I am so excited/anxious that I dont know what to do. I have been trained to wake up early. I get out of bed around 530 and I dont have to be at school until 800am. I try to catch up on emails. I have so many emails in my inbox.
I am going to make so many first impressions today. Oh my goodness...I am thinking what to wear. This will probably be my very last 'First Day of School' in my life...but who knows.
August 25, 2005
July 25, 2005
Eat wisely to reduce breast cancer risk
Following a smart diet strategy could cut likelihood of disease
By Karen Collins, R.D.
Special to MSNBC.com
Updated: 9:14 a.m. ET July 22, 2005
By Karen Collins, R.D.
Special to MSNBC.com
Updated: 9:14 a.m. ET July 22, 2005
July 23, 2005
An ode to my exchange year in Belgium from my dear friend Gomo
May 5, 2005
This time has moved so far forward some memories just feel too far gone. I found a box of old letters from you guys, more particularly those you wrote to me on my departure.
I guess one real thing about my life is the depth of my bond with the few incredible souls I've been blessed to befriend here on this earth. Some things one can't explain and for the most parts some things I wish I could embrace forever with the same degree of warmth and closeness...but as this journey moves on, things get relegated behind the scenes as others more pertinent close in..memories are lost in the motion of things...People I once had right next to me become abstract souls existing only in my dreams, my memories or the objects we exchanged.
This is how I found each one of you and for as long as I live, I will love you dearly missing with each passing moment your presence in my life:
Ruby: I don't know many people who have set a target, focused on it and actually hit the mark on point. I don't know many philosophers who can cook and play just as well as they philosophise. Your warmth toward me and our endless "deep" conversations, our exchange on issues of life and the heart...nothing can compare with that!
---my response on July 23, 2005
Gomo,
Thank you for your kind words. I have to say we must have all been put in Verviers for a reason. I haven't found the same mix of a fun, deep, and adventurous crew all in one place in the past 5 years since Belgium.
I remember being very deep and philosophical that year and I know I am at the core that way. I loved our conversations. I find that that part of me doesn't come out easily unless I find like minded ppl. As I am about to finish 13 months abroad within the next 2 weeks, I am sort of searching for that deep, introspective side I experienced as an 18 year old in Belgium. I hope that comes back and something sparks it inside me. I hope that the underlying truth about adults mentioned in the Little Prince is not what I am experiencing.
Thank you for being you. Thank you for keeping in touch with us all. And as I try to contemplate my most recent year abroad, I will try to reflect once again on the year that affected me the most in Belgium.
This time has moved so far forward some memories just feel too far gone. I found a box of old letters from you guys, more particularly those you wrote to me on my departure.
I guess one real thing about my life is the depth of my bond with the few incredible souls I've been blessed to befriend here on this earth. Some things one can't explain and for the most parts some things I wish I could embrace forever with the same degree of warmth and closeness...but as this journey moves on, things get relegated behind the scenes as others more pertinent close in..memories are lost in the motion of things...People I once had right next to me become abstract souls existing only in my dreams, my memories or the objects we exchanged.
This is how I found each one of you and for as long as I live, I will love you dearly missing with each passing moment your presence in my life:
Ruby: I don't know many people who have set a target, focused on it and actually hit the mark on point. I don't know many philosophers who can cook and play just as well as they philosophise. Your warmth toward me and our endless "deep" conversations, our exchange on issues of life and the heart...nothing can compare with that!
---my response on July 23, 2005
Gomo,
Thank you for your kind words. I have to say we must have all been put in Verviers for a reason. I haven't found the same mix of a fun, deep, and adventurous crew all in one place in the past 5 years since Belgium.
I remember being very deep and philosophical that year and I know I am at the core that way. I loved our conversations. I find that that part of me doesn't come out easily unless I find like minded ppl. As I am about to finish 13 months abroad within the next 2 weeks, I am sort of searching for that deep, introspective side I experienced as an 18 year old in Belgium. I hope that comes back and something sparks it inside me. I hope that the underlying truth about adults mentioned in the Little Prince is not what I am experiencing.
Thank you for being you. Thank you for keeping in touch with us all. And as I try to contemplate my most recent year abroad, I will try to reflect once again on the year that affected me the most in Belgium.
Stockholm, Sweden
Raining and cold and it is late July!! Ugh. We arrived by bus after an 8 hour ride from Copenhagen. We went promptly to our friends house and just crashed. We slept in a comfortable bed for a few hours and have just watched tv all day. Our hostess has internet, tv in many languages, free laundry services, and well is super nice so we are very comfortable. We are thinking of actually leaving her place for the seeing Stockholm tomorrow. But, maybe we will just stay inside another day.
We saw a really unique clothing dryer and the laundry facilities of her place had two different ironing machines for sheets and large scale ironing. We went to the grocery store and were amazed by several new products. We took a lot of photos.
Now we are just watching Chicago on DVD and eating popcorn. How American? Monday I am going to speak to the only English-speaking Rotary Club in Stockholm, RC Stockholm International. After Monday, I will have spoken in seven countries in three languages.
Night, night, rubes :)
We saw a really unique clothing dryer and the laundry facilities of her place had two different ironing machines for sheets and large scale ironing. We went to the grocery store and were amazed by several new products. We took a lot of photos.
Now we are just watching Chicago on DVD and eating popcorn. How American? Monday I am going to speak to the only English-speaking Rotary Club in Stockholm, RC Stockholm International. After Monday, I will have spoken in seven countries in three languages.
Night, night, rubes :)
July 21, 2005
Copenhagen
Did you know Legos are Danish? Lego means Play Well. Also Hans Christen Anderson wrote the Mermaid, the ugly Duckling, and the Emperor with no clothes, etc. Also, Walt Disney got the idea for Disneyland from Tivoli, an amusement park in the center of Copenhagen.
We had a short 1.5 days here but had a great time with Lene and her fiance, Lasse.
We are off tonight for an 8 hour bus ride to Stockholm where we will stay with a friend we met in Barcelona almost a year ago.
Signing out, rubes
We had a short 1.5 days here but had a great time with Lene and her fiance, Lasse.
We are off tonight for an 8 hour bus ride to Stockholm where we will stay with a friend we met in Barcelona almost a year ago.
Signing out, rubes
July 19, 2005
Amsterdam so far....mariah carey and the hague
Quick note: We stayed the first night with a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar living in Amsterdam from El Paso, Texas. She introduced us to her friends and showed us around.
Saturday we went to a hookah bar, a couple of great resturants, and got kicked out of a bar at 1am when they closed. That is sooo early compared to Spanish time!
Sunday we went on a canal tour of the houses then I spotted Mariah Carey and our tourguides ran after her. We went to an Australian rest. and had half price cocktails at happy hour. It was my first pina colada in ages.
Monday, Larae (the scholar), and I went to the Hague just an hour from Amsterdam to the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia to see Slobadan Milosevic. He was there and he looked so relaxed. We stayed for a couple of hours and fun listening to a general answer the lawyer's questions. There a ton of translators from Serbian to English and also the two languages into French, etc. We went home and made an Italian dinner for her friends and Burak joined in on the fun.
Tuesday, I went with Larae to her club, the Rotary Club of Amsterdam. It is the oldest club in Holland. I spoke briefly in English and then they went back to Dutch. They had bread, meat slices, cheese, and croquettes. They served milk and coffee. I was having culture shock. After all my Rotary mtgs in Spain, I excepted wine to be served a least. Milk for lunch!
Tonight we are going to do some last minute Amsterdam stuff and we are off Wed am for Copenhagen to stay with a friend for a night.
Sorry I wish I could write more. Oh yeah they have an animal ambulance and pudding in a milk container called 'Vla!'
Saturday we went to a hookah bar, a couple of great resturants, and got kicked out of a bar at 1am when they closed. That is sooo early compared to Spanish time!
Sunday we went on a canal tour of the houses then I spotted Mariah Carey and our tourguides ran after her. We went to an Australian rest. and had half price cocktails at happy hour. It was my first pina colada in ages.
Monday, Larae (the scholar), and I went to the Hague just an hour from Amsterdam to the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia to see Slobadan Milosevic. He was there and he looked so relaxed. We stayed for a couple of hours and fun listening to a general answer the lawyer's questions. There a ton of translators from Serbian to English and also the two languages into French, etc. We went home and made an Italian dinner for her friends and Burak joined in on the fun.
Tuesday, I went with Larae to her club, the Rotary Club of Amsterdam. It is the oldest club in Holland. I spoke briefly in English and then they went back to Dutch. They had bread, meat slices, cheese, and croquettes. They served milk and coffee. I was having culture shock. After all my Rotary mtgs in Spain, I excepted wine to be served a least. Milk for lunch!
