Well, exam scores came in this week. I got a 9.69 (aka 1 wrong) on my International Negotiation & Conflict Resolution exam, and a 9.25 (aka 2 wrong) on my Marketing exam, and a 6.5 on my Finance exam - what happened there was that I had the right answers, just not quite the way the professor wanted them... so a lot of half-credit on individual questions meant my score went down quite a bit. Oh well, next time I'll just memorize the slides instead of trying to learn the content like other students did. I spent the rest of the day in Puerta Jerez enjoying the sunshine and reading for mi clase horible. And that night a group of girls from my program and I made a spontaneous trip to La Carboneria for a Flamenco show.
Tuesday was a day full of classes. Lots of learning as usual. And it was Julie's BIRTHDAY!!! Sadly, I wasn't with her to celebrate BUT I did sing "Cumpleaños Feliz" in her honor to her Facebook page :) On Tuesday night I went for a run by the river with Sarah and then Kjavascript:void(0)endra FINALLY came back from visiting her boyfriend in Oxford so we caught up and talked all about our weekends.
On Wednesday I had my Marketing class and then went on a tour with a called "Conocer la Semana Santa" - Know/become familiar with Semana Santa. It was fantastic and got me all excited and ready for Semana Santa. (I would have a ton to write about this but I'm hoping to apply all of my freshly gained knowledge during the actual Semana Santa and therefore am going to save it all until I write about Semana Santa itself)! After "Conocer la Semana Santa" I had to race from CIEE in el centro all the way back to FCEYE (a good 25 minute walk) in order to go to my International Marketing Seminario - aka a presentation with a worksheet that we had to complete with some poor Sevilliano students that we forced to be there for part of their grade. Afterwards we had a social at the cafeteria across the street. Sadly my Spanish partners didn't want to deal with me anymore so I made Antonio (one of our wonderful CIEE program directors) and one our the year-long students speak Spanish with me, and in Antonio's case promise to teach me how to Salsa. (I'll be sure to keep you all posted on if/when this happens and how it all plays out!)
Now normally, I dread Thursdays. Not quite as much as Tuesdays since after Thursday I'm usually guaranteed a weekend to recover, but I dread them nonetheless. However, this Thursday brought quite a pleasant surprise. I woke up with an extremely strong craving for Perkins. Now, this is a bit odd considering I'm really not a breakfast person... I think it was more of a craving for coffee. American coffee. A true, bottomless-cup-of-coffee. When class started I still hadn't had any coffee so I casually mentioned it to my professor. About halfway through class she decided we may as well wrap things up (since half of the class was gone for a visit with our program to Morocco - don't worry, I'm going in April!) and we walked across the street to the Coffee Corner. It was awesome. We have two students from Morocco in our class who came with, along with the professor, and about 8 of us CIEE students all crammed into a booth with a small table and four chairs at the end of it. Sadly, I had to run after a quick cup of cafe con leche to go to mi clase horible (where the professor just happens to be the husband of the professor I had coffee with - I'm going to refer to them as Gloria & Antonio). So, clase horible begins - and as I hit the first hour mark I silently pray that God will help me plow through the next hour of class and help me to understand everything that is being said around me (since the day before at the seminario I found out (from the year-long student who just so happens to be taking the same class as my clase horible only at a different time and with the same prof) that all of the Sevilliano students spend most of the class making fun of me) and all of a sudden, people start packing things up and the professor says we can leave. What?! TWO half classes? So, since class was over I decided that I should take the opportunity to go talk to my professor, ask a few questions to clarify some vocab that I didn't understand, and set a date for my final exam since the scheduled date isn't until the end of July. Well, next thing I know I've been in his office for over a hour, I was given a delicious caramel from the town where his wife grew up (My plan is to get even more of these the next time I visit one of their office's) and a pretty little daisy.
After that, my 10-day weekend officially began! My Friday and Saturday were pretty much the same. I played Monopoly with mi hermanita española, took a nap, walked around Sevilla, attempted to shop for new Semana Santa clothes with all the Sevillianos but got annoyed with the crowds and gave up. (Sidenote: last night, well walking through the crowds to watch los Pasos with Juanma, he spent a good half hour mocking me because when someone would bump into me I would say some sort of phrase equivalent to "Excuse Me" or "Pardon Me"... He then had his little tirade that I shouldn't be apologizing for something that wasn't my fault since I wasn't the one that was bumping into people (except for when I bumped into him after trying to avoid bumping into other people, but as well as no, that's one of the hazards of being at intercambio.) That turned into a discussion about how I'm "too nice" and Thank God we ran into someone he knew so we were able to change topics.) Anyways, the weekend was great - very relaxing and a wonderful time of preparation for the great festivities of Semana Santa!
Now it's already Martes Santo, and I have TONS of stories to share about Semana Santa BUT they're all going into a different post! Get your eyes ready, and for those of you who need them, your reading glasses on! It's going to be a long one :) AND, If I can continue to have success (like the awesome photos I've been attempting to upload to previous blog posts) with technological components and the internet you just MAY be able to see a VIDEO of part of a Paso! (If not, I'll give you a Youtube link!)
27 March 2010
24 March 2010
A Wonderful Weekend Wandering in Sevilla
Last Friday I went on a company visit to the La Gitana winery in Sanlucar. The drive there reminded me of the drive from Minneapolis to Iowa City (only in less than half the time). I got to see a ton of wind turbines! One of our CIEE program directors grew up in San Lucar and came along and provided excellent commentary throughout the day. The winery visit was more a storage facilities of the all the casks and barrels instead of us being able to run around and pick grapes. My allergies didn't enjoy the experience very much since most of the place was damp and musty, but we learned the story of the family that started it and talked about their financial statements and then played a few rounds of tag and hide-and-go-seek while walking through the aisles of barrels.
That night when I got back to Sevilla I had a "date night" with my Señora (Maria) and my hermanita (Maria pequeña). We went into el centro to a book store and I helped Maria pequeña pick out a book to buy. Then Maria pequeña decided she wanted to go to McDonald's for dinner. I'm still confused about the Spaniards obsession with McDonalds. People love it. I mean sure, back in the US there are some die-hard fans. But you have to FIGHT for a table in these places. And they're huge. I have yet to go into a McDonald's here that doesn't have a second or even third floor, and people don't take the food to go. They sit there, and eat it. It's MCDONALDS?! And it's always busy. You're guaranteed to have a line. And they always have 4 or 5 registers open. It's just insane. I don't understand it. I mean sure, I've been there a few times but it's been for a McFlurry... not for an actual meal (except for my first night in Sevilla since there was nothing else open, and once with Juanma (but I had ice cream, not food) and then again with las Marias...) but people are there all the ti me. Spaniards are there all the time. I just don't get it. We made it back home around 11:30 and I pretty much turned around and walked out the door to meet up with Juanma to join him, Juan, and Rafa for their trip to the casino. I spent the first hour or so being a good luck charm - and then eventually tried my luck at roulette. I left 5€ richer! Sadly, Juanma left more than 5€ poorer. But it's his own foolishness. He had made quite a profit and at the end of the night he decided to put it all on red. It ended up being 35, which is black. I won, since naturally I had to go against him and express that I had NO faith in him.
On Saturday morning I slept in until nearly 1. (We didn't get back from the casino until after 4 am.) Then I talked to Julie on Skype for a couple of hours and helped her prepare for their trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to see Dennis and Donna. After a brief Spanish refresher we discussed plans for her manicure so I'm confident they're having a great time. After our chat I went to the CIEE Study Center for an event we had planned with some students who were visiting Sevilla from Morocco. It was great. They played music, brought a ton of clothes we used to play dress-up in, made us some traditional desserts and teas, and held a mock-wedding. It was a ton of fun. We danced and clapped and ate sugary treats. Afterwards I was able to steal my care package from home (complete with running shoes, jelly beans, Swedish Fish and PEANUT BUTTER!!!!!!! Gracias a mi Familia!) from the reception office at CIEE (turns out we're not supposed to have our packages sent to the CIEE office... oops!) and then I had a surprise card from my dear friend Lauren. It was a great day for mail for me! Speaking of mail, I apologize to all of you who are anxiously awaiting a postcard. Many of you have probably given up all hope... rightfully so. I've been very disappointed with the postcard selection here in Sevilla, they are all the same and they really do nothing to capture how wonderful Sevilla really is. What's worse, the post office seems to be hidden and it's the best place to buy stamps. Rumor has it it's across from the Catedral. I think they're wrong... I'm buy the Catedral nearly every day and have yet to find it. However, there are plans for tomorrow to continue the great search for a post office!
On Sunday, Maria pequeña and I spent the morning listening to Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers and making up a dance to "Party in the USA." Later I went to church with Nikki and heard all about her great adventure in Malaga that was supposed to be a weekend trip to Birmingham, England. The church we went to was essentially on the other side of Sevilla so we had a nice walk through el centro, over to la Alameda (one of my favorite plazas in Sevilla) and down a small side street to a church called, "Encounter." It was a pretty good time. I have yet to be moved by the message but I can understand everything that is being said, and singing worship songs is a ton of fun and really entertaining. Most of the songs we've been singing are the same that we would sing at campus ministries back home so that makes it a bit easier to sing it in Spanish since I can somewhat anticipate what's going to come next. After church Nikki and I stopped for a McFlurry and ate it like the Spanish people would by sitting down at a table and talking for a hour while our ice cream sort of melted.
... And that was my wonderful weekend wandering Sevilla.
