Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

It's UPDATED and COMPLETE!!

Planes, trains, and automobiles, with a bunch of walking on the side. This describes my transportation to Paris accurately, but it was more like bus, bus, metro, bus, airplane, walking, metro, and walking. Before we even made it to Paris, we had quite the experience with all of the transportation. Let me explain all the way from the beginning to when we arrived at the hostel in Paris. We got on the bus stop across from my apartment at approximately 7:15pm Friday. We took that bus to the bus station where we loaded a different bus on a 5 hour ride to Madrid. This bus was nice because it was a charter bus with a stewardess. We were served a small dinner (sandwich) with a drink and a piece of chocolate candy for dessert. They showed the movie Super 8 during the ride. I still stick with my critique that after the train crash the movie is worthless. So I napped after the train crash scene. We made it to Madrid around 1:15am. Our next step was to take the metro (underground train system) to the airport. We know that we have 8 hours till our plane leave so we are just strolling away casually. We get on the first train, but when we get off to make our connecting train we notice that some people are running with their luggage to the next train. We figure there has to be a point to this so we start walking briskly, unsure if we have to run. We get to the correct train and see that 3 workers are holding up the train for stragglers like us. The doors are closed and one worker makes the train doors open for us. Phew! We crowd into a packed train wondering what was going on. Turns out that the metro system stops running at 1:30am. If we hadn’t picked up the pace, we would have had to wait until 6am or find another form of transportation to the airport. Okay, so now we think we are all fine until we realize that we don’t know what terminal we need to go to, and the metro has 2 different stops for the airport- T1, T2, T3 as one and T4. We place our bets and get off on the T1,2,3 stop thinking we have good odds. Nope- we needed to go to T4. Great. We can’t get back on the metro because there are no more trains coming until 6am. We start looking for an information desk to find another form of transportation. We find one and ask the guy in Spanish how to get to T4. He proceeds to respond in English that a bus comes every 115 minutes right in front of where we were standing. People like that make me laugh. Even though we spoke Spanish to him, he responds, “Very good. Well there is a bus…”. I couldn’t help but smile because here we were in Madrid trying to think of how to say this question accurately in Spanish and the guy responds in English. Anyhow, we take that bus to the airport and find out that we have to wait in the terminal until 5am to get our boarding passes. Everyone inside is either sleeping on the benches or the ground. We got there ate 2:30am and had time to kill so I tried to do the same. This was short lived because a drunk guy woke up and started walking toward us. He was completely disoriented and wanted to know where his shoe was. Yes, his one shoe, the other was on his foot. We told him we had no idea where it was and he moved to the next bench and hovered over some guy who was sleeping while looking for his shoe. Eventually he went back to his bench and kept drinking out of a black water bottle. For his sake, I just hoped that it was actually water in there. He kept looking over in our direction and I’m pretty sure he thought we stole his shoe. Due to this, none of us slept. So 5am rolls around and we stand in line for a half hour waiting for it to open. We got our boarding passes and waited at our gate. We took Vueling airlines to Paris and they were really strict. Coincidentally us 3 sat at 3 out of the 4 emergency exits and no one sat in the 2 seats next to us (6 seats all together). It was extremely sketchy how this managed to happen to all 3 of us. Since we were in the emergency exits we weren’t allowed to have bags or coats (that we weren’t wearing) with us in our seats. Tesla had her backpack, a small bag, and her coat and she was told to put all three up in the luggage space. Roseanna had her shoulder bag and she too was told to put it up. She did, but later grabbed it back before takeoff. She tried to hide it, but was told by another stewardess to put it up. Tesla was also told not to buckle up before takeoff. I fortunately was not yelled at for anything, so I laughed at them. Then we landed in Paris, walked to the metro station, and took 3 different trains (2 connections) to our hostel. One thing that saved our asses was that I did the research of what Lines we needed to take to get where we needed to go for Madrid and Paris. Otherwise we would have been completely screwed. We got to the hostel early to check in so we had lunch and waited around.

