Week Three

Today is Tuesday! I started mmy thrid week here in Spain only a little while ago, and things are going about as they were before: great. There are, of course, periodic spasms of terribleness, as was La Noche en Blanca.

The night actually started out really amazing. We saw a Portuguese (I think) circus that was absolutely mind blowing. It was almost all acrobatics, but the showmanship was really good, and the whole show was planend really well. Next we met up with our tutors to check out the Prado (sweet) and the botanical gardens (not sweet). At that point, it was about 1 AM. The idea behind La Noche En Blanca is to stay up all night. I spent the next four hours waiting in lines and walking between locations, ultimately winding up hungry and tired. Lessons: 1, I am a weenie, and 2, a little more planning is required to coordinate large groups of people. In the future, I will be prepared.

We´re heading out to Toledo this upcoming weekend, and I am very excited. The city is apparently very touristy, but also incredibly beautiful. I intend to fill my camera while I am there, and hopefully capture some of the architecture and paintings. I will also try to buy some tourist crap for my friends and family.

Humberto gave us a reading this week that was possibly the best work I´ve ever read. The story is called Doña Berta, by Clarín. I suggest you all go out and read something by Galdín because he has absolutely blown my mind.

Also, I´ve been having a lot of trouble getting photos to mount. I´ll try to get the photos to work, and I may try something like flickr, but for the moment you´ll have to wait. I may also utilize e-mail, who knows.

Sean OUT

OOPS

So, a couple of clarifications:

I was not mugged. I said I haven´t not (have) been not mugged. That means I have not been mugged. Also, the public library computers are too slow to upload photos consistently, so it´s gonna be a bit hit or miss. As such, there is only a picture of the family cat, and not of the family itself. Sorry!



With Haste,
Sean OUT

First Week in Spain

It´s been a week since I arrived in Spain (technically 9 days), and I thought I´d give a quick recap of my adventure. So far, I have:
-Seen forty three churches
-Haven´t not been not mugged yet
-Played frisbee with a Spaniard and a Frenchman at the same time
-Drunk wine legally
-Danced in a discotech
-Met my sweet host family
-Not seen my host family for days at a time

Basically, Spain has been incredible. Also, I´ve finally got some pictures of my host family and the other students in the group.

The above photo is of Ron, our cat. I put the other photos above.

I went to a Discotech on Saturday with some other students and the tutors. It was pretty bizarre. The first hour or two is spent standing (not dancing), and getting tipsy enough to want to dance. At least, this is what the spaniards were doing. We simply Americans started dancing immediately, and were summarily shunned by every sober person in the bar. Eventually the party started, and the club was soon overflowing with people, bass (the sound, not the fish) and smoke. I only managed to stay until 3 AM, but the expectation is to stay until 6 when the Metros re-open.

We took a tour of a ritzy neighborhood on Saturday with our teacher Mario. We learned about the architecture, and overall it was really great. There are some churches here that would blow your mind. Another sweet aspect of Madrid is the complete disrespect the city seems to have for any kind of zoning. There are cafes every twenty feet, and even the superstores (VIPS) seem like small, locally owned deals. Humberto is leading a great class on urbanism, and it´s easy to see his lessons in action on the street.

For the moment,

Sean OUT

Smooth Sailing

Things are going well here in Madrid. I´ve finally gotten a charger for my phone, so I can now actually reach (and be reached by) the other students. Someone showed me a library with free internet, and I´ve figured out how to post pictures (note the above sweet architecture).

Wednesday night the whole group had a dinner, and afterwards some us went with los tutores to a discotech. It was a lot of fun, and we had the opportunity to see what happens when our teachers drink wine. The discotech was pretty much like the clubs in the united states: pounding bass, trency dancers and creepy guys. A lot of fun.

I´m starting to think in Spanish, which is a little disconcerting, especially since my vocabulary is so limited. I often find myself stopping halfway through a thought because I don´t know the word for what I´m thinking of.

