Well, vacation time is over. I'm already missing Spain a little bit. What a great experience! And what a great way to finish the vacation too!
So Jordan arrived to Madrid, and it was awesome to see him again! He was so tired, but he stayed awake throughout the whole day. We did a little touring and took some pictures. The next day we took a train to Barcelona, had a couple hours to spend there, and then took another train to Perpignan, France. We stayed there for 2 days. It was a cute little city. It was kind of difficult to communicate at times though. Luckily, many of the French also spoke Spanish, so that helped. I really want to learn French now. It's such a pretty language.
After France, we returned to Barcelona and met up with Adam (Jordan's brother), KC (my friend from college) and her friend Emil, and Felix (the German). They came in from England, Ireland, and Germany. I had such a great time with everyone. We went to Montserrat, the beach, and saw many of Gaudi's works. I just loved hanging out. I laughed a lot and finally got to be myself. The whole time in Spain before Barcelona, I felt like I wasn't myself when speaking Spanish. I couldn't express myself in the way that I normally do in English. My favorite night was when we went to a tapas bar. We ordered about 15 different tapas or so. I still wasn't full in the end though. For those of you who may not know, tapas are basically like little mini appetizers. They're really good.
The morning that Jordan and I had to leave, we got up at 5:45 am and took the metro to a train which took us to the airport. Oh....my.....gosh. We walked sooooo much. We probably just could've walked all the way to the airport. Carrying 50 lb. luggage up and down millions of stairs in the metro is NOT fun...especially in 99 degree weather. I was sweating sooooooooo much. Jordan said it looked like I had angel wings on my back. I was soaked, and grumpy. Oh well. We made it to the airport in the end. I barely remember arriving in LA because we had been up for 26 hours straight.
It's time to get back to the real world now. Yesterday I spent a long time doing laundry. I'll probably be doing more cleaning today too. Next week Rachel and Josh come to visit for a little bit, but I found out yesterday that I have two teacher inservice days out of the 3 days that they will be here. I'm very very very upset. Hopefully I will be able to miss a meeting or two. Ok. Time to do stuff. Thanks for reading. I may post time and again about adventures of teaching, but I think this blog will mainly be for when I'm abroad.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Done
I’m officially done with the program for the summer! Right now I’m in Madrid just relaxing. I did a little shopping today and bought some gifts for people. I hadn’t done that yet until today. Barcelona will be the hot spot for that I think. I’m super excited for Jordan to get here. I think he’s in the air right now, probably almost landing in New York. I’m glad he flies during the night from there to here because the time will go by quicker for both of us. I just hope that he’s able to sleep on the plane and that I can sleep tonight because we only have tomorrow in Madrid and that’s it.
To sum up my last week of school: it was hard, but fun. First of all, on Tuesday morning while I was trying to get my breakfast ready, I hit a cereal bowl with my arm and it fell and shattered all over the place. My feet were bleeding in a couple of places from the ceramic. I felt really bad because the bowls are from IKEA, and the nearest one to Montserrat (my host mom) is in Madrid. She is in love with the store and with all of the items she owns from there. I paid her so she could buy a new one, but I could tell she was disappointed because she didn’t know when she would be in Madrid next. Oh, this just reminded me of another little incident that I didn’t write about before.
Montserrat did our laundry once a week, and since nobody in Spain owns a dryer, everybody hangs their clothes on clothes-lines to dry. In this building where the lines are is in the big square hole in the center. You can look out your window and see your neighbor like RIGHT there like 10 feet in front of you. So we’re on the 3rd floor and we have to be careful when we’re taking our clothes off of the lines not to drop them because we’d have to go down to the bottom and ask the grumpy neighbor for get it for us. So what do I do? Drop a shirt. Of course it wasn’t even my shirt. It was Esther’s. It actually didn’t even fall all the way to the ground. It landed on the clothing line of the lady on the ground level. I was terrified to go down and ask her to get it for me. I rang the doorbell twice and nobody came to the door. Then I looked to my right and there was a small window that opened up to the opening in the middle of the building. And what was right there? Esther’s shirt hanging within arm’s reach. YAY! Victory! The end.
