So I got kicked in the balls today. Great news, I know, but I also am not the first WashU student to endure that sort of pain, and Eric had it worse by far. Regardless, I will attempt to buy a cup before my next forray into sparring.
Aside from that, things have been going well. The weather got much better this weekend then it had been previously, and it looks like it will stay that way for the foreseeable future (ie, this week). This makes me excited both to take more walks/runs in Parque Retiro and to explore for the first time la Casa de Campo, the larger (albeit less exciting, or so I hear) park in Madrid. I have had an unusual amount of free time, at least, for a WashU student, and that has been reflected in a) my time spent outside of the house and b) time spent exercising. Given that my independent research project has started up, I may not have as much as I have had in the last few weeks. We shall see.
Also on the plans for this week is to finally get a fix for my inner geek. The Star Wars Exhibition is in Madrid, closing this weekend, and I should be going tomorrow to check it out. I´m excited. I have made many new friends here, but there has been an upsetting lack of geekiness in my life as of late. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the fact that I was writing a DnD book with some friends when I got the most stereotypical response: They said "really..." and glanced at me with those eyes that say "how could you be doing something that dumb/geeky/waste your time." We proceeded to have a mini-debate about whether or not games or drugs sucked more of people´s lives away. This has been the only two sided discussion I have had with someone about some sort of fantasy topic (other than me sharing my geeky knowledge with people mildly interested when I can´t contain myself), and that is depressing. Hopefully the exhibition will help me out. I must say, I´m excited to receive Jedi Training...
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Today´s Topics: Independent Research, Kick Boxing, and More Food!
My long overdue blogpost will begin with an update of my more academic progress. As some of you may know, I am currently a Mellon Fellow studying poverty in the Appalachian Mountains. In order to keep that up, I have decided to opt out of taking a fifth class here and instead am continuing with that project by doing independent research here as well. I will be comparing it to some Spanish region (to be determined) and will be writing a twenty page paper in Spanish about the topic. Exciting. However, that isn´t important. What is important however is the fact that I had my first meeting with my mentor today.
The meeting became a reflection of cultural differences between the US and Spain. A meeting with a professor in the US, in my experience, is rather businesslike. You walk in, talk about whatever work you came to ask about, be it homework, an academic question sprung from class, or whatever. Then you leave, with little to no small talk. I have been specifically warned not to talk about my personal life with professors by grad students (who, presumably, have personal experience). While I did not share any personal details of my love life with my mentor, we met for about an hour, and for half of the time we just chatted, about, well, nothing really. He asked how I liked Spain, and I asked how he liked America. He talked about studying in the states and meeting his wife in Wisconsin (who now lives here, presumably). We talked about where I lived and the adjustment to the Spanish eating schedule, and by the end of our conversation I had been invited to his family´s country house to the northwest of Madrid. It was a cool experience, and I´m not sure how serious the invitation was (though it sounded serious), but it was definitely a noteworthy difference between here and the US.
Many of you know this also, but it´s worth mentioning in the blog. I have began taking kickboxing here early in the semester. WashU is paying for the intruction fee, though I am paying for my own equipment, and it´s actually a lot of fun. There are 10-20 people in attendance on any given day, and most of what we have done thus far is technique. Jabs, uppercuts, hooks, kicks. At first it was pretty intimidating. Here I was walking up to a bunch of built Spanish guys with their hands wrapped as if they were going to emulate Street Fighter, not really knowing the language, horribly out of shape, and without recognizing a single face. As the weeks went on, however, it has been quite fun, and I´m starting to actually get in shape (gasp). We´ll see how that works out by the end of the semester.
Counter-balancing the getting in shape aspect of my life, however, is the food. As I might have said in a previous post, the food here is delicious. However, I have erred before when I said the food was healthy. A more accurate simile would be to say that it is like weather in the midwest; it can´t really decide. Some days it´s very healthy. For example, earlier this week we had a vegetable puree, a salad, some fish, and microwaved potatoes. Very healthy, very balanced. However, last night, what I had for dinner was a soup consisting of chicken broth and noodles, croquettes (deep fried), and ham and cheese sandwiches (deep fried [no joke]). Carb city anyone? That said, my family also loves to give me more and more food, and (just like at home) I have readily accepted the position of garbage can. It doesn´t help that everyone else in the house is on some sort of diet, so any excess of food is immediately given to me to finish off. Oh well. Hopefully my new found love for kick boxing and exercise will balance everything out, and I´ll end up in exactly the same place when I get back...
