Back in November, my mom was driving me home from a wild, 12.4 mile Spartan race that I did not train nearly enough for, but thoroughly enjoyed. I had about overcome my eating disorder, and the race reminded me how much I missed a regular, rigorous exercise routine. Sitting in the passenger seat, I browsed through Duke’s club sports on my phone. Clicking through the Duke Triathlon pages, I found their exercise schedule and was delighted to see that there was a training plan for every single day of the week and that they even had a few highly experienced coaches (i.e. world class athletes). I was hooked. Later that night, I discovered that their dream trip (a mostly funded trip Duke Club Sports puts on for each division every 3-4 years) was to compete in a half Ironman in the Patagonian region of Argentina in March! OK, so I was more than hooked. I was readily offering myself up for sacrifice and showed up at practice two days later. Originally, I wasn’t supposed to come on the dream trip. All of the spots had already been filled by members who had been practicing since September. About a month into training, I realized how counterintuitive it was to train for a half Ironman and not even compete in one, so I offered to pay my way. Then, about a week before the trip, someone dropped out and I got grant money anyways. The world works in strange and serendipitous ways, but it teaches you to take those leaps of faith. Flying into Bariloche was stunning. The browns and greens and imposing mountains were not like anything you get in the U.S. And our Airbnb? We lived in a huge, old house built in the 1940s (most likely by Nazi refugees, no joke; Bariloche was a mecca for them) that had a view of the mountains and forest, and a short walk down the drive led us to a lake, a short walk up the drive led us to a hiking trail. After the race, we took full advantage of the town and landscape around us. The Food OK, let’s start this section off with a disclaimer. I was vegan on this trip, except for when it came to dessert. Due to its Swiss and German influences, Bariloche is the chocolate capital of Argentina, and there was so much to try. Ironman even gave us chocolate finishers’ medals produced by the local chocolate company RapaNui in addition to our metal hardware. My favorite treats were Havanna’s Havannets, cookies topped with cones of dulce de leche and dipped in chocolate. They’re sinful. I liked them better than their traditional South American cousins, alfajores, which are sandwich cookies held together by dulce de leche and dipped in chocolate. And then I also had chocolate fondue in the finishers’ tent after the race and dulce de leche ice cream on top of Belgian waffles at Rapanui...Was there more chocolate involved? Probably. There was just so much, I can’t keep track of it all. I also had (possibly my first?) empanadas after a group “recovery” ride we did later in the week. It was too long to really be considered recovery, and we were all quite hungry, so we stopped at a small shop on the side of the road and filled up on these tasty hand pies. Argentina is famous for its beef and steak, but obviously I had none of that. It’s also famous for mate, which I have had and loved in the past but did not have a chance to drink on this trip. Mate is a kind of tea that is even more integral to Argentine culture than sweet tea is to the South. It is typically drunk from small gourds (yes, gourds) through silver straws. Families and friends pass mate around while enjoying conversation and relaxing. It can be consumed hot or cold, so is good for any time of the year. On our boat tour, we saw many, many families carrying bags full of mate thermoses on board. The Hiking We had planned on doing some overnight backpacking while we were in Patagonia, but the parks were closed due to unpredictable high winds. What a bummer; I mean, check out these hikes. We did, however, have the aforementioned trail by our house, and several of us drove to a longer day trail in the Nahuel Huapi National Park that afforded us views of a hanging glacier and waterfalls, not to mention several species of birds (beautiful woodpeckers!). The weather was crazy in March. It rained pretty much every day, and we saw so many rainbows that it was abnormal not to see at least two on any given day. On the longer day hike, we started off bundled up in jackets, stripped down as we sweated on an upward climb, bundled up again as it started to snow, and stripped down again on our way back. Honestly, what mood swings Mother Nature was having that day. The Boat Tour Probably my least favorite activity of the trip and not worth the money in my opinion. It involved a lot of sitting, and it was also pretty cloudy on the day we went. We did get to walk around the pretty forest of Victoria Island and explore the beaches and forests of Los Arrayanes National Park, and we learned a little history about the area on the boat, but I would have rather spent my time hiking. The Cycling And, of course, I would be remiss not to mention the cycling. The busy road connecting Bariloche to other coastal towns is NOT ideal for road cyclists, except for when it was closed for the race; the traffic is fast and heavy, and the fumes are hard to breathe. Many locals ride their bikes on the curbs, but there is virtually no shoulder for road bikes. We took some roads into the mountains on our recovery ride, where the traffic was far better and the scenery even more gorgeous. This was the most beautiful ride of my life, and that’s saying something because Vermont was pretty darn beautiful. The Swimming We were in Argentina at the beginning of their fall, and while the waters weren’t unbearable...they were pretty darn cold. As in, wear a wetsuit cold. But the lake by our house had crystal clear water, and the exhilaration of diving in for a chilly swim was not to miss. That's about it for now! Feel free to contact me if you are planning a trip to Argentina and want some tips...I highly recommend Bariloche as a destination, and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to visit.