On Friday I just had my linguistics exam, which was not easy. It took me the entire two hours to complete it again. But everybody took that long. For my night class, I just had to turn in an essay. We were the only class that still had class that night. Our professor was too scared to cancel because she thought she would get in trouble with the head of the program. But every other professor from Spain canceled their night classes! Anyway, we thought we were getting out early, but no, we stayed the entire two hours. And guess what we did? We listened to Flamenco music for an hour and 20 minutes. Yep, we just sat there and listened. She just kept the songs coming. Arg! We were all very impatient.
That night, the whole group met up at a place called Vinotinto, and it was a really cool place. The professors bought us tapas, and they were delicious. I went with these three other girls to a bunch of other places, and I was basically the designated driver, except we didn’t drive anywhere. We had fun though. We walked into one place and were probably the oldest ones there. It was filled with teens. One of the girls I was with who was drunk went to the bathroom and didn’t come back for a while. I went in there to check on her, and she was in there talking to a 17-year old, giving her advice on some problems that she was apparently having with a boy. It was soooo funny. They were in there talking for about a half an hour, and at the end, the girl asked my friend if she had facebook because she wanted to talk more. Geeze…. Anyway, after that we went to a pizzeria and stayed there talking for about 2 hours about relationships. We really had a good time. Oh, and one of the girls with us from the program named Rachel is really pretty, tall, skinny, has long blond hair, and striking blue eyes. Wow, that kind of just sounded like a description of my sister. But anyway, guys literally stop her on the street to talk to her because she’s so pretty. I’ve never seen anything like it. They all invite her to “a party they’re going to” and what not. She’s so nice that she always talks to them, but she’s not arrogant at all. And here, it’s not like in Mexico where the guys have hardly seen blondes before. There are blondes all over the place here, but she’s just the prettiest! So anyway, I got home around 4 am, and I think that was the latest I’ve ever been out in my life. Come to find out the next morning, my host mom had arrived home just a little bit before I did. It’s just the norm here.
The next day I was planning on doing a little shopping and then go to the beach. I got all ready to go, and I hadn’t even looked outside yet. My “mom” woke up, and said, “Ay, it’s raining.” Dude, I seriously thought that it was just a neighbor taking a shower because you can hear everything that your neighbors do….and I mean everything….yeah… Anyway, it was the first rain during the day in Valladolid that I experienced. I liked it. Needless to say, I didn’t go to the beach. But I shopped a little and walked around a lot. My Esther was gone for the weekend up north, and I missed her. But it was a good relaxing day.
…Oh, I just got a text from Jordan. He made it to NYC safely!!...
Today as we were getting ready to leave, we thought Montserrat wasn’t up yet, but she had told us that she would come with us to the place where the group was meeting. We didn’t want to wake her up, so we left a goodbye note because we had just called a taxi to come pick us up. Then, she came out of the bathroom. She had just showered and didn’t realize what time it was. She was running around in a panic trying to get ready quick. I went down the elevator in the meantime to see if the taxi had arrived. Yep, he did, and the guy was really really grumpy. He told me that he had been waiting a long time for us and wasn’t really happy about it. I told him that the lady on the phone told me that he would arrive in 5 minutes, and only 6 minutes had passed. By the time we left, I looked at the meter in the taxi, and we were already at 6 euros. But we arrived and said our goodbyes to Montserrat. She really was a great hostess…especially compared to other students’ experiences.
Thank you to everyone who took my “pole”. I loved the answers!
To sum up my last week of school: it was hard, but fun. First of all, on Tuesday morning while I was trying to get my breakfast ready, I hit a cereal bowl with my arm and it fell and shattered all over the place. My feet were bleeding in a couple of places from the ceramic. I felt really bad because the bowls are from IKEA, and the nearest one to Montserrat (my host mom) is in Madrid. She is in love with the store and with all of the items she owns from there. I paid her so she could buy a new one, but I could tell she was disappointed because she didn’t know when she would be in Madrid next. Oh, this just reminded me of another little incident that I didn’t write about before.
