first. And of course it was still under construction in the inside. "No not for rent. No not for sale", one of the workers told again and again. Although he spoke english he did not get that it was never ever my intention to buy or rent a flat or even the whole house. I did not know rather i should laugh or cry standing in front of the adress my host mum sent me after circulating with Koreans in the district under the hot sun enjoying 35 degrees with my luggage. Finally the guy checked my intention and called my host mum as i saved the number, but coul not get any connection.
Ten minutes later a bubbly woman got out of a taxi running towards me saying "Sorry" again and again. I was well prepared and ready to say hello in korean way, so "Annyeong haseyo" connected with a bow. But she hugged me and i was really perplex. Her english was good and her daughter and son spoke a really great english. They were really nice and said something about grandparents. Alright, well why not get to know the gradparents after this long trip before entering my final final room. The flat smelled a little weird, like old fish. They did not speak a word english and just kept starring at me. My host mum , Jungwha was talking all the time in korean, the daughter in english to me. And than i realized that i would not stay with Jungwha and her family. I would live with the grandparents!!
The room was nice, my private bathrrom as well, but i was not sure how to deal with the situation. The dinner already floored me totally. Of course knife and fork were history but the food itself did not really speak to me. I can not even tell what exactly it was but it tasted like dumblings which were not ready and ricecakepeaces plus dryed fish cooked again. All together with in a kind of soup. Than the grandma gave me the Chili powder. I shaked my head and put it on the table, she grabbed it and right into my soup. Finally i could not finih it, even half of my bowl was empty i already got new stuff in there. Additionally they were caughing, burping and slurping in such a disgusting way it was impossible to enjoy food with them. Finally i explained with hand and feet that i was tired and dizzy from the flight. They understood.

The next day, i left the house early to meet two friends from cologne to explore the city. We probably just saw about 1 % of this huge city but at least we got the overview, climbing up to the Seoul Tower, which is on a smaller mountain right in the middle of the city. I felt Manhattan is a small town. It was amazing and i definetly should share this with you. In the night it must be even better so i am looking forward to do that.

Colognes famous bridge for lovers ... well see this crazy                                                             park, full of figures with thousands of love symbols.

 and this is just 1/4 of the panorama view and                                the city!!

Afterwards we had an amazing dinner for round about 20.000 won (18 EUR) for all of us. We did not really know what to get but we just showed the waitress, we want the same dishes as the couple at the table next to us. Buying food is crazy expensive but havin dinner in a restaurant or streetfood is really cheap. And than i had an huge icecream. But actually looks better than it was. 

Lets summarize the next 3 days just like this:

Menues: In the morning just a nectarine or grapes, as i cannot eat rice with spicy kimchi cabbbage. In the Evening a bowl of rice with different stuff available on te table. Most of it super spicy or disgusting. But i tried to deal with it until the grandma showed me, that i have to put my rice in the soup (mostly fishsoup) and than add the several-i-have-no-idea-what-it-is to the mix. And eat slurping and burping. I felt queasy. 

In the nights i got homesick although i am not the type for that, i could not sleep as it was loud and really hot. The next day i got sick. I called the hostmum and she went with me to a phamarcy. No idea what i got but it helped. I stayed all day in bed ald felt better.

But still i wanted to leave the weird smelling flat and the weird behaving old Koreans, who constantly talked to me in korean, so i did not know what they wanted from me. Probably it would have been great living with Jungwha and her lovely kids and husband, but in this case it was just to much of culture shock. I know i studied already host - guest relationship and that it is normal to go through this time but i just could not handle it.

Two days later i moved out.

But still a learned a couple things 

Koreans love to slurp and burp while eating, than the taste is good.

Koreans are always dressed up very nicely and high heels as well as plateau shoes are used everyday.

Korean women do not show off shoulder or neckline but shorts and skirts are as short as possbile.

Koreans like to help but prefer their own language as they are proud of it.

Koreans get up in the subway if an older person gets in and no seat is available

In Korea you NEVER EVER put you sticks in or on your ricebowl (always served seperately.)

In Korea you do not give tip.

In Korea do not empty your plate, you will get more immediately.

So far so good I am excited how it will proceed. I hope you as well. 

"And if your friends jumped off a bridge…

“would you do it, too?” We’ve probably all heard that - or something very similar - at least once from our mom. No I can finally unequivocally state “Yes, I would! Of course I would…why wouldn’t I? It’s amazing!”

