Universidad de Ibagué

 

Last thursday I had my last day of university here in Ibagué (and maybe even my last day of university ever). So I would like to tell how studying here was like. First, I only took two classes, so one could say I had it pretty easy. But then, everything was in spanish so it took me way more time, especially the first month, to read all the material, prepare for classes (and without preparation I was lost), do the tasks, prepare the presentations and study for the exams.

The grading system is quite different from here. The grades go from 0 to 5, almost like in Austria, but here 5 is the best you can achieve, and also, while you need 50 % to pass in Austria and achieve a grade better than 5, in Colombia the grades are more like points to gain. So if you don't do your task, you get 0. If you do it, but not that well, you get 2,5. And if you do it very well, you get 5. In the end, you need at least 3 to pass the class, therefore 60 %.

The class is seperated in three mostly egual parts of the semester. At the end of each part they tell you your current grade for these part so you know what you need for the following part to pass the class. Like I said, I took two classes and the grading was also different in those two classes. In the first one, there were no exams, just tasks to do in class as well as homework and two presentations. At the end of each part there was an autoevaluation where you could grade yourself as well (which made up 15  % of the final grade).

The other class did have exams, there was an exam with the value of 25 % at the end of each part with questions of the content we learned in those weeks, and the last one had questions from all the semesters. The exams were multiple-joice, so no need to write something, just making your x on the one answer that is right. And, what I thought to be really strange: The questions as well as the answers used exactly the same words as in the texts we had to study. Good for me - I don't think I would have understood the questions if they used different phrases to make it more difficult. But strange for me nevertheless.

The other 10 respectly 5 percent each part were achieved by doing cases in class and preparing presentations. That quite annoyed me. In Austria, we have this one exam in the end that decides your grade. In most classes you don't need to do anything before. Maybe you have do to an additional task like write a paper or do a presentation. But that's it. No cases every class, no two presentations, three exams and two additional quizzes. I guess it's better for the students to always do small pieces of work instead of one huge pile of work once and it makes class easier to pass. But it took me some time to adapt to "there's always something to do for each class".

The professors of my courses were all really nice and helpful, I even got the number of one of them so I could contact him if I had questions, and when I didn't understand, they translated what they said for me to english. The students here do know english, they even told me they have classes in english. But nobody is pretty eager to talk in english and it seems their english classes are more like "the texts are in english, but you can speak spanish in class as well". So, I guess right now my spanish is better than the english of most of them.

Also, what I noticed right away is that all the students tend to dress quite nice for every class. Almost all guys wear button-down shirts or polo shirts, and blouses, dresses and even high-heels are not incommon for girls. I guess that's because it is a private university - at the University of Tolima, same city but public university, punks were a quite common sight. Also, students here are quite young. They are allowed to enter university at 16 and, because it's private, tend to finish it as soon as possible. I met noone my age (except for the other exchange students), which I definitely wasn't used to.

What surprised me was the punctuality. Yes, I knew they wouldn't be as punctual as in an university in Austria. But still, it's not normal to arrive half an hour late to class. And it's quite strange that class finishes an hour early just because.. well most of the time I have no idea why we finished so early. I guess they just didn't want to continue anymore.

And then there were the group works. It was not that bad everytime - but I do remember this one time when we were told to prepare a presentation but noone of our group had time so we ended up meeting 2 hours before class started, therefore almost no preparation time at all, everybody showed up half an hour late and when we at last had some slides half an hour before start of classes, they started discussing if we shouldn't change the whole presentation because another concept would be better. I am not a stressed person, but this quite freaked me out - I had no idea what to present (in spanish!) and saw myself standing infront of the class reading the text on the slides and even then making mistakes because it's the first time I ever see that slide. Fortunately, we didn't have our presentations until three weeks later because after one presentation class finished and we could all go home. I guess I will miss that back in Austria - I got quite used to it until now.

I got to write for a newsletter of the Unibague, you can read it >here<.

Happy days

Now starts the time when we can count down the weeks until the semester ends. We already started planning our last weekend together and it is going to be amazing! But it also means that the time like I am spending it right now is coming to an end which makes me kind of sad. Funny thing: some of my friends here are not really sad about it and already looking forward to going back home. Sure, they said they would like to spend some more time together, but not here. So I was wondering why they experienced the time here so different than me.

 Sure, if you compare it with being at home, comfortable, able to do and eat whatever you want because you are at home and you are used to how it works, life is harder and more complicated here. But I must confess, I never think of it like that. For me, everything is like a huge adventure and also a kind of challenge - how do I manage to live in a country that's so different from home? And that's what I guess is the key to happiness. Because everything that happens that makes life more difficult is like a new challenge to conquer and everything good feels like you earned it. This makes you able to enjoy every single moment.

