I´m alive and as I predicted, have no time to update the blog while I´m on Spring Break. Oh well. I´ll be back in Spain on Tuesday and will post then. Things have been great, but I´ll tell all about it when I get back. Currently in Brussels and headed off to England tomorrow to see Matt for the weekend. After that I´ll have a major post and lots of pictures. So far I´ve taken around 350 and thats after I´ve already gone through my camera and skimmed out the bad ones.
Uhhh, I guess that´s it for now. Time to go see some stuff.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Semana Santa or Jesus Built My Vespa
I don´t have enough time to post really, as prophesized, because I´m too busy with schoolwork before I go away for Semana Santa (basically Spring Break). Semana Santa is actually a big Catholic whoop-de-doo, with lots of solemn processions and the general praising of the Passion of Christ (not the movie, the actual Passion). So instead of doing all that, I´m going to some very non-Catholic areas of Europe. I think I´ve outlined the trip before, but here it is again, with feeling.
Greg, my former spunky roommate from NU, is coming along for the adventure because he wants to and because he can. The other member of our party is Eric, who is from Colorado and likes kebabs.
First stop, Amsterdam for 2 nights - Mostly for the prostitutes, but I hear they have some nice museums as well.
Second stop, Rotterdam for 3 nights - Don´t ask me why we´re going to Rotterdam for 3 nights, I just figured it´d be cooler and less touristy than Amsterdam. Everybody keeps telling me that it´s lame though and I shouldn´t waste my time in Rotterdam. Whatever, screw ´em. We might rent a car anyway and then go out into countryside or back to Amsterdam, or maybe some other cool places.
Third stop, Brussels for 4 nights - If we do have a car, we´ll drive here, if not, we´ll take a train. Brussels is supposed to be great, but so is the rest of Belgium, so it´ll be ideal to have a car or to take day trips by train to check out some of the other cities and the countryside. It´ll mostly be beer and waffles while here. If they have other culinary offerings, I´ve never heard of them thus far in my life.
Final stop, England for 3 nights - I break off from my party and visit my friend, Matt, in Southampton. Won´t be going to London, as I´ve done that in the past and it´s a wallet buster. I like just hanging out with Matt and his friends and family anyway, and I´m really looking forward to getting back into England as it´s a place I´ve grown to love. I return on Monday, the 24th.
I think Eric´s friend is also going to be joining us for one leg of the trip (either the Rotterdam or Belgium part), which is cool because the more, the better.
It´s gonna kinda suck to be leaving Spain for the sake of my Spanish, which I´m really starting to get comfortable with. It´s hard to explain, but I´ve started to reach a level where I don´t feel so awkward speaking Spanish. I´m not where I consider to be fluent or anything, but the rate at which I´m improving has increased a lot since I got here. Hopefully I won´t lose too much of that while I´m on vacation.
Other than that, I´ve just been trying to get the massive amounts of work I have done. Just about to write up the report for a book I just read. It was a book written for people learning Spanish, so it didn´t have a very complex plot or even many polysyllabic words, but it did fit the requirement of our assignment, so I´m just gonna do it and pass it in tomorrow. Even though that´s only the tiniest amount of the load I have to do, I´m going to go away and forget about the rest since there´s no way in hell I´m doing any of it there. I´ll save the headaches for the last week of April.
OK, enough chatter, time to get to it. I´ll try to get a short update in here and there during my travels, but it might only be a brief recounting of events. Pictures will probably have to wait til the end to be put up, but I promise a mega-update once I get back, regardless. Oh, and Graham saw my blog and told me I wasn´t sarcastic enough, and therefore it´s boring, so I´ll try to be more sarcastic when I get back. Maybe I´ll even come off as witty, if I´m lucky, but don´t get your hopes up.
Happy Passover and Easter. Maybe that rabbit will see his shadow this year.
Greg, my former spunky roommate from NU, is coming along for the adventure because he wants to and because he can. The other member of our party is Eric, who is from Colorado and likes kebabs.
First stop, Amsterdam for 2 nights - Mostly for the prostitutes, but I hear they have some nice museums as well.
Second stop, Rotterdam for 3 nights - Don´t ask me why we´re going to Rotterdam for 3 nights, I just figured it´d be cooler and less touristy than Amsterdam. Everybody keeps telling me that it´s lame though and I shouldn´t waste my time in Rotterdam. Whatever, screw ´em. We might rent a car anyway and then go out into countryside or back to Amsterdam, or maybe some other cool places.
Third stop, Brussels for 4 nights - If we do have a car, we´ll drive here, if not, we´ll take a train. Brussels is supposed to be great, but so is the rest of Belgium, so it´ll be ideal to have a car or to take day trips by train to check out some of the other cities and the countryside. It´ll mostly be beer and waffles while here. If they have other culinary offerings, I´ve never heard of them thus far in my life.
Final stop, England for 3 nights - I break off from my party and visit my friend, Matt, in Southampton. Won´t be going to London, as I´ve done that in the past and it´s a wallet buster. I like just hanging out with Matt and his friends and family anyway, and I´m really looking forward to getting back into England as it´s a place I´ve grown to love. I return on Monday, the 24th.
I think Eric´s friend is also going to be joining us for one leg of the trip (either the Rotterdam or Belgium part), which is cool because the more, the better.
It´s gonna kinda suck to be leaving Spain for the sake of my Spanish, which I´m really starting to get comfortable with. It´s hard to explain, but I´ve started to reach a level where I don´t feel so awkward speaking Spanish. I´m not where I consider to be fluent or anything, but the rate at which I´m improving has increased a lot since I got here. Hopefully I won´t lose too much of that while I´m on vacation.
