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!!!
21 March 2010
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!
05 February 2010
Better Late than Never
Apologies in Advance: 1. I hate that it's been 2 weeks since I've updated this... I've been writing a little bit whenever I can (aka whenever my internet isn't failing {I'm currently using the neighbors!} and when I'm at home not bogged down with homework or bonding with la familia/roommate) and I'm pretty sure this is going to be a long one!
Way Back When Two Weeks Ago = MESS!
My intensive class became even more intense. (I didn't think it was possible... but it was.) The combination of more surveys, at least one 100-word summary based on an article we read that day, two 600-word essays, and a group project made the week seem insufferable. Luckily the final wasn't as horrible as I feared it would be so my hours of studying on Thursday night ended up being worth it. And, the feeling of walking down the stairs of FCEYE (la Faculitad de Ciencias Economias y Empresariales) and into the warm sunshine of Sevilla was beyond joyful! All in all it wasn't an awful experience though - I loved my professor, and learned a ton of ridiculous phrases and grammatical errors that really will serve me no purpose in life other than for my own entertainment/amusement.
The rest of the week wasn't horrible though - on Monday I had a meeting with my program director about the class that I'll be taking through direct-enrollment with Spanish students and I received some really good news :) Originally I was supposed to stay in Sevilla until the final scheduled for July 23rd. Then I heard I could probably get the professor to let me take the exam in mid June at the start of their finals session instead of on their scheduled date. But on my meeting on Monday Virginia told me that if I pass all of their weekly quizzes I don't have to take to final and will be done with the class at the end of May. On Thursday I toured la Catedral:
When we were standing outside waiting for our tour guide I was harrassed by a gypsy. Luckily, I still look/seem/am American and was able to play the "No Hablo Español" card that Samantha pulls out whenever I try to tell her I love her in Spanish, and that made her leave. Our tour guide gave the tour in Spanish and I have to admit, I felt sort of cool walking around the site and being able to understand the entire tour as well as I understood the British guy giving the tour for a group behind us. The Cathedral in Sevilla is the third largest in the world and was truly beautiful. Christopher Columbus is buried there and it's main altar is made of gold. The coolest part of the tour was la Giralda-
(Yes. I climbed up that. Be impressed!)
La Giralda is an old Moorish tower that is the highest point in the Cathedral - it had 34 levels of sloped inclines that we walked/trudged up and then an absolutely beautiful view of the entire city! (Not going to lie... my calves just about died at the end of it though...) On Friday I had my final for my intensive class - finally, and spent the afternoon napping, and the evening walking through the city enjoying ice cream... it was great way to end a rather stressful week!
I'm in NO WAY a Hippie but I <3 NATURE
My plans for the weekend (as of Friday afternoon) involved adventuring with Calli and Elysha to the cities of Ronda and Marbella. Little did we know, our group grew from 3 to 15, and there were an additional 10+ Americans who I knew (c/o my roommate Kendra and her friends) who were headed towards Ronda but not as hard core as we were to adventure all the way to Marbella. Ronda is a city about a hour and a half outside of Sevilla in the mountains - it was absolutely beautiful! There were horses walking on the streets, and goats in fields off in the distance - I really couldn't have been happier :) We toured everything in a mad rush so we could catch our 6 o'clock bus into Marbella. We saw the Arab baths, a museum of the history of Ronda (complete with cavemen!), and a Moorish Kings museum thing that included a mine tour which really just meant we climbed down hundreds of really steep stairs that we're wet from the condensation and water dripping from the ceiling of the cave/cliff/rock we were walking inside down to the base of the gorge. We walked through a ton of beautiful plazas that were on cliffs/overhangs that let us see the entire countryside. After the first round of running around we stopped for lunch. Half the group went into a plaza to eat and the rest of us found a little restaurant down a semi-dark alley. The 8 of us had a great time and ended up taking nearly 2 hours to eat... Oops! It was a good thing we rushed through everything earlier in the morning or we wouldn't have been able to follow the directions of fellow group member who forgot where we were and said "Relax... You're in Sevilla!... or wherever we are!" After lunch we went to the FIRST BULL RING ever to be in Spain! It was really cool - they let you walk out into the ring and run around like you're a bull. There was a group of Spaniards out in the ring with us who were hilarious and kept running at us and taking group photos with us. (PS: Spaniards in NON-TOURISTY places are a LOT nicer/friendlier/more helpful) than Spaniards that have to deal with stupid tourists (read Americans) on a daily basis)
The bus ride to Marbella from Ronda started out with more action than we could hardly stand. From what Josh (and the rest of us trying to listen in from the back) was able to figure out (he didn't know what bus we were on and got stuck waiting to get on the bus during this fight) there was a woman sitting in one of the front seats who was on the route from Sevilla to Marbella (the bus stops in Ronda to get more people/drop people off) and another woman sat in her seat and wasn't planning on moving... Well, Spaniards appear to be exceptionally particular about their bus seats and wonderful yelling in rapid-fast-venemously-accented-Spanish commenced complete with the required hand gestures :) At one point Armando decided he needed to go run and try to Save Josh from the madness and ended up getting frozen mid-rescue by all the commotion and started yelling, "¡Por Favor!" ... While a valid effort it really didn't phase them at all. Anyways, we left the bus station with the yelling still going strong and ended up stopping about 4 blocks away and the police joined us for the fun aka to get their names. The ride itself was quite fun too though - we were driving down the mountains with super crazy curvy-spiraling roads. Thank God for Jesus (aka Life after Death) and Dramamine! Once we got into Marbella the 15 of us lined up like little ducklings and followed the Mama Ducks (Calli and Elysha) to our hostal. So I stayed in a hostal and didn't die! The owner of the hostal was a Scottish man and there were two Australians, a Russian, and an American (a writer who has actually been publish - I found his book on Amazon.com) and it was surprisingly cleaner than I expected.
The next morning we spent a good hour and half eating breakfast - fresh OJ, delicious cafe con leche, and wonderful toast with marmalade. Afterward we walked down to the beach and watched a little girl throw the squids that her father was snorkeling/diving for on the rocks to knock them out and then shove her fingers in their suction-y mouth things so they would suffocate. Seriously - this girl was insane. Rambo style. There is NO WAY I would have ever done that. In fact the guys in are group were even a bit skiddish of the whole thing. I think the best part of it though was that the family had their pet Yorkie with and it was wearing a sweater and just barking whenever the girl threw a squid down and would try to catch it in it's mouth. Strange sight to see. From there we took a taxi (well 4 taxis because there were 15 of us) down to the marina which was about 6 miles away. Now I would like to say all went well but sadly this was the worst part of my trip. The taxis dropped us of in a round-about type of intersection and naturally our four cars held up traffic and the honking ensued. In the process of paying and getting everyone out of the car I more or less dumped my bag out in the car... and I thought I grabbed everything and ran across the street out of traffic, and a second later I realized I didn't have my camera - at that point my taxi already left and I managed to stop one of our other taxis and got the business card for the company and have called at least every other day asking for news about my camera - so far no luck. Luckily everyone with me had more or less taken the same pictures as me and a few people we're willing and able to give me a much needed hug! The marina was beautiful and the boardwalk-esque area was surrounded by beautiful quartz rocks that had wild-house-cats living in them. A few of the brave cats could be found sunning themselves on the roofs of different yachts (which were huge by the way).
