29/11/12

This is a wee bit late but i shall tell my tale about the time i went to my first bull fight.

First of all, there was supposed to have around 30 people going, which i believe is why it was free to us. When it came time to go, there was around 8 people going...oops! That same day there was a rock climbing excursion, so maybe that is why people had to ditch. The group that actually went was a nice group, we all were friends, and that made half the experience. We met in the central parking lot where we met other people going, including the group D tutor, Maria Jose, creo que, y otras personas, puede ser la inglesia, pero no se. The person that was leading the group looked like one of the students here, which was pretty funny. the situation turned out that he was the actual Torero. The road to the "fight" was long, bumpy, but very fun, singing, bumping to the road.

When we got to the Ganaderia, the place was at the top of a mountain. We walked to rotunda of a stadium and saw the bulls (which were smaller than i thought) getting proded on by the people. We sat down in the "stadium" and the guy that we had met before came out in a traditional torero outfit. The outfit was as follows: a short vest, pants that went up to his chest...i wouldnt recommend these pants for the normal guy..because they were t-i-g-h-t. That is all i will say.

Bull fighting commenced. The bull was let out and the guy had the big ol' "flag" thing that was pink and yellow. Followed by the traditional red "flag" jave. This whole process was supposed to end with "the killing of the bull" but yea, no, this was a bull-friendly bull fight :)

After various people tried to "torero" and various people (cough Christian and Cedric) getting knocked around a little bit. We had lunch, where we got 2 lunches (because they made more than people were there). We ate lunch in a little cabin looking thing izquirda del stadium. In all the experience was very fun, and i believe it was a good first bull fighting expierence :)

ANIMALS WERE NOT HARMED IN MAKING OF THIS BLOG

My week
Internet is getting more and more crappy. But everyone is complaining of the same thing, even the teachers, so it will get fixed...if not this semester, hopefully after we get back from break :D

Laundry is another story, although i am pretty sure its just because my laundry soap is not the best, but its totally not working and my clothes are not clean when they are supposed to be clean. Never had that problem, but its ok, i get experience of washing my own clothes and drying them ALL by hand!

What really made my week happy was a very special package from my mother. From the time that she has been looking for coats, what we always have been looking for is coats that have fuzzyness EVERWHERE. Well, she has found one, and shes letting me borrow it!!! how epicly amazing is that? i will always think of her when i wear it and when i feel its warmth, its like she is hugging me :)) When i just opened up the package it smelled like home, oh i miss that smell!

This week hasnt been a hard week homework wise, so a few friends and i have been getting together for marathons of Friends episodes. We basically watched the whole second season! Good times. Oh and also truth and dare...that was pretty fun/funny :p

About two more weeks and we will be on our way to Ireland for christmas break :)
<3

Sabado

Sabbaths are a time to reflect and have time with friends that you normally wouldn't have. Today some friends and I went down to the tangerine orchards that line the driveway up to the school and hung out and talked about nothing while searching for tangerines. some "tangerines" were the size of oranges!

Thanksgiving Away From Home

My first Thanksgiving away from home. Need i say more? I didnt really think about what that meant or how that would effect my emotions.

First of all, yesterday i twisted my ankle for the 3rd time since i have been here. JOY! But let me get to the actual day. This morning i had the intention of taking advantage of having no school and sleeping in until my body could not handle any more sleep, little did i know that my body had enough sleep after falling asleep at 11 and waking up at 9. I wanted to go to breakfast but breakfast had just ended so i just stayed in bed. My early morning consisted of one American TV show, gummy bears from home, and staying in bed. At 11 the people here had a series of games of flag football! it was raining so my rain jacket had a good work out! I took videos and pictures! But the games were definintly not boring, Christian, one of our teachers (of conversation), played and he actually made a touchdown!! A few people got knocked about, but no one really died :D

After football everyone had lunch, which was not bad, and i had to help with the final preperations for thanksgiving dinner including making the salad, baked mac and cheese and the final preperations on the other food (stuffing, sweet potatoes and other things). It didnt last long so i went back to my room and chilled, thinking of what i would wear and such (ended up wearing my cute black halter dress with the crocheted looking top). At 6 i had to go to the play practise that the theatre people were doing for the dinner. I was a pilgram that died because it was so cold in winter (with my short sleeved white shirt that i picked up in the girls dorm lobby give away box).