Even if I do have some trouble enjoying the cold shower on a cold day. Or the disgusting sweet bread they sell as "not sweet" to eat with ham or meat. Or the difficulties to find the post office ("Post office? What's that? No, I have no idea where we have that in Ibagué"). Or doing work for the university entirely in spanish. Or feeling pain in your stomage after trying something new to eat. It's really hard sometimes. But in the end I feel proud I did manage it.

They actually started calling me "la chica feliz", the happy girl, because I am always enjoying my time and find a reason to laugh in most of the situations. Also, I am "experta de chistes", expert of jokes, because I know so many jokes. Unfortunately, not all of them work here, like the one "what's white and disturbs you while eating? - An avalanche" that failed because nobody had ever seen an avalanche. I mean, how could anybody not know an avalanche? Strange world. I won't say poor people because I guess they can actually consider themselves lucky not to be bothered by avalanches.

Nevertheless, time is really great here! I mean I just need to count the times I was in the swimmingpool in the last months or some days ago someone told me I start looking like somebody from here, so no more the gringa that came from Austria. And everybody is impressed how fluently I can speak spanish already (it's not like I had a choice but I do agree now with everybody saying "it's just about the motivation to learn a language") and everybody is even more impressed when finding out I can actually speak german AND english AND spanish. I never mention that it's not that special in Austria because why should I?

And now that my spanish improved that much that I can also participate discussions and understand what's going on around me, life is so much easier. Also, we are going to San Andres tomorrow, so 5 days of caribbean feeling are waiting for me! How can it get any better?

Daily Life

More than a week ago it was Easter and, as I found out, the traditions here are nothing like Easter traditions in Austria. They almost didn't believe that there's actually a tradition to eat something green on "Gründonnerstag" (Holy Thursday). And why would someone paint boiled eggs in different colours? And put sweets and even presents in a basket, call it easter nest and hide it for the kids? Must be strange for people from a country where Easter is a highly religous celebration only for as highly religous people at the church. Also, it is common not to eat any meat or drink any alcohol in the Semana Santa, the Holy Week. It's like a shorter period of fasting than we have (in Austria: from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday). Also, Easter Monday does not exist here in Colombia. But, on the contrary, almost all people have holidays in the whole Holy Week except from those working in restaurants, shopping centers and such places.

Living in Ibagué, we already established some kind of routine. Everytime we meet at someone's home or at least every weekend, somebody else cooks something typical for their home country. Until now we had Argentinian Tortillas, Mexican Tacos, Brazilian Risotto and of course Wiener Schnitzel mit Kartoffelsalat (Potato Salad / Ensalada de Papas) and Kaiserschmarrn. It's really hard cooking something here because nobody has a functioning oven and there's no mixer. I always have to evaluate if what I am trying to make is even possible.

Everything tastes so good I really started to enjoy those cooking nights and I already learned some new receipts that I will definitely use sooner or later. And sunny, hot days we spend at the pool playing Uno. And, well, since everyday it's hot, we just have to wait for a little sun. Some days ago we had a really cold day. It was so cold, I had to wear a thin west over my shirt at night because else I would have felt a little cold.

Since the easter-trip to Medellin I haven't left Ibagué and I already get a little jumpy because, to tell the truth, not much happens in Ibagué, the capital of music of Colombia, that, to tell some more truth, doesn't have music. It's kind of located perfectly to get to most places in Colombia quickly (in less than 10 hours) but the only choice you have to do something in Ibagué is to go hiking and even that's kind of complicated because the only interesting route is to hike around at the Nevados but there's no bus there. And if you just walk up you need almost the first day just to reach the National Park.

Therefore, I am already planning to leave again this weekend, let's see how this works out. Because when trying to leave with my friends, they seem just not used to make up their mind if they really want to go until the last possible moment and then it's quite hard to find a bus, someplace to sleep and everything necessary. I really have to surpress my reflex to just say "if you don't want to go then just don't go and don't wait for us to convince you" or something like that and just be patient with however it turns out in the end. Really, how do anybody ever achieves anything like that? But also, it's totally worth being patient because it's just more fun with friends!

