New Internship

A couple of weeks ago I started my Junior Social Work internship through NYU at the International Rescue Committee in Manhattan (IRC). IRC is a non-profit organization that has a resettlement department which essentially does all it can to provide comfort and opportunities for refugees to thrive in the United States. Refugees are people fleeing from persecution and war in their own countries which had become no longer safe for them. Asylees are also assisted at IRC. It was explained to me that the difference between an asylee and a refugee is that a refugee applies to enter the country and tries get into the country, whereas an asylee is a person already in the U.S. who applies for government support as a refugee, usually because his/her country had become too dangerous for them to return.

My role as an intern, other than typical office work, is to make life easier and more comfortable for the clients as well as the staff. I have done the filing type stuff, but the other things I need to do are: set-up a clients home before they are planning to arrive in this country as a refugee, that means going shopping on the small budget that the government gives them, and then going to their apartment (usually in the Bronx) to prepare and have food ready for them too. Once they arrive they have lots of paperwork and appointments to go to, which interns (me) accompany them to. Appointments like social security, bank, medical, you name it. IRC also works with them on their language barriers and employment because many come in with very poor knowledge of English and the better they are at English the more likely they are to get a better quality job and to keep that job.

The entire experience is very interesting, and I don't get bored ever. I always feel bad for people waiting in the waiting room for hours not knowing when they're going to be seen because they may or may not have understood that they were asked to wait. I also just feel bad for them waiting because a lot of the processes involved with being a refugee or an asylee also involve a lot of waiting and exhaustion. Many of them don't want to be here because the only reason they left their country is because it is too dangerous for them to be there: where everything they know, speak, eat, and have a community with are still sitting.
I couldn't imagine moving to another country without an option of when, where, how, or even who with; not to mention the huge language barrier that I would have to work through in order to feel the least bit comfortable while trying to survive and use all of the policies to my benefit rather than allowing them to make things more difficult for me. And believe me, some governmental policies concerning these issues are more likely to make life more difficult than any easier and are often very unfair. A prime example of the unfairness is this; A refugee has three months to find a job in this country (fair) and each refugee is given $900 a month to get on his/her feet (fair). However, refugees are placed all across the country in urban, suburban, and rural settings, but still all begin with $900 a month (not fair). A refugee placed in Manhattan has to survive off the same amount of money as a person living in Podunk-No-Where. Refugees can request to be placed with friends/family who are already in the United States but ultimately have no say in the matter (not fair).

Overall the policies tend to be the things that frustrate me most, and I have barely dipped my foot into the pool I am about to swim in.

My first day my clients were two couples, one with a baby. They had just flown in from across the world the day before, and the next day they had to wake up bright and early to spend at least 6 hours on the metro and waiting in waiting rooms. I was with them for 4 of those 6 hours. My job was to take them to register at social security. Lots of waiting, lots of required patience and slow discussions. The most difficult is the language barrier, especially with people who speak n0 English, and I speak n0ne of their language. Spanish only comes in handy here once in a long while, mostly for Cuban clients. French and Arabic would be a lot more helpful to me right now. I feel like I'm losing my ability to speak and understand Spanish as it is, so I was a little disappointed to find that I wouldn't have many opportunities to practice with clients.

My third day I sat in on a case management meeting concerning employment for clients. I sat quietly, because I am not qualified to say anything, and also because I didn't understand a lot of the acronyms that were being thrown around. Social Work has a lot of acronyms. I need a spreadsheet of codes to learn. The meeting was extremely productive and even funny at times to hear how some clients participate in their employment. Cultural differences can be funny sometimes. I'm sure we have a wide variety of personalities that can be found in our cliental. If I could just sit in on case management meetings all day I would be happy.

The IRC office is moving from Grand Central Station to near Times Square, so I guess that means I will be seeing Time Square a lot more often now since that's where my metro stop is. It's kind of exciting. I feel like seeing Time Square on an almost regular basis is like a confirmation that I officially live in New York City. Having a job here is cool, even if it is an internship that my school hooked me up with. Not lame at all.

