2007-2008: Jaime Parellada

Summer in China

Hello Everyone,

Its been quite a long time since I last wrote. I had literally a "hell" of an end for my academic year, especially because of all the travel I had to do in order to get my Chinese Visa, which I finally ended up obtaining at the General Consulate of the People´s Republic of China in New York City two days before flying to China, after been told by the Visa officers in Washington D.C that I had to fly to Mexico in order to get my visa. Thanks God  everything got resolved in the United States and I didn´t have to fly to Mexico.

I did well academically, I think my GPA was around a 3.70. I really enjoyed this past semester, especially because I took really interesting courses, Civil Liberties being my favorite. Now I only have two more years to go in order to graduate. Next semester I won´t be at Norwich because I will be participating in The Fund for American Studies Capital Semester Program in Washington D.C at Georgetown University, where I will also be doing an internship. I am really exited about next semester because it will be a great opportunity for me to learn about American politics, and life in Washington D.C during an electoral year.

Right now I am living in Beijing, China, where I am participating in a program with McGill University from Canada at Peking University in China for learning Chinese. The program is amazing, we have two hours of class in the morning and two hours of tutorial in the afternoons. So far I love the program, its really intense and it also provides us with the opportunity to learn about Chinese history and culture. So far we´ve had many field trips to places like the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven, Xi´an (where the terracotta warriors are located), among other places.

Living in China is a completely different experience than living in the United States. The Chinese people are extremely nice and very polite. I really enjoy all the new tastes, smells, and colours. I was really impressed to be here during the Sichuan earthquake, which I did not feel at all, but what impressed me was the day that China stopped in the afternoon to keep silence in memory of the victims of the earthquake.

So far I must say that I am really impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit of the Chinese people. I was also very impressed to see how quickly the People´s Liberation Army (PLA) reacted to the earthquake. It is very interesting also to see how excited everyone seems to be about the Olympic games. Contrary to what many people may think, I was surprised to discover that the Chinese people admire the United States very much, especially its people, and are always trying to practice their English and learn more about the West.

I will continue writting more about my experience in China, which I hope can provide a good insight into what studying abroad in China is like, especially for my fellow Chinese class peers, and the members of the Chinese Club.

I also want to tell the incoming class of 2012 to start getting ready for Norwich, it will be a life-changing experience and the more prepared (mentally, physically, and emotionally) you are, the easier this change will be. Future Rooks, start learning how to iron your clothes, how to shine your shoes, how to shave (if you dont know how to do so) tie your ties, etc. Go for runs, do push-ups, sit-ups, and stretch. It will be worth the effort. But above everything else, enjoy the time you spend home with your family. Good luck and stay motivated!

To my dear readers, thank you for all the comments and support along the past two years, I really appreciate it. I dont know if I will write again next year but I will try to continue writting for the rest of the summer, thanks again.

best regards

Cadet Jaime Parellada

SPRING!!!

I just love the spring. It is very nice to see the grass again, as well as to hear the birds and see the trees bloom. The color is slowly coming back to Norwich and the entire atmosphere seems to have changed. The days are getting longer and warmer. Now people gather outside the buildings to talk, play guitars, or just ride bicycles. I have also seen groups of people with their grills cooking some hot dogs or meat. In some way the sime seems to be going by so fast. The juniors are now just one week away from getting their Junior Rings, and the Seniors are less than a month away from graduating and commissioning. It is a busy time of the year for many of us though, especially those cadets who will have leadership positons next year. I am almost done with my classes and will start packing my stuff to get ready to go to China in May. Finally I can say that I have almost completed my first two years of college...although rookdom seems to have lasted for so long. Well, meanwhile I will continue to enjoy the spring as much as I can, I just hope we get good weather from Thursday to Sunday because we are having our MSII and MSIII Spring FTX with the Army Department.

Army Mil Lab

Mil Lab is a period of military instruction that goes on for two hours every week. During Mil Lab each ROTC conducts training or classes.

