viernes, 6 de diciembre de 2013

'My life in Colombia': Nam, in Pamplona


My Exchange Life In Colombia
My name is Wareerat Sairsuwan but you can call me with my nice name “Nam”. I come from Thailand. I´m 18 years old.  I´m an exchange student in Colombia with AFS (year program). I proud to present my life in Colombia.





Well, the town where I live is Pamplona, Norte de Santander. Pamplona is a small town in Norte de Santander. Which far form Cúcuta – the capital of Norte de Santander around 2-3 hours in the cars. The weather in Pamplona is cold. It is around 12-17 degree all the year. There is a river name Pamplonita. And Pamplona is one of the old towns in Colombia. It has 464 years. People here all so friendly and stick with religion. They are very kind and they talk like sweet heart, my love, my life etc. all the time. I 
think that is very cute :). Someone told me that there are around 22 churches in Pamplona.



My school is Sagrado Corazon de Jesus Las Hermanas Bethlemitas. People said that my school is the best school in Pamplona. My school is Nuns´ School. That´s mean the teachers and a director are NUNS. In fact, I had a bit problem with them when I first arrived by the way they are very nice with me. In school, I need not to study seriously. I have to pay attention in English class and Spanish class. But I love to study Philosophy even it is the nice subject to be sleeping. I studied in 11th grade. There were a lot of activities for 11th grade to do like Dancing festival, song festival or culture festival. And for prom they had their own jacket. The jacket of the classroom.




The best experience for me is when I first met with host family. As I said that Pamplona is a small town. So there is no airport. They went to cúcuta to get me from the airport. The airplane was delayed so they had to wait for me around 2 hours. I made a broad to me. It is written in my language –Thai and Spanish. They said to me that Welcome to your home in Colombia. They tried to speak with me but they can´t speak English and I couldn´t speak Spanish. So I had to talk by my best friend. They tried to said that make yourself home and they felt so happy that I am here with them as their daughter. And my papa recorded the video when we met. >/////<




Well, there are a lot of things that are different with my culture. Like in my country, we respect of the people who are older but here I was surprised because my hose sister hit my head or shouted at me. Or people here walk in the house with shoes. In my country a lot of us believe that to walk in the house with shoes is impolite. And here the children call teachers or their parents with their name. If you do that in my country, you are going to be hit

            Where I chose to come here? Do you believe in the destiny? Do you believe in a miracle? I took a lot of tests of Exchange Program like EF, YFU and AFS. I chose the different country like China, Denmark or New Zealand but my mom always disagreed with that idea. I chose Colombia because I thought that once of my life I can go around to world, wherever I want if I have money. But there are some countries that it´s hard to live there. Colombia is one of those countries. I don´t know when will I come back here. I don´t know that I will have this chance again. To study, to live, to know about Colombia is so amaze.
Colombia is not the most beautiful country or the best country in the world but Colombia is amazing country which full of attractive. If you have the chance don´t let it go. Go and catch it because you don´t know that when will it come again. Exchange student can be only once in your life.






viernes, 29 de noviembre de 2013

'My AFS': Sara Maria Barona - viviendo la mas maravillosa experiencia en Filipinas


Hi there!

Mi nombre es Sara María Barona Rojas, tengo 16 años, soy Colombiana; orgullosamente de la capital de la salsa Cali- Valle.
Desde hace cuatro meses estoy viviendo la más maravillosa experiencia de estar de intercambio. Me encuentro en las islas más hermosas del mundo: Filipinas‼ Especialmente en la ciudad de Ozamiz en Mindanao.
Pertenezco a una numerosa familia en la que desde un principio fui acogida como un miembro más.
   
                                                       
Les contaré que el viaje hasta acá fue muy largo y agotador, tardó 3 días entre conexiones, largas esperas, desplazamientos por aeropuertos inmensos, interacción con personas de diferentes partes del mundo y practicando el inglés y el francés. Pero al final la recompensa llego cuando me estaban esperando los alemanes en el aeropuerto.
Fuimos al hotel donde nos encontramos con los demás participantes de todo el mundo (84 entre estudiantes y voluntarios) y estuvimos 3 días en diferentes capacitaciones aprendiendo herramientas para desenvolvernos en esta nueva experiencia.


