So I have had time to reflect on everything.. and I have to admit. The IHP experience has really changed me. Starting with my career goals.. no longer looking to work at an NGO or grassroots level. Not my thing. Which.. changes my masters program. I am now looking to enter a program for International Communications, perhaps UNC or UWF. Either way, not moving to Vermont in the Spring! Aaand yes, living in Butler till I get accepted and can move again. I have now been home almost 1 month, and come another 1 1/2 weeks, I will be ready to move. After all for the past 4 months, it has really been my routine to move every 5 weeks! I am really happy with my decision to not move to VT, it was hard, esp. with all the non-refundable money i have given them for tuition, but its worth not spending wasted time and additional money. SO I am roughing it out in Butler.. jobless and broke. Talk about a lifestyle change..

I have had a lot of free time so I have had time to put a lot of my pictures from my IHP experience into online albums, which has been very bitter sweet. Great to see everyone and re-live memories.. sad bc. I am reminiscing by myself. I wish I had another IHPer who lived near me! Abbie was the first IHPer I spoke with on the phone, and that was 2 days ago. SO good to hear her voice! Way more comforting that I expected. I am nervous that I will lose touch with some key ppl, but thanks to facebook many messages have easily been sent back and forth.

Argentina was great, but really it wasnt like the 1st 2 cities at all. Because it was the last, I was focused on the end. I had a lot of work to bring together my independent research project plus take care of all my end of the semester work. ANd make some lasting memories.. plus I couldnt wait to get home and see everyone. 4 months of being away was hard! I have a feeling it would have been a little different if communication was easier. I am just so used to having my cell phone attached to the palm of my hand! It was nice at times.. but communication ease is something that I value, haha.

I <3 black and gold

Hey!

I am back home! I immediately knew the gate for my flight to Pittsburgh when I saw a cluster of black and gold. Since it was a game day everyone was wearing their pride- jerseys, hats, scarves, luggage bags, etc. I already felt happy just flying with these people.. it was so good to see our colors! Unfortunately, the 1st Penguin and Steelers games I saw this season we lost. I don't know what that's about, soo maybe I will go back to not watching the games.

I have been home about a week. I flew back into Pittsburgh the night of December 14th, Mom, Steph, and Emmy picked me up at the airport, and I am pretty sure we laughed the entire hour car ride home. I was not prepared for the culture shock of re-entry to the US! I was so amazed as how orderly our traffic is! And spending money is soo simple! Its so great not having to make the conversion from rupees, rands, or pesos! It was so embarrassing, we stopped to get a few drinks, and I asked Steph to get me a glass of tap water, or a bottle of water with no gas. Haha. Even at a restaurant ordering in Spanish and speaking to the waiter in Spanish was on the tip of my tongue the whole time. It felt so awkward speaking and hearing English everywhere.

I have gotten to see a lot of family and friends, and its just been wonderful. Being around people that know me and understand me is great! I am just so appreciative and feel so lucky to have so many amazing people in my life. Thank you so much to everyone who sent me a letter, or email, or called me, or prayed for me. It meant so much hearing stories from home while I was away. I really hope I get a chance to visit and tell stories. Pleeease, if u want to know anything about this past semester, ask anything. I can almost promise you I have a story. But, I don't realize I what I have to tell until I am asked because it was all part of one big experience. So.. the more detailed you are with questions the better because you know how I can ramble.=) Plus I have pics..

I hope all your families are doing well! Thanks again for your prayers! This was such an incredible journey, and I learned so much, so thank you for your support!

Merry Christmas!

Pictures!

¡Yooo! ¡estoy en Buenos Aires!

AAH! I miss my Pittsburgh sports! BUT I did get to watch some serious rugby with my homestay dad yesterday morning.. that was pretty fun! I have never watched it on TV. Not the same buut Ill take what I can get.

Buenos Aires, Argentina is so fun. Not to keep repeating the 1st couple lines of all my emails.. but it is! Its huge. And its safe, its so nice not to have darkness as a curfew anymore! Of course I dont go running up and down dark allies, but its deffinately a safe place to walk on the main roads anytime of day or night.

Its been about a week and a half since we got here, and it already feels like 2 or 3! Time is flying. Last week I went to a Tango club. To our surprise there was no dancing, but the band was incredible! The whole room was packed full of people. Lots of foreigners. Everyone apparently was reccommended to go see this show, and it as worth it! I got a few songs on film that will be great to show everyone at home. This past weekend was my first taste of the night life.. heading out at 1 or 2 and going to 7am. Once a year about 100 or so museums all throughout Buenos Aires are open for free until 2am. There are quite a few bus lines that also run free to take visitors to and from each location. My roommate Joey and I met up with some friends, who have been here a few months, and I can`t say I have ever had so much fun checking out museums! We went to 4 all together! We started at a science museum (which had nothin on Carnegie) then went to a Tango museum and a regular art museum.. none that I can remember the correct names... last was an elcrtic museum (?). The highlight was the band outside. Somehow, after a week of hot weather it turned cold for the night.. but it was worth freezing. The band was great, totally different than what I am used to. There were easily a few hundred people there. We made lots of friends and the night was just pure fun. It was awesome because it was something the entire city could enjoy together, there was something for everyone. You saw everyone out, all ages and styles.

