Fritzerland

If the audience for this blog was a person, and if I ran into that person on the street, I imagine the ensuing conversation would be similar to this (italics are thoughts):

Audience:    Hey!

Me:              Uh oh.

Audience:    Hey slow down!

Me:              Maybe I can pull the “I didn’t think it was me you were yelling at” bit.

Audience:    Derek! Wait up!

Me:              Dang. Let’s go for “I didn’t hear”- Are they running now?? Shoot! Got no backup plan!

Audience:    Whoa! Slow down, bud. I almost missed ya!

Me:              Almost… Well, here goes nothing. Hey! Didn’t see ya there! How ya doin’?! It’s been a while!

Audience:    I know! I feel like you’ve been avoiding me. Haha.

Me:              Oh this is awkward. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no way! I’ve just uh, just been busy lately.

Audience:    No worries!

Me:              Well that’s neat.

Audience:    So how’s school? Anything happen after that Andalusia trip?

Me:              Ha! Wouldn’t you like to know!

Audience:    …

Me:              …

Audience:    …

Me:              … I suppose that’s why-

Audience:    Yes, that is why I asked.

Me:              Guess I’ll postpone that movie man-date with the guys. Well…

            So a week passed in Andalucía and we returned to our temporary home in Sagunto. And life carried on as normal. We attended our various classes and learned mucho, such as the fact that mucho = much. Astounding! We also had our random days off due to Spain being such a big proponent of having holidays every week during the last three months of the year. One week that there actually was not a holiday was the week of Thanksgiving. Thankfully (heh), the teachers here realize how important this is for us Americans and canceled classes for the day. Taking advantage of this, I decided to take a little trip up north to Switzerland.

            So on Wednesday, 75% of Spain’s Union College population (Screw you, Tony!) took a train up to Barcelona to catch a flight up to Geneva. We were met at the airport by our good friend, Charles (also from Union) who happens to be studying at the ACA school in France this year. His buddy gave us all a ride across the border to the school where we crashed in our respective rooms. I awoke the next morning to one of the coolest things in the world. Okay, maybe not one of the coolest. But on my personal scale of awesomeness, it was at least as high as getting a new box of legos. You see, the ACA school in France is in the side of a mountain. And at the bottom of said mountain is the Swiss city of Geneva. And on the other side of said Swiss city are the Alps, like, all of the Alps. From Charles’ bedroom window, you can pretty much see every Alp in the book, which I guess is hyperbole, but the view was pretty dang amazing.

            So once the Chuckster finished with his classes, we all took the long walk down the mountain into Switzerland to check out Geneva. Nothing too exciting, just a neat city with some high prices. I’ve heard Geneva is actually considered one of the most expensive cities in the world. Don’t quote me on that though. The interesting part came when we returned to the school. We took the wrong bus and got kicked off at the last stop, and it happened to be the last bus of the night. It turns out that the only other guy on the bus, a young business type guy with a suitcase, overheard us talking to the bus driver and heard our predicament and offered us a ride. So even though this Dutchman had just finished a long trip and probably couldn’t wait to see the wife and kids, he goes out of his way to make sure we make it home safe. And his wife, whom he was waiting for, turned out to be equally as benevolent. We crammed into their little station wagon, thankful for the coziness as it began to snow shortly after leaving the bus, and they took us not to the correct stop, but all the way to the school! They explained that they had done their fair share of traveling and understood how missing a bus/plane/train can really throw off plans. Upon arrival, they only asked that we pass along the kindness one day. I only pray that I’m given the opportunity and the means.

            Friday was similar, although we found the right bus back this time after some more exploring. Saturday morning we awoke to a land covered in snow, the first of the year, at least in that area. Of course, we had to play in it. The early afternoon was spent sledding, snowball chucking, snowman building, and all that jazz. We also got to know the ACA students there at this time. They’re a legit crew, but they’re not nearly as cool as ESDES. I wanted to see an actual Swiss chocolate shop, so that afternoon, Charles, a friend of his, and I went to into town to check one out. Along the way, we went to a French bakery and a French cheese shop. All my European stereotype dreams were coming true! The cheese shop was my favorite. A wise man once told me, now pardon my French (heh), “the more it [cheese] smells like ass, the fancier it is.” And like ass this shop did smell. I got two kinds and very contently ate them with my baguette. The next morning, it was time to go. And go we did. We flew to Barcelona where I parted with my company and went to join another crowd for possibly the best part of the trip.