Montserrat did our laundry once a week, and since nobody in Spain owns a dryer, everybody hangs their clothes on clothes-lines to dry. In this building where the lines are is in the big square hole in the center. You can look out your window and see your neighbor like RIGHT there like 10 feet in front of you. So we’re on the 3rd floor and we have to be careful when we’re taking our clothes off of the lines not to drop them because we’d have to go down to the bottom and ask the grumpy neighbor for get it for us. So what do I do? Drop a shirt. Of course it wasn’t even my shirt. It was Esther’s. It actually didn’t even fall all the way to the ground. It landed on the clothing line of the lady on the ground level. I was terrified to go down and ask her to get it for me. I rang the doorbell twice and nobody came to the door. Then I looked to my right and there was a small window that opened up to the opening in the middle of the building. And what was right there? Esther’s shirt hanging within arm’s reach. YAY! Victory! The end.
On Friday I just had my linguistics exam, which was not easy. It took me the entire two hours to complete it again. But everybody took that long. For my night class, I just had to turn in an essay. We were the only class that still had class that night. Our professor was too scared to cancel because she thought she would get in trouble with the head of the program. But every other professor from Spain canceled their night classes! Anyway, we thought we were getting out early, but no, we stayed the entire two hours. And guess what we did? We listened to Flamenco music for an hour and 20 minutes. Yep, we just sat there and listened. She just kept the songs coming. Arg! We were all very impatient.
That night, the whole group met up at a place called Vinotinto, and it was a really cool place. The professors bought us tapas, and they were delicious. I went with these three other girls to a bunch of other places, and I was basically the designated driver, except we didn’t drive anywhere. We had fun though. We walked into one place and were probably the oldest ones there. It was filled with teens. One of the girls I was with who was drunk went to the bathroom and didn’t come back for a while. I went in there to check on her, and she was in there talking to a 17-year old, giving her advice on some problems that she was apparently having with a boy. It was soooo funny. They were in there talking for about a half an hour, and at the end, the girl asked my friend if she had facebook because she wanted to talk more. Geeze…. Anyway, after that we went to a pizzeria and stayed there talking for about 2 hours about relationships. We really had a good time. Oh, and one of the girls with us from the program named Rachel is really pretty, tall, skinny, has long blond hair, and striking blue eyes. Wow, that kind of just sounded like a description of my sister. But anyway, guys literally stop her on the street to talk to her because she’s so pretty. I’ve never seen anything like it. They all invite her to “a party they’re going to” and what not. She’s so nice that she always talks to them, but she’s not arrogant at all. And here, it’s not like in Mexico where the guys have hardly seen blondes before. There are blondes all over the place here, but she’s just the prettiest! So anyway, I got home around 4 am, and I think that was the latest I’ve ever been out in my life. Come to find out the next morning, my host mom had arrived home just a little bit before I did. It’s just the norm here.
The next day I was planning on doing a little shopping and then go to the beach. I got all ready to go, and I hadn’t even looked outside yet. My “mom” woke up, and said, “Ay, it’s raining.” Dude, I seriously thought that it was just a neighbor taking a shower because you can hear everything that your neighbors do….and I mean everything….yeah… Anyway, it was the first rain during the day in Valladolid that I experienced. I liked it. Needless to say, I didn’t go to the beach. But I shopped a little and walked around a lot. My Esther was gone for the weekend up north, and I missed her. But it was a good relaxing day.
…Oh, I just got a text from Jordan. He made it to NYC safely!!...
Today as we were getting ready to leave, we thought Montserrat wasn’t up yet, but she had told us that she would come with us to the place where the group was meeting. We didn’t want to wake her up, so we left a goodbye note because we had just called a taxi to come pick us up. Then, she came out of the bathroom. She had just showered and didn’t realize what time it was. She was running around in a panic trying to get ready quick. I went down the elevator in the meantime to see if the taxi had arrived. Yep, he did, and the guy was really really grumpy. He told me that he had been waiting a long time for us and wasn’t really happy about it. I told him that the lady on the phone told me that he would arrive in 5 minutes, and only 6 minutes had passed. By the time we left, I looked at the meter in the taxi, and we were already at 6 euros. But we arrived and said our goodbyes to Montserrat. She really was a great hostess…especially compared to other students’ experiences.
