From Thanksgiving to Christmas time was filled with many trips to the bars and goodbye parties as many of the erasmus (exchange students) were only staying a semester. It was very sad so see so many of my friends go, I had become very close with many of them in such a short time and they have imprinted on my heart. It is crazy how close the erasmus family seems to be. It really feels like an actual family that we have here and I am constantly learning something new about my "family" and the different cultures.
My trip back to the US was a nice 3 week refresher. I got to eat at almost all my favorite restaurants and seeing all my family and friends was really nice. It was cool to be home for a while but after about 2 weeks I was ready to be going back to Spain. There was just a lot of drama back home that was just annoying and frustrating to deal with. Some of my friends had changed and not for the better. It kinda sucked to be gone for 4 months and come back and people that you thought were your close friends had completely changed and let their priorities get out of line, almost like you don't have things in common any more. This made me sad and worried what it was going to be like when I came back home for good. Would the changes about myself and the people back home clash so much that we wouldn't have things in common anymore. Well I guess we will just have to wait and see. No use worrying over something I can't control :D
When I came back to Spain I must have caught something in between Dallas and Madrid because by the time I arrived in Murcia I was deathly sick! For about 3 days I didn't leave the house and had no appetite! It was the absolute worst! I also developed a double ear infection in this week and ended up having to go to the doctor and get antibiotics for a week which was a God sent because they made me feel a million jillion times better!! This sickness also could not have come at a worse time because I had final exams in a week.
My exams were not so bad, I studied my butt off for a week and a half and I think I did pretty good. However, I wont know my grades for a while because let's face it, it's Spain and they take forever and a day to do anything lol Hopefully (keeping my fingers crossed) that I did well!
Yes I realize it has been forever and a day since I have updated my blog but things got really crazy between the holidays and going back and forth from Spain the states and back to Spain again and then my finals so I will do a couple seperate blogs in order for them not to be a mile long.
This first blog will be about Thanksgiving in Spain. Team America (aka the American exchange students) decided to put together a big thanksgiving dinner so we would not be lonely and missing our families this holiday. Ironically, the Turkey day was held at our Italian friend's apartment because they had the most room. All of the americans searched high and low for the typical food of an American Thanksgiving. My roommate Paige and I went all out and made cheesey potatoes, macaroni and cheese, oreo balls, and wine. Along with our food there was turkey (there was only one shop in all of Spain that sold Turkeys and you had to take all of the guts out yourself! ickky!), apple and pumpking pie, bread, stuffing, and various pastas from the Italians. All in all it was a pretty sucessful Thanksgiving :) I even streamed the Macy's Day Parade :D
So I have finally received an email from my tutor here to meet with him and become officially signed up for my classes! It has only taken oh about 3 weeks for them to assign me a tutor and for him to respond to my email. The more I think about it, the less promising it is that he will actually be here to help me. He has been out of the country in Argentina for like 2 weeks so I guess we will just have to see how this process goes.
Other than him not responding to me for FOREVER! School has progressively gotten better thank the Lord! Although, I did pull the pity me im an erasmus (the exchanged group) student card yesterday. My professors speak way to fast and their accents are ridiculous so I do not feel bad about it, because hey I need to pass and if I can talk some boy into giving me the notes for class well then hell yes im doing it ha!!
So this weekend Paige and I are hosting an American style party for the erasmus students that have never been to one. It will be equipped with beer pong, tippy cup, card games, and of course American music. Although, the music played here in the clubs is already American... oh well. The theme is going to be Welcome to the Jungle. I am very excited for this because I have missed American parties very much lately!
These next few weeks are going to be very hectic. Next week I am going to Madrid, the following week is Thanksgiving and a day trip to Alicante. December Paige and I will be city hopping through Spain since there is like a weekish off classes due to Holidays and then like a week later I will be coming home for Christmas. It's crazy how fast time goes.
Also, sorry if things are spelled wrong, I no longer have spellcheck for English on here and my English is getting worse the longer im here ha.
