a familiar phrase for all us americans, but i've brought it to España! this entry will be a little weird because now I know that my host brothers will be reading this very soon most likely, but it's all good. i only have good things to say!
last night we went to a peace gathering that happens a few times a year and works to gather all different religions, cultures, peoples, etc to fight for peace and encourage acceptance of others. This normally wouldn't be something i would be interested in but it was a really cool thing to see. This is exactly the reason why I wanted to live in a homestay- you can't get this kind of real cultural experience when you live with other americans in an apartment. (Así, Roberto, Daniel, y Arturo- muchas gracias por esta experiencia.)
we drove to the peace gathering and it might have been the most exhilarating and terrifying experience I've had so far. remember how I mentioned how narrow and windy these streets are? well, imagine driving through them with less than 6 inches of space on either side at 40 miles an hour. I would have killed myself and everyone else in the car if it had been me driving. on another note- spaniards listen to as much american music as we do. Who knew that my host brothers would know all the lyrics to The Time (Dirty Bit) by Black Eyed Peas? and many other mainstream hits as well. however, in reference to the title, they did not know how to dougie (nor had they ever heard of it), so naturally i had to bring it here. let's just say I have a feeling i'll be hearing that phrase quite a bit around this house for some time. betsy and i also unsuccessfully tried to show them how to do the stanky legg but it was kind of a failure. oops. until next time...
viva la vida.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
los trabalenguas
in other words, tongue twisters. you know..."peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" or "sally sells seashells by the seashore." So everyone knows that the spaniards can do some crazy shit with their tongues when they talk. That "rrrrrr" sound that is just so goddamn hard to do for an american. well, apparently it isn't just natural for them either. just like we have tongue twisters in the good ol' united states of america, spaniards create them for a purpose. apparently when kids are little their parents teach them this "trabalengua" to help them get that beloved "rrrrrr" sound. I'll bold where the "rrrrrr" is supposed to come in. Here goes:
"El perro de Sanroque no tiene rabo porque Ramón Ramirez se lo ha cortado." try saying that 3 times fast. this is the stuff i'm learning over here. sorry mom and dad, class isn't teaching me anything. these lovely tidbits of information come from my dear host brothers.
On that topic of my host family, I learned an alternate version of the card game "bullshit" last night. you know the one where you get to yell out "bullshit!" when you think someone puts down a card other than what they say it is? In spain it's called "mentira" which just means liar- a lot less fun to say. they also have different rules, which was hard to get used to. needless to say, i lost miserably to mis hermanos, but it was a grand time all the same. finally betsy and i feel comfortable around them and in our homestay, especially when the whole family comes to visit! (once a week the relatives come and we have a massive dinner of lots of delicious persian food. i couldn't be happier on these nights.)
other than that, not much is new. class is such a small part of my experience here that it's not even worth talking about. we'll see if that changes in a couple weeks when i actually matriculate and take real classes, just in a whole different language. pshhh, piece of cake.
viva la vida.
"El perro de Sanroque no tiene rabo porque Ramón Ramirez se lo ha cortado." try saying that 3 times fast. this is the stuff i'm learning over here. sorry mom and dad, class isn't teaching me anything. these lovely tidbits of information come from my dear host brothers.
On that topic of my host family, I learned an alternate version of the card game "bullshit" last night. you know the one where you get to yell out "bullshit!" when you think someone puts down a card other than what they say it is? In spain it's called "mentira" which just means liar- a lot less fun to say. they also have different rules, which was hard to get used to. needless to say, i lost miserably to mis hermanos, but it was a grand time all the same. finally betsy and i feel comfortable around them and in our homestay, especially when the whole family comes to visit! (once a week the relatives come and we have a massive dinner of lots of delicious persian food. i couldn't be happier on these nights.)
other than that, not much is new. class is such a small part of my experience here that it's not even worth talking about. we'll see if that changes in a couple weeks when i actually matriculate and take real classes, just in a whole different language. pshhh, piece of cake.
viva la vida.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
we've taken over
who needs washington d.c. when you live in sevilla, spain? oh! you didn't get the memo? sevilla is now the capital of america. yeah. we're taking over spain, it's official. i see more americans on the street than spaniards and i hear more english than in new york city. wtf?? first of all, i don't know that many people altogether but apparently every person i do know now lives within a 2 mile radius of me. my plans for leaving my comfort zone and not surrounding myself with americans is turning out to be extremely hard. ¡joder!
