So I'm currently sitting looking at my empty armoire and freaking out a little bit. This has been where I've lived, slept, cried, laughed, done homework, hung out with people, made friends, and grown over the last three and a half months. How do I just say goodbye to a place that's changed my life so much? How is it possible that I actually am not ready to leave yet?
I've decided that it's not going to be terribly difficult to say goodbye to the city of Granada itself, but it will be very difficult to say goodbye to everything that I associate with this place, like all of my friends and memories. I know I'll still have both of those things, but it just won't be the same back in Chicago and Champaign. I think I'm going to feel, at least for a little while, like I'm missing part of myself. Because how do you go from seeing people every day to not seeing them at all? And furthermore, how do you go from sharing the same experiences and the same hardships back to normal life?
I think Steve put it really well. He said, "while I'm not ready to leave Granada yet, if everyone else went home and I was here by myself, I don't think it would be worth it to stay." Granada, for me, is the people I've met, the friends I've made, and the memories I'll hold on to for a long time. Some of my favorite memories are:
-Walking around looking for/avoiding zombies in the Alpujarras with Steve
-Batan
-The last day we had in Rome - perfect weather, we saw beautiful things, and I was just on top of the world
-Walking around Barcelona with Melissa and having a really good conversation with her
-The bike tour through Tuscany
-Salsa lessons
-Short-sheeting Steve's bed in Florence
-Devon's birthday/Camborio
-Farewell dinner/Granada Diez
-Just being able to relax
-Getting to walk around in Paris with Brett and talk
-The wind storm in Algeceiras (haha...)
-Hanging out in the biblioteca
-Halloween
-Thanksgiving dinner
There are a few things that I'm not going to miss, however, such as:
-No central heating
-Crappy Internet
-Nonexistent customer service
-Cigarette smoke EVERYWHERE
Don't get me wrong, I am very excited to go home and see my parents, Paul, Stratford House, and the Banambra (in that order), but leaving is still sad and hard to handle. I want to go home for Christmas because I am so excited about giving everyone their presents (and I hope nothing breaks while I am traveling, because I would be so incredibly upset, especially the liquids...) and I am so excited (strangely enough) to see all of my aunts and uncles and cousins and just enjoy a good, old-fashioned Christmas with them.
I am definitely not excited for the next day and a half. We have to take a bus to Malaga from 7p-9p, then a train from the bus station to the airport from 1015-1045 (or something like that), and then hanging out ALL night in the Malaga airport, checking in at 4 in the morning, taking a flight from Malaga to Paris from 705a-930a, having a layover in Paris, then taking a nine and a half hour flight from Paris to Chicago from 115p (Paris time) to 340p (Chicago time). AND I'm really congested, so it's probably going to hurt to fly. I decided that my nose is protesting the insane amount of cigarette smoke that I've been around the last three and a half months by choosing to not let me breath anymore. Darn cigarette smoke... It probably also doesn't help that my hair stays wet for several hours due to it being too cold in the apartment for the water to evaporate off of my head.
I am definitely a different person leaving here than I was coming here. I am so much more relaxed, I trust the Lord infinitely more, and I know and really understand that people are so much more important than school could ever be and it's okay to take breaks from studying and hang out with people, and I know that the Lord has got complete and total control over my life, and He knows what He's doing, and I can trust that and not be afraid. I think I am a lot more liberal as a person, more outgoing, more human, but I love the Lord so much more and I trust Him so much more, and even though those two things seem contradictory, I can't imagine myself growing in any other way. I am a liberal Christian, and I love it. I don't know that I've been happier with myself as a person, ever, so that has to be something good.
Well folks, I made it. See you on the flip side.
Dos besos...
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
In a world where children get penetrated, broken, and eaten...
I am DONE with finals!!! Whoo hoo!! It is a wonderful feeling, let me tell you.
I just wanted to tell a story about our culture presentations today. We had to give expositions on our volunteer work (or our groupings with Spaniards over this past semester). So, during our expositions, one guy was trying to say that he introduced himself to these little kids but accidentally said the verb for "insert or penetrate" and our professor's eyes got all wide and she was like, "no! no! that's not the right verb!" And then one guy was trying to say that he broke up a fight between two boys but ended up saying that he broke them. And then another guy said he met some kids and he ate Chinese food with them, but the way he said it was like, "I met some kids that I ate with Chinese food," like he ate the kids and the Chinese food at the same time. It was fabulous. We had such a good time in that class today.
It's weird to think that I'm going home in only four days. But... right now I'm going out with some friends so I'll have to update later (once again...)
Dos besos!!!
I just wanted to tell a story about our culture presentations today. We had to give expositions on our volunteer work (or our groupings with Spaniards over this past semester). So, during our expositions, one guy was trying to say that he introduced himself to these little kids but accidentally said the verb for "insert or penetrate" and our professor's eyes got all wide and she was like, "no! no! that's not the right verb!" And then one guy was trying to say that he broke up a fight between two boys but ended up saying that he broke them. And then another guy said he met some kids and he ate Chinese food with them, but the way he said it was like, "I met some kids that I ate with Chinese food," like he ate the kids and the Chinese food at the same time. It was fabulous. We had such a good time in that class today.
It's weird to think that I'm going home in only four days. But... right now I'm going out with some friends so I'll have to update later (once again...)
Dos besos!!!
Monday, December 8, 2008
Internet at the Piso = not such a good thing
I don't have too much time to update because I should be studying for finals but I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still here, still doing well, and actually not ready to come home yet. Isn't that ridiculous?
Anyways, I mostly just want to tell everyone to go look at my pictures, even though they aren't all labeled yet (I'll do it when I'm done with finals, I promise). And I'll update my life when I'm done with finals, too. But... yeah.
Dos besos!
Anyways, I mostly just want to tell everyone to go look at my pictures, even though they aren't all labeled yet (I'll do it when I'm done with finals, I promise). And I'll update my life when I'm done with finals, too. But... yeah.
Dos besos!
Monday, December 1, 2008
Uhh... November When??/Boot Fever/"Bond" in Spanish is still Bond
Oh my goodness, I can't believe it's already December! November seriously FLEW by ridiculously fast, and now I only have thirteen days left in Spain! Where did the time go?? It probably got sucked into my trips to Paris, Barcelona, and Madrid, and my four exams, two presentations, and a paper. Being busy sure makes time fly!
So this weekend was SO busy. On Thursday, everyone in our program got all gussied up and we went to this really nice Spanish restaurant for a "traditional Thanksgiving dinner." I ended up walking around in heels half an hour previous to this dinner due to someone mistakenly telling me they were at a bar on one street, when they were actually at a bar on another street, so my feet were not very happy with me when we got to the restaurant. Anyways, they got the food right (pumpkin soup, turkey, stuffing (sort of), cranberry sauce (literally sauce, not like the jellied stuff), and mashed potatoes) but their portion sizes were a little off (as in way smaller than we're used to). We all just had to face it - nothing beats Thanksgiving at home, where you eat until you go into a literal food coma and then all of your uncles fall asleep "watching the football game." It was a good time, though, and we all ended up hanging out until like three or four in the morning, which was fantastic. It's always good when different groups of friends within the program hang out because we all get along really well; it's just generally too difficult to plan something for all 45 of us.
Friday, Melissa and I celebrated a traditional Black Friday - we shopped... all day. We met up about noon (so five in the morning in Chicago, prime Black Friday shopping time) and were shopping until about seven. I know; me, shopping for seven hours. Pretty crazy, right? We did take probably a two and a half hour break in the middle for lunch (and then waiting for the stores to open up again after siesta), but we were pretty much shopping for the rest of the time. We both ended up getting lots of wonderful things (for ourselves and then LOTS of Christmas presents - I finished shopping for my mom, dad, and sister). After that, Steve met up with us for churros con chocolate and pretty much as soon as he met up with us, he took our bags (and there were a lot of them) and carried them the entire time we were with him. What a gentleman! After we got churros, Melissa headed home but Steve and I roamed around in Corte Ingles for like an hour and a half. We looked at all of the board games and electronics and sports stuff. I didn't end up getting home until 930, so I was out of the house for a full nine and a half hours that day! Now THAT'S one heck of a Black Friday. (It was nice that no one else was celebrating with us, because American Black Friday shoppers are actually kind of scary)
I did get a pair of boots while shopping and I LOVE them. I seriously, love, love, LOVE them and I spent a good portion of yesterday trying on different outfits while wearing them. And now I really want a pair of brown boots so that I can wear boots with my brown clothes as well. I have quite seriously caught boot fever.
Saturday, I did homework all. day. long. It was quite brutal, but I was preparing for my finals, since I have my first one on Thursday (again, WHERE did the time go??). Then I met up with Steve, Brad, and Andrew to go see a movie. We decided to see the new James Bond movie but we had about an hour before it was going to start so we just walked around the mall for a while. We happened upon this strange gaming place and they had this thing that was sort of like a batting cage, except that it had four guns, two on each side, so you were shooting these soft balls at each other. So, of course, the boys were intrigued, so we all went in and it was actually quite a blast. I did get hit quite a few times, but I got a couple of good hits in as well.
So then the movie: it was in Spanish. That's right, I watched my first James Bond movie in Spanish. I got really caught up in the little details of the movie, so it took me a couple of days to decide what I thought of the movie, but in the end I decided I liked it. I did feel like it was just James Bond going to a whole bunch of different countries and killing a whole bunch of people. But apparently that's Bond, so... yeah. Definitely quite the experience.
In any case, I think this is a sufficiently overly-long update,, so until next time,
DOS BESOS!!
So this weekend was SO busy. On Thursday, everyone in our program got all gussied up and we went to this really nice Spanish restaurant for a "traditional Thanksgiving dinner." I ended up walking around in heels half an hour previous to this dinner due to someone mistakenly telling me they were at a bar on one street, when they were actually at a bar on another street, so my feet were not very happy with me when we got to the restaurant. Anyways, they got the food right (pumpkin soup, turkey, stuffing (sort of), cranberry sauce (literally sauce, not like the jellied stuff), and mashed potatoes) but their portion sizes were a little off (as in way smaller than we're used to). We all just had to face it - nothing beats Thanksgiving at home, where you eat until you go into a literal food coma and then all of your uncles fall asleep "watching the football game." It was a good time, though, and we all ended up hanging out until like three or four in the morning, which was fantastic. It's always good when different groups of friends within the program hang out because we all get along really well; it's just generally too difficult to plan something for all 45 of us.
Friday, Melissa and I celebrated a traditional Black Friday - we shopped... all day. We met up about noon (so five in the morning in Chicago, prime Black Friday shopping time) and were shopping until about seven. I know; me, shopping for seven hours. Pretty crazy, right? We did take probably a two and a half hour break in the middle for lunch (and then waiting for the stores to open up again after siesta), but we were pretty much shopping for the rest of the time. We both ended up getting lots of wonderful things (for ourselves and then LOTS of Christmas presents - I finished shopping for my mom, dad, and sister). After that, Steve met up with us for churros con chocolate and pretty much as soon as he met up with us, he took our bags (and there were a lot of them) and carried them the entire time we were with him. What a gentleman! After we got churros, Melissa headed home but Steve and I roamed around in Corte Ingles for like an hour and a half. We looked at all of the board games and electronics and sports stuff. I didn't end up getting home until 930, so I was out of the house for a full nine and a half hours that day! Now THAT'S one heck of a Black Friday. (It was nice that no one else was celebrating with us, because American Black Friday shoppers are actually kind of scary)
I did get a pair of boots while shopping and I LOVE them. I seriously, love, love, LOVE them and I spent a good portion of yesterday trying on different outfits while wearing them. And now I really want a pair of brown boots so that I can wear boots with my brown clothes as well. I have quite seriously caught boot fever.
Saturday, I did homework all. day. long. It was quite brutal, but I was preparing for my finals, since I have my first one on Thursday (again, WHERE did the time go??). Then I met up with Steve, Brad, and Andrew to go see a movie. We decided to see the new James Bond movie but we had about an hour before it was going to start so we just walked around the mall for a while. We happened upon this strange gaming place and they had this thing that was sort of like a batting cage, except that it had four guns, two on each side, so you were shooting these soft balls at each other. So, of course, the boys were intrigued, so we all went in and it was actually quite a blast. I did get hit quite a few times, but I got a couple of good hits in as well.
So then the movie: it was in Spanish. That's right, I watched my first James Bond movie in Spanish. I got really caught up in the little details of the movie, so it took me a couple of days to decide what I thought of the movie, but in the end I decided I liked it. I did feel like it was just James Bond going to a whole bunch of different countries and killing a whole bunch of people. But apparently that's Bond, so... yeah. Definitely quite the experience.