Finally at 7:30 the dinner began, we sang the National Anthem at first, had prayer, did the play of Pocahontas and John Smith, then finally we ate. The dinner was the greatest thanksgiving dinner i have ever had. Probably because the food was homemade by us, and it had AMAZING flavor. A. the salad was amazing B.the potatoes were the best...i dont know how or why but they were good! C. Bakcd Mac and Cheese. sigh....i had a good thanksgiving dinner :) After dinner we sat around talking, listening to music. a few people sang special songs and did little cute things, one group of persons sang Baby Its Cold Outside! I giggled!! Stuff like that. To drink was fake wine, like what is sold at the VM, sparkling grape juice without the sparkling, i think it was real grape juice! After some people sang we had dessert, apparently there was enough pie for people, 50 pies with 8 pieces a pie! COMO UNOS JEFES!!!

today was a blast, and i believe i have never had a better thanksgiving ever and it will be pretty hard to beat when i get back state-side.

FU(tbol)N

In Spain, in order to have a dull day, a person only has to stay in their room and not socialize. To have a fun day the only thing a person has to do is to step out into the wild and get their feet wet. Today, for me, i jumped in the ocean of fun in Spain. 

Today started out with sleep, i like to take a Sabbath's rest literally and enjoy the rest that God gives in times of stress and strangeness. But after i lived God, for sabbath school a few folks and i got together and sang sabbath songs that we all knew in english and spanish. Had lunch, which i was fairly unimpressed with, and then commenced the afternoon with playing Phase 10. Most of the people got to a fairly good "phase" by the time we had to end. 

We sadly had to end phase 10 because of an event which is unique to Europe, but is humongous in Espana, futbol! I had signed up for a Valencia vs. Espana futbol game for tonight! The game was in Valencia so the group of us got in the bus, picked up the people that were attending  a bible credit class, which was a camping trip over the topic of sex. I'm pretty sure they were relieved to come to the futbol game! When we got at the stadium finally, after climbing the total height of the stadium, Valencia had just gotten their first goal, tying the game 1-1. There were a lot of people there, duh, and it was the classic scene that you see on TV. Everyone was yelling cheers, chants, and revelries while decked out in their Valencian or Espana gear. The spectacle was quite entertaining and interesting from a sociological view. There were people yelling the total length of the game, people in our group were like "how can they yell that amount of time" and i thought about it, maybe its because they've been raised with the yelling, and its just thing thing that you do when you come to a game? practicing once or twice a week, their voices would probably get used to it! 

Yes, the game in whole was very entertaining for me, as an American raised on baseball. But the last 5 minutes were the most interesting out of the whole game while each of the teams were trying to get out of a tie. Many things progressed. 1. yellow cards were given for such things as tripping people, 2. RED cards were given for headbutting, mooning, yelling at the ref, 3. goalies getting a work out. 

In whole this day has been one for the books folks! FIRST futbol game....thats pretty big for me :D

Afterwards we went to the mall in Valencia until late and walked around goofed off in stores and talked to people i dont normally talked to, that was fun :D 

 

14 de Nov.: protest day

For the last few days i have not been able to sleep well. Either because i have been worried about SAU next year or just insomnia in general. Sunday morning/afternoon group C went over to Lidia's house (our tutor) and had an home cooked meal for the first time (for me) and talked and had fun. it was a nice change of pace, and plus i got to see her new house! it is located in the city near by- Petres! Sunday night my friends and i had a break from cafe food and made our own food in a kitchen located in the bottom of the girls dorm, which happens to be right under my dorm room! who knew! maybe this will prepare me for living on top of a pizza shop! Anyways, we made mexican food! included: fresh salsa made by raquel, pico de gallo by maria and rachel kearby, guac by rachel v, tortillas by me then rolled by a multitude of people and then "cooked" by cedric. OH and amazing mexican rice by..i think raquel :) it was a grand meal and we plan on making that again, if not just the torillas...they were amazing!

getting used to actual school may be the problem of sleeping. But last night i slept amazingly. went to bed around 11 ish and woke up at 9! right after i got two messages from friends at SAU on facebook, had a nice chat with both of them. one looking for a job and the other suffering from a broken foot :P so that was a nice refresher from the bog of people from spain. I love the people here dont get me wrong, but the people from home have a quality to them that brings a feeling of home, which is always welcome in my mind!

Today is protest day in Spain...Italy, Greece and Portugal. Jobs being at 50% doesnt sit so well in these parts so what do they do? they tell people and alert people to what they are suffering. In America, we just rant on facebook. Like the elections. and not getting enough sleep (i can say this because i have not posted anything on facebook about my lack of sleep lately). I say this speil about the protests because of one simple reasons (among other more complicated ones): because i was planning on going out for Horchata with the school. really spain? you have denied me the fruits of your beautiful country!