Tonight we are going to do some last minute Amsterdam stuff and we are off Wed am for Copenhagen to stay with a friend for a night.
Sorry I wish I could write more. Oh yeah they have an animal ambulance and pudding in a milk container called 'Vla!'
July 15, 2005
Powers European Excursion - coming to a town near you!
Burak and I are about to leave Spain after having lived here for the last 11 months. Before we leave Europe, we are going to run around for a few weeks to various cities. Here is the list just in case you are there, we can stay with you, we can go out for dinner or a drink and catch up and/or you have any advice for our voyage.
July 16 - 20 - Amsterdam/Rotterdam/Hague
July 20 - 21 - Copenhagen (we are going to visit a Danish friend)
July 21 - 26 - Stockholm (staying with a Swedish friend)
July 26 - 27 - Berlin
July 27 - ? - Munich ( Have two German friends there…might be able to stay with them)
July 29 - 31 - find our way to Hungary
August 1 - 6 - Budapest and surrounding areas (Staying with an old friend of Burak's)
August 6 - 9 - Barcelona ( staying with a friend b/c we moved out of our place)
August 9 -10 - Washington, D.C. ( pick up our stuff!)
August 11 ------- ? Durham, NC (going settle down for.... a couple of years :) )
Besos,
Ruby
July 16 - 20 - Amsterdam/Rotterdam/Hague
July 20 - 21 - Copenhagen (we are going to visit a Danish friend)
July 21 - 26 - Stockholm (staying with a Swedish friend)
July 26 - 27 - Berlin
July 27 - ? - Munich ( Have two German friends there…might be able to stay with them)
July 29 - 31 - find our way to Hungary
August 1 - 6 - Budapest and surrounding areas (Staying with an old friend of Burak's)
August 6 - 9 - Barcelona ( staying with a friend b/c we moved out of our place)
August 9 -10 - Washington, D.C. ( pick up our stuff!)
August 11 ------- ? Durham, NC (going settle down for.... a couple of years :) )
Besos,
Ruby
July 14, 2005
London bombs spur Congress to rethink visas
Under waiver program, jihadists from U.K., other nations can enter U.S.
By Tom Curry
National affairs writer
MSNBC
Updated: 7:49 p.m. ET July 13, 2005
By Tom Curry
National affairs writer
MSNBC
Updated: 7:49 p.m. ET July 13, 2005
July 13, 2005
Pamplona - Running of the Bulls 2005
I thought it was really dirty, too many drunk people, and the only thing that made it different from a regular 24/7 party was there were bulls...Anyway, that is just my opinion.
More to come..
More to come..
June 30, 2005
Manuela Martinez Foundation - Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Project
As a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar living in Barcelona, Spain for a year, I was searching for a service project to give back to my new community and fulfill one of my duties as a scholar. Only a few months after arrival, I was contacted by my scholarship coordinator about the Wulf family needing economical housing for their one week visit to a special doctor in Barcelona, Dr. Martinez founder of the Manuela Martinez Foundation (www.martinezfoundation.org). The Ronald McDonald House, where the family usually stayed, was full at the last minute and couldn’t accommodate them. They were arriving from North Carolina in just a few days. A hotel wasn’t an easy solution because of its high cost for the visiting family of three for a week and also that they needed a kitchen available to prepare special food for the patient. I quickly went to the first Rotary meeting I could and luckily found an assistant governor of the district. He emailed my request for housing to all the clubs in the Barcelona area and within a day I had located a Rotarian’s apartment for the family.
The Foundation was created for the research, diagnosis and treatment of children with peroxisomal disorders and other lipid diseases. After speaking with the Wulf family, a trustee of the Foundation, and various others, I learned that Dr. Martinez is the only doctor in the world successful in treating this rare disease and that is why she has patients flying in with their families from all over the world. Dr. Martinez doesn’t charge for her services and has been working for the Foundation for a few years without a salary because there is little money and awareness for the rare disease and she is so passionate about her work and helping her patients.
From that point on, I have continued to find housing for patient families, developed a relationship with the Wulf family and Dr. Martinez, organized a benefit dinner for the Foundation, and spoke about the Foundation at all my scholar presentations. I have helped raise more than 800 euros for the Foundation just from Rotarians and Rotary clubs in Barcelona. I have also raised much needed awareness for the relatively young Foundation and given hope to Dr. Martinez and her patients. I am currently preparing a brief summary of my work this last year and suggestions and contact information for the three future scholars to Barcelona so that they can continue this worthy project. My work with the Foundation, I believe, has made the largest difference in people’s lives during my Ambassadorial Scholar year.
June 30, 2005
The Foundation was created for the research, diagnosis and treatment of children with peroxisomal disorders and other lipid diseases. After speaking with the Wulf family, a trustee of the Foundation, and various others, I learned that Dr. Martinez is the only doctor in the world successful in treating this rare disease and that is why she has patients flying in with their families from all over the world. Dr. Martinez doesn’t charge for her services and has been working for the Foundation for a few years without a salary because there is little money and awareness for the rare disease and she is so passionate about her work and helping her patients.
From that point on, I have continued to find housing for patient families, developed a relationship with the Wulf family and Dr. Martinez, organized a benefit dinner for the Foundation, and spoke about the Foundation at all my scholar presentations. I have helped raise more than 800 euros for the Foundation just from Rotarians and Rotary clubs in Barcelona. I have also raised much needed awareness for the relatively young Foundation and given hope to Dr. Martinez and her patients. I am currently preparing a brief summary of my work this last year and suggestions and contact information for the three future scholars to Barcelona so that they can continue this worthy project. My work with the Foundation, I believe, has made the largest difference in people’s lives during my Ambassadorial Scholar year.
June 30, 2005
June 17, 2005
Waitlisted to 3 Law schools in the US for Fall 05
Dear readers,
This is sort of a weird idea but I guess I just wanted to get it out there.
I am currently waitlisted to Duke Law, UNC Law, and on the shortened waitlist to Northwestern. If anyone knows of ways to get off the waitlist and get admitted, please let me know.
Thanks,
Ruby :)
This is sort of a weird idea but I guess I just wanted to get it out there.
I am currently waitlisted to Duke Law, UNC Law, and on the shortened waitlist to Northwestern. If anyone knows of ways to get off the waitlist and get admitted, please let me know.
Thanks,
Ruby :)
June 16, 2005
May Update: Speeches, prom, and a fairy tale castle
June 16, 2005
Dearest Friends, Family, and Rotarians,
My Rotary Scholar year is nearing its end. I am just in the ‘closing up shop’ phase where I am saying my goodbyes, sending out the pictures people requested, selling my furniture, and making sure I have done everything in Barcelona so I don’t regret having missed out on something later.
In summation of May, I kept up with my normal rapid pace. I presented to Rotary audiences 5 times including at the District 2210 Conference in Segovia (Spain). My sister visited for a week and my brother moved in to our place. My former college roommate/bridesmaid visited me from the States. I kept busy between hosting my guests, maintaining my English classes, promoting the Martinez Foundation Dinner, which was held on the 9th of June, and also putting the finishing touches on the Americans for Informed Democracy conference that was held June 3-5.
As I turn 24 years old today (June 16th) and also need to write up the final report for my scholarship year, I am in an introspective mood trying to summarize what I have learned, how I have grown, and what I will take away from this wonderful experience.
For more details and photos, continue below, and check out my website at:
http://www.powersprep.com/rubypowers
The Full Update:
May 1st was a crazy day. I was finishing the last day of my Camino experience. Another scholar (Christanne) and I went the wrong way and walked in the dark in the woods for about an hour with just a small flashlight guiding us. (We started the day from where we had ended the night before instead of just following arrows around the city which we didn’t see that morning.) We had left extremely early so that we could make it to the Cathedral on time for the pilgrims’ noon mass. We learned of our mistake when fellow pilgrims who left 30 minutes to an hour after us actually caught up with us early in the walk. This last leg also included a large uphill climb, and it rained most of the 4-hour walk. Because the other pilgrims had caught up with us, and we were all rushing to make it to the noon mass, we didn’t want to stop and take a break. In the end, I think I walked without a bathroom or any type of break for at least 4 hours going uphill in the rain.
Reaching the Cathedral was great knowing that I had walked 120 kilometers of the Camino. Some say that arriving at Cathedral is the goal of the Camino. But although there is a destination to reach, it is never the reaching the destination that makes you fulfilled. It should be the journey that you have learned from and appreciated that makes you walk away more complete and happy that you did it.