Anyway, those are some of the more mundane things going on. More (perhaps more exciting) things to come shortly.
The meeting became a reflection of cultural differences between the US and Spain. A meeting with a professor in the US, in my experience, is rather businesslike. You walk in, talk about whatever work you came to ask about, be it homework, an academic question sprung from class, or whatever. Then you leave, with little to no small talk. I have been specifically warned not to talk about my personal life with professors by grad students (who, presumably, have personal experience). While I did not share any personal details of my love life with my mentor, we met for about an hour, and for half of the time we just chatted, about, well, nothing really. He asked how I liked Spain, and I asked how he liked America. He talked about studying in the states and meeting his wife in Wisconsin (who now lives here, presumably). We talked about where I lived and the adjustment to the Spanish eating schedule, and by the end of our conversation I had been invited to his family´s country house to the northwest of Madrid. It was a cool experience, and I´m not sure how serious the invitation was (though it sounded serious), but it was definitely a noteworthy difference between here and the US.
Many of you know this also, but it´s worth mentioning in the blog. I have began taking kickboxing here early in the semester. WashU is paying for the intruction fee, though I am paying for my own equipment, and it´s actually a lot of fun. There are 10-20 people in attendance on any given day, and most of what we have done thus far is technique. Jabs, uppercuts, hooks, kicks. At first it was pretty intimidating. Here I was walking up to a bunch of built Spanish guys with their hands wrapped as if they were going to emulate Street Fighter, not really knowing the language, horribly out of shape, and without recognizing a single face. As the weeks went on, however, it has been quite fun, and I´m starting to actually get in shape (gasp). We´ll see how that works out by the end of the semester.
Counter-balancing the getting in shape aspect of my life, however, is the food. As I might have said in a previous post, the food here is delicious. However, I have erred before when I said the food was healthy. A more accurate simile would be to say that it is like weather in the midwest; it can´t really decide. Some days it´s very healthy. For example, earlier this week we had a vegetable puree, a salad, some fish, and microwaved potatoes. Very healthy, very balanced. However, last night, what I had for dinner was a soup consisting of chicken broth and noodles, croquettes (deep fried), and ham and cheese sandwiches (deep fried [no joke]). Carb city anyone? That said, my family also loves to give me more and more food, and (just like at home) I have readily accepted the position of garbage can. It doesn´t help that everyone else in the house is on some sort of diet, so any excess of food is immediately given to me to finish off. Oh well. Hopefully my new found love for kick boxing and exercise will balance everything out, and I´ll end up in exactly the same place when I get back...
Anyway, those are some of the more mundane things going on. More (perhaps more exciting) things to come shortly.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Finally, I have WiFi
But only on Thursdays. Sadly. Anyway, here is a post long overdue. Enjoy!
2/4/09
Today I was inspired to blog. Yes, inspired. And what inspired me, you ask? Was it some beautiful sculpture or piece of art? No. Was it the pain of classes, or some intriguing intellectual question? No. Did I get mugged, and need to let everyone at home know that I’m all right now, though with several bruises? No. Well then, Tim, what the hell was it?!
Cheese.
Yes you heard me. Cheese. For the first time over the course of my time in Spain, I have actually been surprise by food. Others on the trip were surprised (and some, appalled) long before. In our paella, a shrimp was served whole, with the head still on, unnerving a few members of our company (I just finished reading LotR again, pardon the strange language). But I have seen that for years, both at home and at restaurants. Did the sight of a piglet dead but whole at the butcher’s shop phase me? Nope. Once you’ve seen cow penis frozen and sold at a supermarket, any sort of meat will fail to surprise (I swear, you could play baseball with one of those things).
No, what got me was cheese. We had just finished our traditional ginormous (spelling, anyone?) meal, and I was waiting on dessert, when my señora asked me if I would be willing to try cheese. Sure, I said, I love cheese. What she brings out was a piece of cheese, clearly prepackaged and in the shape of a flan. Fair enough. But what got me was that they used to putting fruit jam on top. Jam! Nothing in American, Southern, or Asian Cuisine prepared me for this strange culinary combination. Once over my surprise, I tried it, and (as expected) loved it. And that was one of two culinary delights of the week, the other of which I’ll get to some other post.