Other than that, I´ve just been trying to get the massive amounts of work I have done. Just about to write up the report for a book I just read. It was a book written for people learning Spanish, so it didn´t have a very complex plot or even many polysyllabic words, but it did fit the requirement of our assignment, so I´m just gonna do it and pass it in tomorrow. Even though that´s only the tiniest amount of the load I have to do, I´m going to go away and forget about the rest since there´s no way in hell I´m doing any of it there. I´ll save the headaches for the last week of April.
OK, enough chatter, time to get to it. I´ll try to get a short update in here and there during my travels, but it might only be a brief recounting of events. Pictures will probably have to wait til the end to be put up, but I promise a mega-update once I get back, regardless. Oh, and Graham saw my blog and told me I wasn´t sarcastic enough, and therefore it´s boring, so I´ll try to be more sarcastic when I get back. Maybe I´ll even come off as witty, if I´m lucky, but don´t get your hopes up.
Happy Passover and Easter. Maybe that rabbit will see his shadow this year.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Explosión en mi cabeza
As usual, the theme of my life here in Spain has been busy most recently. Much too busy, in fact. It´s obnoxious how things are structured with all of our huge deadlines immediately following the 2 and a half (or is it a full 3?) weeks of vacation and holidas we have...
Mi madre described April as The Month of Festivals in Spain, and with apparant good reason. The last three weeks of it are completely packed with holidays and parties and fun crap. This is all well and good, except for the fact that as soon as that´s over I have a book report, two 10-page papers (completely in Spanish), and two huge finals. Oh and just to add to the fun, the papers are 1.5 spaced, not double. Madre mía. I haven´t quite figured out how I´m going to manage this load, but I´m sure I´ll have some stroke of genius soon. This sucks especially hard since it´s getting hotter than ever and the beach is that much more appealing.
Something else to add to the stress column is how there´s been a ton of mosquitos getting into my room every night and buzzing around in my ear making it impossible to stay asleep for more than an hour at a time. I wouldn´t care if they came in and just bit me (which they do anyway), but they seem to feel the need to fly directly around or in my ear too. The result is that I´m exhausted during the day and can barely focus or speak Spanish in any sensical manner. Apparantly I need a good night´s sleep to be able to think in Spanish even a little bit. Someone mentioned there are mosquito repellent devices that you can plug into the wall, so I´ll have to be looking into that soon. It´s too hot to sleep with the windows closed.
Also, I did terrible on both my tests last week. Oops. While I suppose the language one was my own fault, I´m pissed about the Literature one, since my teacher wouldn´t review with us even though I asked her to the class before. This past class, she actually had the nerve to cuss us all out because we all did so terrible and didn´t study at all (which I´m quite certain we all did). She claimed the material was so easy, but if we didn´t know which of the 30 pages of photocopies to look over, how the hell were we supposed to know which specific definitions she wanted us to memorize? I was contemplating going to the program director and complaining as I did ask her for review and all (and it was 1/4 of my final grade), but I don´t think I´d be able to make my case unless more than one of us said something. Nobody else in my class seems that pissed off though, so I´m kind of on my own here. Plus I don´t want to do anything to anger the teacher more and make her like me less. She gave us some extra credit work to do to make up for the all around bad show, but I´m writing in my blog instead of doing it right now.
Alright, enough bitching, there are other things going on as well.
There was a protest being held yesterday on campus. I followed all the noise to its source and found Arantxa, my intercambio, in the crowd. I asked her qué pasa about and she explained that the school wanted to disintergrate the English Studies program and force all of its participants into a new European Studies program. Basically what this means is that all of the students studying English language and culture (a set "major" or course of study) will have to stay in school for an extra period of time and learn additional languages to fufill the new European Studies requirements. The people in the English Studies program like the current program because they can focus solely on English and England- a country that actually has a real economy (unlike Spain) that they can move to and get a job in after they graduate- and don´t want to be concerned with having to learn German, French, Italian, or whatever other language that they have no intention of ever using. I don´t understand why an English-specific program can´t be maintained for those who want only to deal with England and only have to be in school for 3 years, but I´m sure the entire situation is a lot more complicated than I understand it to be.
It struck me hard, however, that the students actually cared enough to protest about something like that. Protests practically never happen on college campuses anymore in the States, and it´s hilarious to think one ever would occur because the school decided to eliminate one major to create a new, similar, one. Students are so apathetic back home I feel. Tuition at Northeastern gets raised several hundred dollars a year, something that I think is legitametely worth protesting over. Yet the most you ever hear from students (even those that are paying for their entire education themselves) is a whiny complaint to their friends. They could eliminate the Pharmacy major at our school and I don´t think they´d get more than a half dozen angry letters. A protest? Are you kidding? The kicker is, my History teacher told us that this was strangely the first protest this year and usually there are at least 2 a month, and even more during the warm months. Maybe this doesn´t get you going as much as it does me, but it´s certainly food for thought.
I´m gonna cut this short while I´m ahead, so I can actually get a little bit of work done before class. Hopefully this won´t be my last post before I head out for Spring Break, but I´m pretty much up to my ears in work until the end of the semester, so from here on out, posts might be sparse in number and short in length. I´ll try not to let this be the case, but as my computer time will be more and more limited, I´m going to need to spend most of it researching or typing papers- especially since the university will be closed for most of the month, and I´ll have to pay for every minute I have at an internet salon.