That night when I got back to Sevilla I had a "date night" with my Señora (Maria) and my hermanita (Maria pequeña). We went into el centro to a book store and I helped Maria pequeña pick out a book to buy. Then Maria pequeña decided she wanted to go to McDonald's for dinner. I'm still confused about the Spaniards obsession with McDonalds. People love it. I mean sure, back in the US there are some die-hard fans. But you have to FIGHT for a table in these places. And they're huge. I have yet to go into a McDonald's here that doesn't have a second or even third floor, and people don't take the food to go. They sit there, and eat it. It's MCDONALDS?! And it's always busy. You're guaranteed to have a line. And they always have 4 or 5 registers open. It's just insane. I don't understand it. I mean sure, I've been there a few times but it's been for a McFlurry... not for an actual meal (except for my first night in Sevilla since there was nothing else open, and once with Juanma (but I had ice cream, not food) and then again with las Marias...) but people are there all the ti me. Spaniards are there all the time. I just don't get it. We made it back home around 11:30 and I pretty much turned around and walked out the door to meet up with Juanma to join him, Juan, and Rafa for their trip to the casino. I spent the first hour or so being a good luck charm - and then eventually tried my luck at roulette. I left 5€ richer! Sadly, Juanma left more than 5€ poorer. But it's his own foolishness. He had made quite a profit and at the end of the night he decided to put it all on red. It ended up being 35, which is black. I won, since naturally I had to go against him and express that I had NO faith in him.
On Saturday morning I slept in until nearly 1. (We didn't get back from the casino until after 4 am.) Then I talked to Julie on Skype for a couple of hours and helped her prepare for their trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to see Dennis and Donna. After a brief Spanish refresher we discussed plans for her manicure so I'm confident they're having a great time. After our chat I went to the CIEE Study Center for an event we had planned with some students who were visiting Sevilla from Morocco. It was great. They played music, brought a ton of clothes we used to play dress-up in, made us some traditional desserts and teas, and held a mock-wedding. It was a ton of fun. We danced and clapped and ate sugary treats. Afterwards I was able to steal my care package from home (complete with running shoes, jelly beans, Swedish Fish and PEANUT BUTTER!!!!!!! Gracias a mi Familia!) from the reception office at CIEE (turns out we're not supposed to have our packages sent to the CIEE office... oops!) and then I had a surprise card from my dear friend Lauren. It was a great day for mail for me! Speaking of mail, I apologize to all of you who are anxiously awaiting a postcard. Many of you have probably given up all hope... rightfully so. I've been very disappointed with the postcard selection here in Sevilla, they are all the same and they really do nothing to capture how wonderful Sevilla really is. What's worse, the post office seems to be hidden and it's the best place to buy stamps. Rumor has it it's across from the Catedral. I think they're wrong... I'm buy the Catedral nearly every day and have yet to find it. However, there are plans for tomorrow to continue the great search for a post office!
On Sunday, Maria pequeña and I spent the morning listening to Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers and making up a dance to "Party in the USA." Later I went to church with Nikki and heard all about her great adventure in Malaga that was supposed to be a weekend trip to Birmingham, England. The church we went to was essentially on the other side of Sevilla so we had a nice walk through el centro, over to la Alameda (one of my favorite plazas in Sevilla) and down a small side street to a church called, "Encounter." It was a pretty good time. I have yet to be moved by the message but I can understand everything that is being said, and singing worship songs is a ton of fun and really entertaining. Most of the songs we've been singing are the same that we would sing at campus ministries back home so that makes it a bit easier to sing it in Spanish since I can somewhat anticipate what's going to come next. After church Nikki and I stopped for a McFlurry and ate it like the Spanish people would by sitting down at a table and talking for a hour while our ice cream sort of melted.
... And that was my wonderful weekend wandering Sevilla.
21 March 2010
Study! Speak Spanish! Be Sung to...?
well, now I'm once again a week behind - I guess that is what happens during midterms...
Spain = Mars?
On Saturday of last week my program took a day trip to the town of Aracena. We started the morning at las Minas de Rio Tinto which is essentially a mine in the middle of the hills/mountains which is currently being investigated/explored by NASA since the conditions are similar to what they're finding on Mars. (From what I've been able to gather NASA is convinced that if there can be life in España then there can be life on Mars... Not sure what that says about the Spaniards?) After the tour of the minas we went into the little town of Aracena where we had a delicious lunch of tapas and walked around the small little streets for about a hour before we went into la Gruta de las Maravillas - which is a huge cave. It was really cool. Sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures but if you're ever in Aracena you'll have to see it for yourself. It almost made the Mars theory seem more plausible though since many of the rock formations in the cave seem to be.. well just impossible to create and therefore must be from an alien life form.
Saturday night was Elysha's birthday so a big group of girls went out for Italian food. I have to admit it was a bit disappointing - Spanish dishes are pretty bland, and sadly, the Italian food made here seems to be similarly cursed :( But Nikki saved the day and had brought a box mix for cookies with her from Minnesota and baked a cookie-cake. Best dessert ever! (Okay, maybe not the best ever since I've had some pretty delicious desserts both here in Spain and back home but it was wonderful!)
¡estudiar en el sol!
Sunday marked the start of la Semana de Study. (The week of studying.) I had 3 midterms last week, 1 on Wednesday (marketing) and 2 on Thursday (Negotiations and International Finance). So I spent all day Sunday with Sarah sitting at Starbucks in Puerta Jerez out in the sun studying. We did the same after our morning class on Monday - only I branched away from the Starbucks when she had to leave for a different class at 3 and spent some time in the park by my house. Luckily we had beautiful weather last week and I was able to enjoy the 70 to 80 degree warmth! (Take that icky rain that was here for a MONTH AND A HALF!) I got a tiny bit sun-burned on Monday. Oops!
On Tuesday I had classes pretty much all day (from 11 to 4:30) and therefore missed out on the prime-sun-studying hours. But leaving la Facultad at 4:30 and being able to have some nice fresh air was amazing. Rumor has it the building we're in used to be a prison... I definitely believe it... and it some ways think it still might be. Tuesday night my friend Sarah and I studied at our Starbucks in Puerta Jerez and had a bit of trouble focusing. You see, there is this man who lives in Sevilla and well... we're not quite sure what he does. I've seen him almost every day since I've first been here. He just walks around Puerta Jerez, by la Fabrica (the main Universidad de Sevilla campus), and up Avenida San Fernando all the way to la Facultad. It's a bit creepy. He just walks up and down the stretch of the street... and does nothing else. He's always wearing some sort of "exercise" clothes/wind suit which is NOT a Spanish thing to wear at all... and making matters worse he has approached most of the girls studying here in Sevila and tried to start conversations and become our "friends". Well, I think it's entertaining and have begun to keep a tally of the number of times I see him. I have yet to talk to him (and don't plan on doing so any time soon) but I see him enough I feel like I know him well enough to write about him in my blog. He's taken a special liking to my friends Sarah and Nikki, and while Sarah and I were trying to study he walked by the Starbucks and saw her through the window and smiled and stared at her while he continued on his walk. About 10 minutes later he walked by again. We couldn't figure out how he possibly did that because he was walking in the same direction he had been earlier but we never saw him turn around. He's a rather odd man. Luckily our friend Armando was out in the area running (read: running along side/racing with the Tramvia- light rail) and came into Starbucks when he was done to walk back with us so we didn't have to have any interaction with "Walking Man." However we told Armando about him and now Armando wants to meet him...
Wednesday was a big day of speaking Spanish for me - I started with my marketing exam It seemed to be okay, I'll let you all know as soon as grades are up. (Okay, maybe not that soon since my posts seem to be about a week off but soon-enough!) After my exam I had to head down to the CIEE Study Center to meet with one of my program directors Virginia to talk about my university class (normally referred to as mi clase horible). Since I was able to meet with my old professor (I now have new one since we're doing a new topic...?) last week after the awful exam I've been feeling a lot better (since I think I know now what exactly I'm supposed to be doing for the class.) and talking with Virginia helped a lot. Actually, talking with Virginia always helps - it's like it's her job to make us feel better/less overwhelmed about being in Spain or something :) Anyways, while I was there I also talked to Antonio about potentially accessing the wifi network at la Facultad. So quite a bit of Spanish speaking there. Then I went back to la Facultad (about a 20 minute walk) to meet with my new professor of la clase horible. After waiting for a good 20 minutes (oh how the since of "time" changes from culture to culture) I finally got to talk to my new professor. Turns out (as I had heard through the grapevine aka through Virginia) he is the husband of the professor of my Negotiations class. While he and I were talking about how the class was going for me and he was answering a few of my questions from the lecture the day before my Negotiations professor came in. Next thing I knew I had been in his office for more than a hour and a half and talked about everything from whose class was better (her's or his.), her love of the English language, their sons, and how they are going to plot against one another and give me the answers to each others exams. After that it was time for more studying - only I was by myself and ending up talking to some Spanish people trying to get into the bathroom at Starbucks (you have to use a code that comes from your receipt).. so YAY FOR SPEAKING SPANISH!
Exams and Embarrassments.