Thank you to everyone who took my “pole”. I loved the answers!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Grow up
I'm a little irked. So one of my pet peeves happened today in class. We were going over some answers of an assignment, and the prof was calling on random people to answer. He called on this one guy in the class, and he didn't know the answer. No big deal. But this one lady in the class says, "What? Come on, this is so easy. So easy." She continues on about how easy it was. I can't stand this. When my students do this, I always have to tell them that what is easy for one person may not necessarily be easy for another person. I discourage those kind of comments. It can make the poor person feel stupid. Then it was my turn in class, and I happened to not know part of the answer. Of course, the same woman has to make a big deal about how easy it is, "Oh come on now, Julee. Just think. Try thinking." Wow. I'm sorry I'm not as intelligent as you are. You're 44. Grow up. And then came one word that I happened to think was easy, but this lady didn't know the answer. I could have said, "Oh wow, that one was sooooo easy....blah blah." But I refrained from such a childish act.
I think I'm ready to be done....one more day of lectures.....
I think I'm ready to be done....one more day of lectures.....
Monday, July 27, 2009
Last week
I can’t believe the last week of classes has come already. I knew it would all fly by though. I’m excited to be done with the class part and then have fun for the next week or so with Jordan and friends. Here’s an update.
Friday was a tough day. My body knew that it was Friday, and I was having a hard time concentrating in class. After my last class of the day had finished I realized that I hadn’t heard a single word that the professor said after our break. Like, I really couldn’t tell you what we talked about. I had been daydreaming the whole time. But I at least pretended that I was paying attention by looking at her and nodding my head. Anyway, that night we went to this place where a bunch of the students were going for karaoke. Only two songs were sung because it was a playstation karaoke thing, and the bartender was the only one who knew how to run it, but he was really busy. That stunk, but we had fun just talking and playing darts. Anyway, a neighbor that lives above the bar ended up calling the police because it was too “noisy”. Apparently he does that all the time. The cops came and didn’t do anything. They just stood and talked to some people and smoked. But it’s like, if you don’t want it to be noisy where you live, don’t choose to live above a bar, duh. It’s not like it was really noisy anyway. It was just the normal noise that happens when there are 35 people talking at once. There wasn’t even any music. Esther and I left earlier than the rest because they had the doors closed, and most of the people in there were smoking. It hurt our eyes and lungs. You should have seen the place. You would have thought it was on fire. My hair actually still smells like stale smoke after three showers. Oh, and we took a taxi there and back and it cost 5 Euros (like $7-ish). We only went 1.5 kilometers, which is just under a mile. What a rip-off.
Saturday I went with a small group of girls to a Gitano market nearby. Wow, it was crazy. It kind of reminded me of the Mexican market in downtown LA, but with an even narrower pathway. The vendors were all yelling about their amazing prices and clapping their hands. “Brand name, only 4 euros, high quality!” Wow, isn’t that unbelievable for a REAL Coach purse?! Why go to a Coach store when you can get it for 99% less at a Gitano market? Besides the fake stuff they sell, there are some vendors that actually sell some real brand-name things. And you can tell who those people are because they only have like 10 items at their stand. Everybody here thinks/knows that they steal things from boutiques and re-sell them. How sad. The Gitano culture is pretty interesting. I was watching a tv show about them the other week. They get married extremely young (like between 13 and 16) and the weddings are crazy. Many don’t work but they have lots of money (can we say drugs?). You should research them in your spare time.
After the market I went to the “beach” here with some friends. The beach is by the icky river. It was hotttttt. I was soaking wet without going in the water. I came home early. Then I was bored. I didn’t feel like studying, so I went to the park by the school to use the internet. Of course, it didn’t work. And it still doesn’t work. I don’t know what happened.
Sunday, Esther went to Santander up north, and I was all alone. I went for a long walk and then I stopped at this hamburger place because I just really wanted a hamburger. I had one and some decaf. coffee. The dude asked me if I wanted milk with my coffee and I said yes. So he filled my cup up completely with warm milk and gave me an instant coffee pack. Wow, I thought he was asking if I wanted a little milk with my coffee, not a little coffee with my milk. It was actually really good though.