Miss everyone in the EEUU,
Sean OUT

Still in Spain

Hey all,

How goes it? I´m continuing to adjust here in spain. everyone seems to feel really at home already, and there have been a lot of comments along the lines of "have we really only been here five days?" I´m currently in the process of a finding a cafe to make my own, and I´m still working the kinks out of my schedule. My family is still amazing, although I haven´t really seen any of them for some time. I think both brothers are with their dad, and mi señora has started working, so she´s out of the house until 7:30. I myself have been out of the house most evenings, so in between there´s not much overlap.
My classes are amazing. I haven´t had my art class yet, but it is in the Prado. As in, we´ll be able to see the paintings as we talk about them. The history teacher, Rafa, is pretty much the nicest guy I´ve ever met, and Humberto is an amazing teacher.

I´ve run into a few difficulties so far, but most of them stem from my own stupidity. I brought an alarm clock that doesn´t run on batteries, as I thought it would (should´ve checked). I bought an electrical adapter here to accomodate the goofy roundhole sockets, and the extra voltage (230V! US is only 120 V) completely fried my clock. My cell phone has no charger, so I can´t use that as an alarm clock. I only made it to class this morning because I had a bad dream about being devoured by fist sized ticks. Not a great start to the day.

I played some frisbee with Los Quijotes yesterday. They´re the local frisbee team, but the majority of the people (i.e. 90%) were from America. All the Americans want to speak english, and it seems like Byron, the other spaniards and I are the only people who want to play frisbee in Spanish (or speak spanish at practice, for that matter). Practice was frustrating to play for a couple of reasons. One, I haven´t played frisbee for about two weeks, and I feel really rusty. Two, the field is made out of dirt. Literally. It´s been super dry here, and grass is too expensive to maintain, and so...we play in dirt. I also think the air might be different, I feel like the disc hangs differently. Or I´m so rsuty I´m looking for excuses. And finally, there were maybe 30 people at the practice, meaning PT was at a minimum. Lastima. There´s supposedly a hat beach tournament in Mallorca coming up in October, and I think I´ll try to go if it isn´t too costly.

The tutors took us to a discotecha last night to dance salsa. It was fun, but mostly awkward. However, I´ve got a new goal of learning how to dance salsa. Hopefully I´ll have super sexy salsa dance moves when I return. However, it is far mroe likely I´ll simply have learned a new way to shuffle awkwardly.

Hasta Luego,
Sean OUT

¡Sean Está en España!

Hola, todos! I´m in Madrid now. I arrived yesterday at about 7:35 AM to a beautiful Spanish sunrise. I spent the next four hours waiting in line at customs and trying to figure out how to get a shuttle to take me to my house. But, I eventually made it.
My family is super sweet. There´s mi madre, Maria Jose, y mis dos hermanos, Manuel (17) y Gaspar (11). I think Manuel is a bit of a rebel, and Gaspar is pretty typical of an 11 year old boy, i.e. magic cards and playing ping pong next to open windows.
I met with the other students today, and everyone seems really nice, cool, etc. I only know a couple of people on the program, so it´s going to be a lot of fun getting to know everyone. Class starts tomorrow at 10, so I figure that´s when the bonding begins. I´m not quite sure what it is we´re studying here, but I know we have a class on spanish art, another on spanish history, and Humberto is teaching a class on urbanism, or something along those lines.
The architecture here is amazing. Practically every building or every block has a statue, or is linked to some war or king. I´ve already seen three palaces, and I´ve been to at least as many parks. Despite being so dry (it hasn´t rained here all summer), the parks are incredibly green. Basically, Madrid is the most beautiful place I´ve ever seen. I wish I had remembered to bring my camerawhen I came to the internet cafe, I´ve got some incredible photos.
It´s really hard speaking only spanish. I´m not that bad, but everyone else is speaking fast enough that I´m having trouble following native conversations. They probably all think I´m really dumb, so I´m gonna have to pull some crazy shit to get them to believe I´m not a total dunce. I´m thinking some sort of mix between MI:3 and a Disney film.
Eventually I´ll get a regular schedule here, but it´s only my second day. Until then, much love to everyone.

Sean OUT

Spain Today

I am going to Spain in 13 hours. Goodbye, America. Hello, Europe.

Sean OUT

Sean in Spain

This site is now officially dedicated to documenting my adventures in Spain. I'll try to update it on some sort of regular basis, but god only knows what will happen.

Sean OUT