The hostel was a unique experience. We wanted to book the cheapest with decent ratings and ended up with St. Christopher’s Inn. This place was very nice and clean. All we needed was a bed so we took the cheapest room option and got beds in rooms with 8 beds. There were structured like bunk beds but they were like little cubbies all next to each other. They also had curtains which was really nice. When we checked in we were told that 2 of us were going to be in one room and the third person was going to be in a separate room two doors down. We played Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would get the odd room, but we all chose something different and we all lost. In my mind I knew that Tesla is the type of person who can’t be alone, and Roseanna is the type of person who refuses to get the short end of the stick. The game was pointless and I stepped up and took the bed in a different room. However, while I never saw my neighbors or heard them during the night, Roseanna and Tesla had obnoxious, vulgar guys who kept them up the first night, and typical, high-pitched valley girls the second and third nights. I was glad I got the quiet room so I could get 3 good nights of sleep.

Now to describe my experiences in Paris. Man, Paris is a big city! Thank God for the metro to get around otherwise we would not have seen half of the places we went. The first place we went was the National Academy of Music or the Opera House. I’m not sure the significance of this place but they had sculptures of Beethoven and Mozart. Those were the only two I recognized. I also heard that Phantom of the Opera was performed here, but I have no clue if that is a true statement.

We then headed up to Moulin Rouge. How can you not get that song stuck in your head after visiting this place? Sorry if I get this stuck in yours, but you know which song I’m talking about. The remake has Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim, and two other people. Anyways so I realize that Moulin Rouge is about prostitutes and what not, but the entire strip where this place is at is lined with sex shops. Not even exaggerating. There had to have been 20 sex shops in a row.

Next we went to Arc do Triumph which I believe was a symbol of Napoleon’s strength or skills in combat. Something or other, but it was really cool to see.

To finish off the night we went to the Eiffel Tower. We got there at a great time. We go to see it in its last hours of the day and watch it start to light up for the night. I personally believe that the Eiffel Tower is more beautiful at night when it is all lit up; absolutely beautiful. We saw it first on the metro right before our stop, and we just brightened up with the view. It’s so picturesque, too. I didn’t have to do anything when I took pictures. I just snapped the photo and they came out perfect. We also saw the Eiffel Tower light up at the hour. Every hour on the hour the Eiffel Tower will sparkle for about 5 minutes and you can’t help but to stare in amazement.

After 48 hours of on and off sleep, we were completely exhausted and went to bed for the night. The next day we woke up at 7am so that we could have breakfast and head for The Louvre. I was in love with the architecture of the building and of course the glass pyramid. We got into The Louvre for free because we are currently living in the European Union, and I was definitely okay with that! We got in and the first thing we went for was the Mona Lisa. We passed artwork on the way there, but was like cool, cool, but where’s the Mona Lisa?? We finally found it, or should I say we found a crowd circled around it. I’m not the tallest person in the world, but I can manage to work my way up to the front. It was enclosed in glass casing so none of my pictures turned out as clear as I would have liked, but it was still really cool to see. Also, it’s a lot smaller than you would expect. With such a grand painting and how much hype there is with it, I just imagined in my head that I was going to be blown away but I really wasn’t. Still really cool though! Then we decided to back track and really look at all of the art work that we quickly passed through. THERE IS SO MUCH ART!! I believe they said there are 35,000 pieces of artwork in that building and I can believe it, if not more. There are 3 wings that divide the kind of art, like French, Spanish, paintings, sculptures, etc. We spent 3 hours there and did not see half of it. While there, we ran into 5 people from our program in Granada and they convinced us to go to Versailles later on in the day.

After The Louvre we went to Notre Dame first before going to Versailles, because Notre Dame was very close to where we were at. Notre Dame is huge and a lot taller than expected. There was free entry to go inside so of course we were on top of that. We went in and there was a mass going on. It was so cool to be inside during an actual mass. I would have felt weird if I was one of the people at mass, though, because there are probably a hundred people walking around the church while you’re trying to pay attention. The inside is just as beautiful as the outside. The glass windows and the structure are amazingly designed. Did you know that in 2013 Notre Dame will celebrate its 850^th year? Me either- so wicked! On the way out I made the sign of the cross with the holy water. Not sure if I was supposed to do that or not, but I mean holy water from Notre Dame?! Of course I’m going to do that.