Thursday was quite possibly one of my longest days in Spain. Okay, that isn't entirely true. I mean Barcelona had me waking up at normal morning hours and staying up until 5 in the morning the next day... and really, I woke up at 7 am on Thursday and was in bed by 12:30 am but it FELT a LOT longer. The time span from 9:30 am (I went to the Facultad early to study some more) until 4-ish pm truly felt never-ending. I guess that's what happens when you have 3 classes with no reprieve. My first midterm went pretty well. It was a lot longer than I anticipated but I felt like it went okay. THEN I went to mi clase horible. Now I was feeling pretty good about it since my meeting with the professor went so well the day before but as always, being the only American in the room I get a little intimidated. I made the mistake of telling my professor this the day before, when I also mentioned that I felt as if I understood everything he said in class but that it was very difficult for me to follow what was going on when he would ask a question to one of the students and they would then have a little discussion. Not only is it hard to hear them since it's a fairly big lecture hall and they usually talk pretty quietly but they all speak rapid-fire Andalusian Spanish so I really don't stand a chance. At one point the Professor had a really awesome side-conversation going (I know it was awesome because the entire class broke into laughter numerous times throughout the few minutes of dialogue.) and decided he should check in with me to see if I understood what was being said. So from across the room he said, "Kassandra, entiendes?" (Kassandra do you understand?) And I replied, "No. As you know between the volume and the accent it's much harder to understand." (Only don't worry, I said it in Spanish.) So then he explained that this student he was talking to had a song he wanted to sing (I'm assuming it was in some way related to something the professor had mentioned earlier that I just completely missed)... so I asked if he would be singing to the professor or to the class, and the student stood up and said that instead of singing to the professor he wanted to sing it to me... so I told him to sing... and He Did. Now, naturally it was a bit embarrassing. I believe my skin grew to a bright red color as the song went on considering I had no idea what he was singing and the entire class (including the professor) was laughing throughout all of it. At the end of the class I asked the professor if he could explain the song to me... he said it was better that I didn't know. And, then I went off to take my Finance exam.
Finally at approximately 4pm I was done with my exams and able to step outside of the Prison and into the warm Sevilla sun. That night to celebrate I went to a driving range and putting green with Juanma, Juan and Juan y Medio (aka Los Juanes)... I'm not sure how that really a celebration considering they spent most of the night making fun of me but it was nice to be outside.
... okay, so I haven't quite caught up to speed but it's now officially Monday and I have class in 8.5 hours so it's off to bed for me!
Stories about my weekend are on the way! Including: Company visit, Friday night date with the Marias, sleep-in Saturday and the Moroccans, and finally Sunday's Dance-a-thon! Get excited!!!
Spain = Mars?
On Saturday of last week my program took a day trip to the town of Aracena. We started the morning at las Minas de Rio Tinto which is essentially a mine in the middle of the hills/mountains which is currently being investigated/explored by NASA since the conditions are similar to what they're finding on Mars. (From what I've been able to gather NASA is convinced that if there can be life in España then there can be life on Mars... Not sure what that says about the Spaniards?) After the tour of the minas we went into the little town of Aracena where we had a delicious lunch of tapas and walked around the small little streets for about a hour before we went into la Gruta de las Maravillas - which is a huge cave. It was really cool. Sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures but if you're ever in Aracena you'll have to see it for yourself. It almost made the Mars theory seem more plausible though since many of the rock formations in the cave seem to be.. well just impossible to create and therefore must be from an alien life form.
Saturday night was Elysha's birthday so a big group of girls went out for Italian food. I have to admit it was a bit disappointing - Spanish dishes are pretty bland, and sadly, the Italian food made here seems to be similarly cursed :( But Nikki saved the day and had brought a box mix for cookies with her from Minnesota and baked a cookie-cake. Best dessert ever! (Okay, maybe not the best ever since I've had some pretty delicious desserts both here in Spain and back home but it was wonderful!)
¡estudiar en el sol!
Sunday marked the start of la Semana de Study. (The week of studying.) I had 3 midterms last week, 1 on Wednesday (marketing) and 2 on Thursday (Negotiations and International Finance). So I spent all day Sunday with Sarah sitting at Starbucks in Puerta Jerez out in the sun studying. We did the same after our morning class on Monday - only I branched away from the Starbucks when she had to leave for a different class at 3 and spent some time in the park by my house. Luckily we had beautiful weather last week and I was able to enjoy the 70 to 80 degree warmth! (Take that icky rain that was here for a MONTH AND A HALF!) I got a tiny bit sun-burned on Monday. Oops!
On Tuesday I had classes pretty much all day (from 11 to 4:30) and therefore missed out on the prime-sun-studying hours. But leaving la Facultad at 4:30 and being able to have some nice fresh air was amazing. Rumor has it the building we're in used to be a prison... I definitely believe it... and it some ways think it still might be. Tuesday night my friend Sarah and I studied at our Starbucks in Puerta Jerez and had a bit of trouble focusing. You see, there is this man who lives in Sevilla and well... we're not quite sure what he does. I've seen him almost every day since I've first been here. He just walks around Puerta Jerez, by la Fabrica (the main Universidad de Sevilla campus), and up Avenida San Fernando all the way to la Facultad. It's a bit creepy. He just walks up and down the stretch of the street... and does nothing else. He's always wearing some sort of "exercise" clothes/wind suit which is NOT a Spanish thing to wear at all... and making matters worse he has approached most of the girls studying here in Sevila and tried to start conversations and become our "friends". Well, I think it's entertaining and have begun to keep a tally of the number of times I see him. I have yet to talk to him (and don't plan on doing so any time soon) but I see him enough I feel like I know him well enough to write about him in my blog. He's taken a special liking to my friends Sarah and Nikki, and while Sarah and I were trying to study he walked by the Starbucks and saw her through the window and smiled and stared at her while he continued on his walk. About 10 minutes later he walked by again. We couldn't figure out how he possibly did that because he was walking in the same direction he had been earlier but we never saw him turn around. He's a rather odd man. Luckily our friend Armando was out in the area running (read: running along side/racing with the Tramvia- light rail) and came into Starbucks when he was done to walk back with us so we didn't have to have any interaction with "Walking Man." However we told Armando about him and now Armando wants to meet him...
Wednesday was a big day of speaking Spanish for me - I started with my marketing exam It seemed to be okay, I'll let you all know as soon as grades are up. (Okay, maybe not that soon since my posts seem to be about a week off but soon-enough!) After my exam I had to head down to the CIEE Study Center to meet with one of my program directors Virginia to talk about my university class (normally referred to as mi clase horible). Since I was able to meet with my old professor (I now have new one since we're doing a new topic...?) last week after the awful exam I've been feeling a lot better (since I think I know now what exactly I'm supposed to be doing for the class.) and talking with Virginia helped a lot. Actually, talking with Virginia always helps - it's like it's her job to make us feel better/less overwhelmed about being in Spain or something :) Anyways, while I was there I also talked to Antonio about potentially accessing the wifi network at la Facultad. So quite a bit of Spanish speaking there. Then I went back to la Facultad (about a 20 minute walk) to meet with my new professor of la clase horible. After waiting for a good 20 minutes (oh how the since of "time" changes from culture to culture) I finally got to talk to my new professor. Turns out (as I had heard through the grapevine aka through Virginia) he is the husband of the professor of my Negotiations class. While he and I were talking about how the class was going for me and he was answering a few of my questions from the lecture the day before my Negotiations professor came in. Next thing I knew I had been in his office for more than a hour and a half and talked about everything from whose class was better (her's or his.), her love of the English language, their sons, and how they are going to plot against one another and give me the answers to each others exams. After that it was time for more studying - only I was by myself and ending up talking to some Spanish people trying to get into the bathroom at Starbucks (you have to use a code that comes from your receipt).. so YAY FOR SPEAKING SPANISH!
Exams and Embarrassments.
Thursday was quite possibly one of my longest days in Spain. Okay, that isn't entirely true. I mean Barcelona had me waking up at normal morning hours and staying up until 5 in the morning the next day... and really, I woke up at 7 am on Thursday and was in bed by 12:30 am but it FELT a LOT longer. The time span from 9:30 am (I went to the Facultad early to study some more) until 4-ish pm truly felt never-ending. I guess that's what happens when you have 3 classes with no reprieve. My first midterm went pretty well. It was a lot longer than I anticipated but I felt like it went okay. THEN I went to mi clase horible. Now I was feeling pretty good about it since my meeting with the professor went so well the day before but as always, being the only American in the room I get a little intimidated. I made the mistake of telling my professor this the day before, when I also mentioned that I felt as if I understood everything he said in class but that it was very difficult for me to follow what was going on when he would ask a question to one of the students and they would then have a little discussion. Not only is it hard to hear them since it's a fairly big lecture hall and they usually talk pretty quietly but they all speak rapid-fire Andalusian Spanish so I really don't stand a chance. At one point the Professor had a really awesome side-conversation going (I know it was awesome because the entire class broke into laughter numerous times throughout the few minutes of dialogue.) and decided he should check in with me to see if I understood what was being said. So from across the room he said, "Kassandra, entiendes?" (Kassandra do you understand?) And I replied, "No. As you know between the volume and the accent it's much harder to understand." (Only don't worry, I said it in Spanish.) So then he explained that this student he was talking to had a song he wanted to sing (I'm assuming it was in some way related to something the professor had mentioned earlier that I just completely missed)... so I asked if he would be singing to the professor or to the class, and the student stood up and said that instead of singing to the professor he wanted to sing it to me... so I told him to sing... and He Did. Now, naturally it was a bit embarrassing. I believe my skin grew to a bright red color as the song went on considering I had no idea what he was singing and the entire class (including the professor) was laughing throughout all of it. At the end of the class I asked the professor if he could explain the song to me... he said it was better that I didn't know. And, then I went off to take my Finance exam.