Ok, my little “rant” for the day…not an angry one though. Don’t you hate it when you know that you’re right about something for a fact, but the person you’re talking to thinks that they are right? It’s really awkward and it’s usually about little things that I don’t want to argue about. Many times it’s about grammar points. It’s happened a few times to me since I’ve been here. Like, I really feel like I know that I’m right…I even go online to verify to myself that I’m right, but I would never go back to that person and say, “Well, I just looked online, and it turns out that I was right after all.” But let me just make it clear that I don’t think that I’m always right…but I usually am :).
Last thing. A little random poll: When you hear the words “France” or “French” what are the first things that come to your mind? (like culture, food, historical things).
Friday was a tough day. My body knew that it was Friday, and I was having a hard time concentrating in class. After my last class of the day had finished I realized that I hadn’t heard a single word that the professor said after our break. Like, I really couldn’t tell you what we talked about. I had been daydreaming the whole time. But I at least pretended that I was paying attention by looking at her and nodding my head. Anyway, that night we went to this place where a bunch of the students were going for karaoke. Only two songs were sung because it was a playstation karaoke thing, and the bartender was the only one who knew how to run it, but he was really busy. That stunk, but we had fun just talking and playing darts. Anyway, a neighbor that lives above the bar ended up calling the police because it was too “noisy”. Apparently he does that all the time. The cops came and didn’t do anything. They just stood and talked to some people and smoked. But it’s like, if you don’t want it to be noisy where you live, don’t choose to live above a bar, duh. It’s not like it was really noisy anyway. It was just the normal noise that happens when there are 35 people talking at once. There wasn’t even any music. Esther and I left earlier than the rest because they had the doors closed, and most of the people in there were smoking. It hurt our eyes and lungs. You should have seen the place. You would have thought it was on fire. My hair actually still smells like stale smoke after three showers. Oh, and we took a taxi there and back and it cost 5 Euros (like $7-ish). We only went 1.5 kilometers, which is just under a mile. What a rip-off.
Saturday I went with a small group of girls to a Gitano market nearby. Wow, it was crazy. It kind of reminded me of the Mexican market in downtown LA, but with an even narrower pathway. The vendors were all yelling about their amazing prices and clapping their hands. “Brand name, only 4 euros, high quality!” Wow, isn’t that unbelievable for a REAL Coach purse?! Why go to a Coach store when you can get it for 99% less at a Gitano market? Besides the fake stuff they sell, there are some vendors that actually sell some real brand-name things. And you can tell who those people are because they only have like 10 items at their stand. Everybody here thinks/knows that they steal things from boutiques and re-sell them. How sad. The Gitano culture is pretty interesting. I was watching a tv show about them the other week. They get married extremely young (like between 13 and 16) and the weddings are crazy. Many don’t work but they have lots of money (can we say drugs?). You should research them in your spare time.
After the market I went to the “beach” here with some friends. The beach is by the icky river. It was hotttttt. I was soaking wet without going in the water. I came home early. Then I was bored. I didn’t feel like studying, so I went to the park by the school to use the internet. Of course, it didn’t work. And it still doesn’t work. I don’t know what happened.
Sunday, Esther went to Santander up north, and I was all alone. I went for a long walk and then I stopped at this hamburger place because I just really wanted a hamburger. I had one and some decaf. coffee. The dude asked me if I wanted milk with my coffee and I said yes. So he filled my cup up completely with warm milk and gave me an instant coffee pack. Wow, I thought he was asking if I wanted a little milk with my coffee, not a little coffee with my milk. It was actually really good though.
Ok, my little “rant” for the day…not an angry one though. Don’t you hate it when you know that you’re right about something for a fact, but the person you’re talking to thinks that they are right? It’s really awkward and it’s usually about little things that I don’t want to argue about. Many times it’s about grammar points. It’s happened a few times to me since I’ve been here. Like, I really feel like I know that I’m right…I even go online to verify to myself that I’m right, but I would never go back to that person and say, “Well, I just looked online, and it turns out that I was right after all.” But let me just make it clear that I don’t think that I’m always right…but I usually am :).
