Today, we left Farjardo around 8 to arrive at Bici Caño around 9. Bici Caño is a non-profit that offers bike tours of the 8 barrios that surround the Caño Martín Peña to raise money for and awareness of the communities present. Once there, we selected our bikes and started off on our two-hour ride.

We traveled around the “monja” neighborhood, stopping every 10 or so minutes to discuss different attributes of the barrio, both current and historical. I think it is safe to say that the bike ride was particularly eye-opening for us Westtown students.

After we finished our ride, we ate a quick lunch before heading out to the beach, where we spent the remainder of the day.

We have a full day of service tomorrow, so look out for that post! See you all then.

Anabel

We started our day relatively early today so we could arrive at El Yunque Tropical Rainforest (a National Park) to begin our volunteer work. We worked in two sites, Baño Grande and Baño Oro, doing both maintenance and hurricane clean up.

My group worked on the Baño Grande site first, scrubbing the stone surrounding the natural bath extensively.

After we finished at our first site, we ate a quick lunch with an incredible view:

After lunch, my group headed to the Baño Oro site to remove some of the dirt and clay stuck that filled the natural bath there. It was fairly challenging work, but extremely rewarding.

To reward us for our hard work, we traveled to a gorgeous swimming hole along one of the rivers. We cooled off and washed our muddy clothes before returning to the guagua to head back to the hotel.

See you all tomorrow!

Anabel

03/06/19 – Grasse, FR – Day 5

The Seminar I was in was a total of 3 days, (the three days that were in-between now and my last post), and each day I was able to do something different. My mornings are very peaceful, and in the past three days, I’ve developed a routine. Get up, get ready, eat breakfast on the terrace, and finally cab to the studios. The ride to the studios are brief, and the drivers are so incredibly sweet. Because Grasse is such a small town, I’ve already had some drivers more than once. All of them incredibly patient with my “learning” French, and willing to help me learn as much as I can about the area, the language, and the culture. Upon arriving at Galimard on the first day, I was a bit overwhelmed. I was a bit early and thus the first to arrive; therefore I was paranoid about whether or not I was at the right place and if I had enough euros in my bag to get to where I needed to go. Eventually, when people started showing up, and the classes started, I realized that the workshop that the rest of the people who came was different than mine, so I was the only person in my Seminar which mean that the entire Seminar was set and based on what I wanted to learn and accomplish.

The first day was the basic introduction. I learned about what goes into fragrance production, both the business and the chemical side, and about scent recognition. For a long time, I tested maybe over 70 scents, and my instructor (who was the principal perfumer at Galimard) told me to connect each and every scent to a memory or event in my life to help me remember which smell was what. She taught me how the absolute (the “soul of the flower”) is extracted. How essential oils are obtained, and how and why people confuse them when they are very different products. And finally I learned how a parfum (also an Eau de toilette, an Eau de parfum and cologne, but I worked only with parfum) is made, and how if I were to start my own company, the extensive tests and forms I would have to fill out and pass. After six long hours, with a lunch break at my hotel, it was time for me to leave. I went and had dinner in town, and promptly fell asleep.

The second day, we focused on parfum composition, the three main parts (head [the scent you smell only within the first 2 hours], heart [what you smell for up to 4 hours] and body [ the smell that can stay up to and maybe more than 24 hours]), and which types of scents (floral, citrus, “oriental,” aromatics, woody, and spicy) go into those categories, and trying to figure out the category that I enjoyed, or which mix of these I enjoyed. After a blind test to test what I liked, which was powdery floral, I made my first scent, a feminine one. The whole time the perfumer was looking over me and making sure that the decisions I made for my scent didn’t clash, and that the final product was indeed feminine. While I was making my final decisions, she said that my tastes were extremely elegant and refined and that she didn’t expect such “expertise” from someone my age. I was so It took a little over than half a day, and by the time I finished, packaged and labeled my new scent the day was over.

Today, the final day, I did a lot. I got to the studio about 45 minutes early and began to prep my station because I knew this morning I would be making two new scents, a masculine and a unisex, by myself. After about 4.5 hours, I went on a guided tour of the factory where I saw both the old and the new distilling process, and also the “scent room.” I learned the history of the company and also of the town.

Every day was different. However, one thing stayed consistent. These scents are so incredibly strong that after smelling about 5-7, you are recommended to go outside and take a minute break for fresh air. Even after doing that, in a couple of hours, everything starts to smell the same, and your nose starts to burn. In addition to a red nose, the amount of smells that your brain has to process makes you incredibly sleepy.

Tomorrow is my last day here. I’m despondent to leave, it is such a beautiful town rich with history and amazing scents, and I look forward to returning in the future.

As we are currently docking in Naples, we are think about our last two days in Sicily. On day 3, we spent hours in Ortygia marveling at Greek temples in the Valley of Temples. The best preserved Greek temple in the world, The Temple of Concordia, was absolutely amazing! And the size of the temple to Zeus was mind blowing! Although in ruins, the statues that made up less than half the height of the building made us all look like ants. We learned lots of interesting things too, such as archeologists think that Greek temples are designed to replicate how they would have been made out of wood and even the woodland shrines they may have made before temples. That night, we stayed in Palermo, the capital of Sicily, and spent day 4 exploring the city. We saw the cathedral in Palermo which was absolutely beautiful and was allowed on the roof to one of the most incredible views we have seen yet! We also explored a Norman/Bourbon/Carthaginian palace (depending on who ruled at the time) which was beautifully decorated with different types of marble, paintings, sculptures, and geometric designs! Afterwards, we had a chance to sit in the garden and read both a passage from the Iliad and a poem by Robert Service which connected with us about how sad we were to leave Sicily despite the great adventures ahead. The last stanza is but a glimpse of this poem, yet I will leave you with it so you may understand our sadness at leaving. “His honour scrolls shall feed the flame / They mean no more to me / His ashes I with bitter blame / Will take to Sicily / And there I’ll weep with heart bereft / By groves and sunny rills / And wishing my laughing boy I’d left / A shepherd on the hills.”