Clearly this is probably more exciting for me than to you, and it is highly ironic that I spent more time describing my encounter with a piece of cheese and jam than any single experience with a cultural icon since my arrival. But, it cannot be helped. That said, it is time to back track a little bit and describe a little of Granada for you, so we can eventually catch back up to the present.
I (as well as most of the others, I believe), fell in love with Barcelona, and was not quite so impressed with Granada. However, it did have it’s perks, and it’s one really awesome site, which is worth the trip should you ever come to Spain: the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a palace/fortress that was built by the Moors during their long time in Spain. It sits on the top of a small, green mountain overlooking the city. Behind it are snow capped peaks, the combination of which makes it look like something out of a fantasy novel. Walking through the halls and imagining what it was like in its hay day put me in the mind to write more fiction, though I have yet to begin.
What makes the sight even better is the Plaza of Saint Nicholas, which is located on a mountain directly opposite the palace. I went there twice: once during the day, and once for the sunset. Gorgeous. With good reason Bill Clinton once called it the most beautiful sunset in the world (funny story and side note: the authorities put up a plaque that said “Bill Clinton was here.” By the next day, there was graffiti next to it saying “and so was I” and “me too.” The plaque itself didn’t last the night before being smashed).
Well, I’ll let you go with that. I saw free flamenco too, which was awesome, and got free tapas with drinks at various bars, a must if you go to Granada. And I turned 21, as roughly 50 people noted via Facebook (all of whom I still have to reply to). Well, time for me to sleep, and/or watch the equivalent of Fox News with my host family. ¡Adios!
2/4/09
Today I was inspired to blog. Yes, inspired. And what inspired me, you ask? Was it some beautiful sculpture or piece of art? No. Was it the pain of classes, or some intriguing intellectual question? No. Did I get mugged, and need to let everyone at home know that I’m all right now, though with several bruises? No. Well then, Tim, what the hell was it?!
Cheese.
Yes you heard me. Cheese. For the first time over the course of my time in Spain, I have actually been surprise by food. Others on the trip were surprised (and some, appalled) long before. In our paella, a shrimp was served whole, with the head still on, unnerving a few members of our company (I just finished reading LotR again, pardon the strange language). But I have seen that for years, both at home and at restaurants. Did the sight of a piglet dead but whole at the butcher’s shop phase me? Nope. Once you’ve seen cow penis frozen and sold at a supermarket, any sort of meat will fail to surprise (I swear, you could play baseball with one of those things).
No, what got me was cheese. We had just finished our traditional ginormous (spelling, anyone?) meal, and I was waiting on dessert, when my señora asked me if I would be willing to try cheese. Sure, I said, I love cheese. What she brings out was a piece of cheese, clearly prepackaged and in the shape of a flan. Fair enough. But what got me was that they used to putting fruit jam on top. Jam! Nothing in American, Southern, or Asian Cuisine prepared me for this strange culinary combination. Once over my surprise, I tried it, and (as expected) loved it. And that was one of two culinary delights of the week, the other of which I’ll get to some other post.
Clearly this is probably more exciting for me than to you, and it is highly ironic that I spent more time describing my encounter with a piece of cheese and jam than any single experience with a cultural icon since my arrival. But, it cannot be helped. That said, it is time to back track a little bit and describe a little of Granada for you, so we can eventually catch back up to the present.
I (as well as most of the others, I believe), fell in love with Barcelona, and was not quite so impressed with Granada. However, it did have it’s perks, and it’s one really awesome site, which is worth the trip should you ever come to Spain: the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a palace/fortress that was built by the Moors during their long time in Spain. It sits on the top of a small, green mountain overlooking the city. Behind it are snow capped peaks, the combination of which makes it look like something out of a fantasy novel. Walking through the halls and imagining what it was like in its hay day put me in the mind to write more fiction, though I have yet to begin.
What makes the sight even better is the Plaza of Saint Nicholas, which is located on a mountain directly opposite the palace. I went there twice: once during the day, and once for the sunset. Gorgeous. With good reason Bill Clinton once called it the most beautiful sunset in the world (funny story and side note: the authorities put up a plaque that said “Bill Clinton was here.” By the next day, there was graffiti next to it saying “and so was I” and “me too.” The plaque itself didn’t last the night before being smashed).