Considering the food, I really miss baking something. I started making Palatschinken (~pancakes) almost every day because without oven there's no way to bake anything else. I even thought about adding some chocolate to the receipt and just put some chocolate pieces on the hot Palatschinken and folded it for the chocolate to melt - but it turned out to be quite bad because while the chocolate tasted quite okay when cold, the molten taste was nothing I would like on my Palatschinken. How do Colombians even survive without good chocolate? So I am back to Palatschinken - I might try it with ice cream next time or maybe consider some arm training so next time when trying to make Eischnee (beaten egg whites) for Kaiserschmarrn my arm does not feel like dropping off.

One month in Ibagué

When I realized that it's more than a month ago that I arrived in Ibagué, at first I couldn't believe it. It's crazy how time flies. But really, I could already experience so many differences. Like, at first, I somehow managed to get sunburned today while sitting on the balcony the whole day - in the shadow! I didn't know this was even possible. I read somewhere learning something new every day keeps you young - I guess I am on my way to enternal youth!

A big part of my life here are the other international students. Last weekend we were in Prado where there is a huge and beautiful lake. Unfortunately we had bad luck with the weather and I got bitten by mosquitoes all over, also, like visible at the seashore, due to the draught following the phenomenon "el niño" the lake was missing a lot of water. But - because I arrived late - it was my first overnight trip with the international students.

Of course, there's always the language barrier, I still don't understand if anyone asks me anything spontanously and I don't even have the slightest idea what they want from me at the moment and I can't say everything I want to say. But you know that moments when you relax around someone and don't need to think about everything you say anymore? I experienced that and almost started talking german to them.

Also, they prepared the nicest birthday party for me with cake and balloons and everything. I would have celebrated anyway because I can't remember any birthday I didn't celebrate but it is great to see everyone so eager to have a great party :D

And I found something that helps standing the hot weather. Did you know that some say it is proved that warm drinks keep you cooler than cold drinks? Forget about that. The only time I can really stand the heat is while drinking a limonada filled up with crushed ice. What's even better is that they also taste great and are really cheap - about 30 cents at my favourite limonada seller. To make them, there are special limon presses that look kind of like an oversized garlic press and works really great!

The clothes here are way more beautiful - and so different from each other! In Austria I always feel like looking on the same piece of cloth just in the current trend colour every season but here everything seems like being unique - and way more colourful! What I'll probably never understand is why everyone here wears just long trousers when it's that hot. But still, there are really beautiful and colourful trousers as well! But, to tell the truth, the most of the clothes are not really cheaper than in Austria.

The traffic is also very different. When crossing the street as a pedestrian, no car will stop. And by no car I mean no car. Either there is a gap inbetween the traffic or you won't be able to cross the street. Also, the drivers are not likely to slow down when seeing you crossing the street. At very few places there are traffic lights and on even fewer places there are pedestrian lights but there it's still risky to cross the street without looking because cars are not used to stop for pedestrians. By now I already got used to the traffic but I am really glad I left my drivers licence at home because I really wouldn't like to drive here.

And for those who didn't know this great car alarm that accompanies me every day, I found the video of where I first encountered that alarm. I really didn't know that there are places where this alarm is actually used! Really, listen to it! Why should I be the only one suffering from this sound? One time, when I wanted to sleep it kept going on for one hour... it succeeds to make the most peaceful minds really really aggressive. Fun fact: The moment I posted this the alarm started somewhere outside (fortunately quite far away and it went on only for a very short time).

For the holy week we are planning on going to visit Medellín and all the surrounding area so I will keep you updated!

Living in Ibagué

Today is the World Womans Day and I never knew how important this day is until now. You must know, I had an exam today at night and so I sat on the balcony - my favourite place in the flat - almost the whole day to study. There I saw so many men passing below with flowers in their hands I already wondered what's up with them today. And when I entered university there were people selling flowers at the doors and guys walking through the classes handing out sweets to women. I really got envious, I mean why don't we have that habit in Austria as well? It would really please us women!

I already learned to play this mexican game for children which is like Bingo with pictures and spanish words - just that they use it for partying. And I learned some new rules for Uno which I am already looking forward to explain to my friends for the next game of Uno in Austria! But I must really confess that the sweets from mexico are quite strange. They are not really sweets, because they are all kind of hot. I have no idea how they can live with this kind of sweets. Needless to say they LOVE all the sweets I brought with me and gave them to taste - especially the Kinder Schokobons but Haribo as well. Because, well, they are real sweets that are actually sweet.

Like I wrote, today I had this exam at university which was, of course, in spanish. I might have panicked a little when I realized I need a translator for almost half the words and I will never be able to remember them all so I started writing out everything in easier phrases and still felt completely unprepared - the topic was actually quite easy but explaining negociacion strategies in another language makes it quite hard. Fortunately I could discover that the exam was mostly multiple choice, so no sentences to write, just marking which answer is right. The only difficulty was understanding the question but they were almost the same words as in the texts we needed to lern. I guess I never had such an easy exam. I wonder why all the natives here even bothered to study at all.