It was a bit anti-climactic to arrive to a large Cathedral filled with a lot of people all crowding around for a place to sit or stand before the mass started. We arrived just before noon. We had walked 120 kilometers, and we didn’t even have a place to sit. And for some pilgrims, they could care less about going to the mass. I didn’t like how the Camino had become a secular thing to do. I guess everyone has his/her right to do it, but minus my own personal reflection time, I did not like the lack of devotion to Christianity.
I walked away with a sense of accomplishment, the appreciation for nature and ‘roughing it,’ having had plethora of reflection time, and the continued realization that is all about the journey, but not the destination.
May 2nd I wanted to start walking again in the morning, but my schedule said that I had to catch a train to catch a bus to catch a plane back to Barcelona. When I got to the airport in A Coruna (near Santiago), I just walked around the parking a lot as I waited for my plane; I could not stop walking! I was going to miss walking the Camino.
I can be a bit crazy sometimes. I realized this when I also read that the same day I was returning to Barcelona from the Camino, I was speaking in another town an hour away from my house at a dinner meeting. As soon as I made it home, I put on my suit and headed to Sabadell to speak to the Rotary club. I had to crash at a friend’s house that night because the trains stopped when the meeting was over. Note: Rotary dinner meetings in Spain start at 9pm and usually don’t completely end until around midnight. Hence, every Monday night I come home at midnight from my local Rotary club’s meetings.
The following day, May 3rd, I had another speech. I presented to the first Rotary club in Barcelona, which was chartered in 1922. I met a wonderful member, the first woman member of the club, and have kept in touch with her ever since then. She is originally from Switzerland, but has lived in Barcelona for 40 years.
On the 5th, I held a Texas Exes meeting and met a friendly Texan in town and his Spanish girlfriend. Burak and I had a great time getting to know them, and I am actually having my birthday party this weekend at his place near the beach.
From the 6th to the 10th, an old Belgian friend whom I met in Texas when I was 16 at a RYLA conference visited us with his fiancée. We all spent some evenings together and went out for dinner. They had a great time touring the town and it was nice to see a friend that I have kept in touch with internationally for 8 years.
May 9th and 10th I subbed 6th grade at Burak’s international school. If I ever teach something besides at the university level, I really like 6th grade. They are young enough to respect you, but old enough to be responsible, like mini-adults.
On May 9th, I did something most Rotary scholars probably aren’t allowed to do. I invited a friend (30-something-year-old from Barcelona who works for the UN) to my Rotary club in Barcelona as a potential member. Normally only members can invite potential members. Anyway, she has been attending the meetings for the last month and is interested in joining, so I de facto sponsored a new Rotary member without being a Rotary member myself!!
On the 14th, David, my 22-year-old brother, arrived from the States. Within about 20 minutes of this arrival, Burak and I had to leave to be chaperones at Burak’s school’s high school prom. It was crazy timing. So we hooked David up with a friend to go hang out with for the night and lent David a cell phone. We welcomed him, gave him a set of keys and the phone, and wished him luck for his first night in Barcelona. The Barcelona soccer team won the Spanish League so it was a fun night to be in town.
The prom was great. I had the chance to go to prom with my husband! We were two out of the six chaperones for about the entire high school. Since it is such a small school, one class per grade, they invited freshmen through seniors to attend. The great thing about this prom was that I was young enough to recognize the songs and dance with the group and old enough not to care what they thought. You know how at that age you are always making sure you ‘look’ cool because you have to protect your image? It was a great chance to be a ‘kid’ again.
On Monday (a holiday), all three of us went to a local park. The park has a small lake, a huge fountain, and lots of walkways. We rented a boat and went under a very low bridge a few times, took a lot of photos, and left David on a small island so that he could get a funny picture. We also rented a 3-person bike and took turns pedaling all our weight around. It was more of a workout than a leisure activity. It was a lot of fun to be with my brother and husband doing silly stuff.
The next day, Emily, my 20-year-old sister, arrived from Texas. It was her first time in Spain as well. She came for a total of one week so we tried to make the most of the experience with us all being together for the first time in a year.
As timing would have it, I had previously booked my flight to Madrid so that I could speak at the District 2210 Conference in Segovia (2 hours by train from Madrid). I suggested that David and Emily go to Madrid and meet me there once I was done with my speech.
Segovia is a beautiful little gem of a town. I had never heard about it before. It possesses a large Roman aqueduct in the heart of the town, an alcazar (palace) that inspired Disney’s Sleeping Beauty’s castle, and a beautiful gothic cathedral. I arrived the night before I was presenting so I used the time to relax, explore, and prepare for my speech. To make an embarrassing moment public, I ordered a sandwich (bocadillo) for dinner at a place I had just decided to eat at since I was too tired to search for something better/cheaper. When the waiter brought me two small bite-sized sandwiches, one containing ham, I told him I had ordered the vegetarian sandwich. He told me that it was just the tapas to go with my wine and my sandwich was still on its way! I felt like an idiot. I decided to just enjoy my time alone in Segovia by calling a lot of friends and catching up while I sat in a tranquil plaza with a fountain.
The next day was a bit ridiculous, I am not sure when people say they like my stories if they want to hear all of them. Basically, the hostel I stayed at wouldn’t let me store my things between check out and when I planned to leave town for the hotel of the conference (only about 2-3 hours of time). Therefore, a scholar who had met up with me that morning and I carried our luggage up and down hills (I felt like I was on the Camino again!) until we had seen most of the sights in Segovia and took a cab to the hotel.
In a few hours with all my luggage on me, I saw the Alcazar, a 12-sided church built by the Knights of Templar to hold a piece of the cross Jesus was crucified on, and about 7 monks singing at mass at a monastery.
We checked into our hotel room at the conference and took a break from the heat and carrying the luggage. Another scholar met up with us, and we rehearsed our combined 15-minute speech. We were nervous to speak in front of the 300-400 people in Spanish, but we tried to keep each other calm.
I started the speech by saying thank you to the Rotarians for their work and the opportunity to have this scholarship. I then briefly spoke about myself and what I had done over the year in Spain. At the point where I was to say I will return to the States and move to North Carolina to hopefully study law this fall, I froze and couldn’t speak. The realization that I would have to leave and the emotion that that evoked overcame me, and I couldn’t continue, but just had tears in my eyes. I mustered whatever I could find in me to whisper in Spanish over the microphone to the presidents and secretaries of all the Rotary clubs in northern Spain, ‘ I don’t want to go back.’
After the two other scholars finished their parts, we were given a standing ovation. We loaded on buses and traveled to a small medieval village for dinner. On the bus ride there, the district governor told my fellow scholar that our presentation saved the beginning of the conference with its genuine emotion and sincerity. We added heart to the opening session, and he was extremely grateful. I was glad to hear that they realized that it wasn’t that I was nervous about speaking, but it was that it actually HIT me that I wouldn’t be able to live as a scholar for much longer in Spain.
For beautiful pictures of my time in Segovia, click on this link or copy and paste it to a new window. You will see a short slideshow of my time there.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2125296372&code=16633080&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite
The next morning, I left for Madrid. It was a difficult choice. I had my brother and sister in Madrid, but I had worked so hard to go to the District Conference. I wanted to use that time to promote the scholarship so that this district would start offering the scholarship in the near future. I figured I did my best to both parties. I arrived where my brother and sister were staying, and we started our family reunion in Madrid.
Saturday and Sunday, we ran around to tourist sites and took a lot of photos. When we got bored, we would just start taking funny pictures. We got really good at taking pictures of us jumping in mid-air with people, museum, palaces, fountains, lakes, etc. in the background. Basically, we spent almost no money, but had fun just being together and possessing almost a thousand dollars worth of camera equipment to capture all our (silly) moments. Here are some photos:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2125177862&code=16636633&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite
It was sad to see Emily leave after the week passed by so quickly (just like this year). We had a great time, and she got inspired to study art in Europe in the future.
The very next day, I was subbing high school by day and had to present the Martinez Foundation Benefit Dinner at the monthly meeting of all the presidents of all the Rotary clubs in Barcelona at night. The president of my club told me that he would present the benefit dinner (my Scholar project) for me, but he must have forgotten all about it because I found out he was in Turkey for two weeks at that time. I called a president of a club I had presented to before and found out when and where I would find the meeting so that I could present it myself.
I came in a suit (of course) and was quickly recognized by the attendees since most had seen me speak in Segovia just a few days prior. I planned on just presenting the dinner, but I was invited by one Rotarian to stay and before I knew it, I was joining them all at the dinner table.
There were about 16 people at the dinner in the end, and I was one of the two females. They were very nice, and a couple of them reassured me that I was welcome there so I shouldn’t be nervous speaking to them. In the end, I presented the Martinez Foundation, the upcoming dinner, ways to donate if they couldn’t attend the event, and also got in contact with the clubs I hadn’t yet presented to. It was extremely successful.
