I thought my last entry was the last, but I have been neglected. Thus, I have time for another entry. My heart is practically bleeding right now because my Spanish family left me alone in the apartment for the last 3 hours of my time in Pamplona. My parents went out and so did Iker and Amaia. I´m heartbroken, seriously. I knew that we all didn´t have the best relationship ever, but I pictured my last night in Pamplona as a nice family dinner at least and at least sitting around the tv together. I thought they would stay up with me until I had to leave at 1:30 in the morning and we would say our goodbyes then.
The night started out ok. Beatriz came over to hang out, so I talked with her and Amaia for a while. Then, I met my intercambio Estefanía for a while, we walked around the city and talked for the last time. That was enjoyable and extra-interesting because there is a manifestation (protest, gathering, show of spirit, whatever you want to call it) for the basques in Navarra today. Basically, people are showing their nationality for this region of Spain... which is a long and controversial subject that I have learned a lot about since I have been here, but it´s not really clear enough for me to explain it in a blog. It´s a big scary issue with a terrorist group called ETA that wants to separate this region (it´s called a autonomous community, and Navarra is one of 17 of them that exist in spain. pamplona is a city within navarra) from the rest of the country. It has been a big issue for a long time and it will probably continue to be an issue for a long time. Anyhow, nothing too scary was happening today when we walked around... a lot of people with flags, people came in from all parts of spain i guess. It was packed packed packed in the old part of the city. The only violence i saw was when we had to run through the street for ten seconds because i believe a cop fired a shot. That´s the second time that has happened to me in Pamplona, and honestly, it´s pretty freaky. I don´t think it´s a real bullet, but it´s like a sound to scare people away or something. Not quite sure,but I´m glad i was with Estefanía this time and Amaia last time it happened, closer to the beginning of my stay here.
When I returned home, Amaia revealed to me the beautiful cake that she had made for my goodbye. It was so sweet. It was all chocolate with chocolate frosting cuz she knows how much I love it and she even made home-made hot chocolate to drink too cuz she knows i don´t drink coffee. Bea, Amaia, Iker and I ate and drank together for one last time and it was pretty sad. We talked, but eventually Bea had plans to meet her friends for dinner.
That´s when things got horrible. My spanish parents came into the kitchen all dressed up and ready to go out. I was shocked. I didn´t expect them to be going out. i know it´s saturday night, but it´s my last night here! they didn´t invite me to do anything with them! and pilar goes into this whole speech on how she knows that i have had a rough time here and that i haven´t really liked it but i learn from every experience and she hopes that i have a good future and blah blah blah. and i was like, no! i didn´t NOT enjoy myself here! she made it sound like i hated the experience! i was trying to explain that i loved the experience. yea, i know i was upset at times about my health and such, but she totally must have taken it the wrong way the whole time, thinking that i didn´t like spain or living in her house. maybe that´s why she has been so cold to me in the past few weeks - because she thinks i don´t like living in her house. which has been true lately, i suppose, but she made me seem like i hated everything here, which is so untrue. it really hurt my feelings. but what hurt my feelings the most is the impression i get that she and pepe really don´t like me.
and when i say this, i really mean it. yesterday, and various times in the past, they have talked to me about how much they loved some of the past ohio kids that have stayed with thim. and yesterday they were going on and on about how great this kid daniel was. and they were saying how daniel is very maja (a great person) and they were like ¨we´re not talking about you, we´re talking about another boy who stayed with us¨ and they just talked for so long about him and then anohter boy that stayed with them, and it made me so upset. because i lived with this family for three months and they don´t even like me one bit. and it´s obvious to me. i´m not just saying it. i have a hard time dealing with the fact that people don´t like me, but especially when they are people who i wanted to consider my own family and that i have been trying to hard to be perfect for and trying so hard to be polite for and trying so hard to be close to. it just really hurts. and it was so evident that they could care less if i was leaving tonight. they just left me here in the house, barely any goodbye at all.
i gave them their gift, and i put a lot of time into writing the note. i dont´think they even really liked it much. they didn´t even look at the note i wrote them and i wanted to shout at them to read it because maybe then they would understand that i really have enjoyed the experience and they got the complete wrong impression of things.
i was so broken when they left the house. so broken. i feel like this goodbye was the worst goodbye it could be because they don´t even care that i´m going to be gone and they´ll never see me again. i´m just like this object to them, something to feed for a few months and i have tried to hard to improve my communication and adapt to their culture, but it doesn´t even matter to them. and so here i am sitting at their computer for the last time, crying as i type this. just crying. because how can you live with a family for three months and then they just leave with barely a goodbye? it kills me. it really hurts. how is it that i feel like i tried so hard to just fit in and be a good part of their family and they left me with such a goodbye?
ouch.
then, you see, Bea might very possibly be my favorite person here in Spain. She and I really get along so well, she´s such a nice girl, and she really makes the effort to make sure I understand what they are talking about and that I feel comfortable (for the most part). She´s so sweet and so fun, and when she left, the sadness increased. maybe she´s the only one who really liked me in the end out of the family and friends here.
next, Amaia and Iker decided to go to a movie. we barely spoke beforehand, Amaia was just getting ready, and there weren´t many words to exchange when we parted. I didn´t really know what to say at all. I was just hurt. That´s all I was. That´s all I am. I´m wasting my last few hours in Pamplona here by myself because I have nobody to be with and nobody who wants to be with me. After three months spending time with these people, it´s just a harsh reality.
So maybe it´s for the better. Maybe this hurt just proves how important my real family and friends are and how much I really value them. I´m going to come home to something so much better than this.
So, maybe my goodbyes here have been bittersweet. It doesn´t change how I feel abou tthis experience and Spain. They have both been incredible, unregrettable, life-changing. I have learn so much, but the most important thing I have learned about is who I am. There has been the good and there has been the bad. But in the end, I´m a different Danielle. I´m a different person. I don´t mean that I´m gonna be noticably different to people... I´ll probably act the same. But inside, I know more about myself, how I think, how I look at the world, how things happen, how things change. I can´t think for a second that this wasn´t worth my while.
Life is always changing. We are always adapting. My life is about to change in a huge way once again. But this time I´m ready for it, and I´m ready for everything. I´m ready to start this next part of my life, to move on from this spanish experience. It all starts now and I´m ready.
Nos vamos en América.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
this is the last.
i haven´t had much time to write lately because the last few days in a foreign country are overwhelming and there´s a lot to get done.
the thing is, i´m happy right now. and it´s not a happy like ¨hey, i´m finally getting out of here¨ happy. it´s an i´m-satifsfied-with-life-right-now happy. it´s a strange tranquility i have right now. i thought i was going to be feeling all these regrets about things i haven´t done or seen or how i´m spending my last moments and everything, but it´s not. yes, it´s sad because i know everything i do is for the last time. but this is reality and my time here has come to an end. i have taken advantage of it and done the things i have wanted and now it is just time to move on.
i´m sad too. of course i´m sad. i know there are so many things i´m going to miss, so many things i´ll look back at. and i probably will regret things i didn´t do. but right now i´m ok with where i´m at.
the past few days, like i said, have been pretty crazy. we had our final dinner last night, an incredible closing to this trip. i just realized how well i had gotten to know the whole group and my professors and how influential everything has been for me. it was the most fancy shmancy meal i have ever eaten in my life and i thought i would be immobile for about 3 hours after i finished... good thing we all had to make speeches so i got to sit for a while. we had salads with mushrooms and fish, a slab of artichoke pastry (ugh, didn´t eat that one... that´s one thing i don´t think i´ll ever grow to like), a lamb bone huge caveman piece of meat, the best steak i have ever eaten in my life, and then home-made ice cream (vanilla-cinnamon and black licorice maybe.. they were very interesting and different) with little rice cookies. wow. so then the professors put the ball in our court and suprised us by telling us we needed to each made an impromptu speech... ok so not really a speech, but giving a memory from our time here. and that´s harder than you would think to prepare something good in another language on the spot. but i think i did alright. many people thanked everyone and said how they were glad they made such good friends and had fun, etc. some were pretty deep. i talked about how this experience has changed me so much... how i came in being a pretty dependent person, and i think now that i have overcome some fears and lived in another country, i can face change more easily. i said how we have all seen more in three months than probably in the rest of our lives and how it has been such an experience. and then i told a story about how i tried to make a joke the other day that totally backfired cuz it´s pretty hard to make a joke in another language, and you just have to be able to laugh at yourself and laugh at life because that´s the only way you make it through.
