Answers to some questions....

Let me use this blog post to answer some of the more common questions people have been asking me…

 

Question: How many hours different is the time in Venezuela?

HA! Trick question.  Not how many hours, but how many minutes?! Perhaps it’s Hugo Chavez’s way of poking fun at our obsession with time, or perhaps not, but Venezuelan time is one half hour between Eastern and Central time.  For example, if it is 10 AM in New York, it is 9:30 AM here, and 9:00 AM in MN.

 

Question: What do you eat in Venezuela?

If you asked me the question, “Anna, how many ants do you supposed you eat on a daily basis in Venezuela?,” it would be a lie if I said any fewer than 10-20.  In reality, it’s probably more like 30, but some days it may be as few as 10.  It’s just that they’re everywhere.  Eating them is somewhat unavoidable.

Besides the ants, though, we have been eating a lot of soups, rice, beans, cheese, meats, vegetables, some familiar and some not, potatoes, plantains, some fruits, salads.  Yesterday I bought the biggest avocado I have ever seen, I swear it was the size of a football.  It had to have its own plastic bag.  Two of us ate huge cantaloupe-sized slices of it today, and we ate less than a quarter of it.  People put mayonnaise on many things, and my host mom is obsessed with soy sauce and honey mustard.  Today we made an oil, soy sauce, lime, honey mustard and salt vinaigrette to put on steamed vegetables and tuna.  I was skeptical, but it was actually pretty good.  The food here is tasty, salty but not at all spicy like I imagined.

 

What’s the university like?

I would first like to say that the university is a land of extreme temperatures.  Walking to and from the university makes me feel like I am melting, but the second I walk into the English office, my lips immediately turn blue.  The air conditioners in classrooms usually read about 15-16 C, which is roughly 58-62 degrees.  The office is much colder.  The director told me that she often leaves an extra sweater in the office, in addition to wearing one.  I bit my tongue and kept myself from exclaiming, “Why don’t you just turn off the freaking AC instead?!!? It’s like a meat fridge in here!?!??!”

It’s okay, though, because when it is freezing in the office, I go sit in the little fenced in, outdoor snack store area at the entrance of the building.  You can sit at tables there, drink apple sodas, or eat empanadas.  I like to sit out there while grading papers and appreciating the breeze and the sunshine. 

It’s not a campus like you would think of in the US.  It’s about 5-6 buildings scattered around the neighborhood, and some additional property that is pretty far away.  Different departments are in different buildings, and there really isn’t much interaction between them.  There are three time slots for English classes Mon-Thurs 7-9, 2-4, 6-8, and Saturday classes as well.  Students are younger than I would imagine for university students in the US.  Basically all the students live at home, and some travel great distances to get there.

 

Question:  What do you wish you had brought with you?

I would definitely say that I packed well— I only brought one bag.  After backpacking all around East Africa, I learned very quickly that you don’t need very many things to be happy.  But backpacking in East Africa was very different than living here, it turns out, and there are a few things on my wish list:

#1) Several pairs of prom-style sequined high heels, some shiny clothes, and a brightly colored handbag, because without them I stick out like a sore thumb.  This is not an exaggeration.  People here wear the fanciest, shiniest shoes that you could imagine, and they seem to plan their entire outfits around their fancy shoes.  My chacos aren’t exactly high fashion here.

#2) A can opener and vegetable peeler.  I don’t peel a lot of vegetables—I actually haven’t even had a vegetable peeler for the last year-- but here, I feel that it is necessary to peel a lot of things.  The can opener I really want— it is quite difficult to open cans with a knife, which is how we have been doing it.

#3) Some nasty old shorts, because despite the fact that people get really dressed up to go to places like the grocery store, the bank, the pharmacy, in their houses they wear grungy old shorts.  Short shorts.

#4) Several short dresses, the shinier the better.  It is obvious that when I make friends, if they ever want to go out with me, I will be inappropriately dressed for just about any occasion.  Short, colorful, strapless dresses appear to be all the rage.

#5) Hair binders.  When all my jewels were stolen in the airport, so were my hair-binders.  I have one, and I fear the day that it fails me.

#6) Several handkerchiefs.  To wipe my sweaty face every three seconds.

 

How do you get to work?

We usually take the bus.  This is only marginally faster than walking, though apparently we avoid strenuous activity during the hottest part of the day.  The buses are either conversion vans or small mini-buses.  They cost about 20 cents, and will take you basically anywhere. 

Yesterday, however, the buses went on strike.  Apparently last Friday, three men tried to get on a bus to rob a little old lady who had just taken out 20 million bolivares (roughly $4,000) from the bank.  The driver saw that they were really sketch, and drove away before the third thief could get on the bus, so the thieves killed the driver and ran off.  The strike was to raise awareness about insecurity issues on buses here.  It was a horrible thing, but at least people are talking about the problem, and trying to do something to solve it.

 

If you have more questions, I would happily address them publicly or privately.  Just send ‘em my way!