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**For those of you who follow my posts every day, I went missing this past weekend because I was backpacking in Doughton Park, near Stone Mountain.
Friday night, my brother, his friend, my boyfriend, and I all slung on our hiking backpacks and trekked into Doughton to spend the weekend in the wild. We set up our tents, cooked dinner over a gas stove, chatted by the fire, and climbed into our sleeping bags for a refreshing slumber. Saturday morning dawned bright and cool. I meditated by the creek flowing by our campsites and ate a warm, hearty breakfast of oatmeal. After cleaning our dishes in the creek, we slung our packs back on and began a long hike of 12.5 miles. The weather was perfect: cool and breezy enough to keep us comfortable when we hiked uphill (rather, upmountain), and sunny and clear enough to render beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. We completed our hike in the late afternoon, proud, satisfied, and hungry. Content and pleasantly exhausted, we slept even better than the night before. Sunday morning brought rain. Nearly as soon as we awoke, a drizzle began to splatter the canopy of leaves above our heads. That drizzle quickly soaked the ground, and we donned rain jackets and extra socks and gloves. We stretched rain covers over our packs and began what would become about a four mile hike along the creek...a hike that involved nearly a dozen crossings over slippery stones and cold water. I am amazed I managed not to fall at all. This second hike was a test of our fortitude. That morning, we had three options. We could... A) Forget the creek trail and simply hike the 1.5 miles back to the car B) Complete the trail, and complain the entire time C) Complete the trail, and thoroughly enjoy it We chose Option C. Yes, it was raining, and yes, it was cold, but the rain was also an opportunity to see a different kind of beauty in nature. The rain drops created gorgeous ripple effects in the creek, and they gave the leaves a certain green glimmer that can only be admired when it rains. Sunday's hike was an obvious opportunity for us to see the glass as 1/2 full, and the truth is, opportunities like this abound in everyday life. We must only look for them. So, next time it rains in your life (literally or figuratively), you do not have to necessarily look for the sunshine...you can look for the beauty in the rain. When people ask me about my experience as an exchange student, they inevitably inquire whether I knew how to speak German before I arrived in Austria. The answer is yes (and I am so glad that I did), but I could have had a perfectly wonderful experience even if I had not known German.
When exchange students come to the United States from other countries, they usually know how to speak English very well (sometimes their English is even better than the English of those of us who have lived in the U.S. all our lives). Since they know the language, these exchange students thrive in their host schools and communities. They form friendships quickly and excel in school. The downside of living in a country that speaks a dominant world language is that we do not place enough emphasis on learning other languages in school. My Australian friends who traveled to Austria (note: keep Austria and Australia straight when reading this!) through the same exchange program as me expressed similar discontent with the language offerings at their Australian schools. Although I took German I-IV the year before I traveled to Austria, most Austrians were extremely impressed that I knew German at all. Most exchange students who come to Austria do not know German before arriving there. While it does not take long to pick up another language in a foreign country if you study and make a conscious effort to immerse yourself, knowing the language beforehand can give you a head start in making friends and navigating your new environment. For example, the exchange student from Afghanistan, who knew at least four languages and was quite fluent in German, had no issue making friends at school and was quite popular. Knowing German also made me feel more empowered and independent, and those two feelings alone were worth the hours I put into my German courses. So, if you are planning on traveling to a foreign country for any more than three or four weeks at a time, or if you are thinking about being an exchange student or studying abroad, I would highly advise learning a substantial amount of that country's language before your departure. I recommend the following three actions:
Good luck!! Throughout my life, I have travelled to many places: Ireland, Guatemala, Canada, Austria...the list goes on and on. It might seem that I am “cultured,” but I truly believe that I fit that description rather poorly. Each place to which I have travelled has presented to me a new side of life. Ireland’s gorgeous landscapes, sculpted by a power much greater than myself, aroused within me intense wonder and spiritual admiration. Two summers ago, as I hammered nails into a house for a Guatemalan family who had been accustomed to living in a run-down shack, I began to truly understand how lucky I am to live in a dependable house with a dependable family. I further understood these blessings when I volunteered to help feed and clothe the Syrian refugees in Austria in the fall of 2015. Each time I travel somewhere new, it feels like it is the first time I am travelling in my life. Free of my burdens, with nothing more than a suitcase to weigh me down, I throw myself into new cultures and, without fail, discover new approaches to appreciating the world.
The desire and need to travel is an integral part of my being, and it follows that throughout life, I will be faced with the challenge of HOW to travel so often. Drawing upon my experiences, I have developed a set of guidelines (which will certainly grow) for making travel financially feasible.
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