(p.s. i´ll try to explain the joke. we were in the museum of navarra with the class and our professor ana. there was a statue that ana was describing to me and kristen that was the virgin mary sitting on her mother (santa ana? not sure) and baby jesus was sitting on virgin mary. so it was a succession of the three showing the generations, and each one was small enough to fit on the others lap. it struck me as a funny idea because i imagined myself sitting on my mom and her sitting on nana and how that´s so physically impossible and would be really awkward and weird. so i wanted to express that, and in english i would have said something like ¨yea, my mom, grandma and i do that all the time too¨, but in spanish, it just came out horribly! it probably sounded like this to ana: ¨i wish i could sit on my mom and she could sit on her mom. but that would be hard!¨ kristen and i laughed out loud for like 5 minutes because it´s just so freakin weird that we can´t joke in spanish and that we sound like total jerks.
anyway, after all the students spoke, the professors did and gave out awards and i got all emotional. i feel so close with my professors... they were seriously the most supportive and best people ever. i can´t imagine this experience without them. they weren´t only being our teachers, but our parents, in a way. they were always asking how my bumps or my eye was, really concerned about me. concerned about everyone. just so caring. nelson almost always came with me every time i needed to go to the doctor, and when he was unable to, ana came instead. these things were just completely voluntary... on their own time. you just don´t find people like these every day. ana and nekane, two of the professors, came with us to the bar after the dinner last night! we were dancing with them and drinking with them. they are just so cool. i can´t even describe it. and i´m not saying cool like they are trying to be young students or anything, but i mean cool as in amazing people. incredible people who have so much heart for what they do and care so much about the students. i´m really gonna miss that feeling because i think it comes rarely in athens.
anyway, kristen, taryn, kate, and i went to the discotecas last night. those are the spanish bars that are opened from 3 to 6 in the morning and you just dance the night away... crazy. not much like that in athens, or in any city that i have been to for that matter. it´s common in spain. i hadn´t gone yet, so i went and decided to take advantage of the last spanish night. it was amazing, so much good music and i loved it! i love dancing. the spanish guys can be preeetty creepy, and when i mean creepy, i mean like that scene in the little mermaid where ariel is stuck in ursulla´s world and all those creepy things are grabbing her and trying to pull her down. cuz when we were leaving, all these guys just like stroke your arms and call you beautiful and it´s hilarious. they never try to dance with you though. never. it´s hilarious. we were discussing how spanish boys (when drunk, usually) will just be walking down the street talking normally to each other and all of a sudden they see you and say ¨ohhh guapa guapa guapa, bonita chicas¨ and then resume their conversations immediately as if nothing had happened. however, in normal bars that aren´t discotecas, boys are not very forward and people don´t intermingle with people they didn´t come with as often as it seems they do in the u.s.
anyhow, what else? i have been packing all day, i think i´m gonna fit everything, phew! most of the stuff i bought is pretty small and i made sure of it.
i had lunch with the fam today and it was pretty usual. i´m not gonna miss them all that much. today, for example, they were talking about scholarships for art students and amaia and her mom were arguing about the availability and pepe yelled at pilar for negating everything amaia said. i was just annoyed because they ignore that i´m even there most of the time and don´t even try to make a conversation that i can join and it´s like i´m just sitting there to eat for survival and i´m just not a real person. i hate that feeling and i´m ready to be done with it. i´m so ready to feel like i live with my family or my friends who really care about me and don´t just treat me like i´m a daughter but not have feelings for me like a daughter. i feel like pilar thinks she can treat me as if i need to follow everything she says, but yet, i have none of the positive benefits that you can get from that - it´s hard to explain, but when it´s just motherly but without love, it´s just the worst combination ever. it´s like the classic ¨you´re not my mom!¨ line.
i got them a tour guide of the u.s. and wrote a really nice note to them in it and highlighted all the places they should visit if they ever come. that´s about as nice as i´m gonna get because i don´t really feel all that close to them after all this time. sadly. i don´t. i´m actually excited to leave this house.
well, it´s weird to think i´m summing up my entire experience in this entry because i feel like i´m not summing much of anything up. i will probably have to go back in after i get home and write some conclusions about everything. i have a long bus ride, flight, layover, flight, drive home, etc. to worry about and then i´ll be home for a week. i´ll write again then.
the thing is, i´m happy right now. and it´s not a happy like ¨hey, i´m finally getting out of here¨ happy. it´s an i´m-satifsfied-with-life-right-now happy. it´s a strange tranquility i have right now. i thought i was going to be feeling all these regrets about things i haven´t done or seen or how i´m spending my last moments and everything, but it´s not. yes, it´s sad because i know everything i do is for the last time. but this is reality and my time here has come to an end. i have taken advantage of it and done the things i have wanted and now it is just time to move on.
i´m sad too. of course i´m sad. i know there are so many things i´m going to miss, so many things i´ll look back at. and i probably will regret things i didn´t do. but right now i´m ok with where i´m at.
the past few days, like i said, have been pretty crazy. we had our final dinner last night, an incredible closing to this trip. i just realized how well i had gotten to know the whole group and my professors and how influential everything has been for me. it was the most fancy shmancy meal i have ever eaten in my life and i thought i would be immobile for about 3 hours after i finished... good thing we all had to make speeches so i got to sit for a while. we had salads with mushrooms and fish, a slab of artichoke pastry (ugh, didn´t eat that one... that´s one thing i don´t think i´ll ever grow to like), a lamb bone huge caveman piece of meat, the best steak i have ever eaten in my life, and then home-made ice cream (vanilla-cinnamon and black licorice maybe.. they were very interesting and different) with little rice cookies. wow. so then the professors put the ball in our court and suprised us by telling us we needed to each made an impromptu speech... ok so not really a speech, but giving a memory from our time here. and that´s harder than you would think to prepare something good in another language on the spot. but i think i did alright. many people thanked everyone and said how they were glad they made such good friends and had fun, etc. some were pretty deep. i talked about how this experience has changed me so much... how i came in being a pretty dependent person, and i think now that i have overcome some fears and lived in another country, i can face change more easily. i said how we have all seen more in three months than probably in the rest of our lives and how it has been such an experience. and then i told a story about how i tried to make a joke the other day that totally backfired cuz it´s pretty hard to make a joke in another language, and you just have to be able to laugh at yourself and laugh at life because that´s the only way you make it through.
(p.s. i´ll try to explain the joke. we were in the museum of navarra with the class and our professor ana. there was a statue that ana was describing to me and kristen that was the virgin mary sitting on her mother (santa ana? not sure) and baby jesus was sitting on virgin mary. so it was a succession of the three showing the generations, and each one was small enough to fit on the others lap. it struck me as a funny idea because i imagined myself sitting on my mom and her sitting on nana and how that´s so physically impossible and would be really awkward and weird. so i wanted to express that, and in english i would have said something like ¨yea, my mom, grandma and i do that all the time too¨, but in spanish, it just came out horribly! it probably sounded like this to ana: ¨i wish i could sit on my mom and she could sit on her mom. but that would be hard!¨ kristen and i laughed out loud for like 5 minutes because it´s just so freakin weird that we can´t joke in spanish and that we sound like total jerks.
anyway, after all the students spoke, the professors did and gave out awards and i got all emotional. i feel so close with my professors... they were seriously the most supportive and best people ever. i can´t imagine this experience without them. they weren´t only being our teachers, but our parents, in a way. they were always asking how my bumps or my eye was, really concerned about me. concerned about everyone. just so caring. nelson almost always came with me every time i needed to go to the doctor, and when he was unable to, ana came instead. these things were just completely voluntary... on their own time. you just don´t find people like these every day. ana and nekane, two of the professors, came with us to the bar after the dinner last night! we were dancing with them and drinking with them. they are just so cool. i can´t even describe it. and i´m not saying cool like they are trying to be young students or anything, but i mean cool as in amazing people. incredible people who have so much heart for what they do and care so much about the students. i´m really gonna miss that feeling because i think it comes rarely in athens.
anyway, kristen, taryn, kate, and i went to the discotecas last night. those are the spanish bars that are opened from 3 to 6 in the morning and you just dance the night away... crazy. not much like that in athens, or in any city that i have been to for that matter. it´s common in spain. i hadn´t gone yet, so i went and decided to take advantage of the last spanish night. it was amazing, so much good music and i loved it! i love dancing. the spanish guys can be preeetty creepy, and when i mean creepy, i mean like that scene in the little mermaid where ariel is stuck in ursulla´s world and all those creepy things are grabbing her and trying to pull her down. cuz when we were leaving, all these guys just like stroke your arms and call you beautiful and it´s hilarious. they never try to dance with you though. never. it´s hilarious. we were discussing how spanish boys (when drunk, usually) will just be walking down the street talking normally to each other and all of a sudden they see you and say ¨ohhh guapa guapa guapa, bonita chicas¨ and then resume their conversations immediately as if nothing had happened. however, in normal bars that aren´t discotecas, boys are not very forward and people don´t intermingle with people they didn´t come with as often as it seems they do in the u.s.