            A couple days earlier, a small crowd from ESDES went up to Barcelona to meet with a small group from the ACA school in Italy. The significance of this, and the reason I went to join them, was that one of the students was a long lost friend of mine, Jonathan Soto. Well not long lost, but we’d lost touch for nearly ten years, which is a long time when it’s half your life. To say I was excited would be hypobole. So many memories came flooding back when I saw him. I felt as though we could talk shop for days without getting bored. Sadly, we did not have that long as everyone went their separate ways later that night. Despite only getting to spend a couple hours with him and the rest, it’s still a time I will never forget.

Audience:    Wow! That was a cool story. Although I didn’t understand the hypobole part.

Me:              Yeah, I didn’t think you would. Just think about prefixes and opposites and maybe it will come to you.

Audience:    Uh, alright. But wait, you said this was around Thanksgiving? It’s the end of March. What happened between then and now??

Me:              WHOA! Look at the time! I am so late for my eye doctor check-up dealie. Sorry to do this, but I’ll have to cut this session short.

Audience:    Didn’t you go to the eye doctor right before you lef-

Me:              Well! See ya!

Andalucía: Part 3

¡Vale! It’s about time I wrap up this little trip summary. But first, some announcements. First of all, this will now be a text-only blog, mostly because photos are a pain to put in (at least, the way I’d like to have them arranged). If you’d like to see pictures of my experience out here, there are many (and will be many more) posted on my Facebook page. Second, it has come to my attention that a numbered list of announcements was not necessary due to the fact that I only had one announcement. Moving on.

Those who have read this from the beginning, I told ya’ll that once upon a time I took a trip to Andalucía. That trip ended quite some time ago and, believe it or not, it was more than four days long. Here’s a summary of the second half.

Friday began with a trip to the capital of Andalucía, Sevilla. First excursion was to, brace yourself, another cathedral! There actually were a couple of interesting things about this cathedral. For one, it’s the third largest cathedral in the world (by area). Also, this cathedral houses the tomb of Christopher Columbus. Funny story, I didn’t know this second tidbit until after we had left Sevilla. I frantically looked through the pictures I had taken to see if I got a lucky shot. Alas, it was not to be. It still boggles my mind that I went all the way to Sevilla, into the same building as the tomb of the man credited with the discovery of America and I missed my opportunity to snap a portrait of myself ogling this piece of history. Sad day. After leaving, we had ourselves a carriage ride in a horse drawn buggy around the city. Nothing too special about this, but if you’ve never done it, it’s definitely something worth doing during your lifetime, not necessarily in Sevilla though.

The rest of the day was free time for us. A group of gents along with myself began to wander. One of these gents had heard of an area in Sevilla that is supposedly a must-visit. None of us knew what it was, but not having any better ideas, we went for it. After a solid amount of search time, we arrived at a huge fairground! Had there actually been a fair going on, I would have added more exclamation marks. But in October, it just looked like a trash littered dirt lot. Upon this realization, we were all a little bummed. But in reality, these types of events are the ones I love in life. Those incidents that make you realize the destination didn’t matter, it was all about the journey. We had such a grand time improving our map skills all the while talking shop about whatevs. And then there’s the retrospect part of it all, “So what’d you do while in Sevilla?” “We spent two hours searching for a parking lot.” “O…..kay..” Now, to me, that is a hilarious dialogue that has the potential to actually take place in my future. How neat is that? Despite how sarcastic this all sounds, it really is not. I don’t regret at all how we spent that afternoon.

Moving on to Sabbath. Our group was to have service in the local park. We settled in and were promptly split into groups. These groups each had a specific part of the service. One group was to do song service, another was to do a scripture reading. My group was assigned the sermon. Oh boy. There’s nothing like going into a park on a sunny Sabbath morning expecting to hear an uplifting and inspiring message only to learn it’s your job. None of us could think of a topic on the spot, probably because no one wanted to speak in front of everyone. So that led us to the idea of speaking about stepping out of your comfort zone, as all of us were forced to do that morning. We each gave our own little spiel. One person mentioned how they don’t like to speak in front of people, this was brief but effective. Another spoke of an experience during a mission trip to India. I also decided to speak of one of my mission experiences. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized none of them applied. They were eye-opening and perspective-changing events, but I rarely felt outside of my comfort zone. So I thought to myself, “Screw it. The message is about stepping out of your comfort zone, I’m gonna do just that and talk about something embarrassing.” And I did. I relayed the story of my first banquet date. Now I like telling stories, but this was awful. The fact that every other sentence brought on a collective “aw” from the crowd didn’t help me to get through it. I was very uncomfortable, but I kept going and eventually finished the story.