In any case, I think this is a sufficiently overly-long update,, so until next time,
DOS BESOS!!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Madrid!! and... The End is Near.
So I just got home from my last traveling extravaganza, visiting my sister in Madrid, and it was lovely!
We did a self-led walking tour on Friday and saw the Plaza de Espana, the Temple of Debod (SOO amazing!! It's the only piece of Egyptian architecture (or one of the only ones) that can be found outside of Egypt (that wasn't stolen... *cough* Paris *cough*)), Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol (with the plaque commemorating the middle of Spain), Puerta de Alcala, Parque del Retiro, and Palacio de Cristales.
Then on Saturday we went to the Prado Museum and saw religious paintings, and portraits of royalty, and Greek/Roman mythology, and then more religious works, and more religious works, and more portraits, and MORE religious works. By the end, I was like, "dear goodness, how many pictures with the same theme can you have in ONE building??" But then we went to the Reina Sofia and that was really cool, although I liked the second floor better than the fourth floor (the permanent collection is divided up into these two floors, with art from the early 1900's to the avant-garde movement on the second floor, and then more contemporary art on the fourth floor (read: modern art)) but I REALLY liked the second floor so it made up for it. (I got to see Picasso's Guernica... :)!!!!)
On Sunday we went to the Rastro, which is basically like this giant flea market, but it was wonderful! I bought lots of presents for other people and for myself, and had a really good time with my sister. It did get SUPER busy, though, like so busy that we could barely walk down the aisles. It was kind of insane. I was sick for the duration of the trip (darn sinus infection), but it didn't hinder anything we wanted to do, which was nice.
I'm really glad I went to Madrid because I really enjoyed getting to see my sister, but Barcelona is still my favorite city in Spain that I visited (sorry other Spanish cities...)
In other news, I only have twenty days left in Spain. Holy cow. I'm going to be home and get to see all of my friends and family within the month. I'm incredibly excited, but actually kind of feeling bittersweet about the whole thing. I mean, yes, I'm SO ready to get home and have all of the comforts of home (love of family, friends, Pauly, central heating, Internet...), but it's just going to be weird to go home and not be in this place that I've finally really gotten used to. There's still a bunch of stuff that I want to do before I go, so I'm going to have to make sure I fit it all in!
In all honesty, though, if I don't burst of excitement within the next twenty days at the thought of getting to see my novio very soon, I might just burst when I do see him. So, if you see me and I'm looking a little jumbled, it's because I exploded and had to put myself back together again.
Just thought I'd warn you all.
: )
We did a self-led walking tour on Friday and saw the Plaza de Espana, the Temple of Debod (SOO amazing!! It's the only piece of Egyptian architecture (or one of the only ones) that can be found outside of Egypt (that wasn't stolen... *cough* Paris *cough*)), Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol (with the plaque commemorating the middle of Spain), Puerta de Alcala, Parque del Retiro, and Palacio de Cristales.
Then on Saturday we went to the Prado Museum and saw religious paintings, and portraits of royalty, and Greek/Roman mythology, and then more religious works, and more religious works, and more portraits, and MORE religious works. By the end, I was like, "dear goodness, how many pictures with the same theme can you have in ONE building??" But then we went to the Reina Sofia and that was really cool, although I liked the second floor better than the fourth floor (the permanent collection is divided up into these two floors, with art from the early 1900's to the avant-garde movement on the second floor, and then more contemporary art on the fourth floor (read: modern art)) but I REALLY liked the second floor so it made up for it. (I got to see Picasso's Guernica... :)!!!!)
On Sunday we went to the Rastro, which is basically like this giant flea market, but it was wonderful! I bought lots of presents for other people and for myself, and had a really good time with my sister. It did get SUPER busy, though, like so busy that we could barely walk down the aisles. It was kind of insane. I was sick for the duration of the trip (darn sinus infection), but it didn't hinder anything we wanted to do, which was nice.
I'm really glad I went to Madrid because I really enjoyed getting to see my sister, but Barcelona is still my favorite city in Spain that I visited (sorry other Spanish cities...)
In other news, I only have twenty days left in Spain. Holy cow. I'm going to be home and get to see all of my friends and family within the month. I'm incredibly excited, but actually kind of feeling bittersweet about the whole thing. I mean, yes, I'm SO ready to get home and have all of the comforts of home (love of family, friends, Pauly, central heating, Internet...), but it's just going to be weird to go home and not be in this place that I've finally really gotten used to. There's still a bunch of stuff that I want to do before I go, so I'm going to have to make sure I fit it all in!
In all honesty, though, if I don't burst of excitement within the next twenty days at the thought of getting to see my novio very soon, I might just burst when I do see him. So, if you see me and I'm looking a little jumbled, it's because I exploded and had to put myself back together again.
Just thought I'd warn you all.
: )
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Dear goodness...
I am listening to Christmas music already...
I have found that it makes for excellent background music when I am studying, or avoiding studying, as I'm doing right now. It's just so pretty!!
It also reminds me of home and warm fires crackling in the fireplace, and hot cocoa with marshmellows, and being at my Grandma's house for Christmas, and being so excited to give my family and friends everything I've bought for them here.
I have found that it makes for excellent background music when I am studying, or avoiding studying, as I'm doing right now. It's just so pretty!!
It also reminds me of home and warm fires crackling in the fireplace, and hot cocoa with marshmellows, and being at my Grandma's house for Christmas, and being so excited to give my family and friends everything I've bought for them here.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Barca!!!
So... Barcelona is officially my favorite city in Spain that I've visited so far.
It really was just wonderful. We had gorgeous weather (low 60's the entire weekend) and there is just SO MUCH to do there!! We visited Las Ramblas (a famous street with lots of shops that runs into the Mediterranean), the beach (they're actually fake and the sand gets brought up from Egypt every few years), the statue of Christopher Columbus "pointing to the sea", the Plaza Real (built by the Bacard family - yes, when you thought Bacardi rum, you were thinking correctly), the old palace for Ferdinand and Isabel, Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Casa Mila La Pedrera and Casa Batllo (but didn't go into either of these, just saw them from the outside), the Picasso museum (this was wonderful, and I decided that I like early Picasso a LOT and I really don't appreciate later Picasso very much), and lots of other random places.
We also signed up for a cooking class where we learned how to make sangria and paella. The sangria was absolutely fantastic!! I'm super excited to get that recipe and try it when I get home - it's supposed to be better if you let it sit overnight first so I'll definitely have to do that. The paella was decent, definitely not as good as when my senora's dad makes it. It did have prawns in it (read: shrimp with a head, eyes, antennae, skin, and feet) but I braved the storm and peeled and ate them, and actually thought they were quite delicious!
The only really bad thing about Barcelona is that the people who run the gift shops are all REALLY pushy. We'd go into a store and if we spent even more than a couple moments looking at something, they'd come up to us and tell us how much it was. AND they followed REALLY closely behind us ALL the time, and it really made me not want to buy anything from them, so I really didn't.
I absolutely LOVED the Sagrada Familia and Park Guell (see my Picasa album for pictures!!). I'd seen it all in pictures before and it was just thrilling to get to see it in person and take my OWN pictures of the places! I really wanted to go inside Casa Batllo as well but it was 16,50 euro to get in, which was WAY too expensive... I was just so excited to see all of Gaudi's stuff, since I'd done a presentation on him in high school. It was fabulous!
So... yeah, Barcelona is pretty amazing as far as Spanish cities are concerned, and if given the opportunity, I'd go back in a heartbeat (because there was still stuff that we didn't get to see because we didn't have enough time).
I've got one more trip to Madrid to see Megan this upcoming weekend, and then I am done traveling. While I'm sad that I'm not going to get to see EVERYTHING that I want to see here in Europe, I think, on the whole, I made good decisions about my travel destinations and I enjoyed my time in them. Additionally, my feet have been yelling at me this last week and a half to STOP WALKING EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME! Goodness, they are tired. I think it's some sort of combination of all the traveling I've done and just plain walking everywhere, but my feet are looking forward to a break, a day where they don't have to be constantly walking.
Also, I can't believe that I'll be home in four weeks! It's such a weird thought for me, because for a lot of this trip, I thought it would never end, but now, the end is FAST approaching and I can't believe how quickly it seems to have gone (quickly and not at the same time). I mean, I'm visiting my sister this weekend, and then it's Thanksgiving, and then almost right after that I'll have finals, and then I'm going home. It's like, bam! bam! bam! all going at once.
I feel like a rock that has been traveling over this giant hill for the time that I've been here, at least since the halfway point. Right after the halfway point, I felt like things were still moving decently slowly, but now I'm rolling and picking up speed now that I'm halfway down the hill. Such an odd thought to be almost done with such a life-changing semester...
It really was just wonderful. We had gorgeous weather (low 60's the entire weekend) and there is just SO MUCH to do there!! We visited Las Ramblas (a famous street with lots of shops that runs into the Mediterranean), the beach (they're actually fake and the sand gets brought up from Egypt every few years), the statue of Christopher Columbus "pointing to the sea", the Plaza Real (built by the Bacard family - yes, when you thought Bacardi rum, you were thinking correctly), the old palace for Ferdinand and Isabel, Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, Casa Mila La Pedrera and Casa Batllo (but didn't go into either of these, just saw them from the outside), the Picasso museum (this was wonderful, and I decided that I like early Picasso a LOT and I really don't appreciate later Picasso very much), and lots of other random places.
We also signed up for a cooking class where we learned how to make sangria and paella. The sangria was absolutely fantastic!! I'm super excited to get that recipe and try it when I get home - it's supposed to be better if you let it sit overnight first so I'll definitely have to do that. The paella was decent, definitely not as good as when my senora's dad makes it. It did have prawns in it (read: shrimp with a head, eyes, antennae, skin, and feet) but I braved the storm and peeled and ate them, and actually thought they were quite delicious!
The only really bad thing about Barcelona is that the people who run the gift shops are all REALLY pushy. We'd go into a store and if we spent even more than a couple moments looking at something, they'd come up to us and tell us how much it was. AND they followed REALLY closely behind us ALL the time, and it really made me not want to buy anything from them, so I really didn't.
I absolutely LOVED the Sagrada Familia and Park Guell (see my Picasa album for pictures!!). I'd seen it all in pictures before and it was just thrilling to get to see it in person and take my OWN pictures of the places! I really wanted to go inside Casa Batllo as well but it was 16,50 euro to get in, which was WAY too expensive... I was just so excited to see all of Gaudi's stuff, since I'd done a presentation on him in high school. It was fabulous!
So... yeah, Barcelona is pretty amazing as far as Spanish cities are concerned, and if given the opportunity, I'd go back in a heartbeat (because there was still stuff that we didn't get to see because we didn't have enough time).
I've got one more trip to Madrid to see Megan this upcoming weekend, and then I am done traveling. While I'm sad that I'm not going to get to see EVERYTHING that I want to see here in Europe, I think, on the whole, I made good decisions about my travel destinations and I enjoyed my time in them. Additionally, my feet have been yelling at me this last week and a half to STOP WALKING EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME! Goodness, they are tired. I think it's some sort of combination of all the traveling I've done and just plain walking everywhere, but my feet are looking forward to a break, a day where they don't have to be constantly walking.
Also, I can't believe that I'll be home in four weeks! It's such a weird thought for me, because for a lot of this trip, I thought it would never end, but now, the end is FAST approaching and I can't believe how quickly it seems to have gone (quickly and not at the same time). I mean, I'm visiting my sister this weekend, and then it's Thanksgiving, and then almost right after that I'll have finals, and then I'm going home. It's like, bam! bam! bam! all going at once.
I feel like a rock that has been traveling over this giant hill for the time that I've been here, at least since the halfway point. Right after the halfway point, I felt like things were still moving decently slowly, but now I'm rolling and picking up speed now that I'm halfway down the hill. Such an odd thought to be almost done with such a life-changing semester...
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Random
So, I know I posted yesterday, but I have been having some serious flashbacks from home. And it's weird because I'm actually NOT homesick, so I have no idea why I've been randomly getting memories from college and high school. Like the following:
-Reading a Streetcar Named Desire in J-Pot's junior year English class and CJ having to yell "Stella", which he did quite unenthusiastically
-Watching One Tree Hill on Valentine's Day freshman year of college and then having Paul come to the door of Stratford with b-e-a-utiful roses
-Finding out I didn't get into Cornell U and then having to go to work afterwards
-when we had to do a presentation on Rumpelstiltskin (I think it was) in Coan's junior year English class (I'm feeling a trend from this year)
-Carpooling with Ian senior year of high school
-When the second floor girls pretended the hallway was a runway and had a fashion show after the Victoria's Secret fashion show
And just all these other random memories, and it's been really, quite the weird experience. Just thought I'd put this up, even though it's really a pointless post.