anyhow, what else? i have been packing all day, i think i´m gonna fit everything, phew! most of the stuff i bought is pretty small and i made sure of it.
i had lunch with the fam today and it was pretty usual. i´m not gonna miss them all that much. today, for example, they were talking about scholarships for art students and amaia and her mom were arguing about the availability and pepe yelled at pilar for negating everything amaia said. i was just annoyed because they ignore that i´m even there most of the time and don´t even try to make a conversation that i can join and it´s like i´m just sitting there to eat for survival and i´m just not a real person. i hate that feeling and i´m ready to be done with it. i´m so ready to feel like i live with my family or my friends who really care about me and don´t just treat me like i´m a daughter but not have feelings for me like a daughter. i feel like pilar thinks she can treat me as if i need to follow everything she says, but yet, i have none of the positive benefits that you can get from that - it´s hard to explain, but when it´s just motherly but without love, it´s just the worst combination ever. it´s like the classic ¨you´re not my mom!¨ line.
i got them a tour guide of the u.s. and wrote a really nice note to them in it and highlighted all the places they should visit if they ever come. that´s about as nice as i´m gonna get because i don´t really feel all that close to them after all this time. sadly. i don´t. i´m actually excited to leave this house.
well, it´s weird to think i´m summing up my entire experience in this entry because i feel like i´m not summing much of anything up. i will probably have to go back in after i get home and write some conclusions about everything. i have a long bus ride, flight, layover, flight, drive home, etc. to worry about and then i´ll be home for a week. i´ll write again then.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
all is calm, all is right.
I thought things couldn´t get any worse about 5 hours ago. I called my parents freaking out, freaking out about who knows what? Nothing I was saying was even making sense and I definitely was letting my emotions take control of me in the wrong way. All I can say is thanks mom and dad (and Nicole cuz i´m sure you would have helped if you were at the office with them at the time). You really talked to some sense into me.
After my nervous freakout breakdown attack, I realized that things are ok. They are just ok. And maybe I´m superready to come home and be normal again, but I took a long walk and I´m seeing some things that, of course, I´m going to miss about Pamplona. That´s just inevitable. I don´t know if you can go anywhere and not take part of it home with you... and not have some regrets... and not have some things that you miss. That would just be impossible. So maybe I have been sitting here mourning my lonliness and frustrations a bit too much. I look at my overall outlook at this experience as positive. Of course, there have been times when I think I could not be more unhappy if I tried. And there have been times when I want to cry out of joy because I realize that life is just so amazing. There has been a huge range of emotions. Just because I have been going crazy lately DOES NOT mean that I am not glad I came. Times get tough, and I gotta get goin. I just have to be reminded of that every once in a while. So thanks to all you folks who have been there for me this whole time. It means the world to me.
Now that my mind is more clear, I can talk about my day and my weekend trip that I have been meaning to write about but have not had the concentration for.
Today: woke up super-early to resume studying for my exam that I had. The exam went well and I had my last dialectologia (bilingualism) class this morning where we reviewed for the exam. I need to study a bit, but I think I´ll be alright. I ate some lunch, felt bloated again and was a bit unhappy. So I get home, ready to hurl some serious weights across the room. I can´t tell you what I was even thinking. It was too much hurt and fear and frustration and stress and everything combined. So that´s where the phone call to the parents came in, and then it was all ok.
I went to the eye doctor for the last time... kinda sad... they know me by name easy by now and even smile at my little spanish faux-paus (can´t spell that) and comfort me in their little spanish ways (¨hombre claro¨ y ¨no te preocupes, no es nada¨). They made this appointment free... the doctor said the inflamation is almost non-existent once again (but who knows what will happen within a week, this has happened before and i don´t wanna get my hopes up)... and they gave me a little note to give to the english-speaking doctors when i get home. it was pleasant, and i survived without any professors by my side.
after, I walked through three of the parks in pamplona. i wanted to get some pictures to remember them by. first the tacoñera - it´s like a little zoo with birds and antelopes just sitting there and it´s freakin weird and pretty amazing. there´s a great view over the city and a fun playground that i climbed and some nice little mazes. next was yamaguchi, a park with a nice pond that didn´t excite me too much cuz it isn´t a place i frequent. i ended my park tour with the ciudadela, my favorite park of all. i have spent some major time walking around there and trying to run on the uneven ground and mosquito-filled paths. it´s wonderful... shaped like a star, lots of history there cuz it was built for defensive purposes back in the day. i like it a lot. i´m gonna miss my ciudadela.. it´s by my house and it´s always full of people.
i decided to buy a spanish tour guide book of the u.s. to give to my host family. it´s hard to pick out a gift that the whole family will like, but here´s my philosophy. they have tour guides of all these places in spain and seem to collect them. they are really interested in other cultures and places. and i´m gonna highlight and write little notes in it about the places in ohio that i will take them if they ever visit and tell them they will always have someone to stay with if they ever want to come. i´m gonna make it personal. they will never come visit, but it´s a nice thought, right?
then i went shopping at the corte ingles, the upscale wal-mart here. it´s pretty much the same and the exact opposite of wal-mart. all the main cities in spain have one and it´s huge. it has everything you could possibly want. however, it´s very different from wal-mart cuz it´s really super expensive and carries all this designer stuff. it´s fun to look around though. i found a cute blousy dress and a fun shirt but i couldn´t convince myself to by them. i have enough clothes and i just can´t seem to splurge.. even if it´s only a $30 splurge. i did buy a sweet pair of tights because tights are the coolest thing ever in spain and i´m bringing it back. they don´t wear them like they do in the states... you will all just have to wait and see how they do it when i bring them back... but i will probably be the only american freak trying to act like a spaniard. heh. i got more gifts to bring back home, and this concludes my search for gifts!! finally! i felt like it would never end.
i´m home now, transferring all the cd´s of amaia that i like to bring back home.
time to describe the weekend.
Game plan was bus rides all the way-
*Pamplona-Barcelona (Thursday night 1:30 am - Friday morn 6:00 am)
*Barcelona-Girona (Friday morn 8 am - Friday morn 10:30)
*Girona-Figueres (Friday night 11 pm - Friday night 11:30 pm.. ended up being 8-8:30 pm)
*Figueres-Roses (Saturday 2 pm - Saturday 2:30 pm)
*Roses-Barcelona (Saturday 4 pm - Saturday 6:30 pm)
*Barcelona-Pamplona (Sunday 8 am - Sunday 2 pm)
It all happened, don´t ask me how because catching that many buses and figuring out that many tickets and bus stations and changes and waking up early and going to sleep late and being crazy tourists... that´s a rough combination, I´ll tell you. I have never been so exhausted! And adventurous.
Here´s justification for the trip, we wanted to get to Girona to see The Call and the charming river that the city is on. We had to get to Barcelona to get there. We had to go to Figueres to see the Salvador Dalí Museum, the second most famous in Spain, which came highly regarded by Aunt Fran and Sanford. We then had to see a city on the Costa Brava, supposedly the most beautiful coast of Spain because we were so close to it! So we searched for hours and found bus schedules that would fit.
So, we get to Barcelona, tired as always because, of course, it is casi (almost) impossible to sleep on the night bus. We catch our bus to Girona. Girona is bonita bonita bonita. A beautiful city. The river runs right through the middle, all the buildings and houses are along the river, and it´s a sight to see. It´s a cute little town, but the most fascinating part was The Call. It´s a section of the city that had a significant Jewish population back in the day, and they have presevered the long and winding streets and staircases. We checked out the museum and it was great. I learned so much about the history, something I felt was mine. After all the trips to churches and cathedrals, it was a nice little switch-a-roo and a nice change.
We spent the rest of the day shopping around, found an amazing Irish pub/cafe that reminded me of the Donkey and it make me super-happy. They served our hot chocolate in these steaming huge vase glasses and there were english books and even board games. I felt like I was at home and it was a good feeling, even though i was in the midst of a great trip. We eventually had to say goodbye to our beloved Girona and head to Figueres.
It was late by the time we arrived, so we checked into our hotel (50 bucks a night! woo-wee with free breakfast!) and it was heaven. After hostels and night buses, a hotel is the sweetest thing ever. I think I slept better than I have in 3 months, seriously. We got dinner at the restaurant owned by the hotel and it was fabulous! It was a little homey place with just two old spanish men and we had the whole place to ourself. It was pretty empty in the city that night. We got a big plate of pasta (yea, we are so spanish, huh?) but we can justify it by the fact that we ordered a small pitcher of sangria and that was spanish of us. Yum yum yum. We got strawberries for dessert and it was expensive but what do we care? We are only in Figueres once. We then slept our wonderful hotel sleep.
