Not much to report from over the weekend, it's been a few lazy days. Thursday night was a crazy night out and we had a lot of fun! Yesterday and today involved errands and just a lot of walking around the city to people watch and see new places. There's always stuff going on Sundays, so Elley and I went to the Plaza this afternoon and there was some kind of Renaissance festival happening with activities and lots of booths to buy things. It was interesting and even though much of the stuff was overpriced, there was lots of pretty jewelry and such that is very different than what you'd find in the States. Then we were suppose to take a tour of the old cathedral, but we got caught in a pack of people and couldn't make it to the cathedral in time for the tour. Oh well, we are gonna try again on Thursday.
Elley and I booked plane tickets to go to Barcelona on the 7th! We will go for a long weekend, the 7th-11th and I am SO excited! We have a long weekend then because of a holiday and I found some cheap tickets on Ryanair. It's already less than two weeks away!!
I don't have much else to report now. I love and miss everyone back home!!
Chao!
26 September 2010
22 September 2010
Escuela is in!
Wednesday, wednesday, wednesday! Today was a good day. I had class starting at 9am and didn't stop until about 4pm, five classes back to back...not even time to eat lunch! It was alright though, I mean, I was starving by the time it was all over, but a very productive day. I actually learned some things in my classes today, thank goodness! My professors all seem really nice and I think the classes will be manageable as far as having instruction in Spanish goes. One of the classes I had today I don't think I will go back to, History of Translation, it was really confusing and not very interesting and I don't need it for anything.
So some highlights of my day were that I got put in to the intermediate level of my Spanish course, which I think is good for the conversation aspect, but I definitely already know all of the grammar that we will be learning. Oh well. The cool thing though is that two other Americans from FLC are in that class as well! I know one of them, him and I had a class together last year and then there is a girl who is really nice and I think we will get along well. Both of them had a really hard time with their schedules and finding classes that they thought would be easy enough for them, so I helped them try and figure out the system and recommended the easy classes I am taking. Elley (the girl) said that she went to talk to the international relations people here and they recommended only two classes for her which is hardly enough credits, but she told me about one of the classes, it's a course for foreign students to get a chance to travel around the Basque country...to do touristy things and learn about the history of the area. So we went to the information session today and it seems really great! We go on five "field trips" on different Saturdays, for the whole day and then we just write a paper about out experiences and what we learned. It's so great cause not only will I get to travel to places (and not have to go alone), but our professor will be explaining everything and telling us how they do things here in the Basque country. So stay tuned for updates on my Basque travels! Our first trip is next weekend, the 2nd of October, to a winery that's close to Vitoria.
After classes, I meet with my "madrina", the girl the University set me up with to help me out and show me around. She is really sweet, we went to a cafe and talked for a few hours, we switched speaking between Spanish and English. She said she needed to practice her English cause she hadn't spoken it all summer and I said I needed to practice Spanish, pretty much for the same reason! We compared Spain and the U.S. and she told me about her experience studying abroad in Sweden. I think we will get along well, we seem to have a lot in common and she's really nice.
So this week is turning out nicely so far and tomorrow is Thursday, so you know what that means! Partee!! haha! :)
So some highlights of my day were that I got put in to the intermediate level of my Spanish course, which I think is good for the conversation aspect, but I definitely already know all of the grammar that we will be learning. Oh well. The cool thing though is that two other Americans from FLC are in that class as well! I know one of them, him and I had a class together last year and then there is a girl who is really nice and I think we will get along well. Both of them had a really hard time with their schedules and finding classes that they thought would be easy enough for them, so I helped them try and figure out the system and recommended the easy classes I am taking. Elley (the girl) said that she went to talk to the international relations people here and they recommended only two classes for her which is hardly enough credits, but she told me about one of the classes, it's a course for foreign students to get a chance to travel around the Basque country...to do touristy things and learn about the history of the area. So we went to the information session today and it seems really great! We go on five "field trips" on different Saturdays, for the whole day and then we just write a paper about out experiences and what we learned. It's so great cause not only will I get to travel to places (and not have to go alone), but our professor will be explaining everything and telling us how they do things here in the Basque country. So stay tuned for updates on my Basque travels! Our first trip is next weekend, the 2nd of October, to a winery that's close to Vitoria.