-Reading a Streetcar Named Desire in J-Pot's junior year English class and CJ having to yell "Stella", which he did quite unenthusiastically
-Watching One Tree Hill on Valentine's Day freshman year of college and then having Paul come to the door of Stratford with b-e-a-utiful roses
-Finding out I didn't get into Cornell U and then having to go to work afterwards
-when we had to do a presentation on Rumpelstiltskin (I think it was) in Coan's junior year English class (I'm feeling a trend from this year)
-Carpooling with Ian senior year of high school
-When the second floor girls pretended the hallway was a runway and had a fashion show after the Victoria's Secret fashion show
And just all these other random memories, and it's been really, quite the weird experience. Just thought I'd put this up, even though it's really a pointless post.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Paris and other ramblings
Oh. My. Goodness. Paris is SUCH a beautiful city! I'm so glad that I went, like for serious. Plus, it was really good to get to hang out with people from home; it was kind of like we were just taking a trip randomly (minus that I had to spend a good amount of time working on a presentation for my culture class). Plus, we got to see Brett, which I was so incredibly excited about.
We went on a free walking tour and saw a whole bunch of stuff that I can't pronounce (including the French Academy, the New Bridge, the Grand Palace and the Petite Palace, see my Picasa album) and had a really cool tour guide. Then we saw the Louvre (I was shockingly not as impressed by this as I thought I was going to be; yeah, it has a lot of cool art, but just not my style of art, and it said it had a big section on Spanish art and there were only a few paintings), the Eiffel Tower (WAY bigger than I thought it was going to be, and it was really pretty at night; we even got to see it sparkle!), the Arc D'Triomphe (also very cool, and gargantuan), Moulin Rouge (but it wasn't open so we couldn't go inside, but the street that it was on was quite sketchy (most definitely the red light district)), Sacre Coeur (There was a service going on, so it was kind of awkward, but cool nonetheless), and the Musee d'Orsay (I loved, loved, LOVED this museum; it's the museum with all of the impressionist paintings, and it has Cervantes, Degas, Monet, Manet, Picasso, and all of these other artists and I was so blown away). It was just a wonderful trip, although I'm not sure I've ever spent that much money on food in one weekend.
In other news, I can't believe that I only have a little over a month left here. Now that I'm traveling and seriously in the downhill slope and have a ton of school assignments to occupy my time with, time is seriously flying. I can't believe that I've been here for over seventy-five days already. That is SUCH a long time!! I will say, though, I am still incredibly excited to head back to Champaign and see everyone that I haven't seen in a long time. I'm feeling very sad to have missed some of the Koin/Strat events this semester, which seems so ridiculous to say because I'm in EUROPE, but still.
Also, I can't tell you how busy I'm going to be in the next three weeks or so. I had a culture presentation today (that went well, I think), an art history take-home test due tomorrow, a linguistics exam next Wednesday (the 19th - after my weekend in Barcelona), and then an art history paper due the 24th, as well as an art history presentation the 24th (after my weekend in Madrid). So I'm going to definitely have to use my time wisely in these next few weeks, and still find time to spend with people since I won't be around for a couple of weekends. I just have to keep reminding myself that school isn't everything and that people are more important than school.
Other than that, I don't have too much else to report, except that my sister decided to come home for Christmas, which I'm incredibly excited about, because I thought it would be really sad for her to be by herself on Christmas and also for us to be without her. So yay!
We went on a free walking tour and saw a whole bunch of stuff that I can't pronounce (including the French Academy, the New Bridge, the Grand Palace and the Petite Palace, see my Picasa album) and had a really cool tour guide. Then we saw the Louvre (I was shockingly not as impressed by this as I thought I was going to be; yeah, it has a lot of cool art, but just not my style of art, and it said it had a big section on Spanish art and there were only a few paintings), the Eiffel Tower (WAY bigger than I thought it was going to be, and it was really pretty at night; we even got to see it sparkle!), the Arc D'Triomphe (also very cool, and gargantuan), Moulin Rouge (but it wasn't open so we couldn't go inside, but the street that it was on was quite sketchy (most definitely the red light district)), Sacre Coeur (There was a service going on, so it was kind of awkward, but cool nonetheless), and the Musee d'Orsay (I loved, loved, LOVED this museum; it's the museum with all of the impressionist paintings, and it has Cervantes, Degas, Monet, Manet, Picasso, and all of these other artists and I was so blown away). It was just a wonderful trip, although I'm not sure I've ever spent that much money on food in one weekend.
In other news, I can't believe that I only have a little over a month left here. Now that I'm traveling and seriously in the downhill slope and have a ton of school assignments to occupy my time with, time is seriously flying. I can't believe that I've been here for over seventy-five days already. That is SUCH a long time!! I will say, though, I am still incredibly excited to head back to Champaign and see everyone that I haven't seen in a long time. I'm feeling very sad to have missed some of the Koin/Strat events this semester, which seems so ridiculous to say because I'm in EUROPE, but still.
Also, I can't tell you how busy I'm going to be in the next three weeks or so. I had a culture presentation today (that went well, I think), an art history take-home test due tomorrow, a linguistics exam next Wednesday (the 19th - after my weekend in Barcelona), and then an art history paper due the 24th, as well as an art history presentation the 24th (after my weekend in Madrid). So I'm going to definitely have to use my time wisely in these next few weeks, and still find time to spend with people since I won't be around for a couple of weekends. I just have to keep reminding myself that school isn't everything and that people are more important than school.
Other than that, I don't have too much else to report, except that my sister decided to come home for Christmas, which I'm incredibly excited about, because I thought it would be really sad for her to be by herself on Christmas and also for us to be without her. So yay!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Happy Birthday Ruthie-face!!!!!
Dear Spain,
When the rest of the world jumped on the central heating bandwagon, where were you?
In other news, I got to spend this weekend in Granada where it was, shockingly enough, RAINING all weekend, and very cold. There's just something so different about a rainy day when you can't curl up inside your warm house with a big comfy blanket. The rainy days here are just miserable. BUT, despair not, because I still had a fairly good weekend. We celebrated Halloween the best way we could on this side of the ocean, and it was actually quite enjoyable. I got to spend a lot of time with a lot of people that I don't normally hang out with and I quite enjoyed myself.
But I'm really just posting to avoid studying for my linguistics exam (second test in one day, whoo!...), so I'm going to go do that.
Hasta luegino!!
When the rest of the world jumped on the central heating bandwagon, where were you?
In other news, I got to spend this weekend in Granada where it was, shockingly enough, RAINING all weekend, and very cold. There's just something so different about a rainy day when you can't curl up inside your warm house with a big comfy blanket. The rainy days here are just miserable. BUT, despair not, because I still had a fairly good weekend. We celebrated Halloween the best way we could on this side of the ocean, and it was actually quite enjoyable. I got to spend a lot of time with a lot of people that I don't normally hang out with and I quite enjoyed myself.
But I'm really just posting to avoid studying for my linguistics exam (second test in one day, whoo!...), so I'm going to go do that.
Hasta luegino!!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Third Post in a Row!!
Sorry guys, I just wanted to post a frustration really quickly:
So throughout Semana Blanca (our week break), I was under the impression that I was going to have a culture exam AND a linguistics exam this upcoming Wednesday (the 29th). However, during culture today, my professor decided to change the day to a week from today (the 3rd). So I was pretty excited about that, because then I could study for each exam individually and still do well. But THEN in my linguistics class, my professor decided to change the date of my exam as well. What day did he change it to, you ask? Yeah, next Monday. Dangit! AND I have a culture presentation the tenth, but I'm not going to be in town the 6th-9th (AT ALL) and my partner also has both of those tests the same day AND her boyfriend is coming into town tomorrow or the next day. So basically, my next two weeks are going to be very busy school-wise... lovely.
So throughout Semana Blanca (our week break), I was under the impression that I was going to have a culture exam AND a linguistics exam this upcoming Wednesday (the 29th). However, during culture today, my professor decided to change the day to a week from today (the 3rd). So I was pretty excited about that, because then I could study for each exam individually and still do well. But THEN in my linguistics class, my professor decided to change the date of my exam as well. What day did he change it to, you ask? Yeah, next Monday. Dangit! AND I have a culture presentation the tenth, but I'm not going to be in town the 6th-9th (AT ALL) and my partner also has both of those tests the same day AND her boyfriend is coming into town tomorrow or the next day. So basically, my next two weeks are going to be very busy school-wise... lovely.
Venice!!
And... my Venice update.
We had quite the interesting time finding our hostel. It was on the mainland (and pretty far in), so we had to take a bus, but the directions from the hostel were really bad, so we ended up at the Marco Polo airport. We found the street on the way back (after asking in two different pizza parlors), but then the street address didn't exist. We found a building that had the same name as our hostel, but when we buzzed, no one answered. So we were out there for about an hour before this Italian woman came in her car and let us in. And she only spoke Italian so we couldn't be like, "where the heck were you? We've been here for an exceptionally long time." But we got it all figured out (we just didn't end up going back into Venice because we were so tired of trying to figure out travel situations). The hostel was really pretty; it was more like a mini-apartment, which was great. We did wake up to a rooster crowing, though...
We also just walked around in Venice, since we only had one day to explore. We went to Saint Mark's Square (but I wasn't nearly as impressed as I thought I was going to be because it was just the cathedral and then a big open space with a bunch of shops all around it). We also took a boat to Murano and got to see a blown glass demonstration, and it was phenomenal. He made this little glass horse in like five minutes. The only thing is that when he finished, as people were leaving, he took it and just pitched it! It was crazy that he didn't just sell it to someone.
But Venice was really pretty. We did get lost like four or five times because a lot of the streets ended at a canal, or just ended for no apparent reason.
We were all pretty ready to head back to Granada, though. We did have one heck of a travel day. To save the unnecessary words, I'll just list our itinerary:
411 bus from hostel to island of Venice
Arrive 430ish
540 shuttle from Venice to Treviso Airport
Arrive 640ish
8am flight from Venice to Rome
Arrive 9am
115pm flight from Rome to Madrid
Arrive 330ish
530 bus from Madrid to Granada
Arrive 1030
Home.
It was SUCH a long day. We did keep ourselves occupied in the early morning hours (the first two buses) by discussing (in GREAT detail) what we would do if zombies attacked. No joke. The conversation lasted probably around two hours.
But I am glad to be home, and will be posting another update immediately following this one documenting my new situation!
We had quite the interesting time finding our hostel. It was on the mainland (and pretty far in), so we had to take a bus, but the directions from the hostel were really bad, so we ended up at the Marco Polo airport. We found the street on the way back (after asking in two different pizza parlors), but then the street address didn't exist. We found a building that had the same name as our hostel, but when we buzzed, no one answered. So we were out there for about an hour before this Italian woman came in her car and let us in. And she only spoke Italian so we couldn't be like, "where the heck were you? We've been here for an exceptionally long time." But we got it all figured out (we just didn't end up going back into Venice because we were so tired of trying to figure out travel situations). The hostel was really pretty; it was more like a mini-apartment, which was great. We did wake up to a rooster crowing, though...
We also just walked around in Venice, since we only had one day to explore. We went to Saint Mark's Square (but I wasn't nearly as impressed as I thought I was going to be because it was just the cathedral and then a big open space with a bunch of shops all around it). We also took a boat to Murano and got to see a blown glass demonstration, and it was phenomenal. He made this little glass horse in like five minutes. The only thing is that when he finished, as people were leaving, he took it and just pitched it! It was crazy that he didn't just sell it to someone.
But Venice was really pretty. We did get lost like four or five times because a lot of the streets ended at a canal, or just ended for no apparent reason.
We were all pretty ready to head back to Granada, though. We did have one heck of a travel day. To save the unnecessary words, I'll just list our itinerary:
411 bus from hostel to island of Venice
Arrive 430ish
540 shuttle from Venice to Treviso Airport
Arrive 640ish
8am flight from Venice to Rome
Arrive 9am
115pm flight from Rome to Madrid
Arrive 330ish
530 bus from Madrid to Granada
Arrive 1030
Home.
It was SUCH a long day. We did keep ourselves occupied in the early morning hours (the first two buses) by discussing (in GREAT detail) what we would do if zombies attacked. No joke. The conversation lasted probably around two hours.
But I am glad to be home, and will be posting another update immediately following this one documenting my new situation!
Florence!!