Eventually we managed to pull ourselves away from the beautiful Mediterranean Sea and made it back to the bus station (after making a few more attempts to track down my camera by harassing every taxi we saw) and we were on our way to Sevilla. Of course our departure was dramatic with the bus driver who was determined to get a head start on the long and terrifying drive decided he wanted to leave when his watch said 4:35 rather than when the clock in the station said 4:35 and we pulled out of the station without 4 of our 15 compradres. Luckily, (read: By the Grace of God) the bus driver was distracted by all of the "Americans" yelling, "¡Espere! !Espere! !Hay más vienen!" and nearly hit them as they were running across the street out of the station to chase the bus, and he rather reluctantly let them on. The bus ride wasn't awful. I sat night to a nice Spanish man who spent most of the time sleeping and I was able to read my Bible and just listen to music on my iPod and napped a bit.
Sunday Nights in Sevilla and the ¿Superbowl?
Then I made it back into Sevilla just in time for dinner (9-ish) and while eating I discovered that my Señora and mi hermanita falsa (fake little sister) were going to go to the movie theater to see "Tiana y Sapo" aka the Disney movie "Princess and the Frog." It was a ton of fun. I got to eat popcorn, and they have candy stores outside of the theater where you fill up a bag with gummy candy and you can bring it in with you :) The whole movie-watching experience was a bit exhausting but entirely entertaining. Naturally, the movie was in Spanish and while I understood the gist of everything (I mean seeing that it's a Disney movie based on a Fairy-tale I've definitely read I sort of had a headstart) however I know I missed a lot of the comedy - mi hermanita falsa would turn over to me every 10 to 15 minutes after laughing hysterically and ask me if I thought it was funny, or if I was afraid (when the weird voo-doo spirit things came out), or if I wanted to share my popcorn/candy or if I wanted some of her popcorn/candy. After the movie we went to a restaurant called VIPS where I watched my hermanita falsa turn into my favorite cousin Katie as she completely demolished/polished off an adult sized portion of ribs. After the meal we went back home and I more or less grabbed my keys and left to go watch the Superbowl (at this point it was already 12:30 and well into the first quarter).
I made it to the Irish pub called O'Neills which is right next to my school at the end of the 1st quarter. I was warmly welcomed by pretty much everyone who had been on the Ronda-Marbella trip with me and nearly 80% of the students in my program, along with another million Americans. The game wasn’t all that exciting in the beginning as most of you should know. At half time we all got free hot dogs… which most people were excited about (not me, since hot dogs = gross!) until they found out that the hot dogs came with ketchup, mustard, and MAYO… Even grosser. I stayed until the end of the 3rd quarter (approximately 3:30 am) and crawled into bed for some much needed sleep.
¡…and the REAL(?) classes begin!
On Monday I had my first “real” class at 9 am- International Marketing. It went pretty well, the prof just read through the syllabus and since I had it right in front of me and could read along as he spoke rapid-speed Spanish. After class on Monday I called the taxi company a few times until the woman finally just started hanging up on me, and then I took a siesta and went to Starbucks to read for a little bit. That night I met a nice Portugese woman who trusted me enough to watch her stuff things while she used the restroom. I was a bit disappointed though when she asked me since she asked me in English - I mean do I REALLY seem that out of place/look THAT American? Then I realized the book I was reading was written in English and I was by myself at a Starbucks which really only foreigners do. Oh well.
On Tuesday I had my next set of “real” classes – International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and International Finance. I loved my INCR professor – a really beautiful Spanish woman who is beyond nice and likes to laugh at us silly Americans when we try to answer her questions. Then I went on a grand adventure during my three hour break (since my REAL REAL class that I’m taking with real Spanish students doesn’t start until Feb 16th) with my crippled friend Nikki to find a present for her Mom for when she flew back to the US this past weekend to get her cast off! Then I went to my next class where my IF professor was MIA so the man that teaches the same class in the Fall semester came and presented the syllabus – nothing too exciting there. After I went to buy my textbooks and oh boy does the US have a lot to learn. I mean sure paying 18€ for a three ring binder with colored tabs is a bit outrageous, but seeing as the professor prints off all of the material we need (ie: lecture notes, articles, readings, etc) I think I actually got a pretty good deal. AND my Marketing book was a steal too! Only 8€ for the entire book with includes all the of reading materials, powerpoints of all the lectures and any/all case studies we'll be doing. Seriously Iowa.... get with the program. After classes on Tuesday I met up with Nikki again to continue our shopping spree. We went into pretty much every store on Calle Sierpes and Calle Tetuan that appeared to sell either watches or necklace and when that appeared to be fruitless we began checking all the touristy stores on Avenida de la Constitucion. Sadly we ended the night sans presents... and I was not feeling well.
When I got home I got really sick and skipped dinner (since I didn't think I'd be able to keep in down) and slept. I forced myself out of bed the next morning for class (which was a dumb idea) only to come racing home as soon as the professor starting closing his powerpoint. I spent the rest of Wednesday in bed. My Señora made me grilled cheese and a cup of warm milk with sugar. On Thursday things still weren't looking great but I made it through my first class. Napped during my break. And made it through my finance class (with my awesome and new favorite professor!!!). I was MUCH more excited about things and felt a bit better after IF. We talked about the EU (and for ONCE didn't talk about the depressing Spanish economy) and the different international markets and all things that made me happy. It was a similar feeling to when I visited the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and was on the floor when the market opened and got SO excited I needed to run off to the bathroom... only this was WAY cooler because it was all happening in Spanish! I went back home, slept some more and by dinner I was feeling much better.
Best Friend = Bad Weather
On Friday morning I woke up and went to a Subjunctive Workshop that my much beloved and missed intensive class professor.... I'm not sure if I learned much but it was great to hang out with Miguel again. I was treated to NOT only a showdown of "Miguel vs. Technology" (the man can't use a computer to save his life) but the patented sweater removal, his Paris Hilton imitation and Brad Pitt comparison. After the workshop I ran out into the pouring rain to find my best friend Laura Hauser who had arrived to come visit for the weekend with her study abroad program in Barcelona. Although she brought the awful cold and rainy weather with her it was wonderful to see her - she had left for Barcelona in the end of December and considering I see her at the very least every other day while at Iowa (and about as frequently back in Orono) there was some hardcore separation anxiety I had to recover from. Luckily her hotel was only a block away from my home-stay. We braved a Noah-esque flood trying to find somewhere to eat lunch, and then she had a tour of la Catedral and I took a nap (still trying to recover from previous illness and make up for the fact that I spent the last 2 hours in 37F rain! GROSS WEATHER SEVILLA!). We meet up with my roommate Kendra and a few of her friends for dinner at a sushi place in Triana (the neighborhood across the river). Once again we braved the rain and the cold but we made it and had a great meal complete with Toblerone and KitKat McFlurrys from McDonalds for dessert.
Saturday I was solo since Laura ditched me for Cordoba and Kendra ditched me for Grenada. I spent a ton of time half-napping/recovering and doing some homework and booking a hotel for my Aunt's visit in April. That night we had planned on getting tapas for dinner but all of the tapas places were full so we ended up getting sushi at a Japanese restaurant by the cathedral. It was DELICIOUS... and much more fun than the night before. There were 5 of us (at a table for 8) and we naturally wanted a group picture. So we asked the two Spanish men waiting for a table since we were sitting right by the door/hostess stand. They obliged (and even took one on more than one camera) as long as they could sit at our table with us. We said sure. The rest of dinner involved English lessons, and all of us pretending to speak Spanish. By the time we had finished and were paying our bill 3 of their friends had come to meet them which meant we made 3 new friends. Once they finished their dinner we left and went on our own merry way - speaking English of course. Laura and I walked through Sevilla for another hour or so before retreating to my house/her hotel for warmth and sleep. On Sunday morning we went to Starbucks for Valentine's Day muffins and coffee and began planning our trip for Semana Santa (sadly the location is still unknown!) and then braved more cold drizzle as we walked through the market of Plaza Nueva and had gross tapas for lunch. Shortly after she headed back to Barcelona and I headed home to warm up. Kendra came back from Grenada later that day and we spent Valentine's Day evening eating Oreos and watching The Holiday!
