Hello from South Africa! This is the first time that I've had internet in 2 weeks so I have a lot to catch everyone up on. I'm in an internet cafe right now so I'm just going to write quick and then write more sometime this week. I spent the last 10 nights in a rural area (what they call a township here) called Zwelethemba. I stayed with one of my really close friends on the trip and my family was amazing. We had a 13 month old hostbrother who was probably the cutest baby that I've ever seen.Zwelethemba was defintiely my favorite place that I have visited so far. The people were absolutely amazing. People were always singing and dancing - everyone was just so full of life. Last night I got to Cape Town. I'm staying with a Muslim family here in a part of the city called Bokapp. There are only two people in our house, a grandmother who we call Ommee and a 20 year old host brother. All of the other people in my group are in houses right on the same street as me. It's nice to be so close to everyone. The food here is a lot more like home than I had expected. We have a lot of barbeques, it feels like summer! I'll post again soon. Be home in 3 weeks! Where did the time go?

Made it to South Africa!

Made it to South Africa. It's absolutely amazing here!  The weather is gorgoeous. It's spring and sunny and you can actually see the sky! Tomorrow morning I head to the rural area for 11 nights. I'm living in a homestay there with my friends Danielle and Jeff. I will post more when I can.

Made it to China!

Made it to China! We were in Beijing for 3 days. We barely slept because there was so much to do there and not nearly enough time. We flew into Beijing of Sunday morning and on Monday morning we were on the Great Wall of China! I literally just had to sit down on the Great Wall and think for a little while. Less than a week ago I was in India and less than two months before that I was in theAlps. It just doesn’t seem real. I’m more than half way done now. I have internet, but a lot of things are blocked. Facebook is completely blocked. Google works, but restricts all sorts of searches. If you search for something that is against the government your account gets flagged and it restricts your searches even more. Even the one girl who is from China on my program is afraid to talk badly about the government. She says that regardless of where you are in the world, you never know who may be listening. Last night we took an overnight train from Beijing to Changsha. I’m in a hotel tonight, but tomorrow afternoon we move into our homestays. Han - Reesa is my homestay partner. Reesa goes to Colby College which is pretty funny that we ended up being assigned to the same family. I’ll be staying with this family for three weeks. It will be so nice to be in one place for such a long period of time. I’m studying at Central South University (CSU) which has 60,000 students (quite the change from St. Mike’s). It’s a little weird to be back on a college campus, but it’s nice to be surrounded by college students that aren’t just from America. There are huge banners all over the school welcoming us. Everyone is so excited that we are here. Barely anyone speaks English here which makes ordering meals out quite the experience. We went to a night market the other night and a bunch of people ate scorpion and crickets and all sorts of other exotic meat…I stuck to chicken. A lot of people working at the night market would ask “country? Country?“ When we told them America they would all yell “Obamaaaa!“ Some guys working even said that they’d give us free food if we kissed them. We passed up that offer, but it was still pretty funny.

Last night I moved into my homestay. My hostfamily is two grandparents, a mom, a dad, and a 12 year old brother. My hostmom, Ling, is an English professor at CSU. My hostdad is also a professor at CSU. Everyone speaks English except the grandparents. My hostparents actually lived in Columbus, Ohio for a year and just came back in September. I'll keep you posted as I get more settled in. I never imagined that I would be so thankful for my own bed, a closet (to unpack my clothes!), and a washing machine. I have internet, but it works only sometimes. Facebook, Yahoo, and my blog are all blocked. If you want to e-mail me I think the best bet is on my Saint Mike's account awhittemore@smcvt.edu Don’t know when I’ll have internet again so….HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLA! Can’t believe you’re 10 years old. Love you <3
　