The point I wanted to drive home was that the more we step out of our comfort zones, the larger they become. That’s why I shared a humiliating story with a couple dozen acquaintances. That’s why I’ve agreed to sing in front of the worship services whenever asked even though I didn’t like to. That’s why I moved away from home, away from comforts and familiarity. And that’s why I’m spending nine months as a foreigner trying to learn a new language despite continuously looking like an idiot in front of both peers and strangers alike. My comfort zone has become bigger than I ever thought it would! That doesn’t mean I’ve magically turned into an extrovert, but I am more at ease in a multitude of situations. Those couple dozen acquaintances are now a couple dozen close friends whom I feel like I could tell almost anything. I now have a blast with the praise group and look forward to each opportunity to sing up front. Moving out of the house is an inevitability. Now I know it’s not only possible, but something with a lot to look forward to (don’t worry mom, I’ll still visit at least until I get a washing machine). Despite the numerous times I’ve felt like an idiot out here, I know that I’ll go home able to understand (at least for the most part) twice as many languages as the average American. I can’t say all of this hit me at once that morning, but it was the start of an epiphany, a revelation I plan to apply to the rest of my life.

……………

Dang, that would have been a good note to end on. But if I post now and save the last days for later, I know I’ll never get to it. Let’s see if I can be deeply insightful at the end of this.

So nothing exciting about Saturday night. On to Sunday! Sunday morning we left Sevilla and headed to Córdoba. After a couple more history lessons with the group, we were given free time for dinner. Still on the mind set of being frugal, several guys and I started discussing whether we’d seen a kebab joint nearby. But then Tony changed my mind. Now Tony is friend of mine who comes from La Sierra, but will be attending Union College next year (WOOT). Of course, I will gladly take credit for his recruitment. However, if you ask him, he’d probably give you a different reason for switching, something about his fiancé attending there. I still think it’s because of me. Anyway, I remember Tony basically saying, “Here’s my idea, this is our last night of the trip, I feel like spending a little more and eating somewhere a bit nicer.” I’m sure that wasn’t word for word, and it may not have even been his idea, but I heard it from him and it sounded good to me.

A group of eleven of us sought and found an authentic-ish Spanish restaurant to eat at. I decided to go with the special for the evening. My first course was a plate of traditional Spanish paella. Complete with shrimp. Those that know me well know I am not a fan of seafood. Some (myself included) would even say I hate the stuff. Now I could have pushed aside the plate and waited for the other courses. Or I could have picked around the little creatures and just eaten the rice and veggies. But with yesterday’s realization still fresh in my mind, I took the third choice and decided to see why the locals liked this stuff so much. Unfortunately, the shrimp on my plate were not of the pre-peeled variety. If there weren’t so many, I might have assumed one just crawled onto my plate and died when no one was looking. Luckily, I had a friend there, Grace, who was more familiar with the food than I was. She was able to take me through the process with little to no kicking and screaming.

Here’s the method as I recall it: First you cut off the head. Then you cut off the end of the tail. Then you cut off all the little legs still attached. Once that’s done, you peel back the shell. If you’re holding a piece about an eighth of what you started with, you’re doing alright. Next, you coat it in lemon juice. You finish by adding a little more salt than you think you’ll need, then adding twice that amount.

Now I was ready to try it out. My past experiences with seafood told me that I needed a napkin at the ready in case there was a disagreement with my taste buds. To my delightful surprise, it really wasn’t bad. Maybe Spanish shrimp have a better flavor than what I was used to. Maybe my taste buds have grown up over the years. Maybe I didn’t mind it because all I could taste was salty lemon juice. I don’t know. But I do know that it didn’t make me want to spew. Heck I even took apart and ate a second one. I didn’t eat more and I doubt I will try it again in the near future. But I’m proud to have tried something I never thought I’d do a month earlier.

Aside from trying new foods, the evening was a lot of fun just getting to know a new group of friends. In the end, that’s what has made this whole experience what it is. I could go to a late-night Flamenco dance club, wander a Moroccan street market, and try a hundred new foods without anyone around. But none of those would be what they are without the friends I’ve made here. They are an exceptional group of people. Now that I’ve gotten to know just about everyone here pretty well, there’s no telling what’s in store for the next cultural tour, which is happening in just under over two weeks. I’ll make sure to fill all of you in on it by June.

Well, see ya!

