Why is blogger in Inglés again, for me? I've been getting used to all the websites switching into Spanish and all of a sudden it's not. Wouldn't be surprised if it goes right back again, though.
I've been able to get out of the hotel, finally, and check out Sevilla. I went with a small group yesterday between sessions and we walked around, just nearby, to take out some euros and get water/whatnot. While we were out, we saw an enormous statue (?) person...thing...called La Mujer Gigante, or the Giant Woman. Turns out she is an exhibit of the female reproductive system. Just right out there in the open, full of displays and such. Yes, please tell me more about the uterus....yieeee.
Then again last night, I was able to get out and about the town. First, after the day was over, we had another massive meet-and-greet cocktail + tapas hour at the hotel, which was awesome. Had some vino and some tapas, which are just basically appetizers, but you take a bunch of them. Met a lot of people, but mostly hung out with people I've been getting to know these past couple days. Just like study abroad, it's a bit insane to meet all new people and hang out with them right off the bat -- also reminds me of freshman year, or just any random college party where you mingle and make the rounds but don't necessarily know who you're talking to. After the cocktail party wrapped up, a bunch of people decided to go out on the town to the bars. A lot of the bars were closing since it was late Monday night, but we did eventually find one in the center of the city. I got a ton of pic's last night, so I'm looking forward to uploading those, soon.
Today is my second day of orientation, and it's more about learning about why exactly we came here and what to expect with Spanish culture and how the Spaniards will react to Americans. Surprisingly, for me, many Spaniards don't know or ever use English - that's why I'm here, though, for the massive countrywide bilingual initiative. My school will be in its first bilingual year, so basically they're wingin' it and I'm along for the fun. We learned about how to make the lesson plans and how to get the profesores/profesoras to warm up to us, because they told us that if you don't make amigos with the school staff it can be pretty miserable. Sometimes they're leery, anyway, though, about some random American kid showing up in their classroom just because the government decided it would be a good idea.
I went to a session where 2 girls who taught at secondary schools shared their experiences from last year (they are back for year #2, right now), and I thought that was pretty reassuring. Generally, the staff was accomodating and want to take you out for food and drinks and the like. Also, one girl said she got a lot of tutoring gigs from her job here and ending up making 150 extra euros WEEKLY. For someone making 700 euros a month, that makes me foam at the mouth with glee. Let's hope I can follow in her footsteps.
Mmkay I'm gonna finish putting myself together. Some of us are going to a flamenco show tonight and I need to get preparada. Adiós.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Orientación...día numero uno
I lied when I said orientación started yesterday, it officially starts today. Right now I'm have a 3 hour break after breakfast until the Spanish-track people start orientation session stuff, so I'm not being unsociable by updating this bad boy. I'm hanging out in the lobby with other Spanish-track people.
Yesterday we were on our own to meet and greet and figure out the lay of the land and resist the urge to faceplant in the pillows of our hotel beds. When we all trekked to the hotel, we set out to check in with the hotel, check in with the program people and get all our goodies to start orientation, and lug our stuff into the tiniest elevators that ever existed up to our rooms. Oh, and let me tell you, the group of us migrating from the aeropuerto bus to the hotel looked reeeeeeally special lugging our 2 massive suitcases + 2 carryons into the lobby.
So far this is all very dèja vú for me after studying abroad in Firenze, Florence. There are some key differences, though, mainly the fact that this whole yay-let's-all-hold-hands-and-be-amigos is entirely shortlived, because we're all going to disperse in about a week and most of us will probably never see each other again. The people in my province of Córdoba are a different story, and I've been making more of an effort to seek them out and do the meet and greet thing. My roommate in the hotel will be living in Iznájar, a tiny town less than an hour from Cabra, where I'll be, and I plan on keeping in touch with her, for example. She's a lot of fun, I enjoy hanging out with her. She's way more outgoing and peppy than I am -- anyone who knows me probably wouldn't put "peppy" in the top 100 adjectives to describe me, but it's good for me to hang out with someone like that, I'd say.