Later that week, Ann, my college roommate and bridesmaid, was traveling through Spain with a friend. They stopped by in Barcelona to see me that weekend. It was great having an old friend come visit me and pick up our chats as if no time had passed.
At the same time Ann was in town, I was hosting from afar the Wulf family (Matthew Wulf, 7, is a patient of Dr. Martinez) that was in town for a week of treatment staying at a Rotarian’s apartment. I helped this family find housing last November and that is how I learned about the Foundation. We had dinner together one night and talked about the upcoming Benefit Dinner. We will be living just 3 hours away from each other next year in North Carolina.
The next day, I spoke to Rotary Club Barcelona Diagonal at lunch and updated my club, RCB Millennium, at dinner. I was running a public relations campaign to get awareness for the Benefit Dinner and the Foundation in general.
On the 31st, I had the joy of subbing kindergarten for my third time. I love those little rascals.
I know June is half way over, but you will soon learn why it took me 2 weeks to write this update.
June’s events will include / have included:
- The Americans for Informed Democracy Barcelona Conference (3rd – 5th)
- Martinez Foundation Fundraising Dinner (9th) and raising more than 800 euros from donations alone
- Rotary/Rotaract speeches to 5-7 clubs in the Barcelona area
- Finding out that I am on the shortened waitlist at Northwestern Law, the waitlist at UNC Law, and still waiting to hear from Duke Law
- Finishing my year-long English class with the 4- and 5-year-olds
- Starting a new English class at Wrigley’s (the gum company) in BCN
- Hosting 8 people from Germany, France, and the US.
- Birthday dinner and party (Tapas dinner - 16th and Beach party - 18th)
- Selling furniture and packing some stuff up
- Celebrating 3 years of marriage (June 22nd)
- Going to Mallorca for a couple of days as a second honeymoon
Hope all is well, take care of yourself, and keep in touch.
Ruby
Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar 2004-2005
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Dearest Friends, Family, and Rotarians,
My Rotary Scholar year is nearing its end. I am just in the ‘closing up shop’ phase where I am saying my goodbyes, sending out the pictures people requested, selling my furniture, and making sure I have done everything in Barcelona so I don’t regret having missed out on something later.
In summation of May, I kept up with my normal rapid pace. I presented to Rotary audiences 5 times including at the District 2210 Conference in Segovia (Spain). My sister visited for a week and my brother moved in to our place. My former college roommate/bridesmaid visited me from the States. I kept busy between hosting my guests, maintaining my English classes, promoting the Martinez Foundation Dinner, which was held on the 9th of June, and also putting the finishing touches on the Americans for Informed Democracy conference that was held June 3-5.
As I turn 24 years old today (June 16th) and also need to write up the final report for my scholarship year, I am in an introspective mood trying to summarize what I have learned, how I have grown, and what I will take away from this wonderful experience.
For more details and photos, continue below, and check out my website at:
http://www.powersprep.com/rubypowers
The Full Update:
May 1st was a crazy day. I was finishing the last day of my Camino experience. Another scholar (Christanne) and I went the wrong way and walked in the dark in the woods for about an hour with just a small flashlight guiding us. (We started the day from where we had ended the night before instead of just following arrows around the city which we didn’t see that morning.) We had left extremely early so that we could make it to the Cathedral on time for the pilgrims’ noon mass. We learned of our mistake when fellow pilgrims who left 30 minutes to an hour after us actually caught up with us early in the walk. This last leg also included a large uphill climb, and it rained most of the 4-hour walk. Because the other pilgrims had caught up with us, and we were all rushing to make it to the noon mass, we didn’t want to stop and take a break. In the end, I think I walked without a bathroom or any type of break for at least 4 hours going uphill in the rain.
Reaching the Cathedral was great knowing that I had walked 120 kilometers of the Camino. Some say that arriving at Cathedral is the goal of the Camino. But although there is a destination to reach, it is never the reaching the destination that makes you fulfilled. It should be the journey that you have learned from and appreciated that makes you walk away more complete and happy that you did it.
It was a bit anti-climactic to arrive to a large Cathedral filled with a lot of people all crowding around for a place to sit or stand before the mass started. We arrived just before noon. We had walked 120 kilometers, and we didn’t even have a place to sit. And for some pilgrims, they could care less about going to the mass. I didn’t like how the Camino had become a secular thing to do. I guess everyone has his/her right to do it, but minus my own personal reflection time, I did not like the lack of devotion to Christianity.
I walked away with a sense of accomplishment, the appreciation for nature and ‘roughing it,’ having had plethora of reflection time, and the continued realization that is all about the journey, but not the destination.
May 2nd I wanted to start walking again in the morning, but my schedule said that I had to catch a train to catch a bus to catch a plane back to Barcelona. When I got to the airport in A Coruna (near Santiago), I just walked around the parking a lot as I waited for my plane; I could not stop walking! I was going to miss walking the Camino.
I can be a bit crazy sometimes. I realized this when I also read that the same day I was returning to Barcelona from the Camino, I was speaking in another town an hour away from my house at a dinner meeting. As soon as I made it home, I put on my suit and headed to Sabadell to speak to the Rotary club. I had to crash at a friend’s house that night because the trains stopped when the meeting was over. Note: Rotary dinner meetings in Spain start at 9pm and usually don’t completely end until around midnight. Hence, every Monday night I come home at midnight from my local Rotary club’s meetings.
The following day, May 3rd, I had another speech. I presented to the first Rotary club in Barcelona, which was chartered in 1922. I met a wonderful member, the first woman member of the club, and have kept in touch with her ever since then. She is originally from Switzerland, but has lived in Barcelona for 40 years.
On the 5th, I held a Texas Exes meeting and met a friendly Texan in town and his Spanish girlfriend. Burak and I had a great time getting to know them, and I am actually having my birthday party this weekend at his place near the beach.
From the 6th to the 10th, an old Belgian friend whom I met in Texas when I was 16 at a RYLA conference visited us with his fiancée. We all spent some evenings together and went out for dinner. They had a great time touring the town and it was nice to see a friend that I have kept in touch with internationally for 8 years.
May 9th and 10th I subbed 6th grade at Burak’s international school. If I ever teach something besides at the university level, I really like 6th grade. They are young enough to respect you, but old enough to be responsible, like mini-adults.
On May 9th, I did something most Rotary scholars probably aren’t allowed to do. I invited a friend (30-something-year-old from Barcelona who works for the UN) to my Rotary club in Barcelona as a potential member. Normally only members can invite potential members. Anyway, she has been attending the meetings for the last month and is interested in joining, so I de facto sponsored a new Rotary member without being a Rotary member myself!!
On the 14th, David, my 22-year-old brother, arrived from the States. Within about 20 minutes of this arrival, Burak and I had to leave to be chaperones at Burak’s school’s high school prom. It was crazy timing. So we hooked David up with a friend to go hang out with for the night and lent David a cell phone. We welcomed him, gave him a set of keys and the phone, and wished him luck for his first night in Barcelona. The Barcelona soccer team won the Spanish League so it was a fun night to be in town.
The prom was great. I had the chance to go to prom with my husband! We were two out of the six chaperones for about the entire high school. Since it is such a small school, one class per grade, they invited freshmen through seniors to attend. The great thing about this prom was that I was young enough to recognize the songs and dance with the group and old enough not to care what they thought. You know how at that age you are always making sure you ‘look’ cool because you have to protect your image? It was a great chance to be a ‘kid’ again.
On Monday (a holiday), all three of us went to a local park. The park has a small lake, a huge fountain, and lots of walkways. We rented a boat and went under a very low bridge a few times, took a lot of photos, and left David on a small island so that he could get a funny picture. We also rented a 3-person bike and took turns pedaling all our weight around. It was more of a workout than a leisure activity. It was a lot of fun to be with my brother and husband doing silly stuff.
The next day, Emily, my 20-year-old sister, arrived from Texas. It was her first time in Spain as well. She came for a total of one week so we tried to make the most of the experience with us all being together for the first time in a year.
As timing would have it, I had previously booked my flight to Madrid so that I could speak at the District 2210 Conference in Segovia (2 hours by train from Madrid). I suggested that David and Emily go to Madrid and meet me there once I was done with my speech.
Segovia is a beautiful little gem of a town. I had never heard about it before. It possesses a large Roman aqueduct in the heart of the town, an alcazar (palace) that inspired Disney’s Sleeping Beauty’s castle, and a beautiful gothic cathedral. I arrived the night before I was presenting so I used the time to relax, explore, and prepare for my speech. To make an embarrassing moment public, I ordered a sandwich (bocadillo) for dinner at a place I had just decided to eat at since I was too tired to search for something better/cheaper. When the waiter brought me two small bite-sized sandwiches, one containing ham, I told him I had ordered the vegetarian sandwich. He told me that it was just the tapas to go with my wine and my sandwich was still on its way! I felt like an idiot. I decided to just enjoy my time alone in Segovia by calling a lot of friends and catching up while I sat in a tranquil plaza with a fountain.
