observing. exploring. absorbing.

yesterday was intense orientation day. we were taught about everything we need to know with the organization we are with, the English classes, and the city and people. We got bus passes, went grocery shopping, went out to dinner and then to a basketball game of one of the missionaries here. it was a packed day and i am feeling really excited about this month.

today as we walked through the city i just couldn't help but think how seriously blessed i feel right now. i woke up early for my first classroom observation today and took a bus and tram to a high school in the city. this month i will be doing 30 hours of observation in language schools, high school, elementary schools, and business english classes. i will also be teaching 30 hours of intensive english classes and conversation hours. so today was a taste of what is going on...

it was sooo cool to get in the public school and really experience the culture here. it was the senior classes last day so they do a celebration all day... they choose a theme and dress up like that theme and then go to the city center and raise money through begging and being obnoxious. the class from my high school was dressed as smurfs. it was excellent. their costumes and body paint were hilarious. during my time at the school i was able to observe a pre-intermediate english class and also a spanish class. they threw me in the spanish class, excited that i speak spanish and wanting me to help a little. the teacher is a beginner spanish speaker so i was able to help a little and it was really cool to see those teachers in action. i realized my love and passion for spanish and desire to keep pursuing that language.

as we walked around the city after classes i was reminded so much of sevilla and all of the similarities. the buildings and atmosphere just reminded me soo much of spain and yet it is really different here. czech has a different set of historical mess apart from spain's muslim/catholic battle... they have WWII and the intense socialist background that is obviously a huge part of czechs story. aside from their history it is obvious that they are rebuilding their culture and have become very western european in their ways of life. i like the city a lot and feel like as time goes on i will understand the culture more and more.

so for now my observations have been-

-older Czechs are super quiet in public- i have heard this is due to their years under the socialist government and during the war

-europe is so much "greener", public transportation is excellent {love the trams} but also there are no free plastic bags at the grocery store. think about how much plastic waste this cuts back on-- everyone brings their own bags and its really not that difficult. we are so lazy and ignorant in the name of convenience.

-czech food is really great & so fattening... uh oh.

-i have officially converted from country girl to city girl throughout the course of this year.

čau,

laura

Arrived in Vienna

After very little sleep {maybe 2 hours through the night} I have arrived in London Heathrow airport. I have never been fond of the idea of visiting London but my mind has been changed from this airport experience. The view of London from and surrounding area from the plane was B-E-A-utiful. Seriously. {The sunrise might have helped.} And besides that, the accent, which I had previously assumed would annoy me, is actually awesome and I love it. British people are intriguing- in a funny way… for some reason they seem like fake people to me. Not in a rude way, they are just so snoody and smiley and teethy and accenty. J

Anyway-- I am feeling the peek of anxiety and nerves as I approach a time where I will be in Vienna, alone, not speaking the language and finding a bus to Brno, Czech Republic. It seems random, going to the Czech.. in fact a lady sitting next to me in London informed me she was going to Rome and was pleased when her destination seemed cooler than mine. Well Mrs. London Teeth, I have been to Rome and I didn’t love it. I am excited to see a new part of Europe.. outside the romance language section of the world. Although, to be honest, I would love to walka couple gates down and jump the flight to Madrid. AHHH I miss Spain more than ever right NOW. I haven’t been to a country where I couldn’t understand the language for an extended period of time…. Pray for me.

Cheers to new adventures, new lessons and new insights.

….

Recent Update: Vienna has free WIFI! I am too tired and nervous to get up and explore, plus I actually have TWO backpacks right now because one has things I will be getting rid of in Brno. So I am not a cool chick with a backpackers backpack but instead a ridiculous looking person with a small backpack and a big one. Yep, I’m a loser. Here I sit, Vienna, Austria.