On Monday I had my Marketing class which was a bit boring, and then spent a couple hours braving the FLOODS with Kendra to try to find notebooks and a cord for her iPod. Instead we found a cute little tea cafe and saved the notebook adventure for today (Tuesday). Later I went to McDonalds with Calli to use their wifi and began planning our trip to Barcelona for the weekend of the 25th. I am officially in love with the Cono con KitKat :) It's only 1€. After doing some quick Google and Wikipedia-style research (PS: I hate that the Financial Times only lets you read ONE article for free a day!!!!) for my classes I watched Practical Magic with Kendra and went to bed... and now onto Today...
martes, el 16 del febrero, 2010. Well, today wasn't exactly great. Mother Nature is hardcore PMS-ing. Seriously, I walked to my first class this morning and was greeted by sunshine... only to find myself walking into a wall of pouring rain a block later (yay for having my handy-umbrella!). My first class was INCR, great professor... enjoyable class. (However I'm beginning to learn that the way to resolve conflict isn't by force? Boy are things different in Spain!) My next class wasn't as great... It was my first session of my class with TRUE SPANISH STUDENTS! Things didn't go so well. Of course I couldn't find the correct classroom and for a minute was about to walk into a HR class until I got up the nerve to ask the girl standing next to me. Then I found my class and walked in just as the professor began to talk. Being the ONLY American in the class everyone stared at me... NOT COOL. And I TRIED really hard to follow everything she said but honestly I don't think I succeeded. I stayed after she finished to ask a few questions (which she didn't exactly answer) and then of course I felt beyond overwhelmed by all of it and felt like crying. Luckily I had a hour before my next class and was able to sit on a bench and write in my journal (in ENGLISH) but OH BOY was it a rough one. Then I had my finance class which made me a LOT happier and I came home, met up with Kendra for our adventure to the Chinese Super Market (read: ultra sketch convenience/grocery/hardware store) and we had some delicious ice cream at a Heladeria. I had the Philadelphia Cream Cheese kind and she had "Crema Cataluna" aka more or less like Creme Brulee. Her's was better.
... AND NOW I'm finally caught up on my blog!
Coming SOON (promise much sooner than the last update!): Ash Wednesday at La Catedral, Round 2 of trying to NOT fail in my Spanish class aka trying not to feel like the New Kid all over again, AND kicking the KitKat McFlurry habit!
Way Back When Two Weeks Ago = MESS!
My intensive class became even more intense. (I didn't think it was possible... but it was.) The combination of more surveys, at least one 100-word summary based on an article we read that day, two 600-word essays, and a group project made the week seem insufferable. Luckily the final wasn't as horrible as I feared it would be so my hours of studying on Thursday night ended up being worth it. And, the feeling of walking down the stairs of FCEYE (la Faculitad de Ciencias Economias y Empresariales) and into the warm sunshine of Sevilla was beyond joyful! All in all it wasn't an awful experience though - I loved my professor, and learned a ton of ridiculous phrases and grammatical errors that really will serve me no purpose in life other than for my own entertainment/amusement.
The rest of the week wasn't horrible though - on Monday I had a meeting with my program director about the class that I'll be taking through direct-enrollment with Spanish students and I received some really good news :) Originally I was supposed to stay in Sevilla until the final scheduled for July 23rd. Then I heard I could probably get the professor to let me take the exam in mid June at the start of their finals session instead of on their scheduled date. But on my meeting on Monday Virginia told me that if I pass all of their weekly quizzes I don't have to take to final and will be done with the class at the end of May. On Thursday I toured la Catedral:
When we were standing outside waiting for our tour guide I was harrassed by a gypsy. Luckily, I still look/seem/am American and was able to play the "No Hablo Español" card that Samantha pulls out whenever I try to tell her I love her in Spanish, and that made her leave. Our tour guide gave the tour in Spanish and I have to admit, I felt sort of cool walking around the site and being able to understand the entire tour as well as I understood the British guy giving the tour for a group behind us. The Cathedral in Sevilla is the third largest in the world and was truly beautiful. Christopher Columbus is buried there and it's main altar is made of gold. The coolest part of the tour was la Giralda-
(Yes. I climbed up that. Be impressed!)
La Giralda is an old Moorish tower that is the highest point in the Cathedral - it had 34 levels of sloped inclines that we walked/trudged up and then an absolutely beautiful view of the entire city! (Not going to lie... my calves just about died at the end of it though...) On Friday I had my final for my intensive class - finally, and spent the afternoon napping, and the evening walking through the city enjoying ice cream... it was great way to end a rather stressful week!
I'm in NO WAY a Hippie but I <3 NATURE
My plans for the weekend (as of Friday afternoon) involved adventuring with Calli and Elysha to the cities of Ronda and Marbella. Little did we know, our group grew from 3 to 15, and there were an additional 10+ Americans who I knew (c/o my roommate Kendra and her friends) who were headed towards Ronda but not as hard core as we were to adventure all the way to Marbella. Ronda is a city about a hour and a half outside of Sevilla in the mountains - it was absolutely beautiful! There were horses walking on the streets, and goats in fields off in the distance - I really couldn't have been happier :) We toured everything in a mad rush so we could catch our 6 o'clock bus into Marbella. We saw the Arab baths, a museum of the history of Ronda (complete with cavemen!), and a Moorish Kings museum thing that included a mine tour which really just meant we climbed down hundreds of really steep stairs that we're wet from the condensation and water dripping from the ceiling of the cave/cliff/rock we were walking inside down to the base of the gorge. We walked through a ton of beautiful plazas that were on cliffs/overhangs that let us see the entire countryside. After the first round of running around we stopped for lunch. Half the group went into a plaza to eat and the rest of us found a little restaurant down a semi-dark alley. The 8 of us had a great time and ended up taking nearly 2 hours to eat... Oops! It was a good thing we rushed through everything earlier in the morning or we wouldn't have been able to follow the directions of fellow group member who forgot where we were and said "Relax... You're in Sevilla!... or wherever we are!" After lunch we went to the FIRST BULL RING ever to be in Spain! It was really cool - they let you walk out into the ring and run around like you're a bull. There was a group of Spaniards out in the ring with us who were hilarious and kept running at us and taking group photos with us. (PS: Spaniards in NON-TOURISTY places are a LOT nicer/friendlier/more helpful) than Spaniards that have to deal with stupid tourists (read Americans) on a daily basis)
The bus ride to Marbella from Ronda started out with more action than we could hardly stand. From what Josh (and the rest of us trying to listen in from the back) was able to figure out (he didn't know what bus we were on and got stuck waiting to get on the bus during this fight) there was a woman sitting in one of the front seats who was on the route from Sevilla to Marbella (the bus stops in Ronda to get more people/drop people off) and another woman sat in her seat and wasn't planning on moving... Well, Spaniards appear to be exceptionally particular about their bus seats and wonderful yelling in rapid-fast-venemously-accented-Spanish commenced complete with the required hand gestures :) At one point Armando decided he needed to go run and try to Save Josh from the madness and ended up getting frozen mid-rescue by all the commotion and started yelling, "¡Por Favor!" ... While a valid effort it really didn't phase them at all. Anyways, we left the bus station with the yelling still going strong and ended up stopping about 4 blocks away and the police joined us for the fun aka to get their names. The ride itself was quite fun too though - we were driving down the mountains with super crazy curvy-spiraling roads. Thank God for Jesus (aka Life after Death) and Dramamine! Once we got into Marbella the 15 of us lined up like little ducklings and followed the Mama Ducks (Calli and Elysha) to our hostal. So I stayed in a hostal and didn't die! The owner of the hostal was a Scottish man and there were two Australians, a Russian, and an American (a writer who has actually been publish - I found his book on Amazon.com) and it was surprisingly cleaner than I expected.