We woke up early to get to the Dalí museum, and boy oh boy, it was worth the trip. There were 22 rooms, all filled with different types of his work. The man is incredible, not one period of his art looks a thing like the last. Everything is distinct. The museum was genious... arranged in a maze of three floors, different types of his art at every corner, paintings on the ceilings, just so much to see. It was packed full of French kids and hard to move around, but it was just fantastic. We loved it.
Sadly, we then had to leave the city. There isn´t much else there, so it was ok. We made it to Roses in time for lunch and walked around trying to find the main bus station so we knew where to go to catch the next bus to Barcelona. A random man on the street helped us out and it´s just crazy. People here are so helpful and we made it around all these cities with maps (and sometimes without maps) and just the help of people. We made our way to the beach, gorgeous, lined with palm trees and hotels, little cafes and restaurants with patios, the whole vacation scene. It isn´t known to be the best on the costa brava, but it was the only one we could squeeze into our trip. We finally found a cafe to order bocadillas (long sandwiches) and went to the beach to eat them. It might have possibly been the windiest day of they year and we nearly got blown into the water and had several thousand pounds of sand in our ears by the time we left. But I don´t regret that trip. We had to see the beach while we had the chance. I have been to three beaches in three months. That´s gotta be a record, I think.
We left, headed back to Barcelona, the city of life. I love that city. Not as much as Granada, but it´s different. It´s the crazy city and Granada is the peaceful city. We checked into our hostel (seventeen thousand times superior to the last one we stayed at) and met some crazy american kids. Practically the whole hostel was American and it was pretty interesting. The owner joked that the only American left to come was Bush. And we almost puked at the thought of it.
So we went out for our night on the town, our last night in Barcelona (though I hope to be back there at some point in my life because it´s just the sweetest thing ever). We got another delicious dinner and headed off to find a bar. Everywhere was packed because there was a Barcelona-Madrid game on tv. We just walked around the city and got to know it once again and loved it more and more. It was just bursting full of people, full of life, full of energy. I got some gelato. Then we found a bar. We walked in, eventually got seats at the bar and that´s when the fun began. You see, we decided to try something other than sangria because it was a bit costly at that bar. We got mojitos. I didn´t know what a mojito was, but I guess Kristen did. I don´t even like mint or lime, so what was I thinking? Just trust the underage american girl to go to a bar and get some kinda crazy drink. We got the bill for the drinks, 8 euro a piece. 10 dollars for a drink! i almost peed myself. so we sat there for a half hour trying to justify how we could possibly spend 10 dollars on a drink. and we came up with a few things... it´s our last weekend trip and our last real night out in spain... we´re being classy and sipping on a sophisticated drink at a sophisticated bar... we only did this once... we haven´t really drank much since we got to spain... and it went on and on.
then we met the bachelor party. and this made it all worthwhile. you see, it was a bachelor party for a british 30 year old, and his friends were from ireland and scotland and all over. we ended up cracking up while talking to them all night. it wasn´t like a ¨hi i´m a creepy old man trying to pick you up¨ thing. they were having a good old time celebrating the party in barcelona, we were trying to understand their fun terminology that they were teaching us (bollocks, etc.) and they just kept telling us how much they loved the united states. and we kept saying how it´s crazy that they can just take a cheap weekend trip to barcelona to celebrate a bachelor´s party! i don´t know if i have laughed so hard or met anyone so funny in spain. and they bought us more mojitos (oh geez).
the bachelor party eventually left, and the bar was closing. the bartenders struck up a conversation with us (and kristen was obsessed and still is obsessed with pablo, the sexy argentinian bartender). we were enjoying practicing our spanish skills for a change (after all that english speaking with the bachelor party ha) and kristen was enjoying staring at pablo´s mohawk. they gave us free shots. then we left back for our hostel. it was a pretty fun night. i guess i can´t regret the two hours of sleep i had to go on for the rest of the day.
we headed back to pamplona in the morning, and there you go. my weekend. the last weekend of travel, and i can´t say i held back. 4 cities in 3 days is pretty darn good.
thats the story, that´s all there is.
4 more days in Spain. is life crazy or what?
After my nervous freakout breakdown attack, I realized that things are ok. They are just ok. And maybe I´m superready to come home and be normal again, but I took a long walk and I´m seeing some things that, of course, I´m going to miss about Pamplona. That´s just inevitable. I don´t know if you can go anywhere and not take part of it home with you... and not have some regrets... and not have some things that you miss. That would just be impossible. So maybe I have been sitting here mourning my lonliness and frustrations a bit too much. I look at my overall outlook at this experience as positive. Of course, there have been times when I think I could not be more unhappy if I tried. And there have been times when I want to cry out of joy because I realize that life is just so amazing. There has been a huge range of emotions. Just because I have been going crazy lately DOES NOT mean that I am not glad I came. Times get tough, and I gotta get goin. I just have to be reminded of that every once in a while. So thanks to all you folks who have been there for me this whole time. It means the world to me.
Now that my mind is more clear, I can talk about my day and my weekend trip that I have been meaning to write about but have not had the concentration for.
Today: woke up super-early to resume studying for my exam that I had. The exam went well and I had my last dialectologia (bilingualism) class this morning where we reviewed for the exam. I need to study a bit, but I think I´ll be alright. I ate some lunch, felt bloated again and was a bit unhappy. So I get home, ready to hurl some serious weights across the room. I can´t tell you what I was even thinking. It was too much hurt and fear and frustration and stress and everything combined. So that´s where the phone call to the parents came in, and then it was all ok.
I went to the eye doctor for the last time... kinda sad... they know me by name easy by now and even smile at my little spanish faux-paus (can´t spell that) and comfort me in their little spanish ways (¨hombre claro¨ y ¨no te preocupes, no es nada¨). They made this appointment free... the doctor said the inflamation is almost non-existent once again (but who knows what will happen within a week, this has happened before and i don´t wanna get my hopes up)... and they gave me a little note to give to the english-speaking doctors when i get home. it was pleasant, and i survived without any professors by my side.
after, I walked through three of the parks in pamplona. i wanted to get some pictures to remember them by. first the tacoñera - it´s like a little zoo with birds and antelopes just sitting there and it´s freakin weird and pretty amazing. there´s a great view over the city and a fun playground that i climbed and some nice little mazes. next was yamaguchi, a park with a nice pond that didn´t excite me too much cuz it isn´t a place i frequent. i ended my park tour with the ciudadela, my favorite park of all. i have spent some major time walking around there and trying to run on the uneven ground and mosquito-filled paths. it´s wonderful... shaped like a star, lots of history there cuz it was built for defensive purposes back in the day. i like it a lot. i´m gonna miss my ciudadela.. it´s by my house and it´s always full of people.
i decided to buy a spanish tour guide book of the u.s. to give to my host family. it´s hard to pick out a gift that the whole family will like, but here´s my philosophy. they have tour guides of all these places in spain and seem to collect them. they are really interested in other cultures and places. and i´m gonna highlight and write little notes in it about the places in ohio that i will take them if they ever visit and tell them they will always have someone to stay with if they ever want to come. i´m gonna make it personal. they will never come visit, but it´s a nice thought, right?
then i went shopping at the corte ingles, the upscale wal-mart here. it´s pretty much the same and the exact opposite of wal-mart. all the main cities in spain have one and it´s huge. it has everything you could possibly want. however, it´s very different from wal-mart cuz it´s really super expensive and carries all this designer stuff. it´s fun to look around though. i found a cute blousy dress and a fun shirt but i couldn´t convince myself to by them. i have enough clothes and i just can´t seem to splurge.. even if it´s only a $30 splurge. i did buy a sweet pair of tights because tights are the coolest thing ever in spain and i´m bringing it back. they don´t wear them like they do in the states... you will all just have to wait and see how they do it when i bring them back... but i will probably be the only american freak trying to act like a spaniard. heh. i got more gifts to bring back home, and this concludes my search for gifts!! finally! i felt like it would never end.
i´m home now, transferring all the cd´s of amaia that i like to bring back home.
time to describe the weekend.
Game plan was bus rides all the way-
*Pamplona-Barcelona (Thursday night 1:30 am - Friday morn 6:00 am)
*Barcelona-Girona (Friday morn 8 am - Friday morn 10:30)
*Girona-Figueres (Friday night 11 pm - Friday night 11:30 pm.. ended up being 8-8:30 pm)
*Figueres-Roses (Saturday 2 pm - Saturday 2:30 pm)
*Roses-Barcelona (Saturday 4 pm - Saturday 6:30 pm)
*Barcelona-Pamplona (Sunday 8 am - Sunday 2 pm)
It all happened, don´t ask me how because catching that many buses and figuring out that many tickets and bus stations and changes and waking up early and going to sleep late and being crazy tourists... that´s a rough combination, I´ll tell you. I have never been so exhausted! And adventurous.