So... this is my Florence update. : )
Florence is such a beautiful city; I actually spent most of my time here just walking around and looking at the city, rather than doing anything in it (because everything costs a lot to get in). We didn't have very good weather on Tuesday or Thursday (the days I was actually in the city), but that's okay.
On Wednesday, we did this bike tour through the Tuscan countryside and it was a B-E-A-Utiful day (you should check out my pictures to see just how amazing it was)! It was quite interesting to re-learn to ride a bike (I'd only ridden once in the last eight years...), but I had a really good time. We got to see how they make and ferment and bottle the wine (and we got to taste it, of course) in this absolutely gorgeous castle. Our guide, Mary, was also pretty amazing; she had a great sense of humor and definitely knew what she was talking about. Basically, the countryside was beautiful, the wine was good, the weather was perfect, and the people were fun. It was just a great day all around.
Then I went and watched the sunset up at Piazzale Michelangelo, and it was wonderful (even more so because I found a sunset setting on my camera).
Thursday I hit up the Duomo, and I was pretty impressed. The inside of the church itself wasn't that cool, but the outside and the cupola and the dome were amazing. I walked all 467 steps to the top, and just relaxed up there for a little bit. It wasn't busy at all, so that was wonderful.
I also visited the Santa Croce basilica, which (unfortunately) was under some sort of construction, so there was lots of not pretty stuff covering all of the pretty stuff, but I still thought it was a wonderful building.
Yeah, even though I didn't see too much, I really enjoyed my time here (especially in the Tuscan countryside), and I am going to post my next update immediately following posting this one documenting my time in Venice.
Florence is such a beautiful city; I actually spent most of my time here just walking around and looking at the city, rather than doing anything in it (because everything costs a lot to get in). We didn't have very good weather on Tuesday or Thursday (the days I was actually in the city), but that's okay.
On Wednesday, we did this bike tour through the Tuscan countryside and it was a B-E-A-Utiful day (you should check out my pictures to see just how amazing it was)! It was quite interesting to re-learn to ride a bike (I'd only ridden once in the last eight years...), but I had a really good time. We got to see how they make and ferment and bottle the wine (and we got to taste it, of course) in this absolutely gorgeous castle. Our guide, Mary, was also pretty amazing; she had a great sense of humor and definitely knew what she was talking about. Basically, the countryside was beautiful, the wine was good, the weather was perfect, and the people were fun. It was just a great day all around.
Then I went and watched the sunset up at Piazzale Michelangelo, and it was wonderful (even more so because I found a sunset setting on my camera).
Thursday I hit up the Duomo, and I was pretty impressed. The inside of the church itself wasn't that cool, but the outside and the cupola and the dome were amazing. I walked all 467 steps to the top, and just relaxed up there for a little bit. It wasn't busy at all, so that was wonderful.
I also visited the Santa Croce basilica, which (unfortunately) was under some sort of construction, so there was lots of not pretty stuff covering all of the pretty stuff, but I still thought it was a wonderful building.
Yeah, even though I didn't see too much, I really enjoyed my time here (especially in the Tuscan countryside), and I am going to post my next update immediately following posting this one documenting my time in Venice.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
ROME!
Holy cow, I'm in Italy!!!
I'll try to be as concise as possible to save you all the boredom of my impossibly long stories.
So we got to Rome on Friday without a hitch (yay!), and didn't end up doing too much. We met some Australians who were staying in our hostel and recommended this pizza place that charged you by the weight (and it was fantastic, by the way). We also visited the Piazza della Repubblica, which was really pretty at night. Unfortunately, I couldn't get really good pictures of it because I couldn't get my hand to stay still.
Saturday we went with the Australians to see the Vatican city. We didn't get there until ten because one of them (Dan) thought there was this free tour at 1030 (but this wasn't true), so we ended up getting in this HUGE line to see St. Peter's Basilica. We had a bunch of tour guides come up to us and ask us if we wanted a guided tour, but they were all really expensive, so we kept saying no. But then we found out that the pope (for whatever reason) decided he wanted to close the Sistine Chapel at one and that we weren't going to get in to see it if we stayed in that line. We eventually haggled this one tour guide down to 20 euro (including admission fee when everyone else on the tour paid 25 euro and then the 14 euro admission fee; it was pretty sweet). I really liked our tour guide, and what's more, I LOVED the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel (we got in JUST in time to see it), and St. Peter's Basilica. I felt like I was walking around with my mouth wide open the entire time.
Then on Friday night, we took ourselves on a walking tour through Rome. We saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, adn the Spanish Steps. I got some pretty sweet night shots of them (which you should check out on my pictures page).
Saturday, four of us went to the Villa Borghese, specifically the Galleria Borghese. Oh. My. Goodness. It was absolutely amazing. The walls and ceilings and even the floors were just COVERED in all of this fabulous art. AND I got to see Bernini's David, Apollo and Daphne, adn Rape of Persephone. I was completely blown away. We also got to check out the Villa itself for a little while and it was just so pretty; it was like this giant part with all of these sculptures and fountains, and it was just wonderful.
We got to see the Coliseum and the Roman Forum on Saturday, and they were both SUPER cool. The Roman Forum was actually a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be (it helped that we had a really good tour guide). I was just really excited to have gotten to see both of those things at night and then again during the day. I felt like I learned a lot, too, so that was a bonus.
Sunday we took ourselves on a tour of Rome, and we actually walked across the entire main part of the city throughout the day. We visited Santa Maria degli Angeli (has the MOST beautiful stained glass I've ever seen), the Trevi fountain (which wasn't on because they were working on it), the Pantheon (amazing dome!!), St. Ignacio di Loyola (BEST CEILING EVER!!), Piazza Navona (sad that the fountain was under construction), Castel Sant' Angelo, and then just walked down the Tiber River. It was a fantastic day.
So... I think everyone should visit my Picasa page and look at all of the wonderful pictures that I took. And I will update again after Florence!!
I'll try to be as concise as possible to save you all the boredom of my impossibly long stories.
So we got to Rome on Friday without a hitch (yay!), and didn't end up doing too much. We met some Australians who were staying in our hostel and recommended this pizza place that charged you by the weight (and it was fantastic, by the way). We also visited the Piazza della Repubblica, which was really pretty at night. Unfortunately, I couldn't get really good pictures of it because I couldn't get my hand to stay still.
Saturday we went with the Australians to see the Vatican city. We didn't get there until ten because one of them (Dan) thought there was this free tour at 1030 (but this wasn't true), so we ended up getting in this HUGE line to see St. Peter's Basilica. We had a bunch of tour guides come up to us and ask us if we wanted a guided tour, but they were all really expensive, so we kept saying no. But then we found out that the pope (for whatever reason) decided he wanted to close the Sistine Chapel at one and that we weren't going to get in to see it if we stayed in that line. We eventually haggled this one tour guide down to 20 euro (including admission fee when everyone else on the tour paid 25 euro and then the 14 euro admission fee; it was pretty sweet). I really liked our tour guide, and what's more, I LOVED the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel (we got in JUST in time to see it), and St. Peter's Basilica. I felt like I was walking around with my mouth wide open the entire time.
Then on Friday night, we took ourselves on a walking tour through Rome. We saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Roman Forum, the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, adn the Spanish Steps. I got some pretty sweet night shots of them (which you should check out on my pictures page).
Saturday, four of us went to the Villa Borghese, specifically the Galleria Borghese. Oh. My. Goodness. It was absolutely amazing. The walls and ceilings and even the floors were just COVERED in all of this fabulous art. AND I got to see Bernini's David, Apollo and Daphne, adn Rape of Persephone. I was completely blown away. We also got to check out the Villa itself for a little while and it was just so pretty; it was like this giant part with all of these sculptures and fountains, and it was just wonderful.
We got to see the Coliseum and the Roman Forum on Saturday, and they were both SUPER cool. The Roman Forum was actually a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be (it helped that we had a really good tour guide). I was just really excited to have gotten to see both of those things at night and then again during the day. I felt like I learned a lot, too, so that was a bonus.
Sunday we took ourselves on a tour of Rome, and we actually walked across the entire main part of the city throughout the day. We visited Santa Maria degli Angeli (has the MOST beautiful stained glass I've ever seen), the Trevi fountain (which wasn't on because they were working on it), the Pantheon (amazing dome!!), St. Ignacio di Loyola (BEST CEILING EVER!!), Piazza Navona (sad that the fountain was under construction), Castel Sant' Angelo, and then just walked down the Tiber River. It was a fantastic day.
So... I think everyone should visit my Picasa page and look at all of the wonderful pictures that I took. And I will update again after Florence!!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Italy!!
Hi Everyone!
Starting tomorrow, I am going to be traveling through the fabulous country of Italy for the next ten days! I will try to update during the trip, but I'm not sure how often I'll be able to get online.
Right now, I need to go home and pack (and try to figure out how to fit ten days' worth of stuff plus a laptop into my backpack without it exceeding 10kg or the weird dimension requirements... yay?)
If nothing else, I will let you all know how it goes when I get back!
Italy, here I come!!!
Starting tomorrow, I am going to be traveling through the fabulous country of Italy for the next ten days! I will try to update during the trip, but I'm not sure how often I'll be able to get online.
Right now, I need to go home and pack (and try to figure out how to fit ten days' worth of stuff plus a laptop into my backpack without it exceeding 10kg or the weird dimension requirements... yay?)
If nothing else, I will let you all know how it goes when I get back!
Italy, here I come!!!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Morocco??
Oh. My. Goodness. This weekend was absolutely insane. We spent SO much of it either traveling or waiting to travel; it was absolutely ridiculous. We left Granada at one on Friday to get to the boat station, only to find out (after the three hour bus ride and being at the port for about 1.5-2 hours) that there were no boats going out because of the bad weather. So we had to spend the night in this sketchy "hotel" that we nicknamed the Bates Motel, because it was seriously that sketchy. It was dirty and the beds were uncomfortable and a lot of the windows didn't lock so they kept flying open because of the wind and the showers mostly just dripped out of the shower heads. We were seriously in the middle of a crazy windstorm, though. I was sitting with Maggie and Kelly and all of a sudden, half of their blind got RIPPED off and flew away. The three of us started screaming and Kaitlin and Katie (who'd walked in just in time to see it get ripped off) started laughing. It was really quite scary.
After dinner, a bunch of us girls decided to brave the storm in search of a grocery store. Holy cow, it was SO windy! Two girls lost their shoes and had to chase them down, and two girls almost got swept away, it was so windy. We were honestly walking at like 45-degree angles for parts of it because the gusts were just so strong. It was the worst when we'd cross a street; Devon actually had to accept the help of this sketchy guy because otherwise she was literally going to blow away. I was really the only person who wasn't really having problems with the wind, which was odd considering I was the smallest in the group. It was a lot of fun, though, and we have some interesting stories, so that's good.
Saturday we had to wake up early to be at the boat station by nine so we could "get on a boat", but we got there and found out there wasn't a boat until eleven. Then when eleven rolled around, we found out that there still weren't any boats, and we might just be going home. About two minutes later, though, they told us that there WAS a boat at one that we were going to take. The boat ride rocked a bunch of people, though, because the water was really choppy so a bunch of people (in our group and not) got motion sickness. It was also really foggy so the boat ride took longer than it should have.
We finally made it to Africa but had to cross the border from Spain to Morocco (because Spain has two cities on the continent of Africa that belong to them, so we docked in Ceuta). There, the travel agent decided to tell us that our guide didn't speak English OR Spanish, and only Arabic and French. We were like, "seriously, can anything ELSE go wrong on this trip?" The guide came on the bus and started talking in Arabic, but then switched to English and Spanish. Dear travel agent: that was NOT funny.
We made it to Tetuaon, but I was really sketched out by it. I swear it was a city FULL of men. There were pretty much literally no women on the streets, and all of the men just stared at us as we walked by them. So uncomfortable. I'm also pretty sure we walked past the black market, because there was this street that was just lined with car parts and electronics and all of this other really random stuff. Then we got to this market-thingy and I was pretty grossed out by that because there was all this fresh meat just hanging out (not refrigerated) and some of it had flies on it. Gag. I think it was the combination of the fact that it got dark really fast and the weather wasn't good and it was just really dirty, but I was not a fan of Tetuaon. They also took us to a Moroccan rug shop (Moroccan rugs are apparently some of the best rugs in the world, second only to Persian rugs, which means they're EXPENSIVE). I thought it was weird that they took a bunch of poor college students to a place where they were asking like a thousand euro for a rug.
Our hotel for Saturday night was MUCH nicer than the "hotel" on Friday night; it was only three months old so everything was brand new, clean, and much more comfortable. The only downside to this hotel was that the showers were definitely all COLD. But the food was good, and it was just someplace to sleep for the night.
