June 13, 2009
Today is Saturday and though this past week has been fun, it has also been rough. I found out on Sunday night that my grandpa (dad’s dad) passed away that morning. While it wasn’t exactly expected, my parents had visited him down in Florida a few weeks ago and said that he hadn’t been doing very well. When I saw him about a year ago while we were down there for my grandmother’s funeral, he was in an Alzheimer’s home, but physically, he was just fine – walking around and talking, even if he didn’t always make much sense. Apparently things had gone significantly downhill since then, because my parents said that he wasn’t at all how we remembered him. He was in a wheelchair and unable to stand by himself, didn’t talk much and was also not eating. His caretaker, Brenda, was pretty much doing everything for him, and I can imagine that his life was becoming pretty miserable.
As much as I will miss my grandpa, it comforts me to know that he is no longer suffering, and that he is back with my grandma after all of this time without her. Even if he didn’t quite remember her anymore, I’m sure that he missed her.
To my family – I’m sorry that I couldn’t be there with you to say goodbye, but I hope that we will all see each other soon under happier circumstances. I miss you guys and love you all!
In other news, some of you may have heard that Nick has been in the hospital pretty much all this week. He had a really severe pain in his right hand which spread down his arm within a few hours, so he had to drive himself to the ER really early on Tuesday morning. It turned out that he had an infection and there was some sort of bacteria in his bloodstream, but they couldn’t really determine what it was or how to fix it. He ended up having surgery a few nights ago, which went well despite a few fevers here and there, and he’s supposed to be released today. He says that they diagnosed him with Flexor Stenostysis. Besides still having some pain in his arm and being upset about missing classes all week, he seems to be doing much better. I’m just glad that he is OK – it was very stressful not having much contact with him this week and constantly worrying about what was happening with him in the hospital! Luckily, his parents were able to go down to Charlotte, and I’m really thankful they were able to be with him… and of course, thankful that he is going to be all right eventually.
On a lighter note, I gotta get going in a minute – our friends’ homestay mom is apparently out of town so they invited us over to their casa to watch a movie this afternoon. We aren’t really supposed to have people over to visit, but she’s supposed to be away until tomorrow, so it should be safe! And we’re going to watch one of my favorite movies, Forgetting Sarah Marshall... super mega funny! We’ve been quoting that movie constantly during this trip, so it’s appropriate that we should watch it together now.
Oh, the weather outside is weather… jajaja…
¡Hasta luego!
- LC
Monday, June 15, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
i haven't had internet... this is from tuesday!
Since I don’t have internet access at my house, I haven’t really been able to update you guys for a few days! I’m so jealous of my classmates who have internet at home; you have no idea how much I wish I had some way of communicating with people back home. I did finally get a cell phone yesterday, but it costs quite a bit for me to call the U.S. which means I’ll mostly be using that only to get in touch with my classmates here – we all got the same phone service (Yoigo!) from the same store, and it’s kind of funny that we all have the same little Nokia phones, too.
So, today was our first day of actual classes at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas after taking our placement exams yesterday. I have eight people in my first two classes, and two of them are from the George Mason group, Anand and Bland, James Bland… the latter is QUITE a character… anyway, classes are very informal here and mis profesoras are really nice. The first one, Carmen, is really funny – we spent the entire class (from 9-11am) just talking and joking around. One of our activities was that we each wrote down two questions for someone else in the class to answer, then she randomly handed out the questions and we took turns answering. My second class, from 11am-1pm is with Ana, who is from Salamanca, which is located further north in between Portugal and Madrid. The accents there are harder to understand, so I’ll have to get used to the way she speaks, but it was OK overall. We talked about different types of language/culture: formal, informal and “la kultura de la calle” (meaning culture of the street, so basically the internet lingo, graffiti, etc). We talked about different people and things that come from Spain, like political figures, actors, artists and also monuments and fiestas from Spain. Then we did an activity that was somewhat familiar, where we had to imagine we were in a forest and describe what it was like, then we see a key and imagine what it looks like and what we would do with it, then we see a house and have to decide if anyone lives in it, and so on. And each scenario is supposed to give insight as to how content you are with your life, how adventurous you are, how you value friendships, that sort of thing. It was interesting and actually pretty spot-on for me.