Well, I’ll let you go with that. I saw free flamenco too, which was awesome, and got free tapas with drinks at various bars, a must if you go to Granada. And I turned 21, as roughly 50 people noted via Facebook (all of whom I still have to reply to). Well, time for me to sleep, and/or watch the equivalent of Fox News with my host family. ¡Adios!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Repeat that one more time, and slower please...
Hmm, just got out of my first "regular" class (aka for natives) and I hope that I can get a decent grade in the class. Really. It´s called "Social Politics and the Welfare State." For those of you who know me, that´s a great class for me and my interests. However, the fact that it´s a regular class was not quite so forgiving. The professor walked in, put up a slide, made a joke about having to come in early (9 o´clock class with a 45 minute commute is a bitch, especially when dinner is at 10), and proceeded to talk. Fast. And quietly. The following is a brief description of a portion of the lecture.
"One of the important parts of what we´ll be studying in the first section of this class is the powers of the state. There are three basic concepts that we will look at surrounding the state. The first is..."
*someone coughs
"...the third is..."
Shit, wait, what were the first two? Damn it, now I just missed the third...
Luckily for me, the slides were provided for me after the class, and (due to sheer coincidence) I found an American partner for the joint project we have to do. Unfortuneately for me, due to my broken Spanish and the inability to understand my professor, he now thinks I´m the dumbest person in his class. Sweet. Exacerbating this problem is the fact that this is not, in reality, the first day of class. Everything started last week. However, I found the room number through a link on the translated, English portion of the university´s website. The room number that link gave me was wrong. So I missed the first week of class before realizing my mistake, and am very behind on understanding what I need to do for class.
*sigh*
On the bright side, of the two hours I spent in class, he only spent roughly 20 minutes bashing America!
"One of the important parts of what we´ll be studying in the first section of this class is the powers of the state. There are three basic concepts that we will look at surrounding the state. The first is..."
*someone coughs
"...the third is..."
Shit, wait, what were the first two? Damn it, now I just missed the third...
Luckily for me, the slides were provided for me after the class, and (due to sheer coincidence) I found an American partner for the joint project we have to do. Unfortuneately for me, due to my broken Spanish and the inability to understand my professor, he now thinks I´m the dumbest person in his class. Sweet. Exacerbating this problem is the fact that this is not, in reality, the first day of class. Everything started last week. However, I found the room number through a link on the translated, English portion of the university´s website. The room number that link gave me was wrong. So I missed the first week of class before realizing my mistake, and am very behind on understanding what I need to do for class.
*sigh*
On the bright side, of the two hours I spent in class, he only spent roughly 20 minutes bashing America!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Well...
So, my computer is having some issues. Aka it is refusing to read flash drives (I think). Therefore my previously written post on the Alhambra, Granada, and cheese will have to wait until a later date. Oh well.
I am currently sitting in a computer lab at Carlos III, the university at which I will be studying for awhile. My schedule is basically set; I just have to make sure that I can count the regular class that I want to take for credit in the poli sci department back home. I´m pretty pumped to take almost all of my classes, which is good, and also the first for a while. I will be taking: The Art of the Short Story (see, Fiction Writing), Spanish Language, Spanish Culture, The Politics of the Welfare State, and an independent study (aka branching off of my Mellon Project). It´s looking to be an interesting semester, especially if you include fencing, kickboxing, and whatever else I decide to do in my free time. I´m certain I´ll let you know about the more interesting things, and possibly some of the mundane things in a more interesting way (I hope). For example:
Yesterday I went to Mass in the park (yes, church). There was a procession beforehand honoring San Blas where they carried a ceramic statue of him surrounded by flowers down the street (in a box with carrying sticks?) from the church to the park where we had Mass. It initially promised to be an interesting procession for me, but boring for the average American student, when I discovered something interesting. For the people of this church, this walk was probably sacred at one point, but it seemed like the city of Madrid could have cared less. At one point, they set him down to look at the building he (presumably) used to live in. However, the way they set him down made it look like instead he was blessing the neighboring Doner Kebab (think gyroesque fast food restaurant; they´re EVERYWHERE). In addition to having blessed one of my favorite foods, Saint Blas proceeded to pass the biggest sex shop I had yet seen in Spain thus far. Perhaps he should have taken the time to stop there instead of making me feel better about eating what is possibly the best tasting health threat in Europe. After these adventures, we then proceeded to Parque del Retiro where I found out after mass the San Blas is the patron saint of throat problems (who knew?) and they would be passing out bread afterwards that would keep you from having any throat sickness for a whole year. All in all, a pretty productive morning I would say.