Andalucía: Part 2

So this part might be a bit overdue. But that's ok, it fits right into the pacing I set out to do in the first post. Anywho, a lot's happened in the last two months and it's about time I get to finishing up this trip. So in Part 1 I just covered Monday, which was appropriate as it was quite a packed day. This part shall take me through, oh let's say Thursday. That's not a guarantee though. Actually, I don't know why I'm even setting a goal, I can always go back and change it to make it look like I knew what I was doing from the get-go. And you'd never even know it! So since I've been here studying a new language and speaking with folks who have never known English I've started realizing how awesomely stupid and, at the same time, how stupidly awesome my native tongue really is. I'm digressing, but there's so many things we say without even thinking about. The phrase, "from the get-go," for instance, where the diddles did that come from? When you consider the meaning of the phrase and weigh it against the meanings of the individual words, you won't be getting the same result. At least, I'm not. But then again, I'm not much of a linguist. I like numbers. Now I'm digressing from my digression, but bear with me, but don't bare with me, that's more of a solitary activity. Back to my digressing digression: Numbers are cool. That is all.

Oh yeah, so I went to Andalucía a while back. Here's some of what I did.

I am not happy with the placement of these pictures.
I am, however, too tired to mess with them.

Tuesday morning (day two of the trip), our group visited another cathedral, La Cartuja I believe it was called. But don't quote me on that or tell me I'm wrong if you look it up. I am far too tired to care about fact-checking at the moment. So yeah, this place was grand and gorgeous and all that, much like the cathedral of the day before, but in it's own way. Not quite as tall, but full of intricate carvings covering the walls and ceilings. Very neat to observe.



The alleged head-lopping spot.



After that visit, we were off to La Alhambra, the structure we saw from afar the night before. This place had a ton of beautiful gardens in it. It was nothing compared to Versailles, but still a real joy to walk through. The insides were less impressive. They were kinda cool, but after seeing the two cathedrals, I was less than impressed. Our tour guide did share a rather interesting story with us however. Now, it's really late, this was a long time ago, I didn't hear the whole thing, and as I mentioned, I'm not really in the fact-checking mood. That being said, this might be a little vague. Anywho, here we go. A long time ago, there was this king/emperor/sultan/some-kind-of-ruler that lived at La Alhambra. And he had a wife. And this wife slept with another man, a wealthy man. The ruler was aware of this but didn't know who it was. So he threw a party hoping to figure it out. He invited all the wealthiest people, thirty-some, I believe it was. Some time during the party, Each of the men were granted the privilege of a private interview with the ruler, truly an honor. One by one, each of the men entered a room to speak with the ruler, where they were promptly relieved of their head. To ensure justice was taken agains the guilty man, the ruler had every one of them killed. And we got to take pictures of where their blood was spilled! You can still see the red stains.

The rest of the day was free time for us. Most of the group went to la mercadona for lunch, including myself. At the start of the trip, each student was given 120 euros for food, fifteen for each day. On Tuesday, I got free hotel breakfast and spent less than six euros on everything I needed for lunch and dinner. Unfortunately, I wasn't this frugal everyday and even made up for it on the last day. (At this point during my writing, I debated putting in a sad-face emoticon. I decided that it would be too unprofessional. So just picture a sad Derek after that last paragraph.)

The rest of the day was spent in siesta-mode. I woke up a little before bedtime and decided to go exploring until I got tired again. After seeing a ton of the town, I ran into three guys form the group and spent the rest of the night wandering with them. We were searching for ice cream places, but they all turned out to be closed by that time (sad-face-Derek). We ended up with some packaged stuff from a convience store-like place before heading back. So that was Tuesday. And that took much longer than I thought it would. Dang. Oh well, I've got a goal to meet! On to Wednesday!

A lot of Wednesday was spent traveling. That is, until the bus started dripping on us. So we were moving right along, footloose and fancy-free, when the left side of the bus just starts screaming. I was on the left side myself, but luckily avoided the disaster. There was a blackish liquid that just started pouring out of the cracks in the ceiling all over the students. So the driver pulls over and we all get out. I'm not too sure what happened, but something broke and began to leak. Not good. So we wait by the side of the road as the driver tries to fix what's going on. We all pass the time chatting and playing games and such. Eventually we get back on and continue our way. After some lunch stops and more driving, we make it to Gibraltar, a city owned by the U.K. at the very southern tip of Spain. It was a neat little touristy place. A group of us hiked a little ways up the rock of Gibraltar and got some amazing views. I credit this as the place where (cue foreshadowing) I first saw Africa. And that was basically all of Wednesday. On to Thursday!