Anyway, ¡España! Like I said before: dèja vú. I haven't even seen that much, but just walking down the streets of Sevilla has a very familiar feeling, except for the American restaurant stuff which I never ever saw in Florence. No Starbucks, for example, in all of Italy (ironic, too, seeing how all the size names and a bunch of the drink names are in Italian). In that regard, I guess they haven't succumbed to all the westernization crap that is rampant in many countries. I've been to other European countries, and they all share a little something in common, it seems. But yeah -- Sevilla. By the way, Sevilla is the Spanish spelling of "Seville," and here it's pronounced "Seh-vee-ah." It's gloomy and HUMID today, but there are a bunch of palm trees here and it's relatively warm, so hooray for that. Honestly, I don't have many cultural experiences to share yet - the food at breakfast this morning was pretty tasty, but there were some weird things -- I really hate the milk in Europe, from what I've drank so far. They don't refrigerate it and who even knows if it's 1% or 2% or whatever. The other food that was there, and there was a lot, included potato and spinach omelettes, a lot of bread stuff, cereals, weird grilled veggies, a cheese bar thing...other stuff.
About pictures ~ unfortunately, I don't have a photo card reader, so it'll be awhile before any pictures pop up on here. :-( Until then, distfruten mis observaciónes culturales (enjoy my cultural observations). Adiós.
Yesterday we were on our own to meet and greet and figure out the lay of the land and resist the urge to faceplant in the pillows of our hotel beds. When we all trekked to the hotel, we set out to check in with the hotel, check in with the program people and get all our goodies to start orientation, and lug our stuff into the tiniest elevators that ever existed up to our rooms. Oh, and let me tell you, the group of us migrating from the aeropuerto bus to the hotel looked reeeeeeally special lugging our 2 massive suitcases + 2 carryons into the lobby.
So far this is all very dèja vú for me after studying abroad in Firenze, Florence. There are some key differences, though, mainly the fact that this whole yay-let's-all-hold-hands-and-be-amigos is entirely shortlived, because we're all going to disperse in about a week and most of us will probably never see each other again. The people in my province of Córdoba are a different story, and I've been making more of an effort to seek them out and do the meet and greet thing. My roommate in the hotel will be living in Iznájar, a tiny town less than an hour from Cabra, where I'll be, and I plan on keeping in touch with her, for example. She's a lot of fun, I enjoy hanging out with her. She's way more outgoing and peppy than I am -- anyone who knows me probably wouldn't put "peppy" in the top 100 adjectives to describe me, but it's good for me to hang out with someone like that, I'd say.
Anyway, ¡España! Like I said before: dèja vú. I haven't even seen that much, but just walking down the streets of Sevilla has a very familiar feeling, except for the American restaurant stuff which I never ever saw in Florence. No Starbucks, for example, in all of Italy (ironic, too, seeing how all the size names and a bunch of the drink names are in Italian). In that regard, I guess they haven't succumbed to all the westernization crap that is rampant in many countries. I've been to other European countries, and they all share a little something in common, it seems. But yeah -- Sevilla. By the way, Sevilla is the Spanish spelling of "Seville," and here it's pronounced "Seh-vee-ah." It's gloomy and HUMID today, but there are a bunch of palm trees here and it's relatively warm, so hooray for that. Honestly, I don't have many cultural experiences to share yet - the food at breakfast this morning was pretty tasty, but there were some weird things -- I really hate the milk in Europe, from what I've drank so far. They don't refrigerate it and who even knows if it's 1% or 2% or whatever. The other food that was there, and there was a lot, included potato and spinach omelettes, a lot of bread stuff, cereals, weird grilled veggies, a cheese bar thing...other stuff.
About pictures ~ unfortunately, I don't have a photo card reader, so it'll be awhile before any pictures pop up on here. :-( Until then, distfruten mis observaciónes culturales (enjoy my cultural observations). Adiós.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
¡Ha llegado en España! (I have arrived in Spain)
Here I am in in the Barajas aeropuerto in Madrid equipped with my triple espresso at a mini internet cafe thing. The waiter guy raised an eyebrow when I ordered my espresso triple (pronounced "tree-play"), but whatever, a girl's got needs. I was crestfallen when I got to this cafe and saw that the coffee cups are about half the size of a "tall" at Starbucks, and then I remembered that small sizes in Europe are just that: small. I decided an espresso triple, which fills the entire cup, would be my best opción.