I am in the Army ROTC program and we always train, whether its freezing, raining, snowing, or the sun is shining. We are told to "train as you play", and its true, in the real world you wouldn´t wait for the rain to stop in order to accomplish the mission. I find Mil Lab to be very interesting and challenging at the same time. It is a good period of instruction because we apply and practice everything we learn in class, only that we do it outdoors.

Usually for Mil Lab we wear our ACU uniforms, cold weather clothes (i.e. Gore-Tex jackets), LBE (its like a vest and belt were the canteens, ammo packs, compass, and first aid patch are all attached), rifles, and Keblar (helmet).

We learn many things like patrolling, types of movement, the ambush, the raid, land navigation, 9 line med evac, what to do if hit by indirect fire, first aid, etc.

Yesterday for Mil Lab we did some land navigation on Paine Mountain. It was a nice afternoon, not so cold and clear. We had formation at the base of Paine Mountain and from there we did our 100mt pace count and received our lanes with a map of the area, a plastic bag, an emergency whistle, and our coordinates.

We had to plot our coordinates and attack points on the map, find the azimuths, both grid and magnetic, and draw our possible routes. I followed our Special Forces instructor´s advice and just used terrain association to find my points. It was tiring because there was so much snow on the ground. In some parts I would sink or fall, and it was also very slippery. Some parts of the mountain had up to eight feet of snow.

Three of my friends and I (all from the same squad, 4th SQD 2nd PLT) went up together since we all had the same lane. We each did our own plotting but walked together, although in some way that defeated the purpose. We managed to find two of the four points, not because we didn´t know where the points where but because it took so long to get to the points because of the snow.

The best part was coming down from the mountain. Once we got to the steep part of Paine Mountain we realized how steep and slippery it was so we decided to go down sledding. Since we didn´t have sleds we sat down and just went down like that. It was amazing! I had such a good time doing that. I catched up so much speed that my rook sister, who had started before me had to slide out of my way to avoid getting hit by me. Another one of my friends almost gets hit by me, and I even caught up to the first guy to go down. It was definitely worth it. I was even able to steer by moving my feet.

After that we had formation and we were dismissed. On the way back to the barracks I walked with my roomate to the infirmary to ask for the list of shots we need to get before going to China, and once there they gave us each an oatmeal cookie. The funny thing was that our Captain from the Army department was walking in front of us when we came out eating our cookies and he thought that we had gone there just to get the cookies.

Mil Lab in the Army department is the best Mil Lab of them all. We train hard and learn a lot. The Army department definitely takes good care of its cadets and turns them into real leaders.

New Adjustments

The freshmen finally got recognized. Recognition is one of the most memorable moments one lives at Norwich. It is a combination of strange feelings that range from satisfaction to a huge relief. It was a long year for the class of 2011 but I bet that if anyone asks them they will all say that their "rook" year was worth it. I am sure that many of them have rediscovered themselves and are now stronger; physically, mentally, and emotionally than when they came to Norwich in August. The new "privates" are now enjoying the privileges they earned with their hard work.

For me as an upperclassmen it is also a new experience because the freshmen are now cadets and the relations between upperclassmen and freshmen start to change. Not long ago I almost jump out of my seat when one of my freshmen friends walked into my room! The whole Corps is still getting adjusted to this, although it will not take us long before it becomes a normal thing.

Congratulations to the Class of 2011!

Chinese Class

Chinese is one of my favorite courses. Our professor is really nice and funny. She comes up with interesting activities for us to learn to speak Chinese. Most of these activities are conducted in an informal way and always include drawings. One time we had to give directions on how to get to China Town but the driver ended up getting lost in the Japanese Town. It was really funny. My favorite one so far was when we learned the different parts of the face. For that activity each of us had one turn in which to draw a specific part of the face with the eyes blindfolded, following the instructions from other classmates in Chinese. The result was a very interesting face, with fish-eyes, a weird nose (which I drew), and fangs.

Today we also did something similar, only that this time we had to draw a baby with very long legs, fingers, a medium sized mouth, and large eyes. The result... a small version of Freddy Krueger. We all laughed a lot because our professor was the one that drew it on the board. Overall, Chinese is a great class, although it requires a lot of extra study and dedication. I am very excited because my roomate and I will probably be going to Beijing from May to July. I think we will have an amazing experience over there. Below is a picture of the face we drew in our class. Isn´t he cute?

