Apparently I sucked at blogging. Spain was awesome. I'd like to go back. Like now. :D

Semana Santa-Valencia

Ryanair= cheap flights, bare necessities, hostel, beautiful city, easter, beach, fun, good food, showering with only cheap shampoo, 12 roommates, exhaustion, sharing food, horchata, churros, farton, paella, pizza, :-P 

new stuff

So I moved, its much better and much cheaper but I felt bad for a while about leaving the woman I was staying with without income. Except that you really shouldn't depend on exchange students for your livlihood. The families are there to enhance our Spain experience, not to charge ridiculous $$ for nada.

New apartment is 600 euro/month cheaper and people can come over and its closer to the university and i have social interaction with my roommates, one of whom cooks delicious food almost every night. All in all, it was a good choice to move, I feel much more comfortable.

I'm writin gthis really quickly because i am meeting with my intercambio conversation partner, Oliver, who is an engineering student here that is learning english. we meet a couple times a week and take really long walks across santander and try to understand each other in our respective languages. Sometimes this gets really funny. He also helped me with internet trouble, but alas, internet is still extremely frustrating and I often find myself in awkward positions around my apartment trying to find a good signal.

Spanish class is about to end, and has recently gotten really confusing, but I think my spanish has improved. maybe? at the very least i feel more comfortable communicating, and Im pretty confident that in most situations my spanish is good enough to get my point across. I was considering taking the next level but there are only 2 other students that signed up for it so the class will probably get canceled.

Uhmm what else?? I have actual homework this week and im not used to that.

Ok finish later oliver is here :)

Haven't Blogged in a While...

...and I really don't feel like it right now. Maybe tomorrow. I moved. Weather is better. :D

Elderly women party harder than I do.

*See title. 

Goodnight!!

Subjunctive is easy!

Subjunctive is easy! A la 1 hay verbos de G1, A las 2 los de G2, ... all the way around the clock and at each hour we have 1 punto punto, 2 punto punto, 3 punto punto, 4 punto punto, 5 punto punto...wtf??!

Spanish class is more like cryptography. WHAT'S WITH ALL THE NUMBERS?! oh wait, the numbers became animals, like thats any less confusing.

On another note, the teacher said that she likes the courtesy of american culture. Apparently we are polite. I actually think this is relatively true, although many would disagree.

Here, in spanish, things are pretty blunt and direct: 'Come here and do this.' In english, 'Could you come here and do this please?' I never really notice this when the spanish people speak in spanish. Its normal. But when spanish people speak english, they sometimes come off as rude. I found it funny that she acknowledged this. She also discussed how we americans are always apologizing for EVERYTHING. 'I'm sorry, but could you please explain that again?, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. I'm sorry, but I have to go to the bathroom.' Non-english speakers are like WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SO SORRY FOR? The whole concept of apologizing for non-offensive things doesn't translate very well.

My History professor didn't come to class today. I wasn't surprised.

But it was a lovely relaxing day none -the -less.

Since I hardly have class ever...

Observations:

Language is exhausting. I might be improving? I understand almost everything (except the church service) when I focus, and I am more comfortable speaking. Being around so many people who aren't speaking their native language is a good atmosphere for practice. However, I'm speaking English way too much, its confusing my brain.

It's cold. This might be a great beach/vacation town in the summer, but during the winter the humidity from the sea + low temperatures = chilled to the bone. When its not raining and the sun is shining, I am sooo happy.

I like siesta. From like 2-5 I have lunch, do some homework and rest a bit. Everything is closed from that time (except El Corte Ingles)

I dont like the "Day of Rest" quite as much. With all the siesta-ing, I dont need a whole day to rest. And it's kinda creepy on Sundays when there is literally no one in the streets or cars on the road. And considering the religious idea behind resting on Sunday, hardly anyone actually goes to church (well, we did, but I doubt that is going to become a habit).

Lots of people smoke here. (Already knew that, but I'll repeat. It's gross.) This causes 25 year old people to look middle aged, teeth to be brown, and it smells bad.)

But, there are not many fat people. (Also obvious). Personally, I attribute this to all of the stairs in Santander, because it certainly isn't that they don't eat/drink.

The school is disorganized, classes dont all start at the same time, they change rooms and schedules, theres no centralized system, no one speaks english (including the teachers who are teaching courses in english), and students rarely show up. School looks kinda like the city on a Sunday.

People seem to be fairly informed about current events and quite democratically involved, although the idea that a stable democratic political atmosphere is a component of sustainable development was rejected in my class.

"Rebajas" are awesome. Should have brought nothing and bought all of my stuff here. 15E boots, 20E coats, 3E scarves and shirts...

The food is ok. More fish than I would like, but I dont hate fish. I miss breakfast though. It has been reduced to coffee, yogurt and mango juice. Mango juice reminds me that I also miss Indian food. And Chinese food. And Thai food. And Italian food. 

My host family is great, but expensive. Im glad that I did it for the language experience and not having to worry about anything like food/laundry (I also get my exercise walking to class), but the apartment option seems perfectly awesome as the 'flats' are big, furnished, close to school, and wayyy cheaper than families.

The Spanish course is very grammar intensive. Actually, it is just very intense. I'm pissed I'm not getting credit for it because it is my hardest class.

Some courses have unspecified prerequisites.

Everyone is very nice. :D