Vacation was absolutely amazing! I wish that it was longer! I spent the first part of my trip in a really touristy state called Goa. It was acceptable to wear bikinis there and everything. We had a beach cottage that was gorgeous and I honestly felt like I could have been on vacation in the U.S. when I was there. It was so nice to just lay out on the beach and relax. I traveled with 6 other girls for the week, but there were 6 other people that were staying in the same towns as us so we ended up meeting up with them a lot. I was with a lot of people from my program, but it was so nice to hang out with everyone just for fun. We all got a lot closer. Sunday night we took an overnight train to another state of India called Kerala. I thought the overnight train was going to be miserable, but we ended up having little cots to sleep on so we slept through the whole thing. The train sold out pretty quickly so one of my friends couldn’t get a ticket in the same class that we were in. We snuck her up into our cabin and she hid in the closet every time someone who worked for the train knocked on our door. It was terrifying, but also hilarious.
Kerala is known for its beaches and was absolutely gorgeous. On the beaches in Goa people were constantly trying to sell us stop, but it wasn’t like that at all in Kerala. We had our own private beach and the water felt like a bathtub. Our cottages were right next to a little village so when the village kids got out of the school they would all come and hang out on the beach. We ended up playing with them every afternoon. I played a huge game of soccer with them on our last night there. They asked me to call them by famous soccer player names. It was so fun. On our last night there instead of going out to dinner we bought a bunch of food and cooked for ourselves. The boys made a fire and grilled chicken, fish, and a ton of vegetables. We all sat by the fire while some guys from the village played their guitars and sang. We ended up dancing and taking a late night swim.
Wednesday night we rented a houseboat! It was like a little hotel that we had to ourselves for 24 hours. There were 13 people from my program on it and then one girl that we met at our fire the night before that ended up coming with us. Yesterday we went to go see waterfalls and drove to the city that we were flying out of. Today we toured a city called Cochin or Kochi and then just got back to Chennai tonight. Tomorrow I have class at 1 and then we fly out at 9 p.m. for Beijing tomorrow night! I can’t believe I’ve already been in India for 5 weeks. That just doesn’t seem possible. I’m both excited and sad to leave. I’ve had such an amazing time here, but I still have 2 more countries left so I’m excited to see everything else as well. I’ll be in Beijing for 3 days,, will take an overnight train to Changsha and then in a hostel with my group in Changsha for 2 nights. In China I’ll be in my homestay for 3 weeks. It will be so nice to have one place to actually settle into. The longest time I’ve spent in one place was in my homestay in India and that was only for 14 nights, two of which I didn’t stay at my homestay.
That was a long post, but I don’t know what the internet situation will be like in China so I wanted to write as much as possible!

Hello!

I’m on vacation! Wahoo! I’ve been so busy the past couple weeks. Last week we did case studies. My group of 6 decided to look at immunizations as a way to understand the Indian health system. We looked a recent policy that changed the way immunizations are delivered in rural areas. Nurses used to go door-to-door in the villages to administer vaccines. After 5 infants died from a mix up of vaccines last year, there was a huge media uproar which eventually lead to a policy change. Now nurses are no longer allowed to go door-to-door, instead a doctor must be present at all times. Although this seems like a good idea in theory, the problem is that now the people in the rural areas have to travel incredibly long distances to get to a public hospital where they can get the vaccines for free. Often times they end up not even going because it’s too expensive to get there. It was a really interesting topic to study and I ended up learning a lot! We visited a few NGOs working specifically on this issue and even visited a slum (don’t worry my country coordinator came with us). We went to the slums to interview people there to see how they were effected by the policy. We went to a slum in Chennai so it wasn’t as bad as the ones in slumdog millionaire. People were so excited to talk to us there. One family even invited us into their house. One thing shocked me was that they had a TV. Apparently the government had a policy that provided everyone below the poverty line with a free TV. So we were in this house that barely had anything, but they had cable TV. Talk about the government having their priorities straight huh?

On Saturday I moved out of my homestay. It was really hard to leave, they’re just so great! We traveled 9 hours on a bus to an ashram in rural India. It was so nice to be away from the city for a while. We just got to relax in the sun and check out waterfalls and walk around in the fresh air. It was so nice to have time to just relax. There were monkeys everywhere. Sorry Mo, but I don’t like them at all! They are so mean. They jumped on three people in my group to steal their food. Yah, not planning on messing with monkeys anytime soon.