Last thing. A little random poll: When you hear the words “France” or “French” what are the first things that come to your mind? (like culture, food, historical things).
Thursday, July 23, 2009
B+
Soooooo, I didn’t get the A+ that I would have given myself, but I did get a good grade on the test: an 87%. I’m happy with that because apparently this professor’s tests are the most difficult. I think only 2 people got an A. I still think I’m awesome though.
I don’t know if any of you have experienced this in class, but does anybody else get annoyed when another student answers all of the questions directed toward the professor? I do. There’s this one lady in that class who ALWAYS tries to answer another student’s question that is asked to the professor. Most of the time she’s answering the question while the professor is answering as well, so you can’t even hear the answer since they’re talking at the same time. She always has commentary for everything. She really is a genius, but maybe she should wait until she has her master’s degree to play “professor.” This is unfortunate also because I really like the lady. She’s really nice. I hate it when nice people get on my nerves.
I have been faithfully going to the gym each morning. Yes, I miss a day here and there, but I’m pretty surprised that I’ve been this dedicated. Where’s my prize? There are only two elliptical machines there, and everybody wants to use them. I swear there is going to be a fight one day. If you’re on the machine you get at least 2 people asking you if there’s anybody waiting after you. Then they call their spot. This one old lady that I see there every day is really impatient with it. She had called her spot after me, and at one point she yelled all the way across the gym to ask how much longer I would be on the machine. Geeze, I only had 3 minutes left. I can only go on there for 20 minutes, or I think I would get beat up. It’s kind of an unspoken rule. Anyway, I like the gym. Everybody knows each other (except for me). There’s no air conditioning of course, so when I leave it looks like I’ve been standing in the rain for an hour, but I don’t really care. Oh, and the greatest is when I wear my maroon shorts and do the bicycle because when I get off, I have two enormous dark circles on each butt cheek. Sorry…graphic. I save that for last because that’s when I leave the gym.
The end for today.
I don’t know if any of you have experienced this in class, but does anybody else get annoyed when another student answers all of the questions directed toward the professor? I do. There’s this one lady in that class who ALWAYS tries to answer another student’s question that is asked to the professor. Most of the time she’s answering the question while the professor is answering as well, so you can’t even hear the answer since they’re talking at the same time. She always has commentary for everything. She really is a genius, but maybe she should wait until she has her master’s degree to play “professor.” This is unfortunate also because I really like the lady. She’s really nice. I hate it when nice people get on my nerves.
I have been faithfully going to the gym each morning. Yes, I miss a day here and there, but I’m pretty surprised that I’ve been this dedicated. Where’s my prize? There are only two elliptical machines there, and everybody wants to use them. I swear there is going to be a fight one day. If you’re on the machine you get at least 2 people asking you if there’s anybody waiting after you. Then they call their spot. This one old lady that I see there every day is really impatient with it. She had called her spot after me, and at one point she yelled all the way across the gym to ask how much longer I would be on the machine. Geeze, I only had 3 minutes left. I can only go on there for 20 minutes, or I think I would get beat up. It’s kind of an unspoken rule. Anyway, I like the gym. Everybody knows each other (except for me). There’s no air conditioning of course, so when I leave it looks like I’ve been standing in the rain for an hour, but I don’t really care. Oh, and the greatest is when I wear my maroon shorts and do the bicycle because when I get off, I have two enormous dark circles on each butt cheek. Sorry…graphic. I save that for last because that’s when I leave the gym.
The end for today.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
A++++++++++
Not to be too confident, but I think I may have gotten an A on my linguistics exam yesterday. I mean, I would give myself an A+. I think I pretty much killed the exam. It was crying after I took it. I studied so hard and it took my the whole 2 hours. It was not easy, but I think I studied the right things. Now watch, my next entry will be titled "F...I failed the exam." Let's hope not.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Dinner
I would just like to announce what was prepared for dinner last night at 10:30. We had chocolate cake, and the best homemade hot chocolate ever. Yes, that was dinner, not dessert.
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