This past weekend I went on a last-minute bus ride up to my old home from last year, San Sebastian. 11 hours later, we arrived in beautiful weather in the Basque Country.
I just posted pictures with captions. I only have my pictures so far, and not Carly's, which means Carly is in most of them. I am in Carly's photos. It just works out that way.
When Carly gets to upload hers, I will put them up and let you know.
Have a look!
Click the link below:
http://bit.ly/bnwbU6
Showing posts with label san sebastian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label san sebastian. Show all posts
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Videos posted on other blog!
Go check it out!
http://melissainspain2009.blogspot.com/2010/01/madrid-tour-2009.html
http://melissainspain2009.blogspot.com/2010/01/madrid-tour-2009.html
Sunday, January 24, 2010
On the radio
I signed up this semester to do an internship with USAC.
How it works is I fill out an extensive list of things I like to do, I write a letter about what I like to do, then submit a resume.
On my list of things I like to do/interests, I wrote a mountain of things:
-work with kids
-art
-music
-TV
-radio
-cooking
This was back in November or so.
Then, once I got here (and as Luis promised in a previous email) we got to talk about the details. He chatted with a person at the nearby radio station and he was pretty sure he could get me an internship there. He told me this two weeks ago (the day before classes started, on Tuesday), and I got excited.
THEN, on Thursday, he secured it. For SURE I will be doing this internship, he said. I just had to work out the schedule. I could choose to get 1, 2, or 3 credits for the class, and since I didn't want to take this boring narrative class I was enrolled in, I chose to take the 3 credits for the internship. To do that, I needed to work 9 or 10 hours a week.
I planned it all out with a woman in the foreign language office that USAC is located in, and she was all happy about it. Luis was all happy about it, too. Apparently he has been telling Larissa (admin. asst. in the USAC office) how great it is. And I was happy too, of course!
So I figure that it is an internship, which typically means "being in the professional environment" and "filing" and "attending meetings" and whatnot. Basically, pretty boring stuff.
But the first day of the internship, which was last Monday, Luis got a cab with me to the station to show me where it was. He introduced me to Loly, the program director. Then I got to meet the staff, which was about only 6 people, and watch the soundboard guy record an interview that the other program director was doing with someone over the phone.
Loly got to explaining, and she was like "you can do whatever you want here! Just let me know what you want to do, and we can make it happen. Do you write? Yes? You want to write a program to air? How about a program about a girl from Chicago in Spain, and all the cultural differences?"
Thus, my radio show was born! Yes, MY RADIO SHOW. How is it so simple for me to secure a FANTASTIC internship here in SPAIN, when I have to go through an interview process and nervousness and anxiety of doing the same thing back in America? Apparently, you just need to go to a country where you don't speak the language in order to do something AWESOME.
So Monday was just a basic overview of what I was doing, and Loly took down my contact info. Tuesday is when the "real work" began. I wrote my first entry, which could be on WHATEVER I WANTED, so I chose food. I wrote about differences in food, restaurant culture, portions, etc. I only work 2 hours on Tuesdays, so I basically used the whole time to write it.
Wednesday I came in and made some corrections. Then I printed it and went over it with Loly for grammatical errors. There were TONS. But it seems like she knows English, since she was able to figure out what I was trying to say by my word-for-word translations. I learned that I need to re-read my work a billion times over before going to Loly with it (she was totally nice, don't get me wrong, but I felt like a fool when I was going over stuff that I should have caught myself).
After I corrected what I hoped was all that needed to be fixed, I got in the studio to record it. Yes, that's right, I am one of those people who can say "I got into the studio to record it" now. And I recorded it. It was terrible. The essay I wrote was in Spanish, by the way. And I have to read it, in Spanish of course. First of all, I figured out that I can't read numbers correctly. Two hundred becomes two thousand. Milliliters becomes something completely unrecognizable.
But I recorded it once through, then I listened to it 5 or 6 times, reread the script, etc etc. Then I recorded it again. Still not up to Lin Brehmer's style. I don't know how I sound in a foreign language (other than bad)! Loly recorded herself reading it, so I could listen to her excellent Spanish and try to fix mine.
