With Carnival over Eric and I stuck around Barranquilla for a few days to regain our bearings. Our new Colombian friends were students at one of the local universities and we got to explore a day of Barranquilla college life. Obviously I haven't seen very many universities around South America but here is what I've learned through some observation and many talks with travelers:
College is certainly different than what we experienced in the states. First, no one else in the world calls it college, it is University or Uni for short (in Spanish "Universidad)." On-campus living is virtually non-existent - some students share apartments around the area but most people commute from home. I don't have any hard statistics but the student populations tend to be much smaller - there are very, very few universities with the mega-populations like UCLA, U-Michigan, etc. With no dorms to occupy space and less students, the campuses more closely resemble high schools rather than the picturesque frisbee-throwing quads that we are accustomed to. And, most interestingly, the highly prestigious and selective universities are the public schools: the top students compete for virtually free government-subsidized education while the private schools will take anyone that can pay the fees. Again there are always exceptions, I am sure there are some lovely dorms in a prestigious private university somewhere in South America, but that is not the norm.
Eric and I enjoyed a fun tour around campus. If it wasn't obvious enough we were required to wear a visitor's badge (student IDs were checked at each gate entrance).
On our tour we spotted a flyer for a delightful field trip. What better place to spend Sprang Break than Washington DC!
And here is a classroom:
After a tough day at school we were famished. As I mentioned way back in Bolivia, the nuances of Mexican cuisine remain a mystery to most South Americans. Naturally we had to enlighten our new friends to the deliciousness of chicken quesadillas.
Last random note. This happened a few days later but doesn't really fit with the next blog entry so I'm putting it here. We went to the beach one day and saw this awesome ice-cream man. Unfortunately I was into week 2 of giving up sweets so didn't get to sample to goods but he deserves a billablog shoutout.
College is certainly different than what we experienced in the states. First, no one else in the world calls it college, it is University or Uni for short (in Spanish "Universidad)." On-campus living is virtually non-existent - some students share apartments around the area but most people commute from home. I don't have any hard statistics but the student populations tend to be much smaller - there are very, very few universities with the mega-populations like UCLA, U-Michigan, etc. With no dorms to occupy space and less students, the campuses more closely resemble high schools rather than the picturesque frisbee-throwing quads that we are accustomed to. And, most interestingly, the highly prestigious and selective universities are the public schools: the top students compete for virtually free government-subsidized education while the private schools will take anyone that can pay the fees. Again there are always exceptions, I am sure there are some lovely dorms in a prestigious private university somewhere in South America, but that is not the norm.
Eric and I enjoyed a fun tour around campus. If it wasn't obvious enough we were required to wear a visitor's badge (student IDs were checked at each gate entrance).
And here is a classroom:
After a tough day at school we were famished. As I mentioned way back in Bolivia, the nuances of Mexican cuisine remain a mystery to most South Americans. Naturally we had to enlighten our new friends to the deliciousness of chicken quesadillas.
Last random note. This happened a few days later but doesn't really fit with the next blog entry so I'm putting it here. We went to the beach one day and saw this awesome ice-cream man. Unfortunately I was into week 2 of giving up sweets so didn't get to sample to goods but he deserves a billablog shoutout.
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