Speaking of Africa, I happend to go there on Thursday! So that's neat. Early in the morning, we all got on a ferry that took us across the straight and into the country of Morocco, a totally different world from Spain. Being a Muslim country, it reminded me much of my trip to Malaysia in the early summer. We had a guide that took us through the city. It really got interesting when he took us into these alleys that filled much of the city. I don't know how he was getting around, everything looked the same to me. It doesn't sound too exciting, but walking through all these alleyways was a really cool experience and I can't really go into depth as to why.



I just want to say, this picture took a long time to get into place.
It was rather frustrating.



During our jaunt, we came across the market. The market was claustrophobic, housed scents that made you want to vomit, contained excessive amounts of people that made it difficult to follow the group, and may have been my favorite part of the entire trip. It was incredibly surreal! There was fruit, fish, spices, fish, dead chickens, dead goats, dead fish, and I don't even know what else. Probably even fish. The combination of smells wailing on my olfactory senses almost pushed me over the edge. However, I had heard before that smiling will actually reduce the gag reflex (thank you CSI). I'm glad we were moving quickly, I'm not sure what the locals thought of this American wandering through their place of business shooting pictures all the while wearing the stupidest of grins on his face (smile-face-Derek). This place made me feel like I was experiencing the world. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend long, or even get to purchase anything. In fact, the only place where got to spend any money was in a rug shop. And that didn't feel natural at all, just another touristy place for Americans where they pushed cheaply made rugs on us at way too high prices.

Lunch was a fun experience though. We had couscous with veggies and chicken. Thinking about the market, I wondered if I had seen the chicken that was on my plate once before. That didn't stop me from eating it though. So after lunch, which was actually really late in the day, we got back on our ferry for the trip "home." I'd say my first trip to Africa was a grand success. And I sincerely hope it was not my last. I would love to go back to Morocco some day and spend some more time in the markets, try haggling with the shopkeeps at the local bazaar and what not. So that was Thursday of the trip, halfway done! I'll try to include the last four days in one post. But we'll see. I mean for a lot of things to happen with these posts. If you wanna see more photos, check out my facebook page. There should be a fair amount up.

I wish I had something profound to say here at the end. But I don't. So I won't. Well, see ya!

Andalucía: Part 1

Since our first major cultural tour of the year ended two weeks ago, it's probably about time for an update. I've decided to split this trip into a couple of posts.

So on this trip I really got to know the people in ESDES really well. Sometimes, there are some that seem to think we're still in high school, i.e., when several guys and I got on the bus to start the trip, there were more seats saved than there were people on the trip. Seriously? But for the most part, everyone here is amazing in their own way and I'm really, really happy with the group.



Epic cathedrals demand epic organs.

So Monday morning we all got in the bus to start our trip. The teacher gave us an itinerary of the trip which included a list of all the students. It was here that I realized the gender ratio. In our group, there are sixteen (16) guys and FORTY (40) girls. Now I know my mother and grandmothers are reading this, and I know what they're thinking and the answer is NO. But anyway, we headed out. It was a couple hours to our first city, Granada. When we arrived, we checked out the cathedral, which was gorgeous, large, beautiful, yada yada. It was neat while we were there, but this would become a standard as I later found out. What I thought was cool though, was that it took three centuries to finish it. Can you imagine how many people lived and died working on its construction? And I got to see the finished product without doing a thing. I felt proud about that.


The Alhambra looked amazing, but new friends are hard to beat.



So when that was done, we got some free time for food and what not. Some friends and I found a Greek type hole-in-the-wall place. All of us ended up getting "Shawarmas." They're like gyros you'd find in America except....well honestly they're just like gyros you'd find in America, and they were outstanding. I'm consistently finding that Greek kebab-type joints are the cheapest and tastiest places around. Methinks a future trip to Greece shall be in order.So we were told to be back at the hotel by ten. Not for curfew, but we apparently had an excursion planned. I wouldn't know though, I promptly lost the itinerary as soon as we got to the hotel. We had a tour through an old Arabic village. It was a sweet experience, especially at night. It ended with us looking at the Alhambra, which was all lit up and fancified. I loved it, plain and simple.



Awaiting the dancers.