Our last class of the day is Cultura from 1:15-2:15pm, and our whole group is in one class with Maria Jose. She is very nice and super easy to understand – actually, she said that this is pretty much the first time where she has been able to conduct that class entirely in Spanish, because this is the first time that everyone in the class actually knows Spanish. I guess usually that class is taught in English at first and they gradually introduce Spanish. Today we just did a fun quiz on facts about Spanish culture to test our knowledge and we went over the syllabus. We’re going to have a project in that class, which is a 3-5 page paper about anything having to do with Spanish culture, and I think I’m going to write about either music or movies… maybe even about Pedro Almodóvar, since I have seen several of his movies, including Todo sobre mi madre y Volver.
Let’s see, what else? Oh, last night we had sort of a welcome party (“un snack”) at the Albayzin, which was super close to La Alhambra – we could actually see it from the patio where we hung out all evening, so of course we took pictures, but we’ll have a lot more once we go to visit it! It was so pretty, even from a distance. The little party we had was nice, too. They served cañas, which is beer in a smaller glass than is typically served at home, and tintos del verano, which is pretty much red wine with soda, kind of like a wine cooler. They also served plates of little appetizers, similar to tapas, like little pieces of white fish wrapped in a thin piece of zucchini and fried, a meat plate (yuck), tomato, basil and mozzarella sticks and my personal favorites, these squash and spinach casserole bites (which have a Spanish name, I’m sure) that were soooooooooooooooooooo good! We stayed there until probably a little after 11pm, then walked home with Mark, a classmate who we found out lives one street over from Lorianne and me. It was good to have a guy to walk with, since we live further south than most of our classmates, it was late and we don’t know the area very well yet. It also helps that he is a former Marine and could kick some booty if anyone tried to mess with us! I felt terrible though, because I accidentally rang the buzzer at the apartment when we finally got home after midnight, instead of turning on the light in the hall. I totally woke up our host mom by mistake!!! She didn’t seem to be angry, but I felt really bad anyway.
Well, we’re getting ready to go to the mall now… it looks like I’m going to have to buy a flat iron, hair dryer and a few other little things that I need, and we also have to get some photos copied for our student ID’s or something, then I’m going to look for an Internet Café where I can post this blog (which I’m currently writing at home in a Word document) and hopefully, I can email or chat with some of you later, too…
Besos!!!
- LC
So, today was our first day of actual classes at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas after taking our placement exams yesterday. I have eight people in my first two classes, and two of them are from the George Mason group, Anand and Bland, James Bland… the latter is QUITE a character… anyway, classes are very informal here and mis profesoras are really nice. The first one, Carmen, is really funny – we spent the entire class (from 9-11am) just talking and joking around. One of our activities was that we each wrote down two questions for someone else in the class to answer, then she randomly handed out the questions and we took turns answering. My second class, from 11am-1pm is with Ana, who is from Salamanca, which is located further north in between Portugal and Madrid. The accents there are harder to understand, so I’ll have to get used to the way she speaks, but it was OK overall. We talked about different types of language/culture: formal, informal and “la kultura de la calle” (meaning culture of the street, so basically the internet lingo, graffiti, etc). We talked about different people and things that come from Spain, like political figures, actors, artists and also monuments and fiestas from Spain. Then we did an activity that was somewhat familiar, where we had to imagine we were in a forest and describe what it was like, then we see a key and imagine what it looks like and what we would do with it, then we see a house and have to decide if anyone lives in it, and so on. And each scenario is supposed to give insight as to how content you are with your life, how adventurous you are, how you value friendships, that sort of thing. It was interesting and actually pretty spot-on for me.
Our last class of the day is Cultura from 1:15-2:15pm, and our whole group is in one class with Maria Jose. She is very nice and super easy to understand – actually, she said that this is pretty much the first time where she has been able to conduct that class entirely in Spanish, because this is the first time that everyone in the class actually knows Spanish. I guess usually that class is taught in English at first and they gradually introduce Spanish. Today we just did a fun quiz on facts about Spanish culture to test our knowledge and we went over the syllabus. We’re going to have a project in that class, which is a 3-5 page paper about anything having to do with Spanish culture, and I think I’m going to write about either music or movies… maybe even about Pedro Almodóvar, since I have seen several of his movies, including Todo sobre mi madre y Volver.