Finally at approximately 4pm I was done with my exams and able to step outside of the Prison and into the warm Sevilla sun. That night to celebrate I went to a driving range and putting green with Juanma, Juan and Juan y Medio (aka Los Juanes)... I'm not sure how that really a celebration considering they spent most of the night making fun of me but it was nice to be outside.
... okay, so I haven't quite caught up to speed but it's now officially Monday and I have class in 8.5 hours so it's off to bed for me!
Stories about my weekend are on the way! Including: Company visit, Friday night date with the Marias, sleep-in Saturday and the Moroccans, and finally Sunday's Dance-a-thon! Get excited!!!
07 March 2010
Almost Three Weeks of Stories from Sevilla (and other areas of Spain)...
Well... below I've tried to summarize everything that has happened since where my last post left off. I apologized for the length, the babbling, the divergences, and well, just the lack of readability. More or less you should just give up now before you feel committed to read all of it.
¡19 DAYS AGO!
IF I remember correctly on Tuesday nearly three-weeks ago, was a whirlwind of classes and homework and being completely overwhelmed and frustrated with my clase horible. So nothing too exciting there.
Baloncesto
On Wednesday, I went to a basketball game with Juanma. He's a referee and I was able to tag along. The game was in the city of Écija, which was a good hour and a half (with all of the taxi stops Juanma made on the way) outside of Sevilla. We carpooled with the two other refs Bélen (which means Bethlehem) and Txime (pretty sure I spelt that wrong... I guess that's the price he has the pay though when your family insists on naming you something like "Juan" or "José" or well... another variation of something ridiculously common and Spanish.) The car ride was quite an experience - I understood about 70% of what was said, which everyone else seemed to find entertaining. The "pop-quizzes" that happened when someone would stop in the middle of a conversation and ask me what they just said to see if I was listening/paying attention were a ton of fun... Not. The game itself was more or a less 2 hours of vocabulary. Luckily the teams weren't very good so it went pretty slow which was a huge benefit for me since I was trying to learn Spanish rules and the language.
Viaje a Barcelona
On Thursday night my friend Calli and I headed north to Barcelona. My wonderful taxista Juanma brought us to the airport (and carried my bright pink bag through the terminal- sadly I did not get a picture...). Our flight was supposed to leave a little after 9 pm but we ended up being delayed until 11-ish and arrived in Barcelona around 12:30-ish. After trying to figure out the bus into the city from the airport and then the metro to our hostel it was close to 4 am when we finally were able to lay down to sleep.
We met with my best friend Laura and Calli's best friend Kristen at 10 am for coffee and croissants. Then we had what felt like a whirl-wind tour of the entire city. We took pictures of the Arc de Triomf:
Then walked through the Parque de la Ciudad (where I met my pet elephant):
Next we saw where Laura and Kristen go to school, ate lunch in Barrio Born (where we wear entertained by street musicians play songs by the Eagles), admired La Sagrada Familia: (we skipped the tour because the church isn't complete and it was 12€)
... and then explored Parc Guell.
After all of that Calli and I went back to the hostel to change clothes and start Phase II. That started with an amazing dinner of excellent tapas and a fantastic light show at the fountain of Montjuic, and my first experience in a disco... Let's just say there is a reason I've been avoiding it and will continue to do so.
On Saturday we took a train to Montserrat.
(This was probably my favorite part of the weekend, especially since Kristen brought us all Dunkin Donuts coffee!)
Montserrat is a beautiful mountain just outside of the city and it is home to the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat. It was absolutely beautiful. A wonderful church built in the early 1900's... which made it even more amazing since it was a a breath of fresh air from the many other churches we've been walking around, touring, and worshiping in.
That night we meet up with a whole bunch of British people, I got to watch curling and sing "O Canada" and witnessed a trans-sexual prostitute get asked "How much?" (... in English.)
Sunday was study day – Laura and I spent nearly six hours at Starbucks:
Then I played in the sand on the beach..
After that Calli and I adventured on our own through the streets of Barcelona to find a place to eat for dinner. Our walk was fantastic! We heard a man singing beautiful opera songs in the middle of a plaza, spun around on the wet stones in the street, and managed to find our way to the restaurant without getting lost! (Even though we had Juanma on the phone doubting our intelligence every step of the way.) Our dinner was fantastic! We went to a place suggested by the wonderful Mr. Rick Steves- (Many Thanks to D&D for the wonderful guide book!).
It was a Mediterranean restaurant and I got to eat Pizza Fondue! It was delicious. A fondue pot full of melted cheese and tomatoes and then I had little pizza-crust-pita-type chips to dip into the sauce. Yummm :) After dinner Calli and I hung out on the beach with the other people that were staying in our hostel. We had quite the mix. 3 Australians, an Irish-man and his French girlfriend, a guy from Czech, someone from Upstate New York, and a guy from Chicago who was studying in Versailles.
Our last day was started by eating a semi-real breakfast of fried eggs with bacon and toast :) (I ate the whites... Calli ate the yolks since I'm afraid of them.) After that we visited the church, Santa Maria del Mar and the cathedral of Barcelona
And then I spent the rest of the day on the beach with Laur studying:
Tuesday’s return to Sevilla was far from pleasant. Thank you to some delightful errors on my plane ticket I got stuck in Barcelona until 3pm on Tuesday afternoon. That meant I spent more than 10 hours in glorious BCN since my original departure time was set for 7 am. On the bright side I was able to have an extended stay in Barcelona.
Once again Juanma came to the rescue and picked me up from the airport – in an attempt to return his kindness I joined him to pick up his new suits from El Cortes Ingles… since we were shopping I really won both rounds :)
The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming! …Actually, the British Came.
Last Wednesday night Juanma and I adventured back to my 2nd home aka the Sevilla Airport (SVQ) to pick up Laura Poczatek and her friend Jamie Lane for them to begin their wonderful Spring Break adventures in Spain! Sadly, it was rainy pretty much all weekend so their Spring Break was far from warm and sunny and they returned to London just as pale as they were when they left. The pick-up at baggage claim was rather amusing. Juanma asked why I didn’t make a sign to welcome them (since that’s what they do in the movie “Love Actually”). I told him it was because Sevilla doesn’t sell poster board and that the best signs were made from poster board. That “excuse” wasn’t good enough. So off we went using the back of my lecture notes and an array of pens and highlighters that were floating in my purse to write, “LP y Jamie: ¡Bienvenidas a Sevilla!” After “arts & crafts” Juanma and I played a game of: “Guess Where They’re From!?” and we said “Sevilliano” o “Extranjero” for each person who walked through the door from arrivals into baggage claim… My judgment was way off and I lost, but once LP & Jamie came I got 2 points!
On Thursday I had to spend the day in boring classes and LP & JL explored La Catedral. Afterwards we walked through El Centro and met up with Juanma and Juan y Medio at Plaza de España for a tour of the plaza and Parque Maria Luisa. Between LP & JL’s audition video for Amazing Race, playground equipment, mud puddles, singing Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” to prove to our Spanish friends that the rain was NOT the angels crying in pain because of our singing), scaling a small mountain to enter the gazebo instead of just using the stairs, and my “translator” job it was quite the night.
Our tour guides:
From there I dropped LP & JL off at a restaurant for dinner, and went to eat with mi familia… then for dessert we joined forces for a FREE FLAMENCO show at La Carboneria (I dragged my roommate Kendra along for the fun). Now the last time I saw a Flamenco show I nearly feel asleep – it was on our second day in Sevilla and I was still jet-lagged and the day’s adventures of “Gymkhana por los Guias” (A scavenger that required us to find various CIEE staff members in different locations in Sevilla) left me dozing off to the guitara in the dark patio we were sitting in. That was definitely NOT an option in La Carboneria. First off, the place is packed every night. Secondly, it’s essentially a bar with a stage and benches…. There are a ton of locals that go making it a very loud and smoking environment. Thirdly, a true flamenco seems to consist of three phases, the guitar, the guitar and singing, and then the guitar, singing, and dancing. You can most definitely NOT sleep or in anyway really relax through the singing and dancing portions. The dancing is a march/tap type routine and the singing… well, it’s unique and sadly the voices of men that I have heard sing for Flamenco shows have made me want to cry (I found out who was making it rain so much!) – and not in a good/happy way that the Dzubay men and or really good contestants on American Idol and performers on Broadway make me want to… but instead in the bad way. After Flamenco we walked to the river and ate churros con chocolate for dessert. Yum.
Friday was a day for firsts – my first trip to Real Alcazar (the Royal Palace of Sevilla).
Alcazar was amazing, and since my first visit I’ve already returned 3 times. (Since I’m a “student” at the Universidad de Sevilla I’m technically considered a “resident” of the city and therefore have free admission!) Honestly I have yet to set the entire palace though. On our first visit, which was supposed to serve as my official tour (complete with commentary by Rick Steve’s) but LP & JL needed to use the bathroom, so Nikki and I decided we were going to wait in the gardens and play with the ducks. (I’m going to try to upload a video of my conversations with the ducks).