Since we didnt make it home till daylight hours, we slept most of Sunday then went to San Talmo, a huge open-air market; so many things to look at! All the items were so unique!! -- mom, you would be proud, there was no impulsive buying! There were artists, musicians, street food, dancers, performers.. just great. Of course it is all put on for the tourists.. buuut I dont care, I still enjoyed it. I think I´ll check out 1 more before I start my bartering.. I love negotiating prices..

School is stressful. The typical end of the semester workload. Plus, my independent project. I hate stress. I am trying to stay on top the workload, but with managing school- work there is little time to experience the city.. and its getting on my nerves!! I can tell I am sliding down the slope on my ¨S¨curve, hopefully I dont hit the bottom. God and I had a talk today so I am feeling a lot better. I am looking forward to being at home. I am truly enjoying everything here, but I am happy to be returning to the status in 4 weeks… speaking of which.. I have my tickets home! I will be arriving in Pittsburg late Sunday, Dec14th! I can´t wait to show pictures and video. I am not kidding when I say I have enough stories to last days.. soo buy some coffee. Haha.. okay well, I am gonna run er.. sit here and write a few papers. Miss and love you all! Send me some updates so I am not totally out of the loop when I come home!!

Leaving south africa

Well, I am on my last stretch in South Africa, we are scheduled to leave Friday morning around 4am. =( BUUUT I am very very excited for Argentina.. and for some serious Spanish lessons.
South Africa has been absolutely wonderful! Very very different than India. India has a lot more ppl so there is a lot more poverty in your face, here it is tucked away in the township area that were set up during the Apartheid. I have been doing a lot of research on housing. We broke up into smaller groups and did case studies. So I was in a group of 5 and we did a lot of visiting township and organizations trying to find out everything we could. It was a rough 3 days. I stopped writing in my journal. I just cant seem to find the words to describe how I felt. Absolutely heart wrenching. Cape Town has a lot of really beautiful things but it is really hard knowing what is right outside the city. In each place that we have been i consider what it would be live to live there. I would love to live here, but I dont know that I could.. unless I was doing some kind of work helping the situation for people living in informal settlements. Living in town really comfortably and knowing their situation and not doing anything sucks. It would be different if I was here long enough to get involved with TAC or another NGO buuuut we aren't. SO Its very frusterating. I have been working on an independent project based around women's movements throughout the 3 countries, with an emphasis on female entrepeneurs.. I have met a lot of really awesome men and women. The stories of what people have come through are so inspiring. Its really interesting to hear how things significantly changed after the Apartheid. The 2 townships I lived in are completely different.. and had different lasting affects. Langa is a Christian community and Bo-Kaap is predominantly muslim. People I spoke with in Langa are still so thrilled at having rights-- many women are the heads of their households are really took advantage of these rights and opened their own Spaza shops, so they could take care of their families. In Bo-Kaap its still a very patriarchial mindset.. but the women are now starting to step up in having their voices heard. Divorces are becoming more common as women are standing up for themselves. Its amazing sitting with these women who went through the process of leaving their husbands. Hearing everythign they went through , and how they feel about it now. They are such strong women! Such great examples for their children.. its amazing the impact they are making, on the community around them as well!
This past weekend was busy! We finished up our classes in South Africa, so our vacation week started. Sunday 2 other girls and I took sand boarding and surfing lessons. (see pics above!) soooo much fun! I was talking with our instructor, and he said that snowboarding and sand boarding were the same just hot vs cold.. sooo I am really pumped at my head start in snowboarding b4 i move to VT. I had 1 bad wipe out that my neck and shoulders are still sore from but after that I did really well!! Was going down the hills w/o falling at all, even at the end had graceful stops.. didnt have to crash to stop! Surfing was a lot of fun... I didnt stand, but I kneeled. It was enough to get the feeling of catching a wave, so I was happy. The currents were really strong, and the water was freezing. We were prolly out there for 3 hours, but thanks to the oh-so attractive wet suits we barely noticed the cold. Saturday night my friend Corrine Abbie and a few other went to a jazz club across the street from our backpackers. We are living in a Backpackers called Carnival Court (maybe google it?) on Long Street.. its kinda of similar to South Side in Pittsburgh, a lot to do on one street so its a good lcoation. One of the pics. the other pic. is my Bo-Kaap family. There was an apartment above our house so 2 of the other guys on our trip were staying there.. so I had a lot of roommates, which was really awesome! My family was wonderful, they host a lot of students from all over the world. We also lived with a guy named Kim, from South Korea; and a girl, Umit, from Turkey. They are both studying English. Apparently, its very common for students from Eruope and S.Asia to come here and study English because its a lot cheaper. There has been so much to do around Cape Town, I def. can see why its becoming such a tourist destination. Having the mountains and the beach so close has been wonderful! SO many different things to do! I miss you all...I will be back Dec. 14th!! Hope all is well!!!!! Send me some stories.. I feel very out of the loop of things!
<3
Amy Lynn

MOLO from South Africa!