So it has been a long time since I have written. I guess I have just been super busy in the wonderful world od España. The past two weeks have been full of ups and downs. First the good things that have happened. Well my spanish has gotten so much better. I can understand almost everything that native people say to me. However, when people have really thick Murcian accents (Murcia has the hardest accent to understand). I have now seen 3 movies in Spain and they are obviously in Spanish with no subtitles and I have progressively laughed harder and enjoyed the movies better because I can fully understand what is going on. Even though its easy to read body language to know whats going on, being able to understand what they say makes the movies SO much better ha.
Another awesome thing that happened in these past two weeks is we celebrated Halloween. Now, Halloween in Spain is a tad bit different than in the US. In the US people usually dress up as the characters in the latest big movie or celebrities, actually just funny things in general. Here, it is so different. Everybody dresses up as a dead (insert random thing here). There were lots of vampires and zombie looking people. Just a totally different take on the holiday. Well it is also very new here, it just started getting popular about 5 years ago. I did see a few trick or treaters though which made me happy!
On to the bad that has happened these past 2 weeks. Well I have gotten homesick a lot lately. I don't know if it is just because I am stressed out about school and still not being registered because the political science department likes to take their dear sweet time on EVERYTHING!!! Sometimes I really wish it wasn´t so expensive to fly home because going home for a weekend would be really nice I think. Another thing that went wrong is my hard drive in my computer crashed on Monday. That was like icing on the cake after my bad week at school. So, I had to go out and buy a €350 netbook, which deffinitely put a dent into my money budget but in the end it was also nice because now I have a spanish keyboard to write all my papers in for classes and my computer is small enough now that I can take it to class if I wanted to. So I guess I will just have to look at the bright side of that.
All in all, Spain has been treating me well. I have fallen head over heals with the city. The longer i'm here the more i'm tempted to make me stay in Spain permanent... I don't know when or if that will ever happen because I am deffinitely going to finish my degree at NWU and well who knows after that I might come back and teach English to Spanish kids for a while before I go to law school.
It's crazy that in 6 weeks I will be going back to the US for Christmas and then I only have 6 months left in this country. I really hate thinking about that because I love my life here. I love meeting people from lots of different countries, I love the culture, the food, the atmosphere in general. My only complaint about Spain is the school system and how disorganized it is. Besides that, I could really see myself living here for at least a while. I know that is not what all you people back home want to heat, esp my parents.
I was an independent girl before I left for Spain and being about 99% completely on my own for the past 2 months has made me such a stronger person. I feel like I can take on almost anything. I have been through rough times and gotten through them. I feel like everyone should have this experience. Getting completely out of your comfort zone and doing things for yourself. It sucks at first, trust me I know, but in the end you become so proud of yourself for accomplishing so much. There is so much out there to discover and I am loving every minute of finding myself here and just like the title of my blog I am discovering new oceans =)
So this past weekend I went on my first trip outside of Spain to Milan, Italy. I had the most amazing time in Italy. Everything was beautiful, the architecture, the food, the men ;) We got into Milan around 3 in the afternoon but then had to take an hour bus ride from the airport to the city center. As soon as I stepped off the bus I fell in love with the the city and the language! I found myself listening to random stranger's conversations because I loved the way it sounded!! Needless to say, my next language that i'm going to learn is Italian.
Our first day in Italy was pretty much spent walking through the city slowly making our way to our hostel at the opposite end of the bus station ha. I didn't mind though because I loved being able to walk through the city and take lots of pictures =D Once arriving to our hostel which was actually really nice from my point of view. They had 24 hour security, a computer lab, a kitchen, and a laundry room. The only bad thing I could say about our hostel was the british girl that threw up in the bathroom from 2-9am and when I went in to take a shower in the morning the entire bathroom reeked of vomit so I did not take a shower that morning, just put on some extra deodorant. Before going out that night to find an awesome Italian restaraunt, we met the most awesome guy in the computer lab. He was born in Germany, raised in Brazil and speaks German, Portuguese, Spanish, and English and he has spent the past 5 or so months backpacking through Europe! He has the most amazing stories and I absolutely loved talking to him. He was such an inspiration for me to follow my dreams and become a world traveler.