The next morning we spent a good hour and half eating breakfast - fresh OJ, delicious cafe con leche, and wonderful toast with marmalade. Afterward we walked down to the beach and watched a little girl throw the squids that her father was snorkeling/diving for on the rocks to knock them out and then shove her fingers in their suction-y mouth things so they would suffocate. Seriously - this girl was insane. Rambo style. There is NO WAY I would have ever done that. In fact the guys in are group were even a bit skiddish of the whole thing. I think the best part of it though was that the family had their pet Yorkie with and it was wearing a sweater and just barking whenever the girl threw a squid down and would try to catch it in it's mouth. Strange sight to see. From there we took a taxi (well 4 taxis because there were 15 of us) down to the marina which was about 6 miles away. Now I would like to say all went well but sadly this was the worst part of my trip. The taxis dropped us of in a round-about type of intersection and naturally our four cars held up traffic and the honking ensued. In the process of paying and getting everyone out of the car I more or less dumped my bag out in the car... and I thought I grabbed everything and ran across the street out of traffic, and a second later I realized I didn't have my camera - at that point my taxi already left and I managed to stop one of our other taxis and got the business card for the company and have called at least every other day asking for news about my camera - so far no luck. Luckily everyone with me had more or less taken the same pictures as me and a few people we're willing and able to give me a much needed hug! The marina was beautiful and the boardwalk-esque area was surrounded by beautiful quartz rocks that had wild-house-cats living in them. A few of the brave cats could be found sunning themselves on the roofs of different yachts (which were huge by the way).
Eventually we managed to pull ourselves away from the beautiful Mediterranean Sea and made it back to the bus station (after making a few more attempts to track down my camera by harassing every taxi we saw) and we were on our way to Sevilla. Of course our departure was dramatic with the bus driver who was determined to get a head start on the long and terrifying drive decided he wanted to leave when his watch said 4:35 rather than when the clock in the station said 4:35 and we pulled out of the station without 4 of our 15 compradres. Luckily, (read: By the Grace of God) the bus driver was distracted by all of the "Americans" yelling, "¡Espere! !Espere! !Hay más vienen!" and nearly hit them as they were running across the street out of the station to chase the bus, and he rather reluctantly let them on. The bus ride wasn't awful. I sat night to a nice Spanish man who spent most of the time sleeping and I was able to read my Bible and just listen to music on my iPod and napped a bit.
Sunday Nights in Sevilla and the ¿Superbowl?
Then I made it back into Sevilla just in time for dinner (9-ish) and while eating I discovered that my Señora and mi hermanita falsa (fake little sister) were going to go to the movie theater to see "Tiana y Sapo" aka the Disney movie "Princess and the Frog." It was a ton of fun. I got to eat popcorn, and they have candy stores outside of the theater where you fill up a bag with gummy candy and you can bring it in with you :) The whole movie-watching experience was a bit exhausting but entirely entertaining. Naturally, the movie was in Spanish and while I understood the gist of everything (I mean seeing that it's a Disney movie based on a Fairy-tale I've definitely read I sort of had a headstart) however I know I missed a lot of the comedy - mi hermanita falsa would turn over to me every 10 to 15 minutes after laughing hysterically and ask me if I thought it was funny, or if I was afraid (when the weird voo-doo spirit things came out), or if I wanted to share my popcorn/candy or if I wanted some of her popcorn/candy. After the movie we went to a restaurant called VIPS where I watched my hermanita falsa turn into my favorite cousin Katie as she completely demolished/polished off an adult sized portion of ribs. After the meal we went back home and I more or less grabbed my keys and left to go watch the Superbowl (at this point it was already 12:30 and well into the first quarter).
I made it to the Irish pub called O'Neills which is right next to my school at the end of the 1st quarter. I was warmly welcomed by pretty much everyone who had been on the Ronda-Marbella trip with me and nearly 80% of the students in my program, along with another million Americans. The game wasn’t all that exciting in the beginning as most of you should know. At half time we all got free hot dogs… which most people were excited about (not me, since hot dogs = gross!) until they found out that the hot dogs came with ketchup, mustard, and MAYO… Even grosser. I stayed until the end of the 3rd quarter (approximately 3:30 am) and crawled into bed for some much needed sleep.
¡…and the REAL(?) classes begin!
On Monday I had my first “real” class at 9 am- International Marketing. It went pretty well, the prof just read through the syllabus and since I had it right in front of me and could read along as he spoke rapid-speed Spanish. After class on Monday I called the taxi company a few times until the woman finally just started hanging up on me, and then I took a siesta and went to Starbucks to read for a little bit. That night I met a nice Portugese woman who trusted me enough to watch her stuff things while she used the restroom. I was a bit disappointed though when she asked me since she asked me in English - I mean do I REALLY seem that out of place/look THAT American? Then I realized the book I was reading was written in English and I was by myself at a Starbucks which really only foreigners do. Oh well.
On Tuesday I had my next set of “real” classes – International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and International Finance. I loved my INCR professor – a really beautiful Spanish woman who is beyond nice and likes to laugh at us silly Americans when we try to answer her questions. Then I went on a grand adventure during my three hour break (since my REAL REAL class that I’m taking with real Spanish students doesn’t start until Feb 16th) with my crippled friend Nikki to find a present for her Mom for when she flew back to the US this past weekend to get her cast off! Then I went to my next class where my IF professor was MIA so the man that teaches the same class in the Fall semester came and presented the syllabus – nothing too exciting there. After I went to buy my textbooks and oh boy does the US have a lot to learn. I mean sure paying 18€ for a three ring binder with colored tabs is a bit outrageous, but seeing as the professor prints off all of the material we need (ie: lecture notes, articles, readings, etc) I think I actually got a pretty good deal. AND my Marketing book was a steal too! Only 8€ for the entire book with includes all the of reading materials, powerpoints of all the lectures and any/all case studies we'll be doing. Seriously Iowa.... get with the program. After classes on Tuesday I met up with Nikki again to continue our shopping spree. We went into pretty much every store on Calle Sierpes and Calle Tetuan that appeared to sell either watches or necklace and when that appeared to be fruitless we began checking all the touristy stores on Avenida de la Constitucion. Sadly we ended the night sans presents... and I was not feeling well.
When I got home I got really sick and skipped dinner (since I didn't think I'd be able to keep in down) and slept. I forced myself out of bed the next morning for class (which was a dumb idea) only to come racing home as soon as the professor starting closing his powerpoint. I spent the rest of Wednesday in bed. My Señora made me grilled cheese and a cup of warm milk with sugar. On Thursday things still weren't looking great but I made it through my first class. Napped during my break. And made it through my finance class (with my awesome and new favorite professor!!!). I was MUCH more excited about things and felt a bit better after IF. We talked about the EU (and for ONCE didn't talk about the depressing Spanish economy) and the different international markets and all things that made me happy. It was a similar feeling to when I visited the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and was on the floor when the market opened and got SO excited I needed to run off to the bathroom... only this was WAY cooler because it was all happening in Spanish! I went back home, slept some more and by dinner I was feeling much better.