While LP & JL struggled with their lack of Spanish vocabulary and took nearly a hour and a half to find, use and eventually return from the bathrooms, Nikki and I made friends with a peacock:
And then climbed a tree, walked on a ledge that gave a pretty good view of the building I live in, and ran into a girl who I went to high school with (Taylor Esau). Since Nikki and I got bored with the whole “waiting” thing it took us awhile to actually find LP & JL but we did it! That night JL & LP took it easy and watch Friends in their hostel. (I was supposed to join in the fun of Central Perk but due to some frustrations with the dinner schedule of mi familia I ended up missing out – luckily Juanma took mercy on me and invited me and my friend Nikki over to his house to eat pizza and play air hockey/ping-pong/pool/darts and poker. Sadly I lost 3€ but I got free pizza and 2 new Spanish friends, Jamie y Rafa. I was also able to meet 2 of Juanma’s sisters and am working on plans to make them become my intercambio instead of him since they both speak English and have more clothing in my size than he does!
Saturday started slowly and we didn’t actually get moving until 1 in the afternoon. We started a bit earlier at Starbucks where I studied for my horrible exam that I had the next week and the girls ate some muffins. After that we separated for lunch so I could eat with la familia and then got back together to visit El Museo de Bellas Artes Now, for any of you reading this- if you decide to studying and/or live abroad for awhile definitely have friends of yours who have absolutely no knowledge of the language and/or culture come to visit you. It’s the best – it forces you to not only learn enough about it to share it with them but it encourages you to go visit all the silly touristy things you might not actually do. For example, El Museo de Bellas Artes. It’s the THIRD MOST IMPORTANT in Spain and while I had been meaning to visit I never actually went (probably because it’s a bit far away) until LP & JL came – now I’m planning on going again and again (Thank you CIEE/Universidad de Sevilla for free admission!). We went a little bit later in the afternoon than we would have liked to and were therefore only able to see a the first set of rooms which all contained variations of paintings/statues of the Nativity, the Virgin, Jesus as a Child, and some saints but it was wonderful. Afterwards we did a little bit of shopping and I bought a pretty cute purse for 5€. That night after I returned home for dinner I went back to the hostel and hung out with JL & LP. JL wanted dessert so we ran across the street to a Starbucks (How American of us!) and arrived at 10:56 (they close at 11 so just in the knick of time!). Well, after spending a few minutes entirely amused at JL & LP’s feeble attempts to order in Spanish I stepped up and took over. The guy at the counter then wanted to know what I wanted which was nothing since coffee late at night a bad idea, I explained I was only along to serve as a translator for my silly British friend. Somewhere in the process of ordering we forgot to mention that LP didn’t want whipped cream on her Frappuccino. So when she got it I asked the guy for an empty cup we could use to scrape the whipped cream off. Something must have gotten lost in my translation-abilities though because next thing I knew he took her frappuccino and began flicking the cup over the sink to get rid of the whipped cream. Now that would have been perfect but he didn’t stop there. Next, he grabbed a Grande sized cup and took out the whipped cream and began filling it. I tried asking what he was doing but he just responded with “No preocupes.” (Don’t worry.) Naturally it made me worry even more. The first can of whipped cream ran out about half-way through filling the cup so he grabbed another and topped it off. Then he grabbed caramel and squeezed about half the bottle on top of the whipped cream, and asked if I wanted chocolate. I said no. Next thing I knew, I had a huge cup of free whipped cream and was getting “shooed” out the door so they could close. I took about 8 bites and that was all I could stand.
On Sunday we walked along the river, saw el Torro del Oro (Golden Tower), toured la Plaza del Torro (Bull Ring), had lunch in Alameda, and the best orange juice and desserts ever, and then called our taxi (aka Juanma) and adventured back to the airport to say goodbye. The time at the airport was entertaining as always. We argued with Juanma, laughed at him speaking English (in all fairness he started it by laughing at our attempts to speak Spanish), had an arm-wrestling contest (I BEAT JL!) and explored YouTube- I shared The First Semester of Spanish Love Song and LP & JL shared Charlie the Unicorn (episode 2 since it includes some very necessary Spanish vocab.) Finally we had to say Farewell and sent the girls back to the land of Fish & Chips and ___ .
Comfort Food: KitKat McFlurry.
On Monday, except for the 2 hours I spent walking to/from and attending a Bible study, I spent all of my free time studying for the exam on Tuesday in mi clase horible. On Tuesday I took the exam and well, it was horible. It was based on the all of the material we’ve learned so far and consisted of 10 multiple choice questions. Now considering I’m the only American in the class we’ve gone through everything rather quickly, and in all honesty, I’m not quite sure I had all of the material that the test covered. BUT I studied extremely hard and felt okay about it… Okay, I felt extremely nervous the night before but after calling Juanma freaking out the night before the exam and listening to his “father-like” advice and attempts to calm me, I decided I really did know the material and since my professor was going to take mercy on me for my disadvantage of being a foreigner and let me use my dictionary I really did feel okay. Unfortunately, the test didn’t go very well for me. We were given the 10 questions on a piece of paper (which had ridiculously small font) and had 10 minutes to read all of the questions and answer them. Then we were shown all of the questions on a Powerpoint and had to use our remotes to enter our answer for each question. Honestly I think I would have done fine if I had more time, but I was only able to read the first 7 questions in the 10 minutes. Making matters worse I tried to read the last 3 questions in the time that each was up the screen and depended on “Female Intuition”… Not my best plan. Turns out, Spanish exams work like the SATs and you lose a quarter of a point for each incorrect answer… so with the 3 questions I guessed on, and another question that I got wrong I failed the exam. Oh well…? I talked to the professor immediately after and she told me not to worry, that she had confidence in my Spanish abilities and felt that if not for the time issues I would have been more than fine… Hopefully the next one will go better.
After my exam on Tuesday I enjoyed some sunshine in a park with Sarah, and then thought I was going to get a celebratory McFlurry with Juanma to comfort my broken heart from my awful exam. Well, we started on our way to McDonalds (with Kendra in tow) and ended up making a detour to help Juanma’s best friend Juan and his two business partners Miguel and Laura pick out and transport furniture for their new office. We ended up staying there until it closed without buying anything – I tried making an “executive decision” but since I’m not actually a part of the business I wasn’t taken very seriously. By this point McDonald’s was closed and we ended up getting dinner on the other side of the river from where I live at a delicious place I had never been to before. It was great – delicious food I rarely get to eat (since my Señora seems to only know how to cook frozen meals/items and salads with lettuce, cabbage, and corn) and I made more Spanish “friends.”
Wednesday marked Try 2 for my comfort-McFlurry but instead it resulted in another trip to Ikea and 3 hours of following instructions to put everything together. In all honesty I only put two table legs together and then bothered Laura with questions about what I should do with my family when they come to visit (since I had received about a trillion e-mails earlier that day/week asking what the plan was) and then asked the group for grammar-help with the note I was writing to my professor about my exam (asking for more time on the next one.) The night ended with a cardboard fight using Ikea boxes as weapons.
On Thursday I had a day full of classes, studied and read my Bible at Starbucks (my sanctuary) and went on a hunt for sunglasses with Nikki. We failed. Well, she failed, I still have Mama Juve’s glasses that I borrowed the summer after my freshman year of college so I’m set!
Money and Monkeys!
On Friday my International Finance class took a Field Trip to the self-autonomous British territory of Gibraltar. We visited the European Finance Center of Gibraltar and I’m completely confused as to how exactly Gibraltar economically survives. After our visit we had a few hours of free time to see the sights – aka panoramas of the Mediterranean Sea, the coast of Morocco along the horizon (only 16 km away) and the south of Spain which surrounds the peninsula, a cave, and MONKEYS. Because we were short on time we took a tour van up the mountain to hit each site and end up at the monkeys. Our driver’s name was Alaster, and is Irish by heritage and has lived in Gibraltar his entire life. Our tour was great – and his commentary about everything was even better. Plus, he had a pocketful of peanuts he used to get the monkeys to climb on all of our heads so that made it a lot more fun. After we returned to Seville, Nikki and I join Juanma, Juan y Juan y Medio for the Long Sought after McFlurry! After going through the McAuto we went to Juanma’s to eat, play darts, ping-pong, air-hockey, and SceneIt (in Spanish… not EASY at ALL!)
…. And NOW I’m only 2 days behind! BUT it’s late and I need to get some sleep so I’ll have to write about Saturday in Aracena, and Sunny Sunday tomorrow!
¡19 DAYS AGO!
IF I remember correctly on Tuesday nearly three-weeks ago, was a whirlwind of classes and homework and being completely overwhelmed and frustrated with my clase horible. So nothing too exciting there.
Baloncesto
On Wednesday, I went to a basketball game with Juanma. He's a referee and I was able to tag along. The game was in the city of Écija, which was a good hour and a half (with all of the taxi stops Juanma made on the way) outside of Sevilla. We carpooled with the two other refs Bélen (which means Bethlehem) and Txime (pretty sure I spelt that wrong... I guess that's the price he has the pay though when your family insists on naming you something like "Juan" or "José" or well... another variation of something ridiculously common and Spanish.) The car ride was quite an experience - I understood about 70% of what was said, which everyone else seemed to find entertaining. The "pop-quizzes" that happened when someone would stop in the middle of a conversation and ask me what they just said to see if I was listening/paying attention were a ton of fun... Not. The game itself was more or a less 2 hours of vocabulary. Luckily the teams weren't very good so it went pretty slow which was a huge benefit for me since I was trying to learn Spanish rules and the language.