The rest of my time here has been spent pretty uneventfully. Classes are just getting underway, and already I have learned more about common problems of American Spanish speakers than I´ve learned in all my time taking Spanish in high school or WashU. Well, that´s what studying in another country will do for you I guess. Next things to do: Find a fencing club, start the kick boxing class, make Spanish friends. Check.
I am currently sitting in a computer lab at Carlos III, the university at which I will be studying for awhile. My schedule is basically set; I just have to make sure that I can count the regular class that I want to take for credit in the poli sci department back home. I´m pretty pumped to take almost all of my classes, which is good, and also the first for a while. I will be taking: The Art of the Short Story (see, Fiction Writing), Spanish Language, Spanish Culture, The Politics of the Welfare State, and an independent study (aka branching off of my Mellon Project). It´s looking to be an interesting semester, especially if you include fencing, kickboxing, and whatever else I decide to do in my free time. I´m certain I´ll let you know about the more interesting things, and possibly some of the mundane things in a more interesting way (I hope). For example:
Yesterday I went to Mass in the park (yes, church). There was a procession beforehand honoring San Blas where they carried a ceramic statue of him surrounded by flowers down the street (in a box with carrying sticks?) from the church to the park where we had Mass. It initially promised to be an interesting procession for me, but boring for the average American student, when I discovered something interesting. For the people of this church, this walk was probably sacred at one point, but it seemed like the city of Madrid could have cared less. At one point, they set him down to look at the building he (presumably) used to live in. However, the way they set him down made it look like instead he was blessing the neighboring Doner Kebab (think gyroesque fast food restaurant; they´re EVERYWHERE). In addition to having blessed one of my favorite foods, Saint Blas proceeded to pass the biggest sex shop I had yet seen in Spain thus far. Perhaps he should have taken the time to stop there instead of making me feel better about eating what is possibly the best tasting health threat in Europe. After these adventures, we then proceeded to Parque del Retiro where I found out after mass the San Blas is the patron saint of throat problems (who knew?) and they would be passing out bread afterwards that would keep you from having any throat sickness for a whole year. All in all, a pretty productive morning I would say.
The rest of my time here has been spent pretty uneventfully. Classes are just getting underway, and already I have learned more about common problems of American Spanish speakers than I´ve learned in all my time taking Spanish in high school or WashU. Well, that´s what studying in another country will do for you I guess. Next things to do: Find a fencing club, start the kick boxing class, make Spanish friends. Check.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Feliz Cumpleaños a Mi…
¡Hola Todos!
Well, it’s probably about time to give a more detailed description of what’s been going on out here in España, given that I haven’t written a detailed account since Madrid. Much has happened since then, as you can probably guess from my previous post. I will attempt to pick out the most important/interesting things from the last week to report.
Barcelona is an amazing city. So far I’ve liked it the best. For those of you who don’t know, it is on the eastern shore of Spain on the Mediterranean Sea and is the second largest city in Spain. As mentioned before, it is the home of many famous buildings, artists, and authors. It was relatively recently the site of the Olympics and experienced significantly remodeling since then. I have many pictures of the city, and they are all gorgeous.
The more visited area of the city is divided into two main sections: the old city and the new city. Our residence was a two-minute walk from the beach in Barceloneta, around the old area of the city. It was a pretty nice residence. Each of us (except for one person) had a roommate, with a small bedroom and a decent sized common area. Our school was about an hour and fifteen minute walk from the residence, but you could make it in half an hour if you took the metro. Walking home every day was awesome though, and it took me through the main commercial area of town, which is full of different kinds of shops and bars (the tapas were great). It was walkable unlike any other American city I’ve been to thus far, which was pretty awesome for me.