The Frozen UP

This past Wednesday we had one of the most interesting  morning formations I have ever seen at Norwich because the UP had frozen.

As I was about to step into the UP I heard someone say, "careful, its ice!". At the time I did not pay too much attention to what the other cadet was saying until I walked a few steps over what appeared to be water. I had seen that the whole UP was "wet" beacuse Tuesday had been a warm day and a lot of snow had melted, plus it had also rained a little bit. Therefore, it made sense to me that the UP would be wet.

What I did not think about was the fact that the temperature had dropped a lot that night, and that all the water had turned into a thin, clear, layer of ice. The UP was completely covered in ice. It was very funny to watch how other people fell as soon as they came out of their buildings thinking that the UP was wet, not frozen.

After almost falling a couple of times, I decided it was better for me to "skate" to where my platoon was. SInce I had been assigned to be the "acting Platoon Sergeant" for Hotel Company´s 1st Platoon, I "skated" all the way from Gerard Hall to Ransom Hall. Many cadets were also moving in that way, most of the cadets on the UP were laughing at this weird scene. The funniest part was when the Platoon Sergeants had to move to the back of the formation so that the PL´s (Platoon Leader´s) could move to the front of the formation beause many people, including myself, slipped and almost crashed with the respective 1st Sergeant´s.

It was a very funny and memorable experience. Something that I had never lived before. Norwich is always full of surprises, and just like New England´s weather, its umpredictable.

New Snow

I have been enjoying this winter much more than I did last year. I don´t know if it is because I am an upperclassmen or because I got used to the weather and the snow.

Snow is one of those things that you can either love or hate. For me its a strange feeling between fascination, curiosity, and in some cases disgust. I am fascinated by snow because it is really beautiful. I love it especially when it falls and the sun light makes all the crystals chine like little rainbows. Sometimes I like to observe the sun to see if there are any halos around it.

My favorite type of snow is the shiny powdery snow, which we had a couple of days ago. It looks like if some fairy or gnome had sprinkled millions of diamonds. I am also very curious when it comes to the winter and snow. I did not grow up with freezing temperatures and snow every winter, so would be ok to say that I still behave like a little kid near the snow. As a matter of fact last year I was the only person making a snowman in Sabine Field while everyone else was sledding. I also did my first snow angels there. Once in a while I will grab a small bunch of fresh snow and give it a bite, just to see how it tastes like.  Well, thats enough for today, I still have to study for my Chinese exam tomorrow. I will write again soon, take care.

Back From Winter Break

I am back at Norwich after spending a wonderful winter break down in Guatemala with my family and friends. I went back home to celebrate Christmas and spend some time in my house, since this is going to be a long year for me away from home. During my stay in Guatemala I spent a lot of time with my friends and family.

During that time of the year family reunions are very common and we see each other a lot. We were glad to receive two of my friends from Taiwan that study at Norwich,and my friend and professor for English as a second language. They came to visit me and to visit Guatemala. We spent Christmas together and shared a lot of good moments along with my family. After Christmas, we traveled with them and some friends to the interior of the country where we visited Lake Atitlán, Panajachel, the canopy, the market at Chichicastenango, Antigua Guatemala, the Pacific Ocean, the National Palace, the Pacaya Volcano, and Universidad Francisco Marroquín (where we saw the Popol Vuh and the Ixchel museums).

Many of the things we ate and saw were new for them. We enjoyed their visit a lot. They were also able to practice their Spanish and to learn about the Mayan culture since they also visited the Tikal Ruins in the Petén jungle, the salto Chilascó, which is a very tall waterfall, some caves in Alta Verapaz, and the Mayan fortress of Aguateca, which is only accessible by boat and has a natural barrier that served as protection.

