Volunteering in Espana

I am currently in La Alberca, a very small medieval town near Salamanca, volunteering for a week at a program called Pueblo Ingles. It's a program where Spanish business professionals - from chemical engineers to corporate lawyers to stock brokers to computer engineers to human resource managers - come to improve their English, usually because they work for an international company where they must speak in English to other companies, colleagues, etc. 

Everyday, we speak English for 14 hours (!!!!) or more with them - we have 5 one to one sessions with different people each day (they last an hour)...and then breakfast, lunch, and dinner we speak with them (usually an hour and a half at each meal)...and we have telephone conversations with mock scenarios or conference calls with mock scenarios... and we have group activities and meeting room presentations for 2 hours a day... and on and on. 

The Spanish people are all so nice though... and funny :) They stay in good spirits despite the fact that speaking in English all day is very difficult for them (especially when we are trying to explain the idioms and phrasal verbs for the hour -- there are different ones they must learn each hour, and well idioms are hard to explain, have you ever tried???) I have learned so much already about Spanish culture, politics, way of life, etc etc etc in just 2 days. Still 5 more days to go! And all the other Anglos (as we are affectionately known) are very nice as well. There are 50 of us altogether (Spaniards and Anglos combined), and between us we have many, many, MANY interesting, exciting, and crazy stories to share. 

I wish I could write all about everyone here and how things are going, but I can't stay on long -- I have lots of talking to do!

40 days & 40 nights...

Of travel begin tomorrow. 

Me + 1 backpack + Europe as my playground = good times

European Backpacking Excursion v. 4.0:

Updates will be provided from time to time. Stay posted.

Thoughts on the Spanish language

Just a couple of thoughts I've mulled over while comparing Spanish to English...

 

In Spanish they say... "tengo [insert age here]," meaning I HAVE [23 years], not I AM [23 years]. To me, that seems to make age less of a defining characteristic. No? Yes, I have these years, here they are. Not I am these years like I am someone's sister or I am a sociologist, etc

Then, they usually say "te quiero" for I love you. Te quiero would literally mean I want you. So, they want those that they love romantically, which is a bit of a different connotation then the English, I love you. In English, to say I want you is more along the lines of lust, which is a different thing altogether from love... at least from a language standpoint.

There are many others, but these are two rather obvious ones that have accosted my brain as of late. Maybe I will update with more. You know, one of the Scandinavian languages has like 30 words for rain... because there are that many different kinds of rain. Language is crazy really.

Typical Spanish night

Just a moment ago, while reading some Tom Robbins and having a cup of tea at 11:30pm (still very early to those of us in Spain), I was shaken from my spot on the couch by a marching band. I, along with most of my neighbors on the street, hung off my balcony to see from whence the noise did come. And, not so surprisingly, it was just some people in normal clothes marching around with their instruments playing amazingly good Spanish scores -- drums, cymbals, trumpets, the whole lot. Everyone here on Calle Chamizo, the very young to the very old alike, hung from their balconies clapping and dancing and singing along until the band marched on. No one minded being rustled from whatever it was they were doing at 11:30 to, what some in America might call noise pollution or the disturbance of their tranquil serenity. In fact, they seemed to be overjoyed.

Impromptu concerts in the street. At any time night or day. On any day of the week. Just one more reason I love Spain. [Preceded by free tapas with euro glasses of red wine, botellons, and siestas in the afternoon & followed by churros con chocolate, retreats to the countryside or beach, and dinner at 10pm to prolong full bellies late into the night, i.e. a country of night-walkers] 

And the music begins again... Ole!

Halloween, a good day in the sea of what is

So, Halloween's not that big a deal here in Espana... the kiddies dress up but they don't go trick-r-treating (least not where I'm at) and there's not really any big parties and such. But, the next day (All Saints Day) is a holiday cause this is a Roman Catholic country after all... they love their saints. 

Yesterday, it was sunny and a bit warm despite the chill that's been lingering in the air and growing stronger since I arrived. So after work with the crazy chitlins, I zoned out with some Tom Robbins and some tapas on a cafe terrace. Then, I met up with Agnes (the Polish girl I work with) and her bf, and we went to see a show at Las Cumbres -- this mall of clubs and bars pretty much. 

A Swedish band called Holmes was playing, and the bar was giving out candy in true Halloween spirit -- I had this candy called pica (which translates as itches), it's like pixie stix crossed with pop rocks (same consistency and taste as pixie sticks but it jumps around like pop rocks which is why they call it pica - it makes your tongue "itch" or tickle as they were trying to explain). Anyways, it twas a pretty good night. First time I've gotten to go out in quite a bit cause I've been rather sickly for a couple of weeks. 

And then today, I went with Agnes, her bf, his brother and mom, and Pilar (my boss), and her husband to the country - only about 5k from here - and had a bbq. Lots of good food -- chorrizo (sausages) and ribs and whatnot and olives and tortilla espanola (like a potato omelet, yummy!) and gazpacho tipico a extremadura (cold soup -- this region usually uses tomatoes, cucumbers, and garlic -- its pretty much just put into a blender and then served, very tasty) and pepper salad and melon and mandarins and coffee, the list goes on. Afterwards, in true Spanish style we went on a walk with the dogs through the foothills of the mountains where we were (pictures coming soon). 