Posteriormente llegue a Ozamiz, ciudad muy pequeña, donde todo el mundo se conoce, te ayudan y se entablan lindas amistades.

                                        
Las familias son muy unidas, en una casa pequeña se pueden encontrar hasta 5 hermanos con sus padres  cada uno de ellos con sus familias ya formadas.


Siempre se come en familia, se inicia con una oración, las fiestas son con mucha comida y con un buen karaoke y se busca al igual que en Colombia… dejar los problemas a un lado y divertirse hasta no poder más.



Los días en Filipinas pasan rapidísimo, hace nada llegué y ya en pocos meses tengo que estar diciendo adiós.
Filipinas está lleno de lugares asombrosos en los que he tenido contacto directo con la naturaleza y vida marina, he conocido hermosas cascadas de agua pura, he nadado con tiburones ballena en Cebú, he buceado, he nadado con  tres delfines en una piscina natural, he conocido casas flotantes en medio de islas inhabitadas, he estado en muchas fiestas en la playa y he participado en actividades deportivos, culturales, religiosas, educativas y sociales increíbles.
                                   





Para terminar, quiero contarles que la decisión que tom-o en un principio fue dura y arriesgada, pero ahora que estoy viviendo tantas experiencias, puedo concluir que es la mejor que he podido tomar. Filipinas se ha convertido en mi segunda “ciudadadia” y mi familia filipina “Los Lagas” en mi segundo hogar.


Este capítulo de mi vida un día se abrió y en 6 meses se cerrará pero la verdad es que gracias a que he vivido momentos inolvidables aquí, nunca se borrara de mí lo grande que es el mundo y lo corta que es la vida.

lunes, 25 de noviembre de 2013

viernes, 15 de noviembre de 2013

'My life in Colombia': Morgan from Thailand in Ubate, Cundinamarca

Hello everyone, 

My name is Kasira Losithong or call me Morgan I come from Thailand. I'm 18 years old and now I am an exchange student in Colombia. I am going to present about my experience and my life here in this country!! 



I live in Ubaté which is far from Bogotá that is the Capital around 80km. The people here is so very nice and we know each other because this town is very small but it's not too bad ,for me this reason helped me to make so many friends and do the activities together for example... Dinner, Meeting, Big birthday's party etc. 



I study at La presentación Ubaté that is high school in this town. The first month was so really hard because before I arrived in Colombia. I had not learned Spanish so I couldn't speak and it was difficult to make them understand the things that I would like to say so I did everything to learn Spanish as fast as I could in that moment and nowadays everything is better. After the school normally I have to go home with my colombian brother everyday. The culture in Colombia the members in a family they are very close, They always have breakfast, lunch and dinner together. They always tell everything that they faced in that day when they are eating. And here when they want to do something, they need to ask for permission so I wasn't comfortable to follow this rule in the first period. 


For the food here, they don't eat too much for breakfast, Maybe only bread and coffee in the morning but they will have a big meal for lunch. Normally in the night if they don't have party or special activity, the dinner will be like breakfast that isn't a big meal.


Colombian people like dancing, party and the most important is watching football competition O_o. 

For me 15 birthday's party is very very strange. But it's for only the girls when they are 15 years old, they will make a big party like a wedding ceremony to show everyone that now they are completely teenage girls!!! In Thailand, we don't have something like this.



Sometimes I don't wanna go back to Thailand, I feel free to live here. It's so hard to explain, it's like my house, seriously the time has passed so quickly. Now I have many friends I have learned a lot here in Colombia: friendship, culture, adapting and I'll learn more and more, thank you so much.