Be good.
Mi madre described April as The Month of Festivals in Spain, and with apparant good reason. The last three weeks of it are completely packed with holidays and parties and fun crap. This is all well and good, except for the fact that as soon as that´s over I have a book report, two 10-page papers (completely in Spanish), and two huge finals. Oh and just to add to the fun, the papers are 1.5 spaced, not double. Madre mía. I haven´t quite figured out how I´m going to manage this load, but I´m sure I´ll have some stroke of genius soon. This sucks especially hard since it´s getting hotter than ever and the beach is that much more appealing.
Something else to add to the stress column is how there´s been a ton of mosquitos getting into my room every night and buzzing around in my ear making it impossible to stay asleep for more than an hour at a time. I wouldn´t care if they came in and just bit me (which they do anyway), but they seem to feel the need to fly directly around or in my ear too. The result is that I´m exhausted during the day and can barely focus or speak Spanish in any sensical manner. Apparantly I need a good night´s sleep to be able to think in Spanish even a little bit. Someone mentioned there are mosquito repellent devices that you can plug into the wall, so I´ll have to be looking into that soon. It´s too hot to sleep with the windows closed.
Also, I did terrible on both my tests last week. Oops. While I suppose the language one was my own fault, I´m pissed about the Literature one, since my teacher wouldn´t review with us even though I asked her to the class before. This past class, she actually had the nerve to cuss us all out because we all did so terrible and didn´t study at all (which I´m quite certain we all did). She claimed the material was so easy, but if we didn´t know which of the 30 pages of photocopies to look over, how the hell were we supposed to know which specific definitions she wanted us to memorize? I was contemplating going to the program director and complaining as I did ask her for review and all (and it was 1/4 of my final grade), but I don´t think I´d be able to make my case unless more than one of us said something. Nobody else in my class seems that pissed off though, so I´m kind of on my own here. Plus I don´t want to do anything to anger the teacher more and make her like me less. She gave us some extra credit work to do to make up for the all around bad show, but I´m writing in my blog instead of doing it right now.
Alright, enough bitching, there are other things going on as well.
There was a protest being held yesterday on campus. I followed all the noise to its source and found Arantxa, my intercambio, in the crowd. I asked her qué pasa about and she explained that the school wanted to disintergrate the English Studies program and force all of its participants into a new European Studies program. Basically what this means is that all of the students studying English language and culture (a set "major" or course of study) will have to stay in school for an extra period of time and learn additional languages to fufill the new European Studies requirements. The people in the English Studies program like the current program because they can focus solely on English and England- a country that actually has a real economy (unlike Spain) that they can move to and get a job in after they graduate- and don´t want to be concerned with having to learn German, French, Italian, or whatever other language that they have no intention of ever using. I don´t understand why an English-specific program can´t be maintained for those who want only to deal with England and only have to be in school for 3 years, but I´m sure the entire situation is a lot more complicated than I understand it to be.
It struck me hard, however, that the students actually cared enough to protest about something like that. Protests practically never happen on college campuses anymore in the States, and it´s hilarious to think one ever would occur because the school decided to eliminate one major to create a new, similar, one. Students are so apathetic back home I feel. Tuition at Northeastern gets raised several hundred dollars a year, something that I think is legitametely worth protesting over. Yet the most you ever hear from students (even those that are paying for their entire education themselves) is a whiny complaint to their friends. They could eliminate the Pharmacy major at our school and I don´t think they´d get more than a half dozen angry letters. A protest? Are you kidding? The kicker is, my History teacher told us that this was strangely the first protest this year and usually there are at least 2 a month, and even more during the warm months. Maybe this doesn´t get you going as much as it does me, but it´s certainly food for thought.
I´m gonna cut this short while I´m ahead, so I can actually get a little bit of work done before class. Hopefully this won´t be my last post before I head out for Spring Break, but I´m pretty much up to my ears in work until the end of the semester, so from here on out, posts might be sparse in number and short in length. I´ll try not to let this be the case, but as my computer time will be more and more limited, I´m going to need to spend most of it researching or typing papers- especially since the university will be closed for most of the month, and I´ll have to pay for every minute I have at an internet salon.
Be good.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Back to the Capital
A short account of this weekend´s activities. Pictures are already up on my Flickr page, although I still didn´t manage to snap off quite as many as I would have liked. Oh well.
Friday I had a test for language class, which I think went pretty well. I may have messed up bit on the essay part, but only because I didn´t use a ton of subjunctive tense like the teachers probably wanted us to. Otherwise, I think it was pretty coherent and complete.
Afterwards, I hopped on for my free bus ride to Madrid. We arrived at the hotel and I began to scavenge around for lodging. I was extremely lucky to find that Anastasia and Tyler´s room had -for no apparant reason, whatsoever- an extra cot already set up in it. Needless to say, I was extremely psyched to have my own bed to sleep in. That night, hung out with some people and we went out and got some really good Japanese-style food. They had sushi which we tried, although it wasn´t terribly impressive and cost a lot. We went back to the hotel to get ready to go out, but took our sweet ass times doing it and didn´t manage to leave until 1:30 or 2. We only had enough time for one drink at the Irish bar we went to, then they began to close.