The next day was a bit ridiculous, I am not sure when people say they like my stories if they want to hear all of them. Basically, the hostel I stayed at wouldn’t let me store my things between check out and when I planned to leave town for the hotel of the conference (only about 2-3 hours of time). Therefore, a scholar who had met up with me that morning and I carried our luggage up and down hills (I felt like I was on the Camino again!) until we had seen most of the sights in Segovia and took a cab to the hotel.
In a few hours with all my luggage on me, I saw the Alcazar, a 12-sided church built by the Knights of Templar to hold a piece of the cross Jesus was crucified on, and about 7 monks singing at mass at a monastery.
We checked into our hotel room at the conference and took a break from the heat and carrying the luggage. Another scholar met up with us, and we rehearsed our combined 15-minute speech. We were nervous to speak in front of the 300-400 people in Spanish, but we tried to keep each other calm.
I started the speech by saying thank you to the Rotarians for their work and the opportunity to have this scholarship. I then briefly spoke about myself and what I had done over the year in Spain. At the point where I was to say I will return to the States and move to North Carolina to hopefully study law this fall, I froze and couldn’t speak. The realization that I would have to leave and the emotion that that evoked overcame me, and I couldn’t continue, but just had tears in my eyes. I mustered whatever I could find in me to whisper in Spanish over the microphone to the presidents and secretaries of all the Rotary clubs in northern Spain, ‘ I don’t want to go back.’
After the two other scholars finished their parts, we were given a standing ovation. We loaded on buses and traveled to a small medieval village for dinner. On the bus ride there, the district governor told my fellow scholar that our presentation saved the beginning of the conference with its genuine emotion and sincerity. We added heart to the opening session, and he was extremely grateful. I was glad to hear that they realized that it wasn’t that I was nervous about speaking, but it was that it actually HIT me that I wouldn’t be able to live as a scholar for much longer in Spain.
For beautiful pictures of my time in Segovia, click on this link or copy and paste it to a new window. You will see a short slideshow of my time there.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2125296372&code=16633080&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite
The next morning, I left for Madrid. It was a difficult choice. I had my brother and sister in Madrid, but I had worked so hard to go to the District Conference. I wanted to use that time to promote the scholarship so that this district would start offering the scholarship in the near future. I figured I did my best to both parties. I arrived where my brother and sister were staying, and we started our family reunion in Madrid.
Saturday and Sunday, we ran around to tourist sites and took a lot of photos. When we got bored, we would just start taking funny pictures. We got really good at taking pictures of us jumping in mid-air with people, museum, palaces, fountains, lakes, etc. in the background. Basically, we spent almost no money, but had fun just being together and possessing almost a thousand dollars worth of camera equipment to capture all our (silly) moments. Here are some photos:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2125177862&code=16636633&mode=invite&DCMP=isc-email-AlbumInvite
It was sad to see Emily leave after the week passed by so quickly (just like this year). We had a great time, and she got inspired to study art in Europe in the future.
The very next day, I was subbing high school by day and had to present the Martinez Foundation Benefit Dinner at the monthly meeting of all the presidents of all the Rotary clubs in Barcelona at night. The president of my club told me that he would present the benefit dinner (my Scholar project) for me, but he must have forgotten all about it because I found out he was in Turkey for two weeks at that time. I called a president of a club I had presented to before and found out when and where I would find the meeting so that I could present it myself.
I came in a suit (of course) and was quickly recognized by the attendees since most had seen me speak in Segovia just a few days prior. I planned on just presenting the dinner, but I was invited by one Rotarian to stay and before I knew it, I was joining them all at the dinner table.
There were about 16 people at the dinner in the end, and I was one of the two females. They were very nice, and a couple of them reassured me that I was welcome there so I shouldn’t be nervous speaking to them. In the end, I presented the Martinez Foundation, the upcoming dinner, ways to donate if they couldn’t attend the event, and also got in contact with the clubs I hadn’t yet presented to. It was extremely successful.
Later that week, Ann, my college roommate and bridesmaid, was traveling through Spain with a friend. They stopped by in Barcelona to see me that weekend. It was great having an old friend come visit me and pick up our chats as if no time had passed.
At the same time Ann was in town, I was hosting from afar the Wulf family (Matthew Wulf, 7, is a patient of Dr. Martinez) that was in town for a week of treatment staying at a Rotarian’s apartment. I helped this family find housing last November and that is how I learned about the Foundation. We had dinner together one night and talked about the upcoming Benefit Dinner. We will be living just 3 hours away from each other next year in North Carolina.
The next day, I spoke to Rotary Club Barcelona Diagonal at lunch and updated my club, RCB Millennium, at dinner. I was running a public relations campaign to get awareness for the Benefit Dinner and the Foundation in general.
On the 31st, I had the joy of subbing kindergarten for my third time. I love those little rascals.
I know June is half way over, but you will soon learn why it took me 2 weeks to write this update.
June’s events will include / have included:
- The Americans for Informed Democracy Barcelona Conference (3rd – 5th)
- Martinez Foundation Fundraising Dinner (9th) and raising more than 800 euros from donations alone
- Rotary/Rotaract speeches to 5-7 clubs in the Barcelona area
- Finding out that I am on the shortened waitlist at Northwestern Law, the waitlist at UNC Law, and still waiting to hear from Duke Law
- Finishing my year-long English class with the 4- and 5-year-olds
- Starting a new English class at Wrigley’s (the gum company) in BCN
- Hosting 8 people from Germany, France, and the US.
- Birthday dinner and party (Tapas dinner - 16th and Beach party - 18th)
- Selling furniture and packing some stuff up
- Celebrating 3 years of marriage (June 22nd)
- Going to Mallorca for a couple of days as a second honeymoon
Hope all is well, take care of yourself, and keep in touch.
Ruby
Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar 2004-2005
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
June 15, 2005
Festivals in Spain
You know I think a writer of an article regarding the Running of the Bulls basically captured the essence behind most of the festivals in Spain when he was describing San Fermin in Pamplona, 'shear madness.'
In my last 10 months, I have been to Zaragoza for the festival of St. Pilar, Barcelona for Le Merce,Valencia for Las Fallaa, Sevile for La Feria de Abril, and walked the last 120 Km. of the Camino de Santiago. In July, I will be apart of the most famous of Spanish festivals, San Fermin 'Running of the Bulls' in Pamplona.
Pamplona: Spain’s morning run
Running with the bulls in Fiesta de San Fermin
In my last 10 months, I have been to Zaragoza for the festival of St. Pilar, Barcelona for Le Merce,Valencia for Las Fallaa, Sevile for La Feria de Abril, and walked the last 120 Km. of the Camino de Santiago. In July, I will be apart of the most famous of Spanish festivals, San Fermin 'Running of the Bulls' in Pamplona.
Pamplona: Spain’s morning run
Running with the bulls in Fiesta de San Fermin
June 6, 2005
May 25, 2005
Found some BCN/Spain websites
http://www.spainexpat.com
http://www.spainexpat.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-spain.php
http://www.barcelona-home.com
http://www.barcelona-home.com/int/work.asp?theme=expatriates&language=eng
http://www.spainexpat.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-spain.php
http://www.barcelona-home.com
http://www.barcelona-home.com/int/work.asp?theme=expatriates&language=eng
May 8, 2005
April's Update:Camino de Santiago and more!
May 6, 2005
Dearest Friends, Family, and Rotarians,
Ten months ago today, Burak and I left the US. We have since lived in Turkey for two months and Spain for eight months. With just 3 months until we have to fly back to D.C., I am trying to pump myself up for returning while continuing to make the most of every minute over here.
In summation of April, I think I did a good job of seizing the moment. I visited Andalusia (southern Spain) and went to La Feria in Seville, spoke to 8 Rotary clubs, subbed high school for a week, hosted 8 people, and walked 120 km of the Camino de Santiago.
Furthermore, I am continuously organizing the Americans for Informed Democracy conference and Martinez Foundation Fundraising Dinner both being held in June in Barcelona.
For more details and photos, continue below, and check out my website at:
http://www.powersprep.com/rubypowers
The Full Update:
On the 2nd, Burak and I held one of our monthly parties. This time we had my Belgian host brother and his girlfriend visiting. We also had two Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars (one living in Basque country and the other living in Italy). That night we learned that the Pope died. It was a sad and historical moment.