The tourist place we went for the day was Versailles. I don’t know much about French history, nor do I really care for it, but I’m glad that I’m learning it as I’m seeing it. This place is the French palace of Louis XIV and Louis XVI I believe. I know that Mary Antoinette lived here as well. Again, we scored with living in the European Union because we got in here for free as well. The palace itself was huge and definitely decorated like a typical royal palace. So much unnecessary spaced filled up by massive paintings and furniture. Then the “backyard” of the palace was probably as long as 3 football fields. Mary Antoinette had a vacation home in one area of her backyard and there was another section with another big house. It was ridiculous. Plus my feet had been hurting from already walking all day and then walking all over the backyard and the palace made my feet want to kill me.

Following Versailles, we went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. The food was amazing, but it was ridiculously overpriced. We had to wait an hour but I was determined to eat there. It was the best food I had the entire trip. I had a BBQ pork sandwich with baked beans and coleslaw. You can’t get that in Spain so I took advantage of it.

Then comes Monday and the first thing we set out to do is climb the Eiffel Tower. When we went on Sunday the top was closed due to elevator problems. We have a theory that they don’t want people climbing to the top when the elevator is closed for access reasons if there is an emergency and firefighters or someone have to get to the top. So we tried our luck on Monday hoping the top would be open and it was not. However we could go up to the second floor. It is 704 steps to get to the second floor, but I was willing to climb all the way to the top. I wasn’t really satisfied with only the second floor, but I’ll take what I can get. It was a really good view of that section of Paris.

We notice from the second floor that we can see the Statue of Liberty just down the river, so we set off on our next task. This statue is incredibly small and should not be confused with the one in New York.

Since we had covered all of the touristy parts of Paris we didn’t know what to do with our time. So we got French bread and chocolate from a nearby supermarket and headed back to The Louvre to eat it outside of the glass pyramid. After “lunch” we went back into the Louvre and decided to take a more detailed route to cover more area. We spent another 3 hours there and we think we had to have covered 80% as a combined total, but we could be completely wrong. We saw the Mona Lisa again which was really cool a second time. I’m really glad that we went back though so that I could get my favorite picture from the entire trip. Have you seen The Da Vinci Code? You know that part where the guy is dead at the Louvre and they call Tom Hanks to solve the mystery? I had to mock that scene! So in the process of building up the guts to lay down on the floor at The Louvre I first sat down on the floor. Some guy was staring at me the whole time and literally did not walk away. So I waited for him to go away or not look but then I was like, oh what the hell. So I laid down and Telsa took the picture. The first picture is the original picture. The second picture is zoomed in on the guy’s face staring at me.

We stayed at The Louvre until it closed and called it a night. Tuesday we woke up at 6am, took the metro to the airport, plane to Madrid, metro to the bus station, bus to Granada bus station, bus home. We got home at 10pm that night so that came to 16 hours of traveling on Tuesday alone. My shampoo got taken in the airport in Paris which is fine, but I don’t understand how some places are stricter about things. I got to Paris with it without a problem. OH! We didn’t get our passports stamped for France! We were pretty bummed about that because it would have been cool to have that stamp. Oh well. I´m very excited to be back in Granada!

So even though this was a lot of writing, I feel like I only told you about Paris in a nutshell. A more detailed version would have taken forever though. Gosh, this makes me wonder how my Spring Break blog is going to work out.

Phew! Th-th-tha-that’s all folks!

Incomplete Paris Blog

So I made it back from Paris! I attempted to upload my blog but I´m having computer difficulties.So the blog is up, but there are pictures missing at the end. My computer does not want to let me finish my blog, so check back later for added pictures.

Also on Facebook I changed my privacy settings so that the public can view the photo albums from my trips. I don´t know why I didn´t think of this sooner.

My facebook profile is: http://www.facebook.com/amy.uhl2

The rest of my profile is locked for privacy purposes, but feel free to check out photos from Granada, Morocco, Sevilla, and the futbol game. The Paris ones will hopefully be up tomorrow.

