Traveling to..... Wisconsin?!

Hi everyone!

So this weekend we went to Merrimac, Wisconsin for a ski trip, disregarding the rare winter with no snow there! After an exhausting week, I had the time to "relax" (quotes for my magnicent fall while snowboarding that unabled me to do literally anything on Sunday)

People usually don't take advantage of studying in the US to make some affordable tourism. Even though Europe gives you an incredible life experience when talking about travelling, a big country like the US gives you the opportunity to met incredible cities and beautiful places that otherwise you would not be able to visit.

I've never though about travelling to Wisconsin, but this trips in fact give you the sense of how the people really are beyond the metropolis. Getting to know the true US is in fact meaninful for understanding the culture, history and public issues of this country.

If you are studying abroad, don't miss the opportunity to travel around your host country, even if the academic routine is driving you crazy. Travelling around (even for short weekends) provides you with insightful understandings of how things really work beyond your university cristal bubble.

Venezuelan Primary Elections: what's really going on?

Hello everyone,

I hope you are doing great. As some of you might know from the media, last Sunday Venezuela's opposition parties held the first national primary elections to choose the candidate that will challenge Hugo Chavez in the next presidential elections on October 7th, among other public charges for Mayors and Governors.

The results were given the same night, thanks to the automated electoral system runned by the national authority (CNE in spanish). Henrique Capriles (39 years old) won the election with more than 62% of the votes, more than doubling his nearest adversary, Pablo Perez (42 years old). More than 3million people voted, from a universe of 15million people registered. This big convocation represents the major achievement for the opposition parties in Venezuela, who had not been able to cohere in a single movement for the last 13 years. 

Even though the elections were held with the joint action of the national government authorities (mostly pro Chavez) and opposition partisans, the controvery arises from the fact that the opposition agreed to destroy the electoral rolls 48 hours after the results were given, in order to ensure the confidentiality of the vote. However, the Government calls for fraud (even when they control the electoral authority). 

This situation has provoke several popular manifestations from the opposition side. On the other hand, the authorities took actions that result in violent situations and the unfortunate balance of one student killed defending the electoral votes in his community. 

After all, disregarding of whether either part have the right to call for their arguments, the political polarization in Venezuela has lead to this radical balances over the last decade. My call is to rescue the values that someday identify us as nice people and work in favor of people's need instead of people's ego.

Above, all the opposition candidates sending a united message after Henrique Capriles was elected as the unitary opposition candidate to challenge Chavez next October.

If you want to know more about the elected candidate, visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17006224 or contact me at any time!

I also wanted to recommend a blog from good friends of me that relates better than anyone the Venezuelan situation: http://caracaschronicles.com/. To be fair, they try to show what's happening in Venezuela from an objective point of view, but all of the writters's ideas are more common to the opposition, so their posts are rather critical. However, they make a pretty good diagnostic of the situation and evaluate objectively both parties.

Here are some pics from the Sunday afternoon at Chicago's electoral center. Thanks to the people of Ciao Amore Restaurant who facilitated their amenities. Roughly 950 venezuelan citizens are registered at Chicago, but only 150 came to vote.

Luminous Field! Chicago's new exhibit at Cloud Gate

Hi everyone!

I hope you are doing great. Last night we went to see the opening of the new exhibit at the Bean (Cloud Gate). This is an amazing exposition that integrates lights and video in an interactive way with the audience.

People and performers can play around in this great exhibit created by Luftwerk. This exposition is one of several activities planned by the City of Chicago for this February and Valentine's Day.

Don't miss it if you are planning to come to Chicago! The exhibit will be available until Feb 20th. For more information, visit http://explorechicago.org/city/en/things_see_do/event_landing/events/dca_tourism/luminous_field.html

Check it out!

Jin's Birthday!

Hi everyone!

Last week we celebrated Atushi Jinno's birthday, on of our best friends here. Jin is from Japan and has become a very special friend to all of us in the program. He is the kind of guy that is always happy and willing to help. And he is also hillarious!

This was actually Jin's first birthday party. According to Jin, his birthday is the same day at a national holiday in Japan, so he had never had the opportunity to share this day with friend.

Here are some pictures and video from that day, where almost everyone in the program assisted. Go Jinno!

The Lost of the Ring!

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing great. I'm in the midterms time again, so everything is crazy!

Last week, with almost a month of religious wedding, Daniel lost his wedding ring! We were making Anow Angels (how dumb is that? Jajajaja it was fun!) and suddenly he lost it! We realized about that around 5 hours later and the snow had already covered all the park and surroundings!

We went that same day and the day after to look for the ring, but obviously did not succeeded. Everyone told us: "that happen all the time", but we insisted! even though the snow was making people struggle around Chicago

Three days after (on our first month of marriage) We went to the park just before going to school. The snow was already gone because the night before rained all night long.

Following our silly pictures (and videos) of the snow angels, I tried to identify the spot where we were that day. And.... Suddenly! I found it!!! It was amazingly lucky! The wing was laying over the dirt just like that.

Lesson #1: the calm comes after the snow.

Lesson #2: watch out your stuffs in the winter! You literally shrink with the cold weather!

Here is the evidence of our success! Hope you like it! :)

Mini honeymoon: part I (NYC)

Because of the beginning if the next quarter, we only had chance to have a mini honeymoon. But we had an amazing time in New York City!

I personally love the Great Apple an Daniel have never been to NYC, so it was a great chance to show him around! We went to see The Lion King musical! Absolutely wonderful, even if you are not that kind of persons who likes musicals, it's definitely one of the pieces in the world!

Our only issue was the weather, and especially the wind. I think they styled Chicago with the "windy city" tag, in order to capture more tourists. Actually, the weather in Chicago has been great so far! It seems that this is a very rare year.

Let's see how it goes!