Viaje a Barcelona
On Thursday night my friend Calli and I headed north to Barcelona. My wonderful taxista Juanma brought us to the airport (and carried my bright pink bag through the terminal- sadly I did not get a picture...). Our flight was supposed to leave a little after 9 pm but we ended up being delayed until 11-ish and arrived in Barcelona around 12:30-ish. After trying to figure out the bus into the city from the airport and then the metro to our hostel it was close to 4 am when we finally were able to lay down to sleep.
We met with my best friend Laura and Calli's best friend Kristen at 10 am for coffee and croissants. Then we had what felt like a whirl-wind tour of the entire city. We took pictures of the Arc de Triomf:
Then walked through the Parque de la Ciudad (where I met my pet elephant):
Next we saw where Laura and Kristen go to school, ate lunch in Barrio Born (where we wear entertained by street musicians play songs by the Eagles), admired La Sagrada Familia: (we skipped the tour because the church isn't complete and it was 12€)
... and then explored Parc Guell.
After all of that Calli and I went back to the hostel to change clothes and start Phase II. That started with an amazing dinner of excellent tapas and a fantastic light show at the fountain of Montjuic, and my first experience in a disco... Let's just say there is a reason I've been avoiding it and will continue to do so.
On Saturday we took a train to Montserrat.
(This was probably my favorite part of the weekend, especially since Kristen brought us all Dunkin Donuts coffee!)
Montserrat is a beautiful mountain just outside of the city and it is home to the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de Montserrat. It was absolutely beautiful. A wonderful church built in the early 1900's... which made it even more amazing since it was a a breath of fresh air from the many other churches we've been walking around, touring, and worshiping in.
That night we meet up with a whole bunch of British people, I got to watch curling and sing "O Canada" and witnessed a trans-sexual prostitute get asked "How much?" (... in English.)
Sunday was study day – Laura and I spent nearly six hours at Starbucks:
Then I played in the sand on the beach..
After that Calli and I adventured on our own through the streets of Barcelona to find a place to eat for dinner. Our walk was fantastic! We heard a man singing beautiful opera songs in the middle of a plaza, spun around on the wet stones in the street, and managed to find our way to the restaurant without getting lost! (Even though we had Juanma on the phone doubting our intelligence every step of the way.) Our dinner was fantastic! We went to a place suggested by the wonderful Mr. Rick Steves- (Many Thanks to D&D for the wonderful guide book!).
It was a Mediterranean restaurant and I got to eat Pizza Fondue! It was delicious. A fondue pot full of melted cheese and tomatoes and then I had little pizza-crust-pita-type chips to dip into the sauce. Yummm :) After dinner Calli and I hung out on the beach with the other people that were staying in our hostel. We had quite the mix. 3 Australians, an Irish-man and his French girlfriend, a guy from Czech, someone from Upstate New York, and a guy from Chicago who was studying in Versailles.
Our last day was started by eating a semi-real breakfast of fried eggs with bacon and toast :) (I ate the whites... Calli ate the yolks since I'm afraid of them.) After that we visited the church, Santa Maria del Mar and the cathedral of Barcelona
And then I spent the rest of the day on the beach with Laur studying:
Tuesday’s return to Sevilla was far from pleasant. Thank you to some delightful errors on my plane ticket I got stuck in Barcelona until 3pm on Tuesday afternoon. That meant I spent more than 10 hours in glorious BCN since my original departure time was set for 7 am. On the bright side I was able to have an extended stay in Barcelona.
Once again Juanma came to the rescue and picked me up from the airport – in an attempt to return his kindness I joined him to pick up his new suits from El Cortes Ingles… since we were shopping I really won both rounds :)
The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming! …Actually, the British Came.
Last Wednesday night Juanma and I adventured back to my 2nd home aka the Sevilla Airport (SVQ) to pick up Laura Poczatek and her friend Jamie Lane for them to begin their wonderful Spring Break adventures in Spain! Sadly, it was rainy pretty much all weekend so their Spring Break was far from warm and sunny and they returned to London just as pale as they were when they left. The pick-up at baggage claim was rather amusing. Juanma asked why I didn’t make a sign to welcome them (since that’s what they do in the movie “Love Actually”). I told him it was because Sevilla doesn’t sell poster board and that the best signs were made from poster board. That “excuse” wasn’t good enough. So off we went using the back of my lecture notes and an array of pens and highlighters that were floating in my purse to write, “LP y Jamie: ¡Bienvenidas a Sevilla!” After “arts & crafts” Juanma and I played a game of: “Guess Where They’re From!?” and we said “Sevilliano” o “Extranjero” for each person who walked through the door from arrivals into baggage claim… My judgment was way off and I lost, but once LP & Jamie came I got 2 points!
On Thursday I had to spend the day in boring classes and LP & JL explored La Catedral. Afterwards we walked through El Centro and met up with Juanma and Juan y Medio at Plaza de España for a tour of the plaza and Parque Maria Luisa. Between LP & JL’s audition video for Amazing Race, playground equipment, mud puddles, singing Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” to prove to our Spanish friends that the rain was NOT the angels crying in pain because of our singing), scaling a small mountain to enter the gazebo instead of just using the stairs, and my “translator” job it was quite the night.
Our tour guides:
From there I dropped LP & JL off at a restaurant for dinner, and went to eat with mi familia… then for dessert we joined forces for a FREE FLAMENCO show at La Carboneria (I dragged my roommate Kendra along for the fun). Now the last time I saw a Flamenco show I nearly feel asleep – it was on our second day in Sevilla and I was still jet-lagged and the day’s adventures of “Gymkhana por los Guias” (A scavenger that required us to find various CIEE staff members in different locations in Sevilla) left me dozing off to the guitara in the dark patio we were sitting in. That was definitely NOT an option in La Carboneria. First off, the place is packed every night. Secondly, it’s essentially a bar with a stage and benches…. There are a ton of locals that go making it a very loud and smoking environment. Thirdly, a true flamenco seems to consist of three phases, the guitar, the guitar and singing, and then the guitar, singing, and dancing. You can most definitely NOT sleep or in anyway really relax through the singing and dancing portions. The dancing is a march/tap type routine and the singing… well, it’s unique and sadly the voices of men that I have heard sing for Flamenco shows have made me want to cry (I found out who was making it rain so much!) – and not in a good/happy way that the Dzubay men and or really good contestants on American Idol and performers on Broadway make me want to… but instead in the bad way. After Flamenco we walked to the river and ate churros con chocolate for dessert. Yum.
Friday was a day for firsts – my first trip to Real Alcazar (the Royal Palace of Sevilla).
Alcazar was amazing, and since my first visit I’ve already returned 3 times. (Since I’m a “student” at the Universidad de Sevilla I’m technically considered a “resident” of the city and therefore have free admission!) Honestly I have yet to set the entire palace though. On our first visit, which was supposed to serve as my official tour (complete with commentary by Rick Steve’s) but LP & JL needed to use the bathroom, so Nikki and I decided we were going to wait in the gardens and play with the ducks. (I’m going to try to upload a video of my conversations with the ducks).
While LP & JL struggled with their lack of Spanish vocabulary and took nearly a hour and a half to find, use and eventually return from the bathrooms, Nikki and I made friends with a peacock:
And then climbed a tree, walked on a ledge that gave a pretty good view of the building I live in, and ran into a girl who I went to high school with (Taylor Esau). Since Nikki and I got bored with the whole “waiting” thing it took us awhile to actually find LP & JL but we did it! That night JL & LP took it easy and watch Friends in their hostel. (I was supposed to join in the fun of Central Perk but due to some frustrations with the dinner schedule of mi familia I ended up missing out – luckily Juanma took mercy on me and invited me and my friend Nikki over to his house to eat pizza and play air hockey/ping-pong/pool/darts and poker. Sadly I lost 3€ but I got free pizza and 2 new Spanish friends, Jamie y Rafa. I was also able to meet 2 of Juanma’s sisters and am working on plans to make them become my intercambio instead of him since they both speak English and have more clothing in my size than he does!
Saturday started slowly and we didn’t actually get moving until 1 in the afternoon. We started a bit earlier at Starbucks where I studied for my horrible exam that I had the next week and the girls ate some muffins. After that we separated for lunch so I could eat with la familia and then got back together to visit El Museo de Bellas Artes Now, for any of you reading this- if you decide to studying and/or live abroad for awhile definitely have friends of yours who have absolutely no knowledge of the language and/or culture come to visit you. It’s the best – it forces you to not only learn enough about it to share it with them but it encourages you to go visit all the silly touristy things you might not actually do. For example, El Museo de Bellas Artes. It’s the THIRD MOST IMPORTANT in Spain and while I had been meaning to visit I never actually went (probably because it’s a bit far away) until LP & JL came – now I’m planning on going again and again (Thank you CIEE/Universidad de Sevilla for free admission!). We went a little bit later in the afternoon than we would have liked to and were therefore only able to see a the first set of rooms which all contained variations of paintings/statues of the Nativity, the Virgin, Jesus as a Child, and some saints but it was wonderful. Afterwards we did a little bit of shopping and I bought a pretty cute purse for 5€. That night after I returned home for dinner I went back to the hostel and hung out with JL & LP. JL wanted dessert so we ran across the street to a Starbucks (How American of us!) and arrived at 10:56 (they close at 11 so just in the knick of time!). Well, after spending a few minutes entirely amused at JL & LP’s feeble attempts to order in Spanish I stepped up and took over. The guy at the counter then wanted to know what I wanted which was nothing since coffee late at night a bad idea, I explained I was only along to serve as a translator for my silly British friend. Somewhere in the process of ordering we forgot to mention that LP didn’t want whipped cream on her Frappuccino. So when she got it I asked the guy for an empty cup we could use to scrape the whipped cream off. Something must have gotten lost in my translation-abilities though because next thing I knew he took her frappuccino and began flicking the cup over the sink to get rid of the whipped cream. Now that would have been perfect but he didn’t stop there. Next, he grabbed a Grande sized cup and took out the whipped cream and began filling it. I tried asking what he was doing but he just responded with “No preocupes.” (Don’t worry.) Naturally it made me worry even more. The first can of whipped cream ran out about half-way through filling the cup so he grabbed another and topped it off. Then he grabbed caramel and squeezed about half the bottle on top of the whipped cream, and asked if I wanted chocolate. I said no. Next thing I knew, I had a huge cup of free whipped cream and was getting “shooed” out the door so they could close. I took about 8 bites and that was all I could stand.