That Monday, I had a full Rotary schedule with a speech to Rotary Club Barcelona Europa and my club, RC BCN Millennium. It was fun but draining to public speak in Spanish at both meetings. I think it is sort of funny how I am not scared to speak publicly in a foreign language. I guess I have had a lot of training.
On the 6th, I was asked to speak at Burak’s high school’s Career Day regarding International Relations careers. I was happy to speak about something I enjoy even though I honestly think I have more to learn and do before I can be an expert on the subject. Within that day alone, I found two speakers for my June Americans for Informed Democracy conference. One of those speakers is the Consul General for the US in Barcelona and the other is a Human Rights Officer for the UN in Geneva. I guess when you give, you receive.
On the 8th, Burak and I went to the director of his school’s party. It started at 4pm. I really thought that was a typo because parties don’t start that early over here. It wasn’t. We didn’t leave until 1am or so. I think it is funny how I am at a point in life when I realize the teachers I always looked up to (and still do), are now in my peer group. I am even a high school substitute teacher. It is a weird moment in life when you realize you can be a HS teacher.
So quite tired the morning after the party, we hosted 3 Fuqua (Duke’s Business School) students/alumni at our house for tea and snacks. Two were studying here on a term abroad and one has been living here for a while. We chatted about the school, life in Durham, and job prospects. Only at the end of the time did we realize we had met one of them before on our visit last year to Duke. He was from Brazil and we learned he was friends with our Brazilian friend that hosted us at Duke last May. He was also the person that organized the Brazilian music at the Fuqua Friday event we attended. No wonder he looked so familiar!
That same Saturday, a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar (Pam) arrived while she was on her way back to Spain from a Europe trip before returning to the States. I coordinated a Rotary Scholar Tapas Dinner with the 2 other scholars in town and we all had a blast.
Later that same day, Sabi, arrived. He was an exchange student to El Paso the same year Burak was there and lived with the same host family as Burak. Sabi stayed with us for 10 days and the guys had a lot of beer and catching up to do.
On the 11th, I spoke to Rotary Club Barcelona ’92. They were really nice. It was a little intimidating walking into a meeting speaking to a group of men in my 2nd language, but I am getting used to that as well. They asked me some tough
questions. One was something regarding ‘what do you think about governments that adhere strictly to one religion?’. For example, Spain has had a strong tie to the Catholic church for a long time and has recently had more of a separation between the church and state. I told them that after living in five countries, I like the separation of church and state as seen in the US and I also like having a Christian ideology from our Founders. As a woman in Turkey, although the government is secular, it was difficult because their predominant religion of the country affects the culture heavily which affects the government. Trying to be diplomatic in a foreign language is a skill I am still perfecting.
The next day, I flew to Malaga in the wee hours of the morning (southern Spain) and was picked up my a scholar, Christanne, and her dad at the airport. We then drove to Granada to see the Alhambra, a well preserved, old Moorish-style fortress. For a late lunch we met up with Pam and the other Granada Rotary scholars. We then drove on to Seville where we would stay for the week to enjoy the annual Feria de Abril.
The Feria de Abril is a weeklong party in Seville where the town dresses up in flamenco dresses and traditional suits and drinks and dances until dawn. This is considered a nice break after the seriousness of the Easter week which is just a few weeks before the fair. I arrived with no fancy dress, but within no time, with lots of help from scholars and host moms, I looked the part as I pretended to dance the Sevillano.
Organizations, clubs, and companies sponsor these temporary restaurant/bar tents called ‘casetas.’ There are about 1,100 casetas in the fair park and in most cases you can only enter if you are a member or have tickets. At the height of the event, there are 2 million people at the fair.
Christanne, is a Rotary scholar in Seville, and had tickets to the Rotary caseta all week. We would arrive in the afternoon and not leave until the early morning. It was a tough schedule and I had to keep telling myself ‘you don’t get this chance very often in life’ so that I would keep up the pace. In the process, I presented the South Austin Texas Rotary banner to the Seville club and had a great time chatting with the Seville members.
In between going to the fair, I also went to an Arab bath and saw the Cathedral. The Cathedral in Seville made my mouth drop when I walked in (and I have seen a lot of cathedrals!). It is largest Gothic church in the world and the third largest church in general after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and St. Paul’s in London. It is said to hold the tomb of Christopher Columbus. The Arab bath was fun but a little disappointing after being in a real thing in Turkey. They ultimately recreated an Arab looking bath area and put in a variety of pools with various temperatures. My favorite was what they called the ‘Bano Turko’ which is a ‘Hamam’ in Turkish for bath. But really that bath was just like my wet vapor sauna in my local gym. It was exotic and I had a nice massage at the end. It also made me wonder if North Carolina would appreciate a ‘Hamam’?
Later in the week, a few of my Rotary club members from Barcelona planned to visit for the celebration as well. We had a lot of fun together when they arrived. After going to the fair on Friday afternoon, I returned home on Saturday around 5am, woke up at 8am, panicked, ran out the door with most of my luggage, and made my 8:55am flight to Barcelona. I want to blame my Rotary members for keeping me out so late, but I think it might have been my fault. :)
On the 17th, while our Hungarian friend was still here, we had a friend that I met in the Krakow airport visit me for 24 hours. She is an American studying in England and was on her way from Italy to Spain.
From the 18th to the 22nd, I subbed high school algebra, chemistry, and was a study hall monitor. Considering my last complete math and science class was my junior year of high school, I had to read up a bit on what I was supposed to ‘teach’. In the end, I let them do a lot of independent review of the material. They were fun, but really I don’t know what is harder to manage four-year olds or 14-year olds!
The week I subbed from 8:30 to 4:00pm all week, I was also teaching my adult class twice a week, my kids class twice a week, welcomed three new guests after seeing two leave, and also saw Burak leave to Rome.
On the 19th, I welcomed another American I met in the Krakow airport and two Belgian exchange students for the weekend. I gave them a brief tour since I was going to be busy all week and really didn’t hang out with them until Friday night when I made a tapas dinner for them.
On the 21st, I spoke to RC BCN Centre. The language of the club is Catalan, but occasionally they would switch over to Spanish for me. They were really nice and we had a great discussion. Around 11:45pm at the end of the dinner, the discussion turned to the topic of Socrates. I figured it was too late to listen to a philosophical discussion in Catalan regarding Socrates so I excused myself since I still had to give up early to work the next day.
At the end of the week I couldn’t do anything else. I was TIRED. So I went to the beach with my two Belgian exchange students and we just chilled out and got some sun while talking about the fun and silly experiences of living in Belgium. We carried on a conversation in a mix between French and English since we had all lived in Belgium.
On Sunday the 24th, all the guests left and Burak returned from Rome that afternoon. Minus the Americans for Informed Democracy planning meeting I held that evening, I tried to spend all my time with Burak before leaving him for another week the next morning.
Monday the 25th of April, I flew to La Coruna with just my backpack. From La Coruna I took a train to Santiago de Compostela where I got settled into my hostel and wondered around the small town on my own. That night I spoke to the Rotary Club Santiago. Because of a local holiday, there were only 3 members attending. I decided to forgo the formal presentation and just gave them some highlights of my speech continued by a discussion. I will see some of them again at the District conference in Segovia May 20-22.
The next morning, Christanne (my travel buddy) flew in from Seville. The plan was for her to land at 8:25am, catch the 8:30am airport bus, and rendezvous at the Santiago train station for a 9:04am train to a town where we could take a bus to the start of our Camino de Santiago. When I got the text that she had made it on the bus from the airport, I was ecstatic because our crazy plan was going to work. We had to catch this 9:04am train or we would lose the day to travel because the next train was at 4pm.
The Camino de Santiago has a long history. Basically the remains of James or St. James are said to be in the Cathedral of Santiago. The name Santiago comes from ‘Sant’ and ‘Iago.’ ‘Sant’ is for saint and ‘Iago’ is from Hebrew’s Yaacob. (‘Yaacob’ in Hebrew, ‘Jacobus’ in Latin, ‘Jacques’ in French, and ‘James’ in English)
For more history: http://www.caminosantiago.com/web_ingles/index.htm
Back to our travels on Tuesday: We arrived at the free hostel in Sarria for pilgrims but to be able to stay we had to have walked at least 10-11km. So we had planned to do this already but we decided to start the Camino from Samos which was just 10-11 km away from the hostel. We had to take a taxi there so we wouldn’t waste time waiting for a bus and would be able to still get a spot in the hostel. After a plane, a train, a bus, and a taxi, we finally got to a small town with a monastery, Samos, where we could commence our 120 km Camino. Whew!