History class was fun. We are starting to learn about the Inquisition in spain, starting at siglo XI. When we started about talking about isabel and ferdinand my ears perked up. we had the option of asking a question that was not addressed in the assigned reading for the previous night, so i set upon the task of figuring something out so the teacher would realize that i am an interested student and that i am paying attention. I came up with the question "was ferdinand a king along side isabel or was he just a prince like prince philip in england?" of course it was in spanish, but that was the only difference. He said "muy bien" to me, aka AN A+ bam! i love history! and it was the first class of the day, which meant i actually understood a good percentage of what he was saying!



This post has been brought to you by: the gummies my mommy sent to me :D

Musings

The last couple of days I've had a lot of time to think and ponder over many different subjects. whether it was during worship, while zoning in class, or while i was waiting for passport dealings to happen and end. Not really over the elections, because all the people ranting and raving over them on Facebook made me SICK. Mostly over life in general.
How do i plan on spending it.
Where will i work?
Will i keep contact with the amazing people i am meeting here?
Will i learn Spanish in time to leave Spain?
Do i cut my hair, dye my hair, both, or neither?
I miss my parents
What homework do i have for the next day?
Plans for Christmas
What will happen on my first Christmas away from home? (this makes me teary)
Is there really the right guy out there for me?
Did i make a mistake?
What it would be like to drive after a whole lot of months not driving?
When should i buy a stick-shift car?
These are only a portion of what goes through my mind on a daily basis. But i need to realize that i shouldn't worry. I think that it is good that i forget all these musings a couple of minutes after they enter my brain, so i don't get overloaded and explode. Granted i try to think in Spanish, but that skill is still on its way.

October 31-November 3

The following days after the 30th were kind of long and tiring. Even though there was still a lot to see in Madrid, because it is the capital of our beautiful country, we were tired after the first three days. In the interest of money and space, my two friends and i changed rooms from a 10 bed room to a 12 bed room. It was a nice change. it got to the point where the people in the 10 bed room were being annoying and partying all the time, which is not a good environment to be staying in. When we changed we got to live on the second floor of the hostel. which we still are in love with, even after the trip. October 31 being halloween, we wanted to go out and have fun. Before the trip i had looked online and checked what Madrid had to offer for Halloween festivites and it said that they dont really dress up for halloween, only a few people and there are no places to go that night because no one in Spain celebrates it. So i was like, ok, that makes sense, i dont really have a costume, so sounds awesome. We go out that night on the town to see what was happening, and what do we see? a whole bunch of people dressed up and partying. WOW. Whatever, we hung around at few places and danced. to say the least we had a very good time, im glad we stayed out, even going back and forth to the hostel and back. HAHA. The next day we totally slept in and had a lazy day. For the most part we had Breakfast for free at the hostel about 9 am and then had a full day of walking around Madrid and exploring new streets and new places to go and then have a 10 euro lunch at a buffet or a 10 euro food something around 4 pm which would last us until breakfast the next day. Financially that is what worked, stomach wise that is what worked. Everything worked so everything was all good :D

October 30

Este día fue melancolía. Después desayuno fuimos al Museo del Prado con Tyrone, el chico en nuestro cuarto. Cuando fuimos afuera el tiempo fue mal. Fue lloviendo. Hay agua en las calles. La línea por el museo fue mas largo, muchas personas fueron ahí. Pero conocemos una mujer de Nueva York y ella nos dice sobre el huracán en los Estados Unidos. Ella dice que dieciséis personas murieron. Muy  mal. El museo fue bueno. Visitemos muchas pintoras famosas como “The Three Graces”, “Mary Tudor”, “Las Meninas” y “The Naked Maja”. Fueron muy interesantes. Fue muy divertido. Hay dos pizas pero nosotros solo fuimos al primero planta. Iremos a Madrid con la escuela, so fuimos a la segunda planta en Marzo con la escuela. Después el museo fuimos a buscar un pequeño almuerzo. Encontremos pan blanco y chips…un bocadillo con chips! Ese fue buen. Después la comida mis amigas y yo fuimos al hostal y <<hung-out>> por una hora o dos y fuimos de compras por zapatos  y chaquetas. Rachel compró una chaqueta bonita! Después compremos fuimos a Hard Rock Café. Americano pero fuimos tenemos muchas hambre y necesitemos muchas comida. El camarero fue un <<jerk-face>> porque en la cuenta el circuló el parte que dijo que IVA fue no incluyó. JERK-FACE. Solo 1,35 por una IVA.  