All of my fears came true when I walked off the plane. I had taken my contacts out, an attempt to sleep. I NEVER have problems sleeping- but it didn’t help. So, I walked off the plane BLIND and practically deaf because I couldn’t understand a dang thing. Everyone all of a sudden switched from English to German and I was left in the dust. {stupid Americans, so uneducated in languages} Anyway, I think I will be okay, I found free internet, am attempting to take in the Austrian air as I wait for my colleagues trying not to fall asleep because I have a ridiculous amount of cash in my bag.

This is so much fun and it gives me a rush to be so scared and excited but it would be so much more fun with one other person… so I am glad that my plans after Czech will be with someone else J.

Familiar things thus far: WC- thank you Europe! Water closet always stands for bathroom. McCafe- McDonalds is so much classier in Europe. Euros- love them and hate them all at the same time.

And the Italian couple sitting across from me, I can understand more of what they’re saying than what the German guy next to me is saying.

To be continued…

Barcelona and the Holidays

My goal coming to Spain was to learn the language and the culture. I wanted to get to know the people here and understand their way of life, their religion, their food, their manerisms and basically soak in everything I could. I wanted to travel around Spain and see as much of the country as possible. I wanted to adapt and fall in love with Spain, with its flamenco music and bullfights and weird Andalusian accent and tasty tapas. I realize now that all of these desires were possible and I am very happy to say that I have achieved my goals. With the exception that I have also discovered things about Spain that I don’t like… dog poop on sidewalks, no smiling at strangers, the exchange rate, etc. I also realized that there is a lot more, deeper, within the culture besides flamenco and bulls. I have attempted to understand, through their perspective and my own, the Catholtic “religion” or “culture” here in Spain and Europe and come to grips with the way kids grow up here.. livng with their parents until they are married and getting an allowance until they are 23! (ish) Although I have adapted to eating lunch at 3PM and dinner at 10PM and eating fruit for dessert and one piece of toast for breakfast there are some things I refuse. I can’t not smile in the street, I know it seems fake to the Spainards but it is legitimately impossible for me. I can’t dress as fashionable and slutty as the girls my age here and I absoltulely REFUSE to only own heels and wear them at all time… (im sure there is more I just cant think of it right now).

All this to say that I am hooked on living in a new country. I have 3 weeks left and I am excited to go home but mostly overwhelmingly sad to leave my home here. I am addicted to travel but I guess I am ready for a little break. I have seen Huelva, Cadiz, Granada, Cordoba, Madrid, Toledo, Ronda, Barcelona, Gilbraltar, some of Italy and Portugal and there is so much more that I don’t have time for. .. :- /

---about the weekend---

It is strange that its Christmas season and I am here in Europe. The school here is decorated and the city is preparing for the Christmas season but it is not the same. There is absolutely no snow and the days and traditions are a lot different so the atmosphere is a little strange. I havent heard Christmas music except in school and in starbucks and no one is decorating gingerbread houses or putting trees in their houses. Thanksgiving was even weirder. We didn’t have school and I spent the day a little depressed about my first thanksgiving away from home. My friends and I reminisced about turkey and family traditions. At 9 o’clock PM we had an American fiesta with the profs and school and it was actually super fun. They had it catered with “American-style” thanksgiving dinner and it was DELICIOUS but very wanna-be. Then we spent the evening with a live band having a blast… the profs were hysterical and we all enjoyed the evening. The stupid part was staying out til 3AM when I had to leave for my flight in the morning at 5:50AM. Bad idea….

We left for Barcelona on Friday morning though… missed the bus to the airport and almost didn’t wake up at all. It was a very irresponsible situation and costed me a taxi fee but that’s okay. We arrived in Barce @ our hostal around noon. Liked the looks of it right away. I traveled with some girls from school that I hadnt spent a lot of time with before and I am sooo glad that I did. They were awesome and I liked getting to know them a lot. Only one issue with bugs in the hostal… I tried to kill them all and calm the girls down consoling them with the fact that ticks are easy to remove and I have slept outdoors many times and not had problems. Ha… it didn’t help and we changed rooms.