Now I’m back in Chennai. I’m on vacation finally! I decided to come back and spend one more night with my homestay family. Tomorrow morning I fly to a place called Goa that’s known for its beaches. Sunday night I take a train to another place called Kerala. I’m traveling with 6 other girls, but a lot of the other people on my program are going to be in Kerala as well. We’re staying in a beach house and also on a boathouse for one night! Overall, things are going really well. I cannot believe I’ve already been in India for a month. It’s just flown by. Next Saturday I fly to China!
　
　

Vannakam from India! Sorry it’s taken me so long to write. I just finally got internet the other day. India is everything I expected and so much more. It’s so hard for me to even describe it. There are people everywhere! We got into the airport at 3 am and there was an enormous crowd of people. We spent the first week in a “hotel.” I had two roommates and we also had a guest cockroach one night. I’m a pro at bucket showers now. Last Friday I moved in with my host family. I live with one girl on my program named Kris. We have a mom, dad, and 12 year old sister named Pavithra. We also have a 20 year old maid. She has been with my family for a few years. She doesn’t speak English, but we’ve learned to communicate through hand gestures. It’s pretty funny. My host dad said tonight that although she’s his maid, he treats her like his daughter. With the exception of my maid, my host family speaks very good English and are amazing. From the second we walked through the door they have been more than welcoming. Initially I was nervous to do homestays, but now I’m so glad that I am. Homestays give you the opportunity to see the culture in a completely different light. I’m learning so much just from living here. I don’t want to leave! They love my hair and constantly say that I look like Barbie. I haven’t gotten sick yet (knock on wood)! I’ve been really careful about drinking the water which has definitely helped. My host family has been feeding me non-stop. They say that I’m too skinny and are definitely trying to fatten me up. They always ask if I want more food and even when I say no they just keep piling it on my plat. The food is a little spicy, but I’m getting used to. I ate kidney today….Not as bad as I would have expected. It was only a small piece though. The house that I’m staying at is really nice. I almost feel like I’m in Florida. We do have a squat toilet though…..quite the experience. My host parents also have another daughter, Pooja who is 17. She’s in her last year of high school and studying to be a doctor. She’s staying at her uncle’s while we’re here so she doesn’t get distracted. She came over last Saturday for the night though. It was so neat to get a perspective on India from someone close to my age. Two other girls on my program are staying with my host mom’s parents right down the road. My host mom’s parents do not speak very much English so my host mom brings them everywhere with us.

Everywhere we go people stare at us. One of our first days here we went to check out the beach. We were instantly surrounded and tons of people started taking pictures of us. It’s the weirdest feeling in the world to be stared at everywhere you go. I’ve never had that happen to me before.

There are no rules on the road here. The beep every time they pass a car (which is literally every 2 seconds). The beep to tell people to get out of the way, but also to let people know where they are. One of the first nights I asked my host-mom why she beeps her horn so much. “If you don’t beep they won’t know the importance of their lives” was her answer. Guess I’m going to be very careful when I cross the street. If you close your eyes and just listen it sounds so fake, almost like a recording of a city being played over and over again. We ride around in these things called auto-rickshaws. They’re like little bumper cars. There’s so much traffic that you’re going very slow, but it’s still scary! I feel like I’m in an amusement park ride every time I get on the road. It sounds dangerous, but there’s so much traffic that you’re not going very fast. Rear ending someone or sideswiping a motorcycle is a common occurrence and no one seems to notice.

Overall, I’m loving it. It’s chaotic, but it’s beautiful. I’m learning so much. I put up pictures today on facebook. Check them out! Let me know your addresses and I’ll send postcards! I have a week vacation beginning on the 24^th.. I have a place for us to stay…any takers?

Second Update From India

Ashley moved into her homestay yesterday. She has a very nice host family and a 12 year old host sister who loves her! She is getting around on a rickshaw (which she suggest if you care about her not to view a youtube video of one). Apparently it is not as bad as the video looks. She is able to tolerate the spicy food and learned to eat with her whole hand as compared to only 3 fingers. The plan is to attend a wedding tomorrow. Hello to all from her and she hopes to have internet access next week.