On Sunday we went to Chef-Chaouen, and I liked it a LOT more than Tetuaon. It wasn't so much a city as a smaller town, and the weather was nicer, and it was just all around prettier. Everything was blue and white (their colors) and with the nice day, it was just really pretty. We did get roped into going into a blanket shop (they must have had a deal with these places or something), but they wouldn't barter (which IS weird here), so one of the guides took a couple of my friends to another store where they would barter and were selling basically the same things. It was kind of scary, though, because he left with them and then came back alone, and we were like, "what did you do with our friends?!?" They did come back eventually (after we'd left the blanket place), but it was just kind of scary for the moment. I got to go shopping, though, and bought little things for some people, so I'm excited that I actually have stuff to give to people when I get home. (Don't worry, I did get something for myself too).
All in all, with all of the traveling and waiting we did, we spent about 26.5 hours in Morocco out of the 58.5 hours in the weekend (from 1pm Friday to 1130pm Sunday). AND, out of those 26.5 hours we spent in Morocco, I think we only spent 14 hours not traveling or sleeping. It was kind of upsetting, and I think we're going to try to get some of our money back (if for no other reason than the fact that the "hotel" we stayed in on Friday night was no where near as nice as the one we were supposed to be staying at (The one we stayed at on Saturday night). We also didn't get to ride a camel (because we were supposed to do that in Tangiers, but skipped the city all together because we didn't have time). Don't get me wrong, I had a good time, but i would have liked more time in Morocco with less traveling/waiting.
After dinner, a bunch of us girls decided to brave the storm in search of a grocery store. Holy cow, it was SO windy! Two girls lost their shoes and had to chase them down, and two girls almost got swept away, it was so windy. We were honestly walking at like 45-degree angles for parts of it because the gusts were just so strong. It was the worst when we'd cross a street; Devon actually had to accept the help of this sketchy guy because otherwise she was literally going to blow away. I was really the only person who wasn't really having problems with the wind, which was odd considering I was the smallest in the group. It was a lot of fun, though, and we have some interesting stories, so that's good.
Saturday we had to wake up early to be at the boat station by nine so we could "get on a boat", but we got there and found out there wasn't a boat until eleven. Then when eleven rolled around, we found out that there still weren't any boats, and we might just be going home. About two minutes later, though, they told us that there WAS a boat at one that we were going to take. The boat ride rocked a bunch of people, though, because the water was really choppy so a bunch of people (in our group and not) got motion sickness. It was also really foggy so the boat ride took longer than it should have.
We finally made it to Africa but had to cross the border from Spain to Morocco (because Spain has two cities on the continent of Africa that belong to them, so we docked in Ceuta). There, the travel agent decided to tell us that our guide didn't speak English OR Spanish, and only Arabic and French. We were like, "seriously, can anything ELSE go wrong on this trip?" The guide came on the bus and started talking in Arabic, but then switched to English and Spanish. Dear travel agent: that was NOT funny.
We made it to Tetuaon, but I was really sketched out by it. I swear it was a city FULL of men. There were pretty much literally no women on the streets, and all of the men just stared at us as we walked by them. So uncomfortable. I'm also pretty sure we walked past the black market, because there was this street that was just lined with car parts and electronics and all of this other really random stuff. Then we got to this market-thingy and I was pretty grossed out by that because there was all this fresh meat just hanging out (not refrigerated) and some of it had flies on it. Gag. I think it was the combination of the fact that it got dark really fast and the weather wasn't good and it was just really dirty, but I was not a fan of Tetuaon. They also took us to a Moroccan rug shop (Moroccan rugs are apparently some of the best rugs in the world, second only to Persian rugs, which means they're EXPENSIVE). I thought it was weird that they took a bunch of poor college students to a place where they were asking like a thousand euro for a rug.
Our hotel for Saturday night was MUCH nicer than the "hotel" on Friday night; it was only three months old so everything was brand new, clean, and much more comfortable. The only downside to this hotel was that the showers were definitely all COLD. But the food was good, and it was just someplace to sleep for the night.
On Sunday we went to Chef-Chaouen, and I liked it a LOT more than Tetuaon. It wasn't so much a city as a smaller town, and the weather was nicer, and it was just all around prettier. Everything was blue and white (their colors) and with the nice day, it was just really pretty. We did get roped into going into a blanket shop (they must have had a deal with these places or something), but they wouldn't barter (which IS weird here), so one of the guides took a couple of my friends to another store where they would barter and were selling basically the same things. It was kind of scary, though, because he left with them and then came back alone, and we were like, "what did you do with our friends?!?" They did come back eventually (after we'd left the blanket place), but it was just kind of scary for the moment. I got to go shopping, though, and bought little things for some people, so I'm excited that I actually have stuff to give to people when I get home. (Don't worry, I did get something for myself too).
All in all, with all of the traveling and waiting we did, we spent about 26.5 hours in Morocco out of the 58.5 hours in the weekend (from 1pm Friday to 1130pm Sunday). AND, out of those 26.5 hours we spent in Morocco, I think we only spent 14 hours not traveling or sleeping. It was kind of upsetting, and I think we're going to try to get some of our money back (if for no other reason than the fact that the "hotel" we stayed in on Friday night was no where near as nice as the one we were supposed to be staying at (The one we stayed at on Saturday night). We also didn't get to ride a camel (because we were supposed to do that in Tangiers, but skipped the city all together because we didn't have time). Don't get me wrong, I had a good time, but i would have liked more time in Morocco with less traveling/waiting.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
MOROCCO TOMORROW!!!
I'm so, so excited to travel outside of Spain, I can't even tell you. And I'm going to be with a group of like 25-30 other people, so I'll be safe, and I'm just really excited. Plus, it was 190 euro for everything (travel, food, hotel) so how could I pass that up?
I'll let you all know how that goes on Tuesday when I get back and have Internet access again (because Monday is Columbus day and that's apparently a big enough deal to not have classes. AND have everything else in Spain be closed...)
I'll let you all know how that goes on Tuesday when I get back and have Internet access again (because Monday is Columbus day and that's apparently a big enough deal to not have classes. AND have everything else in Spain be closed...)
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Complain-y
So... I just found out yesterday that my grammar exam that I thought was next Thursday is actually this Thursday (a.k.a., tomorrow) because of an error in the syllabus...
SURPRISE!!!
Also, I'm going to be really glad when Semana Blanca is over, as awful as this sounds, because I am tired of planning a trip for five other people who are actually getting annoyed at the fact that I'm planning things. I've been sending everyone in the group e-mails with updates and such, and I had to send another one because I found some trains that we could take while we're over there, and I told a girl in the room that I'd sent her another e-mail, and she was like, "another one??" like it was really so terrible to just read the e-mail and think about it for a second or two and then respond to it. Sorry for making your lives easier by taking care of everything so you don't have to think about it at all. My bad...
SURPRISE!!!
Also, I'm going to be really glad when Semana Blanca is over, as awful as this sounds, because I am tired of planning a trip for five other people who are actually getting annoyed at the fact that I'm planning things. I've been sending everyone in the group e-mails with updates and such, and I had to send another one because I found some trains that we could take while we're over there, and I told a girl in the room that I'd sent her another e-mail, and she was like, "another one??" like it was really so terrible to just read the e-mail and think about it for a second or two and then respond to it. Sorry for making your lives easier by taking care of everything so you don't have to think about it at all. My bad...
Monday, October 6, 2008
Weekend Update/Travel Plans
Good news: I am feeling one hundred percent better!! YAY!!!
So this past Friday, I went to Cordoba with half of my classmates and, I have to be honest, I was kind of disappointed in how not impressive the city is. The only thing really to see there is this Mosque-Cathedral that, coincidentally, Cordoba is famous for. It was a mosque way back in the day and then the Catholics came and turned it into a Cathedral and it was just really pretty and impressive (especially considering it was built a SUPER long time ago and is still standing).
In other news, I am signing up today to go on the trip to Morocco this upcoming weekend, which I am super excited about, because it's going to be my first real trip outside of the Granada area, and a lot of my friends are going.
I'm actually pretty excited about the next couple of months, because this is when I'm going to be doing all of my traveling. The itinerary is as follows:
10-12 October: Morocco
17-26 October: Italy (17-21 Rome, 21-24 Florence, 24-26 Venice)
31 October-2 November: chilling in Granada (after Italy, I figure I'm going to need it)
6-9 November: Madrid visiting Megan!!
13-16 November: Barcelona
21-23 November: Switzerland!! (Hopefully Ticino, but I actually have to plan this first)
28-29 November: Sevilla (assuming I have enough money)
5-8 December: chilling in Granada and preparing for finals
12-14 December: preparing to go home; Malaga (yeah hanging out in the airport all night with ALL of my stuff!); HOME!!!
So yeah, as you can see, I'm going to be pretty busy, but I'm so thrilled about it all, I don't even care how busy it's all going to make me. :) And I feel like I'm not really traveling outside of Spain too, too much (three trips outside of Spain, three trips inside Spain, plus the Alpujarras and Cordoba trips, and Megan visiting Granada, so like six trips inside Spain, plus all the weekends that I've spent just chilling here). So I still feel like I'm enmeshing myself in Spanish and not abandoning it completely in favor of English-speaking countries or whatever.
So this past Friday, I went to Cordoba with half of my classmates and, I have to be honest, I was kind of disappointed in how not impressive the city is. The only thing really to see there is this Mosque-Cathedral that, coincidentally, Cordoba is famous for. It was a mosque way back in the day and then the Catholics came and turned it into a Cathedral and it was just really pretty and impressive (especially considering it was built a SUPER long time ago and is still standing).
In other news, I am signing up today to go on the trip to Morocco this upcoming weekend, which I am super excited about, because it's going to be my first real trip outside of the Granada area, and a lot of my friends are going.
I'm actually pretty excited about the next couple of months, because this is when I'm going to be doing all of my traveling. The itinerary is as follows:
10-12 October: Morocco
17-26 October: Italy (17-21 Rome, 21-24 Florence, 24-26 Venice)
31 October-2 November: chilling in Granada (after Italy, I figure I'm going to need it)
6-9 November: Madrid visiting Megan!!
13-16 November: Barcelona
21-23 November: Switzerland!! (Hopefully Ticino, but I actually have to plan this first)
28-29 November: Sevilla (assuming I have enough money)
5-8 December: chilling in Granada and preparing for finals
12-14 December: preparing to go home; Malaga (yeah hanging out in the airport all night with ALL of my stuff!); HOME!!!
So yeah, as you can see, I'm going to be pretty busy, but I'm so thrilled about it all, I don't even care how busy it's all going to make me. :) And I feel like I'm not really traveling outside of Spain too, too much (three trips outside of Spain, three trips inside Spain, plus the Alpujarras and Cordoba trips, and Megan visiting Granada, so like six trips inside Spain, plus all the weekends that I've spent just chilling here). So I still feel like I'm enmeshing myself in Spanish and not abandoning it completely in favor of English-speaking countries or whatever.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Uhhnnnh....
So... I have contracted my first (and hopefully only!!) illness while abroad: a stomach virus.
Oh joy.
The ONLY upside to me being sick was that I got to experience Spain's free health care system. Quite the experience. We didn't need an appointment or anything; we just went and I got pretty much right in and she diagnosed me right away. The visit was 40 euro (that is going to be reimbursed back to me when I get back to the States) and the medicine (some liquid for the stomach virus and pills for the aches and pains) was FOUR euro. I know, pretty ridiculous. Thank you free health care (and people of Spain for paying your taxes so my medication could be so cheap).
In other news, I took my first linguistics exam a couple of days ago, and I'm not sure how I did, but that's not the point of me putting this in here. I realized something interesting while I was taking it. I knew most of the stuff and the stuff I didn't know, I thought about but didn't freak out about the fact that I didn't know it because (here it is folks....) it's JUST a grade. And this is this new and scary revelation for me. Because school has always been really important to me. And it's still important, but people are so much more important than school could ever be, and it's okay to take breaks and spend time with them.
I'm not sure if this makes a whole bunch of sense, but I'm really excited about it, because I'm excited to get to spend more time with people and less time freaking out about school.
Oh joy.
The ONLY upside to me being sick was that I got to experience Spain's free health care system. Quite the experience. We didn't need an appointment or anything; we just went and I got pretty much right in and she diagnosed me right away. The visit was 40 euro (that is going to be reimbursed back to me when I get back to the States) and the medicine (some liquid for the stomach virus and pills for the aches and pains) was FOUR euro. I know, pretty ridiculous. Thank you free health care (and people of Spain for paying your taxes so my medication could be so cheap).