So after all that, our group was led to this Flamenco club-like place. At the time, there was a group already inside. Eager to get in ourselves, we huddled around the door, awaiting our turn. I'm not sure what started it, but as the European tourists slowly trickled out, we treated them like celebrities. Half of us pulled out cameras and as they exited we took pictures (mostly for the flash) and loudly cheered. They gave us high-fives and cheered back. I like to think we gave them a weird story to give to their grandkids. It was magical. Anyway, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I had seen Flamenco once before and was excited about it. A couple years ago I went to a show in Lincoln. It was basically tap dancing with fancy outfits and Spanish music. We were led into a small cave-like room filled with chairs and interesting art. A guy came and took drink orders as we sat down. Then the dancers came. Ya know, I've always seen myself finding a girl that's smart, funny, beautiful, nice, outgoing, fun to be around, and who can cook a cottage cheese loaf like my mom's. But if she lacks any or all of these qualities and is a Spanish Flamenco dancer....yeah, I could definitely go for that. Anywho, there were four women and two guys, as well as another guy playing guitar and singing in the Spanish style. It was a lot like what I'd seen in Lincoln, but now up close. The way the women swish their dresses, how fast the guys spin and tap their shoes, it was truly something to behold. But the experience was way more than just the dancing though.

It wasn't until the second dancer was finished where it hit me how special this really was. The show I saw in Lincoln was good, better than the show these six dancers gave us actually. But the atmosphere of this place blows my other Flamenco experience out of the water. As we walked in, we could see in to the bar, where there was a faint scent of cigarette smoke coming through. It was the type of place where you just knew there were some 50-ish-year-old Spaniards in the back room puffing some 'gars and playing some cards. Classic as well as classy. And here I was, sitting in a tiny room with fifty friends, sipping some sodas, listening to Spanish guitar the way it's supposed to sound, watching native Spaniards share their culture with us through dance. This was all around one in the morning as well, an incredibly surreal experience. When I came to Europe, I was excited to see the big cities, to see the sites I've heard about so much. But the forty-five minutes I spent here are something I think I'll remember more than hearing the chime of Big Ben on Westminster Bridge and more than seeing all of Paris from the top of the Eiffel. It was an exceptional start to the trip and I couldn't wait to see what the rest held.

First couple weeks of school.

So now that I've been at school for a little bit, I suppose it's time for an update. I've decided to stay in the advanced level, as the Spanish classes really aren't that hard, and the people in the group are awesome. Unfortunately, the electives are much harder and I've dropped all but one of them. I'll probably end up doing more in the next two trimesters. But for now, understanding the language is my goal.

This is how the first couple days of classes at ESDES (Escuela Superior De Español, Sagunto) sounded to me:

     Profesora: Apsóoghirñwaeashvoinrureognvrsiorvieunvinervineriuvniurngviuba

                      hnfinrfiuwenbgfvpiahwfniápawnbfaiowhfipañofhbpoiahfoáhfopawfn

                      vnuiarnegvinrbtrenainaiwehriqwehfbhinbuirenvniuneiienbiuberbrbv.

     Yo: (Listening harder)

     Profesora: Uigfaspáohgviñonsanfvipaurnviareigbvyrebvybaervpiabyviarbvibv

                       iauvfgovnasiofóiasaosihgasjofnsaonfuionaefonbaivbuirbgbaifbasdb

                       okbguiabgfiabgiabgibasfipfóhbpaosidhfopnfasubpifue.

     Yo: (To the guy next to me) What'd she say?

     Él: I have no idea.

And thus went the first two or so days of classes, lots of nods and smiles. Fortunately, some words became clearer as time went on. Unfortunately, the teachers had learned our names and began using them. This was the next couple of days for me:

     Profesora: Derek, foaihgniurb muy importante vyrbybzcreqitiuytasdfghal, ¿verdad?

     Yo: .........(blank stare)..........

     Profesora: Vzxcnvba pero erftihtuirinmxznv quieres urfheiuybweib, ¿acuerdo?

     Yo: .........¿Qué?..............

Very embarrassing, but since then life has gotten much better. As far as my Spanish goes, I've learned (and re-learned) a TON. Now I can sit through my classes and get the jist of what's being explained as long as I'm listening, except for my elective. I can't understand every little thing as I am still translating it into English in my head. But everyday I'm expanding my vocab or (less often) able to understand a common word or phrase without translating it in my head first. Words like pero, bien, mañana, and even the days of the week are easy to think about.

That being said, I still have a ton to learn. That becomes evident every week at church. The only thing I can get out of the sermons are when I look up the verse referenced in a power point. Otherwise, the preacher speaks WAY too fast and I can't understand a word.

View from my balcony

The school here is in an amazing spot. Each room has it's own balcony. If you look to the left from mine, you can see a large hillside dotted with trees and buildings. To the right is huge field of orange trees with Sagunto and the Mediterranean off in the distance. The weather's been near perfect the whole time. I've yet to shut the door to my balcony. The location couldn't be much better. However, the food here could stand to improve a little. But I'm not too picky. This place reminds me of high school, in that every week, there's something going on that will make me miss some to all of my classes. It's great!