Update from India

Made it to India! Internet is super cheap, but such a hassle to get. I just ate a huge meal with dessert for $2. We went shopping today and bought some cool clothes. It looks just like the pictures. It's really neat, but definitely a HUGE change from Switzerland. It's really really dirty. The contrast is ridiculous. There a huge new hotels next to slums. I can't even explain it. The room is ok. I haven't showered in 2 days and I'm wearning pants and a cardiagan in 80 degree weather. We got to our hostel at 4 am last night. The plane ride wasn't too bad. I even got to watch a modern family episode. Today we went shopping and I bought some cute light shirts that I'll be able to bring home with me. Going to bed super early. My country coordinators are great. Oh, also, we don't have showers. We have to take a shower with buckets that we fill. Really hard not to drink the water, but getting used to it. Huge bottels of water are 50 cents. Other than that things are gonig well. Really big adjustment, I'm defintely roughing it. Let Steve Ware know I used my spoon/fork. It was to eat nutella out of a jar...gross. hahaha. I picked up a bunch of granola bars so I"ll be good wtih food. It's been really good so far though, just a little spicy. We are going to do yoga everyday and we have a dance session tomorrow. I will keep you posted when I can. Will you pass this on to people? COuldn't get onto my blog, but wanted to keep you posted. Love and miss you all. Can't say goodbye in Tamil yet, so byeee! Love you <3

I went skiing in the Alps! We went to Engelberg and skied Titlis. It was absolutely amazing. It was a 3 ½ hour train ride both ways, but it was more than worth it. The views were phenomenal and it was definitely one of the most amazing experiences of my life. We bought train tickets, lift tickets, and rented equipment for under $200. I skied in jeans and used sunglasses as goggles. It was quite the sight. We were the people that I always laugh at on the mountain.. We only skied a couple hours, but there were no lines so we got in more runs than I can count. The mountain was enormous. A run from the very top to the bottom took close to 40 minutes. My legs were dead by the end of the day and still  hurt when I walk down stairs. It was by far the best skiing I’ve ever done. I’ll put up pictures ASAP.

Yesterday we went to the pharmaceutical company called Rouche. The presentations were really interesting, but was different from any other presentation that we have had. A communications director presented to us so he was really good at avoiding the hard questions that we were asking him. Not only did we get all sorts of free souvenirs, but they also gave us an excessive amount of food, chocolate, and wine in the couple hours that we were there. At the end of the visit they gave us all business cards and told us to keep them in mind when we’re looking for jobs after college. It was definitely neat to visit, but at the same time I couldn’t help but thinking that they were wooing us with gifts as a way to keep us from asking questions.

India on Saturday morning! Our flight is at 7 am on Saturday from Zurich. That means we have to leave the hostel at 3 am…ugh.  I have so much laundry to do before then. The only problem is that it costs 10 franks to do 2 pairs of jeans and a few t-shirts at the hostel. They wash, dry and fold your laundry, but it’s just as expensive to do it at a nearby laundry mat. I think I’m just going to wash my clothes by hand and have them wash the clothes that I want to shrink back up.

I’ve gotten so sick of buying lunch every day because it’s so expensive here that I’ve started stocking up on food from the grocery store. I’ve been eating a lot of nutella and banana sandwiches and clementines. I’ve also been eating waaaaay too much chocolate. Their chocolate here is amazing (of course). Mar and Jen…it’s even better than Germany’s and you know that’s saying a lot.

Hi!

I'm now in Basel, Switzerland. We were in Geneva for 3 nights. It was great! It was such a short time to be in such a great city. We tried to pack in as much as possible. We went to a bunch of UN agencies. I actually ended up meeting the Director-General of the WHO Margaret Chang! She is one of the most important people when it comes to health in the world. We also had lunch with the minister of health of India. We met so many more amazing people and learned so much about a lot of important UN agencies and NGOs in Geneva. We had some free time to explore the city as well. I met up with my friend from St. Mike's, Justin, who is studying in Geneva for the semester. It was so nice to get a little taste of home while I'm away. We have very limited access to internet. I'm at a starbucks right now. We have to pay money to get WiFi so I've been trying to use it whenever I can.