After classes, I meet with my "madrina", the girl the University set me up with to help me out and show me around. She is really sweet, we went to a cafe and talked for a few hours, we switched speaking between Spanish and English. She said she needed to practice her English cause she hadn't spoken it all summer and I said I needed to practice Spanish, pretty much for the same reason! We compared Spain and the U.S. and she told me about her experience studying abroad in Sweden. I think we will get along well, we seem to have a lot in common and she's really nice.
So this week is turning out nicely so far and tomorrow is Thursday, so you know what that means! Partee!! haha! :)
20 September 2010
Tortillas!
Today is the first day of classes here in Vitoria, it's been too long since I've been in school, it feels so strange! But my 9am class for today was cancelled, already. We walked into class and the profa announced that we would just start the class on Wednesday and go over stuff then. Cool! So now I don't have class again until 1:30pm. I think I have my schedule figured out, but the system here is kinda complicated and finding classes to take that don't have time conflicts is really difficult. Seriously, all of the classes are at the same time, how is that suppose to work? And a lot of the classes for the Spanish major are ones that I can't/don't want to take cause they are about learning the different regional languages like Catalan and Galacian. Not that it wouldn't be interesting, just not applicable for me.
So I thought I would write about some other interesting Spanish things, only a few though.
When you go to a restaurant here and order a water or a soda, it's bottled. As in, you can't buy tap water at a restaurant or even ask for it, cause they don't serve anything but bottled. And if you order a coke, they take a 350ml (approx) glass bottle and pour it into a glass for you. There's not a tap for sodas either! I'm not sure about beer, I haven't had one yet and I haven't been observant enough to notice if there is draft beer or not. Most of the beer here is light though, they drink Heineken like Bud Light back home.
Also, the people that do have dogs around here rarely ever have them on leashes. There must not be any leash laws, but as far as I've seen all of the dogs are very well trained and will sit outside of a store patiently for their owner. Most of the dogs are pretty small too, again cause of apartment living.
Oh! Saturday night I ate dinner at Cam and Alba's apartment and we made Spanish tortillas or tortilla de patata. What an awesome meal! If you are envisioning a tortilla made out of flour or corn, think again, this is not South America...wheat and maize are not native here. Spanish tortillas are made out of potatoes (patatas) and are pretty similar to a potato omelette, here's a picture to demonstrate:
They are SOO yummy! I can't wait to make them at home and show everyone how delicious they are!
Here are a few ore pics of Vitoria.
Oh and forget about having a good hair day here, humidity is terrible...
Chao!
So I thought I would write about some other interesting Spanish things, only a few though.
When you go to a restaurant here and order a water or a soda, it's bottled. As in, you can't buy tap water at a restaurant or even ask for it, cause they don't serve anything but bottled. And if you order a coke, they take a 350ml (approx) glass bottle and pour it into a glass for you. There's not a tap for sodas either! I'm not sure about beer, I haven't had one yet and I haven't been observant enough to notice if there is draft beer or not. Most of the beer here is light though, they drink Heineken like Bud Light back home.
Also, the people that do have dogs around here rarely ever have them on leashes. There must not be any leash laws, but as far as I've seen all of the dogs are very well trained and will sit outside of a store patiently for their owner. Most of the dogs are pretty small too, again cause of apartment living.
Oh! Saturday night I ate dinner at Cam and Alba's apartment and we made Spanish tortillas or tortilla de patata. What an awesome meal! If you are envisioning a tortilla made out of flour or corn, think again, this is not South America...wheat and maize are not native here. Spanish tortillas are made out of potatoes (patatas) and are pretty similar to a potato omelette, here's a picture to demonstrate:
They are SOO yummy! I can't wait to make them at home and show everyone how delicious they are!
Here are a few ore pics of Vitoria.
Oh and forget about having a good hair day here, humidity is terrible...
Chao!
18 September 2010
Don't smile, just look at the graffiti.