So, last week I’ve been to the Autisha Canyon. It’s around three hours north-east of Lima and a nice opportunity for a hike, rappel, and of course PUENTING! Puenting is, as you may have guessed, something similar to bungee jumping, although not quite (look the rest up yourself). On that trip I lost my group. Twice. Although that is not entirely new to me here. More on that further down in the post. The bus dropped me off with several others on the bridge for the rappel. Only after I put the harness on and spent about half an hour chatting with people and taking pictures of the landscape, was I notified that I’m in the wrong spot and the bus would come pick me up. So I hiked/sprinted along a narrow track with the guide that waited for me to bring me to my group. After the much shorter rappel (55m instead of 120m) I touched ground in a cave enclosed with walls of rock, where an underground waterfall waited for me. Man, the brute force with which the water shot out of the hole in the rocks was breathtaking. Entranced by that scene I lost my group the second time. Just didn’t notice they were gone. But what kinda guide leaves people behind??? Anyway after I found them we went up an old mineshaft. The ladder was the least safe thing I’ve seen in my life. It zig-zagged upwards and to get from the end of one part to the start of another you had to walk over a 4cm pipe for 1,5 meters. No safety net, no nothing. Well, I survived, just to go back to the bridge and jump off it. The one thing that I found scariest of all was the fact that you didn’t really have a lot of wiggle room on swinging left and right, since there were rocks on either side of you. So you better made damn sure you jumped straight.

And so the caracol (snail) made it back to Lima alive.

That nickname was earned the weekend before in the jungle. Not deep jungle, more like the start of it. The whole house and several other people went to walk through rain forest, see waterfalls and the like, and got to visit an indigenous village. In the village of the Asháninka we got served traditional food of the Selva (Jungle) and learned about their history which is, to say the least, heartbreaking and bloody. To this day they are still not allowed representatives in the government of even their region. Then there was a lot of staged shit which culminated in the very cleverly done sales pitch, leading every person individually to a merchandise booth. My little “guide”, who I got to dance with before, looked pretty annoyed by all us strangers being there. When I asked her if it’s not really shitty having to do this every time a tourist bus comes by she said that Yes, she hated it, but it was for the good of the village. Most of the older girls and women were better at hiding their dislike for us (or at least the general situation).

The trip to the waterfalls was fun but you all have seen waterfalls so there is not much to tell. Except that at the second one me and three others went away from the waterfall, upstream, to encounter absolutely raw nature and a couple nice rocks to go cliff diving from. Needless to say, we took way too much time and made everybody else wait (Which they had to do habitually on that weekend, because the 4 caracoles always, always, were the last by a huge margin).

On the hike through the ecological park we had a beautiful scenery around us with lots of strange plants. However, the tons of different animals that live there and we were supposed to see didn’t show up. But what do you expect? Half of them are probably night active anyways and the other half wouldn’t go near a group of twenty-ish people. It also may or may not have been because 4 people started singing full volume near the end of the tour – which 4 people is not really of importance at this point…

Before we went back to Lima we had to try one more thing: So me and Sergi went climbing one of the lower coconut trees in the yard of our neighbors house and stole us a couple coconuts fresh off the palm tree (Good stuff).

This weekend was about as far from the jungle as you can get. I drove up in the Andes to start a hike to a lagoon in the mountains. We started at 6.30am, 3,500m above sea level and about minus 2°C. Smart as I am I didn’t pack any really warm stuff because “Hey, it’s South America… How cold could it get?” Classic I-don’t-need-research moment. So, as you might be able to imagine, a little German Michelin-mascot, made up of all the sweaters and jackets he possesses, started going up the hill. During the day the weather changed drastically, though. So at what felt like 26°C in the sun, I also changed my appearance from Michelin-man to Hunchback of Notre Dame, with a bulging backpack hanging on me.

Seven kilometers later and 1000m higher up we got to the mountain lake. Easier said than done. Two out of five got sick and vomited and the rest of us was getting out of breath unusually fast. Altitude sickness is no joke, folks. The air is really thin up there. I got nothing but respect for people who go up fucking Mount Everest. The exertion was absolutely worth it though. The sights along the way were amazing as well but the "Laguna Rapagna" stole the show. A giant, blue, shining puddle surrounded by colorful mountains…

A beautiful scene, and a great image to leave you with until the next time someone posts on here.

                       

            

            

Home, Duty, Freedom

Hello dear readers,

I guess it is time to share some experience again. I just recognized, right now I have already spent more than three weeks in Canada and since the last post a lot happened. Let's try to structure it a little bit with a paragraph for each topic.

Living

I have my own room now!!! :) The rest of august I was living in a room of the house of my landlord, but since the first of september the apartement in the baseground is free, so now I just share each and everything my roommate Perdeep. He is indian and doing his MBA and a quite cool guy. I am sure we will spend a good time together. Everything is furnished, we got a huge living room, a nice kitchen, a spacious bathroom and of course a very cozy room each.