I'm sure I will write more in the future, but probably not very frequently. Keep reading!

Back to NYC

I'm settling back in to my new home in the city to start my second semester in NYC and my third semester at NYU.
Being back here feels weird. It felt so right being home with my family and friends. Not that it feels wrong right now, but the city was never home for me, so I feel like I have moved to a new place all over again. Even if I know where the things I need are and my brother is here if I need somebody, it still doesn't feel like home.

I've been seeing some of my friends here and there and I've started up classes. It's very exciting  to be back and finally getting into my major! All of my social work classes are tomorrow so fingers crossed that tomorrow is the best day of my week.
Something I am definitely really excited about is living near one of my favorite bagel places of all time! Probably not the best for my health, but I am definitely in love with New York bagels.

My parents stayed all weekend and it was a  lot of fun, I miss them when we're apart. Even if we're fighting I miss them. Love is torture haha

Now to find a internship for my social work field placement! Forgot to do that.

Patriots are going to do great against the Giants at the Super Bowl.
Tom Brady, woof.

Last Day in Spain 12/17

Alarm goes off at 630, and I get ready to go to the airport with my roommate. Our landlord comes to check us out and do a quick overview of the apartment. He takes longer than he should and proceeds to make our lives just a little bit more difficult by charging us unnecessary fees and telling us we should have already left for the airport.
Peace out apartment.

Grab a cab.

Sulk.

Get the airport and I check in for my flight that isn't until the afternoon, but I figure if I am here and I have the time I should just get it done.
Go through security and hang out in McDonalds because we are super early.
Go to the gate.
Say goodbye to my roommate. Tear up a little.

Head back to the terminal to put my bags in a locker and get my last fill of the city.
Catch the bus back to the center of Madrid and go straight to the Royal Palace to take a tour.
That took 45 minutes. I grab some last minute gifts because I am afraid that I may have forgotten someone. I probably did.
Meet up with a friend to go shopping.
Get my last jar of Sangria, which I drink most of.
Eat my last 100 Montaditos.
Walking around. Getting my last wind of things in the city.
Bus to the airport.
Grab my things from the locker check and head to my terminal. Meet up with lots of other NYU students heading home.

Fall asleep before take off. Wake up after take off and feel sick and cold.
The food is bad. I sit next to a nice French girl who tells me all about her life. I encourage her to of course.
Land in JFK, collect my things and go through customs.
Leave JFK Terminal 7.
Return to JFK Terminal 5.
Jetblue rules.

Can't find New York bagels. Regrettably.

Dinner, and on a plane to Boston.
Sit next to a guy coming from Sweden.
I have now been awake for 23 hours, even though the clocks say otherwise.
Land in Logan.
Thank anyone and everyone who says "excuse me" or calls me miss.
Wait for my bags for an extremely long time.
Catch my ride outside. I say "thanks for helping me with my bags," kick off my shoes and lay down in the back seat. My eyes close while I listen to classical opera played on the radio. This driver has taste.
Wake up and I see the symbolic Burger King and Shorty's sign telling me that I am off the highway and 5 minutes from home.
Get home, put my bags in the doorway. No one is home. Brother is in New York, and parents are partying in Boston. Go upstairs to get to bed.
Become distracted.
It has now been 26 hours that I've been awake.
Bedtime.

Wake up early to get dressed and go to church to surprise my parents. HI HELLO! I'm home!

I will be writing more in the future about being back home, and what my next plans will be for traveling, so stay tuned.