Well not a whole lot exciting or eventful has happened in the past day or two. Thursday night we went out to the bars and then a club and that was SO much fun! I could do that every weekend night! Yesterday Cam, Alba and I went shopping in the afternoon and I got a new pair of jeans (they are so long, it's amazing!) and some leggings and sweaters. I think I will be living in scarves and sweaters this year cause I am freezing all the time, already! I still need a heavier jacket and some new shoes that will be better in the rain, oh and an umbrella. I slept 11 hours last night, whoa! I guess I needed to catch up on some sleep and my room is so great cause the shutter on the window completely blocks out light, so my room stays really dark all night. Love it.
So I though I'd point out some of the different/strange things I've noticed here. The main thing is that people are so cold to each other, I mean strangers. There is no smiling on the street, you don't say Hi to a passerby and there is no small talk in stores. Everyone just keeps to themselves. It's hard for me not to smile at people when I'm walking around, but it's just not something that anyone does!
As I knew before coming here, the daily schedule is a lot different. Breakfast is small, if anything more than a cup of tea or coffee and lunch is considered the "most important meal of the day". Lunch happens between 2-4pm and is a large meal, in fact, I feel like I've done so much eating already cause lunch is such a big deal. Dinner is late, around 10pm and is not a big as lunch and more for socializing. Alba said that if you go out to restaurants they won't serve you dinner before 9pm usually.
Lots of people smoke here, probably the same as in the US, but it seems more obvious because they are allowed to in restaurants and bars. We are so spoiled in Colorado! Thurday when I got back to my room from going to the club, I reeked of smoke...hair, clothes, even my skin! Gross.
This may be something that is special to Vitoria, but there is graffiti everywhere! It doesn't matter if you're in the nice part of town or the ghetto part, it's all over the place and some of it is really pretty. It makes me wonder if they do it all with spray paint, cause the colors are so vibrant and rich.
Most of the music around here is in English and the same stuff that is popular in the States. It's all dance and techno music like Lady Gaga and David Guetta. There are some Spanish artists, but American music is heard more frequently.
Everyone lives in apartments here, I actually don't think I've seen one house so far. It makes for a more compact city, but there are also not very many people with dogs...at least not like in the US.
There's no Walmart (thank goodness!) and I haven't seen a McDonald's yet, although there is Burger King.
In general, there aren't fat people here. haha! That sounds funny, but it's true, people are thinner than in the States, even compared to Colorado! I think it's because it's easier to walk places here and food is more proportioned.
Since I'm in the Basque country, everything is labeled in both Castellano (Spanish) and Euskara (Basque) and there are many things that people use the Basque word for instead of Spanish.
For example: Pintxos (pinchos) = tapas
Txupito (chupito) = a shot (of alcohol)
Agur (ahur) = goodbye
Oh! And in the supermarkets, you have to buy bags...they are only like .20£ I think, so it's a good idea to save your bags and you see a lot of people going into the market with a suitcase looking thing for groceries.
That's all for now I think. I'm sure once school starts I will have more to share. Here's a pic of the outside of my residence and some random graffiti. I promise I will have more pictures soon!
Agur!
So I though I'd point out some of the different/strange things I've noticed here. The main thing is that people are so cold to each other, I mean strangers. There is no smiling on the street, you don't say Hi to a passerby and there is no small talk in stores. Everyone just keeps to themselves. It's hard for me not to smile at people when I'm walking around, but it's just not something that anyone does!
As I knew before coming here, the daily schedule is a lot different. Breakfast is small, if anything more than a cup of tea or coffee and lunch is considered the "most important meal of the day". Lunch happens between 2-4pm and is a large meal, in fact, I feel like I've done so much eating already cause lunch is such a big deal. Dinner is late, around 10pm and is not a big as lunch and more for socializing. Alba said that if you go out to restaurants they won't serve you dinner before 9pm usually.
Lots of people smoke here, probably the same as in the US, but it seems more obvious because they are allowed to in restaurants and bars. We are so spoiled in Colorado! Thurday when I got back to my room from going to the club, I reeked of smoke...hair, clothes, even my skin! Gross.