Meanwhile, when Loly read my comments about how I thought there wasn't bacon-wrapped dates here, even though they are in the Spanish restaurants in the states, she was like "um, they totally ARE here" and I was shocked. My family in San sebastian LIED TO ME. Then, one of the soundboard guys ran to get food and bought me some! And they were DELICIOUS.
And when I was eating bacon-wrapped dates and re-reading my writing a hundred times over, I also was peeking over to the studio, where 5 or 6 University students were recording a segment called Generation E (or something like that) where they just sit around and chat about current events and whatnot. Loly saw my wandering eye and said "you could record with them in that segment, if you want. Wanna do it next week?" I was like "whoa there sally, let's hold our horses. Clearly I can't write coherently in a foreign language, yet you expect me to record a live conversation of me confusing some words for others, as well as giving 'can you repeat that' responses to everything? I don't think so." But it came out more like "maybe I'll watch, then try next week!"
I am so excited to do that, though, because then I will get to meet kids my age who go to my school, and who are SPANIARDS!
Seriously folks...why should I stay in the states when the dream internship was here all along!?
How it works is I fill out an extensive list of things I like to do, I write a letter about what I like to do, then submit a resume.
On my list of things I like to do/interests, I wrote a mountain of things:
-work with kids
-art
-music
-TV
-radio
-cooking
This was back in November or so.
Then, once I got here (and as Luis promised in a previous email) we got to talk about the details. He chatted with a person at the nearby radio station and he was pretty sure he could get me an internship there. He told me this two weeks ago (the day before classes started, on Tuesday), and I got excited.
THEN, on Thursday, he secured it. For SURE I will be doing this internship, he said. I just had to work out the schedule. I could choose to get 1, 2, or 3 credits for the class, and since I didn't want to take this boring narrative class I was enrolled in, I chose to take the 3 credits for the internship. To do that, I needed to work 9 or 10 hours a week.
I planned it all out with a woman in the foreign language office that USAC is located in, and she was all happy about it. Luis was all happy about it, too. Apparently he has been telling Larissa (admin. asst. in the USAC office) how great it is. And I was happy too, of course!
So I figure that it is an internship, which typically means "being in the professional environment" and "filing" and "attending meetings" and whatnot. Basically, pretty boring stuff.
But the first day of the internship, which was last Monday, Luis got a cab with me to the station to show me where it was. He introduced me to Loly, the program director. Then I got to meet the staff, which was about only 6 people, and watch the soundboard guy record an interview that the other program director was doing with someone over the phone.
Loly got to explaining, and she was like "you can do whatever you want here! Just let me know what you want to do, and we can make it happen. Do you write? Yes? You want to write a program to air? How about a program about a girl from Chicago in Spain, and all the cultural differences?"
Thus, my radio show was born! Yes, MY RADIO SHOW. How is it so simple for me to secure a FANTASTIC internship here in SPAIN, when I have to go through an interview process and nervousness and anxiety of doing the same thing back in America? Apparently, you just need to go to a country where you don't speak the language in order to do something AWESOME.
So Monday was just a basic overview of what I was doing, and Loly took down my contact info. Tuesday is when the "real work" began. I wrote my first entry, which could be on WHATEVER I WANTED, so I chose food. I wrote about differences in food, restaurant culture, portions, etc. I only work 2 hours on Tuesdays, so I basically used the whole time to write it.
Wednesday I came in and made some corrections. Then I printed it and went over it with Loly for grammatical errors. There were TONS. But it seems like she knows English, since she was able to figure out what I was trying to say by my word-for-word translations. I learned that I need to re-read my work a billion times over before going to Loly with it (she was totally nice, don't get me wrong, but I felt like a fool when I was going over stuff that I should have caught myself).
After I corrected what I hoped was all that needed to be fixed, I got in the studio to record it. Yes, that's right, I am one of those people who can say "I got into the studio to record it" now. And I recorded it. It was terrible. The essay I wrote was in Spanish, by the way. And I have to read it, in Spanish of course. First of all, I figured out that I can't read numbers correctly. Two hundred becomes two thousand. Milliliters becomes something completely unrecognizable.