Let’s see, what else? Oh, last night we had sort of a welcome party (“un snack”) at the Albayzin, which was super close to La Alhambra – we could actually see it from the patio where we hung out all evening, so of course we took pictures, but we’ll have a lot more once we go to visit it! It was so pretty, even from a distance. The little party we had was nice, too. They served cañas, which is beer in a smaller glass than is typically served at home, and tintos del verano, which is pretty much red wine with soda, kind of like a wine cooler. They also served plates of little appetizers, similar to tapas, like little pieces of white fish wrapped in a thin piece of zucchini and fried, a meat plate (yuck), tomato, basil and mozzarella sticks and my personal favorites, these squash and spinach casserole bites (which have a Spanish name, I’m sure) that were soooooooooooooooooooo good! We stayed there until probably a little after 11pm, then walked home with Mark, a classmate who we found out lives one street over from Lorianne and me. It was good to have a guy to walk with, since we live further south than most of our classmates, it was late and we don’t know the area very well yet. It also helps that he is a former Marine and could kick some booty if anyone tried to mess with us! I felt terrible though, because I accidentally rang the buzzer at the apartment when we finally got home after midnight, instead of turning on the light in the hall. I totally woke up our host mom by mistake!!! She didn’t seem to be angry, but I felt really bad anyway.
Well, we’re getting ready to go to the mall now… it looks like I’m going to have to buy a flat iron, hair dryer and a few other little things that I need, and we also have to get some photos copied for our student ID’s or something, then I’m going to look for an Internet Café where I can post this blog (which I’m currently writing at home in a Word document) and hopefully, I can email or chat with some of you later, too…
Besos!!!
- LC
Monday, June 1, 2009
just fyi
i wrote this on 6/1...
hey all - just wanted to let everyone know that i´m still alive. we got to granada yesterday afternoon by train from madrid, had lunch with our host mom, miguel (her husband? boyfriend? idk!) and her 13 year old grandson antonio, who all live there con ella. we do not have internet (boooo!) so i´m at my school, el centro de lenguas modernas at the universidad de granada, using a computer with the suckiest internet of all time and a really confusing spanish keyboard. we had our placement examen and orientation today, and lorianne and i are getting ready to walk home for lunch en un momento. our host mom cooks everything for us (all vegetarian except she also makes and eats seafood, yay!) and it has been good so far.
i´m hoping to buy a cell phone at some point today, but i´ll have limited minutes and probably won´t be able to call everyone... so i´ll try to email/facebook/update this blog whenever i can to keep you all updated. i miss you all mucho mucho mucho! but i´m doing ok and will try to write again later.
- LC
hey all - just wanted to let everyone know that i´m still alive. we got to granada yesterday afternoon by train from madrid, had lunch with our host mom, miguel (her husband? boyfriend? idk!) and her 13 year old grandson antonio, who all live there con ella. we do not have internet (boooo!) so i´m at my school, el centro de lenguas modernas at the universidad de granada, using a computer with the suckiest internet of all time and a really confusing spanish keyboard. we had our placement examen and orientation today, and lorianne and i are getting ready to walk home for lunch en un momento. our host mom cooks everything for us (all vegetarian except she also makes and eats seafood, yay!) and it has been good so far.
i´m hoping to buy a cell phone at some point today, but i´ll have limited minutes and probably won´t be able to call everyone... so i´ll try to email/facebook/update this blog whenever i can to keep you all updated. i miss you all mucho mucho mucho! but i´m doing ok and will try to write again later.
- LC
Friday, May 29, 2009
A siesta would be nice right about now
Even though I am completely sleep-deprived, I'm awake and not really doing anything right now, so I figured I'd give you all an update... first of all, we are all SO tired!!! Figuring everything out and getting used to the time difference here has really taken a lot out of us. After we finally made it to the International Youth Hostal Posada de Huertas yesterday, we took showers (worst shower of my life - you know those faucets in public restrooms where you push it down and water comes out for a few seconds? Yeah, water comes out for about 30 seconds and stops, so you're constantly pushing the faucet down for more - FREEZING cold, by the way - water. Really freaking great). Not only that, but there's basically one bathroom per floor; there are 3 really tiny toilet stalls, and then 3 shower stalls, which don't really allow for any modesty, since they are basically just a little foggy and totally see-through. In our room, we had two sets of bunk beds (I was on the top bunk!) and a small balcony. When I can figure out how to add pictures on here, I will!