october 29

Free breakfast at the hostel started at 8 and ended at 10. we usually had breakfast about 9 during the first few days of the trip because we had scheduled different activities. The previous night there were people in our room that came back around 2ish from partying and they were pretty loud :/ Also there was a few new people that came during the previous evening that went out partying. So then in the morning of the 29th we saw two people in a bed. OH snap... so that was kind of aqward, and by far the worst thing about the hostel, other than the showers with no pressure (pathfinders helped prepare me for that one). Today we took a free tour around Madrid by a guy named Roberto, doing tours totally as a volunteer! We went around the city, seeing the various sites, some we never went back to, but some we visited more thoroughly throughout the week. After the tour two people that we met went out with us to lunch. Apparently buffets were the best value in the touristy section of Madrid. about 10 euros for all you can eat. it was pretty good food and the company was fun change from people we met at the school. After lunch we went around the area looking at little markets that were set up. We went back to the area of the hostel to look around and explore and we saw a commotion in one of the various squares so we went to find out what it was. Previously we had seen a big sign fore the new James Bond movie, Skyfall in that very square. We asked what was happening and the girl said they were setting up for the premiere for Skyfall! I really wanted to go, but i didnt want to drag people with me if they didnt want to go. We left and went to a music shop and i called my parents to tell them what just happened. i was very excited. a little later we went back to the premiere site and got our spots! there wasnt very many people there so waiting wasnt bad. we saw all the makings of the red carpet experience. People were walking up and down the red carpet, security guards and tv people all the same. the security guards started to give out different items. The items included a black marker/pen, a little poster of naomi harris and a bigger poster of the Skyfall poster with james bond on the front. These were the making of articles to have the actors sign stuff for us! they then started handing out posters saying "i love Daniel", the same for Javier. We didnt get those, but what we had was awesome enough! Things started to pick up after dark. People took the protective covering off the red carpet, cameras were starting to be set up, press were arriving, and eventually the premiere started. There were two personality news people talking to each other and to random people. Finally there was a rush of people to the entrance and we eventually saw the stars come out! First came naomi harris. she was beautiful! Then came Javier. again...beautiful, then the grand finale Daniel Craig. They were all wearing a ton of makeup granted. Going to the premiere was definitely the highlight of that day/trip. With souvenirs! Along with the premiere, there was a few protests going on beside us. we were worried and made a plan if riots broke out, but thankfully we didnt have to run away :D

October 28 2012 Trip To Madrid (October Break)

Nuestros premier dia de vacación, fuimos a Madrid. Tuvimos desayuno y entonces caminimos a Sagunto por el tren. Mis listas de tiempos del tren fue malo, no sé por qué, pero esperamos por una hora antes la comenzaba. Después el tren caminemos a la estación del autobuses en Valencia. Exploremos más de Valencia que antes en este año. Fue muy lejos de la estación del tren, pero el tiempo fue tranquilo. El tipo de autobús tomemos fue Avanza y el viaje fue muy confortable. Los asientos fueron de cuero y como clase de negocios en un avión. Hay películas durante el viaje, pero duerme por uno o dos horas. El viaje fue (más o menos) cuatro horas. Tomare Avanza otras veces en el futuro. Después el viaje tomemos un taxi ir al hostal, Cat’s Hostal en Madrid, fuimos muy emocionados. Fuimos emocionados por la noche y nuestros tiempos en Madrid sin la escuela y sin citas. La ciudad fue muy  horripilante por la noche, pero caminemos algunos calles ver la ente y los sitos de Madrid. Fue muy temprano pero fuimos a dormir en el hostal. Nuestro cuarto hace diez camas. Yo debajo, Raquel arriba y Rachel debajo Raquel. Por la noche hay música Americana. Música electrónica de Basshunter y más. Hay un bar/pub ahí y gente en el centro del hostal. El hostal es como un edificio Árabe. Fue muy bonito. El cerrojo por nuestro cuarto es muy difícil y solo Raquel lo abrió una vez. Hay más personas interesantes ahí, quiero tomar fotos, pero noooo, lol. Ese hostal tuve muchas actividades por los clientes, incluye un tour de la ciudad gratis, clases de flamenco, salsa y español. Hay muchas hacer ahí. Me gusta ese hostal y recomendé a otras personas por el futuro.