This may be something that is special to Vitoria, but there is graffiti everywhere! It doesn't matter if you're in the nice part of town or the ghetto part, it's all over the place and some of it is really pretty. It makes me wonder if they do it all with spray paint, cause the colors are so vibrant and rich.
Most of the music around here is in English and the same stuff that is popular in the States. It's all dance and techno music like Lady Gaga and David Guetta. There are some Spanish artists, but American music is heard more frequently.
Everyone lives in apartments here, I actually don't think I've seen one house so far. It makes for a more compact city, but there are also not very many people with dogs...at least not like in the US.
There's no Walmart (thank goodness!) and I haven't seen a McDonald's yet, although there is Burger King.
In general, there aren't fat people here. haha! That sounds funny, but it's true, people are thinner than in the States, even compared to Colorado! I think it's because it's easier to walk places here and food is more proportioned.
Since I'm in the Basque country, everything is labeled in both Castellano (Spanish) and Euskara (Basque) and there are many things that people use the Basque word for instead of Spanish.
For example: Pintxos (pinchos) = tapas
Txupito (chupito) = a shot (of alcohol)
Agur (ahur) = goodbye
Oh! And in the supermarkets, you have to buy bags...they are only like .20£ I think, so it's a good idea to save your bags and you see a lot of people going into the market with a suitcase looking thing for groceries.
That's all for now I think. I'm sure once school starts I will have more to share. Here's a pic of the outside of my residence and some random graffiti. I promise I will have more pictures soon!
Agur!
16 September 2010
The lost day.
Well day number two is on its way, an exciting day cause I went shopping for some stuff for my room, so I finally have an actual blanket for my bed and towels for showering...Thank goodness for Cam and Alba cause otherwise I would have had a cooold night and and un-showered morning. Let me tell ya, that would not have been good with how my day yesterday went.
So like I said in my last post, everything with flights and buses went fine, but once I got to Vitoria, I encountered some issues. I got off the bus and went in the station to find out which bus would take me to the University and apparently there isn't one, only ones that stop on that side of town. So the guy said that it was an easy walk, gave me a map and drew out my path. Well I haven't established my sense of direction here yet (who knows if I ever will, all the streets go in crisscross and loop-de-loops) so I headed in the direction he said and immediately got lost. I tried to identify some streets with the ones on my map, but the majority of streets don't have a sign. I asked a man to point me in the right direction and he was pretty vague, so I wandered around for about an hour before a lady saw me looking at my map and offered to help. She gave me excellent directions and I got to campus about a half hour later cause I was so out of the way. ha! Once I was on campus, I wandered around for about another hour trying to figure out where the residence was before some girls asked me if I knew of a bus to Bilbao. Of course I didn't and I asked them if they would help me, turns out one of the girls lives in the residence and they chaperoned me there. They were freshman and really nice, I was so grateful they helped me because once we got to the residence I knew there would have been no way I would have found it on my own.
The strange and wonderful thing about it was, even though I was lost beyond belief, it was alright with me. Normally I think I would have been very frustrated, but for some reason I still had a smile on my face the whole time. I was exhausted and sweating like a fat man going up stairs, but none of that seemed to matter. Who knew such a struggle could also be so great. NOT that it was easy, my shoulders hurt so badly today from carrying my backpack and a 50lb. suitcase for two hours!
Well, then I was in my room and I immediately got an ethernet cord from the front desk cause I was so sure Mom was freaking out and I needed to let her know I was fine. After that, I did an inventory of my room and realized that I didn't have any sheets, towels or even toilet paper. That was when the exhaustion and homesickness hit me and I just about fell over and started crying, feeling overwhelmed. Cause after being in the same sweaty, dirty clothes (they were really gross) and not having had a nice bathroom to use for almost two days or a good night's sleep...I was pretty pathetic.
So I tried to get myself together, changed clothes and washed my face cause I was meeting Cam and Alba in about 30 mins. I felt a lot better once I saw them and we went around town a bit and then out to eat. Then back to their apartment and they let me borrow a blanket, towel and some TP. It was wonderful!