Anyway, the flight...I left LAX airport at 9:30 a.m. on the 27th and now it is 9:51 a.m., the 28th of September. Keep in mind there is a 9 hour time difference between California and Spain, but yikes. Also, I changed planes in Chicago. I was in the clear minority of Americans traveling to Spain, but it was fine. I was konked out for most of the 8 hour flight, but I did awaken to experience the deliciousness of plane food for la cena and el desayuno (dinner and breakfast). Hardy har har. Turns out the flight was delayed getting into Madrid, so I had to hawl booty to get to my gate for Seville in time. Well, the Madrid airport turns out to be the size of Rhode Island, so it took me half an hour to get to the next gate. I am not a slow walker, either -- to get from my arrival gate to the departure gate, I kid you not, I had to go through about half a dozen moving walkways, up AND down several escalators, take one elevator trip, one 5-minute TRAIN ride, go through customs, go through security AGAIN (!), and then RUN to the J gate. Once I arrived, I was just in time for última llamada, last call. However, I was informed by the guy at the counter that I could take that flight if I wanted to, but my luggage wouldn't be on it because of the delay. #@($*!(*#% So then I went to a nearby info desk and got a ticket for the next flight to Seville, leaving at noon. AHHH! Luckily, I'll get there, hopefully with my luggage. If not, I came prepared with 5 extra pairs of underwear in my carry-on and a couple extra shirts. I'm not being paranoid, either. When I arrived in Florence for my study abroad trip in January '07 my luggage didn't arrive and I was stuck with the clothes on my back for 4 days.
Today I have my first day of orientation in Seville where we'll go over a plethora of things we all need to know to live and work here. Gracias a Dios, I have an apartment already, but I'm still anxious about the whole transition process. It's a bit exhilarating, though, and I'm looking forward to meeting my housemates Becca and Michelle, who seem to be friendly if email and facebook is a reliable indication...There are 2 other girls who will be living in Cabra, Emily and Kim. Kim and Michelle are starting their second year in the same program and Emily was studying abroad here a couple semesters ago, so it's a comfort to know they loved it so much they didn't want to leave. I take it with a grain of salt, though, because 2 of those 3 girls have Spanish boyfriends.
OK well I'm going to surf the web for awhile and bask in boredom for the next two hours before I leave for Seville. I already went to the bathroom and changed clothes and attempted to look more presentable and less like the undead. Maybe I'll go into the little shop I see in my periph and pick up some Spanish reading materials. Sounds like un plan. Adiós.
Anyway, the flight...I left LAX airport at 9:30 a.m. on the 27th and now it is 9:51 a.m., the 28th of September. Keep in mind there is a 9 hour time difference between California and Spain, but yikes. Also, I changed planes in Chicago. I was in the clear minority of Americans traveling to Spain, but it was fine. I was konked out for most of the 8 hour flight, but I did awaken to experience the deliciousness of plane food for la cena and el desayuno (dinner and breakfast). Hardy har har. Turns out the flight was delayed getting into Madrid, so I had to hawl booty to get to my gate for Seville in time. Well, the Madrid airport turns out to be the size of Rhode Island, so it took me half an hour to get to the next gate. I am not a slow walker, either -- to get from my arrival gate to the departure gate, I kid you not, I had to go through about half a dozen moving walkways, up AND down several escalators, take one elevator trip, one 5-minute TRAIN ride, go through customs, go through security AGAIN (!), and then RUN to the J gate. Once I arrived, I was just in time for última llamada, last call. However, I was informed by the guy at the counter that I could take that flight if I wanted to, but my luggage wouldn't be on it because of the delay. #@($*!(*#% So then I went to a nearby info desk and got a ticket for the next flight to Seville, leaving at noon. AHHH! Luckily, I'll get there, hopefully with my luggage. If not, I came prepared with 5 extra pairs of underwear in my carry-on and a couple extra shirts. I'm not being paranoid, either. When I arrived in Florence for my study abroad trip in January '07 my luggage didn't arrive and I was stuck with the clothes on my back for 4 days.