1. i was trying to find a gym yesterday to join (because, let's face it, 20 minutes to walk to the river to run- it just isn't going to happen) and i saw a girl wearing workout clothes, so i figured she was headed in that direction.
me: ¿Sabe dónde hay un gimnasio cerca de aquí?
her: I'm American.
me: oops. guess i'll speak english now.
2. went to a bar last night and saw 2 friends from Tufts alone, along with the 30 other americans on my program that were crammed into a corner. i might have heard 3 words in spanish the whole night. it's a little ridiculous.
oh well. so anyway, at this bar I basically drank liquid candy all night. something called agua de brasil. so delicious. some mixture of many types of alcohol, peach juice, and whipped cream (for those of you faithful readers who don't know this, it's my fave- just ask the lovely ladies of 143 college). i sipped on that for a while, made me pretty happy. then ended my night early. again. i really need to get into the spanish groove, just so i can say i stayed out until 6 AM. who knows if that'll ever happen.
This might be my last blog for a while. I have to start class tomorrow. apparently studying abroad isn't only about drinking, sleeping, and eating? this isn't what i signed up for....
viva la vida.
1. i was trying to find a gym yesterday to join (because, let's face it, 20 minutes to walk to the river to run- it just isn't going to happen) and i saw a girl wearing workout clothes, so i figured she was headed in that direction.
me: ¿Sabe dónde hay un gimnasio cerca de aquí?
her: I'm American.
me: oops. guess i'll speak english now.
2. went to a bar last night and saw 2 friends from Tufts alone, along with the 30 other americans on my program that were crammed into a corner. i might have heard 3 words in spanish the whole night. it's a little ridiculous.
oh well. so anyway, at this bar I basically drank liquid candy all night. something called agua de brasil. so delicious. some mixture of many types of alcohol, peach juice, and whipped cream (for those of you faithful readers who don't know this, it's my fave- just ask the lovely ladies of 143 college). i sipped on that for a while, made me pretty happy. then ended my night early. again. i really need to get into the spanish groove, just so i can say i stayed out until 6 AM. who knows if that'll ever happen.
This might be my last blog for a while. I have to start class tomorrow. apparently studying abroad isn't only about drinking, sleeping, and eating? this isn't what i signed up for....
viva la vida.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
buddha buddha buddha
oh hey. it's been too long. it's time to update you on my life. even though i'm in spain and i thought that i was experiencing the nightlife here, apparently coming home at 3:30 AM doesn't cut it- in sevilla 6:00 is the normal time to volver a la casa. sorry sevilla, i'm a disappointment. anyway, we went to a discoteca called buddha bar (apparently that's not the actual name but everyone calls it that because on every wall and every flat surface there's another image or statue of buddha.) it was pretty fun- every song they played was in english, but it's all good. me and my roommate got in for free bc we went before 1:30 so that saved us 8 euros a piece. not too bad.
que más...haha last night was weird. there's this travel/activity group that works with americans and study abroad students. they organized a pregame and a night at a discoteca but it was super sketchy because we started our night drinking free sangria on the roof outside of a fitness center. really weird. i drank a little too much tinto de verano (by the way amanda, 78 cents for 1.5 liters. i did the math, it's essentially as much alcohol as 20 cents a beer. i think i found my drink.) ended my night a little too early and fell asleep drunk, thus, giving myself a splitting headache this morning. it's all good though- i now know how to walk from my house to my school and to the main city center! that's a score in my book, considering how terrible i am at directions.