We ended up eating at a restuarant that the Brazilian guy had eaten at before and said it was delicious. He was very right! I ordered spaghetti and it was the best damn spaghetti I have ever had! Now, before Europe I was not much of a wine drinker, 1. cause i'm not 21 and 2. it just didn't appeal to me but after Italy I am infatuated with wine for dinner. It makes everything taste so much better and gives it an extra flavor. Of course we ordered dessert, tiramisu which is an amazing chocolate mousse (sp) deliciousness that I could not get enough of, and of course what is Italy with out eating gelato! This was my no carb left behind weekend! I figured i'm only going to be in Italy once might as well take advantage of their amazing dishes!
Our next day in Milan consisted of jam packed sight seeing. Our first stop was the Duomo which is the 2nd oldest church in Italy. It was absolutely gorgeous inside and out! I could not stop taking pictures of it and just staring at it's beauty! Going inside it was free and SO beautiful. I was so moved once in the church, it was breath taking. They had candles just like my church at home that you could light and say a prayer for a small donation of .80 cents. I little a candle and said a special prayer for all my family and friends and especially for my parents who have supported me in everything I do including this amazing trip of a life time!
After the Duomo the plan was to see The Last Supper but when we arrived we were shocked to see that tickets were sold out for the next 2 weeks!! I was really disapointed because I really wanted to be able to see that, but I guess that just means I need to come back:) For the rest of the day we were lucky to have 2 native Italians show us around (Valentina and Giorgio). They were amazing and showed us all the awesome quirks in the town and the best places to eat. I really enjoyed their company and knowledge of the city.
My favorite purchase from Milan was my "leather" boots! I am so excited to look more and more like a European instead of an guiri ( Foreigner).
And we FINALLY got our stipend today so I will be going shopping tomorrow with my roommate Paige. We desperately need some new clothes and shoes because it is actually getting really chilly here, 18 degrees (64F). I know that doesn't sound cold at all to you Nebraskaners but my body is officially used to Spanish weather which will be a rude awakening when I come home for Christmas to lots of snow...
It is kind of weird feeling, I am accustomed to my life here in Spain and I miss everyone but for some reason if I didn't have the chance to get home it wouldn't bother me too much. I guess I am having too much for living my life over here, meeting new people, traveling to amazing places, and just soaking up the culture. However the one part of Spain's culture that I will never get accustomed to is their school system. It sucks so bad!!! I absolutely hate their I don't give a rats a** attitude about due dates. But I guess there is nothing I can do about it.
I am really excited for Halloween in about 2 weeks. I decided that I am going to be Cruella Devil! Although Halloween won't be the same here it will still be fun. Also, my next trip is going to be to Madrid on Nov 18th! I have been bitten by the travel bug and I am so antsy to book flights to places! It truly is an amazing feeling to be able to the what the world has to offer and I am truly blessed to have this experience.
I actually had class this week hoorah! Well all except for one class which is still on standby because the professor is pregnant and they need to find a sub so until then I won't have that class. Which actually makes me really sad because it is International Organizations and I was really looking forward to it! Oh well it will start soon enough. Also, I can't get on to the school's homework sight because I am not officially registered with the classes yet and my ISEP coordinator here is being a buttface and won't return my emails!
Besides Spain's disorganized school system, life has been pretty good here. I am still getting homesick now and then and it gets worse when I skype with people but I guess that's never going to go away. It is such a weird feeling to have your heart in two different places. I absolutely love being here and meeting new people. I mean I am living the dream! I get to see things that some people will never get to see before they die. It's an amazing feeling to be so blessed and be able to have this experience. Then again I go through pictures of family and friends back home and find myself missing them more than ever, it's kind of a bittersweet process.
But enough about that. This week I did a couple of exciting events =) Monday was just a normal day, I had school and then came home and cooked dinner as usual. I'm actually getting really talented at making dinner out of random things. Also, I have mastered making several different pastas with different sauces. I also eat a lot of chicken because beef is wayyy to expensive! Let's just say when I get back to the states I want a giant Nebraska steak! Tuesday's are going to be the longest days of my life! I have class from 3-9 at night with no breaks =(
Thursday night I went to Oktoberfest with my roommates. It was the best thing ever! I have been looking for a good beer to drink because the beer here "Estrella Levante" takes like crap! It is soooo nasty! Well I found my favorite beer of all time it's a German Beer called Paulaner Wheat. It was delicious!