In other news, I took my first linguistics exam a couple of days ago, and I'm not sure how I did, but that's not the point of me putting this in here. I realized something interesting while I was taking it. I knew most of the stuff and the stuff I didn't know, I thought about but didn't freak out about the fact that I didn't know it because (here it is folks....) it's JUST a grade. And this is this new and scary revelation for me. Because school has always been really important to me. And it's still important, but people are so much more important than school could ever be, and it's okay to take breaks and spend time with them.
I'm not sure if this makes a whole bunch of sense, but I'm really excited about it, because I'm excited to get to spend more time with people and less time freaking out about school.
Monday, September 29, 2008
It's a bit chilly nowadays
Alright, whoever said it never rains in Granada LIED!
It definitely rained ALL week last week and this weekend.
It's also been quite chilly in the mornings and evenings, even though I was informed that it was nice and warm here in the fall.
I want to know where these people got their information.
It definitely rained ALL week last week and this weekend.
It's also been quite chilly in the mornings and evenings, even though I was informed that it was nice and warm here in the fall.
I want to know where these people got their information.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Weekend Update
Another post-weekend update!
This weekend was pretty chill; I got to hang out with Melissa some (finally!), relaxed, started studying for my first exam (in Linguistics that I THOUGHT was on Wednesday but just found out it's not until next Monday, so that's pretty fantastic), and found a church to go to!
I'm so happy about this last one. It's called Iglesia Evangelica (so it's an evangelical church if you didn't get that) and I went with Brad and Kaitlin. Everyone was so friendly and I just felt really welcome and really relaxed right away. I understood almost all of what was going on too, so that was a bonus. We met a whole bunch of people after the service (it was actually harder to understand people at this point because everyone was talking and it was kind of loud), and specifically a girl from California who studied abroad and ended up just staying here in Granada. She told us about how all of the young adults meet up on Saturdays at 8pm and hang out and go out to dinner together, which I definitely want to do. And I asked her about a bible study during the week and she said that she'd find out for me and let me know (because they're going to do one, just not sure when/what yet). Because I really liked it but I'm going to be gone a lot of the weekends (October 10-12, 17-19, 24-26, 31-Nov 2, 7-9, AND 14-16 for certain) but I still want to be involved in the church.
I think I'm going to do this as my "tarea externa" for Culture (we have to enmesh ourselves in a group of Spaniards) and I was going to volunteer somewhere, but this is just so much more what I would like to do if I have to talk to Spanish people. Everyone at the church was just so nice and happy that we were there. So I'm very happy. And I'll be in Granada for the next two Sundays, so hopefully by then, the whole bible study thing will be figured out.
I'm also attempting to finish planning for the week break that we have and hostels are SO EXPENSIVE in Italy. My goodness! I sent the group an e-mail with a whole bunch of hostel possibilities and hopefully they'll actually be diligent in getting back to me so I can book those tomorrow. I think we might end up being cozy and sharing beds and stuff, but we'll see what people think about that.
This weekend was pretty chill; I got to hang out with Melissa some (finally!), relaxed, started studying for my first exam (in Linguistics that I THOUGHT was on Wednesday but just found out it's not until next Monday, so that's pretty fantastic), and found a church to go to!
I'm so happy about this last one. It's called Iglesia Evangelica (so it's an evangelical church if you didn't get that) and I went with Brad and Kaitlin. Everyone was so friendly and I just felt really welcome and really relaxed right away. I understood almost all of what was going on too, so that was a bonus. We met a whole bunch of people after the service (it was actually harder to understand people at this point because everyone was talking and it was kind of loud), and specifically a girl from California who studied abroad and ended up just staying here in Granada. She told us about how all of the young adults meet up on Saturdays at 8pm and hang out and go out to dinner together, which I definitely want to do. And I asked her about a bible study during the week and she said that she'd find out for me and let me know (because they're going to do one, just not sure when/what yet). Because I really liked it but I'm going to be gone a lot of the weekends (October 10-12, 17-19, 24-26, 31-Nov 2, 7-9, AND 14-16 for certain) but I still want to be involved in the church.
I think I'm going to do this as my "tarea externa" for Culture (we have to enmesh ourselves in a group of Spaniards) and I was going to volunteer somewhere, but this is just so much more what I would like to do if I have to talk to Spanish people. Everyone at the church was just so nice and happy that we were there. So I'm very happy. And I'll be in Granada for the next two Sundays, so hopefully by then, the whole bible study thing will be figured out.
I'm also attempting to finish planning for the week break that we have and hostels are SO EXPENSIVE in Italy. My goodness! I sent the group an e-mail with a whole bunch of hostel possibilities and hopefully they'll actually be diligent in getting back to me so I can book those tomorrow. I think we might end up being cozy and sharing beds and stuff, but we'll see what people think about that.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Islam.... NO MORE
So.... I decided to drop Culture of Islam.
For those of you who know me, I'm no quitter, but this class was just plain awful.
I didn't like the professor; he just seemed like he had no patience for us and didn't want to interact with us as much as just teach us. He has this annoying habit of cutting people off while they're in the middle of explaining something so they don't get to explain themselves fully (one of my friends had forgotten his notebook one day so he took notes on a piece of paper, and then the professor called on him to answer a question and my friend was trying to explain that he couldn't find the piece of paper because it was just a sheet and the professor cut him off and lectured him in front of everyone and then when my friend explained himself after class, the professor was like, "oh don't worry about it." NOT okay.) And he has no concept of letting people volunteer; he just calls on people.
The class is basically structured like this: we have to read, take notes on what we read, and then read the notes that we took in class. And then watch a movie that says the exact same stuff the book said.
We get to keep our books, so I'm just going to read that when I've got spare time and get the material withOUT having to sit through that class.
yay.
For those of you who know me, I'm no quitter, but this class was just plain awful.
I didn't like the professor; he just seemed like he had no patience for us and didn't want to interact with us as much as just teach us. He has this annoying habit of cutting people off while they're in the middle of explaining something so they don't get to explain themselves fully (one of my friends had forgotten his notebook one day so he took notes on a piece of paper, and then the professor called on him to answer a question and my friend was trying to explain that he couldn't find the piece of paper because it was just a sheet and the professor cut him off and lectured him in front of everyone and then when my friend explained himself after class, the professor was like, "oh don't worry about it." NOT okay.) And he has no concept of letting people volunteer; he just calls on people.
The class is basically structured like this: we have to read, take notes on what we read, and then read the notes that we took in class. And then watch a movie that says the exact same stuff the book said.
We get to keep our books, so I'm just going to read that when I've got spare time and get the material withOUT having to sit through that class.
yay.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Visit with Megan!!
Hello everyone! I hope that you all had absolutely fantastic weekends and are not drowning in the Midwest (what exactly is going on over there?? All I keep hearing is rain, rain, rain...)
This past weekend, my sister (Megan) came to visit me. She's going to be a teacher's assistant in Madrid this year (October through June), and she just got in on Thursday, so she decided to visit. On Friday, I introduced her to my senora and family and then we just kind of hung out, walked around the Albaicin and Sacromonte a bit. While we were eating dinner, though, these two guys randomly decided to sit down at our table and started talking to us. Neither of us remember the guy who was sitting's name because we were horribly distracted by his crooked and plaque-infested teeth. It waas just really random that they sat down because we didn't do or say anything to make them come over. Megan also found out on Friday that her school is going to help her find housing so she decided to stay an extra night in Granada (which was really nice).
Saturday, Megan and I checked out the Mercado de San Augustin in search of breakfast (like fruit or something). I was thinking it was going to be like a giant supermarket except with only fresh stuff (like the bakery, the meat/fish market, and the fruit/vegetable section). It was basically this warehouse with ALL fresh meat, so we decided against getting anything. We also went to the Alhambra this day, which was a lot of fun and still really pretty. We just got the garden tour (because the regular tour was already sold out), and I was worried it was going to be lame, but it was almost the same (except we couldn't go into the Palacio Nazaries) but it was 13 euro for the regular tour and 7 euro for the garden tour, so I think we got a pretty good deal. AND it took five hours, so I don't think we could have gone for much longer.
On Sunday we went to the Parque de las Ciencias and it was SO COOL. It was this huge campus of a bunch of different interactive science-y stuff and it was spread out over a whole bunch of buildings (some of it was inside, some of it was outside). It was just really, really cool, like there was a special exhibit on venemous creatures and another on the Antarctic, and a butterfly house, and lots of interactive mechanics/physics-type stuff. After lunch, we went to the Parque de Federico Garcia Lorca, and I liked that a lot too. We found this bunch of kittens, so we played with them for a while, and then found this Spanish playground. They had this funky see saw, which was basically an upside-down curve with a seat on each end and the spring in the middle (on the highest part of the curve), so we decided to try it. Let me tell you - it was NOT a safe piece of playground equipment. I felt like I was going to fall off the entire time and I went really high. For dinner, we got doner kebaps, and I LOVED IT! IT was super big, super yummy, and not expensive at all, so I'm definitely going to go back there.
Monday we just kind of hung out. It was really hard to say goodbye though, for both of us I think. For her, she was going back to Madrid, to this place where she didn't know anyone and didn't ahve anywhere to live or anyone to hang out with or anythign to do during the day, which are all really scary adn overwhelming things. For me, it was kind of like I'd finallly come to grips with being in this weird place with all these weird people and then someone familiar shows up and I felt so much more comfortable and when she left, it was like I was coming to Spain all over again and losing that familiar feeling. I was also really upset because I know that she had to go back to Madrid to be by herself and I don't want her to feel lonely. So it was really hard. But hopefully we'll get to see each other between my bus and flight to Rome for Semana Blanca and then definitely November 6-9 (because I want to visit Madrid) and then hopefully right before I leave.
All in all, though, it was a really good weekend and it was really good to see her.
This past weekend, my sister (Megan) came to visit me. She's going to be a teacher's assistant in Madrid this year (October through June), and she just got in on Thursday, so she decided to visit. On Friday, I introduced her to my senora and family and then we just kind of hung out, walked around the Albaicin and Sacromonte a bit. While we were eating dinner, though, these two guys randomly decided to sit down at our table and started talking to us. Neither of us remember the guy who was sitting's name because we were horribly distracted by his crooked and plaque-infested teeth. It waas just really random that they sat down because we didn't do or say anything to make them come over. Megan also found out on Friday that her school is going to help her find housing so she decided to stay an extra night in Granada (which was really nice).
Saturday, Megan and I checked out the Mercado de San Augustin in search of breakfast (like fruit or something). I was thinking it was going to be like a giant supermarket except with only fresh stuff (like the bakery, the meat/fish market, and the fruit/vegetable section). It was basically this warehouse with ALL fresh meat, so we decided against getting anything. We also went to the Alhambra this day, which was a lot of fun and still really pretty. We just got the garden tour (because the regular tour was already sold out), and I was worried it was going to be lame, but it was almost the same (except we couldn't go into the Palacio Nazaries) but it was 13 euro for the regular tour and 7 euro for the garden tour, so I think we got a pretty good deal. AND it took five hours, so I don't think we could have gone for much longer.
On Sunday we went to the Parque de las Ciencias and it was SO COOL. It was this huge campus of a bunch of different interactive science-y stuff and it was spread out over a whole bunch of buildings (some of it was inside, some of it was outside). It was just really, really cool, like there was a special exhibit on venemous creatures and another on the Antarctic, and a butterfly house, and lots of interactive mechanics/physics-type stuff. After lunch, we went to the Parque de Federico Garcia Lorca, and I liked that a lot too. We found this bunch of kittens, so we played with them for a while, and then found this Spanish playground. They had this funky see saw, which was basically an upside-down curve with a seat on each end and the spring in the middle (on the highest part of the curve), so we decided to try it. Let me tell you - it was NOT a safe piece of playground equipment. I felt like I was going to fall off the entire time and I went really high. For dinner, we got doner kebaps, and I LOVED IT! IT was super big, super yummy, and not expensive at all, so I'm definitely going to go back there.
Monday we just kind of hung out. It was really hard to say goodbye though, for both of us I think. For her, she was going back to Madrid, to this place where she didn't know anyone and didn't ahve anywhere to live or anyone to hang out with or anythign to do during the day, which are all really scary adn overwhelming things. For me, it was kind of like I'd finallly come to grips with being in this weird place with all these weird people and then someone familiar shows up and I felt so much more comfortable and when she left, it was like I was coming to Spain all over again and losing that familiar feeling. I was also really upset because I know that she had to go back to Madrid to be by herself and I don't want her to feel lonely. So it was really hard. But hopefully we'll get to see each other between my bus and flight to Rome for Semana Blanca and then definitely November 6-9 (because I want to visit Madrid) and then hopefully right before I leave.