Here´s justification for the trip, we wanted to get to Girona to see The Call and the charming river that the city is on. We had to get to Barcelona to get there. We had to go to Figueres to see the Salvador Dalí Museum, the second most famous in Spain, which came highly regarded by Aunt Fran and Sanford. We then had to see a city on the Costa Brava, supposedly the most beautiful coast of Spain because we were so close to it! So we searched for hours and found bus schedules that would fit.
So, we get to Barcelona, tired as always because, of course, it is casi (almost) impossible to sleep on the night bus. We catch our bus to Girona. Girona is bonita bonita bonita. A beautiful city. The river runs right through the middle, all the buildings and houses are along the river, and it´s a sight to see. It´s a cute little town, but the most fascinating part was The Call. It´s a section of the city that had a significant Jewish population back in the day, and they have presevered the long and winding streets and staircases. We checked out the museum and it was great. I learned so much about the history, something I felt was mine. After all the trips to churches and cathedrals, it was a nice little switch-a-roo and a nice change.
We spent the rest of the day shopping around, found an amazing Irish pub/cafe that reminded me of the Donkey and it make me super-happy. They served our hot chocolate in these steaming huge vase glasses and there were english books and even board games. I felt like I was at home and it was a good feeling, even though i was in the midst of a great trip. We eventually had to say goodbye to our beloved Girona and head to Figueres.
It was late by the time we arrived, so we checked into our hotel (50 bucks a night! woo-wee with free breakfast!) and it was heaven. After hostels and night buses, a hotel is the sweetest thing ever. I think I slept better than I have in 3 months, seriously. We got dinner at the restaurant owned by the hotel and it was fabulous! It was a little homey place with just two old spanish men and we had the whole place to ourself. It was pretty empty in the city that night. We got a big plate of pasta (yea, we are so spanish, huh?) but we can justify it by the fact that we ordered a small pitcher of sangria and that was spanish of us. Yum yum yum. We got strawberries for dessert and it was expensive but what do we care? We are only in Figueres once. We then slept our wonderful hotel sleep.
We woke up early to get to the Dalí museum, and boy oh boy, it was worth the trip. There were 22 rooms, all filled with different types of his work. The man is incredible, not one period of his art looks a thing like the last. Everything is distinct. The museum was genious... arranged in a maze of three floors, different types of his art at every corner, paintings on the ceilings, just so much to see. It was packed full of French kids and hard to move around, but it was just fantastic. We loved it.
Sadly, we then had to leave the city. There isn´t much else there, so it was ok. We made it to Roses in time for lunch and walked around trying to find the main bus station so we knew where to go to catch the next bus to Barcelona. A random man on the street helped us out and it´s just crazy. People here are so helpful and we made it around all these cities with maps (and sometimes without maps) and just the help of people. We made our way to the beach, gorgeous, lined with palm trees and hotels, little cafes and restaurants with patios, the whole vacation scene. It isn´t known to be the best on the costa brava, but it was the only one we could squeeze into our trip. We finally found a cafe to order bocadillas (long sandwiches) and went to the beach to eat them. It might have possibly been the windiest day of they year and we nearly got blown into the water and had several thousand pounds of sand in our ears by the time we left. But I don´t regret that trip. We had to see the beach while we had the chance. I have been to three beaches in three months. That´s gotta be a record, I think.
We left, headed back to Barcelona, the city of life. I love that city. Not as much as Granada, but it´s different. It´s the crazy city and Granada is the peaceful city. We checked into our hostel (seventeen thousand times superior to the last one we stayed at) and met some crazy american kids. Practically the whole hostel was American and it was pretty interesting. The owner joked that the only American left to come was Bush. And we almost puked at the thought of it.
So we went out for our night on the town, our last night in Barcelona (though I hope to be back there at some point in my life because it´s just the sweetest thing ever). We got another delicious dinner and headed off to find a bar. Everywhere was packed because there was a Barcelona-Madrid game on tv. We just walked around the city and got to know it once again and loved it more and more. It was just bursting full of people, full of life, full of energy. I got some gelato. Then we found a bar. We walked in, eventually got seats at the bar and that´s when the fun began. You see, we decided to try something other than sangria because it was a bit costly at that bar. We got mojitos. I didn´t know what a mojito was, but I guess Kristen did. I don´t even like mint or lime, so what was I thinking? Just trust the underage american girl to go to a bar and get some kinda crazy drink. We got the bill for the drinks, 8 euro a piece. 10 dollars for a drink! i almost peed myself. so we sat there for a half hour trying to justify how we could possibly spend 10 dollars on a drink. and we came up with a few things... it´s our last weekend trip and our last real night out in spain... we´re being classy and sipping on a sophisticated drink at a sophisticated bar... we only did this once... we haven´t really drank much since we got to spain... and it went on and on.
then we met the bachelor party. and this made it all worthwhile. you see, it was a bachelor party for a british 30 year old, and his friends were from ireland and scotland and all over. we ended up cracking up while talking to them all night. it wasn´t like a ¨hi i´m a creepy old man trying to pick you up¨ thing. they were having a good old time celebrating the party in barcelona, we were trying to understand their fun terminology that they were teaching us (bollocks, etc.) and they just kept telling us how much they loved the united states. and we kept saying how it´s crazy that they can just take a cheap weekend trip to barcelona to celebrate a bachelor´s party! i don´t know if i have laughed so hard or met anyone so funny in spain. and they bought us more mojitos (oh geez).
the bachelor party eventually left, and the bar was closing. the bartenders struck up a conversation with us (and kristen was obsessed and still is obsessed with pablo, the sexy argentinian bartender). we were enjoying practicing our spanish skills for a change (after all that english speaking with the bachelor party ha) and kristen was enjoying staring at pablo´s mohawk. they gave us free shots. then we left back for our hostel. it was a pretty fun night. i guess i can´t regret the two hours of sleep i had to go on for the rest of the day.
we headed back to pamplona in the morning, and there you go. my weekend. the last weekend of travel, and i can´t say i held back. 4 cities in 3 days is pretty darn good.
thats the story, that´s all there is.
4 more days in Spain. is life crazy or what?
Monday, March 12, 2007
serious procrastination problems!
ok, i seriosly can´t do anything right now. i can´t focus. i have my most important exam tomorrow and i just cannot do it i can´t study i can´t i can´t. my brain is so scattered and i can´t buckle down.
i can´t write about my last weekend traveling adventure, i can´t. it takes too much concentration and work and thought process. writing this blog was a bad idea because i can´t even write a good blog.
the point i´m making here is that leaving a foreign country is as difficult and possibly as complicated as arriving. i´m having all the same crazy rush of emotions as before, including psychoness.
normalcy! come back to me! i want life to be normal again so i can stop freaking out and just get a grip on things. i want to escape from this anxiousness to return and just be a normal person again and talk in English and go to WOUB and try to write stories and sit in my room at my computer with a bowl of cereal and meet at shively for dinner and occasionally do my laundry myself and stress out about journalism and see my family and see my other family at ou and go to the bike path and frequent ping and do all the important things in American life and go to restaurants and not be able to finish my meals because the portions are too large and not spend hundreds of dollars a week and be a normal college kid and stay up into the middle of the night just talking and listening to class debates and trying to participate in my own language and order hot chocolate without having to think of how to say it in spanish and use a community dorm bathroom that´s nasty and watch my doggy make my daddy crazy and hear about nicole´s several hundred fastpitch games and the controversy of my mom´s aerobics classes and eat brownies and get used to being underage for another two years and listen to the radio as my job and work my butt off again and look forward to ou´s weekends and to spring weather and to seeing all the people i love and being normal and being normal and being normal. once again. my real life once again. because i´m ready for that again. i´m ready.
i´m reading this blog over and i´m laughing at myself and how insane i appear. and not only do i appear it, i am it. i am crazy right now.
i have cankles. isn´t that great? here´s another burst of random. my eye medicine is once again helping me retain water and i have cankles. oh gosh, i wish they would just be normal ankles again and i could button my pants. how is it possible to be swimming for 50 minutes and still have cankles? oh, the horribleness of medicine. i want to be normal girl without being on medicine. and so the crazyness goes. for another five days because that´s all i have left of this spanish adventure of mine. it is bittersweet, to say the least. oh but i´m just wanting to be in my normal bed. be that athens or cleveland, i don´t care, because anything is more like home than here. give me back my double life as a mayfield heights resident and a college student. anything is more normal than being a screwed-up kid in spain just looking for a little bit of normalcy once again. it just seems that the more time that passes, the more crazy i get about wanting to go home, and it´s just because i know it´s nearing. i would be pefectly fine right now if i knew i had 3 more months to stay here. but because i know that i leave in less than a week, i´m going crazy with feelings and emotions and mood swings and energy bursts, and exhaustion. exhaustion. lack of energy. rushes of energy. inattentiveness. locura. locura means crazyness in spanish. random bursts of spanish words in my head, but still an inability for my thoughts to be completely in spanish because i feel like i suppress them. especially when i´m writing in blogs in english. probably the worst thing you could do to prevent spanish immersion. but i´m doing it anyway because memories and communication with my real life are more important to me than spanish immersion.