But I recorded it once through, then I listened to it 5 or 6 times, reread the script, etc etc. Then I recorded it again. Still not up to Lin Brehmer's style. I don't know how I sound in a foreign language (other than bad)! Loly recorded herself reading it, so I could listen to her excellent Spanish and try to fix mine.
Meanwhile, when Loly read my comments about how I thought there wasn't bacon-wrapped dates here, even though they are in the Spanish restaurants in the states, she was like "um, they totally ARE here" and I was shocked. My family in San sebastian LIED TO ME. Then, one of the soundboard guys ran to get food and bought me some! And they were DELICIOUS.
And when I was eating bacon-wrapped dates and re-reading my writing a hundred times over, I also was peeking over to the studio, where 5 or 6 University students were recording a segment called Generation E (or something like that) where they just sit around and chat about current events and whatnot. Loly saw my wandering eye and said "you could record with them in that segment, if you want. Wanna do it next week?" I was like "whoa there sally, let's hold our horses. Clearly I can't write coherently in a foreign language, yet you expect me to record a live conversation of me confusing some words for others, as well as giving 'can you repeat that' responses to everything? I don't think so." But it came out more like "maybe I'll watch, then try next week!"
I am so excited to do that, though, because then I will get to meet kids my age who go to my school, and who are SPANIARDS!
Seriously folks...why should I stay in the states when the dream internship was here all along!?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Worst Trip Ever.
So apparently the group flight from LA to London (for the Madrid tour) had some major issues. First it was delayed. Then when they got to London (super early in the morning), their connecting flight to Madrid was cancelled to to weather. They had to wait in the airport for several hours. The group of affected students went together to the British Airways Kiosk and demanded that they be put on the next flight. They got tickets for the 10am or something like that. They waited until that time, then checked the screens only to find that it too was cancelled. Then they finally took the late evening flight and arrived in Madrid at 2am the following day, with little to no sleep for the past two days.
Then, when they got to Madrid, all of those students from the group LA flight found out their luggage was lost. Every single person, including 7 people here in Alicante, a few in Bilbao, and a few in the San Sebastian program, has been living on what they brought in their carry-on for the past ten days or so.
So, in the end, what I am trying to say is, THANK GOODNESS IT WASN'T ME!
Read the following email (that we got today) from the Spain Director of USAC (who is stationed in Reno)
Hola Spain students,
I am so happy that everyone is settling into your new lives in Spain and that most of you are getting your lost luggage back. I’m very sorry for all the chaos this spring, but unfortunately, weather leaves us in unpredictable situations sometimes.
I want to let you know that if your luggage was lost, there is a good chance that you can be reimbursed for the clothing you had to purchase to make up for what you didn’t have (usually between $300 and $600 but varies on the each airline’s rules). For those who lost your luggage, you will want to file your own claim directly with the airline.
If you were on the group flight through Travel Cuts, you will file this claim with British Airways at: www.britishairways.com or locally with Iberia Airlines in Spain. You will want to use your claim number to receive any reimbursement. They will ask you many questions about your luggage and may ask for any receipts of purchases. I do strongly recommend to do this (even though it is a pain) so you can get some money to help you with the added expenses you went through.
Let myself or your Resident Director know if you have any questions. I hope you all are doing well and settling into your new Spanish lifestyle. I hope this was merely a rocky start to a wonderful semester!
Johanna Bailey
Program Advisor: Spain, Malta, Ghana & India;
Then, when they got to Madrid, all of those students from the group LA flight found out their luggage was lost. Every single person, including 7 people here in Alicante, a few in Bilbao, and a few in the San Sebastian program, has been living on what they brought in their carry-on for the past ten days or so.
So, in the end, what I am trying to say is, THANK GOODNESS IT WASN'T ME!