viva la vida.
que más...haha last night was weird. there's this travel/activity group that works with americans and study abroad students. they organized a pregame and a night at a discoteca but it was super sketchy because we started our night drinking free sangria on the roof outside of a fitness center. really weird. i drank a little too much tinto de verano (by the way amanda, 78 cents for 1.5 liters. i did the math, it's essentially as much alcohol as 20 cents a beer. i think i found my drink.) ended my night a little too early and fell asleep drunk, thus, giving myself a splitting headache this morning. it's all good though- i now know how to walk from my house to my school and to the main city center! that's a score in my book, considering how terrible i am at directions.
viva la vida.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
¡joder!
my new favorite word. that and "de puta madre", which literally means "of the bitch mom". But it is most comparable to "that's the shit" in English. kind of gross/weird, but a widely used phrase here in Spain. bahhhh. let's see. So I've spent one night at my homestay. I live with a señora and her two sons along with another student Spanish who's studying in Sevilla. The boys are all between 17 and 19 so they basically sit on the couch watching fútbol (or soccer for us backwards americans) and yelling obscenities in Spanish that have trouble understanding. I also have a roommate, another student in my program from Mississippi. She's adorable and has the cutest southern drawl. (Betsy if you're reading this, ¡te quiero!)
bars here are really fun and pretty chill, there are a ton of them right near where my homestay is so that's really useful. i haven't been to a discoteca yet but i'm planning on going pretty soon, get my groove on! I'm getting to know the people on my program a little better, slowly but surely. there are lot of state university kids from oregon and wisconsin, but they're all pretty cool. so far, so good here in españa. Although...it might take me a month to navigate my way around the city. it's smaller than madrid but it's so fucking confusing. everything is down little alleyways and side streets and it really does feel like a maze. but hopefully i'll figure it out eventually. i guess there really isn't a downside- on every corner there's at least 1 bar that serves 1 euro beers and glasses of tinto de verano, which is basically cheap red wine and sprite. my kind of drink! still have yet to find those 1 euro bottles of wine though...amanda parker, i dedicate my first bottle to you. salud.
viva la vida.
bars here are really fun and pretty chill, there are a ton of them right near where my homestay is so that's really useful. i haven't been to a discoteca yet but i'm planning on going pretty soon, get my groove on! I'm getting to know the people on my program a little better, slowly but surely. there are lot of state university kids from oregon and wisconsin, but they're all pretty cool. so far, so good here in españa. Although...it might take me a month to navigate my way around the city. it's smaller than madrid but it's so fucking confusing. everything is down little alleyways and side streets and it really does feel like a maze. but hopefully i'll figure it out eventually. i guess there really isn't a downside- on every corner there's at least 1 bar that serves 1 euro beers and glasses of tinto de verano, which is basically cheap red wine and sprite. my kind of drink! still have yet to find those 1 euro bottles of wine though...amanda parker, i dedicate my first bottle to you. salud.
viva la vida.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
me duelen los pies.
My feet hurt. That's what the title means. We walk everywhere here, and of course I thought it was a good idea to wear brand new boots out. False. I learned the hard way I guess. The Spaniards love their tapas. And cerveza. I've had a total of 6 drinks throughout the day today, and the drunkest I was was during lunch. Bienvenidos a España, claro. We went out to a tapas restaurant and bar and ordered a whole bunch of stuff that's basically fried potatoes in some sort of cream sauce. Hello study abroad-15. Oh and I embarrassed myself by shouting across the table a word I had just learned- "chuparse" because my Spanish tour guide was telling one girl to "chupala cuchara" (lick the spoon). Well, little did I know that when you say chuparlo it means, suck my dick, essentially. I apologized to the old couple sitting next to us. Just chalk it up to being an ignorant American I guess.