It´s interesting to notice how much more strict Madrid -the country´s capital- is about enforcing the new laws concerning bars and public drinking. As of January 1st, there were put in place regulations on how late a bar (although not a club) can stay open and serve alcohol. Apparantly that time is 2am in Madrid (I think it´s later down here by an hour). These laws are carefully enfored by the police, as well. Alicante, a relatively podunk resort city is way more lax about almost everything in this department. Cops don´t seem to mind public drinking, bars aren´t held at gunpoint to close at the 2 or 3am cut-off time, etc. I think generally I´m used to the idea that the bigger it is, the less these kind of things are enforced (New York being a perfect example). In Madrid, packs of motorcycle cops were combing the streets busting up any sign of botellon, while the botellons in Alicante are always left alone, not to mention the fact that the city willingly cleans up after them.
Anyway, since all of us were too tired to hit up the clubs (and there were plenty to choose from), we decided it best to head home and get some much needed sleep. I was happy to be able to do so in my sweet cot.
Saturday, I fully intended to get up early enough to join the group for the tour of the Senate, but I realized that sleep mattered a whole lot more to me. The report from those that was that it wasn´t anything special so I didn´t feel too bad about missing out. I opted to walk around by myself and enjoy the city, which I did indeed do. I found a very cool park that had a hill offering an excellent view of the Palace and the outer portions of the city. It is known to have a breathtaing view of the sunset, but unfortunately we never had time to get up there and see it. I also walked through a park that had a statue of Don Quixote. After that I wandered over to Plaza Mayor to try to find some friends. I met up with Ana and we went to El Museo de la Reina Sofía, which is (awesomely) free on Saturdays after 2:30. Now I thought the Prado (a classical art museum) was pretty cool, but I was totally stunned at how amazing the Reina Sofía was (a modern art museum). It has astounding collections of Picasso, Dalí, and Miró. We opted to get the audio headsets for 3€ (the usual price for admission), which I´m glad we did. Being able to see Guernica (it´s gigantic) was intense, and the goes for the Dalí paintings, which up close in their original glory was beautiful. They put those behind glass so you can get up really close and notice all of the crazy detail put into each of Dalí´s insane creations. The dude was definitely tapped. There was also a showing of some of the early movies of Luis Buñuel (the father of Spanish surrealist film) that he did with Dalí. The one I caught a piece of was also pretty tapped, but extremely interesting to watch.
The idea behind surrealism in movies was to convey a point through intensely visual metaphors. The result can being extremely unsettling at times, and it isn´t always immediately apparant what the director is trying to convey (especially if one is unfamiliar with the context of the film). Surrealism in Spanish cinema became extremely common once Franco was in power, since the only way films would be approved by censors was if they contained nothing that was easily discernable as contrary to the ideals and policies of the regime (thank you Profesor Rose and Spanish Civil War on Film). Buñuel had many followers and imitators, so seeing some of his early, pre-Franco work was cool.
We walked around and kind of ran through the top floor which was all modern art from 1940s and up. This was cool, but after having already spent 2 hours looking at "classic" modern art, our brains were beginning to overload a bit. When trying to leave, we managed to stumble into all of the museum´s temporary exhibits as well, which were also extremely cool, but we just didn´t have the mental capacity to handle more art at that point. We must have spent almost 3 and a half hours in the museum, and I really would have liked to go back again another day just to be able to digest everything more fully.
Saturday night was to be my birthday celebration, but it was notoriously difficult to round up any formidable number of people, nevermind the fact that it´s a huge pain in the ass walking around a gigantic (uber-bustling) city like Madrid with a big group. Instead, I ended up going out with a group of 7 or so people that happened to all be chilling in the same place at the same time. We lost a couple of heads early on because of disagreements over dinner (someone always wants to eat at TGI Friday´s when there´s one around for some reason). We ended up getting a kebab and watching the second half of the R. Madrid-Barça game, which I would have liked to have seen all of. It ended in a disappointing tie (not disappointing if you´re a Barça fan though). After that we pretty much just wandered around a particularly buzzing neighborhood stopping in for a drink here or there. I was happy to be completely lost and then suddenly look to my left and see the same microbrewery I had visited the last time I was in Madrid. We stopped in and topped the night off with a thirst-quenching, ultra-fresh beer. Once again, we opted not to go to clubs, which suited me fine. Instead, we just walked back to the hotel which at this point was quite close. Ana and I chilled out on the balcony for a bit (we had an incredible view of the Gran Via) and then turned in.
About 3 hours later we were awake and packing up to check out. Everybody piled onto the buses and we headed over to the Prado which I skipped out on since I had been the last time, and was in no mental-state to walk through again anyway. Instead I sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful day. Headed over to the park soon after and tossed the disc around until it was time to get on the buses and head back to Alicante. Regardless of the fact that I should have just gone to bed right after dinner, Eric insisted on taking me out for a few birthday drinks, since Sunday was my actual birthday, and he wasn´t in Madrid to celebrate the first time around. I couldn´t really say no.
So all and all, it was a very fun weekend. I´m quite happy I decided to go back to Madrid, and would highly recommend it to anybody who is interested in visiting Spain.
I wanted to go to Granada next weekend because it seems like a place I really need to visit while in Spain. Everybody that goes says they love it. Unfortunately, I don´t think going will be the greatest idea since I´ll be leaving for Spring Break 3 days later. Maybe I can squeeze it in at the end of the program.
I have more I could write about, but I have much to do on the computer while I still have time left.
Thanks to everybody that sent along birthday wishes through facebook/email/text message/otherwise.
