Wednesday April 23, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
I Ate Snails
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Sanity Can Be Restored
Tuesday April 22, 2008
Today I lost my right hand to Spain in an epic battle, Emily verses History and Literature. I wrote for a total of five hours straight to complete my last two finals. Even though I lost an appendage in the fight, I’m glad that I’m finally done with all of the tests. I sent in the last of my projects today as well, therefore I’m home free and I can actually enjoy my last couple of days in Sevilla. It’s a rather relieving and euphoric feeling!
A public bus almost hit me today; I still secretly think that the public transportation system is still out to get me. I ended up escaping death by inches, but I’m here to tell the story so all ended well.
I’m exhausted so I’m going to keep things short today, so I’ll leave you with the “Quote of the Day,” which I rather enjoyed. “The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.” –Peter Drucker
Two Down, Two To Go
Monday April 21, 2008
Two of the four final tests done…and I think that they went well. I can’t believe that we are already taking our finals…where has all of time gone?
I went to the Internet café for a bit to print a few things and to send in a couple of projects. Afterwards I met with a few students and our teacher Carmen in a bar near school to have a study group for our history final that is tomorrow. It went well, we got a lot of good studying done and Carmen, our teacher, was really helpful. I ended up breaking down a little bit and it was a rough end to a 3-hour study session about the history of Spain. Things worked out in the end but I stayed up after that studying for both my history and literature finals. I was pretty stressed out today, but it will all be over with tomorrow afternoon- and that’s my goal! I would be just as stressed out in the States, therefore it’s a normal feeling to have around finals time.
Encarna is leaving tomorrow for a teaching conference in Málaga until Thursday. Therefore she came in to say “bye” to Sam because Sam is leaving on Wednesday. She isn’t doing the travel portion of May Term because she has a different class for her major for May Term. Encarna came in and brought us all ceramic tiles that her son Antonio, the artist, had painted for us. They are all the landscape of Conil, but they are all different in their own special ways. They are really cool, and it ended up working out perfectly because at the beginning of the semester we had joked that we were going to ask Encarna if her son would paint tiles for us…who knew that it would actually come true! My international art collection is growing by the day!
Mother Nature Strikes Again
Sunday April 20, 2008
Today I woke up to rain. If I know two things that don’t go together well, it’s rain and bullfights. Apparently that makes things a little dangerous? It continued to rain on and off up until the fight. We walked all the way to the Plaza de Toros (Plaza of the bulls), bought seat cushions, found our seats (they were good!), took pictures before the fight and then we were told that the fight was suspended due to the condition of the ring (which was too wet, therefore too dangerous). This made the day rather depressing because I actually was really excited to experience this part of the culture. We are going to try and get tickets for the next bullfight, next Sunday, which is the night before we leave for May Term, but I think it’s worth it.
The good part about today was that it was our “dessert Sunday” where Sam cooked/taught Encarna how to make brownies and Encarna showed Sam how to cook as well. The brownies and ice cream were perfect…rich…warm…amazing. Encarna (who keep in mind is still on her diet) ate almost half a pan of brownies and ice cream. She thought that this piece of American culture was delicious.
I finished my night off by studying for my culture and grammar finals that will be in the morning. I’m ready to get these finals out of the way, so I cannot wait until tomorrow!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
You Aren’t The Typical American
Saturday April 19, 2008
After studying throughout the morning, we had another “intercambio,” or now I like to call it hanging out with Spanish friends in the afternoon. We meet up in front of a church and headed to a pizza place called, “Pizzeria Orsini” for lunch. We had a reservation for 17 and a table was waiting for us when we arrived. We all ordered different things and sat, talked and had drinks, for three hours. A popular subject that we talked about was American and Spanish cuss words…before you freak out and think that its bad, it was actually pretty interesting and full of culture. Now I can understand a lot more of the “street-smart” words and I can understand more of the popular culture words. We also shared phrases such as “its raining cats and dogs,” that are less literal.
Today I noticed that the restaurant culture is different here than in the States. It is fine to go to a restaurant with friends and to sit at a table eating and talking for hours. In the States the waitress/waiter that would have your table would be pretty annoyed if you stayed at their table for more than an hour. It might also be because you don’t have to leave tips here as well. Also, since our group had a bill that was over 200 euros, we all got a free shot at the end of our meal on the house. This is a custom here in Spain. We learned the national drinking song of Spain and talked for a while, and then left for another bar. It started pouring as we were in transit to the other bar, so we all huddled under our umbrellas and hurried to the Irish pub that had been dubbed our destination. We sat and talked for a while with our group. I asked them all what they did for a living and then they asked about my job(s) and my parents jobs; I had a hell of a time explaining how at Stellas I pour shakes on peoples heads and that my dad is a produce broker. Both are not the easiest to explain/describe in Spanish. A few minutes later I overheard a guy talking to someone and he was trying to figure out how to say, “I have a cold,” in English. I jumped all over that one and helped him out. I ended up asking him where he was from (Spain) and he asked me as well. When I told him that I was from the United States he was pretty taken back by it and told me that I, “didn’t look like the typical American.” I didn’t exactly know how to take that one, so I shot back at him, “…and what exactly is the ‘typical American’?” He just gave me a “crap what am I going to say now, I don’t want to offend her” kind of look. So I took a shot in the dark and asked if me meant that I wasn’t screaming, ridiculous and drunk. And he shyly nodded yes and said, “Exactly.” I told him that I was here to study Spanish and that was what I was doing, not the other things. He told me that I was doing really well and that my accent was really good. This seems pretty trivial, but it was awesome to me. First off he didn’t relate me with the stupid Americans that don’t take studying abroad seriously, and secondly he complimented my skills. After talking for a little and making plans for later in the week with two of the ladies, I headed home to study and have dinner!