As we watched the territory the taxi drove by, we got a little scared to think we were going to have to WALK that distance back. When we arrived, we slammed the taxi doors, said ‘thanks,’ and proceeded to check out the monastery. What we quickly realized was that at 2pm, the monastery and almost everything else in the town was closed until 4:30pm. Then the worry was how to obtain a stamp or a ‘sello’ on our little Camino passport to have proof we had been to Samos while all was closed.
We asked a restaurant lady and she told us to go to the monastery because maybe the hostel would be open. We quickly got excited and walked over there but found the hostel open without anyone supervising it. Then I saw one person working, the gas attendant, and I asked him when the hostel person would return so we could get our stamps. He said the magic words, ‘ I have the stamp.’ I wanted to kiss him. We were so excited we got our stamps and then I took a picture with him. He felt like a king for being of such importance to us and had a grin from side to side. We had our first stamp and even if we couldn’t see the monastery, we had begun our Camino!
I can’t put into words my experience for the next 5 days where Christanne and I covered 120 km (74.4 miles) in 32 hours and 30 minutes of continuous walking. We stayed for free each night in pilgrims’ hostels. We woke up at 5:30am to start at 6am and walk the 18-27 km for the day usually reaching our destination town between 2 and 4pm. We would shower and change into our clean set of clothes at the arrival of the new hostel. We would then shop for dinner for the night and also breakfast and lunch for the next day. We ate dinner at 6pm and were sleeping by 10pm. We met some really amazing and interesting people and also a couple of really weird characters. I felt like I was on my modern-day Canterbury Tales with various pilgrim characters with peculiar stories.
We would often only see towns with stores at our destination towns and wouldn’t see stoplights, street signs, nor anything of that sort during our walks. We often walked into a village and had a cow or two standing in the middle of our Camino. We almost got ran over by cows during our lunch in a small field. We crossed over flowing creeks and I almost fell because I was balancing my weight and the weight of my backpack (10 kilos/22.2 lbs) on one rock while trying to find the best place to put my next step.
In the end, I learned that I could walk 120 km in 5.5 days with a heavy backpack up and down hills, through creeks, and in the hot sun and rain. I had time to be introspective at a point where I have only three months before I return to my home country again and start a new stage in my life. I learned the joys of not checking my email everyday and not being in contact with the rest of the world. I learned how eating should be about fueling your body. I learned I could walk 4 hours without stopping. I confirmed my belief I have a small bladder. I took joy in finding toilet paper in hostels and café bathrooms. I saw the value of not having much because it would weigh you down on your walk and it is the same in life (I have storages in MD/VA/TX).
I saw a lot of analogies for life on my way as well. Once we entered a part of the Camino that crossed by a creek. On the left side, I saw stone steps that would keep us off of the mud and water. On the right side, I saw these twigs in the mud and I thought why where they there if there are stones to cross on the left? Then I followed the stones on the left with my eyes and realized they only led halfway down the watered path. The least likely path, the one with the twigs in the mud, was the right path because after the twigs, there were stones that led you to the other side of the creek. Ultimately, it made me think that sometimes the most ‘obvious’ path might not be the right one and sometimes rocky and unusual routes at the beginning can still lead you to where you want to go.
We arrived in Santiago on Sunday, May 1st and celebrated with fellow pilgrims that night. On Monday morning I flew back to Barcelona. While I waited for the plane in La Coruna I walked in the airport parking lot because I missed the Camino. That night I spoke to a Rotary club in Sabadell, just 40 min from my place. I managed to pull off a decent presentation even though I was ready to go to sleep when they started eating. Well, more about that all later.
May’s events will include:
- Rotary speeches to more clubs in the Barcelona area
- Welcoming my brother and sister from the States to BCN for a visit
- Going to Burak’s high school’s prom ( :) )
- Hosting 5 guests from USA and Belgium
- Speaking at the Rotary District (2210) Conference regarding my scholarship and experiences
Hope all is well, take care of yourself, and keep in touch.
Ruby
Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar 2004-2005
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Dearest Friends, Family, and Rotarians,
Ten months ago today, Burak and I left the US. We have since lived in Turkey for two months and Spain for eight months. With just 3 months until we have to fly back to D.C., I am trying to pump myself up for returning while continuing to make the most of every minute over here.
In summation of April, I think I did a good job of seizing the moment. I visited Andalusia (southern Spain) and went to La Feria in Seville, spoke to 8 Rotary clubs, subbed high school for a week, hosted 8 people, and walked 120 km of the Camino de Santiago.
Furthermore, I am continuously organizing the Americans for Informed Democracy conference and Martinez Foundation Fundraising Dinner both being held in June in Barcelona.
For more details and photos, continue below, and check out my website at:
http://www.powersprep.com/rubypowers
The Full Update:
On the 2nd, Burak and I held one of our monthly parties. This time we had my Belgian host brother and his girlfriend visiting. We also had two Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars (one living in Basque country and the other living in Italy). That night we learned that the Pope died. It was a sad and historical moment.
That Monday, I had a full Rotary schedule with a speech to Rotary Club Barcelona Europa and my club, RC BCN Millennium. It was fun but draining to public speak in Spanish at both meetings. I think it is sort of funny how I am not scared to speak publicly in a foreign language. I guess I have had a lot of training.
On the 6th, I was asked to speak at Burak’s high school’s Career Day regarding International Relations careers. I was happy to speak about something I enjoy even though I honestly think I have more to learn and do before I can be an expert on the subject. Within that day alone, I found two speakers for my June Americans for Informed Democracy conference. One of those speakers is the Consul General for the US in Barcelona and the other is a Human Rights Officer for the UN in Geneva. I guess when you give, you receive.
On the 8th, Burak and I went to the director of his school’s party. It started at 4pm. I really thought that was a typo because parties don’t start that early over here. It wasn’t. We didn’t leave until 1am or so. I think it is funny how I am at a point in life when I realize the teachers I always looked up to (and still do), are now in my peer group. I am even a high school substitute teacher. It is a weird moment in life when you realize you can be a HS teacher.
So quite tired the morning after the party, we hosted 3 Fuqua (Duke’s Business School) students/alumni at our house for tea and snacks. Two were studying here on a term abroad and one has been living here for a while. We chatted about the school, life in Durham, and job prospects. Only at the end of the time did we realize we had met one of them before on our visit last year to Duke. He was from Brazil and we learned he was friends with our Brazilian friend that hosted us at Duke last May. He was also the person that organized the Brazilian music at the Fuqua Friday event we attended. No wonder he looked so familiar!
That same Saturday, a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar (Pam) arrived while she was on her way back to Spain from a Europe trip before returning to the States. I coordinated a Rotary Scholar Tapas Dinner with the 2 other scholars in town and we all had a blast.
Later that same day, Sabi, arrived. He was an exchange student to El Paso the same year Burak was there and lived with the same host family as Burak. Sabi stayed with us for 10 days and the guys had a lot of beer and catching up to do.
On the 11th, I spoke to Rotary Club Barcelona ’92. They were really nice. It was a little intimidating walking into a meeting speaking to a group of men in my 2nd language, but I am getting used to that as well. They asked me some tough
questions. One was something regarding ‘what do you think about governments that adhere strictly to one religion?’. For example, Spain has had a strong tie to the Catholic church for a long time and has recently had more of a separation between the church and state. I told them that after living in five countries, I like the separation of church and state as seen in the US and I also like having a Christian ideology from our Founders. As a woman in Turkey, although the government is secular, it was difficult because their predominant religion of the country affects the culture heavily which affects the government. Trying to be diplomatic in a foreign language is a skill I am still perfecting.
The next day, I flew to Malaga in the wee hours of the morning (southern Spain) and was picked up my a scholar, Christanne, and her dad at the airport. We then drove to Granada to see the Alhambra, a well preserved, old Moorish-style fortress. For a late lunch we met up with Pam and the other Granada Rotary scholars. We then drove on to Seville where we would stay for the week to enjoy the annual Feria de Abril.
The Feria de Abril is a weeklong party in Seville where the town dresses up in flamenco dresses and traditional suits and drinks and dances until dawn. This is considered a nice break after the seriousness of the Easter week which is just a few weeks before the fair. I arrived with no fancy dress, but within no time, with lots of help from scholars and host moms, I looked the part as I pretended to dance the Sevillano.
Organizations, clubs, and companies sponsor these temporary restaurant/bar tents called ‘casetas.’ There are about 1,100 casetas in the fair park and in most cases you can only enter if you are a member or have tickets. At the height of the event, there are 2 million people at the fair.
Christanne, is a Rotary scholar in Seville, and had tickets to the Rotary caseta all week. We would arrive in the afternoon and not leave until the early morning. It was a tough schedule and I had to keep telling myself ‘you don’t get this chance very often in life’ so that I would keep up the pace. In the process, I presented the South Austin Texas Rotary banner to the Seville club and had a great time chatting with the Seville members.