On Sunday we walked along the river, saw el Torro del Oro (Golden Tower), toured la Plaza del Torro (Bull Ring), had lunch in Alameda, and the best orange juice and desserts ever, and then called our taxi (aka Juanma) and adventured back to the airport to say goodbye. The time at the airport was entertaining as always. We argued with Juanma, laughed at him speaking English (in all fairness he started it by laughing at our attempts to speak Spanish), had an arm-wrestling contest (I BEAT JL!) and explored YouTube- I shared The First Semester of Spanish Love Song and LP & JL shared Charlie the Unicorn (episode 2 since it includes some very necessary Spanish vocab.) Finally we had to say Farewell and sent the girls back to the land of Fish & Chips and ___ .
Comfort Food: KitKat McFlurry.
On Monday, except for the 2 hours I spent walking to/from and attending a Bible study, I spent all of my free time studying for the exam on Tuesday in mi clase horible. On Tuesday I took the exam and well, it was horible. It was based on the all of the material we’ve learned so far and consisted of 10 multiple choice questions. Now considering I’m the only American in the class we’ve gone through everything rather quickly, and in all honesty, I’m not quite sure I had all of the material that the test covered. BUT I studied extremely hard and felt okay about it… Okay, I felt extremely nervous the night before but after calling Juanma freaking out the night before the exam and listening to his “father-like” advice and attempts to calm me, I decided I really did know the material and since my professor was going to take mercy on me for my disadvantage of being a foreigner and let me use my dictionary I really did feel okay. Unfortunately, the test didn’t go very well for me. We were given the 10 questions on a piece of paper (which had ridiculously small font) and had 10 minutes to read all of the questions and answer them. Then we were shown all of the questions on a Powerpoint and had to use our remotes to enter our answer for each question. Honestly I think I would have done fine if I had more time, but I was only able to read the first 7 questions in the 10 minutes. Making matters worse I tried to read the last 3 questions in the time that each was up the screen and depended on “Female Intuition”… Not my best plan. Turns out, Spanish exams work like the SATs and you lose a quarter of a point for each incorrect answer… so with the 3 questions I guessed on, and another question that I got wrong I failed the exam. Oh well…? I talked to the professor immediately after and she told me not to worry, that she had confidence in my Spanish abilities and felt that if not for the time issues I would have been more than fine… Hopefully the next one will go better.
After my exam on Tuesday I enjoyed some sunshine in a park with Sarah, and then thought I was going to get a celebratory McFlurry with Juanma to comfort my broken heart from my awful exam. Well, we started on our way to McDonalds (with Kendra in tow) and ended up making a detour to help Juanma’s best friend Juan and his two business partners Miguel and Laura pick out and transport furniture for their new office. We ended up staying there until it closed without buying anything – I tried making an “executive decision” but since I’m not actually a part of the business I wasn’t taken very seriously. By this point McDonald’s was closed and we ended up getting dinner on the other side of the river from where I live at a delicious place I had never been to before. It was great – delicious food I rarely get to eat (since my Señora seems to only know how to cook frozen meals/items and salads with lettuce, cabbage, and corn) and I made more Spanish “friends.”
Wednesday marked Try 2 for my comfort-McFlurry but instead it resulted in another trip to Ikea and 3 hours of following instructions to put everything together. In all honesty I only put two table legs together and then bothered Laura with questions about what I should do with my family when they come to visit (since I had received about a trillion e-mails earlier that day/week asking what the plan was) and then asked the group for grammar-help with the note I was writing to my professor about my exam (asking for more time on the next one.) The night ended with a cardboard fight using Ikea boxes as weapons.
On Thursday I had a day full of classes, studied and read my Bible at Starbucks (my sanctuary) and went on a hunt for sunglasses with Nikki. We failed. Well, she failed, I still have Mama Juve’s glasses that I borrowed the summer after my freshman year of college so I’m set!
Money and Monkeys!
On Friday my International Finance class took a Field Trip to the self-autonomous British territory of Gibraltar. We visited the European Finance Center of Gibraltar and I’m completely confused as to how exactly Gibraltar economically survives. After our visit we had a few hours of free time to see the sights – aka panoramas of the Mediterranean Sea, the coast of Morocco along the horizon (only 16 km away) and the south of Spain which surrounds the peninsula, a cave, and MONKEYS. Because we were short on time we took a tour van up the mountain to hit each site and end up at the monkeys. Our driver’s name was Alaster, and is Irish by heritage and has lived in Gibraltar his entire life. Our tour was great – and his commentary about everything was even better. Plus, he had a pocketful of peanuts he used to get the monkeys to climb on all of our heads so that made it a lot more fun. After we returned to Seville, Nikki and I join Juanma, Juan y Juan y Medio for the Long Sought after McFlurry! After going through the McAuto we went to Juanma’s to eat, play darts, ping-pong, air-hockey, and SceneIt (in Spanish… not EASY at ALL!)
…. And NOW I’m only 2 days behind! BUT it’s late and I need to get some sleep so I’ll have to write about Saturday in Aracena, and Sunny Sunday tomorrow!
03 March 2010
Repaso del que pasaba y Little Lessons I'm Learing
All of you know I talk too much - that is sort of what has been happening with the blog. When I write it's be a complete explosion and babble-fest and I quite frankly haven't been able to write regularly. THEN when you add a semi-sketch Internet connection (thank you friendly neighbor with the open connection titled, "default" that I've been able to steal from time-to-time) and frequent overwhelmed nights with homework and or being out of the city well... It's been awhile. I'm going to try to quick list everything that has happened since the last post and for those of you who are my loyal followers and are dying for more detail just comment on the blog and I'll willing expand :)
Ash Wednesday
What a beautiful day :) Actually there was quite a bit of rain but every once in awhile the sun would break through the dark clouds and cast it’s beautiful, bright, warm rays onto the narrow streets of Sevilla, and onto the Cathedral itself. Before going to Mass at La Catedral I made a quick stop at Starbucks where I ran into my friend Armando – if you’re ever looking for someone who speaks English just find the nearest Starbucks and you’ll be set. It was definitely an experience. Being in a MASSIVE church that is breathtaking, and following the service in Spanish makes it a bit difficult to focus on the service itself. Language aside I felt extremely disconnected from the service – the altar is made of gold and because of that it is blocked by a huge fence, and that pretty much just makes it difficult to really connect with any thing. The best part was what Sarah and I have titled the "Spanish Line." It was essentially a massive swarm of Sevillianos that bunch together instead of forming a line to receive the ashes and communion. The first time it happened I stepped back (into Sarah) and must have had a look of shock/fear... she simply whispered, "Spanish line" And now... that's what it is.
Meeting Mi Intercambio
On Thursday (after a poopy day of classes and even more RAIN) I finally got up the courage to meet my intercambio. (Vocab lesson. Intercambio (n): a Spanish person [commonly a student] who has expressed interest to CIEE that they want to meet with American students to help them learn Spanish and/or learn some English themselves.) Now considering my class with the Spanish students was making me want to cry it was a pretty big deal for me to actually go meet my intercambio. Let's just say, BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE. I could not have been more blessed by God with my Intercambio. His name is Juan Manuel (Juanma) and is a law student at the Universidad de Sevilla (his first degree was from La Facultad de Cicenias y Economicas Empresariales - aka the business school I'm currently taking classes in.) Our first meeting was eventful -- there was a ton of rain and he wanted to meet in a metro station (to avoid the rain)... Well, I have YET to use public transportation here in Sevilla so naturally I was beyond lost. Fear Not though. Juanma came to the rescue (after waiting for me to try to pull myself together and get my bearings back on straight.) and drove me around Sevilla to show me just how lost I was.
Carmona
Group trip to Carmona - a small town outside of Sevilla. Highlights of the adventure include Nikki (formerly known as my crippled friend who was dumb enough to run in Duluth, MN the day before leaving for Spain and broke her foot) was finally cast-less and able to play with us! The Roman Necropolis made me channel Mrs. Donna Dzubay and I made sure to touch every plant, snail, and caterpillar I could find- the tour guide referred to me as a 6-year-old boy. We also saw some beautiful views (since Carmona is up on a hill/baby mountain) and La Puerta a Sevilla (aka a fortress that protected the city from invasion from Sevilla since those Sevillianos are LOCO) and the Parador de Carmona (Parador is a chain of resorts in Spain that has renovated a ton of monuments in Spain and created hotel rooms from them- I did a project on it last Spring in my Advanced Business Spanish class [THANK YOU PILAR MARCE FOR TEACHING ME SUCH PRACTICAL THINGS!])