-JD ’19

The first step of any sewing project is to find material. To find something fun and suitable for my graduation dress, I decided to take the train and head down to Philly’s version of the garment district, Fabric Row.

Fabric row is a couple of blocks of 4th street where (around) seven fabric stores reside. Most of them are family owned and operated. I found that where ever I went, the employees of the store were incredibly helpful and friendly. At Fleishman’s Fabric and Supplies, Nick pulled out ten different fabrics to choose from and was able to give awesome recommendations. I found beautiful linen at Fleishman’s. That being said, we were a yard short of what I needed. I also went to Jack B’s and found really pretty eyelet cotton, but again, there was not enough fabric. Despite all the help I was given, I could not find fabric suitable for this project.

After four more stores, I had given up on finding material on Fabric Row. I got a pretty good sandwich at Reading Terminal Market and had a nice cup of tea, but my trip to Philly had been rather unsuccessful. This did not end of my fabric finding journey!

I took the train back to Wayne and made my way to my friendly neighborhood JoAnn’s. When I first walked into the store, I was immediately able to find some embroidered cotton.

For my project, I needed four and a half yards of fabric, two to three yards of lining fabric, one yard of interfacing (to keep things in place), a zipper, and a pair of rings and sliders. All of this I found at JoAnn’s, thus concluding my fabric finding adventure.

The next step is to start cutting out the pattern and sew it together.

We are finally here! All of us, after exhausting sleepless flights, are in Sicily and enjoying ourselves so much!This picture is from the Greek theater in Taormina, one of the best preserved ancient theaters in the world! Taormina is where we spent our first day and night, the first place we tried genuine Italian pizza and gelato, and the first place we were amazed by the beginning of many stunning views.

That first night we all crashed early, exhausted from what was nearly 2 days of travel, but we were all up and ready go at 8 am to travel to our next location Siracusa (Syracuse). We started by visiting an amphitheater where they would have held gladiatorial games and another theater. What we found especially interesting about this place was that in the rocks above the theater, there were carved out rooms, similar to a place I have seen in Spain where primitive human beings used to live thousands of years ago. Sadly, we could not find the reason behind the “caves” being there, but they were very amazing. One even had a bit of a waterfall in it! After that we explored the city of Siracusa, all on the attached island of Ortigia. Again we saw some beautiful buildings and scenes, but one thing that stuck out for everybody last night was the food. We ate family style, where our guides ordered what they told us was the best and we all ate a little bit. One thing in particular that stood out for me was an antipasta dish made of oranges, onion, and breadcrumbs. A combination I would have never thought to make, but it was fantastic! We also had a penne in a pistachio creme, garlic bread, assorted meats and cheeses, a spicy spaghetti dish with sausage, and so much more. It was all some of the best food we’ve ever had! It’s breakfast time on our third day now, and as people come downstairs to eat, no one is sleepy or slow, but excited for what is to come!

-JD ’19

03/03/19 – Grasse, FR – Day 2

The time it took to get here was in total – over 15 hours. From getting to the airport to connecting flights to drama and language barriers, the journey was incredibly stressful and tiring. I flew from PHL to Madrid, Spain. Then a quick trip from Madrid, Spain to Nice, France. Flying from Madrid to Nice was surreal. The airport was only in Spanish, and not knowing Spanish, I mainly had to guess what was going on. The plane we then got on was miniature, one of the smallest I’ve ever been on, but luckily I had a window seat for the quick 3-hour flight. The plane went over many deep bodies of water, over massive mountains, and loads of small villages and big cities, until finally, we reached our destination, a seaside town in France only 40 minutes away from Grasse.

After arriving at the hotel, checking in and getting my bags sorted I fell right asleep and didn’t wake up until the next day. Today is my second day being able to walk around the small Italian-esuqe town of Grasse. Yesterday, I took a walk into town, which was about 40 minutes from my hotel. The city of Grasse is small and is filled with color. There are many parks and public spaces, as well as small pedestrian filled alleyways. The buildings surrounding those allies are mostly a dusty orange, appearing to be a common theme in most of the architecture in the area. I bought some things I forgot to bring, stopped to grab a coffee and walked around enjoying the view, the smell of the flowers, the feel of the old rubble and the sun on my face, and hearing the French all around me it felt incredibly peaceful and exhilarating all at the same time.

Today, I learned that the hotel used to be a park, so many of the grounds are perfectly manicured, covered in olive and orange trees, grande terraces and large balconies. So, after eating a delicious breakfast, I spent almost 3 hours walking around the hotel grounds, looking at the trees and mountains, having conversations with the staff of the hotel in French, and hearing the excited cheers and car horns honking from miles and miles away. It was a beautiful day filled with fantastic sites, delicious food, and exciting sounds.