Thank you to everyone who has been standing by me throughout my travel abroad experience. I had a  lot of downs which my friends and family supported me through, and a lot of ups that I have written about and laughed with my friends about. I am extremely grateful and I feel blessed for every moment, good or bad, that I've had this past year with my travels and moving to different cities. I have learned a lot about myself and what works for me or doesn't, what is best for me when it comes to being happy and healthy. My family has unwaveringly supported me, even when I call and wake them up throughout all hours of the night. I am glad to be home because it is where I belong right now, but I miss Madrid. I definitely loved the city more than I realized. Now that I am moved back home from Madrid I miss all of the imperfections that I complained about while I was there. I am ready to move forward with my life and on to my next adventure. I'm re-awakening to all that I left behind and feeling like I am a 180 from the person I was last year, last semester, or even a couple of weeks ago. This year I have been blessed to travel to Mexico, Dominican Republic, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Morocco, United Kingdom, Belgium and Holland. I feel so blessed to have had the ability to travel, and I hope to do more in the future by way of giving back to the world whatever I have to offer. I owe it all to God and my parents who know that I couldn't have asked for anything more and that I am so grateful.

Thanks to those who read my blog, I appreciate your support and I hope that you continue to read because I will certainly continue to write. As long as I am young, capable, and saving my money... there will always be another adventure down the road. Hopefully not too far down though.

Gran Canaria 12/9-12/12

The last trip during my study abroad travels (which ended December 17th) was to the Spanish island called Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
This trip look a lot of planning and a lot of changing of plans, and I like to think that it was well worth it. I had a lot of studying and writing to do at the time, just like everyone else in college, so my time was basically spent resting, eating, and doing the school stuff. The weather wasn't the greatest because the sun wasn't really out the entire weekend, but I found the slow pace and atmosphere quite enjoyable.

Originally we were supposed to have traveled to stay outside the city of Las Palmas, but because of my own mixups with our hostel arrangements, I changed the plans last minute and my roommate and I ended up on the opposite side of the island at a town called Puerto Rico. The hotels were very cool because they were on cliffs overlooking the water. Our last minute arrangements took us to a nice hotel over the water with our own little apartment for the 3 days we were there.

My favorite part about being in Gran Canaria was the stars at night. If it was just a little bit darker, like New Hampshire gets, than it would have been a perfect resemblance to home. I love laying outside at night, under the stars. There's something that is romantic about it and has a way of calming me down.

During my trip there I went on a boat ride between towns, shopped a bit (obviously), and basically just relaxed. I would have liked to have had time to hike a volcano, but I didn't plan it in advance or look into it enough to do that. I had never even seen a volcano before that so driving through the island just to get to and from the airport was really cool for me.

Two pence none the richer. 12/7-12/8

One night in London, one full 24 hours.
Not many people can say they've done that so i feel pretty cool about it.
Our main goal was to see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. We flew in at night and mostly searched for our hostel; that's never a problem though because in our hunt for YHA we were able to see a nice part of the city and figure out the metro system too.
After dinner and finding the place we settled in and went to bed shortly thereafter with the intention of waking up early to head off to the exhibition. We had heard quite a bit about how long we would have to wait in line and how unlikely it would be for us to get in, so we started waiting in line around 8amish, and the doors opened at 10. Waiting paid off and we ended up being able to see the exhibition which consisted of sketches of faces and hands and a lot of detailed mathematical work that can be seen incorporated in Leo's "Last Supper."

I, unfortunately, had gotten a little too used to traveling alone and forgot to make sure that Isa knew where I was... so we got separated at one point. I'm not good at not roaming around, and in museums I feel like it's easy to get lost but you always know you are in a museum. So I wasted a little bit of our time with that, which I was apologetic about.
We were able to quickly see some of the art in the portrait gallery, and move onto other things we wanted to see as well.

Big Ben was more like Little Ben. The name is overcompensating.

We got to see the British Museum and take a good look around there as well. There was tons to see and very little time to do it, so aside from walking around and glancing at what we could, the two museums were the main focus of the trip. It was a nice taste of what I would want to come back and see later on in my life. But a day is fine with me because the Pound is killing us in the exchange market, so I spent a good chunk of money for a one day visit.
Two pence none the richer.

To Amsterdam, (11/30-12/3) Brussels (12/3-12/5), and beyond!

Did you know the Amsterdam, Netherlands is in Holland? I had no idea. I supposed I may have had some kind of notion, but when I stepped off of the plane in the Amsterdam airport and saw signs saying "Welcome to Holland" I panicked that I perhaps got on the wrong plane and ended up in the wrong country. It only took me a couple of minutes to figure out.