Although the bathroom/shower situation was far from great, the hostel was pretty cool overall. The staff was really nice and they have tours and different stuff to do. Last night, we did a mini pub crawl and that was fun. One of the bars played all old American songs (old as in from the 70's, 80's and 90's - when we walked in, mmmbop was playing! jajaja). Before that, my three roommates and another girl who is also part of the same program, but had gotten here a couple days earlier and kind of knows her way around now, went walking around the city looking for a good tapas restaurant. We finally found one with decent prices, so we ate there. I can't remember what it was called, but the food was great! We got calamares, patatas ali-oli (potatoes with a creamy olive oil and garlic mixture, almost like potato salad), some type of sliced goat cheese, a cured cod dish and, of course, a pitcher of sangria! It was all really delicious. The waiter also brought a free tapa, but it had chorizo on it and only one of us eats meat/sausage. We felt bad for not really eating it, but we already had so much food! It really filled us up, and for less than 10 Euro each.
Today, we actually had to switch to another hostel, because there was no room for us tonight or tomorrow night. We didn't book all three nights because we thought we may want to venture outside of Madrid before making our way down to Granada, but the idea of having to travel more than necessary with this luggage changed that. It was bad enough having to move to another hostel! We were really tired, really hungry (el desayuno - breakfast - at the last hostel was only toast, OJ and really nasty coffee) and still sore from having to carry the luggage here. We also got a little bit lost trying to find the street, which is really close to the Plaza Mayor. We ended up putting Lauren in a taxi with the really heavy suitcases, and then meeting her here. Then checking in to the hostel was a bit chaotic, because they couldn't find a record of our online reservation at first and they only speak Spanish - it was a challenge, but we were proud of ourselves for being able to use our Spanish to communicate and figure it all out! This is a good sign. :)
Once we checked in, we got pizza (I know, really original right? Hey, we were starving and it was easy!) and now, we're back at the hostel to get some rest. I'm trying to stay awake for a bit longer so that I can get ahold of friends and Nick, but I'm fading fast. Lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me... so I think it's naptime now...
zzzzz...
- LC
Although the bathroom/shower situation was far from great, the hostel was pretty cool overall. The staff was really nice and they have tours and different stuff to do. Last night, we did a mini pub crawl and that was fun. One of the bars played all old American songs (old as in from the 70's, 80's and 90's - when we walked in, mmmbop was playing! jajaja). Before that, my three roommates and another girl who is also part of the same program, but had gotten here a couple days earlier and kind of knows her way around now, went walking around the city looking for a good tapas restaurant. We finally found one with decent prices, so we ate there. I can't remember what it was called, but the food was great! We got calamares, patatas ali-oli (potatoes with a creamy olive oil and garlic mixture, almost like potato salad), some type of sliced goat cheese, a cured cod dish and, of course, a pitcher of sangria! It was all really delicious. The waiter also brought a free tapa, but it had chorizo on it and only one of us eats meat/sausage. We felt bad for not really eating it, but we already had so much food! It really filled us up, and for less than 10 Euro each.
Today, we actually had to switch to another hostel, because there was no room for us tonight or tomorrow night. We didn't book all three nights because we thought we may want to venture outside of Madrid before making our way down to Granada, but the idea of having to travel more than necessary with this luggage changed that. It was bad enough having to move to another hostel! We were really tired, really hungry (el desayuno - breakfast - at the last hostel was only toast, OJ and really nasty coffee) and still sore from having to carry the luggage here. We also got a little bit lost trying to find the street, which is really close to the Plaza Mayor. We ended up putting Lauren in a taxi with the really heavy suitcases, and then meeting her here. Then checking in to the hostel was a bit chaotic, because they couldn't find a record of our online reservation at first and they only speak Spanish - it was a challenge, but we were proud of ourselves for being able to use our Spanish to communicate and figure it all out! This is a good sign. :)
Once we checked in, we got pizza (I know, really original right? Hey, we were starving and it was easy!) and now, we're back at the hostel to get some rest. I'm trying to stay awake for a bit longer so that I can get ahold of friends and Nick, but I'm fading fast. Lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me... so I think it's naptime now...
zzzzz...