We started classes. They seem really interesting. It's neat because everyone in my group comes from such diverse backgrounds. We have a lot of pre-med students, so bio/chem majors, some public health majors, some international developments majors, some soc/anthro majors, and even a politcal science major. It makes the classes really interesting because everyone has a different perspective on the issues that we're talking about. In Basel we have been taking classes with my professors at a University here. We are here until next Saturday the 29th and then head to India. It's been a little hard to find a balance between classes, going out and hanging out with friends, and sleeping. Today was our first day off so I got to sleep in which felt sooooo nice.Last night was muesum night. All of the museums in the city were open until 2 am. It was really neat because all of the public transportation was open until 3 and the city was packed. Because we're such a big group it's really easy to just follow the crowd and not really pay attention to where you're going. I did that in Boston because a few of the girls on my program go to school in Boston. I hated the feeling of not knowing where I was going in Geneva though. I started paying attention and ended up falling into the role of directing everyone around the city. Last night I had to get us all around Basel, switching trams and everything. I don't know how the heck that happened because living in Readfield, Maine doesn't give me much experience in that, but it's kinda funny. Now wherever we go to group is asking me directions. Hopefully I won't get everyone lost...

Overall, the food has been good. We get two meals for free and have to pay for one meal during the day, usually lunch. Europe is so expensive though. I'm so glad that I'm not here the whole semester, I would be broke (sorry Jen, Jenny and Meg). They have a lot of meat to eat here which isn't really my style, but I've been sucking it up.

Yesterday we went to a non-traditional hopsital. They practice anthroposophic medicine. It's more of a holistic approach to medicine. The hospital only had 63 beds and felt more like a hotel than a hopsital. The philosophy behind this type of medicine is to take care of the whole person rather than just the one part of the body that isn't working. The doctors really stressed the importance of looking at each patient as an individual. Mar, there was even a place for Musictherapy! There was this big, open, gorgeous room that had all sorts of instruments. You would have loved it. The rooms all had windows with beautiful views. It was very relaxed. They had a room were they put people after they died for 3 days so that the could transition from the physical to spiritual world.  I agreed with parts of the way the hospital ran, but other parts were too much. It is the same cost as a regular hospital and covered by insurance. I can't imagine anything like this being in the U.S. They still practice traditonal medicine, but with more of an individualistic approach. Overall, Swiss helath care is really interesting. I think we can learn a lot from them.

They spoke French in Geneva, but here they speak Swiss-German (so much more difficult than regular German!) so I've been trying to remember some stuff from high school. It's been interesting to try and communicate with people, but a lot of people still speak English.

My time's running out, but I'll write again soon! Miss you all. Auntie - there's a 44 year old woman on my trip who is just like you. I think you two would be amazing friends. Happy birthday Mad! Wish that I was there to celebrate with you.

Made it to Switzerland! Geneva is absolutely gorgeous. It reminds me a lot of Munich. I forgot how much I loved Europe. Running on only a few hours of sleep so I'm going to head to dinner and then sleep. Up at 7 tomorrow to go to the WHO.

Orientation

So I’m off! My trip to Boston was interesting to say the least. The snowstorm on Wednesday complicated things, but we made it. We ended up taking the train from Portland so we (as in Bud) didn’t have to drive through the snow. I met my group at a hostel in Boston. There were only 13 out of 35 of us that made it there on time. People have been trickling in slowly and all but 2 have made it. Everyone’s just crossing their fingers that they’ll be here before Saturday morning when we fly to Switzerland. I’ll be traveling with a really great group of people. The majority of them are science majors, many considering med school. There are a few Soc/Anthro majors, but not as many as I expected. There are only 5 boys which makes for an interesting group dynamic. I have 2 traveling professors and 1 staff member named Mattie that is just a few years older than me. She’ll be with us the whole time and is kind of like an RA on the trip. We’ve haven’t done too too much so far. We’ve done a lot of icebreaker games and today the coordinators went over the policies of the program. Tonight we went to the president of IHP’s house for dinner. There were a few alumni there so we got to hear some advice from them. Tomorrow we have a long day that starts at 9, but we have from 5 on to do whatever we want to in Boston. My e-mail address is ashley.whittemore@yahoo.com if you want to e-mail me while I’m away. I’d love to hear from everyone.

Talk to you soon <3