Read the following email (that we got today) from the Spain Director of USAC (who is stationed in Reno)
Hola Spain students,
I am so happy that everyone is settling into your new lives in Spain and that most of you are getting your lost luggage back. I’m very sorry for all the chaos this spring, but unfortunately, weather leaves us in unpredictable situations sometimes.
I want to let you know that if your luggage was lost, there is a good chance that you can be reimbursed for the clothing you had to purchase to make up for what you didn’t have (usually between $300 and $600 but varies on the each airline’s rules). For those who lost your luggage, you will want to file your own claim directly with the airline.
If you were on the group flight through Travel Cuts, you will file this claim with British Airways at: www.britishairways.com or locally with Iberia Airlines in Spain. You will want to use your claim number to receive any reimbursement. They will ask you many questions about your luggage and may ask for any receipts of purchases. I do strongly recommend to do this (even though it is a pain) so you can get some money to help you with the added expenses you went through.
Let myself or your Resident Director know if you have any questions. I hope you all are doing well and settling into your new Spanish lifestyle. I hope this was merely a rocky start to a wonderful semester!
Johanna Bailey
Program Advisor: Spain, Malta, Ghana & India;
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Un día increíble
Today was EVENTFUL!
See, I knew this whole "doing nothing" thing would change after the other students returned from Madrid.
So, just like I went on the Madrid tour last year, some of the students in the program this year went, too. Today was the day they got to meet their landlords or their host parents. In San Sebastian, we just went from our hotel (from orientation) straight to the houses/apartments via taxis. Here, it was a huge production. Luis, the program director, would announce a student's name, then introduce them, in front of the group, to their host parents. It was pretty funny, because the first girl went to her host mom and hugged her for a full minute, squeezing her like she missed her so much (when in actuality, this was the first time they ever met!). I technically didn't have a reason to be there, since I obviously already know my host family, but I wanted to see some of the other students in the program.
So, I went to this meeting in hopes that I wouldn't stand out so much as an americana in the streets of Alicante. To accomplish this, here is what I had to wear...my knee-high heeled boots with dark jeans tucked in, my hair down and curly, and my red plaid jacket, a wool version of this one:
So european. And guess what!? No weird stares that scream "you are SO americana." Only stares from lecherous men.
But when I was waiting at the flower shop for the USAC kids to arrive, i chatted with my host mom (in spanish of course) and when the kids arrived and were asking around, I spoke spanish to them. I think that some of them thought I was spanish. I think my clothes were just THAT GOOD. Plus I think they were confused that I said I was living in Alicante already (if only for 2 days).
But anywho, Rocio and I walked home with a host mom who lives close with a student from USAC. Tomorrow we'll meet up to walk to the flower shop again to take a bus to campus.
For lunch, Rocio made paella. And I watched. I will be an EXPERT by the time cooking class begins! She thought it didn't turn out well because the rice was a but hard. But i thought it was wonderful. And PS to my parents: what you should get for a souvenir is a paella. That is the pan paella is made in.
Then, as she was cooking, her friend (that she met through a friend), a Cuban girl who lives a few blocks away, came over for lunch. It was nice to meet new people. Especially because she is young and very pretty: ERIC, attention. And she is a physics or a science teacher for a special school for slower students. Pardon my wording...I spoke a LOT of Spanish today sin descanso and the translations to english to spanish to english are a bit weird.
Then, after Rocio, carlos, y Suyin (la chica) ate, Dante came home with his aunt (maria) and uncle (javi) who he'd been spending time with all day in the mountains to see the snow. They showed us pictures and Dante was throwing the snow and having a great time in all of them. When he gets really excited and happy, he stomps in place and then screams with a grin. In some of the video the aunt took on the camera, Dante was doing just this. And he was so cute: he didn't know that the snow was so cold, so he would throw it, then shake his hand violently to try and get rid of the cold feeling. And i don't know what would be the translation of this in English, but apparently he was calling the snow "blanco" instead of "blanca" (la nieve is feminine, so the adjective needs to end in an 'a'), which rocio thought was cute.