Only Real Men Play “Table Tennis”
Friday April 18, 2008
We had to wake up early this morning to get newspapers for one of our finals on Monday. We have to find an article from a Friday newspaper and analyze it for a section of our culture final, so I was up and going early today. It rained for a bit in the morning, got clear, rained some more. I think that Mother Nature was having fun watching us struggle. I had problems with the internet all day, went to four different cafes, and still ended up not being able to accomplish what I wanted to get done, so it was kind of a frustrating day in general. I got home and had missed dinner because of all of my unhelpful adventures, so I ate alone. It was just kind of a blah day. I just want to get all of this stuff out of the way and be done with it already.
On a brighter note (no pun intended), the rays of sunshine in my day came in the form of four middle-aged serious “table tennis” (a.k.a. ping-pong) players. They had their battle ground set up outside of the gym that I was sitting by this morning. They were adorned in short shorts, spandex and sweatbands. Clad in nothing but complete amazingness…I now can die a happy woman. They were completely competitive and I’ve never seen a ping-pong match get so vicious. It has pure raw humor at its finest. One of those moments that you see exaggerated in movies had come to life for me and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Player number one, we’ll cal him Pablo, serves to player number two, known as Ricardo, and Ricardo swats the ball back. It jumps over the net and curves to the left side of Pablo’s battlefield. Pablo dives…he hits the ball just as it is about to hit the ground, it pops back up into the air and amazingly goes back over the net. Ricardo returns the hit, but this time Pablo is not so lucky…his bright green ping-pong paddle has failed him and he ends up on his knees pleading asking the sky (God) why? Why? Ricardo 1-Pablo 0. I may have gotten a little distracted from my homework, but with a great game of table tennis like that…how could you not?
I Could Have Filled The Pool With Tears
Thursday April 17, 2008
Today was officially the last day of normal classes here in Spain, ah! I cannot even believe it. These past couple of days have been really stressful because all we have been doing is reviewing for tests, asking questions and clarifying things. It’s been stressful, tedious and boring to say the least. But enough of school…
I got a DVD from Aaron today that he made, its cute…but it made me look forward to coming back home even more…it had a slideshow of all of my friends and such. It was fun to watch, even though it wouldn’t play on my computer so I used Allison’s (thank goodness). Yet another thoughtful and creative gift…I don’t know how he does it.
It was also my last day at the swimming pool for my ONG today. I had a blast swimming with the kids. We played a game where everyone had two pool noodles and the point of the game was to take other peoples noodles. I have some war scratches on me, but as a whole it was a great time. One of the kids that I work with really warmed up to me today and we decided that we have our own “team” and he now loves giving me high-fives. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that he tried to eat my foot. Here’s how it unfolded: I was playing around with him and sticking my feet up above the water and he was in front of me trying to grab my feet but he was consistently too slow to actually get them. At last when he did get my foot, he attacked it. It was a great night but it was really really sad. These were the first people that I have made relationships with here in Spain that I have had to say good-bye to. I know that I’m leaving, I’ve been thinking about it, people keep saying it…but until tonight I didn’t really understand the extent of it all. I told David, the director of the water therapy program that this was our last week and he looked at me like he wanted to cry. He told the kids that it was our last week and I got three different reactions: (ps. I'm abbreviating their names for privacy reasons)
1. J.M. asked why I had to go back and if I was flying back to the States. I told him that I thought that I would just swim back instead because I’ve had a lot of practice in the pool. This is where he began to laugh at me and told me that he could out swim me from one side of the pool to the next (completely true)…sad! I ended up telling him that I had a personal boat so he didn’t need to worry. He also proceeded to ask David when we were going to come back…tear.
2. M. just kept asking David why we had to go and why we didn’t want to stay. I had to tell her that I wanted to say, but I couldn’t.
3. A. can’t really talk, but he said a quick “adios” and just stared at me in disbelief. Afterwards as I was walking out of the pool, he was clinging to my arm…I could barely take it. Talk about heart breaking!
All of the kids and David kissed us on the cheeks good-bye, which was the hardest part…some of them can barely talk or walk, and yet they managed to kiss us good-bye. I’m really going to miss them. I’ve had a completely amazing time working at the pool and volunteering in Spain. This is a part of the program that I am going to take with me for a long time. A lot of people can say that they have been to Spain, but very few can take with them the experience of volunteering.