ok this blog is over. i promise to be calm and cool and collected soon and not be such a weirdo. ok, i´ll always be a weirdo, but at least i´ll be a sane weirdo?
i´m buckling down (so i say) and studying for this baby of a test. i will conquer all. watch the news because i´m taking over Spain tonight. single-handedly. just you wait and see.
i can´t write about my last weekend traveling adventure, i can´t. it takes too much concentration and work and thought process. writing this blog was a bad idea because i can´t even write a good blog.
the point i´m making here is that leaving a foreign country is as difficult and possibly as complicated as arriving. i´m having all the same crazy rush of emotions as before, including psychoness.
normalcy! come back to me! i want life to be normal again so i can stop freaking out and just get a grip on things. i want to escape from this anxiousness to return and just be a normal person again and talk in English and go to WOUB and try to write stories and sit in my room at my computer with a bowl of cereal and meet at shively for dinner and occasionally do my laundry myself and stress out about journalism and see my family and see my other family at ou and go to the bike path and frequent ping and do all the important things in American life and go to restaurants and not be able to finish my meals because the portions are too large and not spend hundreds of dollars a week and be a normal college kid and stay up into the middle of the night just talking and listening to class debates and trying to participate in my own language and order hot chocolate without having to think of how to say it in spanish and use a community dorm bathroom that´s nasty and watch my doggy make my daddy crazy and hear about nicole´s several hundred fastpitch games and the controversy of my mom´s aerobics classes and eat brownies and get used to being underage for another two years and listen to the radio as my job and work my butt off again and look forward to ou´s weekends and to spring weather and to seeing all the people i love and being normal and being normal and being normal. once again. my real life once again. because i´m ready for that again. i´m ready.
i´m reading this blog over and i´m laughing at myself and how insane i appear. and not only do i appear it, i am it. i am crazy right now.
i have cankles. isn´t that great? here´s another burst of random. my eye medicine is once again helping me retain water and i have cankles. oh gosh, i wish they would just be normal ankles again and i could button my pants. how is it possible to be swimming for 50 minutes and still have cankles? oh, the horribleness of medicine. i want to be normal girl without being on medicine. and so the crazyness goes. for another five days because that´s all i have left of this spanish adventure of mine. it is bittersweet, to say the least. oh but i´m just wanting to be in my normal bed. be that athens or cleveland, i don´t care, because anything is more like home than here. give me back my double life as a mayfield heights resident and a college student. anything is more normal than being a screwed-up kid in spain just looking for a little bit of normalcy once again. it just seems that the more time that passes, the more crazy i get about wanting to go home, and it´s just because i know it´s nearing. i would be pefectly fine right now if i knew i had 3 more months to stay here. but because i know that i leave in less than a week, i´m going crazy with feelings and emotions and mood swings and energy bursts, and exhaustion. exhaustion. lack of energy. rushes of energy. inattentiveness. locura. locura means crazyness in spanish. random bursts of spanish words in my head, but still an inability for my thoughts to be completely in spanish because i feel like i suppress them. especially when i´m writing in blogs in english. probably the worst thing you could do to prevent spanish immersion. but i´m doing it anyway because memories and communication with my real life are more important to me than spanish immersion.
ok this blog is over. i promise to be calm and cool and collected soon and not be such a weirdo. ok, i´ll always be a weirdo, but at least i´ll be a sane weirdo?
i´m buckling down (so i say) and studying for this baby of a test. i will conquer all. watch the news because i´m taking over Spain tonight. single-handedly. just you wait and see.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Dear Nana and Papa,
So here is my response to your letter because I think this will be the easiest way for now because mail takes a long time to arrive and email is confusing.
Thanks for having the patience to try to figure out the whole email thing, but don´t worry, I like getting a letter just as much! Also, I can´t believe you took the time to read some of my spanish paper and could understand it... that must have taken some time!
Man, it sounds like you guys are doing A LOT of entertaining... I cannot even imagine having two families in a row like that. How are the Ilbuovich´s (i´m not sure if that´s how you spell it, it was hard to read)?
I´m sorry to hear about the tennis match, but there will be a lot more of those anyway in the future. Just know you could kick my butt any day and maybe then you will feel better. You guys are 6,000 times better than a 19-yr-old... pretty good if I say so myself.
How is the extention of the lanai coming? They better be done by May - that´s ridiculous already! Oh well, I´m sure it will be well worth it when it´s done. It´s just sad cuz I don´t know the next time I´ll be able to visit you guys and see it. I sure hope we take more frequent trips because I had the best time ever during winter break!
The botanical gardens sounds really beautiful. Cleveland´s is pretty cool too, so maybe we should take a trip there over the summer during the weekend. How does that sound? (I guess you can answer all these questions by phone cuz I´ll be home in 10 days! Crazy!)
Now, here´s the time where I can respond to your page of questions. Ready, set, go.
Are you taking any more trips?
Yup, you can read about where I´m going for my last trip this weekend in the blog before this. I´ll probably post information when I get back on Sunday or Monday so you will have the full update then. I¨m really excited! It´s to places that come highly-recommended from Aunt Fran and Sanford, so they should be amazing.
Is the Spanish coming any easier?
It´s coming a lot lot lot easier now. I can make sentences... with a little struggle, but it doesn´t take as much effort now. I can sound more natural, but I sitll do need to pause occasionally to think of the word or conjugate the verbs. It´s getting better really fast - I just wish I had more time to develop my language skills. I am sad because I know I´m going to lose most of the things I have learned here about the language when I get home because I won´t have much practice. I´m still taking classes, but that´s only 4 hours a week and it doens´t involve much verbal communication. I also am going to try to attend conversation hour, which is a weekly thing where you go to a restaurant to practice your Spanish. So maybe I´ll be able to retain a little bit.
Do I have enough clothes?
Suprisingly, I do. I only brought 3 pairs of jeans, some sweatpants/pjs, 5 tshirts, 5 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of exercise tights, 5 sweaters, 3 long sleeve shirts, and 3 pairs of shoes (walking, exercise, cute pair), 5 tank tops. spanish people wear a lot of the same clothes pretty often, so it wouldn´t be that weird if I only wore what I brought with me. However, I have shopped a bit and now have 2 more sweaters, 2 more blouses, a pair of flats and a pair of rainboots, and 2 short-sleeved shirts. I feel that I have a good amount because it will probably fit into my suitcase without a problem on the way home. It´s crazy how little clothing you can live on, and you would NEVER believe it nana!
Are clothes expensive here?
SUPER-EXPENSIVE. Everything is on the euro system, so that makes things automatically more expensive because the conversion rate between euros and dollars is really bad right now. Basically, every time I take out 100 euros, it is equal to taking out 133 dollars. There are a few reasonable chain stores where I have gotten shirts from between 9 euro to 17 euro, so that´s not horrible. Most of the other stores are privately owned and really really expensive. Some of the pricier ones just a few minutes from my house sell 600 euro pairs of jeans! I was lucky to be here during after-holiday sales (all through january and especially in february). But it´s sad because I want to buy all kinds of cool stuff, but i can´t fit too much into my suitcase and it adds up really quickly.
Is the food expensive?
AGAIN, SUPER. The thing is, Navarra (the community in which Pamplona is situated) has the highest cost of living in Spain (but also the highest quality of life). Everything here comes in smaller portions, so it´s sad because you never take food home from restaurants. When we go on big excursions with all the kids in my program, we get many-coursed meals, so I never go hungry, but it´s a different system of restaurants. I don´t buy the food that I eat on a normal basis because my host-mom buys and makes it but she says it´s very expensive to buy good food. And by good, I mean healthy. I also have dining hall food at the university 4days a week for lunch. When I go to the grocery store to buy snack foods and such or to a bakery, it adds up really fast because everything comes in smaller quantities, which can be really frusterating at times when I´m used to big quantities. I´m lucky though - my host mom keeps tons of fruit constantly on the table, so I can always take those things with me.
Have I seen my host sister?
If you haven´t yet, you should read my blog entry about Bilbao because I recently spent the whole weekend with her! Unfortunately, she is home right now, and I only say unfortunately because the reason she is home is because she is really sick. She had to come home from college for the weekend and she had tests done today. They don´t know exactly what is wrong now, but it could be something with her kidney. She is staying home because she has more tests to take on Tuesday at the hospital. They said it´s nothing too serious, but still, it´s such a bummer. She spends a lot of time with her boyfriend, so I don´t see her much, but it´s good to have her back. I just wish she was feeeling better!