Ready for a long blog? Here we go...

Hola once again! Happy new week!

I tend to start off with explaining my weekend, so I’ll continue with this pattern. With my program I went to Sevilla as a day trip on Saturday. What is Sevilla? Well it’s a city in Spain that attracts tourists for some reason, but that’s about it. The first place we went was la Plaza de España. I believe the historic importance of this plaza is that it represents all of the provinces or something along those lines. The only thing we students cared about this plaza was that the first Star Wars was filmed there. The first as in when Darth Vader was kid- not the first one filmed. I couldn’t tell you what scene(s) because it has been so long since I’ve seen that movie. 

Then we all walked to La Catedral de Sevilla, which is the third largest cathedral in the world. It is a beautifully designed building right in the heart of the city. 

From there we were allowed to roam the city. We were given a map on the bus, but we decided to try our luck with exploring instead. We went straight to the river first, then back tracked into the city. I’m not sure what we were expecting to see or find, but I did what I thought was the most sensible thing and found a heladeria to get a chocolate ice cream cone. The sun was shining, it was a gorgeous day, we were walking around a picturesque city, and an ice cream cone made the day complete. There is one thing that tends to annoy me when people go to a new place; it’s that they never put their camera down. They’re too busy taking pictures that they don’t soak in what they are seeing. They just have pictures of a place later without emotion or meaning. They basically just know the city through the pictures and not what they experienced. It’s quickly becoming a pet peeve.

Interesting things I saw in Sevilla: a protest, cute kids, and a one man act. There was a demonstration right at the beginning of our exploration. I’m not sure what they were protest against in detail, bit their banner said “Ciudadano defendemos tus derechos” which roughly translates to “We defend your citizen rights”. I was still cool to see.

Next I saw so many cute kids all over the city. I could like a huge creeper when I say this, but I would have rather taken pictures of the kids rather than the historic buildings. In my defense, the people of the city are just as important to the cultural importance of the city as the landscape and monuments. However, I constrained myself from taking pictures of the adorable children. The last interesting thing I saw was a one man act. At first sight it looked like two life sized puppet figures dancing together, but at the end a man stood up with the dolls strapped to his back. His feet were the feet of the male and his arms were the feet of the woman. I was so baffled until he stood up. The ways people make money on the streets amaze me. People are so creative.

On Sunday, we all went to a fútbol fame here in Granada. The stadium is about a 10-15 minute walk from my house, so it was nice and convenient. There were a couple contrasts that I observed about this live game versus live games in the US. One contrast that I noticed right away was on the walk there. The pace was very laid back even as the crowd became thicker. In the US people have to be first in and out even though there are assigned seats. In Granada, there is no rush. You have your ticket, you have your seat, and it’s all good. I think the reasoning for this is because there is not parking so they avoid the hassle of traffic and getting a close spot. Most people walk or take the bus. It was nice though having a relaxed atmosphere. The game itself was a lot of fun. Granada beat Real Sociedad 4-1. There was a successful wave that made it around the stadium 4 times in a row. Another contrast to American sports is that smoking was permitted, but alcohol was not. There wasn’t alcohol sold in the stadium and there were no vendors walking up and down the sections. It was weird being at a live game without having people drinking beer around me. Overall the game was so much fun! I absolutely love sports and going to see them live. This game is one of the top highlights so far. It would have been a little better if I was with more people who knew the rules of fútbol or appreciated sports as much as I do, but it was still a lot of fun. Plus how can I not go to a fútbol game in Spain?

Now that I have talked about my weekend, I have a few thoughts that have crossed my mind that I would like to address.

First, do you ever get the feeling that someone speaking in another language is talking about you? Yeah, that’s because they probably are. I don’t know how many times I have spoken my opinions about someone or something right in front of them. I can talk about questionable fashion statements, ugly items in stores, or the manner of someone I’m observing. I think it’s really convenient that I can speak freely and I hope it doesn’t turn into a bad habit when I get back in the US. I haven’t come across someone that understands English- that I know of- but I’ll probably get a dirty look when I do.