Kasira Losithong
You can also call me "Morgan"

miércoles, 13 de noviembre de 2013

Torsten from Germany volunteer at Montecito, Boyaca Colombia


 Hey!  

My name is Torsten and im 26 years old. I come from Germany, exactly near from Nuremberg. I worked 6 years until I decided to study again. I finished my studies in 2012. Now im Technican for environmental protection.

I went to Colombia with the organization AFS.  I made this step especially for the life – and work experience.

I am living in Sogamoso, Boyaca at the moment. It´s a pretty quiet place but for me it is my new home now. I love it and I really enjoy to stay here.

I am working in Tota, near the “laguna de tota”, in a school where I am supporting  the English classes and teaching environmental protection.  The first weeks there were pretty difficult. My Spanish wasn´t available yet.  I could talk more or less with the other teachers but it was impossible to talk with my students…
My first 2 months in the school weren´t “pure joy”. I didn’t get the reason… I felt like a stranger who shouldn’t be there. I don’t know when it changed exactly, I guess in one of the many celebrations here (oh damn… they have so many of them J), but one day, I felt that I arrived finally there with my mind.
After realizing that, every day at school was like a day of vacation. It was like meeting friends every day. It didn’t feel like work anymore. I enjoyed every hour there, and I am still doing it.
And now… after everything seems perfect I almost have to say “good bye” again. That’s a very sad part and at the moment I really don’t want think in that.


About the experience in my house with my family I just can say: “It was perfect, it is perfect and doesn’t matter when I will come back… it will be perfect”. I love my family the same like I love my family in Germany. It´s like I already said: I love them!! And they love me. It´s like having now a family part in Colombia, like it is my real family.
I am feeling very very comfortable here. I don’t like everything… of course but neither do I in my family in Germany. It´s the same with my work now. I don’t want and I can´t think in my resignation now.

It´s difficult to say what the best experience was in my stay here. That whole big experience is just… fantastic. That’s the best experience I can imagine. I am talking about my new family I have now, the many friends I gained, the happy faces of my students in the morning when I go to school…
I could talk about 1000 things more… but like I already said. It´s the stay in total who made the best experience in my live now!





Well, yes. Now everything is great. But the first months were a bit difficult like I already wrote above. My family is really direct and opened minded but I met here a lot of people who aren’t.
Sometimes I went to Tota (It´s like a hour drive to Tota and a hour drive back) just for realizing that classes got canceled in this day. The other teachers didn’t even thought about telling me that, even if it was clear since few days. Something like that is really annoying… seriously…
Another point what bothered me a lot is like when you are talking to people (I know my Spanish still isn’t the best) and they just doing like they understood all and telling you: “ah ok fine”. Then they are telling you a completely other thing. And if you are going to correct them and you are going to tell them what you are really meant, they are telling the same crap version like they said 2 minutes before. It is like they don’t care what you said… They just have their story already in their head and don’t give a thing about what you said…
But after a while you can handle that. You just need sometimes a lot of patience with some of them. It´s not like that everyone is like that, but for sure you will meet some of them if you go to Colombia J

Of course there are a lot more differences between my culture and the Colombian culture. Some are better and some are worse. For example I like a lot the cohesion inside the family. The relation is much closer than in German families. The “fiestas” are pretty awesome too. There is more attention on dancing than on drinking. Also I like a lot more the radio program. It is not filled with useless conversations and comments from people who are talking because they don’t like silence. In Germany they are playing all the bad pop songs again and again every hour… You start a day thousand times better with a fresh salsa song J
Some things I don’t like that much or better said: “Things which are strange for me”, the people are less independent then in Germany.  There is nothing more annoying if a 30 years old person lives with his/her parents and still has to take permissions for everything.

I learned here a lot. I am not talking about some new technics for teaching or something like that.
No, I learned more to never giving up and not to cry if something bad happened. Now I try to fix things instead of wasting time with not feeling awesome J
Colombians, especially the people on the countryside, are quite tough and I hope that I am bit more too J


Saludes
Torsten