But then there is another difference in the grading system. In Colombia, 5 is the best mark and 1 the worst, and there is no percentage scheme like you need 50 percent to get a 1. They just take the average of marks (sometimes weighted) and thats how your grade is made. And in the other class, there are no exams, just short group works that are graded, and we got a 3 on one of our group works and all my group members were like "a 3? How can that be? Why?" and now I am wondering if they might also have a different understanding on what's good and what's bad. I might need to figure that out as well.

What I am really missing is some kind of park where I can go when I feel like nature or just some place where we can sit all together where we don't have to pay - which would be a park in Europe, but surprisingly there are no parks here even if the weather would be perfect for the park everyday. And there are no cakes here! I mean, you can buy some fancy decorated tortes at the supermarket but when I looked I couldn't even find cake pans to bake something myself. It is as if they do not bake at home at all. Kind of a disturbing thought, isn't it?

Also strange for me was that here kind of everyone is in a relationship. Maybe I am a victim to selective perception because at home I kind of surrounded myself with single people and here I might have just met those in relationships. But all the time I am asked if I have a boyfriend of course I ask back and they are like "yes, of course". As if it was a bad thing not to be in a relationship. Also, I got the impression that the relationships are not so serious here (except for my host family of course). Might be the age - most of them are younger than me - but they never talk about their partner and it seems they don't even really spend time with her/him. Strange enough for me, but I will find out the reason for that too.

Cañon de Combeima

I already wanted to write something about my life and aspects I had not covered by my last post but today I was at a place that was so awesome I need to tell you first.

Near from Ibagué is the volcano Nevado de Tolima, which is 5200 m high and fortunately there's a river flowing down from that volcano that passes through Ibagué. Because of this river, the Combeima, there is this beautiful Cañon all the way up the Mountains to the National Park of the Nevados. I went there with Karla, the mexican, and Jonny, the brazilian - we only caught a glimpse of it but it was really stunning!

We started from Juntas, which is the small town on the left on this picture. This was the final stop of the public bus and from there we had to walk. Like I already wrote, going by bus is always an adventure and this time was no different. First we didn't find the right bus and when we found it it was competely full and we had to stand the 30 minutes bus ride, Jonny even on the step of the door (while the door was open, of course). And the bus is really not high enough for standing. I bumped my head way too often on that bumpy road. We felt like we already accomplished a lot when we arrived just in Juntas.

As we learned soon, those with car could go way further and everybody was like "what, you walked all the way up?" But by walking, we could enjoy all the marvellous views on the cañon. Truth is, we had no idea what to expect. I saw one picture in a brochure about Ibagué and told everybody I want to go there because it looks beautiful and at some point they were convinced they wanted to go there too.

I still have no idea where the picture of the brochure was taken, there was the Nevado the Tolima in the background which unfortunately we couldn't see because of the clouds so we can't be sure. But all the rest of the panorama was still stunning. While hiking higher and higher, we passed many mountains and I thought "that's it. Behind this one there must be the Nevado de Tolima" but there were only higher mountains behind every time.

And then we found a funicular in the mountains, connecting one side of the cañon with the other. On the other side, there was a restaurant running the funicular and offering even some leisure activity. This was the moment we decided we had to come back. We haven't been to the river which is said to be completely clean. Also, just 5 km further up the mountains there's the entrance to the national park that even has thermal springs.

I made a friend on the mountain - the majestic almighty lama! They had a kind of small pet zoo with rabbits, guinea pigs, different birds, horses and many more but I liked the lama best. Behind it, you should be able to see the Nevado de Tolima, but like I already wrote, it was way too cloudy up there to see anything.

When we decided to go back (with a heavy heart), we realized we did not bring enough money to pay for the furnicular and the bus. And furthermore, there are of course no cash dispensers anywhere - only in Ibagué. So while walking down to Juntas we thought about all the different possibilities how to get money up there and what we could sell. We got really creative, like we could close the road and collect money from everyone that wanted to pass. Fortunately, a guy and a girl were nice enough to take us down with them in his car and he was really happy to tell us about all the great places we needed to visit and even bought us a typical ice cream - with real berries and mangos frozen inside! It was delicious. This unexpected turn of events made the day kind of an adventure. But fortunately we did not have to walk all the way back from Juntas and got to Ibagué savely by even learning something new.  And I am already looking forward to coming back and exploring even more of the cañon!

