To be fully honest, I expected the graffiti tour to be a waste of time. We were all exhausted from the long flight and were anxious to get to bed. Fortunately, the graffiti tour was a huge surprise! I found myself completely invested in this two-hour tour. We explored the streets of Bogotá and got a good feel of the city we were staying in. The streets were packed with people staring at us and giving weird looks. We didn’t pay attention to this though, as the street art we were seeing was incredible.
We saw many gorgeous pieces of art painted on the deteriorating walls of Bogotá. One specific painting of a lion really struck me. This was the kind of art you would see in a museum. We saw a huge variety of street art, but the ones that really struck me were smaller, more political pieces. One artist drew many small, metaphorical images all over Bogotá. A soldier being used as a puppet and an assault rifle with a rose emerging from it were some of the many drawings that this artist brilliantly created. I was blown away by the entire tour. The things I learned and the art I witnessed really surprised me in nearly every way. I, as well as the rest of the group, could proudly say that we have a newfound appreciation for graffiti. Our trip to Columbia is already off to a spectacular start!
– Evan Luxenberg ’16
Today we got the awesome opportunity to build houses for two homeless families. We met up with five students from a local English school and travelled a few hours out into the mountains to meet with people from a foundation called Catalina Muñoz. This foundation’s goal is to build houses for impoverished homeless families.
Week two! I am learning more about Australia and enjoying it very much. Last weekend, I visited another region of Australia called the Sunshine Coast, which is in Queensland on the east coast of Australia. It is three hours by plane from Adelaide and it is a very different place. It is more of a vacation, resort area with beautiful beaches, lakes and rainforests. The weather is very sunny and more tropical than Adelaide. Things seemed more relaxed here, like we were on vacation.
As the plane started descending, I saw the amazing view of Adelaide. After three plane rides and more than 24 hours of travel, I was very excited to start my adventure in Australia. During the long plane ride, I was anxious and nervous because I didn’t know what to expect and how my experience would be. I had Skyped my exchange, Phoenix, a few times but now I was finally going to meet him.
On Wednesday, February 17, I landed in Cape Town awaiting the adventure that followed. We got in quite late so our journey only really began the following day. We awoke early in the morning and headed off to Table Mountain. We reached the top and the view was amazing. You could see everything. I walked around, took a ton of pictures and had a great time. After, we went to the aquarium, which was pretty cool. We got to hold starfish, sea urchins and sea anemones. We also saw many other creatures, including fish, sharks and turtles. It had been a long day and we needed to get some sleep.