Right now I’m listening to some American movie on tv that has voice overs. I didn’t even have to look up to know it wasn’t a Spanish movie because all of the voice over movies sound the same. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but they just have the same tone or type of voice in every movie.

Speaking of tv, I got Rick Rolled the other day. Gave me a chuckle.

I’m a very competitive person by nature. The other day my señora asked why Roseanna and I had different schedules. I explained to her that it’s because we are in different program levels. She automatically assumed that I was in the higher level, which I am not. Actually, Roseanna and I scored the a same on our placement test, but I opted to be in Intensive to focus on the language aspect, while Roseanna needed to be in Cultura for credit. My señora just assumed this because I’m the one that engages her in conversation most of the time. This made me feel good because she assumed I was better at Spanish. This may seem a little selfish, but I get satisfaction from competition. It doesn’t matter who I compete with, I just have to be better.

Mom, I keep forgetting to tell you this when we talk so I’m just going to write it here. I had pizza with black olives, onions, green, yellow, and red peppers, and some other unknown vegetables. Thought that would make you proud. =)

I’m surprised at the amount of graffiti in English. The majority that I’ve seen have been English words.

I finished the book The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It’s a very innocent book until the last chapter. Not quite sure what to think of it, but I liked it. That’s book number 3, and next up is Angela’s Ashes.

Lastly, the price for gas is really high here. It is almost 1.50 euros/liter. If I did the conversion right, that comes out to be close to $8/gallon. It’s no wonder why people walk or use public transportation to get around. Gas stations aren’t even common to see in the city. With ridiculous prices like that it makes much more sense to walk. Not to mention it’s a lot healthier for you and the environment. Might not be a bad option for little things in the US. It’s a lot less practical for the US, especially in Iowa. Everything is so spread out and you need your car for groceries and what not, but when it is a possible option it is the better option.

One Month Down, Three To Go

Another weekend has gone by and things are finally starting to settle down and turn into everyday life. I like structure and I like a routine. This characteristic helps answer my conflict about being an accountant for the rest of my life. It’s fun to shake things up, but when it comes down to it, I couldn’t live an “exciting” life. I find comfort in going to class every day at the same time and to expect the same tomorrow. 

 

I don’t know how people do it, you know? Go out every night, stay out all night, sleep all day and have fun with it. This weekend I only went out Friday night. Here dinner is about 9pm, so I met up with people about 10:30pm. Getting a late start means staying out later. We went to a couple bars and it was 3am before I knew it. By 4am I was so ready to crawl into bed that I was ready to leave the bar with or without my friends who were still enjoying themselves. At 4am I was the party pooper. My friends also decided to leave and Roseanna and I walked home. We talked about going out Saturday night, too, and over some drinks it sounded like a great idea at the time. However, Saturday night rolled around and going out sound unappealing so I stayed in my warm pajamas and went to bed before midnight. I know some people here that go out all the time. Wednesday night for beer pong and an Irish pub, Thursday night for karaoke, Friday night to the club, and Saturday out to the bars. I physically cannot do what they do. One night a week wears me out. Not to mention that during the week people have school. I may only be 19 but I can’t keep up with the 20/21 year olds in this program.

Saturday morning I went with a few friends to the open air market and around our area for some shopping. Until the end of February, Spain is having sales in all of their stores. It’s called “Rebajas” and they’ve been going on since I got here, but they are in their last phase of sales and everything is at its cheapest. This may come as a surprise to most of you, but I’m not the most fashionable person ever. Shock right? And I hate shopping. Though, I’ve been proud of myself because I’ve been trying on things other than t-shirts. I haven’t had much of any luck, unfortunately. I think I can speak for most people when things look so nice on the rack but then you try it on and it either DOES NOT fit properly or you just can’t pull it off. That’s basically what it’s been like for me. I plan to do more shopping though. I’m determined to find something before the sales are done. We shopped until lunch time and we were all exhausted. It didn’t help that we had only gotten 5 hours of sleep that night. After lunch I took a 3 hour wonderful siesta and I had to pry myself out of bed knowing I needed to get up in order to sleep well that night. It was quite the battle.