Love, Peace, and Chicken Grease
Friday I had a test for language class, which I think went pretty well. I may have messed up bit on the essay part, but only because I didn´t use a ton of subjunctive tense like the teachers probably wanted us to. Otherwise, I think it was pretty coherent and complete.
Afterwards, I hopped on for my free bus ride to Madrid. We arrived at the hotel and I began to scavenge around for lodging. I was extremely lucky to find that Anastasia and Tyler´s room had -for no apparant reason, whatsoever- an extra cot already set up in it. Needless to say, I was extremely psyched to have my own bed to sleep in. That night, hung out with some people and we went out and got some really good Japanese-style food. They had sushi which we tried, although it wasn´t terribly impressive and cost a lot. We went back to the hotel to get ready to go out, but took our sweet ass times doing it and didn´t manage to leave until 1:30 or 2. We only had enough time for one drink at the Irish bar we went to, then they began to close.
It´s interesting to notice how much more strict Madrid -the country´s capital- is about enforcing the new laws concerning bars and public drinking. As of January 1st, there were put in place regulations on how late a bar (although not a club) can stay open and serve alcohol. Apparantly that time is 2am in Madrid (I think it´s later down here by an hour). These laws are carefully enfored by the police, as well. Alicante, a relatively podunk resort city is way more lax about almost everything in this department. Cops don´t seem to mind public drinking, bars aren´t held at gunpoint to close at the 2 or 3am cut-off time, etc. I think generally I´m used to the idea that the bigger it is, the less these kind of things are enforced (New York being a perfect example). In Madrid, packs of motorcycle cops were combing the streets busting up any sign of botellon, while the botellons in Alicante are always left alone, not to mention the fact that the city willingly cleans up after them.
Anyway, since all of us were too tired to hit up the clubs (and there were plenty to choose from), we decided it best to head home and get some much needed sleep. I was happy to be able to do so in my sweet cot.
Saturday, I fully intended to get up early enough to join the group for the tour of the Senate, but I realized that sleep mattered a whole lot more to me. The report from those that was that it wasn´t anything special so I didn´t feel too bad about missing out. I opted to walk around by myself and enjoy the city, which I did indeed do. I found a very cool park that had a hill offering an excellent view of the Palace and the outer portions of the city. It is known to have a breathtaing view of the sunset, but unfortunately we never had time to get up there and see it. I also walked through a park that had a statue of Don Quixote. After that I wandered over to Plaza Mayor to try to find some friends. I met up with Ana and we went to El Museo de la Reina Sofía, which is (awesomely) free on Saturdays after 2:30. Now I thought the Prado (a classical art museum) was pretty cool, but I was totally stunned at how amazing the Reina Sofía was (a modern art museum). It has astounding collections of Picasso, Dalí, and Miró. We opted to get the audio headsets for 3€ (the usual price for admission), which I´m glad we did. Being able to see Guernica (it´s gigantic) was intense, and the goes for the Dalí paintings, which up close in their original glory was beautiful. They put those behind glass so you can get up really close and notice all of the crazy detail put into each of Dalí´s insane creations. The dude was definitely tapped. There was also a showing of some of the early movies of Luis Buñuel (the father of Spanish surrealist film) that he did with Dalí. The one I caught a piece of was also pretty tapped, but extremely interesting to watch.
The idea behind surrealism in movies was to convey a point through intensely visual metaphors. The result can being extremely unsettling at times, and it isn´t always immediately apparant what the director is trying to convey (especially if one is unfamiliar with the context of the film). Surrealism in Spanish cinema became extremely common once Franco was in power, since the only way films would be approved by censors was if they contained nothing that was easily discernable as contrary to the ideals and policies of the regime (thank you Profesor Rose and Spanish Civil War on Film). Buñuel had many followers and imitators, so seeing some of his early, pre-Franco work was cool.
We walked around and kind of ran through the top floor which was all modern art from 1940s and up. This was cool, but after having already spent 2 hours looking at "classic" modern art, our brains were beginning to overload a bit. When trying to leave, we managed to stumble into all of the museum´s temporary exhibits as well, which were also extremely cool, but we just didn´t have the mental capacity to handle more art at that point. We must have spent almost 3 and a half hours in the museum, and I really would have liked to go back again another day just to be able to digest everything more fully.
Saturday night was to be my birthday celebration, but it was notoriously difficult to round up any formidable number of people, nevermind the fact that it´s a huge pain in the ass walking around a gigantic (uber-bustling) city like Madrid with a big group. Instead, I ended up going out with a group of 7 or so people that happened to all be chilling in the same place at the same time. We lost a couple of heads early on because of disagreements over dinner (someone always wants to eat at TGI Friday´s when there´s one around for some reason). We ended up getting a kebab and watching the second half of the R. Madrid-Barça game, which I would have liked to have seen all of. It ended in a disappointing tie (not disappointing if you´re a Barça fan though). After that we pretty much just wandered around a particularly buzzing neighborhood stopping in for a drink here or there. I was happy to be completely lost and then suddenly look to my left and see the same microbrewery I had visited the last time I was in Madrid. We stopped in and topped the night off with a thirst-quenching, ultra-fresh beer. Once again, we opted not to go to clubs, which suited me fine. Instead, we just walked back to the hotel which at this point was quite close. Ana and I chilled out on the balcony for a bit (we had an incredible view of the Gran Via) and then turned in.