I’ll limit myself to two of the awesome places I went to in Barcelona. First, the Sangrada Familia. If you haven’t heard of it, the Sagrada Familia is an extremely large cathedral designed by Gaudí in the late 1800s. The catch is (and what makes it amazing to me) is that he wanted it funded only by public donations. What that means is that the building is still not finished. It has been worked on for many years and there are different sections with different styles. This causes some controversy (some people think it looks just like a patchwork of different styles), but I really liked it. If you ever come to Barcelona, you owe yourself a trip.
I also managed to get out to the Dalí and Picasso museums in the area (I know, two in one, I’m a cheater). Both had an amazing inventory of work from both the artists’ histories as well as what they were known for. It was amazing to see the development of their work over time, especially the variance that you don’t get to see when briefly studying an artist in a class. Picasso’s early work is gorgeous, and we got to see some work he did with metals and pottery as well. Dalí, on the other hand, had a ridiculous amount of random types of work. The most interesting to me was the hall of precious stones, where all the work was made out of various expensive types of gemstones (including, but not limited to, a creepy, beating heart).
As of right now I am actually back in Madrid (worst, blogger, ever), but updates about my time here and Granada will have to wait. Until then, I hope all goes well back in the States!
Well, it’s probably about time to give a more detailed description of what’s been going on out here in España, given that I haven’t written a detailed account since Madrid. Much has happened since then, as you can probably guess from my previous post. I will attempt to pick out the most important/interesting things from the last week to report.
Barcelona is an amazing city. So far I’ve liked it the best. For those of you who don’t know, it is on the eastern shore of Spain on the Mediterranean Sea and is the second largest city in Spain. As mentioned before, it is the home of many famous buildings, artists, and authors. It was relatively recently the site of the Olympics and experienced significantly remodeling since then. I have many pictures of the city, and they are all gorgeous.
The more visited area of the city is divided into two main sections: the old city and the new city. Our residence was a two-minute walk from the beach in Barceloneta, around the old area of the city. It was a pretty nice residence. Each of us (except for one person) had a roommate, with a small bedroom and a decent sized common area. Our school was about an hour and fifteen minute walk from the residence, but you could make it in half an hour if you took the metro. Walking home every day was awesome though, and it took me through the main commercial area of town, which is full of different kinds of shops and bars (the tapas were great). It was walkable unlike any other American city I’ve been to thus far, which was pretty awesome for me.
I’ll limit myself to two of the awesome places I went to in Barcelona. First, the Sangrada Familia. If you haven’t heard of it, the Sagrada Familia is an extremely large cathedral designed by Gaudí in the late 1800s. The catch is (and what makes it amazing to me) is that he wanted it funded only by public donations. What that means is that the building is still not finished. It has been worked on for many years and there are different sections with different styles. This causes some controversy (some people think it looks just like a patchwork of different styles), but I really liked it. If you ever come to Barcelona, you owe yourself a trip.
I also managed to get out to the Dalí and Picasso museums in the area (I know, two in one, I’m a cheater). Both had an amazing inventory of work from both the artists’ histories as well as what they were known for. It was amazing to see the development of their work over time, especially the variance that you don’t get to see when briefly studying an artist in a class. Picasso’s early work is gorgeous, and we got to see some work he did with metals and pottery as well. Dalí, on the other hand, had a ridiculous amount of random types of work. The most interesting to me was the hall of precious stones, where all the work was made out of various expensive types of gemstones (including, but not limited to, a creepy, beating heart).
As of right now I am actually back in Madrid (worst, blogger, ever), but updates about my time here and Granada will have to wait. Until then, I hope all goes well back in the States!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Barcelona
Ahora estoy en Barcelona. And I am having a difficult time switching between English and Spanish. But we´ll see how posting today goes.
Everything´s been really busy since we made it here by train on Sunday. Every morning I´ve gotten up to do something, then gone to class, then walked an hour back to the residence for dinner, then sometimes went out or did something with people (depending on the night). Here is the list of things I´ve seen here. I´ll probably miss a few.