In between going to the fair, I also went to an Arab bath and saw the Cathedral. The Cathedral in Seville made my mouth drop when I walked in (and I have seen a lot of cathedrals!). It is largest Gothic church in the world and the third largest church in general after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and St. Paul’s in London. It is said to hold the tomb of Christopher Columbus. The Arab bath was fun but a little disappointing after being in a real thing in Turkey. They ultimately recreated an Arab looking bath area and put in a variety of pools with various temperatures. My favorite was what they called the ‘Bano Turko’ which is a ‘Hamam’ in Turkish for bath. But really that bath was just like my wet vapor sauna in my local gym. It was exotic and I had a nice massage at the end. It also made me wonder if North Carolina would appreciate a ‘Hamam’?
Later in the week, a few of my Rotary club members from Barcelona planned to visit for the celebration as well. We had a lot of fun together when they arrived. After going to the fair on Friday afternoon, I returned home on Saturday around 5am, woke up at 8am, panicked, ran out the door with most of my luggage, and made my 8:55am flight to Barcelona. I want to blame my Rotary members for keeping me out so late, but I think it might have been my fault. :)
On the 17th, while our Hungarian friend was still here, we had a friend that I met in the Krakow airport visit me for 24 hours. She is an American studying in England and was on her way from Italy to Spain.
From the 18th to the 22nd, I subbed high school algebra, chemistry, and was a study hall monitor. Considering my last complete math and science class was my junior year of high school, I had to read up a bit on what I was supposed to ‘teach’. In the end, I let them do a lot of independent review of the material. They were fun, but really I don’t know what is harder to manage four-year olds or 14-year olds!
The week I subbed from 8:30 to 4:00pm all week, I was also teaching my adult class twice a week, my kids class twice a week, welcomed three new guests after seeing two leave, and also saw Burak leave to Rome.
On the 19th, I welcomed another American I met in the Krakow airport and two Belgian exchange students for the weekend. I gave them a brief tour since I was going to be busy all week and really didn’t hang out with them until Friday night when I made a tapas dinner for them.
On the 21st, I spoke to RC BCN Centre. The language of the club is Catalan, but occasionally they would switch over to Spanish for me. They were really nice and we had a great discussion. Around 11:45pm at the end of the dinner, the discussion turned to the topic of Socrates. I figured it was too late to listen to a philosophical discussion in Catalan regarding Socrates so I excused myself since I still had to give up early to work the next day.
At the end of the week I couldn’t do anything else. I was TIRED. So I went to the beach with my two Belgian exchange students and we just chilled out and got some sun while talking about the fun and silly experiences of living in Belgium. We carried on a conversation in a mix between French and English since we had all lived in Belgium.
On Sunday the 24th, all the guests left and Burak returned from Rome that afternoon. Minus the Americans for Informed Democracy planning meeting I held that evening, I tried to spend all my time with Burak before leaving him for another week the next morning.
Monday the 25th of April, I flew to La Coruna with just my backpack. From La Coruna I took a train to Santiago de Compostela where I got settled into my hostel and wondered around the small town on my own. That night I spoke to the Rotary Club Santiago. Because of a local holiday, there were only 3 members attending. I decided to forgo the formal presentation and just gave them some highlights of my speech continued by a discussion. I will see some of them again at the District conference in Segovia May 20-22.
The next morning, Christanne (my travel buddy) flew in from Seville. The plan was for her to land at 8:25am, catch the 8:30am airport bus, and rendezvous at the Santiago train station for a 9:04am train to a town where we could take a bus to the start of our Camino de Santiago. When I got the text that she had made it on the bus from the airport, I was ecstatic because our crazy plan was going to work. We had to catch this 9:04am train or we would lose the day to travel because the next train was at 4pm.
The Camino de Santiago has a long history. Basically the remains of James or St. James are said to be in the Cathedral of Santiago. The name Santiago comes from ‘Sant’ and ‘Iago.’ ‘Sant’ is for saint and ‘Iago’ is from Hebrew’s Yaacob. (‘Yaacob’ in Hebrew, ‘Jacobus’ in Latin, ‘Jacques’ in French, and ‘James’ in English)
For more history: http://www.caminosantiago.com/web_ingles/index.htm
Back to our travels on Tuesday: We arrived at the free hostel in Sarria for pilgrims but to be able to stay we had to have walked at least 10-11km. So we had planned to do this already but we decided to start the Camino from Samos which was just 10-11 km away from the hostel. We had to take a taxi there so we wouldn’t waste time waiting for a bus and would be able to still get a spot in the hostel. After a plane, a train, a bus, and a taxi, we finally got to a small town with a monastery, Samos, where we could commence our 120 km Camino. Whew!
As we watched the territory the taxi drove by, we got a little scared to think we were going to have to WALK that distance back. When we arrived, we slammed the taxi doors, said ‘thanks,’ and proceeded to check out the monastery. What we quickly realized was that at 2pm, the monastery and almost everything else in the town was closed until 4:30pm. Then the worry was how to obtain a stamp or a ‘sello’ on our little Camino passport to have proof we had been to Samos while all was closed.
We asked a restaurant lady and she told us to go to the monastery because maybe the hostel would be open. We quickly got excited and walked over there but found the hostel open without anyone supervising it. Then I saw one person working, the gas attendant, and I asked him when the hostel person would return so we could get our stamps. He said the magic words, ‘ I have the stamp.’ I wanted to kiss him. We were so excited we got our stamps and then I took a picture with him. He felt like a king for being of such importance to us and had a grin from side to side. We had our first stamp and even if we couldn’t see the monastery, we had begun our Camino!
I can’t put into words my experience for the next 5 days where Christanne and I covered 120 km (74.4 miles) in 32 hours and 30 minutes of continuous walking. We stayed for free each night in pilgrims’ hostels. We woke up at 5:30am to start at 6am and walk the 18-27 km for the day usually reaching our destination town between 2 and 4pm. We would shower and change into our clean set of clothes at the arrival of the new hostel. We would then shop for dinner for the night and also breakfast and lunch for the next day. We ate dinner at 6pm and were sleeping by 10pm. We met some really amazing and interesting people and also a couple of really weird characters. I felt like I was on my modern-day Canterbury Tales with various pilgrim characters with peculiar stories.
We would often only see towns with stores at our destination towns and wouldn’t see stoplights, street signs, nor anything of that sort during our walks. We often walked into a village and had a cow or two standing in the middle of our Camino. We almost got ran over by cows during our lunch in a small field. We crossed over flowing creeks and I almost fell because I was balancing my weight and the weight of my backpack (10 kilos/22.2 lbs) on one rock while trying to find the best place to put my next step.
In the end, I learned that I could walk 120 km in 5.5 days with a heavy backpack up and down hills, through creeks, and in the hot sun and rain. I had time to be introspective at a point where I have only three months before I return to my home country again and start a new stage in my life. I learned the joys of not checking my email everyday and not being in contact with the rest of the world. I learned how eating should be about fueling your body. I learned I could walk 4 hours without stopping. I confirmed my belief I have a small bladder. I took joy in finding toilet paper in hostels and café bathrooms. I saw the value of not having much because it would weigh you down on your walk and it is the same in life (I have storages in MD/VA/TX).
I saw a lot of analogies for life on my way as well. Once we entered a part of the Camino that crossed by a creek. On the left side, I saw stone steps that would keep us off of the mud and water. On the right side, I saw these twigs in the mud and I thought why where they there if there are stones to cross on the left? Then I followed the stones on the left with my eyes and realized they only led halfway down the watered path. The least likely path, the one with the twigs in the mud, was the right path because after the twigs, there were stones that led you to the other side of the creek. Ultimately, it made me think that sometimes the most ‘obvious’ path might not be the right one and sometimes rocky and unusual routes at the beginning can still lead you to where you want to go.
We arrived in Santiago on Sunday, May 1st and celebrated with fellow pilgrims that night. On Monday morning I flew back to Barcelona. While I waited for the plane in La Coruna I walked in the airport parking lot because I missed the Camino. That night I spoke to a Rotary club in Sabadell, just 40 min from my place. I managed to pull off a decent presentation even though I was ready to go to sleep when they started eating. Well, more about that all later.
May’s events will include:
- Rotary speeches to more clubs in the Barcelona area
- Welcoming my brother and sister from the States to BCN for a visit
- Going to Burak’s high school’s prom ( :) )
- Hosting 5 guests from USA and Belgium
- Speaking at the Rotary District (2210) Conference regarding my scholarship and experiences
Hope all is well, take care of yourself, and keep in touch.
Ruby
Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar 2004-2005
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
May 5, 2005
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