Do I go out with the kids from Cleveland?
I do go out with them every once in a while, but I travel a lot on the weekends, so that takes up more of my time. I also tend not to go out with them much because they always go to an Irish bar where they speak English, and I don´t feel like I´m getting any benefit out of speaking english in the same old bar every night. I would rather do other things. I know they have fun, but I would rather travel or spend more time keeping in touch with people at home.
Have I met more spanish kids?
Not many. It´s hard because nobody exactly comes up to us at the university and tries to be our friends. We are kinda the American rejects. I do spend time with the girl ¨intercambio¨ (speaking partner) who I got assigned to talk with though the OU program. We meet once a week to talk, walk around, and learn about each other and our cultures. It´s pretty interesting and I enjoy it. Other than that, no! How sad it is, but like I said, it´s hard. Oh, I forgot! My two friends and I decided to break the Irish bar tradition a few weekends ago and we met some really great kids at a spanish bar. They are from all over Spain and they are studying at the private university (I go to the public university) here in Pamplona. They were so nice and showed us around and it was great! I know if I had more time here, I would have more opportunities to meet people, but it´s ok. I have learned a lot from my family and intercambios.
Hope that answered everything! I love you guys so much and can´t wait to talk to you! I should get some sleep!!
Thanks for having the patience to try to figure out the whole email thing, but don´t worry, I like getting a letter just as much! Also, I can´t believe you took the time to read some of my spanish paper and could understand it... that must have taken some time!
Man, it sounds like you guys are doing A LOT of entertaining... I cannot even imagine having two families in a row like that. How are the Ilbuovich´s (i´m not sure if that´s how you spell it, it was hard to read)?
I´m sorry to hear about the tennis match, but there will be a lot more of those anyway in the future. Just know you could kick my butt any day and maybe then you will feel better. You guys are 6,000 times better than a 19-yr-old... pretty good if I say so myself.
How is the extention of the lanai coming? They better be done by May - that´s ridiculous already! Oh well, I´m sure it will be well worth it when it´s done. It´s just sad cuz I don´t know the next time I´ll be able to visit you guys and see it. I sure hope we take more frequent trips because I had the best time ever during winter break!
The botanical gardens sounds really beautiful. Cleveland´s is pretty cool too, so maybe we should take a trip there over the summer during the weekend. How does that sound? (I guess you can answer all these questions by phone cuz I´ll be home in 10 days! Crazy!)
Now, here´s the time where I can respond to your page of questions. Ready, set, go.
Are you taking any more trips?
Yup, you can read about where I´m going for my last trip this weekend in the blog before this. I´ll probably post information when I get back on Sunday or Monday so you will have the full update then. I¨m really excited! It´s to places that come highly-recommended from Aunt Fran and Sanford, so they should be amazing.
Is the Spanish coming any easier?
It´s coming a lot lot lot easier now. I can make sentences... with a little struggle, but it doesn´t take as much effort now. I can sound more natural, but I sitll do need to pause occasionally to think of the word or conjugate the verbs. It´s getting better really fast - I just wish I had more time to develop my language skills. I am sad because I know I´m going to lose most of the things I have learned here about the language when I get home because I won´t have much practice. I´m still taking classes, but that´s only 4 hours a week and it doens´t involve much verbal communication. I also am going to try to attend conversation hour, which is a weekly thing where you go to a restaurant to practice your Spanish. So maybe I´ll be able to retain a little bit.
Do I have enough clothes?
Suprisingly, I do. I only brought 3 pairs of jeans, some sweatpants/pjs, 5 tshirts, 5 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of exercise tights, 5 sweaters, 3 long sleeve shirts, and 3 pairs of shoes (walking, exercise, cute pair), 5 tank tops. spanish people wear a lot of the same clothes pretty often, so it wouldn´t be that weird if I only wore what I brought with me. However, I have shopped a bit and now have 2 more sweaters, 2 more blouses, a pair of flats and a pair of rainboots, and 2 short-sleeved shirts. I feel that I have a good amount because it will probably fit into my suitcase without a problem on the way home. It´s crazy how little clothing you can live on, and you would NEVER believe it nana!
Are clothes expensive here?
SUPER-EXPENSIVE. Everything is on the euro system, so that makes things automatically more expensive because the conversion rate between euros and dollars is really bad right now. Basically, every time I take out 100 euros, it is equal to taking out 133 dollars. There are a few reasonable chain stores where I have gotten shirts from between 9 euro to 17 euro, so that´s not horrible. Most of the other stores are privately owned and really really expensive. Some of the pricier ones just a few minutes from my house sell 600 euro pairs of jeans! I was lucky to be here during after-holiday sales (all through january and especially in february). But it´s sad because I want to buy all kinds of cool stuff, but i can´t fit too much into my suitcase and it adds up really quickly.
Is the food expensive?
AGAIN, SUPER. The thing is, Navarra (the community in which Pamplona is situated) has the highest cost of living in Spain (but also the highest quality of life). Everything here comes in smaller portions, so it´s sad because you never take food home from restaurants. When we go on big excursions with all the kids in my program, we get many-coursed meals, so I never go hungry, but it´s a different system of restaurants. I don´t buy the food that I eat on a normal basis because my host-mom buys and makes it but she says it´s very expensive to buy good food. And by good, I mean healthy. I also have dining hall food at the university 4days a week for lunch. When I go to the grocery store to buy snack foods and such or to a bakery, it adds up really fast because everything comes in smaller quantities, which can be really frusterating at times when I´m used to big quantities. I´m lucky though - my host mom keeps tons of fruit constantly on the table, so I can always take those things with me.
Have I seen my host sister?
If you haven´t yet, you should read my blog entry about Bilbao because I recently spent the whole weekend with her! Unfortunately, she is home right now, and I only say unfortunately because the reason she is home is because she is really sick. She had to come home from college for the weekend and she had tests done today. They don´t know exactly what is wrong now, but it could be something with her kidney. She is staying home because she has more tests to take on Tuesday at the hospital. They said it´s nothing too serious, but still, it´s such a bummer. She spends a lot of time with her boyfriend, so I don´t see her much, but it´s good to have her back. I just wish she was feeeling better!
Do I go out with the kids from Cleveland?
I do go out with them every once in a while, but I travel a lot on the weekends, so that takes up more of my time. I also tend not to go out with them much because they always go to an Irish bar where they speak English, and I don´t feel like I´m getting any benefit out of speaking english in the same old bar every night. I would rather do other things. I know they have fun, but I would rather travel or spend more time keeping in touch with people at home.
Have I met more spanish kids?
Not many. It´s hard because nobody exactly comes up to us at the university and tries to be our friends. We are kinda the American rejects. I do spend time with the girl ¨intercambio¨ (speaking partner) who I got assigned to talk with though the OU program. We meet once a week to talk, walk around, and learn about each other and our cultures. It´s pretty interesting and I enjoy it. Other than that, no! How sad it is, but like I said, it´s hard. Oh, I forgot! My two friends and I decided to break the Irish bar tradition a few weekends ago and we met some really great kids at a spanish bar. They are from all over Spain and they are studying at the private university (I go to the public university) here in Pamplona. They were so nice and showed us around and it was great! I know if I had more time here, I would have more opportunities to meet people, but it´s ok. I have learned a lot from my family and intercambios.
Hope that answered everything! I love you guys so much and can´t wait to talk to you! I should get some sleep!!
gotta be brief.
so today i did no homework. which would be fine if i wasn´t going all over the east coast of spain for the weekend, returning for a soccer game on sunday night, and my first (and hardest) exam wasn´t tuesday. but i´m more concerned about learning about the real history and culture of spain, not the ¨culture and civilization¨ exam that will be on the text of our book about the same things i´m learning in real life. plus, after visiting the dali museum, i am gonna be able to write a kick-ass essay on dali´s surrealism and the way he doesn´t use logical reason in his paintings (and be able to provide examples)! so there, profesora ana! maybe a little studying on the bus rides too...
i´m out of my ¨get me out of spain¨ phase cuz i realized i have 10 days left and so much to do before i leave! get another gofre at the cafe di roma, get back ot all the pamplona parks and take pictures, master amaia´s music collection, study for 3 exams, find some kind of outfit for our fancy last-night-in-pamplona dinner, and the list goes on.
i will write all about the crazy weekend i´m about to have when i get back. let´s just say i´m taking aunt fran´s idea (and dad´s too... got an email from him also) and going to Girona, an old city with a lot of Jewish history, Figueres, the small city with the Dalí Museum, Roses, a city on la costa brava (the prettiest coast in spain, so i hear... is in the east of cataluña), and staying in Barcelona for a night. soooo that´s about let´s count.... 6 buses. 6 different buses! whew! some of the bus rides are only 30 minutes or so cuz figures and girona and roses are all really close to each other. the long ones are pamplona to barcelona and so on. yay! a good weekend to finish off my study abroad trip! we have our hotels and hostels reserved this time, so yay!