Best Friend = Bad Weather
On Friday morning I woke up and went to a Subjunctive Workshop that my much beloved and missed intensive class professor.... I'm not sure if I learned much but it was great to hang out with Miguel again. I was treated to NOT only a showdown of "Miguel vs. Technology" (the man can't use a computer to save his life) but the patented sweater removal, his Paris Hilton imitation and Brad Pitt comparison. After the workshop I ran out into the pouring rain to find my best friend Laura Hauser who had arrived to come visit for the weekend with her study abroad program in Barcelona. Although she brought the awful cold and rainy weather with her it was wonderful to see her - she had left for Barcelona in the end of December and considering I see her at the very least every other day while at Iowa (and about as frequently back in Orono) there was some hardcore separation anxiety I had to recover from. Luckily her hotel was only a block away from my home-stay. We braved a Noah-esque flood trying to find somewhere to eat lunch, and then she had a tour of la Catedral and I took a nap (still trying to recover from previous illness and make up for the fact that I spent the last 2 hours in 37F rain! GROSS WEATHER SEVILLA!). We meet up with my roommate Kendra and a few of her friends for dinner at a sushi place in Triana (the neighborhood across the river). Once again we braved the rain and the cold but we made it and had a great meal complete with Toblerone and KitKat McFlurrys from McDonalds for dessert.
Saturday I was solo since Laura ditched me for Cordoba and Kendra ditched me for Grenada. I spent a ton of time half-napping/recovering and doing some homework and booking a hotel for my Aunt's visit in April. That night we had planned on getting tapas for dinner but all of the tapas places were full so we ended up getting sushi at a Japanese restaurant by the cathedral. It was DELICIOUS... and much more fun than the night before. There were 5 of us (at a table for 8) and we naturally wanted a group picture. So we asked the two Spanish men waiting for a table since we were sitting right by the door/hostess stand. They obliged (and even took one on more than one camera) as long as they could sit at our table with us. We said sure. The rest of dinner involved English lessons, and all of us pretending to speak Spanish. By the time we had finished and were paying our bill 3 of their friends had come to meet them which meant we made 3 new friends. Once they finished their dinner we left and went on our own merry way - speaking English of course. Laura and I walked through Sevilla for another hour or so before retreating to my house/her hotel for warmth and sleep. On Sunday morning we went to Starbucks for Valentine's Day muffins and coffee and began planning our trip for Semana Santa (sadly the location is still unknown!) and then braved more cold drizzle as we walked through the market of Plaza Nueva and had gross tapas for lunch. Shortly after she headed back to Barcelona and I headed home to warm up. Kendra came back from Grenada later that day and we spent Valentine's Day evening eating Oreos and watching The Holiday!
On Monday I had my Marketing class which was a bit boring, and then spent a couple hours braving the FLOODS with Kendra to try to find notebooks and a cord for her iPod. Instead we found a cute little tea cafe and saved the notebook adventure for today (Tuesday). Later I went to McDonalds with Calli to use their wifi and began planning our trip to Barcelona for the weekend of the 25th. I am officially in love with the Cono con KitKat :) It's only 1€. After doing some quick Google and Wikipedia-style research (PS: I hate that the Financial Times only lets you read ONE article for free a day!!!!) for my classes I watched Practical Magic with Kendra and went to bed... and now onto Today...
martes, el 16 del febrero, 2010. Well, today wasn't exactly great. Mother Nature is hardcore PMS-ing. Seriously, I walked to my first class this morning and was greeted by sunshine... only to find myself walking into a wall of pouring rain a block later (yay for having my handy-umbrella!). My first class was INCR, great professor... enjoyable class. (However I'm beginning to learn that the way to resolve conflict isn't by force? Boy are things different in Spain!) My next class wasn't as great... It was my first session of my class with TRUE SPANISH STUDENTS! Things didn't go so well. Of course I couldn't find the correct classroom and for a minute was about to walk into a HR class until I got up the nerve to ask the girl standing next to me. Then I found my class and walked in just as the professor began to talk. Being the ONLY American in the class everyone stared at me... NOT COOL. And I TRIED really hard to follow everything she said but honestly I don't think I succeeded. I stayed after she finished to ask a few questions (which she didn't exactly answer) and then of course I felt beyond overwhelmed by all of it and felt like crying. Luckily I had a hour before my next class and was able to sit on a bench and write in my journal (in ENGLISH) but OH BOY was it a rough one. Then I had my finance class which made me a LOT happier and I came home, met up with Kendra for our adventure to the Chinese Super Market (read: ultra sketch convenience/grocery/hardware store) and we had some delicious ice cream at a Heladeria. I had the Philadelphia Cream Cheese kind and she had "Crema Cataluna" aka more or less like Creme Brulee. Her's was better.
... AND NOW I'm finally caught up on my blog!
Coming SOON (promise much sooner than the last update!): Ash Wednesday at La Catedral, Round 2 of trying to NOT fail in my Spanish class aka trying not to feel like the New Kid all over again, AND kicking the KitKat McFlurry habit!
30 January 2010
Rebajas + Ice Cream + "Charisma" = Cure for Exam Stress
So, my Thursday evening was horrible! I had to write a 600 word paper based on surveys that we had to hand out and ask Sevillanos to fill out answering questions about the economy in Spain and how they were going to recover from their heavy holiday spending. Seriously? NO FUN! Those are topics you just don't bring up - especially when you're seen as an "extranjero" (of the worst kind - read as: American). It gets worse though, the next survey deals with the Euro being introduced into Spain (which sucked for most Spainards) and the last one involves our class to take a field-trip to visit the Unemployment office in Sevilla and ask the masses of the unemployed various questions about how long they've been in this "condition" and why and what should be done to aleviate their situation. (After this class is done I'm going to need an intensive- therapy session). I also had the joy of studying for my first (2.5 hour) midterm! ¡Qué bueno! In short, I ended up calling home in frustration and asking my sister if she wanted to either a) do my homework and take my test for me or b) pay for my early return ticket. (She said No... so much for the bonds of sisterhood there... I'm kidding Sam!)
Needless to say, after my exam on Friday morning I went home for a much needed siesta and then met up with a few girls from my program for some "retail-therapy." Here we are standing in front of the fountain of Puerta Jerez:
After walking through Puerta Jerez we heading down la Avenida de la Constitucion and onto the shopping streets of Calle Sierpes and Calle Tetuan. Now, some (my mother) may say I'm often guilty of uniform-dressing. This would be true... Even when in Spain. (Sorry!) Anyways, during "Rebajas" a majority of the inventory is half off so they can move it out for next seasons stuff so seeing as I'll never be given the opportunity to buy these items ever again I bought two things - a black dress with cute little pleated sleeve things (10,00€) and a long black tank top with some sequin stripes (2,00€). I promise that they're cute and while they look like the other black dress and tank top I brought from home they're COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!!! I went shopping in the great stores of Inditex, a large Spanish corporation that can be found on the IBEX 35 (think DOW JONES) and in nearly every paper I wrote in Pilar's Advanced Business Spanish class at Iowa (the corporation has an extremely unique inventory/managerial structure that enables them to take a brand new design and have it produced, distributed, and on the mannequins in less than 2 weeks. The Inditex Corp. owns Zara (think Gap) and Massimo Dutti (Banana Republic) and Pull & Bear (think um, a younger-hip-ish store that I really don't shop in... maybe the Buckle?) and Oysho (think Victoria Secret but younger... like Pink) and u, like 4 other stores (Those are just the ones I went in.) So I mean ultimately I was just furthering my educational experiencing by making a purchase at a store I had been studying for the last two years --- right???