Paulaner Wheat
German Sausages
German Pretzel
So this was the food I ate at Oktoberfest, oh and there were fries but there was nothing special about them. Oh I did have one other reallllly good thing the other day. I ate McDonald's for the first time here and their Mcflurry's are bomb.com!
Best Mcflurry ever!!
Well I was supposed to go to a BMX show on Saturday but it decided to downpour and the arena that it was located has an open top so we didn't end up going =( Hopefully we get our money back because it was $25 euro!
I also went to the mall for the first time this week. It was HUGE!! I felt like I was in a mini Mall of America! There were so many shoes stores, restaurants, bars, grocery place. It was a one stop shop place! I was a little big overwhelmed and I will probably go back a different time by myself so I can really look at everything. Plus I prefer to shop alone anyway.
This week there is a holiday on Tuesday so we don't have school and I am unsure if I have school tomorrow I guess we will find out lol.
I am suuuuper duppper excited for this weekend because I am going to Milan! ahhh Excited but nervous because nobody i'm going with speaks Italian but one of our friends knows somebody in Milan that is going to show us around =)
I also bought a plane ticket for Madrid in November which I'm quite excited for! My excursions have begun and I am quite anxious!
So this week I attempted to go to class yet again but apparently school in Spain technically starts on September 20th but doesn't really start until Octoberish... So hopefully this week I will start to have real class. I feel like I am such a nerd for saying that but I like school, I'm good at school. My classes that I will be taking are Geografia Politica (Political Geography), Estructura Politica y Economica I (Political Structure and Economy), Oranizaciones Internacional (International Organizations), and Politicas Espanol (Spanish Politics). I am really looking forward to my classes and the one thing that I like about their school is that everybody shares notes. A guy in one of my classes took Spanish Politics last year and offered to give me his notes. I was surprised and relived for this ha.
I don't know how it happened but I have somehow become accustomed with Spain and it's culture. In the morning when I wake up I have a cup of yogurt and or fruit and I don't find myself hungry for lunch until 2 or 3 in the afternoon! Then I have class from 4 to about 8ish. Then I am not hungry for dinner until 9 or 10pm at night. I thought I would never get used to eating so late in the day but now it just seems so natural. I have always been told that if I eat so late at night it's bad for me and i'm going to gain weight but surprisingly I have lost 10 lbs since I have been in Spain. I have done this simply by walking everywhere that I need to go and dancing. I dance all the time! Every time we go to the bars I dance and burn off all my calories. People drink a lot when they go out but because they dance so much hardly anybody is ever drunk.
Speaking of dancing, I went salsa dancing for the first time this past weekend with my roommates Marjorie, Katrina, and Paige. The club is called Punta Cana and I had the time of my life!! I was SO nervous to go because I have never danced salsa before and all of these people go every week to dance! But I ended up dancing with a handful of very gorgeous latin men and my oh my it was an amazing experience. Not only is it a blast to dance salsa it's an amazing work out! I could feel it everywhere, my core, my calves, my back, my arms! I am so excited to go again next week! I have decided that in order to get better I am going to practice in my room and watch youtube videos. This will help me get better and also it's great workout and I don't have to pay to work out at the school gym which is also a 20 minutes bus ride away...
Paige,Marjorie, Me, Katrina at Punta Cana
Spain is becoming more and more like home<3 At first I hated that nothing was open on Sunday's, it was really annoying because that is usually when I do my shopping and errands. But now since I don't come home till 7am during the weekends I am glad that I literally have nothing to do in the world. I love that care free feeling of getting to nothing ALL DAY LONG!! I used to feel really lazy but now I absolutely love it!
The downside to becoming accustomed so fast is that when I come in December and July it's going to be a rough transition especially with school. My senior year is going to be pretty rough but oh well that's still a year away! Right now I am going to enjoy being carefree. I don't have work, I don't have a position in my sorority, I don't have much homework, to a certain extent I don't have responsibility and I have come to love it!
Oh for those of you who may want to send me a package or letter (if you love me so =) ) my address is the following:
Calle Inmaculada Junto Juan Don de Borbon
Murcia, Spain 3007
I love getting mail and I get postcards when I can so if you would like one just send me a message with your address and i'll be sure to get you a sweet one!