- LC
Thursday, May 28, 2009
uuuugggghhhh.......
Well, we finally made it to Madrid, after a pretty epic journey!!! The flight was fine, at least for the four of us girls that traveled together - one of our classmates missed his flight, so it sounds like we'll be meeting up with him tomorrow. From the airport, we decided to take the metro rather than a taxi, since we had so much luggage and it was cheaper, but it was HARD work! Carrying those suitcases up and down stairs and on and off of trains was not fun at all. We never thought we'd make it, but so far, Spanish men have been very helpful, thank goodness! American guys, take notes... :)
So we've checked into the hostel - it's a small room with 4 beds and a cute little balcony, and all of us are sitting here now with our laptops, updating our Facebook pages... haha (or as the Spanish say, jaja). I can't even believe I'm still awake writing this! It's 9:15am back home, but 3:15pm here, and I haven't really slept at all - thanks to the screaming baby a few rows away on the plane. What a jerk. I'm hoping that enduring his 7 hours of constant whining means that my flight home will be much more peaceful!
Anyway, it's definitely time for a shower and a siesta... more later!
Hasta...
- LC
So we've checked into the hostel - it's a small room with 4 beds and a cute little balcony, and all of us are sitting here now with our laptops, updating our Facebook pages... haha (or as the Spanish say, jaja). I can't even believe I'm still awake writing this! It's 9:15am back home, but 3:15pm here, and I haven't really slept at all - thanks to the screaming baby a few rows away on the plane. What a jerk. I'm hoping that enduring his 7 hours of constant whining means that my flight home will be much more peaceful!
Anyway, it's definitely time for a shower and a siesta... more later!
Hasta...
- LC
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
So I'm blogging now...
A few people mentioned that it would be a good idea to start a blog while I'm studying in Spain this summer, so I thought, ¿por qué no? And here I am!
Right now, it's Tuesday night and I'm still at home - but by this time tomorrow, I will be on a plane headed to Madrid. It's crazy... I can't believe I'm leaving so soon. I've been really anxious about the trip - about packing, traveling, living with a host family, classes, etc. but I guess I'm just an anxious person in general! I'm going to be with a great group of people (shout out to my roomie, Lorianne!) and I'm sure we'll all have a great time. And hopefully, I'll manage to get there in one piece... WITH my luggage. Everyone keeps telling me to pack the stuff I don't REALLY need in my checked bag and everything else in the carry-on, but I'm packing a month's worth of stuff and can't stand to lose ANY of it!!! So my fingers are crossed.
I'm really going to miss my friends, family, Nick and especially Luigi - LOL, you guys know how obsessed I am with my dog - but I'm hoping all of you will keep in touch by email/Facebook. I'm all signed up for Skype and my lovely parents got me a laptop for my birthday (thanks Mom and Dad!), so if you have Skype, let me know and I'll send you my screen name! I'll also be using my brand new spiffy laptop to blog on here as often as possible to keep everyone updated on my adventures...
Next time I post, I'll be in Spain... OMG!
¡Hasta luego, amigos! :)
- LC
Right now, it's Tuesday night and I'm still at home - but by this time tomorrow, I will be on a plane headed to Madrid. It's crazy... I can't believe I'm leaving so soon. I've been really anxious about the trip - about packing, traveling, living with a host family, classes, etc. but I guess I'm just an anxious person in general! I'm going to be with a great group of people (shout out to my roomie, Lorianne!) and I'm sure we'll all have a great time. And hopefully, I'll manage to get there in one piece... WITH my luggage. Everyone keeps telling me to pack the stuff I don't REALLY need in my checked bag and everything else in the carry-on, but I'm packing a month's worth of stuff and can't stand to lose ANY of it!!! So my fingers are crossed.
I'm really going to miss my friends, family, Nick and especially Luigi - LOL, you guys know how obsessed I am with my dog - but I'm hoping all of you will keep in touch by email/Facebook. I'm all signed up for Skype and my lovely parents got me a laptop for my birthday (thanks Mom and Dad!), so if you have Skype, let me know and I'll send you my screen name! I'll also be using my brand new spiffy laptop to blog on here as often as possible to keep everyone updated on my adventures...
Next time I post, I'll be in Spain... OMG!
¡Hasta luego, amigos! :)
- LC
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