After the shopping extravaganza we stopped at a café across the street from the BEAUTIFUL cathedral (La Catedral) where I had the MOST delicious ice cream: Philadelphia Cream Cheese with Blueberries... Can you say, ¡Mmmmmmm! (that's Spansih for: Yummmmm.) I'm for sure going to buy Laura Hauser her very own PCCB ice cream cone as my Valentine's present for her when she comes to visit since she LOVES cream cheese :) (Gosh, I'm a good friend!) Post shopping I went back to my casa for dinner and watched online television with my roommate Kendra. We ALMOST tried ordering pizza (since neither of us wanted to put nice enough clothes on to walk to the pizza place) but then realized we probably wouldn’t be able to stay up late enough to even pick up the delivery so we just went to bed.
On Saturday I woke up at 11, meet a friend of my from the awful flight fiasco who is in a different program based in Sevilla for a café con leche and some good ol' fashion "we love Jesus" conversation. We began our hunt for a church to go to on Sunday morning and ended up not being able to find the place before we had to leave for lunch. (Oh well.) I then had lunch and adventured back out into the city to meet my pillow-hunting-buddy for the grand adventure to IKEA! We had plans to take the 4:30 bus from la Estación de Autobuses de Plaza de Armas - only one slight problem... I had no idea where this bus station was. Believe it or not I was only 2 minutes late! But my 2 minutes of tardiness meant we had to wait another 28 for the next bus. Luckily, my hunter friend (Brett) has already acclimated to the Spanish lifestyle and realized he doesn't have any real schedule so wasn't too upset with the delay... (If only SOMEONE back in the US could adopt such an attitude!) The bus ride to IKEA was great, we were able to see the suburb-like areas of Sevilla and it was absolutely beautiful. Very green, rolling hills, great houses on cliff-like streets... and finally IKEA itself. (Don't worry - I took a picture!) It was a great load of fun running around through the maze of housewares and comparing everything to what we have back in the US. Added bonus: vocab lesson! Plus, I got another pillow :) The rest of Saturday night was spent in my house spending quality with Kendra watching Bones (yay! new favorite show?)
Now onto today (Sunday): I went to a “charismatic” sort of Christian church with a boy I met on my flight to Spain and a girl from his program this morning. We also met two other American students who were there, and I meet a couple of girls on Friday afternoon while eating that delicious ice cream who are Christians and may be interested in church-hunting throughout the next few weeks. So this morning… let me tell you, it was quite the experience. Now, it may have just been a bit weird since I’m Lutheran and well, Lutheran’s aren’t exactly “charismatic.” The first half hour was spent in prayer and everyone in the pews just prayed – whispering, normal-voice talking, a few who were truly yelling out. It was a very powerful and moving experience to have a surround sound system of noise that I couldn’t quite make out but I knew what it meant – it was an entire group of people just crying out to their God. Then there was a good half hour of singing where people were standing and clapping and dancing and praising in a way I have rarely seen. That was followed up by a good hour and half of testimonials and a sermon… all in Español. I would like to say I understood all of it but really, I doubt it. I mean I understood most of it, but put it all together into a cognitive piece of information didn’t quite happen. It makes me VERY worried for when my real classes start!!! But in all it was an enjoyable experience and I’ll definitely come back. My one dislike was that it was so long it made me miss the mass at La Catedral which I’m assuming is going to be absolutely breath-taking to see hundreds of people file in to the third largest cathedral in the world! Hopefully I’ll be able to do that next weekend.
So I made it home around 2, had a cup of espresso with Kendra and plowed through some homework, Skype-d (well sort of… my internet connection leaves a lot to be desired so every couple of minutes the call cuts out and we have to try again… Quite the process!) with Bails and Nel and LP. Wrote this blog post… and now am going to finish writing the paper I have due tomorrow, and maybe call home to the parents to check in!
5 more days of the intensive session! Let the countdown begin :)
Needless to say, after my exam on Friday morning I went home for a much needed siesta and then met up with a few girls from my program for some "retail-therapy." Here we are standing in front of the fountain of Puerta Jerez:
After walking through Puerta Jerez we heading down la Avenida de la Constitucion and onto the shopping streets of Calle Sierpes and Calle Tetuan. Now, some (my mother) may say I'm often guilty of uniform-dressing. This would be true... Even when in Spain. (Sorry!) Anyways, during "Rebajas" a majority of the inventory is half off so they can move it out for next seasons stuff so seeing as I'll never be given the opportunity to buy these items ever again I bought two things - a black dress with cute little pleated sleeve things (10,00€) and a long black tank top with some sequin stripes (2,00€). I promise that they're cute and while they look like the other black dress and tank top I brought from home they're COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!!! I went shopping in the great stores of Inditex, a large Spanish corporation that can be found on the IBEX 35 (think DOW JONES) and in nearly every paper I wrote in Pilar's Advanced Business Spanish class at Iowa (the corporation has an extremely unique inventory/managerial structure that enables them to take a brand new design and have it produced, distributed, and on the mannequins in less than 2 weeks. The Inditex Corp. owns Zara (think Gap) and Massimo Dutti (Banana Republic) and Pull & Bear (think um, a younger-hip-ish store that I really don't shop in... maybe the Buckle?) and Oysho (think Victoria Secret but younger... like Pink) and u, like 4 other stores (Those are just the ones I went in.) So I mean ultimately I was just furthering my educational experiencing by making a purchase at a store I had been studying for the last two years --- right???
After the shopping extravaganza we stopped at a café across the street from the BEAUTIFUL cathedral (La Catedral) where I had the MOST delicious ice cream: Philadelphia Cream Cheese with Blueberries... Can you say, ¡Mmmmmmm! (that's Spansih for: Yummmmm.) I'm for sure going to buy Laura Hauser her very own PCCB ice cream cone as my Valentine's present for her when she comes to visit since she LOVES cream cheese :) (Gosh, I'm a good friend!) Post shopping I went back to my casa for dinner and watched online television with my roommate Kendra. We ALMOST tried ordering pizza (since neither of us wanted to put nice enough clothes on to walk to the pizza place) but then realized we probably wouldn’t be able to stay up late enough to even pick up the delivery so we just went to bed.
On Saturday I woke up at 11, meet a friend of my from the awful flight fiasco who is in a different program based in Sevilla for a café con leche and some good ol' fashion "we love Jesus" conversation. We began our hunt for a church to go to on Sunday morning and ended up not being able to find the place before we had to leave for lunch. (Oh well.) I then had lunch and adventured back out into the city to meet my pillow-hunting-buddy for the grand adventure to IKEA! We had plans to take the 4:30 bus from la Estación de Autobuses de Plaza de Armas - only one slight problem... I had no idea where this bus station was. Believe it or not I was only 2 minutes late! But my 2 minutes of tardiness meant we had to wait another 28 for the next bus. Luckily, my hunter friend (Brett) has already acclimated to the Spanish lifestyle and realized he doesn't have any real schedule so wasn't too upset with the delay... (If only SOMEONE back in the US could adopt such an attitude!) The bus ride to IKEA was great, we were able to see the suburb-like areas of Sevilla and it was absolutely beautiful. Very green, rolling hills, great houses on cliff-like streets... and finally IKEA itself. (Don't worry - I took a picture!) It was a great load of fun running around through the maze of housewares and comparing everything to what we have back in the US. Added bonus: vocab lesson! Plus, I got another pillow :) The rest of Saturday night was spent in my house spending quality with Kendra watching Bones (yay! new favorite show?)