After we returned from Carmona my Gymkhana (Scanvenger hunt team) Calli, Elysha, Niiki and I ate... ¿Mexican Food en España? ¡Olé! We even got to wear sombreros. Afterwards we had dessert at McDonalds and even though we had intended to get started on our Gymkhana (which consists of clues describing locations in Sevilla that we have to decipher and then find and take a picture in front of) we ended up all going back for a nap.
So I went back home expecting to be able to update my blog and MY COMPUTER WOULDN'T TURN ON!!!!!!!??????????!!!!!!!!! Terrifying. My computer was completely non-functional from Friday until Sunday and I was deathly afraid that there would be no more blogging/emailing/Skyping/communication with the English speaking world – but alas, by the Grace of God we’re back in business! After freaking out and calling Juanma (asking if he could go to the Apple store in Sevilla with me since my Spanish isn't quite up to par for the stressful situations of computer repairs) and he told me not to worry since his best friend (Juan y Medio- aka Juan but he's taller so I'm supposed to call him Juan y Medio) is a computer guy. Well, somehow it worked on Sunday afternoon (not sure how or why but it did!) and instead of adventuring to the Apple store Juanma and I watched a futbol game.
I was able to go to a church service on Sunday that reminded me a TON of 24/7! It was way on the other side of el centro near Almeda de Hercules (coolest plaza ever simply because it's REALLY big) and we had a group of 20+ students that all meet up in one of the plazas and walked through el centro together. I met a ton of new people, and we sang a ton of songs that I knew in English, in Spanish. When I'd start to get caught up in all the Spanish and found myself tongue-tied I just gave up and would sing it in English. No one seemed to mind.. too much :) The way back through el centro was extremely entertaining. I had Armando and Alan as my body guards and they choose to ward off any sketchy people by singing. Armando sang country songs. Alan rapped. I laughed the entire way home. (Reminds me of the Little Piggies nursery rhyme.)
Exploring Sevilla sin un mapa = Bad Idea.
We were able to get most of our Gymkhana stops on Sunday morning but we had one left for Monday night after our classes. Biggest obstacle- finding it. The clue told us it was the location of a tree as old as the United States of America.... Well, El Monestario de la Cartuja is just the place... but it's on the other side of the river and essentially in the opposite direction of everything we're familiar with. My classes were done before Calli and Elysha so I went and sat by the river for a hour or so (we FINALLY saw some sun!).. but then the clouds came and Elysha and Calli decided to just take a taxi there... and I was left to walk on my own. Well, that's USUALLY okay.. but I didn't have my map and ended up being on the back side of La Cartuja without any idea of how to get to the front. Luckily, Juanma and I were supposed to meet later that night and he called to confirm our plans... Instead he left work, drove all the way to Cartuja (used his GPS and my awful Spanish descriptions to actually locate me) and then helped us convince the security guard she should let us in for our Gymkhana (even though it turns out it's closed on Mondays...) and then bought us churros after and brought all of us home. In edition to being my Spanish best friend he has also become my taxi driver and would be a pro at "Where's Waldo?"
.... Well, I only made it to 8 days ago and now I have to run to meet with my group for a project but I PROMISE that this next update will come much sooner.
What's to come? More adventures with Juanma, mi clase horible, trip to Barcelona to see Laur, and an array of random updates. Get excited!
Ash Wednesday
What a beautiful day :) Actually there was quite a bit of rain but every once in awhile the sun would break through the dark clouds and cast it’s beautiful, bright, warm rays onto the narrow streets of Sevilla, and onto the Cathedral itself. Before going to Mass at La Catedral I made a quick stop at Starbucks where I ran into my friend Armando – if you’re ever looking for someone who speaks English just find the nearest Starbucks and you’ll be set. It was definitely an experience. Being in a MASSIVE church that is breathtaking, and following the service in Spanish makes it a bit difficult to focus on the service itself. Language aside I felt extremely disconnected from the service – the altar is made of gold and because of that it is blocked by a huge fence, and that pretty much just makes it difficult to really connect with any thing. The best part was what Sarah and I have titled the "Spanish Line." It was essentially a massive swarm of Sevillianos that bunch together instead of forming a line to receive the ashes and communion. The first time it happened I stepped back (into Sarah) and must have had a look of shock/fear... she simply whispered, "Spanish line" And now... that's what it is.
Meeting Mi Intercambio
On Thursday (after a poopy day of classes and even more RAIN) I finally got up the courage to meet my intercambio. (Vocab lesson. Intercambio (n): a Spanish person [commonly a student] who has expressed interest to CIEE that they want to meet with American students to help them learn Spanish and/or learn some English themselves.) Now considering my class with the Spanish students was making me want to cry it was a pretty big deal for me to actually go meet my intercambio. Let's just say, BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE. I could not have been more blessed by God with my Intercambio. His name is Juan Manuel (Juanma) and is a law student at the Universidad de Sevilla (his first degree was from La Facultad de Cicenias y Economicas Empresariales - aka the business school I'm currently taking classes in.) Our first meeting was eventful -- there was a ton of rain and he wanted to meet in a metro station (to avoid the rain)... Well, I have YET to use public transportation here in Sevilla so naturally I was beyond lost. Fear Not though. Juanma came to the rescue (after waiting for me to try to pull myself together and get my bearings back on straight.) and drove me around Sevilla to show me just how lost I was.
Carmona
Group trip to Carmona - a small town outside of Sevilla. Highlights of the adventure include Nikki (formerly known as my crippled friend who was dumb enough to run in Duluth, MN the day before leaving for Spain and broke her foot) was finally cast-less and able to play with us! The Roman Necropolis made me channel Mrs. Donna Dzubay and I made sure to touch every plant, snail, and caterpillar I could find- the tour guide referred to me as a 6-year-old boy. We also saw some beautiful views (since Carmona is up on a hill/baby mountain) and La Puerta a Sevilla (aka a fortress that protected the city from invasion from Sevilla since those Sevillianos are LOCO) and the Parador de Carmona (Parador is a chain of resorts in Spain that has renovated a ton of monuments in Spain and created hotel rooms from them- I did a project on it last Spring in my Advanced Business Spanish class [THANK YOU PILAR MARCE FOR TEACHING ME SUCH PRACTICAL THINGS!])
After we returned from Carmona my Gymkhana (Scanvenger hunt team) Calli, Elysha, Niiki and I ate... ¿Mexican Food en España? ¡Olé! We even got to wear sombreros. Afterwards we had dessert at McDonalds and even though we had intended to get started on our Gymkhana (which consists of clues describing locations in Sevilla that we have to decipher and then find and take a picture in front of) we ended up all going back for a nap.
So I went back home expecting to be able to update my blog and MY COMPUTER WOULDN'T TURN ON!!!!!!!??????????!!!!!!!!! Terrifying. My computer was completely non-functional from Friday until Sunday and I was deathly afraid that there would be no more blogging/emailing/Skyping/communication with the English speaking world – but alas, by the Grace of God we’re back in business! After freaking out and calling Juanma (asking if he could go to the Apple store in Sevilla with me since my Spanish isn't quite up to par for the stressful situations of computer repairs) and he told me not to worry since his best friend (Juan y Medio- aka Juan but he's taller so I'm supposed to call him Juan y Medio) is a computer guy. Well, somehow it worked on Sunday afternoon (not sure how or why but it did!) and instead of adventuring to the Apple store Juanma and I watched a futbol game.
I was able to go to a church service on Sunday that reminded me a TON of 24/7! It was way on the other side of el centro near Almeda de Hercules (coolest plaza ever simply because it's REALLY big) and we had a group of 20+ students that all meet up in one of the plazas and walked through el centro together. I met a ton of new people, and we sang a ton of songs that I knew in English, in Spanish. When I'd start to get caught up in all the Spanish and found myself tongue-tied I just gave up and would sing it in English. No one seemed to mind.. too much :) The way back through el centro was extremely entertaining. I had Armando and Alan as my body guards and they choose to ward off any sketchy people by singing. Armando sang country songs. Alan rapped. I laughed the entire way home. (Reminds me of the Little Piggies nursery rhyme.)
Exploring Sevilla sin un mapa = Bad Idea.
We were able to get most of our Gymkhana stops on Sunday morning but we had one left for Monday night after our classes. Biggest obstacle- finding it. The clue told us it was the location of a tree as old as the United States of America.... Well, El Monestario de la Cartuja is just the place... but it's on the other side of the river and essentially in the opposite direction of everything we're familiar with. My classes were done before Calli and Elysha so I went and sat by the river for a hour or so (we FINALLY saw some sun!).. but then the clouds came and Elysha and Calli decided to just take a taxi there... and I was left to walk on my own. Well, that's USUALLY okay.. but I didn't have my map and ended up being on the back side of La Cartuja without any idea of how to get to the front. Luckily, Juanma and I were supposed to meet later that night and he called to confirm our plans... Instead he left work, drove all the way to Cartuja (used his GPS and my awful Spanish descriptions to actually locate me) and then helped us convince the security guard she should let us in for our Gymkhana (even though it turns out it's closed on Mondays...) and then bought us churros after and brought all of us home. In edition to being my Spanish best friend he has also become my taxi driver and would be a pro at "Where's Waldo?"
.... Well, I only made it to 8 days ago and now I have to run to meet with my group for a project but I PROMISE that this next update will come much sooner.
What's to come? More adventures with Juanma, mi clase horible, trip to Barcelona to see Laur, and an array of random updates. Get excited!
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