When the guests were over, they were all talking about the snow (the news channel was on). Let me digress for a moment: the people are reacting crazily to the snow in Spain. Like, of the two days of news I have watched on TV, about 70% has been about the snow in various parts of Spain. Either there is no important news, or this is the most important news EVER. The same footage they have shown for the past few days.
Suyin thought it was especially funny that there was footage of San Sebastian in La Concha (the name of the main beach) where there was snow on the sand, and people were skiing, but then in the background you can see people surfing. I think everyone has seen this footage by now, because even the woman who lives down the street with the USAC student mentioned it. I think from the way news dedicates its coverage to the topic of snow so much, everyone who has watched the news in the past WEEK has seen this.
Then, after lunch, around 5 or so, we went to a friend's birthday party. I was really excited when Rocio invited me, because first of all I would have been bored as hell waiting at home, and secondly, I wanted to see other little kids and converse with more people.
So we went to the party, which was outside of Alicante (so we drove). Dante passed out in his little car seat, his poor little head whipping around at every bump. We flipped between a few stations on the radio, one of which was the sound of broken glass and a train. I don't understand it. It was just a long recording of someone breaking glass, then it transitioned to a train on tracks, then we went to another station for a while, then came back to it and it was still a train noise. Rocio said there was different kinds of music, and this was just broken glass and trains. I don't really know if I would regard that as music, but it was interesting to listen to.
We arrived at the house and the party was in the basement, where there were about 12 kids of ages 1 to 9 or so. The birthday boy was turning 2. And I am pretty sure he NEVER spoke. And he was staring at me most of the time. With the not talking thing, it was kinda creepy. His paleness contributed to the creepiness.
But Dante was having a great time, playing with the birthday boy's gifts, like the mickey mouse rolling backpack. He just carried it around in circles, then rolled it around in circles, then when it (and he) fell on the ground, he just clutched the bag really close, rolling around on the ground.
The kid also had lockable rollerskates like this, with spiderman on them:
And the spaniards call him SPEE-dur-man.
And Dante called the skates (which are patines) patones, even after his mom kept correcting him. so cute.
But Dante loved those, even though he needed his mom's help to skate around. He wouldn't take them off. And then he found the toy cars. (he has 20 or so here at home) He got really excited, and when he gets excited with the toy cars, he parks them. No, he isn't like a normal kid who wants to roll them, race them, ride them, make them go all over the place. No. He loves toy cars so he can park them. He even has a toy parking garage for them. No, not a race track. A parking garage. So tranquil.
There was a girl there, about 5 or 6, who had her dog with her, a baby version of Lola (my host family's dog). Like, super tiny. And she carried him around EVERYWHERE. Rocio kept saying "pobrecito perro!" (poor dog) because the kids just kept chasing it and picking it up and putting it in baskets and grabbing it and screaming its name (which was Bob by the way) over and over again. The dog was beyond exhausted. And the way they pronounce Bob is more like "bow" as in, tying a bow, but with a b at the end. Like Bohb. Not Bahb. Bohb.
So the kids are chasing this little guy:
yelling "bohb! bohb! bohb! bohb! bohb!"
After a while, me being me, I was playing with the little kids' sand art, which by now was one brownish pink color that they were pouring into a bear-shaped bottle. I was helping scoop the sand with them when Carlos and Rocio said jokingly "melissa wants to stay...she likes it here!"
I also learned that they speak a second language here in Alicante, much like they speak Basque in San Sebastian. Here it is called Valenciano. And I found out that the people from Valencia only call it this, even though it is the exact same as Catalan (the second language in Barcelona, which is a mix of French and Spanish). Weird, right?
Then at dinner tonight, I asked how many students they have hosted and they said I was the 5th or 6th one. The girl who was here when I was in San Sebastian was named Julianne, and I actually have met her! And we took a picture together!
(that's her in the middle!)
I only knew Kristen and Josh (the girl I am very affectionately sitting next to, and the only boy in the picture), but when they came to visit San Sebastian last year, they brought some friends. One of which was the ex-student who lived with my current host family. Weird!