Now onto today (Sunday): I went to a “charismatic” sort of Christian church with a boy I met on my flight to Spain and a girl from his program this morning. We also met two other American students who were there, and I meet a couple of girls on Friday afternoon while eating that delicious ice cream who are Christians and may be interested in church-hunting throughout the next few weeks. So this morning… let me tell you, it was quite the experience. Now, it may have just been a bit weird since I’m Lutheran and well, Lutheran’s aren’t exactly “charismatic.” The first half hour was spent in prayer and everyone in the pews just prayed – whispering, normal-voice talking, a few who were truly yelling out. It was a very powerful and moving experience to have a surround sound system of noise that I couldn’t quite make out but I knew what it meant – it was an entire group of people just crying out to their God. Then there was a good half hour of singing where people were standing and clapping and dancing and praising in a way I have rarely seen. That was followed up by a good hour and half of testimonials and a sermon… all in Español. I would like to say I understood all of it but really, I doubt it. I mean I understood most of it, but put it all together into a cognitive piece of information didn’t quite happen. It makes me VERY worried for when my real classes start!!! But in all it was an enjoyable experience and I’ll definitely come back. My one dislike was that it was so long it made me miss the mass at La Catedral which I’m assuming is going to be absolutely breath-taking to see hundreds of people file in to the third largest cathedral in the world! Hopefully I’ll be able to do that next weekend.
So I made it home around 2, had a cup of espresso with Kendra and plowed through some homework, Skype-d (well sort of… my internet connection leaves a lot to be desired so every couple of minutes the call cuts out and we have to try again… Quite the process!) with Bails and Nel and LP. Wrote this blog post… and now am going to finish writing the paper I have due tomorrow, and maybe call home to the parents to check in!
5 more days of the intensive session! Let the countdown begin :)
26 January 2010
Pillows. Intense. Cold.
Well, the Intensive class is Intensive. My pillow is pathetic. And I'm STILL COLD!
Yesterday I started my Intensive Language class "Español por Negocios" aka Business Spanish. Luckily Iowa offers two "business spanish" classes (Business Spanish and Advanced Business Spanish) and I've taken both of them and therefore have a far more extensive knowledge of vocab then I should and appear to be a lot smarter than I actually am. It's three hours of Spanish vocab, Spanish grammar, and Spanish culture - as if living in Spain isn't going to be enough, we have to spend the first two weeks reviewing everything we should have learned in the past and added about 1 bilón (which is actually = 1,000,000,000,000 not 1,000,000,000 like you would think) extra rules and details and conditions and clauses and of course, "el subjuntivo" aka the subjunctive aka death by grammar! Regardless, I know I'm going to both be mocked and at some point will regret saying this but it's really nice to be in classes again - it gives me something to focus on other than how much I miss everyone from home... and I actually have learned something in the week-ish I've been here and it's semi-noticable! ¡Olé!
So um fyi I'm not so much loving the sleeping situation here. First off the hours are pretty much INSANE. It's "normal" to wake up at 8, sleep from oh 1:30/2-ish until 4/5-ish and then stay up until the middle of the night... Now yes I made it through most of sophomore year with little to no sleep every night but I had the all powerful energy supplements of Nel and Bails and the confined area of the Panic Room... Well, not so much in Sevilla, HENCE the great Pillow Hunt. So after class and a quick siesta oh and a meeting to register for my real classes, off I run with a fellow study abroad student to "el Corte Ingles" aka world's most expensive department store ever where we found teeny tiny pillows that would have done nothing to improve my sleep. Our next plan is to somehow find a way to the IKEA that is ONLY 5 miles away. Is that "walk-able"? After shopping for housewares we had some café con leche and a delicious dessert that I had the waiter pick out for me. It was delicious and only 1.50€ and I should have taken a picture of it using the Food mode but I didn't... I'm pretty sure they had more though!
So classes: I will be taking Finanzas Internacionales, Marketing Internacionales, International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, and US Production and Operations Management. The last class I listed will be taken at the Universidad de Sevilla with spanish students and will require me to stay in Sevilla until the middle of June-ish (if I'm lucky.... technically I'm supposed to stay until the end of July but that is WAY too long.) Now I know, half of your heart is jumping for joy because it means that since I'll be here longer it gives you more time to save up your money so that you can fly out here and visit me... but the other half of your heart is crushed because it actually means that I'll be gone for as long as I initially said I would be which is of course... way too long!
Today during our 15 minute break in the middle of the three hour intensive class I had a tostada = more or less a small loaf of bread cut in half and toasted... Don't fret, they give you both halves for a grand total of 0.60€ ~ $1.00 :) It's delicious and VERY filling. After class I went home, did some homework and then met a few girls to go shopping for "las rebajas." Every January/February and June/July the stores in Spain have what is called "rebajas" or discounts/Victoria Secret's Semi-Annual sale :) Unfortunately I didn't find anything I had to have but I'll keep looking.
Well, now it's midnight and I can go to bed without being made fun of too much... actually, the 10-year-old is still awake... I might have to post-again.
Yesterday I started my Intensive Language class "Español por Negocios" aka Business Spanish. Luckily Iowa offers two "business spanish" classes (Business Spanish and Advanced Business Spanish) and I've taken both of them and therefore have a far more extensive knowledge of vocab then I should and appear to be a lot smarter than I actually am. It's three hours of Spanish vocab, Spanish grammar, and Spanish culture - as if living in Spain isn't going to be enough, we have to spend the first two weeks reviewing everything we should have learned in the past and added about 1 bilón (which is actually = 1,000,000,000,000 not 1,000,000,000 like you would think) extra rules and details and conditions and clauses and of course, "el subjuntivo" aka the subjunctive aka death by grammar! Regardless, I know I'm going to both be mocked and at some point will regret saying this but it's really nice to be in classes again - it gives me something to focus on other than how much I miss everyone from home... and I actually have learned something in the week-ish I've been here and it's semi-noticable! ¡Olé!
So um fyi I'm not so much loving the sleeping situation here. First off the hours are pretty much INSANE. It's "normal" to wake up at 8, sleep from oh 1:30/2-ish until 4/5-ish and then stay up until the middle of the night... Now yes I made it through most of sophomore year with little to no sleep every night but I had the all powerful energy supplements of Nel and Bails and the confined area of the Panic Room... Well, not so much in Sevilla, HENCE the great Pillow Hunt. So after class and a quick siesta oh and a meeting to register for my real classes, off I run with a fellow study abroad student to "el Corte Ingles" aka world's most expensive department store ever where we found teeny tiny pillows that would have done nothing to improve my sleep. Our next plan is to somehow find a way to the IKEA that is ONLY 5 miles away. Is that "walk-able"? After shopping for housewares we had some café con leche and a delicious dessert that I had the waiter pick out for me. It was delicious and only 1.50€ and I should have taken a picture of it using the Food mode but I didn't... I'm pretty sure they had more though!
So classes: I will be taking Finanzas Internacionales, Marketing Internacionales, International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, and US Production and Operations Management. The last class I listed will be taken at the Universidad de Sevilla with spanish students and will require me to stay in Sevilla until the middle of June-ish (if I'm lucky.... technically I'm supposed to stay until the end of July but that is WAY too long.) Now I know, half of your heart is jumping for joy because it means that since I'll be here longer it gives you more time to save up your money so that you can fly out here and visit me... but the other half of your heart is crushed because it actually means that I'll be gone for as long as I initially said I would be which is of course... way too long!
Today during our 15 minute break in the middle of the three hour intensive class I had a tostada = more or less a small loaf of bread cut in half and toasted... Don't fret, they give you both halves for a grand total of 0.60€ ~ $1.00 :) It's delicious and VERY filling. After class I went home, did some homework and then met a few girls to go shopping for "las rebajas." Every January/February and June/July the stores in Spain have what is called "rebajas" or discounts/Victoria Secret's Semi-Annual sale :) Unfortunately I didn't find anything I had to have but I'll keep looking.
Well, now it's midnight and I can go to bed without being made fun of too much... actually, the 10-year-old is still awake... I might have to post-again.