And I figured everything out on this trip. For the first time in my life I traveled alone with no plans to meet anyone I knew, and with no knowledge of the city (or country) I was going to. Aside from a couple of museums and sights I wanted to visit, I had no expectations and was on my own time and schedule. I absolutely loved it!
It was night time when I arrived in Amsterdam, and I had no idea how to get to my hostel, so I went to the information stand in the airport and asked them a cheap way to get where I was going. Everyone in Amsterdam speaks English, that was really helpful. I think it's the second language next to Dutch (or Flemmish if you wanna be old school).

For those who don't know me too well, I get lost rather easily, and when I have a map I check it every couple of minutes because I know my instincts usually take me in the opposite direction that I desire. Well, not this time! I made it to my hostel alive and by 10pm or so. I checked into a room with 19 other beds numbered and lettered bunkbeds. Luckily 15 of the beds were empty, and so it was not too loud the first night.

After I settled I went out and walked around to see this Amsterdam culture that so many people are always raving about. You hear "Amsterdam" and people immediately think cannabis, prostitution, shrooms, and all of those other interesting things that are legal in Amsterdam. Everyone always fails to mention how amazingly beautiful the city is, especially in the winter with its Christmas lights and winter carnivals out everywhere. There was one at Leidse Plein, near where I stayed, and it had stands for food and an ice skating rink. Such a fun atmosphere! So I walked around the bridges and the canals in the cold weather before I decided to get to bed.

While I was in Amsterdam I toured the house that Anne Frank and her family hid in during World War II. It's called Anne Frank Het (Anne Frank's House), but it was an office building, not really a house if you think about it. I saw the bookcase that hid the door to the attic they lived in. Some things that surprised me were how well kept some of the original things are. Amsterdam was originally built within a walled city so the stairs are extremely steep and winding. A very dangerous atmosphere for old people, or people in a hurry. I saw stairs like this in the old houses like Anne Frank's house, and I also visited Rembrandt's Het, where I saw the studio he used to work in and some of his original works are there as well. When I was there the mayor was there celebrating with a bunch of people because they finally got an original Rembrandt to return to the house. Unfortunately the museum guard would not let me join the festivities.

When I walked to the Rembrandt house it was like fate because there was a flea market all along the canal that I was following (canals are a great way to know where you are in Amsterdam). And there was also a bagel shop that made homemade cream cheese, man oh man do I miss bagels with homemade cream cheese. Can't wait for my NY bagel when I get to JFK airport. HEAVEN! Anyway, so shopping and bagels to start that day, what a great start.

During my visit I went to the van Gogh Museum of course! I snuck as many pictures as possible. None of the museums in Amsterdam allowed pictures, so that was a little disappointing. I got yelled at in the National Museum for taking pictures, RIGHT before I go to the Night Watch by Rembrandt. I got a good amount of pictures though.

I met a lot of cool people while I was in Amsterdam. It's such a laid back atmosphere that being alone made it easier to meet new people. I went to the same coffeeshop a couple of times and the bartender started calling me his little sister and insisted that we take a picture together. There is where I met a group of Germans, a group of Italians, and a group of Northern Irish chaps. The Irish guys I hung out with a lot that weekend and they were great company. It's easy to lose track of time in Amsterdam.
Overall, that was definitely one of my favorite trips that I've been on in my life, and I hope I can go back some time, maybe with friends next time.

Winter Wonderland

Also, banana juice is awesome, and its basically all I drank when I was in Amsterdam.

