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Alex in Venezuela: A Year in the Life of an American Exchange Student
alexinvenezuela.wordpress.com
1
Notes and musings from my experience as an American teenager living in the land of oil and beauty.
#683276 in All

La Hora Cero

Last time didn’t feel like this. It was 287 days ago when I last sat on the bed in my shockingly empty room and stared at the wall, an overstuffed duffle bag at my feet, wondering what would co...

14 jun 11

A Taste of Home

Well, whether I have time to process it or not, my year in Venezuela is speeding towards its conclusion faster than you can say “arepas con guasacaca.“ My experience having done nothing b...

28 apr 11

Up in the Air

  If six weeks is a long time, it sure hasn’t felt like it. Following my second return from Margarita Island, I passed my time simply by hopping from event-t0-event, holiday-to-holiday. La...

08 apr 11

Margarita, Part II

On a small mountain overlooking Parguito beach, experiencing a surge of patriotism like I hadn't felt in a long time. The others gave me funny looks as I ran back and forth waving the flag and s...

20 feb 11

Backlog

The last time I was prepared to recount the events of Christmas and New Years, among a handful of other strange experiences and encounters that have fallen through the cracks in the past few months. ...

08 feb 11

A Week in Paradise: Buried Alive

The four of us spent the better part of Thursday, our second full day on the island, together with JP’s family. Having gone on our own to a more crowded and tourist-driven beach the day before,...

26 jan 11

A Week in Paradise: Beaches and Bowling

Belgian Bastien, Germans Dominik and JP with me at Playa El Yaque God knows I’ve had quite a few firsts over the past few months: most of them have to do with visiting strange new places, meeti...

26 jan 11

A Week in Paradise: Arrival

I’ve had some terrible days here in Venezuela. I’ve had days of unspeakable boredom and depression, of crippling homesickness and endless self-doubt. I’ve spent entire days sitting ...

20 jan 11

Felices Fiestas!

Between Christmas, New Years, and a four-day trip I took in between, I’ve been through quite a lot in the past two weeks or so. So much, in fact,that I feel like I have about a dozen stories to...

04 jan 11

Media Blackout

For seven days, I’ve been living in total darkness. That is to say, without internet access. My host mom has spent the better part of the past week yelling on the phone with the cable company, ...

23 dec 10

On 100 Days

Not that anyone’s counting or anything, but yesterday, Dec. 9, was my one hundredth day in Venezuela. Quite a milestone, but it’s honestly hard to gauge how it’s all gone by. Time f...

11 dec 10

And the Rains Kept Coming

A photo from a Venezuelan newspaper of a worker overlooking extensive flood damage in Western Venezuela I remember before I left in September, I spent one day at a Barnes & Noble in Westport read...

04 dec 10

Christmas Comes but Two Months a Year

My family's Christmas tree has been up since the first day of November. In the United States, the first day of the holiday season–when all minds are turned to Christmas shopping and those ...

26 nov 10

What my Diary Would Look Like

Sometimes, all of the random and inexplicably bizarre moments constantly brought on by my life down here make me wish I kept a diary. In theory, I really should be writing down every detail of every...

19 nov 10

The World is Flat

I have a vague memory, harbored for a few years now, of a question my father raised in the middle of a dinner table conversation at some family gathering or fancy get-together. We were talking about ...

10 nov 10

Unfitness

As my first few weeks of school have progressed, I’ve finally started to accomplish what I came to this country to do: run around and sweat. Between tri-seminal tennis classes and jogging outsi...

03 nov 10

Man vs. Food

This ginormous burger may have been my greatest challenge yet. In a post I made less than a week into my experience here, I whined about how underwhelming all the food is in this country, and how the...

25 oct 10

Trading Places

My host sister Andreina (above, center) and I (below, top right), each at a youth orientation event in the other's home country. The word “exchange” really means “trade.”...

19 oct 10

Class Among the Classless

  Me with some of my classmates at "Centro Educativo de las Americas"   Well, before I could even look up to question what the hell it is I’ve been learning, I’ve been...

16 oct 10

Doctor by Day, Rockstar by Night

After a long and confusing first week of school, my host parents treated me by finally bringing me to the mall so I could buy a cell phone. All throughout the week, my new friends had been bugging me...

11 oct 10

Back to School

It’s a nightmare that every student has had at least once: you show up to class thinking you’re ready to work, but you look around and see that everyone in the room is unrecognizable. You...

07 oct 10

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