Word: vittimberga
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Vittimberga contrasts the society he encountered there with American culture. "There is a lot less emphasis on materialism there and a strong sense of community," he says. "Kids were sometimes traded within the community. While I was there a boy came over for dinner one night and just stayed...
Gradually, throughout the year, as Vittimberga continued to work on minor excavations, restorations and surveying of religious temples called Marae, his perspective on the village changed as well...
Other students also relate anecdotes about their becoming accustomed to a different lifestyle. Vittimberga recalls an incident where he adapted to the Polynesian mode of operations. "My host mother asked me to get the bananas off the tree, so I climbed the tree and started hacking them off, but all these ants began crawling over me," he recalls. "Then she came out laughing hysterically, and told me that I was supposed to chop the tree down, then pick the bananas...
Many of the students say that things that seem negative at the time become part of the learning process. Vittimberga, for example, recalls a rainy day on his rafting trip when he questioned what he was doing. "When you're out there working in the rain for hours, you wonder why did I come here when I could be nice and warm in Cambridge," he says...
...Vittimberga says that his fears came a little later, once he arrived on campus. He says he felt he had "a tougher time adjusting to the freshman scene," than those who had gone straight to college, but adds he thinks he knew better what "I wanted, what my options were." Vittimberga agrees with Frusztajer that "academically I was much more motivated than I had ever been. Now I looked at classes as a way to learn, rather than as an excuse for being in school...