Today I have my first day of orientation in Seville where we'll go over a plethora of things we all need to know to live and work here. Gracias a Dios, I have an apartment already, but I'm still anxious about the whole transition process. It's a bit exhilarating, though, and I'm looking forward to meeting my housemates Becca and Michelle, who seem to be friendly if email and facebook is a reliable indication...There are 2 other girls who will be living in Cabra, Emily and Kim. Kim and Michelle are starting their second year in the same program and Emily was studying abroad here a couple semesters ago, so it's a comfort to know they loved it so much they didn't want to leave. I take it with a grain of salt, though, because 2 of those 3 girls have Spanish boyfriends.
OK well I'm going to surf the web for awhile and bask in boredom for the next two hours before I leave for Seville. I already went to the bathroom and changed clothes and attempted to look more presentable and less like the undead. Maybe I'll go into the little shop I see in my periph and pick up some Spanish reading materials. Sounds like un plan. Adiós.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Leaving for Spain in a couple days
¡Hola! A few weeks ago I discovered how to make my teclado (keyboard) do accents and upside-down exclamation points and accents, so I'm dorking out and using them all the time, now. The novelty will probably wear off within a week of living in Spain, I'm guessing.
Anyway, I'll be leaving for España the morning of the 27th. I'm stopping in Chicago and Madrid on the way to Seville for my 10-day orientation. After orientation is over, I'll be off to Cabra, which is the city I will call home for the next eight months. Cabra is in Southern Spain, in the province of Córdoba and the region of Andalucía. I'll be a language and cultural teaching assistant at a bilingual middle school and somehow managing to live off 700 euros a month, ¡ay! Fortunately, my piso (apartment) is relatively cheap, especially because I'll be living with two other girls. The cost of living in Cabra is lower than it is in Southern California, not that that's hard to beat since it's ridiculously pricey to live in SoCal.
I decided I wanted to go to Spain partially as a tactic to delay reality and decide what I really want to do with my life, also because I want to solidify my Spanish language knowledge since I've been studying it for years. Living in Europe also appeals to me. :-) When I come back from Spain, I hope I'll have more of an idea of what I want to do. Right now, I'm thinking I'll get back into feature writing or go to grad school and specialize in some communications field. I also have to figure out where exactly I want to live, but that's another story.
On the agenda right now I have finishing packing and getting all the loose ends tied up here at home. I have no idea what my life will look like a week from now, but that's all part of the fun. I'm not too freaked out about throwing myself into the deep end as far as new places and people goes, since I have lived in 5 different states in my life ~ Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, New York and California.
Soon I'll post pictures of my soon-to-be new apartment in Cabra and post more información about my upcoming orientation itinerary and whatnot. Adiós.
Anyway, I'll be leaving for España the morning of the 27th. I'm stopping in Chicago and Madrid on the way to Seville for my 10-day orientation. After orientation is over, I'll be off to Cabra, which is the city I will call home for the next eight months. Cabra is in Southern Spain, in the province of Córdoba and the region of Andalucía. I'll be a language and cultural teaching assistant at a bilingual middle school and somehow managing to live off 700 euros a month, ¡ay! Fortunately, my piso (apartment) is relatively cheap, especially because I'll be living with two other girls. The cost of living in Cabra is lower than it is in Southern California, not that that's hard to beat since it's ridiculously pricey to live in SoCal.
I decided I wanted to go to Spain partially as a tactic to delay reality and decide what I really want to do with my life, also because I want to solidify my Spanish language knowledge since I've been studying it for years. Living in Europe also appeals to me. :-) When I come back from Spain, I hope I'll have more of an idea of what I want to do. Right now, I'm thinking I'll get back into feature writing or go to grad school and specialize in some communications field. I also have to figure out where exactly I want to live, but that's another story.
On the agenda right now I have finishing packing and getting all the loose ends tied up here at home. I have no idea what my life will look like a week from now, but that's all part of the fun. I'm not too freaked out about throwing myself into the deep end as far as new places and people goes, since I have lived in 5 different states in my life ~ Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, New York and California.
Soon I'll post pictures of my soon-to-be new apartment in Cabra and post more información about my upcoming orientation itinerary and whatnot. Adiós.
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