After dinner I got to play with Dante and Darth Tater. I made a game of it by holding up a body part, then asking him which one it was. I held up the tongue and was like "what is this? an eye? an arm? a foot? A nose? a tongue?" and he would respond to all of them "no," even tongue, so I would say another body part and come back to tongue, giving him a chance to say the correct one. But no, he just said no all the time until I would just say "yo dante, it IS a tongue."
Also, I learned that Rocio and Carlos each have more than one cell phone. Phone plans are expensive, so they bought one phone that has cheap calls in the evening, and one with cheap calls during the day, so they can make cheap calls all the time!
And thinking about and talking about my semester abroad makes it seem so much closer than it really was, which is weird. I feel like the summer and fall just disappeared, and it was only a month ago when I was in SanSe.
See, I knew this whole "doing nothing" thing would change after the other students returned from Madrid.
So, just like I went on the Madrid tour last year, some of the students in the program this year went, too. Today was the day they got to meet their landlords or their host parents. In San Sebastian, we just went from our hotel (from orientation) straight to the houses/apartments via taxis. Here, it was a huge production. Luis, the program director, would announce a student's name, then introduce them, in front of the group, to their host parents. It was pretty funny, because the first girl went to her host mom and hugged her for a full minute, squeezing her like she missed her so much (when in actuality, this was the first time they ever met!). I technically didn't have a reason to be there, since I obviously already know my host family, but I wanted to see some of the other students in the program.
So, I went to this meeting in hopes that I wouldn't stand out so much as an americana in the streets of Alicante. To accomplish this, here is what I had to wear...my knee-high heeled boots with dark jeans tucked in, my hair down and curly, and my red plaid jacket, a wool version of this one:
So european. And guess what!? No weird stares that scream "you are SO americana." Only stares from lecherous men.
But when I was waiting at the flower shop for the USAC kids to arrive, i chatted with my host mom (in spanish of course) and when the kids arrived and were asking around, I spoke spanish to them. I think that some of them thought I was spanish. I think my clothes were just THAT GOOD. Plus I think they were confused that I said I was living in Alicante already (if only for 2 days).
But anywho, Rocio and I walked home with a host mom who lives close with a student from USAC. Tomorrow we'll meet up to walk to the flower shop again to take a bus to campus.
For lunch, Rocio made paella. And I watched. I will be an EXPERT by the time cooking class begins! She thought it didn't turn out well because the rice was a but hard. But i thought it was wonderful. And PS to my parents: what you should get for a souvenir is a paella. That is the pan paella is made in.
Then, as she was cooking, her friend (that she met through a friend), a Cuban girl who lives a few blocks away, came over for lunch. It was nice to meet new people. Especially because she is young and very pretty: ERIC, attention. And she is a physics or a science teacher for a special school for slower students. Pardon my wording...I spoke a LOT of Spanish today sin descanso and the translations to english to spanish to english are a bit weird.
Then, after Rocio, carlos, y Suyin (la chica) ate, Dante came home with his aunt (maria) and uncle (javi) who he'd been spending time with all day in the mountains to see the snow. They showed us pictures and Dante was throwing the snow and having a great time in all of them. When he gets really excited and happy, he stomps in place and then screams with a grin. In some of the video the aunt took on the camera, Dante was doing just this. And he was so cute: he didn't know that the snow was so cold, so he would throw it, then shake his hand violently to try and get rid of the cold feeling. And i don't know what would be the translation of this in English, but apparently he was calling the snow "blanco" instead of "blanca" (la nieve is feminine, so the adjective needs to end in an 'a'), which rocio thought was cute.
When the guests were over, they were all talking about the snow (the news channel was on). Let me digress for a moment: the people are reacting crazily to the snow in Spain. Like, of the two days of news I have watched on TV, about 70% has been about the snow in various parts of Spain. Either there is no important news, or this is the most important news EVER. The same footage they have shown for the past few days.
Suyin thought it was especially funny that there was footage of San Sebastian in La Concha (the name of the main beach) where there was snow on the sand, and people were skiing, but then in the background you can see people surfing. I think everyone has seen this footage by now, because even the woman who lives down the street with the USAC student mentioned it. I think from the way news dedicates its coverage to the topic of snow so much, everyone who has watched the news in the past WEEK has seen this.