When I was back in my room, jet-lag was catching me cause I was not tired at all. Finally went to bed around 1am and then only slept for an hour cause I was freezing, put my sweatshirt on and slept SO hard until my alarm went off in the morning. I think I could have slept til noon today.
So my first day or so in Vitoria was a bit of a mess, but I think memorable. ha! And when I woke up to a cloudy, rainy morning all I could think was that I should have traded every dress I brought so I could have my sweatpants! ...but just to wear around my room, that kind of clothing would get me even more glares than I already get!
I haven't taken many pictures cause today is cloudy, I should have yesterday when it was sunny and beautiful...but here's some of my room (pretty bare, I know) and I will have more next time, I hope!
Thursday nights start the weekend here (not literally, it's just the night to go out), so hopefully it will be a fun night! Alba said it might not be that busy cause school hasn't started, so many students haven't moved back yet.
More soon! Chao!
So like I said in my last post, everything with flights and buses went fine, but once I got to Vitoria, I encountered some issues. I got off the bus and went in the station to find out which bus would take me to the University and apparently there isn't one, only ones that stop on that side of town. So the guy said that it was an easy walk, gave me a map and drew out my path. Well I haven't established my sense of direction here yet (who knows if I ever will, all the streets go in crisscross and loop-de-loops) so I headed in the direction he said and immediately got lost. I tried to identify some streets with the ones on my map, but the majority of streets don't have a sign. I asked a man to point me in the right direction and he was pretty vague, so I wandered around for about an hour before a lady saw me looking at my map and offered to help. She gave me excellent directions and I got to campus about a half hour later cause I was so out of the way. ha! Once I was on campus, I wandered around for about another hour trying to figure out where the residence was before some girls asked me if I knew of a bus to Bilbao. Of course I didn't and I asked them if they would help me, turns out one of the girls lives in the residence and they chaperoned me there. They were freshman and really nice, I was so grateful they helped me because once we got to the residence I knew there would have been no way I would have found it on my own.
The strange and wonderful thing about it was, even though I was lost beyond belief, it was alright with me. Normally I think I would have been very frustrated, but for some reason I still had a smile on my face the whole time. I was exhausted and sweating like a fat man going up stairs, but none of that seemed to matter. Who knew such a struggle could also be so great. NOT that it was easy, my shoulders hurt so badly today from carrying my backpack and a 50lb. suitcase for two hours!
Well, then I was in my room and I immediately got an ethernet cord from the front desk cause I was so sure Mom was freaking out and I needed to let her know I was fine. After that, I did an inventory of my room and realized that I didn't have any sheets, towels or even toilet paper. That was when the exhaustion and homesickness hit me and I just about fell over and started crying, feeling overwhelmed. Cause after being in the same sweaty, dirty clothes (they were really gross) and not having had a nice bathroom to use for almost two days or a good night's sleep...I was pretty pathetic.
So I tried to get myself together, changed clothes and washed my face cause I was meeting Cam and Alba in about 30 mins. I felt a lot better once I saw them and we went around town a bit and then out to eat. Then back to their apartment and they let me borrow a blanket, towel and some TP. It was wonderful!
When I was back in my room, jet-lag was catching me cause I was not tired at all. Finally went to bed around 1am and then only slept for an hour cause I was freezing, put my sweatshirt on and slept SO hard until my alarm went off in the morning. I think I could have slept til noon today.
So my first day or so in Vitoria was a bit of a mess, but I think memorable. ha! And when I woke up to a cloudy, rainy morning all I could think was that I should have traded every dress I brought so I could have my sweatpants! ...but just to wear around my room, that kind of clothing would get me even more glares than I already get!
I haven't taken many pictures cause today is cloudy, I should have yesterday when it was sunny and beautiful...but here's some of my room (pretty bare, I know) and I will have more next time, I hope!
Thursday nights start the weekend here (not literally, it's just the night to go out), so hopefully it will be a fun night! Alba said it might not be that busy cause school hasn't started, so many students haven't moved back yet.
More soon! Chao!
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