-------
Seeing as it was a very long weekend and I had been willing to miss a couple of classes for the traveling cause, I went from Amsterdam to Brussels for a couple of days to see what that city had to offer.
Brussels was beautiful! It was almost impossible for me to find my hostel, so for the first day I didn't go to the hostel. I just roamed around following really big crowds of people through narrow blocked off streets that were covered in Christmas markets. There was Belgium classics everywhere like beer, chocolate, and waffles. I tried all except the beer. I didn't see the big deal. I came a cross a winter festival that was Greek themed where I made friends with the guy working the Metaxa stand. I passed St. Hubert shopping center, and did not buy a single thing (proud of me!). St. Hubert is all old and expensive shops anyway. Right next to it though is like the college student version of a St. Hubert. A little shopping center that covers ONE block but manages to hold over 200 shops inside. HEAVEN!
All i really bought in Brussels was a Christmas hat though. With Christmas music everywhere, and ice skating and such a wintery atmosphere, how could I resist!

Holiday Market next to my hostel

Brussels got lonely really quickly though because literally all there was to do was go shopping and walking around. I saw the whole city really quickly.
I went to a flea market, and came across an Orthodox church in the middle of Sunday service, which was an amazing coincidence. So of course I went to church.

I also went to see the museums they had, the National Gallery is I think around 5 museums. The Modern Art Museum was under construction, so only a small sample of the museum was on display in the Ancient Art Museum. It was easier though because those were the two museums I wanted to see anyway. I saw lots and lots of art by Flemmish artists that I had studied. It was very cool.
But mostly I walked around, ate, drank, and kept to myself on this trip. Definitely a downplay from Amsterdam, but it was good to relax and lay around doing nothing or watching Dutch television before finishing my work for the semester. Good to be stress free... or dangerous to not have a goal. Depends on how you look at it I suppose.

Belgium Waffle!

Advice for Belgium, travel around and see the country. I was only there a day so that's why I didn't go to Bruj or any of the other beautiful cities I've heard of. I don't think Belgium has cities that you should stay for more than a couple days in. Everything closed pretty early in the area I was in, even the enormous Holiday Market that my hostel was next to. It had an enormous ferris wheel and all kinds of exciting things to do.

Day Trips to Toledo 11/25 and Santiago de Compostela 11/26

We are running out of time for trips in our semester which is ending soon. Day trips are necessary. Our last day trip will be to London! Yes London for a day. We are going specifically to wait in line for hours and see the da Vinci exhibit at the National Gallery. Hopefully we get in and hopefully we will find time to see other things as well.

Last weekend we went on two day trips. The first was a NYU funded trip to Toledo, Spain. Toledo is just outside of Madrid and was only a short drive away. Once we got there we walked around the old city with guided tours of synogogues turned mosques  turned churches over time. Seems to be a dominating theme in the cathedrals of Spain. At least in the once Moorish states. Then after looking around a lot we had a couple hours to get lunch and shop around. I picked up my usual shot glass and a postcard, but that's about all.
Toledo was covered in fog when we got there in the morning, and it was briskly cold, but later in the day the fog cleared, the sun came out, and I fell asleep on a park bench.

Next we went to Santiago de Compostela which is in the northern Galicia region. Isabela and I had not been to Galicia on our journey, and now that we have the only part of Spain that we are going to have to leave out is Bilbao, unfortunately. The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is a famous pilgrimage sight for Catholics, which is why we ended up there. I had never heard of it until Isabela told me about this long journey from France to Spain that pilgrims travel and end at the cathedral in Santiago. It was beautiful there, and we toured every part of the cathedral. We even got to make it to a mass. During mass an Italian bishop was visiting and it was also a feast day. Since these two things were going on there was a little ceremony swinging a giant censor above the alter. We saw a smaller version of the one normally used, but it was enormous nonetheless. Probably the size of a toilet. I know its a bad comparison but that's the only universal description I could give to give you a good idea of what I'm talking about. So for about 10 minutes the censor was dramatically swaying across the alter attached to a rope hanging from the ceiling. It was very cool. Even though I'm not Catholic, or a pilgrim, I can appreciate it just as well.
Santiago was also interesting because it was our only day trip that we took a flight for. We woke up at 5am to leave the house and get to the airport, went straight to the cathedral once in Santiago, saw everything we wanted and had time to go slow and relax as well, then we caught a cab back to the airport and back to Madrid by 8p. Long day, but worth it. :)