About 3 hours later we were awake and packing up to check out. Everybody piled onto the buses and we headed over to the Prado which I skipped out on since I had been the last time, and was in no mental-state to walk through again anyway. Instead I sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful day. Headed over to the park soon after and tossed the disc around until it was time to get on the buses and head back to Alicante. Regardless of the fact that I should have just gone to bed right after dinner, Eric insisted on taking me out for a few birthday drinks, since Sunday was my actual birthday, and he wasn´t in Madrid to celebrate the first time around. I couldn´t really say no.
So all and all, it was a very fun weekend. I´m quite happy I decided to go back to Madrid, and would highly recommend it to anybody who is interested in visiting Spain.
I wanted to go to Granada next weekend because it seems like a place I really need to visit while in Spain. Everybody that goes says they love it. Unfortunately, I don´t think going will be the greatest idea since I´ll be leaving for Spring Break 3 days later. Maybe I can squeeze it in at the end of the program.
I have more I could write about, but I have much to do on the computer while I still have time left.
Thanks to everybody that sent along birthday wishes through facebook/email/text message/otherwise.
Love, Peace, and Chicken Grease
Thursday, March 30, 2006
My Weekend: Madrid, Pt. 2
Quicky, cause I´m at an internet salon with some pretty trash rates, and I need to get home, study and pack.
So I´ve decided to definitely head back to Madrid as outlined in my previous post. The weather is looking to be gorgeous, so this pleases me greatly. Muchos amigos have been kind enough to offer me up bed spaces, so I don´t have to sleep on the floor. Plus my now advanced knowledge of the city (ha) will make me a popular guy to follow around for the weekend. Also, it´s my birthday weekend (22 on Sunday) so I´m gonna have to drag people around to buy me drinks. Hopefully I won´t smash my face open on a table this year (if you don´t know the story, i´ll explain some other time).
Anyhow,
Had my Literature midterm today, and I don´t think it went exceedingly well. It wasn´t anything catastrophic, but I´m not expecting much above a 6.5 (that´s B-/C+ territory I think). Oh well, I tried my best. I just can´t analyze poetry en español. I have another test tomorrow for my language class, but it isn´t quite so major, and shouldn´t present too many problems.
We had daylight savings time last week, which is frustratingly difficult in the mornings, but excellent in the evenings. I love it when it´s light out until 9pm. Days are only getting longer too at this point.
Went out to an open mic night this week and saw something I figured I´ll never see in the States... Acoustic covers of Bon Jovi songs. Yeah, you could smell them from the back of the room they were so bad. Not that there exists such a thing as a "good Bon Jovi song," but these guys were playing the drivel from the newest album, and doing it extremely poorly. I´ve seen plenty of bad open mic in my college days, but this really takes the cake. I had to mention it because was bothering me so much.
Speaking of my college days, they´re almost over. I just picked the classes I´ll be taking for my (hopefully) last semester: An AVID (post production) editing class, Spanish Seminar, and an Advanced TV Studio class to learn goodies like directing, scriptwriting, and lighting. I´ve taken a class like this before, but it was more cursory in nature, and this will round off and augment what I already know. Looks to be promising. I register on Monday, so hopefully I´ll get everything I need so I can peace the hell out of NU and stop handing over piles and piles of money.
Alright, I´ll cut it out before I start ranting about the evils of American higher education in the 21st century. Maybe in a later post after I come back home...
Next time you hear from me, I´ll be one year closer to death. Sweet.
Paz
So I´ve decided to definitely head back to Madrid as outlined in my previous post. The weather is looking to be gorgeous, so this pleases me greatly. Muchos amigos have been kind enough to offer me up bed spaces, so I don´t have to sleep on the floor. Plus my now advanced knowledge of the city (ha) will make me a popular guy to follow around for the weekend. Also, it´s my birthday weekend (22 on Sunday) so I´m gonna have to drag people around to buy me drinks. Hopefully I won´t smash my face open on a table this year (if you don´t know the story, i´ll explain some other time).
Anyhow,
Had my Literature midterm today, and I don´t think it went exceedingly well. It wasn´t anything catastrophic, but I´m not expecting much above a 6.5 (that´s B-/C+ territory I think). Oh well, I tried my best. I just can´t analyze poetry en español. I have another test tomorrow for my language class, but it isn´t quite so major, and shouldn´t present too many problems.
We had daylight savings time last week, which is frustratingly difficult in the mornings, but excellent in the evenings. I love it when it´s light out until 9pm. Days are only getting longer too at this point.
Went out to an open mic night this week and saw something I figured I´ll never see in the States... Acoustic covers of Bon Jovi songs. Yeah, you could smell them from the back of the room they were so bad. Not that there exists such a thing as a "good Bon Jovi song," but these guys were playing the drivel from the newest album, and doing it extremely poorly. I´ve seen plenty of bad open mic in my college days, but this really takes the cake. I had to mention it because was bothering me so much.
Speaking of my college days, they´re almost over. I just picked the classes I´ll be taking for my (hopefully) last semester: An AVID (post production) editing class, Spanish Seminar, and an Advanced TV Studio class to learn goodies like directing, scriptwriting, and lighting. I´ve taken a class like this before, but it was more cursory in nature, and this will round off and augment what I already know. Looks to be promising. I register on Monday, so hopefully I´ll get everything I need so I can peace the hell out of NU and stop handing over piles and piles of money.
Alright, I´ll cut it out before I start ranting about the evils of American higher education in the 21st century. Maybe in a later post after I come back home...
Next time you hear from me, I´ll be one year closer to death. Sweet.