After dinner we walked to a flamenco club, that ended up being super sketchy and weird. I thought I was bored but some kid standing next to us kept falling asleep standing up and almost fell about 4 times. ¡Vale! Finally, we heard about an irish pub (go figure) that has free sangria from 11-12. Turns out, it's basically juice. And there were a shit ton of American college students. Oh well. We walked back the mile and a half or so back to the hotel, all while I cried silently in pain as my feet began to die.
Viva la vida.
After dinner we walked to a flamenco club, that ended up being super sketchy and weird. I thought I was bored but some kid standing next to us kept falling asleep standing up and almost fell about 4 times. ¡Vale! Finally, we heard about an irish pub (go figure) that has free sangria from 11-12. Turns out, it's basically juice. And there were a shit ton of American college students. Oh well. We walked back the mile and a half or so back to the hotel, all while I cried silently in pain as my feet began to die.
Viva la vida.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
forget about getting my feet wet, i dive.
1/17/11
7:05 PM (Spanish time)= 1:05 PM (NY time)
I got to the hotel around 6 after traveling for almost 21 hours. Called Shelby to have dinner since I was all alone in a new city and didn't have a clue about how to handle that. I thought it would be just me and her but it turns out Shelb is just so popular that she brought along Americans from her program as well as Spaniards that she randomly met the night before at a bar. So, first 3 hours in Sevilla and I'm at a tapas bar with 8 other people, half of them Spaniards- Sevillanos to be exact. A little overwhelming trying to communicate with them but I managed. I added 3 new words to my vocabulary: "chupito" = shot; "chulo" y "guay" = cool. Also, things are a lot cheaper here than I expected. 1 euro beers. Guess I'll be drinking more than I thought. I apologize in advance to my liver.
Entonces. Today starts orientation. Went out with some people to explore the city, which is incredible. I can't believe I'm living here. Also, 65 degrees in the middle of January. How you like them apples, Boston? Anyways, can't wait to see more of the city and get to know more people, and just live "como un Sevillano." Tengo mucho que aprender.
p.s. I decided to sign all of my future blogs with a phrase.
Viva la vida.
7:05 PM (Spanish time)= 1:05 PM (NY time)
I got to the hotel around 6 after traveling for almost 21 hours. Called Shelby to have dinner since I was all alone in a new city and didn't have a clue about how to handle that. I thought it would be just me and her but it turns out Shelb is just so popular that she brought along Americans from her program as well as Spaniards that she randomly met the night before at a bar. So, first 3 hours in Sevilla and I'm at a tapas bar with 8 other people, half of them Spaniards- Sevillanos to be exact. A little overwhelming trying to communicate with them but I managed. I added 3 new words to my vocabulary: "chupito" = shot; "chulo" y "guay" = cool. Also, things are a lot cheaper here than I expected. 1 euro beers. Guess I'll be drinking more than I thought. I apologize in advance to my liver.
Entonces. Today starts orientation. Went out with some people to explore the city, which is incredible. I can't believe I'm living here. Also, 65 degrees in the middle of January. How you like them apples, Boston? Anyways, can't wait to see more of the city and get to know more people, and just live "como un Sevillano." Tengo mucho que aprender.
p.s. I decided to sign all of my future blogs with a phrase.
Viva la vida.
Monday, January 17, 2011
airplane boredom
Also copied from the journal...
12:50 (Spanish time)= 6:50 (NY time)
In actuality I'm flying so I have no idea what time it is- somewhere between London & Madrid. It figures I would write in this much more often in the beginning. It's been only 5 hours since my last entry. It's kind of cool being on the plane going to Spain because everything is in Spanish and English. And people start by assuming that I speak the language- until I open my mouth. Oops. Better improve on that. It's funny how that works- in Israel everyone thought I was Israeli and here I'm Spanish. At home I'm Puerto Rican. Obviously. Guess I'm just a chameleon. Unless I go to Sweden or Russia. Don't think I'll be mistaken for a native there.
p.s. really into "Airport Song" by Guster. It's been getting me through these flights. Props to Noah for his taste in music.