In Barcelona we saw all the typical stuff..

went to the beach (note: nuditiy is not illegal in this city),

saw the important statues,

Gaudi’s houses(amazinnnng, love him),

the Sagrada Familia and construction :- p,

the Cathedral and old people dancing outside of it (so cute),

Las Ramblas and the AMAZING market,

Plaza de Cataluna, the fountain show in Plaza de España,

Gaudi’s park and much more.

We had some great laughs with Italians in a Creperia, met many people who spoke 4-5 languages each (depressing I know), bought Barcelona futbol jerseys, watched the game vs Real Madrid with locals, experienced the craziness after they won (YAY!), ate lots of great food, and walked a whole lot. Everything was great minus a little bit of a chungo experiece with the bus station being closed and not sleeping at all Sunday night. I skipped classes Monday to catch up on sleep and today I have a couple presentations to work on… asi es mi vida. Me encanta.

(pics on facebook)

a week in italia

I realize I haven’t written in a long long time. This semester has sped up and my days are full of classes, homework, meetings, tapas and travel. I am enjoying learning and living here, dreading leaving and trying to enjoy every minute. I figure I should update on my last trip because it was a bigger deal. Since I last updated I have been to the pueblos blancos, Madrid, Portugal, Toledo, Gibraltar and all around Seville and the area. We had a week off for travels this past week though and 4 friends and me took off to Italy with a backpack and Eurail pass…

I arrived home in Spain this morning (Sunday) around 10Am. Last night there was a strike in Italy for train employees…they either did not inform us or informed us in Italian which means we didn’t really understand. Ha. This kind of screwed up our plans to get home… not that we made very good/concrete plans at all. BUT our plan to sleep in the airport was changed to traveling all-night, waiting for trains and connecting a million times between trains/busses/taxis/walking/planes. But I am glad to be back to shower and rest. When I walked in the door my Senora Isabel just laughed. Ha. I guess I looked pretty bad… she quickly went to work with all her medicine for my cough and cold (a week in rainy Italy with cold and wet feet will do that to me). She shoved pills and tea in my face and let me devour food from the fridge as we caught up. The other girls I live with were a mess too. So funny. Anyway.. how was Italy…

AMAIZNG. I have been waiting forever for this week… waiting to throw a backpack on with a few essential items and run around Europe. It was what I expected and better minus Italian November weather. We started in Rome and did the touristy stuff… Coliseum, Pantheon, Roman Ruins, Trevi Fountain, Vatican/Sistine Chapel, GELATO, food, walking, etc. I liked Rome, I liked seeing all the sights but I was a little sad about not knowing the language and I don’t feel like the city had a lot of character outside the tourism stuff. The culture was not very thick and I was ready for Venice.. our next city. We took a night train after 2 and a half days in Rome… the night train got us to Venice at 5:15AM though… uhhh…bad planning. We slept in a rainy/cold train station for a couple hours waiting for Venice to wake up. The boys kept guard/kept us warm by blocking the wind and cold and Chenoa and I slept on our backpacks. We were homeless. We didn’t have a hostel in Venice cause we were just there for the day to save money. I appreciate this experience completely. At the time I was practically screaming how I hated Italy but after the rain slowed down to a drizzle and I had some Italian espresso I was happy. More then happy. Venice is amazing. Most beautiful place. We walked around all day and ate A LOT. Italian food is at the top of its game in Venice. Gelato/pizza/pasta/PASTRY. So good. I was glad there were no museums to see and fully enjoyed people watching and walking around seeing the city. The city was fully flooded for the first half of the day and it was amazing…the put up all these ramps through the streets to talk above the water and all the locals had on high rain boots wading through the water. We were soaked but it was fun. That night we caught another train to Florence…in good moods from our beautiful day in Venice (the sun came out eventually) and ready to see Michelangelo’s David and the city were Renaissance was born. Our two days in Florence was filled with sightseeing/shopping/eating and walking. We had some good chill time and enjoyed the best gelato in Italy. The guys tried to get into a soccer game and Chenoa and I went out to find some real authentic Italian food. We found the cutest little restaurant and filled up on homemade pasta and pesto and bread, cheese. Florence was great, Tuscany is beautiful and we loved the local markets and people there. From Florence our next site was Cinque Terre… 5 towns on the Mediterranean Coast. These little towns are precious, on cliffs overlooking the blue water. They are all colorful and stacked on the mountainside (see pics) and the people are great. In the train station arriving in Cinque Terre I realized the Italians are not just super forceful and strong personalities but sooo kind and genuine. First of all, we had an old man helping us the whole way from Florence to CT with our connections and trains. He was sooo sweet. The Spanish/Italian languages translate pretty well too. :- ) When we got to CT it was late and we didn’t not realize ahead of time that booking a taxi was necessary. There was no one around in this small town except a bar worker who laughed at us and tried to help with our phone call to the taxi driver who told us he was sleeping.. haha. Finally an old Italian couple and a young guy offered to drive us all the way to our apartment… for no reason other then we looked pretty desperate. Great people. We spent the next 2 days hiking around the towns.. There is a trail that runs through all five of them and trains to get back and forth. It was gorgeous landscape and sights and we fully appreciated the small town feel of the villages.