Hey guys!

Sorry its been a while since my last update! I am about to be late for some group work so this will be short.. Cape Town has been great though! We are no longer living in Langa, we moved into the Bo Kaap last week. Langa is the first township created outside Cape Town, kind of like a suburb, during the apartheid to segregate black people. Bo Kaap is very close to downtown, by like 4 blocks, and is a predominately muslim community. The family that I am staying with is very sweet. They host a lot of study abroad students, I am there with my roommate Laura, and 2 other guys from our program, plus a girl from Turkey name Ume and a guy from S.Korea named Kim. They are both here studying english. Apparently its really common to come here because its cheaper to study english. Not to mention absolutely beautiful! Table mountain is gorgeous, I have an amazing view from my house as its on a hill over looking the city. This coming Saturday my friend Joey and I are planning to hike it. A lot of ppl from our group hiked it last weekend, but I was actually cage diving to i missed it! SO fun.. South Africa has a large g.white shark population, so we went out for the morning on a boat and were able to hang out like 3 feet from them! loads of fun pics.. again, I promise to send some when I get time! (sry!) We have 6 days of vacation in 2 weeks. I am planning on staying in Cape Town, just at a Backpackers. One day a few of us are going to bike down to Cape Point and stay the night, I am really excited to be in the atlantic and pacific ocean in the same day. This past sunday we all went out for a nice dinner for Ying's Birthday. I had osterage- which was delicious. I cant rem. the name of the rest. but they had quite a variety of game. Our guest professors have been great. All teach at the Univ. of Cape Town. I am running out of time now so I will try to write another in the next few days. I wish everyone could come see me! I Hope things are going well back in the states.. heard our Steelers are doing great, hopefully this weekend will go well. love you all!!!! send me some stories!!!! and keep me in your prayers.. there have been attempted muggings on 4 of our students so far in S.A, 1 girl at 4pm in the afternoon!! but thankfully each time someone nearby helped in the situation and noone was harmed or had anything stolen.
xoxo
Amy Lynn

sayin bye to India

HEYYY

India is coming to a close. I am very torn-sad to leave yet excited to continue. This was expected, but still sucks. My Indian family has just been incredible. My roommate Sarah and I went to see the palaces and temples in Mysore last weekend. Mysore was very different from Bangalore, the air had much less pollution and it was a lot cleaner. The sidewalks were just as bad- I guess that is just an Indian thing. Ha, its annoying bc. I stared so much at sidewalks to preventing tripping I missed out on looking around. Finally after 2 weeks I decided tripping now and then would be fine.. which happened. Its been very interesting getting to know the group of students I am with. Seeing how the different personalities come out in various circumstances has been surprising. There are many people that I get along with very well, but I am praying not to be their roommate! There is only one other Christian girl on this trip, her name is Abbie, and she is very fun. I thank God for her. Its hard not being around people that I can always talk to about what I am experiencing spiritually here. It is so amazing having God here though. We always know in our heads that God is everywhere. But before I left He and I were talking and I was worried about missing all my close friends and family and it kinda hit me that I am always gonna have my God to pour my heart out too.. its a comfort that I am so grateful for. This past week we went to a place called Navardarshanam. Its about an hour outside the city. Its an alternate way of living community. Its about a 100 acer community that as started 18years ago by a group of scholars- mostly engineers- who wanted to live differently in a completely sustainable environment. They grow all their own foods, use local materials to build their buildings, conserve and sanitize their own water, and use solar panels and wind for energy. It was so beautiful there. I really enjoy city life and its always surprising to me how I forget how peaceful and relaxing it is being away from everything and being surrounded by nature-- of course I am not a fan of the crawling things.. but its all good. A weekend to chill in awesome scenery is worth it. This next week we are going to an Ashram for 3 days to rest/reflect/and prepare for South Africa, we will fly out of India thursday at 4am. South Africa is gonna fly, we will have 2 home-stay families so we can experience 2 different parts of Cape Town and the culture. Plus, we have 1 week of vacation there. So it being split up will probably cause it to fly by.. which is kind of okay with me right now bc i am reallllly looking fwd to Argentina. I hope things back home are good, I hear there is a lot of drama with hurricanes. Sarah and I are making dinner for our family this evening so I better get going.. Mexican and root-beer floats, haha.

Que Dios le Bendiga!