Valencia



The first week, we took a day to go into Sagunto to check it out. It only took half a day but we got to miss all our classes. The second week, the school took most of the day to take us to Valencia, Spain's third largest city. Then that weekend, we went to this camp that was right on the beach. It was a school-retreat like thing and tons of fun. It was really sweet being able to just walk along the beach after midnight. At least it was til the school chaplan found us and let us know we were supposed to be back a bit earlier. Whoops. Luckily, the staff here is really laid back and it was fine.

A group of us went to Valencia after classes on Friday for the afternoon and evening just to hang out, which was pretty sweet. It's cheap to go by train and I definitely plan to go back. In a week, the school's taking us to Andalucia and Morocco. We'll be out of classes for the whole week and the next Monday. I'm rather excited.

In addition to all the Spanish I've been learning, I've learned a lot about myself in the past month. Continuously stepping out of my comfort zone has made it a lot bigger than it once was, which is neat. Not really much else to say I suppose. Hopefull the next update won't take as long. We'll see.

From Paris to Sagunto.

Now that my lone traveling was done, it was time to go to school. Unfortunately, I read 15:40 as 5:40 on my plane ticket and didn't realize it til about 13:00 (1:00 p.m.). I barely made it to the airport in time, but fortunately the plane was delayed a little. After an hour-ish flight, I arrived in Barcelona, finally in Spain! I knew I had to hurry, as my train to Sagunto left in about an hour after leaving the plane. I found a train from the airport to the main train station. As I waited for the next one to come in, I strongly considered taking a taxi, which I really should have. But one finally arrived and I got on. I must have been looking at my watch every minute or two on the way there, as I was cutting it CLOSE. I finally got to the train station and began searching for my platform, but the place was HUGE. I was so sad when my watch hit 7:30 and I still didn't know where to go. Praying that it was delayed I finally found a help desk without a monstrous line. They told me it was too late and I'd need to buy another ticket.

*Sigh*

I've never missed a flight/train/deadline of this nature before. It was depressing, not only because I'd wasted $70, but because later I found out I COULD have made it in that narrow window of time, had I known where to go. I got in line and explained my situation. The guy told me I should go to Castellón as it was really close to Sagunto and the only other train heading in that direction this evening. So I spent another precious sum of funds and went to the platform, wondering how I would let the school know what happened. The train ride was a couple hours and very comfortable, but I was still worried. When I arrived in Castellón, I looked for a help counter, but found none open. I found a pay phone and called the school dorm where they told me I should find another ticket to Sagunto, as it was too far for a taxi. I found a ticket vending machine and literally as I was walking towards it, the screen went blank. I hoped it was just a screen saver, but it didn't respond to anything I did. This was about 11:55 p.m. I saw a sign with the next departure listed at 6:15 a.m. So now I'm stuck in a train station til morning. I found a bench and set up camp, which basically means I sat down. It wasn't two minutes til a security guard came up to me and started yelling in spanish. I didn't know what he was saying, but I understood I needed to leave. I walked out the front door just as all the lights shut off. Now what?





The scene of the, well, you know.



There was a small park nearby, more like a section of grass with some benches. I wasn't about to spend time and money looking for a hotel where I'd stay for less than six hours. So I sat down, popped in the ol' iPod and played the waiting game. It was a somewhat busy street. Cars came by every now and then. In front of me was a large apartment building with several windows open. Around 12:20, a man walked by, stopped, and looked at the building. I found out why when I pulled out an ear bud. We could distinctly hear some people, um, "having relations" in their room. He looked back at me and we both just started laughing. He walked on and I put back the ear bud, turned up the volume, and thought about how funny life can be.

Around one in the morning, a man came up to me asking about something in spanish. I told him I didn't speak the language. So he took it upon himself to teach me. His name was Mohammad and he started telling me all sorts of words and it turned into a nice little review. He ended up sitting on the bench with me and we chatted (or tried to) for nearly two hours. It was a great way to pass the time. We talked about where we were from and shared some music (he's a fan of African tunes). He told me he was 27, but he looked to be about twice that. Before he left, he offered me a cigarette (self-rolled!) and his number. I took the latter. I think I'm going to try to call him once I can speak the language a little better.