24 January 2010
Audrey Hepburn was WRONG?!?!
So in My Fair Lady, Audrey Hepburn said that the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plains. She's wrong. I'm currently in the Mediterranean region, and we've had two days of rain. Not anything too intense, but a pretty regular drizzle - enough to make the chilly-air seem even colder. It also doesn't help that the house is freezing - marble floors and concrete walls don't do too much for insulation. Needless to say I've spent as much time as possible in my bed under all my covers and wearing my sweats.
The weekends seem to be far less exciting than the weeks here in Spain - unless you're willing/able to stay out until 4 or 5 in the morning... which I'm not. On Friday night my small group from orientation had tapas in "Alemeda de Hercules" which was on the complete opposite side of downtown than where we began. It was a great walk through all of the tiny alleys and we ran into a couple of kid's in the CIEE Liberal Arts program from the University of Minnesota. After tapas I came back to my house and just as I was about to get into bed my new roommate Kendra (from UNC -Chapel Hill) asked if I wanted to go downtown with her and her friends from school. Honestly, I didn't want to but I didn't want to seem rude since it was our first night together... so I did. Next thing I know it's already 3am so we came back home and slept... Finally!
The next day was when the ran came and most of the city shuts down around 3 in the afternoon. Sadly I was hoping to get my cell phone on my way to my meeting about the internship program which was at 6, but that didn't happen. So instead I walked around downtown for a couple of hours- WITHOUT GETTING LOST!!! After our session at the CIEE Study Center for the internship program I walked home with a guy from Indiana from my small group and a girl from St. Thomas who was on all of the crazy flights. Unfortunately the girl from St. Thomas broke her foot the day before we left for Spain and is on crutches making the whole walking process a bit difficult. Well, making things even more difficult, she didn't exactly no where she lived - nor did she have the address with her so we more of less walked in circles for a good two hours. It turns out we walked by her house 4 or 5 times earlier that night. At least now I know where she lives so I can be of more help next time but it was a nice night (the rain stopped for awhile and we had fun jumping in/over/around puddles) and it was nice to talk to someone in half english/half spanish :)
Today, was a lot like yesterday... full of napping and huddling in my blankets! I had a meeting this morning about Safety/Security, Fun in Spain, Activities put on by CIEE, and a ton of other various things. After that it was lunch time where my hermanita told a ton of jokes (none of which I understood). I FINALLY understood one and started laughing and she clapped for me :)
Tomorrow I start my Intensive Language classes and will register for my official classes. And now it's back into bed to stay warm!
The weekends seem to be far less exciting than the weeks here in Spain - unless you're willing/able to stay out until 4 or 5 in the morning... which I'm not. On Friday night my small group from orientation had tapas in "Alemeda de Hercules" which was on the complete opposite side of downtown than where we began. It was a great walk through all of the tiny alleys and we ran into a couple of kid's in the CIEE Liberal Arts program from the University of Minnesota. After tapas I came back to my house and just as I was about to get into bed my new roommate Kendra (from UNC -Chapel Hill) asked if I wanted to go downtown with her and her friends from school. Honestly, I didn't want to but I didn't want to seem rude since it was our first night together... so I did. Next thing I know it's already 3am so we came back home and slept... Finally!
The next day was when the ran came and most of the city shuts down around 3 in the afternoon. Sadly I was hoping to get my cell phone on my way to my meeting about the internship program which was at 6, but that didn't happen. So instead I walked around downtown for a couple of hours- WITHOUT GETTING LOST!!! After our session at the CIEE Study Center for the internship program I walked home with a guy from Indiana from my small group and a girl from St. Thomas who was on all of the crazy flights. Unfortunately the girl from St. Thomas broke her foot the day before we left for Spain and is on crutches making the whole walking process a bit difficult. Well, making things even more difficult, she didn't exactly no where she lived - nor did she have the address with her so we more of less walked in circles for a good two hours. It turns out we walked by her house 4 or 5 times earlier that night. At least now I know where she lives so I can be of more help next time but it was a nice night (the rain stopped for awhile and we had fun jumping in/over/around puddles) and it was nice to talk to someone in half english/half spanish :)
Today, was a lot like yesterday... full of napping and huddling in my blankets! I had a meeting this morning about Safety/Security, Fun in Spain, Activities put on by CIEE, and a ton of other various things. After that it was lunch time where my hermanita told a ton of jokes (none of which I understood). I FINALLY understood one and started laughing and she clapped for me :)
Tomorrow I start my Intensive Language classes and will register for my official classes. And now it's back into bed to stay warm!
22 January 2010
my first stay in my home stay!
I'm currently sitting in my official bedroom in Sevilla :) My home is located in what I think is a perfect place! It's a good walk onto the business school campus (which is separate from the central campus) but it is only a couple blocks from the central campus, not too far from the Plaza de Espana, less than ten-ish minutes from the CIEE Study Center (aka what will become my second home) and it's somewhat near the river (that I have yet to see but have heard a TON about.) More or less its a pretty central location. It's just on the edge of downtown Sevilla. I have to admit that when we were first brought our hotel I was extremely disappointed. Our hotel was located on the edge of the city - about halfway between downtown and the airport (I think...) and it was a fairly modern place. I expected tiny little streets and alleys and cafes on street corners and cobblestone and brick and statues and churches just surrounding me... Luckily all of that is in downtown which is only a couple of blocks away. My family consists of a woman and her two daughters - one who is twenty and one who is ten... Sound familiar? Quite frankly that is far too much of a coincidence to have been planned by anyone but God so Amen to that :) My "madre" is great and pretends that I speak spanish well enough for her to understand - we both know she's lying and trying to make me feel better but it's the thought that counts. Our conversation during lunch (which was pisto: cooked vegetables mixed with tomato paste) today seemed to go pretty smoothly, but my head is spinning!
I have the results from my language placement test and but am not 100% sure what they mean. I've been advised to NOT take the business writing course (this is a good thing... it means I'm an adequate writer as is.... ha... those of you reading this are shaking your heads is disbelief.) and I'm supposed to take CIEE Artes Liberales y Cursos para Extranjeros.... (Don't worry, I'll talk to one of my peers and/or guías for an exact confirmation of which classes I can take) I'm pretty sure this means I can take classes at the University of Sevilla with Spanish students instead of only with other Americans in the tiny little study center... I'll let you know.
Today we spent the morning on a wild goose hunt. Literally. Our guías left us at the hotel and told us what landmark they would be at and we had to find each of them... It went really well until the end when for some odd reason we weren't supposed to have finished as quickly as we did because our final stop didn't have a guía there and when we called we were told we weren't supposed to be there for another hour. So, instead we walked around the city some more. My feet and legs are dead! Time for una siesta before I have dinner with the study abroad group.
I have the results from my language placement test and but am not 100% sure what they mean. I've been advised to NOT take the business writing course (this is a good thing... it means I'm an adequate writer as is.... ha... those of you reading this are shaking your heads is disbelief.) and I'm supposed to take CIEE Artes Liberales y Cursos para Extranjeros.... (Don't worry, I'll talk to one of my peers and/or guías for an exact confirmation of which classes I can take) I'm pretty sure this means I can take classes at the University of Sevilla with Spanish students instead of only with other Americans in the tiny little study center... I'll let you know.
Today we spent the morning on a wild goose hunt. Literally. Our guías left us at the hotel and told us what landmark they would be at and we had to find each of them... It went really well until the end when for some odd reason we weren't supposed to have finished as quickly as we did because our final stop didn't have a guía there and when we called we were told we weren't supposed to be there for another hour. So, instead we walked around the city some more. My feet and legs are dead! Time for una siesta before I have dinner with the study abroad group.
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