The trip was perfect… I was a little sick but besides that I am so grateful for every experience… from sleeping in train stations to eating 4 servings of gelato a day I am satisfied with the taste of Italy I have from this week. I hope to someday return to CT or Venice and have said my goodbyes to Florence and Rome. I am not a big city girl unless I can communicate and enjoy finding the culture in it like I can in Spain. Sorry that the update is brief, so much happened and so many great memories were made but I am tired and have homework before classes tomorrow… check out my pics on facebook!

Nothing in particular

Random thought: Today Isabel told me that she has never had a zit and her daughter hasn’t either, nor her mother or grandmother or niece or granddaughter. Ha. Spanish skin…. My skin has not assimilated well to the culture. The olive oil situation that supposably keeps these people healthy is not doinng it for me. Haha.

I have been getting kind of depressed about this whole semester abroad. It’s mean, let me come to a new country for 4 months and expect me to leave knowing the language and ready to go home. No. Not gunna happen. Everyday I realize how much of the language I DON’T know and how much I have left to learn. Everyday I realize how much I don’t want to grow up and have a real job and big responsibilities and how I just want to be a student forever. Everday I realize that my time here is decreasing and I wish that I could stay forever… okay maybe not forever but 4 months is NOT ENOUGH.

Anyways…

I am fully enjoying classes and being busy and planning for all my upcoming adventures. This weekend we shall go to Portugal. Planning this trip has been a pain but its really exciting. We have Monday off so Friday me and some friends will leave and spend the day and night in Lagos, the Southern coast with beautiful cliffs and clear water. Then we will drive North to the capitel, Lisbon and spend 2 nights there. I am excited, the hostels are booked and the car is reserved. Thankfully my Spanish friend is coming so he can navagate the way while I (maybe) study grammar and art…. That’s my plan.

It has been interesting living here and absorbing the culture and language together. So weird how much language affects people. I am such a nerd but I like to look into differences between English and Spanish and negotiate the difference in how people treat each other and interact through linguistics. For example, a cultural difference, there is no way to say “I wonder…”. In English we say this all the time. I wonder when John will get here. I wonder what time the movie starts. I wonder what’s for dinner. I have asked several people, native speakers, how to say this and they get confused wondering why I would want to say that. You cant say that phrase in Spanish because…. Well why would you wonder if you could just know. So instead of wondering they would just ask straight out. I don’t know if this makes sense because I realize im not explaining it well but I think its great. :- ) Hm… I wonder if you get it. Entiendes?