Forgot to mention in the last entry that on my flight to JFK to Heathrow this 30 something year old dude with long hair sat next to me and immediately started talking about how easy it is to get drugs in Europe. Then he got up and found a row to himself, leaving me to stretch across 3 seats and sleep for 4 hours. But not before explaining to me the nature of his work as a stone company owner, cartoonist, and professional gambler. Muy interesante. Anyway...think that's it for now. Landing in Madrid relatively soon...
12:50 (Spanish time)= 6:50 (NY time)
In actuality I'm flying so I have no idea what time it is- somewhere between London & Madrid. It figures I would write in this much more often in the beginning. It's been only 5 hours since my last entry. It's kind of cool being on the plane going to Spain because everything is in Spanish and English. And people start by assuming that I speak the language- until I open my mouth. Oops. Better improve on that. It's funny how that works- in Israel everyone thought I was Israeli and here I'm Spanish. At home I'm Puerto Rican. Obviously. Guess I'm just a chameleon. Unless I go to Sweden or Russia. Don't think I'll be mistaken for a native there.
p.s. really into "Airport Song" by Guster. It's been getting me through these flights. Props to Noah for his taste in music.
Forgot to mention in the last entry that on my flight to JFK to Heathrow this 30 something year old dude with long hair sat next to me and immediately started talking about how easy it is to get drugs in Europe. Then he got up and found a row to himself, leaving me to stretch across 3 seats and sleep for 4 hours. But not before explaining to me the nature of his work as a stone company owner, cartoonist, and professional gambler. Muy interesante. Anyway...think that's it for now. Landing in Madrid relatively soon...
¡Welcome to Sevilla!
So...I debated for a while about whether I would create a blog. Guess I got sucked in. I started by writing in my journal and realized I might as well publish it so that everyone can see. This is from yesterday when I was sitting in Heathrow in London during my 4 hour layover, people watching, etc.
1/16/11 7:35 AM (London time) = 2:35 AM (NY time)
I'm sitting in Heathrow waiting to find out where my gate is beacuse I got here so damn early that even the airport doesn't know. Oh well, gotta make the best of it I guess. I can study my Spanish phrases and drink my very strong (and very expensive) coffee from "Bagel Street." I'll find out later how the bagel's taste. <-- (By the way, not so great. Obviously not in New York anymore =/).
I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to write in a blog, and I haven't experienced anything yet. Still have 2 more flights and a cab ride before I reach the hotel. I guess my mind is still focused on Israel at the moment. I'm not sure I've really processed that I'm going to Spain yet. I left my house yesterday and I won't be back for 4 1/2 months. Holy shit, that's crazy. Also I've never traveled this long or far by myself, so that's a first. Kind of worried about my Spanish as well...I was sitting next to some old ladies in JFK who were speaking Spanish- couldn't understand a word they were saying. Oops. Guess I better improve. Well, tata for now! (I heard some British dude say that on the bus going between terminals in Heathrow. The English are so weird.)
1/16/11 7:35 AM (London time) = 2:35 AM (NY time)
I'm sitting in Heathrow waiting to find out where my gate is beacuse I got here so damn early that even the airport doesn't know. Oh well, gotta make the best of it I guess. I can study my Spanish phrases and drink my very strong (and very expensive) coffee from "Bagel Street." I'll find out later how the bagel's taste. <-- (By the way, not so great. Obviously not in New York anymore =/).
I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to write in a blog, and I haven't experienced anything yet. Still have 2 more flights and a cab ride before I reach the hotel. I guess my mind is still focused on Israel at the moment. I'm not sure I've really processed that I'm going to Spain yet. I left my house yesterday and I won't be back for 4 1/2 months. Holy shit, that's crazy. Also I've never traveled this long or far by myself, so that's a first. Kind of worried about my Spanish as well...I was sitting next to some old ladies in JFK who were speaking Spanish- couldn't understand a word they were saying. Oops. Guess I better improve. Well, tata for now! (I heard some British dude say that on the bus going between terminals in Heathrow. The English are so weird.)
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