Now I am back at Norwich ready to start my fourth semester. Time really flies by when one is busy. I am currently taking 21 credits and am enjoying all of my classes. I am still amazed to think that after traveling by airplane for some hours I went from being in a place with really nice tropical weather to the cold winter of Vermont, which is beautiful in its own way. Next week we will start Armor for the Spring semester and will also resume our riding lessons. It will be a busy yet interesting semester.

These are some of the pictures we took in Guatemala. Most of them are mine but the ones with Tikal, Chilascó, Chichicastenango, and a few others are from the ones they took.I hope you enjoy them. 

   

A Thanksgiving In Guatemala

The weeks before Thanksgiving break were crazy for me. I had a lot of work to do and was still recovering from an injury. This year I went back to Guatemala for Thanskgiving, it was a wonderful trip. The main cause of my trip was the celebration of the 50th anniversary of my grandparents, which happened to be when I had my vacations so I decided to take advantage of that and fly back home to join my family in the celebration.

I left Norwich on Friday with my Platoon Sergeant, who drove me to Burlington. It was a really nice drive because it was snowing and the landscape was beautiful. I really enjoyed listening to Christmas songs while watching the snow fall and cover the trees and mountains. Once in Burlington I checked in at the hotel and ate at Friendly´s. After that I went for a walk around the mall. On Saturday I woke up early in the morning and flew from there to Washington D.C and from there to Charlotte. From Charlotte I flew to Guatemala and arrived just in time to eat lunch with my family. My mom prepared my favorite food and we spent a really nice time together, my dad, mom, sisters, and brother. We had not shared a meal together since June, when my sister left to study in Germany for a couple of months. Then in the evening, my granparents and friends came over to say hello.

On Sunday we went to eat breakfast at my uncle´s house and had a great time with all my uncles, grandparents, and cousing. From there we went back to my house and my dad and I went to get a massage. After that I took a nap for the rest of the day. On Monday I went to the doctor so that I could get my back adjusted. The next day, Tuesday, I went to my other doctor and then I had lunch at my grandparents house. Wednesday I went to my other granparents house to visit my granmother and ate lunch with her. Then, in the afternoon, I took my sister, cousin, and my cousin´s friend on a tour of Guatemala City and the central square. We took a tour of the National Palace, visited the Cathedral, and walked around enjoying the nice weather.

Thursday I went to Antigua Guatemala, a colonial city that used to be the capital of Guatemala. It is located approximately at 45 kms from Guatemala City. I always enjoy going to Antigua, it is a very beautiful place to visit. Once there, my sisters, brother, cousins, and their friend walked around Antigua and went to the market while my mother and I went to buy some chicken for our lunch, which we had at my granmother´s house there. After lunch, my cousins, sisters, brother, and friend went to visit some ruins while I enjoyed the nice weather and afternoon from a recliner in one of the outside corridors. I ate a lot of nísperos, which are a very tasty fruit that groes on a tree. It is a round fruit with an orange color and a very nice taste. After that we went back to Guatemala because I had another appointment with my cardiologist, which told me I was in perfect health, and then went to my house to change for the Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving is an American tradition that encompases many of the values shared by families in many countries, that is why it is slowly becoming very popular in Guatemala, especially in the city. In my family we have always celebrated this tradition and I must admit that after Christmas, it is one of my favorites. This year we had the Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt´s house. It was great, we had a really good time.

Friday was a great day because it was the 50th anniversary of my grandparents. I got dressed and drove to my granparents house to help them. From there we drove to pick up the priest that celebrated the mass, and drove to the country club where the event was organized. The mass was really nice, it was celebrated by two priests, and I helped them in the altar. The guests were family members and really close friends. We ate and celebrated until late in the afternoon. There was a live marimba, which is the national instrument, which played really nice music, and then there was a disco. I had a great time and was really happy to see all my friends and family. Then, in the evening, my friends came over to my house to hang out.