Paz
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Time Flies (bzzzzzz)
Wow. My program is almost over. I´m not supposed to return to the States until May 31st, but school ends only half way through the month, and I just realized half of between now and then is actually vacation. I have mixed feelings about this...
I mean, it´s very cool to have so much free time coming up, but I´m going to be spending a chunk of it out of Spain, probably getting by on English, and maybe a few phrases I learn of Dutch or French or whatever the situation calls for. Then there is pretty much an extra week without classes where my Spanish will probably be kept to a minimum, since I´ll be lying on the beach the whole time not thinking about much of anything really. And then almost immediately after that we have our finals. Ech.
I hope I´m not too rusty by then.
So yeah, my thoughts on the program thus far...
I find it sort of frustrating how many Americans there are here. Besides my program, which is inordinately large this semester (115 students), there are like 3 other programs here as well that are full of Americans. Needless to say, it makes it real easy to stick with Americans all the time. Also, we do a ton of activities and trips with only Americans. I wish there was more integrated activities that sort of "forced" us to meet Spaniards. We have the intercambio projects, which are fine, but my intercambio doesn´t live in Alicante, so I only see her once (maybe twice) a week for an hour or so on campus. That isn´t to say I haven´t enjoyed making lots of new American friends. I´m finally at the point where I´ve figured out the truly quality people in the program that I´ll be in touch with for years to come, but I wanted to also make friends from lots of other places. I know that I´m not at all free of fault for not having made more international friends at this point, but I sort of wish our program wasn´t so structurally isolated. Well, there is still time left, and new places to see, so I haven´t given up hope. For now, I´ll just stay away from the Beer Pong and Flip Cup Nights at their respective American-college-student-pandering bars.
My Spanish Lit. professor is finally back. She had disappeared for 2 weeks because she had bronchitis and pneumonia and had to go to the hospital. While I have no ill will towards her (I´m happy that she´s fully recovered), I can´t say I was disappointed when we didn´t have class for two weeks. I really really can´t stand going and I´m dreading having to write a 15 page paper (1.5 spaced, not double) and take a final in May. She really is a godawful teacher. Also, I can´t imagine she´ll be in the most chipper of moods when she hasn´t been able to smoke a cigarette for over a week or two. Maybe she´s recovered enough to start smoking again. One can only hope.
I´m debating about whether to return to Madrid or not with the other group in my program. I´d be a sort of interloper, as CIEE only allows for us to take two weekend trips on their budget. I was told that I can hop on the bus for free though, since there will be enough space, and I´ve already had friends offer me up room to sleep in their hotel rooms. I won´t be able to go on the guided tour stuff (which I already saw the first time around) and they won´t give me €35 for food, but since travel and accomodations are taken care of, It´d still be a really good opportunity to take advantage of. This way, I can hope for better weather and will be able to just walk around the city at my own pace during the day chilling out, not worrying so much about this museum or that palace tour. I´ll also be able to take some half decent pictures which I completely failed to do the first time around. I´ll just eat calamari bocadillos (€2 a pop!) and kebabs all weekend to keep the cost of food low, and I should be golden. Hmmm, writing it all out and reading it over has pretty much made me convince myself I want to do it.
This weekend was one of pure relaxation. Friday and Saturday were spent mostly at the beach, with some frisbee and a lot of sleep thrown in for good measure. Sunday I lazed around the house and poked at my homework bit by bit ´til it was done. Saturday morning I awoke to this short, round, loud guy sitting in the kitchen, crackin´ wise and all but chugging wine. It turned out to be my madre´s primo (cousin) who was in from Barcelona for god knows what reason. Apparantly he´s a rich decorator who owns four different houses across Spain. Who knew there was so much money in decoration? He immediately starts pouring me a glass of wine (I´m still wiping the crusty gunk out of my eyes) and wants me to tell him my life story. We ate a kickass meal of lamb chops and murcías - weird brownish/black pig sausages that tasted slightly spicy and were completely delicious. It was a great way to start my day, and it ended up being a great weekend all around.
Can´t think of much else that´s going on at the moment, other than the fact that Spring Break starts two weeks from Wednesday - something I can hardly wrap my head around. Almost time to go home for comdia anyway, then I think I´d like to just lay on the beach til the sun goes down or until somebody comes along to play frisbee. Gotta enjoy it while I can...
Paz
I mean, it´s very cool to have so much free time coming up, but I´m going to be spending a chunk of it out of Spain, probably getting by on English, and maybe a few phrases I learn of Dutch or French or whatever the situation calls for. Then there is pretty much an extra week without classes where my Spanish will probably be kept to a minimum, since I´ll be lying on the beach the whole time not thinking about much of anything really. And then almost immediately after that we have our finals. Ech.
I hope I´m not too rusty by then.
So yeah, my thoughts on the program thus far...
I find it sort of frustrating how many Americans there are here. Besides my program, which is inordinately large this semester (115 students), there are like 3 other programs here as well that are full of Americans. Needless to say, it makes it real easy to stick with Americans all the time. Also, we do a ton of activities and trips with only Americans. I wish there was more integrated activities that sort of "forced" us to meet Spaniards. We have the intercambio projects, which are fine, but my intercambio doesn´t live in Alicante, so I only see her once (maybe twice) a week for an hour or so on campus. That isn´t to say I haven´t enjoyed making lots of new American friends. I´m finally at the point where I´ve figured out the truly quality people in the program that I´ll be in touch with for years to come, but I wanted to also make friends from lots of other places. I know that I´m not at all free of fault for not having made more international friends at this point, but I sort of wish our program wasn´t so structurally isolated. Well, there is still time left, and new places to see, so I haven´t given up hope. For now, I´ll just stay away from the Beer Pong and Flip Cup Nights at their respective American-college-student-pandering bars.