University

Tomorrow my first week at VIU is about to start, so far we already had two orientation days, one only for Internationals, one for alle new students. All in all it was not too bad. In general the folks from the university are quite nice and it seems as if the semester is going to be a fun one as well as an informativ one. But like most of my fellows mentioned I will have to prepare not only for one exam in the end but also for a lot of presentations and stuff. Let's see how this is going to work out.

Travel

Since I had some days off I decided to go for a trip. Ever been to the Rocky Mountains?! If not, you should go! It is such a lovely space packed with a countless amount of mountains, clear lakes, shining green flora and as well really impressive animals. We went on the most dangerous road in North America, I did the polar bear challenge (swimming in a glacier lake, 4 degree), went swimming in lakes clear like glass, did a bear safari and saw a black bear beeing restless on his search for food (gladly he was not looking for me), saw a tiny brother of the Grand Canyon, experienced a bond fire even in pouring rain, saw some grazing elks and just had a great time out in nature. The magic about this place is its complexity, if you love nature you wll adore this little garden eden.

Before and afterwards I spend a few days in Vancouver and as previously already written I kept my impressions. I don't like this city that much. For sure there are nice places like the Stanley Park, a really big green park right at the shore of the ocean. Granville Island, an artificial Island which used to be used for the industry but now it offers nice restaurants, bars, markets and stuff right at sea. Gastown, somehow the old town of Vancouver with a lot of interesting, small shops.

But in general this city looks like it was build without any plan, there is no concept, no idea how the city should look like. At some point they just added, rebuild, changed or renovated some parts without any kind of rules. As soon as I got my phone you will receive picture and might understand what I mean.

I think that should be enough for today :) Be aware their are a lot of things umcoming like the lovely environment of Nanaimo, my Tofino trip and of course my first week at VIU, so be safe and stay tuned folks!

Leon/Canada

PS: Even tough my fellows don't promote their posts that much, read them! Might not all of us will be able to see the places they are, so at least get some insights, trust me you feel like you are there! :)

¿Qué pedo, güey?

Hola chicitos,

i am living in Guadalajara since one month now and its def time for a new post. Many Things happened: Busy uni days already including exams, many mosquito bites and a lot of travelling at the Weekends.

Universidad Panamericana, my host University, is quite cool. Everything is modern and they even have a gym - for free. To be honest Im not sure if this is a good Thing because now i actually dont have any more excuses to NOT go there. Shit... But well, i give my very best to find my Motivation :D Considering the Courses my schedule is really acceptable. I only have School monday to thursday, but monday only late in the evening, so there is some time for enjoying nice trips on the Weekend! The only sad Thing is that here in mexico they have the so called 'partial exams' which means almost every end of month i have to write an exam (sometimes more difficult than others) and that simply requires a high workload even if the Level is not much higher than at CBS. You know that, every Professor thinks his Course is the only and most important one.... ;) Similar to Jacob I also have to do homework, essays and summaries of reading every week. Lets rather say im going to School and not to University.

But lets talk about the nice part of activities - the travelling! We have been to Chapala, a more or less famous lake ca one hour from GDL and we spent a welcome Weekend with all international students and buddies there. We lived on a very big ground with many Appartements which seemed almost like a Villa. We made some Integration acivities, were horse riding, Walking through the cute village Ajijic (second pic) and of course Party..

               

The Weekend after was followed by beautiful Sayulita. I went there with my Roomies and it took us almost 5 hours to get there. On our way we enjoyed some coconut which you can find almost everywhere here, especially at the coast on the beaches. It costs maybe one Euro and its such a refresher.

Arriving in Sayulita it was so hot, we were hit in the face by the heat, because GDL is quite high in the 'mountains' so we so far never had temperatures above 30 degrees. Also because of the raining Season - but 25 degrees are really comfortable for living (and studying).

You can guess what we did this Weekend: Beach, Surfing, enjoying nice village Sayulita and Partying...

 

The same procedure as always: Weekend Trip, Studying and Uni, Weekend Trip... So let me Show you a very meaningful Picture from our Day Trip to Tequila:

Yep, thats it honestly. We had a guided tour through the Village and Manufacturas of Tequila which was really interesting. A good Thing: we got taught how to drink Tequila correctly!! A bad Thing: It was hard to follow the guide talking about history and stuff after several ones, because they have thousands of different tastes beside of the classical which is nevertheless better than in Germany or somewhere else. Just Tequila from Tequila...

 Plants from which the Tequila is made ('Haciendas'). You see them nearly around every Corner!

Thats it for now. The upcoming week I have my three last partial exams and after that i probably have around 2-3 weeks until the next ones are coming up again. So Im gonna go studying now...

Before saying goodbye here is a Video of a small rain of at uni in GDL. I just say rainy Season...

TAKE CARE FOLKS AND HAVE A GOOD TIME
Hugs from Mechicoooooo