ok, me voy. i´m going! see you all soon :)
i´m out of my ¨get me out of spain¨ phase cuz i realized i have 10 days left and so much to do before i leave! get another gofre at the cafe di roma, get back ot all the pamplona parks and take pictures, master amaia´s music collection, study for 3 exams, find some kind of outfit for our fancy last-night-in-pamplona dinner, and the list goes on.
i will write all about the crazy weekend i´m about to have when i get back. let´s just say i´m taking aunt fran´s idea (and dad´s too... got an email from him also) and going to Girona, an old city with a lot of Jewish history, Figueres, the small city with the Dalí Museum, Roses, a city on la costa brava (the prettiest coast in spain, so i hear... is in the east of cataluña), and staying in Barcelona for a night. soooo that´s about let´s count.... 6 buses. 6 different buses! whew! some of the bus rides are only 30 minutes or so cuz figures and girona and roses are all really close to each other. the long ones are pamplona to barcelona and so on. yay! a good weekend to finish off my study abroad trip! we have our hotels and hostels reserved this time, so yay!
ok, me voy. i´m going! see you all soon :)
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
cho-co-late. malleys. happiness.
yum i love chocolate.
anyways, on to more important matter. today was looking up for me. doctor says my eye is almost better, so i´m going back on the strong meds (you know, the ones they give aids patients, no biggie) to conquer it once and for all. oh i hope it works cuz i´m gonna be feeling real weak for the next few days on two doses of darcortin, a little white pill that makes ya crazy (maybe i´m crazy without it too, but whatever). my bumps are back and better than ever in various places. it´s really fun because they like to form close to one another. i used to have red bump bracelets and those went away and now i have a really cool armband of red bumps around my elbow area. not to mention the really cool ones that decorate my fingers. forget jewelry, just get bitten by spanish bugs, tell your immune system to react poorly, and you will have your very own built-in jewelry collection at your disposal!
anyhow, i got a huge box of chocolates from the fam, a gift for valentines day. i´m celebrating a bit late, but late is better than never when it comes to chocolates. thanks guys! now i have about 3 pounds of chocolate to eat and i look forward to gaining those pounds and then pouting at my stomach each night.
today was a day. i went to school, my classes were pretty interesting, i did some homework, but mostly just procrastinated like always. i´m really good at that... but then again, i guess it´s easy to be good at and everyone else is pretty good at it too.
amaia is home with her bf cuz she´s sick but i´m not spending time with them cuz i´m waiting on mom and sis to come on skype and talk to me. (where are you guys!!?) oh, there you are. mom is finally on. (at 1:20 am for me, how convenient!)
i decided it´s the time to splurge on some kinda really awesome piece of clothing, i just don´t know what it is yet. i´m saving about hundreds of dollars by going to girona and figueres (and not portugal which was originally the plan, but backfired cuz it´s too stressful to plan a trip to another country last minute with finals coming up the week i return) this weekend, so i´m buying a freakin tunic shirt or something to make up for it.
i have 12 days left here, and i´m kinda sad, but not really. ok i´m sad. but really, i´m excited to be back home. i´m kinda hoping everything will just magically be perfect when i´m home. for instance, my built-in jewelry will disappear, the vision in my left eye will suddenly be perfect, my split ends will go away (that might actually happen cuz i have a haircut appointment), i will understand exactly what i want to do with my life, i will lose my bread weight (it has to be bread weight... 2 loaves of white bread a day just isn´t healthy... but it is necessary cuz i´ll soon return to the u.s. and packaged bread forever), and so on and so forth. doubt all that´s gonna happen, but a girl can dream right?
i´m spoiled.
moving on.
i think it´s time for sleepy time cuz mommy isn´t answering the skype call and i need to wake up bright and early so i can do some more lovely homework... reading and translating baby.
dear nana and papa, i got your letter! thanks :) i loved it. i am going to respond by blog because i´m not sure if the whole email thing is working out for you and by the time a letter gets to you, it will be june already (and i´ll be home). so everybody, look forward to a special grandparents blog in the near future where all questions will be answered.
ahhhhh i´m feeling antsy and not ready to go to sleep. must be too much chocolate.
is it weird that this blog has chocolate laced though it all over? i feel like i have a phrase about it between every paragraph, and that´s bordering on obsession maybe. someone, is there a cure to this disease they call chocoholism? do i really have to completely eliminate it from my diet, or is that just for alcoholism? i sure hope the two scenarios are different because i know i could live without alcohol, but i´m not quite sure if i could live without chocolate. not that i have a problem with alcohol, if that´s what it sounded like. cuz i don´t.
ok, this blog is pointless and really needs to end now. goodbye my loves.
(p.s. dad and nicole - that reminds me of the song ¨bye, bye love¨ and how we used to dance around the family room table to all our good music.) p.s. mom i can´t wait for aerobics. p.s. everyone else - in the sills family, two things are pretty important (among others)... that would have to be music and exercise.
anyways, on to more important matter. today was looking up for me. doctor says my eye is almost better, so i´m going back on the strong meds (you know, the ones they give aids patients, no biggie) to conquer it once and for all. oh i hope it works cuz i´m gonna be feeling real weak for the next few days on two doses of darcortin, a little white pill that makes ya crazy (maybe i´m crazy without it too, but whatever). my bumps are back and better than ever in various places. it´s really fun because they like to form close to one another. i used to have red bump bracelets and those went away and now i have a really cool armband of red bumps around my elbow area. not to mention the really cool ones that decorate my fingers. forget jewelry, just get bitten by spanish bugs, tell your immune system to react poorly, and you will have your very own built-in jewelry collection at your disposal!
anyhow, i got a huge box of chocolates from the fam, a gift for valentines day. i´m celebrating a bit late, but late is better than never when it comes to chocolates. thanks guys! now i have about 3 pounds of chocolate to eat and i look forward to gaining those pounds and then pouting at my stomach each night.
today was a day. i went to school, my classes were pretty interesting, i did some homework, but mostly just procrastinated like always. i´m really good at that... but then again, i guess it´s easy to be good at and everyone else is pretty good at it too.
amaia is home with her bf cuz she´s sick but i´m not spending time with them cuz i´m waiting on mom and sis to come on skype and talk to me. (where are you guys!!?) oh, there you are. mom is finally on. (at 1:20 am for me, how convenient!)
i decided it´s the time to splurge on some kinda really awesome piece of clothing, i just don´t know what it is yet. i´m saving about hundreds of dollars by going to girona and figueres (and not portugal which was originally the plan, but backfired cuz it´s too stressful to plan a trip to another country last minute with finals coming up the week i return) this weekend, so i´m buying a freakin tunic shirt or something to make up for it.
i have 12 days left here, and i´m kinda sad, but not really. ok i´m sad. but really, i´m excited to be back home. i´m kinda hoping everything will just magically be perfect when i´m home. for instance, my built-in jewelry will disappear, the vision in my left eye will suddenly be perfect, my split ends will go away (that might actually happen cuz i have a haircut appointment), i will understand exactly what i want to do with my life, i will lose my bread weight (it has to be bread weight... 2 loaves of white bread a day just isn´t healthy... but it is necessary cuz i´ll soon return to the u.s. and packaged bread forever), and so on and so forth. doubt all that´s gonna happen, but a girl can dream right?
i´m spoiled.
moving on.
i think it´s time for sleepy time cuz mommy isn´t answering the skype call and i need to wake up bright and early so i can do some more lovely homework... reading and translating baby.
dear nana and papa, i got your letter! thanks :) i loved it. i am going to respond by blog because i´m not sure if the whole email thing is working out for you and by the time a letter gets to you, it will be june already (and i´ll be home). so everybody, look forward to a special grandparents blog in the near future where all questions will be answered.
ahhhhh i´m feeling antsy and not ready to go to sleep. must be too much chocolate.
is it weird that this blog has chocolate laced though it all over? i feel like i have a phrase about it between every paragraph, and that´s bordering on obsession maybe. someone, is there a cure to this disease they call chocoholism? do i really have to completely eliminate it from my diet, or is that just for alcoholism? i sure hope the two scenarios are different because i know i could live without alcohol, but i´m not quite sure if i could live without chocolate. not that i have a problem with alcohol, if that´s what it sounded like. cuz i don´t.
ok, this blog is pointless and really needs to end now. goodbye my loves.
(p.s. dad and nicole - that reminds me of the song ¨bye, bye love¨ and how we used to dance around the family room table to all our good music.) p.s. mom i can´t wait for aerobics. p.s. everyone else - in the sills family, two things are pretty important (among others)... that would have to be music and exercise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)