My Spanish Lit. professor is finally back. She had disappeared for 2 weeks because she had bronchitis and pneumonia and had to go to the hospital. While I have no ill will towards her (I´m happy that she´s fully recovered), I can´t say I was disappointed when we didn´t have class for two weeks. I really really can´t stand going and I´m dreading having to write a 15 page paper (1.5 spaced, not double) and take a final in May. She really is a godawful teacher. Also, I can´t imagine she´ll be in the most chipper of moods when she hasn´t been able to smoke a cigarette for over a week or two. Maybe she´s recovered enough to start smoking again. One can only hope.
I´m debating about whether to return to Madrid or not with the other group in my program. I´d be a sort of interloper, as CIEE only allows for us to take two weekend trips on their budget. I was told that I can hop on the bus for free though, since there will be enough space, and I´ve already had friends offer me up room to sleep in their hotel rooms. I won´t be able to go on the guided tour stuff (which I already saw the first time around) and they won´t give me €35 for food, but since travel and accomodations are taken care of, It´d still be a really good opportunity to take advantage of. This way, I can hope for better weather and will be able to just walk around the city at my own pace during the day chilling out, not worrying so much about this museum or that palace tour. I´ll also be able to take some half decent pictures which I completely failed to do the first time around. I´ll just eat calamari bocadillos (€2 a pop!) and kebabs all weekend to keep the cost of food low, and I should be golden. Hmmm, writing it all out and reading it over has pretty much made me convince myself I want to do it.
This weekend was one of pure relaxation. Friday and Saturday were spent mostly at the beach, with some frisbee and a lot of sleep thrown in for good measure. Sunday I lazed around the house and poked at my homework bit by bit ´til it was done. Saturday morning I awoke to this short, round, loud guy sitting in the kitchen, crackin´ wise and all but chugging wine. It turned out to be my madre´s primo (cousin) who was in from Barcelona for god knows what reason. Apparantly he´s a rich decorator who owns four different houses across Spain. Who knew there was so much money in decoration? He immediately starts pouring me a glass of wine (I´m still wiping the crusty gunk out of my eyes) and wants me to tell him my life story. We ate a kickass meal of lamb chops and murcías - weird brownish/black pig sausages that tasted slightly spicy and were completely delicious. It was a great way to start my day, and it ended up being a great weekend all around.
Can´t think of much else that´s going on at the moment, other than the fact that Spring Break starts two weeks from Wednesday - something I can hardly wrap my head around. Almost time to go home for comdia anyway, then I think I´d like to just lay on the beach til the sun goes down or until somebody comes along to play frisbee. Gotta enjoy it while I can...
Paz
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Briefly...
Excellent news in Spain! ETA officially declared a ceasefire! ETA, if you are unaware, is the Basque seperatist group that was blowing up innocent Spaniards in a bid to gain independence from the Spanish government. They have become an extremely unpopular entity since the fall of Franco back in the 1970s as nobody could quite figure out why they thought terrorist acts would convince a democratic government to grant a people total autonomous rule. Back when Franco was in power and forced a culture of homogenity and repression, their struggle for independence was one shared by all the communities of Spain. Once the dictator died, and each of the autonomous communities were allowed to resume the practice and celebration of their respective cultures (like speaking their own languages for example), it seemed odd that ETA was resorting to terrorist tactics in an effort to gain further independence. Zapatero, the president of Spain, has said that negotiations are now a possibility since the ceasefire has been declared. Everybody wins, in other words... at least for now. This wonderful news has been blaring across the country all day, and there will surely be a great deal of celebrating everywhere this week. Spain is most certainly a safer place now.
In other news, got a few pics up from Madrid, but after doing some quality control and deleting of doubles, there really aren´t many at all (like maybe 12). The one´s I do have aren´t terribly good, but they are there for the viewing. Flickr link is to the right where they may be viewed.
Gave my presentation on Sevilla in History today and I would say I fairly killed it (that´s a good thing). The teacher told me she said it was really interesting and I had even taught her a few new things she hadn´t known. I´m pleased with this. I still have a midterm coming up, and two huge papers looming over the horizon. It´ll be tougher than ever to concentrate, however, as literally half of the time left I have in Spain is breaks. No joke, we have a TON of time off coming up, even though it is technically the busiest time of the semester for us. ¡Uf!
I suppose there is more to discuss, but I´ll have to get to it later, perhaps tomorrow, as I need to run for now.
Out.
In other news, got a few pics up from Madrid, but after doing some quality control and deleting of doubles, there really aren´t many at all (like maybe 12). The one´s I do have aren´t terribly good, but they are there for the viewing. Flickr link is to the right where they may be viewed.
Gave my presentation on Sevilla in History today and I would say I fairly killed it (that´s a good thing). The teacher told me she said it was really interesting and I had even taught her a few new things she hadn´t known. I´m pleased with this. I still have a midterm coming up, and two huge papers looming over the horizon. It´ll be tougher than ever to concentrate, however, as literally half of the time left I have in Spain is breaks. No joke, we have a TON of time off coming up, even though it is technically the busiest time of the semester for us. ¡Uf!
I suppose there is more to discuss, but I´ll have to get to it later, perhaps tomorrow, as I need to run for now.
Out.
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