I was surprisingly sad when he left, as I still had three hours to go. It started to get pretty cold, so I put on another shirt from my bag and tried to sleep. I woke up even colder a little later and moved to the ground, since it was warmer there. I woke up a little later again with one section of my back being very cold. Apparently, there was a sprinkler system for the section of grass behind me and apparently it was not working very well. So I moved from the stream I was sleeping in back to the bench. I tried sleeping again but it just wasn't working. I think I slept for a total of around forty five minutes, but never more than fifteen minutes at a time. The lights in the station finally came back on and I went back inside. Luckily there was a desk open where I could easily get my ticket. I fell asleep on the train right away and missed my exit. Fortunately, there was a man checking tickets who woke me up and informed me I needed to get off at the next stop, get on the train going the other way to get to Sagunto. I finally arrived, asked the clerk to make sure I was in the right place, and then took a taxi to the school.

I found my room and slept all day and then all night, only waking up for dinner. I reconnected with some Union people and met some others as well. I also met my roommate, Daniel. He's from Germany and also wants to go into medicine. I think we'll get along well. I've taken the placement test and somehow ended up in the Advanced group. I'm not sure how that happened. I think I may have been guessing too well on the test as I do not feel ready for this level. I'll try it out for a few days and then decide if I need to drop down or stick with it. Well it's about time for bed. I'll add more posts once I get some pictures of this place.

It's been quite an experince getting to school here. There's been some hitches and some positive things. But I believe every major event has its purpose. I will continue to trust in God to lead me where I need to go, as he did from London to here. Post comments below, it's great to hear from people!

Paris. Woot.

Friday morning, I checked out and left later than I should have, as it took me longer to find the bus stop than I expected. But I made it with a few minutes to spare. After about two hours of driving, we got to where we would transfer into France. For some reason, our bus was not on the list, so we had to wait quite a while before moving again. I thought we would be driving through the Chunnel to get there, but that wasn't the case. We actually drove onto a train with a bunch of other vehicles which then took us through the Chunnel. It was really weird; we drove into a loooong narrow tunnel, parked, then forty-ish minutes later drove out into France. I hardly felt us moving. After the train, we drove another five-ish hours and then were in Paris. It was already a little late, so I just focused on getting to the hostel. Luckily, the metro wasn't too hard to figure out. I reached the place, finally got some internet and went to bed.

I got up early enough for the free continental breakfast which consisted of rolls, orange juice, and...other rolls. Not a lot of selection. But it was free. I started my day with the Arc de Triomphe, a huge stone archway in the middle of an intersection where twelve roads meet. I climbed to the top and was immediately enjoying myself more than I was in London. After some spectacular views, I climbed down and strolled down the Champs-Élysées, one of Paris' grandest boulevards. The road ended at the Tuileries Garden, which leads to the Louvre, where I spent most of the day. I saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo along with the other thousands of statues and paintings. At this point, I decided the Louvre was the coolest building I'd ever seen. I stayed until closing and then decided to check out Notre Dame, as it was not very far. Luckily, it was still open. I walked inside and instantly no longer thought the Louvre was the coolest building I'd ever seen. Notre Dame is just plain epic. There was an evening mass going on so I just sat in the back to take it all in, even though I couldn't understand the language. Notre Dame's organ makes College View's about as awesome as an unplugged keytar. Okay, it wasn't that much better, but it sure was fun listening to that thing. It was an all-around amazing experience and a good way to spend the first day.

I know, I need a new pose. And shirt.

I spent Sunday at the château de Versailles. Unfortunately, it took a while to get there and I did not have enough time to explore the whole place, even though I spent six-ish hours there. The building itself was pretty neat, although there were WAY too many tourists inside. The gardens were much more amazing. Everywhere you'd go, there'd be classical music playing from hidden speakers, or from hidden orchestras spread throughout, I never did find either. This was probably my priciest day, but I'd do it again if I made it earlier in the day.

You can probably guess where I spent my last day in Paris. I'll give you a hint: It starts with an E and rhymes with iffel tower. Give up? I was at the Eiffel Tower. I know, that was a hard one, my bad. I hadn't looked at prices beforehand so I was worried it'd be too much. I found two options when I got there. You could ride up to the first and second levels for around ten euros, or you could walk for less than four. I decided to get some exercise (the ride to the very top was another five, no matter what). That tower is HUGE. The first level is equivalent to walking 21 flights of stairs and the second is equivalent to 43 flights. I was tired. But the view and the price more than made up for it. I couldn't stop there of course. I continued to the top and took plenty more pictures. You could see for miles and miles (and even more kilometers!) I was extremely satisfied with my visit to Paris and would love to go back, but only with other people though.



Second level of the Eiffel

Yay! I got pictures working!  :D