In other news:

I went to a botellon a few weeks ago -- a huge city-wide outdoor fiesta kinda thing that they have every Saturday in most every Spanish city. You get all your friends, buy drinks collectively, and head to the botellon spot - which is usually some park or open space of some kind. They usually start around 12 or 1 am and last till about 7 am, and there are always a ton of people there. The cops just kinda hang out on the sidelines snoozing against their cars.

Also, I went to Pilar's family's house in the country (everyone seems to have land in the country) the first weekend here for a big meal with all of her family -- 14 people speaking their fastest Extremadura Spanish all at the same time. It was like sitting inside a foreign film with no subtitles, hah. They're all really nice though, and we of course had a ton of great food. Olives stewed with garlic, fried eggplant from her dad's garden, tortilla espanola, chorrizo, mussels, gambas (huge shrimp served as they are, i.e. cold with eyes and all), crab in the shell, chicken soup (made from stewing the "left over parts" of the chicken - use your imagination), chicken in some sort of sauce, potatoes, wine from the region, coffee, pastries... I'm probably forgetting about a gazillion things. 

But yea, that's the short update of life outside of work. More on work later. Long story, that is.

A turbulent day, relieved to be here

No, really, both my plane rides had lots of turbulence. And on the second flight, I fell asleep and did not wake up until they were saying fasten your belts for landing... I had to go to the bathroom soooooo bad, but I was not allowed out of my seat so I had to hold it until we slammed down on the runway (jarring my bladder), sloooowly taxied to our terminal, and people gingerly removed their bags from the overhead compartments and sloooooowly disembarked. I was dying, seriously.

Yeah, glad to be here. But tired after 24 hrs of traveling. So that is all for now.

This is it

Espana or bust in T minus 22 hours and counting... 

If I could even slightly explain what I'm feeling, I would try. But at this point, it's pretty impossible. I think I've felt about every emotion that exists in the last month. If you know me well, you know it's been a crazy ride as usual.

Moving to Spain

So, I studied in France in 2004. And then, I studied in Wales in 2006. Now, I've finished my thesis and graduated. Guess the only next logical step is to... move to Spain!

Starting at the beginning of October, I'll be in Spain for a while to help out at an English academy opened by a former Spanish professor of mine. Let the next journey begin!

It is finished.

Yea, so it's done. I would write a long blog to describe my innermost feelings on this momentous matter, but I'm a bit drained from it all I think. And, to be honest, it's all still settling in. The relief still hasn't hit me full force. Right now, I'm more bewildered... or something. I guess it's because this day felt like it was never going to come. Even last Friday (which I can't believe was only a week ago), I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Last Friday, I only had the first half of the paper written (though I had done all of the analyzations and research at that point). The last 30 pages were ripped out of me in the sleepless days that followed. A two page analysis for each of the 435 ads (that'd be 870 pages of writing!) were sorted and summarized in the 20-some-odd pages of 'Findings and Discussion' that I wrote in a matter of 4 days (see previous blog for that 'sleep' schedule). 

It is finished. I am now free from educational obligations. My prison door has been unlocked, and I'm about to celebrate my freedom like never before. Let the travels ensue...

Oh beautiful sleep, come take me away

A timeline:

Friday: Awake for 24 hrs
Saturday: Awake for 23 hrs (1 hour nap)
Sunday: Awake for 16 hrs (8 hour sleep)
Monday: Awake for 24 hrs
 

Total Hours over 4 days:
87 hrs awake (9 hours asleep) 

And, that's after sleeping only 4 or 5 hours a night for a solid MONTH in order to finish on time. 

Oh, how I miss my bed...

Delusional? That's an understatement. Life kind of just swirls around me at this point. Which kind of makes it hard to wait tables, which just so happens to be my current occupation... yea, I am still going to work during all this. Feel free to add my name to your list of heroes ;)

It’s the final countdown... cue intro music a la Europe (the band not the continent)

So, 24 continuous hours of writing (with very few distractions) and I finished the "Findings and Discussion" start to finish... all 20 pgs of it. 

That means (drum roll please).......... 

The rough draft is done, and it's the fi-nal coooount-down, dada da da dadadada dada da da -- you get the point, the video for the song is currently on my profile. Feel free to sing along.

5 days and counting and three years worth of stress will lift forth from my shoulders. 

Woooooo hooooooo!

It's almost time...

... for my GRADUATION!

I would send some fancy invitations to alert you all to this momentous occasion, but alas I am still a poor college student (or college grad, as of this coming Friday). You'd think the invites they were trying to hock were made of solid gold for the price they were going for, but enough about the man trying to hold the graduates down. 

Ahem...

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI PROUDLY ANNOUNCES IT'S 2007 COMMENCEMENT

WHEN: Friday May 11th 2007; 6:30 pm (or 18.30 if you're European)

WHERE: Reed Green Coliseum; Hattiesburg, MS

WHY:  It seems I've acquired something they call a B.A... in Sociology

I really do wish you all could come! However, I know most of you are hundreds of miles away and busy busy busy. So, think of me next Friday and pray that I don't trip!

Heather (B.A.)