Then, after lunch, around 5 or so, we went to a friend's birthday party. I was really excited when Rocio invited me, because first of all I would have been bored as hell waiting at home, and secondly, I wanted to see other little kids and converse with more people.
So we went to the party, which was outside of Alicante (so we drove). Dante passed out in his little car seat, his poor little head whipping around at every bump. We flipped between a few stations on the radio, one of which was the sound of broken glass and a train. I don't understand it. It was just a long recording of someone breaking glass, then it transitioned to a train on tracks, then we went to another station for a while, then came back to it and it was still a train noise. Rocio said there was different kinds of music, and this was just broken glass and trains. I don't really know if I would regard that as music, but it was interesting to listen to.
We arrived at the house and the party was in the basement, where there were about 12 kids of ages 1 to 9 or so. The birthday boy was turning 2. And I am pretty sure he NEVER spoke. And he was staring at me most of the time. With the not talking thing, it was kinda creepy. His paleness contributed to the creepiness.
But Dante was having a great time, playing with the birthday boy's gifts, like the mickey mouse rolling backpack. He just carried it around in circles, then rolled it around in circles, then when it (and he) fell on the ground, he just clutched the bag really close, rolling around on the ground.
The kid also had lockable rollerskates like this, with spiderman on them:
And the spaniards call him SPEE-dur-man.
And Dante called the skates (which are patines) patones, even after his mom kept correcting him. so cute.
But Dante loved those, even though he needed his mom's help to skate around. He wouldn't take them off. And then he found the toy cars. (he has 20 or so here at home) He got really excited, and when he gets excited with the toy cars, he parks them. No, he isn't like a normal kid who wants to roll them, race them, ride them, make them go all over the place. No. He loves toy cars so he can park them. He even has a toy parking garage for them. No, not a race track. A parking garage. So tranquil.
There was a girl there, about 5 or 6, who had her dog with her, a baby version of Lola (my host family's dog). Like, super tiny. And she carried him around EVERYWHERE. Rocio kept saying "pobrecito perro!" (poor dog) because the kids just kept chasing it and picking it up and putting it in baskets and grabbing it and screaming its name (which was Bob by the way) over and over again. The dog was beyond exhausted. And the way they pronounce Bob is more like "bow" as in, tying a bow, but with a b at the end. Like Bohb. Not Bahb. Bohb.
So the kids are chasing this little guy:
yelling "bohb! bohb! bohb! bohb! bohb!"
After a while, me being me, I was playing with the little kids' sand art, which by now was one brownish pink color that they were pouring into a bear-shaped bottle. I was helping scoop the sand with them when Carlos and Rocio said jokingly "melissa wants to stay...she likes it here!"
I also learned that they speak a second language here in Alicante, much like they speak Basque in San Sebastian. Here it is called Valenciano. And I found out that the people from Valencia only call it this, even though it is the exact same as Catalan (the second language in Barcelona, which is a mix of French and Spanish). Weird, right?
Then at dinner tonight, I asked how many students they have hosted and they said I was the 5th or 6th one. The girl who was here when I was in San Sebastian was named Julianne, and I actually have met her! And we took a picture together!
(that's her in the middle!)
I only knew Kristen and Josh (the girl I am very affectionately sitting next to, and the only boy in the picture), but when they came to visit San Sebastian last year, they brought some friends. One of which was the ex-student who lived with my current host family. Weird!
After dinner I got to play with Dante and Darth Tater. I made a game of it by holding up a body part, then asking him which one it was. I held up the tongue and was like "what is this? an eye? an arm? a foot? A nose? a tongue?" and he would respond to all of them "no," even tongue, so I would say another body part and come back to tongue, giving him a chance to say the correct one. But no, he just said no all the time until I would just say "yo dante, it IS a tongue."
Also, I learned that Rocio and Carlos each have more than one cell phone. Phone plans are expensive, so they bought one phone that has cheap calls in the evening, and one with cheap calls during the day, so they can make cheap calls all the time!