1. La Sagrada Familia
2. The Museum for Pablo Picasso
3. The Museum for Salvador Dalí
4. Cuatro Gatos (the cafe where Picasso once hung out)
5. The Museum for the Contemporary Art of Cateluña
6. Montjüic
7. Güell Park
8. The Church of Santa María del Mar
9. Girona
Lots o´stuff. Anyways, you can look up the facts of any of the places above, if you really want to. For now, all I have time to tell you is that Barcelona is gorgeous, Dalí was nuts (but brilliant), and that the sunrise tomorrow morning better be worth waking up for. Adios!
Everything´s been really busy since we made it here by train on Sunday. Every morning I´ve gotten up to do something, then gone to class, then walked an hour back to the residence for dinner, then sometimes went out or did something with people (depending on the night). Here is the list of things I´ve seen here. I´ll probably miss a few.
1. La Sagrada Familia
2. The Museum for Pablo Picasso
3. The Museum for Salvador Dalí
4. Cuatro Gatos (the cafe where Picasso once hung out)
5. The Museum for the Contemporary Art of Cateluña
6. Montjüic
7. Güell Park
8. The Church of Santa María del Mar
9. Girona
Lots o´stuff. Anyways, you can look up the facts of any of the places above, if you really want to. For now, all I have time to tell you is that Barcelona is gorgeous, Dalí was nuts (but brilliant), and that the sunrise tomorrow morning better be worth waking up for. Adios!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
New things and things I forgot
Well I just got back from a three hour walk around Madrid with Robin. We first simply tried to get used to the area we´re living in, and then took a long walk through El Parque de Madrid. The park is pretty big, and despite the fact that it´s not quite as big as Forrest Park I like it more. First of all, there isn´t a golf course, and second, it just feels more... natural in a way. There is a pretty big pond/lake in the middle where we sat for awhile and watched the sunset with some guys playing drums in the background. I am attempting to take some fun pictures while I am here, and I plan to return on my own at some point with just myself and a camera and see what happens. That was basically the day today, with other random things like seeing Winnie the Pooh on the street and all the artistic cows (for those of you from Chicago, yes, the same ones).
In other news, after going to the bar last night, four people decided to go clubbing afterwards and I decided to come along. What I didn´t realize was that this excursion would keep us out until 7:30 in the morning. I had fun for most of the time, when I wasn´t tearing up from the cigarette smoke. It was amusing to watch the Spanish guys keep coming over to try and pick up the American girls. Some of them had more success than others, and at least one clearly did not understand the word no (it´s the same in Spanish and English, so no excuses). Despite that, we had a good time. Afterwards, we went to a little cafe in Sol that is open for 24 hrs a day and serves only churros and melted chocolate, which was excellent. If any of you visit Spain, I highly recommend it. It puts the churros in the High School cafeteria to shame (not hard to do I admit, but it´s my only point of reference).
All right, it´s time to go pack for tomorrow´s train ride to Barcelona. More updates to come afterwards.
In other news, after going to the bar last night, four people decided to go clubbing afterwards and I decided to come along. What I didn´t realize was that this excursion would keep us out until 7:30 in the morning. I had fun for most of the time, when I wasn´t tearing up from the cigarette smoke. It was amusing to watch the Spanish guys keep coming over to try and pick up the American girls. Some of them had more success than others, and at least one clearly did not understand the word no (it´s the same in Spanish and English, so no excuses). Despite that, we had a good time. Afterwards, we went to a little cafe in Sol that is open for 24 hrs a day and serves only churros and melted chocolate, which was excellent. If any of you visit Spain, I highly recommend it. It puts the churros in the High School cafeteria to shame (not hard to do I admit, but it´s my only point of reference).
All right, it´s time to go pack for tomorrow´s train ride to Barcelona. More updates to come afterwards.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Well, Here We Are
Hello everyone!
Well, I´m finally here, in Madrid Spain, living with a family by myself... Exciting! Actually, to be truthful, four people from WashU are living in the same building as me, but I am the only person living with this particular family. I arrived yesterday (Thursday) at around 3 pm local time, with little difficulty. My fencing equipment didn´t show up on time, much to my chagrin, but it has since arrived, and I am excited to start fencing when we get back from Barcelona and Granada. After getting the rest of my luggage, the other WashU people on the plane and I looked for Romiro (our WashU guide/teacher), who drove us to our respective houses. I met the Suarez´s, who I will be staying with for the next several months. They are very nice people, and the food thus far has been excellent (and healthy, gasp!). I had dinner, went and got pictures for my metro pass, and went to bed.