All in all, though, it was a really good weekend and it was really good to see her.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Megan!
Megan's coming today! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay!
She should be getting to the bus station in Granada around 330 so I'm going to pick her up from there, and then we're going to take the bus to the hostel and check in and then just hang out! I'm not sure entirely what we're going to do, but I know tomorrow we're (hopefully) going to check out the Saint Augustin Market and then (definitely) go on the garden tour of the Alhambra.
Mostly she's just coming for both our sakes: see a familiar face in such an unfamiliar place, you know?
In any case, I'm super excited!
She should be getting to the bus station in Granada around 330 so I'm going to pick her up from there, and then we're going to take the bus to the hostel and check in and then just hang out! I'm not sure entirely what we're going to do, but I know tomorrow we're (hopefully) going to check out the Saint Augustin Market and then (definitely) go on the garden tour of the Alhambra.
Mostly she's just coming for both our sakes: see a familiar face in such an unfamiliar place, you know?
In any case, I'm super excited!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Planning is so stressful!
I'm currently attempting to plan for my Semana Blanca (going to Rome, Florence, and Venice) with four others, with only one other person actually here, one not sure if he wants to go on all of the trip with us, one on his way back from his house because he FORGOT that we were meeting today, and one who also forgot but told her senora she'd go home for lunch so she's not here either.
SUPER stressful.
I'm currently attempting to plan for my Semana Blanca (going to Rome, Florence, and Venice) with four others, with only one other person actually here, one not sure if he wants to go on all of the trip with us, one on his way back from his house because he FORGOT that we were meeting today, and one who also forgot but told her senora she'd go home for lunch so she's not here either.
SUPER stressful.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Update
Hello everyone!
Sorry for not updating in a while, but things have been kind of busy here lately, so I felt like I needed to gather my thoughts before I told them to you all so that they actually made sense (hopefully a lot of you read this! Don't forget to say hello and let me know how you're doing!)
Last weekend we went on our class trip to the Alhambra and it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life. I have pictures up on Picasa, and I really encouarge everyone to check them out. This place was basically a mini-town for all of the Muslim kings WAY back in the day (we're talking hundreds and hundreds of years ago) and almost all of it is still in really good condition. The designs on the walls and floors and ceilings were just absolutely ridiculous and so intricate and involved; they were really breathtaking. I felt like I was walking around all wide-eyed with my mouth wide open the entire seven hours that we were on the tour. I felt like I learned a lot too, which I was excited about. For example, I learned that the majority of the wall is carved out of stucco, which isn't even that durable of a material, but it's lasted an unbelievably long time in the Alhambra! Everything was just so huge and majestic and unbelievable (that we were actually looking at something this old, that it was made that long ago and still exists today, and that the people back then actually made this). Even though the tour was seven hours long, I feel like I need to go back and experience more of it, because I felt rushed going through parts of it because we only had a certain amount of time (since we were a group) for the tour.
We also started classes this week, and I'm pretty excited about them (geeky, I know, but that's just the kind of person I am). I'm taking Culture of Spain (which should be a good class, but the teacher is always really intense/passionate, so it's kind of hard to read her), Grammar II (because I figured I can always use more help in grammar, and I'm right), Spanish Linguistics (which makes me feel like I'm learning a new language in a foreign language), Art History (which I'm SUPER excited about because I love the professor and every Thursday we go out into the city and find something that we're learning about because Granada's so old, it's experienced pretty much everything), and Culture of Islam (which I'm not sure I want to stay in because I'm not sure how entirely interested I am in the subject material or in the teaching habits of the professor). CEGRI is interesting in that it's a language school and only students within the program are taking classes here, so we're with all American students. But I'm really okay with that because I think I'd be even MORE intimidated if I was in classes with Spanish students.
I also started taking a salsa class, which I absolutely love. Those of you who know me really well are probably really surprised because I cannot loosen up for the life of me, but this class is just so much fun. The instructor is this little Spanish man and he's got a really good sense of humor and is a really god teacher, and the best part is that we can all understand him for the most part! I'm also taking the class with a really good group of people, which makes it all the more fun. Plus, I'm learning to loosen up a little and dance something real, so who can say no to that??
Thursday night we went and saw a flamenco show, which was best described by Rick (one of the guys on the trip) as "tap dancing on steroids." Holy cow, these people moved their feet SO fast and they were just so good! I did feel bad for one of the girls, though, because her shirt came almost entirely unbuttoned so by the end so she had to hold it closed while she finished dancing.
Friday and Saturday we went up into the Sierra Nevada mountains, to the Alpujarras, and hiked for about six hours each day. It was a ton of fun and absolutely gorgeous (these pictures are up on Picasa too!). The air was fresher and I felt completely in my element climbing the mountains and wading in streams and doing a little bit of rock climbing at our resting points. The eonly bad thing was that our guide was like booking it up and down the mountain and since it's her job, it was a lot easier for her to do it than for us to do it, so we sometimes had a hard time keeping up with her. Also, when we were going down, it was super precarious so you pretty much had to keep your eeys down the entire time to make sure you didn't fall and die so we didn't get to see too much of the scenery going down the mountain. It reminded me of something Chris Gottlieb would love to see, so hopefully you're reading this, Chris, and you look at the pictures, and are motivated to visit Spain to climb the Sierra Nevada Mountains! (Everyone else too, but specifically my mountain climber friend).
Lastly, I thought I'd post the places that I'd like to travel and see if anyone has any specific suggestions (definitely go, don't go, see this while you're there, etc):
Sevilla
Valencia
Greece
Cordoba
Italy
Rome
Venice
Florence
Switzerland
Madrid
Barcelona
Portugal
So yeah, just let me know what your thoughts on these places are, okay? Especially you, Melissa. : )
Sorry for not updating in a while, but things have been kind of busy here lately, so I felt like I needed to gather my thoughts before I told them to you all so that they actually made sense (hopefully a lot of you read this! Don't forget to say hello and let me know how you're doing!)
Last weekend we went on our class trip to the Alhambra and it was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life. I have pictures up on Picasa, and I really encouarge everyone to check them out. This place was basically a mini-town for all of the Muslim kings WAY back in the day (we're talking hundreds and hundreds of years ago) and almost all of it is still in really good condition. The designs on the walls and floors and ceilings were just absolutely ridiculous and so intricate and involved; they were really breathtaking. I felt like I was walking around all wide-eyed with my mouth wide open the entire seven hours that we were on the tour. I felt like I learned a lot too, which I was excited about. For example, I learned that the majority of the wall is carved out of stucco, which isn't even that durable of a material, but it's lasted an unbelievably long time in the Alhambra! Everything was just so huge and majestic and unbelievable (that we were actually looking at something this old, that it was made that long ago and still exists today, and that the people back then actually made this). Even though the tour was seven hours long, I feel like I need to go back and experience more of it, because I felt rushed going through parts of it because we only had a certain amount of time (since we were a group) for the tour.
We also started classes this week, and I'm pretty excited about them (geeky, I know, but that's just the kind of person I am). I'm taking Culture of Spain (which should be a good class, but the teacher is always really intense/passionate, so it's kind of hard to read her), Grammar II (because I figured I can always use more help in grammar, and I'm right), Spanish Linguistics (which makes me feel like I'm learning a new language in a foreign language), Art History (which I'm SUPER excited about because I love the professor and every Thursday we go out into the city and find something that we're learning about because Granada's so old, it's experienced pretty much everything), and Culture of Islam (which I'm not sure I want to stay in because I'm not sure how entirely interested I am in the subject material or in the teaching habits of the professor). CEGRI is interesting in that it's a language school and only students within the program are taking classes here, so we're with all American students. But I'm really okay with that because I think I'd be even MORE intimidated if I was in classes with Spanish students.
I also started taking a salsa class, which I absolutely love. Those of you who know me really well are probably really surprised because I cannot loosen up for the life of me, but this class is just so much fun. The instructor is this little Spanish man and he's got a really good sense of humor and is a really god teacher, and the best part is that we can all understand him for the most part! I'm also taking the class with a really good group of people, which makes it all the more fun. Plus, I'm learning to loosen up a little and dance something real, so who can say no to that??
Thursday night we went and saw a flamenco show, which was best described by Rick (one of the guys on the trip) as "tap dancing on steroids." Holy cow, these people moved their feet SO fast and they were just so good! I did feel bad for one of the girls, though, because her shirt came almost entirely unbuttoned so by the end so she had to hold it closed while she finished dancing.
Friday and Saturday we went up into the Sierra Nevada mountains, to the Alpujarras, and hiked for about six hours each day. It was a ton of fun and absolutely gorgeous (these pictures are up on Picasa too!). The air was fresher and I felt completely in my element climbing the mountains and wading in streams and doing a little bit of rock climbing at our resting points. The eonly bad thing was that our guide was like booking it up and down the mountain and since it's her job, it was a lot easier for her to do it than for us to do it, so we sometimes had a hard time keeping up with her. Also, when we were going down, it was super precarious so you pretty much had to keep your eeys down the entire time to make sure you didn't fall and die so we didn't get to see too much of the scenery going down the mountain. It reminded me of something Chris Gottlieb would love to see, so hopefully you're reading this, Chris, and you look at the pictures, and are motivated to visit Spain to climb the Sierra Nevada Mountains! (Everyone else too, but specifically my mountain climber friend).
Lastly, I thought I'd post the places that I'd like to travel and see if anyone has any specific suggestions (definitely go, don't go, see this while you're there, etc):
Sevilla
Valencia
Greece
Cordoba
Italy
Rome
Venice
Florence
Switzerland
Madrid
Barcelona
Portugal
So yeah, just let me know what your thoughts on these places are, okay? Especially you, Melissa. : )
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Miscellaneous Update
My feet and legs hurt so much. I tried to be cute yesterday and today and apparently my pinky toes should just get cut off because they're the only part of my feet that got blisters. I got a blister on each of them walking around yesterday in my cute brown flats and then another blister on my left toe walking to class today. Ridiculous. And of course my legs aren't used to walking so much so they hate me right now because I'm not stretching at night. I should probably start doing that again...
In other news, I'm here and finally starting to figure out where I am in the city and where things are (mostly just important things and a couple of plazas) so I'm not whipping out my map to figure things out as much anymore, which is always a bonus so I don't seem like such a tourist.
I started classes yesterday and the ones I had seem like they're going to be pretty good. I have the same teacher from 955-1045 and 1115-1205 Monday through Thursday and she's kind of hard to read because she looks at you really intently and you're never sure if she's just curious or if she's angry (I don't think she's angry, I think she's just intense, but it's hard to tell). Those classes seem like they're going to be good. My first is Culture of Spain and it's only got 14 people in it. We didn't do too much yesterday, just introduced ourselves and she talked about the course a bit, but it's going to be good, I can just tell. Then I have a practical review of grammar II class. There's one at the U of I that I took already (204) and a super advanced one (404) that I didn't want to take so I signed up for 299, which is only at CEGRI and it's like in the middle, but I definitely got signed up for the 404 class (based on my proficiency exam) and it's just going to transfer as 299 (which is what it would have transfered as anyways because only 3 of the advanced hours that I take here will transfer as advanced hours) but I'm kind of like, "wait, I didn't want to take the harder class" but we'll see how it goes. There are only ten people in that class. But my afternoon class was the smallest - 7 people!!! It's my linguistics class and we're the only seven people that signed up for it. Insane! We started learning yesterday and it's going to be quite the interesting class, not really sure why it's required as part of the spanish major, but I guess we'll see. This afternoon I have Art History and Culture of Islam, so we'll see how those go as well.
We went to the Alhambra on Sunday and it was pretty much the coolest place I have ever been. The detail on the walls and in the architecture is completely mind-blowing and it is huge and just absolutely gorgeous. I put pictures up on picasa so you should all check them out (there are a LOT but not nearly as many as I took that day - I deleted the bad ones, but trust me, they're worth looking through).
I only got homework in one of my classes (linguistics) but it's to read pp. 45-121 in the book by tomorrow. Insane! I'm going to be reading allllll night. (After I attempt to salsa - we have free lessons tonight)
In other news, I'm here and finally starting to figure out where I am in the city and where things are (mostly just important things and a couple of plazas) so I'm not whipping out my map to figure things out as much anymore, which is always a bonus so I don't seem like such a tourist.