And thinking about and talking about my semester abroad makes it seem so much closer than it really was, which is weird. I feel like the summer and fall just disappeared, and it was only a month ago when I was in SanSe.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Intro to Otra Vez: otra viaje a España
Hola!
As you already probably hopefully know, I am travelling to Spain once again. And I like the British spelling of "travelling" better, so deal with it, Blogger spell-check!
When I went back to school in the fall of 2009, of course I was disappointed to be back from Spain. When I am abroad, everything is new and exciting. Like,
"Look at the weird labels of things!"
"Why are Americans so ugly in comparison to Europeans!"
"Why did I just say that when there are three Spaniards with mullets/rat tails?"
"look, the Spaniards walk with their hands behind their back, even though it looks awkwardly uncomfortable!"
Then you come back to the USA, and everything is just as it was, and so much less exciting. The way people hold their hands while walking no longer keeps your interest.
I heard a rumor that you couldn't study abroad your final semester. I talked to my counselor, and it was untrue! She was like "you are done with your major, your minor, your core...why NOT!?" So I took her advice.
So, the search for a location was ON. At first, I was considering Ireland, Scotland, or England, since I could obviously speak English there. Other countries with a new language (Germany, France, Italy) didn't interest me because I knew whatever I learned about the language would quickly be forgotten. Plus, I would be unable to converse with people on the streets without a pocket translator. But, I missed most of the deadlines for these locations.
So, of course, Spanish-speaking countries came into play. I liked the USAC program before, so I wanted to do it with them again. I heard from various sources that IES was a harder, more intensive program. Not to say I want to slack, but this fall 2009 semester was HARD and I didn't want my final semester in college to be hell. So I looked at Costa Rica and Alicante (Spain). Costa Rica's course offerings were basically in the field of rainforestry (really, how many classes can you take on that?) so I looked at Alicante. I could do an internship there and take a business course or two (so I have some basic background in the topic for future endeavors) so the choice was made: Alicante, here I come.
Also, I may post some things now and then to the old blog at www.melissainspain2009.blogspot.com like some videos that pertain to San Sebastian. Therefore, keep on subscribing to that/checking that site!
As you already probably hopefully know, I am travelling to Spain once again. And I like the British spelling of "travelling" better, so deal with it, Blogger spell-check!
When I went back to school in the fall of 2009, of course I was disappointed to be back from Spain. When I am abroad, everything is new and exciting. Like,
"Look at the weird labels of things!"
"Why are Americans so ugly in comparison to Europeans!"
"Why did I just say that when there are three Spaniards with mullets/rat tails?"
"look, the Spaniards walk with their hands behind their back, even though it looks awkwardly uncomfortable!"
Then you come back to the USA, and everything is just as it was, and so much less exciting. The way people hold their hands while walking no longer keeps your interest.
I heard a rumor that you couldn't study abroad your final semester. I talked to my counselor, and it was untrue! She was like "you are done with your major, your minor, your core...why NOT!?" So I took her advice.
So, the search for a location was ON. At first, I was considering Ireland, Scotland, or England, since I could obviously speak English there. Other countries with a new language (Germany, France, Italy) didn't interest me because I knew whatever I learned about the language would quickly be forgotten. Plus, I would be unable to converse with people on the streets without a pocket translator. But, I missed most of the deadlines for these locations.
So, of course, Spanish-speaking countries came into play. I liked the USAC program before, so I wanted to do it with them again. I heard from various sources that IES was a harder, more intensive program. Not to say I want to slack, but this fall 2009 semester was HARD and I didn't want my final semester in college to be hell. So I looked at Costa Rica and Alicante (Spain). Costa Rica's course offerings were basically in the field of rainforestry (really, how many classes can you take on that?) so I looked at Alicante. I could do an internship there and take a business course or two (so I have some basic background in the topic for future endeavors) so the choice was made: Alicante, here I come.
Also, I may post some things now and then to the old blog at www.melissainspain2009.blogspot.com like some videos that pertain to San Sebastian. Therefore, keep on subscribing to that/checking that site!
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