I continued reading The Book Thief after I got up. Sunday morning I finished it. I do not recommend it. I didn’t like it from the get-go, but once I started I was determined to finish it regardless. The book was narrated by Death and what should have been the good parts were spoiled before I read them. They would tell you that a person dies and give a little detail about it, then the next section was the events leading up to the death. It wasn’t a total waste of my time, but I can prevent a waste of yours. 

 

This week I am back at school. I only have this week and next until I move to the next level. I have my final exam next Friday. This weekend we are going to Sevilla for a day trip with my program. I’ve heard Sevilla is one of the most beautiful cities in Spain. After my final exam, Roseanna, Tesla, and I booked a trip to Paris for 3 days. Honestly I’m not all that jazzed about going to France. It will be cool, but it’s just not my first choice of a country in Europe. Right now, though, temperatures are so cold that going any further north would not be enjoyable. We have a holiday that Monday and Tuesday so that’s why we have a chance to travel now. We are thinking of going to the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Louvre, and some other attraction I’ve never heard of. I’ve never taken French, and I’m hoping Spanish is truly as similar as they say it is, or that they speak English.

For now I am looking forward to having class, learning Spanish, and enjoying my routine. I just wish it would warm up a bit. 

 

Also, I don’t know if you’ve seen Anaconda. The cast includes J-Lo, Ice Cube, John Voight, Owen Wilson, and the hunter dude from Jumanji. Odd enough cast, should make for a winning movie. No. It’s awful, especially in Spanish. 

Lastly, in relation to my last post. I also saw the Whitney Houston died on the news yesterday atleast 7 times. There is definitely an influence from America to have a tribute to her several times even in Spain. 

America the Influential

I’ve observed a lot of things in the little time I’ve been abroad, and this particular subject seems to occur every day. Question: How influential do you think the United States is?

We are a top power, we have a democracy, top GDP, capitalism, blah blah blah. How about the English language? Ok honestly, how many other languages do you know? I’m pursuing my second and I’ve learned most of it while in college. How pitiful is that statement? Not very, right? Wrong. It’s rare to find people in the US studying another language and when you come across someone focusing on studying other languages or international communication my first thought, probably similar to you as well, was “cool, so how are you going to get a job and make money with that? You’re wasting your time”. Our world revolves money, this is true. But it wasn’t until I could speak English with people from China, Turkey, Germany, Taiwan, Spain, and Morocco that I realized Americans are surprisingly uneducated. The common theme is that English is a language required or offered at their schools as early as middle school. Most kids only take 2 years of another language in high school and they never have to deal with it again. It’s such a shame. Yes, if you come to a country you should be expected to learn that language, but we should make an effort to know their language too. Americans are very selfish people and extremely sheltered- which is a point I’ll get to later.

A little quick fact, Chinese is the emerging language that future kids need to know.

Ok so the language thing is very influential. What about pop culture and music? I’ve been to several stores and restaurants here in Spain that play English music. From Avril Lavigne, to Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, LMFAO, and Adele. No country…fortunately. I went on Itunes and changed my region to Spain to find some Spanish music. Get this, on the top 10 popular songs right now 8 are from the US, 1 is from Portugal, and 1 is from Spain. Based on this fact 80% of the popular music here is from America. It’s crazy. Then the actors and movies! I’ve seen Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney and other stars on tv. I know that they are coming out with a new Spiderman move with the guy from the Social Network because I saw it on the news.

Getting back to Americans being sheltered, the news here is very different than back home. They don’t censor the news. It’s not like they cuss, but they give the raw, real news. They don’t try to avoid controversial topics, and they give news around the world. If I had to guess, I bet that KCCI or WHO didn’t tell you about the 79 people that died in Egypt from rioting after a futbol game, or the government problems and killings in Siria, or someone who set themselves on fire in Rabat, Morocco as a protest. Probably not, and if so it was probably a 20 second clip. Do you even know where Egypt, Siria, and Morocco are on a map? Americans don’t have a clue about what is going on in the world. Read USA Today, go on CNN.com and become educated. Even then you’re only going to read what they tell you. Forget your work out plans as a New Year’s resolution, you’ve probably already forgot about them, and read up on a world even once a week. There’s only like 46 more weeks before the world ends anyways right?