Last night was my first night of Solidarios. We spent the night going around to different areas that are filled with homeless people… I absolutely loved the time beforehand, hanging out with college kids from the Universidad de Sevilla. These people are awesome people and a lot of fun… and so patient with my Spanish skills. So I went out with 3 others to an area known as the Macarena. It was on this route talking to an older Spanish, homeless man that I had my most horrible moment of study abroad/living here so far. Thankfully my companeros were very cheerful about the whole thing and made jokes the whole time after about how horrible this man was to me. He treated me like an idiot and totally embarrassed the crap out of me. I think I was being a little sensitive and I don’t understand why I was so bothered but now I officially have inside jokes to laugh about with my new friends. I am having a hard time understanding this service learning experience though, just hanging out with homeless people seems a little pointless in the long run but I think the relationships I am building with the university students is sooo worth it. It’s not that I don’t want to “help homeless people” its just that my practical mindset is feeling a little perterbed at the lack of progress that this “service” yields. And my brain is exhausted after a full day of classes, intercambio, homework and solidarios.

I might be getting a job teaching English/tutoring while I am here, I replied to an ad in the school so we will see what happens with that…

And that’s all for now.

Besitos a todos!

life in spain/ granada

Alhambra beauty- en los jardines
On top of the Alhambra Alcazaba... Granada's beautiful mountains and city.

More Alhambra, where royalty lounged and concubines waited...In our funky hippie hostel....luckily we got a "girls only" room. These pics dont do it justice.

As time has gone by things have been added to my schedule and I am officially BUSY.

I started working with an organization called “Solidarios”. They are an NGO and have several sectors of volunteer work. I had a couple meetings to become a volunteer and now I will be serving in a street ministry on Tuesdays with some Sevillan students from the university. (These meetings, in Spanish of course, are a little intense to understand) It has been awesome meeting other students Españoles and getting ready to go out to our “routes”. It isn’t a Christian thing but its cool because the whole point is to be friends with the street people. We have a list of the people and where they sleep and why they are on the street and its very organized. We will just be bringing coffee and cookies and hanging out with them. I am excited to see what happens with it…

The hardest thing about being here is the language. Although I have a solid group of amazing Americans to hang out with I am trying to really branch out as much as possible to speak Spanish constantly. Its hard though. When I am with my Spanish friends I feel like a 2^nd grader trying to communicate deeper thoughts with very small vocabulary. Some people are understanding and some arent. My senora is not very patient with my roomate who is still learning how to communicate… at least I have that down, it makes it easier. Obviously compared to before I cam I am speaking really well and learning tons of new stuff everyday but its is still hard, I lack so much. That is why I shall come back this summer and live here :- D

So yeah my week is filled with school, studying (like really studying everyday because I have never been so challenged academically), bible study, serving with Solidarios, Flamenco classes, going out with friends and taking weekend trips…

Last weekend we took a trip to Granada. Its weird to think about how I didn’t know anything about Spain before I came here and now I feel so used to hearing the names of all these places nearby and stuff. So I will try to explain as if I was reading this from the US.

Granada is where the Alhambra is, this is a palace the muslums built before they were kicked out of spain with the spanish- christian conquest. So this palace is known to be an incredible place with tons of history and is just an increible piece of art. We have been learning all about the art style and stuff in my class so going there was surreal, being in that palace and seeing it firsthand totally amazed me. Besides seeing the amazing Alhambra my time in Granada was excellent. We spent a lot of time waling the streets, enjoying the markets and the hippie-feel of the city. We went to an Arabian-type place for dinner and a tetoria, tea place, to chill. The tetorias are sooo cool. Decorated with tapetry hanging and great lighting with candles and huka and just all around very cool. I got come amazing arabian tea and enjoyed good conversation amoung friends.

The hostel we stayed in was awesome, my first hostel and the next one will have a lot to live up to. It was funny sharing a bathroom with a bunch of guys and girls that I didn’t know and sleeping with random people in the room, but definitely a good experience..and a quite hilarious night. I don’t know what else to tell about the weekend, we walked through old Moorish neighborhoods and through crazy beautiful cobblestone streets that zig zagged up the mountain range surrounding the city. If you are ever in Spain I suggest going to Granada, it has been my faviorite palce so far… I am hoping to go back and do some hiking sometime. I think I annoyed the people I was with because everything we did I was freaking out “I LOVE this!” haha.