Settling in

Some time passed since I wrote the last post but while a lot of stuff was going on, nothing really extraordinary happened. Most of the time I feel like I am thrown into a different world that is somehow quite similar but then again pretty different from what I am used to. I guess that is because I arrived late and the semester already started, so I kind of jumped into the ongoing semester, into the group of international students that have already been there for three weeks and as well, of course, into a host family that also has known each other for a long time. Fortunately, I am quite adaptable and everybody is very supportive.

It took me three days to go grocery shopping for the first time because, well, I was in the supermarket but everything was so overwhelming that I bought like three things and got out again. While on the first glance everything is the same, everything you get is completely different from Europe. There are way more fruits and vegetables and they look quite different - like the huge banana I found. A friend from university was so nice to explain me all the fruits and how to eat them - which isn't always so obvious. And they have no real bread. Just sweet stuff with dough like our brioche. I am glad I am not that much into eating bread but it's still weird. Also, there are like 50 different ketchups, even "spaghetti con ketchup" but only one kind of tomato passata.

While you can get clothes, cosmetics and even TVs in the supermarkets, there are no books, no DVDs, not even extension cords for my power plug in the room that is behind the bed which I would have really liked to use. It took me a trip of more than 8km (which is actually considered "close" here) to find this huge store called "Panamerican" that sells all those stuff missing at the supermarket. Books, movies, extension cords, tools, even painting stuff for all kinds of artists. And I found the movie I was longing to watch in spanish for a long time. There are not many movies and series I have watched in german and english and also in spanish and this one totally needed to be added on that list. You probably see how glad I was I could find and buy it (if you are female and haven't watched it yet - do it!).

Another aspect is the money here. It's worth very little - 1 € is about 3600 Colombian Pesos, but still, the biggest banknote is 50000 Pesos, not even 15 €. And they told me only to pay with that note in secure places which was quite strange because it is really not that much money. But true enough, most of the things are cheaper. Like a quite long taxi ride for 6000 Pesos. A huge glass of fruit juice (I love!! those juices) for 2000 Pesos. In the right spots you can even find a full meal for 5000 Pesos and it's really good. So apparently I just don't need that much money. Also, through hard work (I had to walk to the cash dispenser twice because once it would only allow me 600000 Pesos) I can proudly call myself millionaire now! And still 23. I guess that makes me quite a young millionaire.

My spanish is advancing step by step due to most of the other international students that only speak spanish and as well my classes that are only in spanish. I am only glad that all the appointments are made by writing in whatsapp chats because else I am absolutely sure that I would be at the wrong place at the wrong time or I wouldn't get that I have to be anywhere. But it totally improved since last week so I am positive the improving keeps going! By now I even understand the argentinian spanish which was really hard to understand for me at first. Also, sometimes I even start thinking in spanish (but I quickly reach my limits when I don't know a word). All this mixture of languages is quite funny for me - sometimes my classmates try talking to me in english because they also want to improve their english and then they ask me to say something in german and I get totally confused of all the languages and who understands what and what language am I currently talking in and so on. But I guess I will also improve that. Here you see a picture of us international students when we were going out. On the table is aguardientes - never drink that! Just don't do it, believe me. You might see me being a little contrast in the picture.

And of course, there is my flat. Like I wrote, I am living with a couple, he is 26 and she is 18. I found out they are married about one and a half years ago and, like you might have guessed from her age, they are quite religious. It is really funny how I seem to be always surrounded by highly religious people. Must be something about me. Living here is quite different. First, there are securities at the door letting you in only when you live there. Also, they watch out for the swimming pool. I really need to go swim there soon, but it got a little colder, something inbetween 25 and 30 degrees (which is great, now the temperature is just perfect for me) so the need to go swimming is not that urgent anymore. But it will be great because in comparison to the people living here, I am able to swim. So another difference is the noise. I hear almost everything going on in the flats around me and then there are many different sounds coming from the surrounding area like car alarms or dogs or other things I can't classify. I am just glad I am a deep sleeper. But I can have breakfast on the balcony everyday which is quite nice.

For some reason, right now the hot water does not work so until now I had to take only cold showers and, because this somehow affects the washing machine, I had to wash the washing powder out of my laundry and wring it out by hand - piece by piece. I really did not expect that. And the kitchen is really badly equipped, it doesn't even have a colander and the oven seems to be only for decoration. The stove is powered by gas that needs to be lightened up by a lighter to work. But by now I managed to cook without burning everything so I guess I am almost settled which means I can start looking forward to new adventures!