I started classes yesterday and the ones I had seem like they're going to be pretty good. I have the same teacher from 955-1045 and 1115-1205 Monday through Thursday and she's kind of hard to read because she looks at you really intently and you're never sure if she's just curious or if she's angry (I don't think she's angry, I think she's just intense, but it's hard to tell). Those classes seem like they're going to be good. My first is Culture of Spain and it's only got 14 people in it. We didn't do too much yesterday, just introduced ourselves and she talked about the course a bit, but it's going to be good, I can just tell. Then I have a practical review of grammar II class. There's one at the U of I that I took already (204) and a super advanced one (404) that I didn't want to take so I signed up for 299, which is only at CEGRI and it's like in the middle, but I definitely got signed up for the 404 class (based on my proficiency exam) and it's just going to transfer as 299 (which is what it would have transfered as anyways because only 3 of the advanced hours that I take here will transfer as advanced hours) but I'm kind of like, "wait, I didn't want to take the harder class" but we'll see how it goes. There are only ten people in that class. But my afternoon class was the smallest - 7 people!!! It's my linguistics class and we're the only seven people that signed up for it. Insane! We started learning yesterday and it's going to be quite the interesting class, not really sure why it's required as part of the spanish major, but I guess we'll see. This afternoon I have Art History and Culture of Islam, so we'll see how those go as well.
We went to the Alhambra on Sunday and it was pretty much the coolest place I have ever been. The detail on the walls and in the architecture is completely mind-blowing and it is huge and just absolutely gorgeous. I put pictures up on picasa so you should all check them out (there are a LOT but not nearly as many as I took that day - I deleted the bad ones, but trust me, they're worth looking through).
I only got homework in one of my classes (linguistics) but it's to read pp. 45-121 in the book by tomorrow. Insane! I'm going to be reading allllll night. (After I attempt to salsa - we have free lessons tonight)
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Pictures
My pictures are up on Picasa and the link is on the right below my archive thingy so you should check them out because they're phenomenal!!!!!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
IN GRANADA!!
I made it! The flight was SOO long and I didn´t sleep at all from Chicago to Paris. I sat by a nice girl, Erin, though so that was really good. The food on the flight was okay, nothing phenomenal but definitely edible. Then when we got to Paris we had to go through customs for some strange reason and I wanted a stamp on my passport and they stared at me funny and laughed at me but I don´t care because I got it. Then we didn´t even think and went through security so we were stuck in the ITTY BITTY Paris terminal for three and a half hours. I slept a little bit but not too much. I was pretty passed on the flight from Paris to Málaga, though. When we got to Málaga, we went to get our luggage and then saw it rotating on a different belt so we had to run and get it, and then one guy lost his luggage so we had to sit and wait LONGER in the airport while they got all that mess figured out (another hour and a half) and then we finally left and had a two hour bus ride to Granada, but it was really pretty. We went through the mountains and got to see the Sierra Nevada and TONS AND TONS of olive trees. It was really cool. Once we got to Granada, we got into our hostel but we had to take this tiny lift up and it only fit one person with their luggage at a time. But I´m rooming with three really nice girls (Shannon, Erin, and Caitlin) so hopefully I´ll be okay. The four of us were all so exhausted and didn´t want to go to a tapas bar because you have to order alcohol to get the tapas and we really didn´t want to get alcohol and we didn´t want to pay a lot that we ended up eating at this chinese place, which was only okay, but we were all so tired that we just didn´t care and we all passed out.
This morning, we woke up at 910 and we had to be downstairs ready to go at 945 (because we set the time on the alarm for AM instead of PM last night so it was 910PM when we woke up) so we all panicked but made it okay and we just signed up for all of our classes and now we´re taking a break before we have more orientation.
I really can´t wait to get to my host family´s house and start classes and just get into the swing of things because I feel very disoriented being here right now and very out of place. So hopefully things will get better from there. I do like the people that are in the program so far, though, so that´s always good. I just can´t wait for things to feel normal and not like I´m a complete and total outsider.
This morning, we woke up at 910 and we had to be downstairs ready to go at 945 (because we set the time on the alarm for AM instead of PM last night so it was 910PM when we woke up) so we all panicked but made it okay and we just signed up for all of our classes and now we´re taking a break before we have more orientation.
I really can´t wait to get to my host family´s house and start classes and just get into the swing of things because I feel very disoriented being here right now and very out of place. So hopefully things will get better from there. I do like the people that are in the program so far, though, so that´s always good. I just can´t wait for things to feel normal and not like I´m a complete and total outsider.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
One Week!!!
Anne McLain
CEGRI
C. Sacristia de San Matias, 12 (the second i in "Sacristia" and the i in "Matias" have accents)
18009 Granada
Espana (the "n" has the tilde (~))
This is my address in case anyone wants to send me a letter or a package or anything while I'm over there.
: )
CEGRI
C. Sacristia de San Matias, 12 (the second i in "Sacristia" and the i in "Matias" have accents)
18009 Granada
Espana (the "n" has the tilde (~))
This is my address in case anyone wants to send me a letter or a package or anything while I'm over there.
: )
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
packing already?!?
so earlier this morning I thought it would be a good idea to pull out my suitcases, just to see how big they are, to make sure I'm going to have enough space for my stuff when I go abroad. Seeing as I am just over two weeks out and I foresee my next couple weeks being very busy with finishing up my work/internship obligations and spending time with people and saying goodbye to everyone, I felt this was a safe idea (not too far away from the trip, but not too close either). So I pulled them out and got kind of worried because I wasn't sure my big stuff (like my winter coat and my lighter jackets and my shoes (of all the things for me to be worried about having enough room for...)) was all going to fit. So I went and grabbed my winter coat and put it in my smaller piece of luggage and it looked like it took up a LOT of room, so I went and grabbed my lighter jackets and my sweaters. After all was said and done, I ended up packing my fall and winter shirts all into my smaller piece of luggage and I still have a decent amount of space left in it, and THEN I still have my bigger piece of luggage for all my tees, tanks, pants, skirts, dresses, shoes, toiletries, and miscellaneous. So I'm feeling a LOT better about having enough room for everything and I'm not feeling anymore like I'm bringing too much stuff.
I do have to admit that, the other day while at work, I made a few lists of things I need to do/have to buy/want to remember to bring to Spain. I think this was really good for me, however, because now I don't have to think about all of that stuff; it doesn't have to hang out in my mind because it's all on paper. It really was good for me to get it all out because I really do have too much to think about already without having to try to remember all of that stuff as well.
So yes, if you couldn't tell (even though it only kind of seems like it), I am MUCH less anxious about my trip, which I am very thankful for. Now I'm starting to think it's going to be more exciting (rather than dreading) meeting the new people and getting to be in such a beautiful place for so long. I'm definitely not ready to up and leave yet, but I am getting there, which is a huge victory for me. (yay!)
I do have to admit that, the other day while at work, I made a few lists of things I need to do/have to buy/want to remember to bring to Spain. I think this was really good for me, however, because now I don't have to think about all of that stuff; it doesn't have to hang out in my mind because it's all on paper. It really was good for me to get it all out because I really do have too much to think about already without having to try to remember all of that stuff as well.
So yes, if you couldn't tell (even though it only kind of seems like it), I am MUCH less anxious about my trip, which I am very thankful for. Now I'm starting to think it's going to be more exciting (rather than dreading) meeting the new people and getting to be in such a beautiful place for so long. I'm definitely not ready to up and leave yet, but I am getting there, which is a huge victory for me. (yay!)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
more anxieties...
Well, here I am, twenty days from departure, and still filled with that complete and total anxiety. I started a list of toiletries I'm going to have to buy at work the other day just to calm myself down. Seriously, I need to not be freaking out. The Lord has been so gracious in teaching me so much about trusting Him and finding peace in Him and now I just need to really actually let go of my anxieties. It kind of feels like I'm holding my breath in anticipation and I NEED to exhale and, well, not freak out. Especially considering the time that I have left is going to be so full. See?
Today (Wednesday): internship 2p-7p
Thursday: Muldoon's 4p-930/10p
Friday: Muldoon's 1045a-3p, 4p-715/730p
Saturday: Muldoon's 1045a-3p, 4p-10p
Sunday: REST
Monday: internship 10a-9p
Tuesday: volunteering 11a-3p, bible study 645p-1030p (including driving)
Wednesday: internship 2p-7p
Thursday: (projected) Muldoon's 4p-930/10p
Friday: (projected) Muldoon's 1045a-3p, 4p-715/730p
Saturday: (projected) Muldoon's 4p-10p
AND I told Jamie that, because Ashley quit, I could maybe work the 18th and 20th if he needed someone to cover shifts. And I have my yearly portrait with myself and my sister and mom and then dinner on the 19th. And then the 22nd, I'm getting my hair trimmed and heading down to Champaign for the Koin/Strat retreat and then the 23rd is the end of the retreat and celebrating Paul and my two year and then the 24th will be church and heading back to Wheaton and Ecclesia (maybe?) and then the 25th will be last minute preparations and I leave the 26th!! As you can probably tell from my very long run-on sentence, it all seems very overwhelming. I think I might have to do like I did at school and ONLY look at THIS week and not look ahead at all.
Annnd.... now I need to get ready for the internship so... toodles!
Today (Wednesday): internship 2p-7p
Thursday: Muldoon's 4p-930/10p
Friday: Muldoon's 1045a-3p, 4p-715/730p
Saturday: Muldoon's 1045a-3p, 4p-10p
Sunday: REST
Monday: internship 10a-9p
Tuesday: volunteering 11a-3p, bible study 645p-1030p (including driving)
Wednesday: internship 2p-7p
Thursday: (projected) Muldoon's 4p-930/10p
Friday: (projected) Muldoon's 1045a-3p, 4p-715/730p
Saturday: (projected) Muldoon's 4p-10p
AND I told Jamie that, because Ashley quit, I could maybe work the 18th and 20th if he needed someone to cover shifts. And I have my yearly portrait with myself and my sister and mom and then dinner on the 19th. And then the 22nd, I'm getting my hair trimmed and heading down to Champaign for the Koin/Strat retreat and then the 23rd is the end of the retreat and celebrating Paul and my two year and then the 24th will be church and heading back to Wheaton and Ecclesia (maybe?) and then the 25th will be last minute preparations and I leave the 26th!! As you can probably tell from my very long run-on sentence, it all seems very overwhelming. I think I might have to do like I did at school and ONLY look at THIS week and not look ahead at all.
Annnd.... now I need to get ready for the internship so... toodles!
Monday, July 28, 2008
First Entry
Hello and welcome to my new blog that I'll be using over the course of my time abroad to document my time there, including my travels and school and all the people I meet. This is going to be how I update everyone on my time while in Spain so I am not sending out mass e-mails. This way, you can read it at your leisure (or, for some of you, whenever you're avoiding doing schoolwork).
In any case, I'm going to be in Spain in a little less than a month and I'm kind of starting to freak out (as you can tell by me making this journal now instead of right before I leave). I mean, I'm so super excited about going to Spain and getting to experience their culture and meeting all the people I'm going to be in the program with and, of course, the classes that I'm going to be taking. However, these things are also the things that I'm very nervous about. I think I have everything that I need as far as clothing and all that is concerned (I still have to get my toiletries but that I can do the week before I go). I also have a plan for being done with volunteering and hostessing and interning so that I have time to spend with people before they all go back to school and so that I can pack and get ready and really just mentally prepare myself to go. I am a little worried about the whole toiletries on the plane thing, with the 3 oz. shampoo/conditioner/whatever containers all having to be in a gallon ziploc bag - I think this is an international thing and if I want to travel for a week, I'm definitely going to need more than 3 ounces of shampoo, but I'm not sure how it's going to work if I'm not checking my luggage. So I guess we'll just see when we get there, and I'm sure this is stuff I really don't need to be worrying about right now; I'm just being odd.
In any case, I'm going to be in Spain in a little less than a month and I'm kind of starting to freak out (as you can tell by me making this journal now instead of right before I leave). I mean, I'm so super excited about going to Spain and getting to experience their culture and meeting all the people I'm going to be in the program with and, of course, the classes that I'm going to be taking. However, these things are also the things that I'm very nervous about. I think I have everything that I need as far as clothing and all that is concerned (I still have to get my toiletries but that I can do the week before I go). I also have a plan for being done with volunteering and hostessing and interning so that I have time to spend with people before they all go back to school and so that I can pack and get ready and really just mentally prepare myself to go. I am a little worried about the whole toiletries on the plane thing, with the 3 oz. shampoo/conditioner/whatever containers all having to be in a gallon ziploc bag - I think this is an international thing and if I want to travel for a week, I'm definitely going to need more than 3 ounces of shampoo, but I'm not sure how it's going to work if I'm not checking my luggage. So I guess we'll just see when we get there, and I'm sure this is stuff I really don't need to be worrying about right now; I'm just being odd.
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