…This weekend we are going to see where Christopher Columbus left from Spain and see replicas of the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria and then spend the day on the beach…im excited!

estoy felipando

A little artsy shot, through the bell tower thingy.
Overlooking the pueblo.

Martin, Jose and Chenoa checking out the architecture.

Precioso.

Where we ate dulces and had café.

A lot of the sights are similar to things I have seen in Mexico or other places which makes me feel at home here. I already feel like I have a new life in Spain. I want to take every moment and savor it though. Everything we do and everywhere we go I tell everyone “we are in SPAIN! this is crazy!” This semester is one I will remember forever but I really want to leave here bearing fruit of a semester of hard work and cherished memories. I have been studying a lot more then normal, I review everything every night to make sure I wont forget vocab for art and grammar class and I try to reread everything too. Its so amazing learning another language at the same time as learning history and art and culture. Everyday my vocab expands and I realize how little I know. Its exciting (and a little depressing because I know nothing).

This weekend has been fabulous… unexpected and sooo much fun.

Viernes

La Noche Larga kicked off the weekend on Friday night. All the museums in the city are open for free all night (till 3am) and they all have concerts and plays and wine and everything for free. It happen one night a year. I wound up hanging out with a Spanish friend Martin museum hopping and watching concerts and such…then we met up with others at a flamenco performance (ahh…so amazing) and got some semi-gross hamburgers on the fly cause nothing else was open (I hadnt eaten). After all the festivities we hung out for a while before Martin dropped me and a couple girls off at home.

This culture allows you to appreciate art everywhere you go, just looking at the architecture and old buildings makes me smile (especially now that I have learned all about them in art class!).

Sabado

Chenoa and I decided to be spontaneous on Saturday and go for an adventure with Martin and his friend Jose. They are great guys that we met through the school, a couple of the few Christians we will encounter in Sevilla. It was so great to go with them because they had a car and really knew the cool places. We explored a small town about ½ hr away called Arecenas. This town has amazing caves that you can visit and take a tour. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. So freaking beautiful. I was flipping out the whole time…it was sooo cool inside the caves as we walked through all these different areas with different rocks and minerals and such. I don’t know much about geology but it was really awesome.

After that we got some tapas to hold us over for our walk up to this mountain where there is a cathedral and palace ruins. I had awesome olives…they grow them here, and cheese and chorizo. The tapas were amazing. We shopped around a little so the guys could buy food and then went to eat it at this cool area with weeping willows and tables. The views were amazing and the weather was great and it all felt so European. I learn a lot of street words cause the guys were trying to teach us less formal sayings. We ended the day with coffee and dulces at a pastry shop that is really well known. Apparently this place has lines out the door normally but we were there in the off season.

The culture of Spanish food and “hanging out” involves a lot of relaxing and enjoying each others company…something I think we Americans are bad at doing when we have an agenda. I loved that we did a lot of cool things but there was no rushing and a lot of good conversation. The only time this cultural difference becomes a problem is with hunger. Come 3pm, post-cave viewing, Chenoa and I were starving for lunch. We were sitting in a tapas bar waiting for the guys to order and they were just taking their time, sipping their beers and chilling. I told them we were starving and they said “tranquila” haha. Basically, “chill out”. This is tapas style…you could spend all night just order little bits of food and hanging out and talking.

On the ride home we tried to practice English with them (for their sake). It was hilarious… they were sooo funny practicing what they knew from high school. I could not stop laughing even though I know it was probably mean… the only word that came out perfectly was “brownies” hhahaha. Made me realize how stupid I must sound speaking spanish even though they told us we speak really well.

Domingo

I met a cool girl at church. After the service (2.5 hrs long!) I decided I needed to make more Spanish friends so I asked the pastor to introduce me to young people. It was funny. He brought me over to a girl and introduced us. After besitos and introductions we decided to plan on hanging out. Later I did some homework, met up with people at a café to plan for Granada this coming weekend and spent the evening hanging out with Isabel, my Señora…making dinner and chatting. Good times.