On Saturday I organized all my stuff and got ready to come back to Norwich. I went out with my friends in the evening and came back home around 1:30 in the morning. Then I woke up at 3:30 in the morning and drove my parents to the airport because they went to Argentina and Chile with all my uncles, aunts and grandparents. From there I drove back home and cooked a pancake breaksfast for my brother, cousin, and I. I think it was the earliest I have ever eaten breakfast, we were done eating around 5:30 in the morning. Then, I went with my cousing to play softball and from there I just came home, showered, and went to the airport. I then flew to Charlotte, where I slept, and the next day I flew back to Norwich. It was sad but necessary, the weather was SO NICE back home the day I flew back, it was clear and you could see the volcanos and everything. Now I am here at Norwich, where there is SNOW! Anyways,I enjoy every season, and having to go through the winter actually makes me appreciate the weather in Guatemala more. Still, I like the snow, its something I dont have everyday.

El Día de los Muertos, Fiambre, All Saints Day

The first day of November is one of the most important dates in Guatemala. This day the whole country celebrates the day of the dead and of all the saints. It is a very important celebration for people from every social class and religious background. On this day, there are religious services, Mayan ceremonies, and colorful traditions.

Indigenous people gather with their family to visit the graves of their loved ones. They prepare the favorite meal of the loved one they are going to visit and share it on top or next to their grave. They also light candles of different colors (each color having a special meaninig), burn inciense, and drink alcohol on top of the graves, always sharing some with the dead by pouring it over the tomb. In some rare cases, they even bring musicians to play for the dead. A very important part of the festivity are the giant kites.

Groups and families gather to build giant kites which they fly from certain cementeries. The kites are huge and very colorfull. They have beautiful designs and carry little papers and notes to communicate with the spirits. Since the spiritual world is very important for some indigenous communities, this practice is very popular.

People tend to visit the cementeries and therefore clean and paint the graves a couple of days before visiting with their families. They also bring flowers and gifts to the tomb of their family member.

Each family prepares a special dish that can be only found in Guatemala. Each family uses their own recipe but its basically the same dish. It is called Fiambre, and it can be either white, green, or pink, depending on the ingredients used. It consists of a large mix of vegetables with vinegar, sugar, salt, and many other things that I have chopped but dont know how its mixed. So, each family gathers to chop everything the night before and leave it in a large container to mix. The next day, they add all the meats, which can be many including chicken, sardines, many kinds of ham, sausages, etc. They also add cheese, olives, and all the vegetables one can imagine. This is the main food in Guatemala for this celebration.

Now that I have already described a little bit the tradition, I will share the way in which my family celebrates this day. In my family, we prepare the fiambre using in the same way my great grandmother learned to do it. Preparing fiambre requires a lot of patience, dedication, and skill. Every member of the family comes to prepare it. We gather at my aunts house the 31st of october to chop everything.  The little kids play Halloween while the aunts, grandparents, uncles, and cousins, and many times friends too, chop the food. It is a great time. The nice thing about it is that we are together as family and talk about anecdotes, memories, and eat and taste what we chop.

Once the chopping is done, everything is put together and mixed with the caldillo, which is the liquid that comes out of the vegetables and that has vinegar, sugar, salt, and other things. Then we let it stay for the entire night.

The next day, we go to Catholic mass, and then all the other families and friends come to my grandparents house. We used to celebrate the Fiambre in Antigua, but now we celebrate it in the city.   Once at my granparents house, the fiambre is put in a giant bowl and decorated. There is a typical rice  soup that we eat before the fiambre. After the soup, each person prepares his own plate by grabbing from the main fiambre and adding all the meats and cheese they  like. For dessert, there are typical candies, which include the famous canillitas de leche, or legs of milk, the ayote en dulce, my grandfather´s favorite, and finally atol de elote, a hot drink made with corn.

It is one of my favorite traditions because all the family gathers and we remember the dead and enjoy the opportunity to share in life. The idea of sharing in life is very important in my family, the same with the idea of not letting everything you can do today for tomorrow because tomorrow may never come. We tend to say what we mean and express our feelings for each other while we are alive. We give each other gifts, or little details as visiting each other, calling each other, or giving flowers, cookies, etc, because once you are dead you wont be able to share.

This tradition is also spread throughout Latin countries, but the fiambre and the giant kites can only be found in Guatemala. Now I will share with you some of the pictures my dad sent my by email about this year´s fiambre celebration in my family. Enjoy!