Today myself and the other students went to a short orientation session by Romiro about our WashU course and then went home for lunch. This afternoon he gave us a guided tour of ¨Sol,¨ the central plaza of Spain, which is similar (I suppose) to Times Square, except much older and with a lot more history. He showed us where the different types of shops are and gave us some basic information about certain slang words we would not be aware of (all of which I have forgotten, being the kind of person I am). Right now, I am sitting in an internet cafe typing to you all because we don´t have internet access in my apartment. Tonight some of us are planning to go to a bar in town somewhere that one of the guys that has been here before knows of. Tomorrow is free (plans TBD) and on Sunday we leave for Barcelona for a language intensive (which I desperately need).
It has been interesting getting to used to things here. The first thing I noticed is the size difference of just about everything. The cars, the shops, the elevators, the beds (unfortunately for me), among other things, are all smaller. Other small things are also difficult to get used to. For example, you have to open the door to the metro yourself, something Robin Meyer and I discovered when we almost missed our stop. The metro trains come in the opposite direction than I am used to, although the cars drive on the right side of the street, which in combination I find strange (explanation anyone?). Final on my list (although clearly not describing all of it) is a more present concern: typing. Below is the list of all the things not on our typical keyboard.
¿¡Çªº¬€
More frustrating, however, is the following list of things that are not in the normal place I am used to.
()/?;:{}][#@\/
It´s just a tad bizarre, and it took me about a minute to figure out how to type brackets (there is a separate button for a third option on the key which I was not aware of). However, given all these oh so complicated difficulties, I am very excited about my time here. I can´t imagine spending the whole five months and starting to become comfortable and adopt this culture, but clearly it will happen by the time I leave in June. I hope everything is going well at home, and I wish you all the best!
Well, I´m finally here, in Madrid Spain, living with a family by myself... Exciting! Actually, to be truthful, four people from WashU are living in the same building as me, but I am the only person living with this particular family. I arrived yesterday (Thursday) at around 3 pm local time, with little difficulty. My fencing equipment didn´t show up on time, much to my chagrin, but it has since arrived, and I am excited to start fencing when we get back from Barcelona and Granada. After getting the rest of my luggage, the other WashU people on the plane and I looked for Romiro (our WashU guide/teacher), who drove us to our respective houses. I met the Suarez´s, who I will be staying with for the next several months. They are very nice people, and the food thus far has been excellent (and healthy, gasp!). I had dinner, went and got pictures for my metro pass, and went to bed.
Today myself and the other students went to a short orientation session by Romiro about our WashU course and then went home for lunch. This afternoon he gave us a guided tour of ¨Sol,¨ the central plaza of Spain, which is similar (I suppose) to Times Square, except much older and with a lot more history. He showed us where the different types of shops are and gave us some basic information about certain slang words we would not be aware of (all of which I have forgotten, being the kind of person I am). Right now, I am sitting in an internet cafe typing to you all because we don´t have internet access in my apartment. Tonight some of us are planning to go to a bar in town somewhere that one of the guys that has been here before knows of. Tomorrow is free (plans TBD) and on Sunday we leave for Barcelona for a language intensive (which I desperately need).
It has been interesting getting to used to things here. The first thing I noticed is the size difference of just about everything. The cars, the shops, the elevators, the beds (unfortunately for me), among other things, are all smaller. Other small things are also difficult to get used to. For example, you have to open the door to the metro yourself, something Robin Meyer and I discovered when we almost missed our stop. The metro trains come in the opposite direction than I am used to, although the cars drive on the right side of the street, which in combination I find strange (explanation anyone?). Final on my list (although clearly not describing all of it) is a more present concern: typing. Below is the list of all the things not on our typical keyboard.
¿¡Çªº¬€
More frustrating, however, is the following list of things that are not in the normal place I am used to.
()/?;:{}][#@\/
It´s just a tad bizarre, and it took me about a minute to figure out how to type brackets (there is a separate button for a third option on the key which I was not aware of). However, given all these oh so complicated difficulties, I am very excited about my time here. I can´t imagine spending the whole five months and starting to become comfortable and adopt this culture, but clearly it will happen by the time I leave in June. I hope everything is going well at home, and I wish you all the best!
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