America is the rich kid who gets what they want and is naïve to reality. We are the sheltered child who was not able to watch R rated movies until they were of age. I’m speaking in comparison to the rest of the world. Have you seen Old School? We are that kid who has to cover his ears when the adults are talking about adult things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful that I can call it home. America has got it good, but we tend to let opportunities to expand horizons slip by. I wish people were more adventurous and educationally well rounded. I talked to a girl today who had no idea who Rick Santorum was, the other day I talked to some from Massachusetts who didn’t know where Iowa was. Are you people kidding me?? These people make me upset about America.

One a different note, I don’t know how I’m going to live as an accountant after this. How am I going to sit in a cubicle 5 days a week for the rest of my life? All I can say is that I’m glad I have 2 more years of college and I’ll think about my future over with a margarita. =)

School, shmool, ...Uhl?

Oh yeah, I´m in Spain to go to school. Shucks!

 

Classes have officially started. I missed the first one or two days because of the trip to Morocco, but apparently I just missed the annoying introductions and nothing important.  I met everyone the first day I was there during our break between classes. My class of 11 is a very international bunch. There is one is a very international bunch. There is one person from London, Taiwan, China, Turkey and Cyprus (I think that´s right because he is really hard to understand). Then there are us 6 Americans, but none of us are from the same place. Among us 6 we represent Iowa, Indiana, Washington, Pennsylvania, and 2 are from New York, but one from New York was born in Sudan. It´s crazy how we can all come together and communicate in a common language.

 

So to back track a little, I tested a 3 on the pre-test so I would have been placed in Intensive based on that test. We took the post test before leaving for Morocco and I received a 5 which would have placed me in Lengua y Cultura. However I weighed my options and decided the Intensive program has more pros than Cultura, so I stuck with the lower program. So how this program works is that I´m doing one level a month. At the end of February I will have a final exam to see if I move on to the next level. Ultimately by May I should have completed level 8. Intensive only goes through level 9.

 

Now that we know our calendar for the rest of school, we can start planning trips. Roseanna and I have spit balled a few ideas. We are thinking about Ireland/London combo for Spring Break. That would be awesome to see London before the upcoming Olympics, and Ireland is pretty self explanatory, right? There is a holiday coming up at the end of this month for about 5 days including the weekend, and we were thinking about going to France or Germany. Roseanna and I both agree that Berlin has a lot of history and would be rewarding to see. I personally want to make it to Italy at some point, but I still have time to plan that out. There is also a program to go to Portugal at the beginning of May that I am most likely going on with a bunch of friends throught the Central program. The possibilites are endless.

 

This past Friday I went and saw The Help at one of the movie theaters here. The title translates to ¨Criadas y Señoras¨ and I´m not quite sure how that is. The move was very good as always, but they lost a little emotion with the voice overs. The Southern accent was gone which is an essential characteristic of the movie. Also the part where Abby and the little girl say ÿou is kind, you is smart, you is important¨had no impact like it did in English. They translated it to ¨tù eres buena, tù eres lista, tù eres importante¨. Not at all the same. I´m glad I saw it in English first because I knew the correct translation. If you haven´t seen this move in English you are honestly missing out.

 

The weather is taking a turn for the colder. Northern Spain is getting snow which is somewhat normal, but some things are a little out of whack. There is an island to the east of Spain that got about a foot of snow. Thanks to my geography class last semester, I know that water is supposed to regulate temperatures and snow is out of the ordinary. This island is half the size of Oahu and they should not have significant, sudden drops in temperature. In Granada, our river is starting to have a sheet of ice over the running water. I don´t know what happened to the beautiful weather we had in January, but I miss it. I suppose you Iowans would like to trade me your snow for my freezing temperatures. I think I will pass, but thanks for the offer. I´ve had enough Iowa winters, I can skip one.

 

Until next time, talk to you folks later!