Flashback time IV

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Currently Reading Trading Up: A Novel By Candace Bushnell see related Wacky Wednesday. This deserves a really random entry. The newest piece of information is the fact that while running today I missed a step and fell in front of a bunch of Spanish people by the bus stop. I twisted my ankle, and scraped up my legs a bit. I must have looked so cool. America has a new example, and that's me. I'm fine though, one of the guys at the dorm is letting me borrow his ace bandage. As I was walking away, the people were gawking like usual, so I glared at them and waved with a "gee, i hope you enjoyed the show" look on my face. I guess I won't be running this week, since I can't walk without a gimp limp. On a much happier note, I went shopping!! I bought some souveniers for people, postcards, and I got my mom this cool thing for her classroom. I also got my brother a BS: a Bull shirt. I'm still on the quest for a couple more things, like for Matt, and my paretns, but I've got Vega wines, magnets, a shot glass, and more. I have 3 more people to get stuff for. It's almost like a chore to run around finding stuff, but it's like Christmas because I become Santa, and that's always fun. I also got myself a red jacket that says Espana, and zips up with gold stripes on the sleeves. It was a good deal...24 euro. (Abbey--red and gold, griffindor colors!) My slurge of the trip was for this BEAUTIFUL black shirt that was made in Brazil. It was a lot more than the jacket, but it fit like a glove and I love it. I think it was fate, because I saw it one day and thought it was kinda pricey, but after walking around the many stores, I decided it was the ONE. I went back, and they didn't have any out, but they had one in the back, and the lady ironed it for me. I think there was a skinny mirror in the dressing room, because I looked a lot thinner than I thought was humanly possible. Now I have to go get some tops to go with the skirt. Darn. Off to Zara I go! That is a really cute store that my cousin loves in Mexico, and everyone likes it here too. It's kinda like Express, but cheaper and way cute. I also have a goal of finding red high heeled shoes and a purse, but maybe after my ankle heals a bit. School was really annoying today. Last night, one of my teachers told us to read and translate a long 4 page article in spanish, look up all the words we didn't know, write a summary, and a response. It took me about 3 or 4 hours to do, and I had more homework in addition to that. It was about the Bullfights that they have here, and all about the histroy and tradition of it. I personally hate it, and didn't enjoy watching it for two days of class. I understand and respect it, but I can't stand watching it because it makes me sick to see the bull all bloody, and sometimes people (during the running of the bulls, and the bullfights) get caught by the bull's horns, tossed up and get pierced by the horns...it makes me sick to my stomach. *shudders*. I think my Tia Licha took me to one a loooong time ago but all I remember was throwing roses to the toredor. Either way, I was annoyed by talking about it and watching it. Then in conversation class the other day we talked about the food they eat over here, and a lot of it refers to blood sauces, and intestine, chicken heart, brain, etc. Not so nice sounding, huh? Then in grammer we went over the subjunctive in a classroom that was like 85 or 90 degrees. There is no central AC, and we're in an overcrowded classroom. We were really hungry, so it was unbearable. I went to the beach yesterday and got some sun, and that was nice to just relax amoungst the fat naked people. This brings me to the list of odd things I have seen in the past couple of days. 1. A bearded man in a thong 2. A dog with dreadlock fur 3. A smart car (tiny tiny half car) with more bass than any car I have ever seen (or heard). 4. A sheman lady with hairy armpits, who was standing in the middle of the street, with her hands on her hips, spitting multiple feet away in a nice curved arch. 5. A very plump woman with bright red hair to match her thong at the beach. I nicknamed her Fat Bastard, from the Austin Powers movies. 6. Someone thought I was French today. And, I've been asked if I live here, about 3 times by people who were lost. Some people at a bar thought I was GERMAN. (drunks.) Hrmm...I cleaned my room, and did laundry by hand like an old fashioned woman, someone stole my shampoo and conditiner from the shower, and it's now really hot here. Things people do not do in Spain that I think is strange: 1. They never wear shorts. Even to the beach. 2. They don't wear white socks, and some clubs won't even let you in with them. 3. They like to stare at you when you are foreign, and I when I say stare, I mean gawk. 4. They never say excuse me, and think it's rude if you say thank you too much. 5. They stop serving alcohol at 8 am. If that. !!! Crazy Spanish people!! Tomorrow is movie day, and we're watching Belle Epoca. I'll let you know about it later. We also are going to Salamanca this weekend, and that is supposed to be the best excursion. Sunday is the gypsy market, and I'm going to look for trinkets there too. I'm reading a new book from one of the girls in the dorm, it's pretty good. Miss people lots! Thanks for the comments. You make me feel warm and squishy inside

Thursday, June 02, 2005 Wow. I know it's been a long time since I have written, but it's been such a pain to try and get access to a computer. The ones in the dorms rarely work, and if they do, they are usually taken, or really slow. The ones at school are alway taken, since there are students from all over the US there trying to get to their instant messanger and emails and such. At any, rate, here I am once again. yay. This is the third week that I have been in school and it's the 'hump'. You know, the big bump in the middle of the semester. Now the middle day has past, so I know there is not much time left. Yay and nay. This week is also going to be known as Italian week because this week we had 12 Italian male paratroopers move into the residence hall. After the girls went gaga over them we've had some drama. (yes they are cute, quite goodlooking at that, but they speak about as much english as I speak chinese, so you can imagine us speaking english and spanish, and them speaking italian = little to no communication) They invited all the girls from the dorm and some others who were hanging out to go out to eat with them, and many of them did. (My friend Jody and I figured it wasn't really wise to go out to eat with a bunch of 25 or 30 year old Italian men when we had school the next day). Needless to say, one girl made out with one of them and when he wanted to see her again and she just wanted a free meal and wine, it was an interesting event. Silly people! Why get involved with people you don't know very well at all! Cross culture dating is not safe because everything said means different things! At any rate, I can't wait till they are gone because they are quite loud, persistent, and come on our floor and invite us to go drinking all the time. (It's true what they say, those italians are seductive! Complimenting and cunning people! heehee, but yeah. I stayed away, thank goodness even though one said I was the natural beauty...bah) No joke, the 3 I met were named Michael, Tony and Luigi...hahaha...Luigi. I figure I have my own Italian, and he's the best anyways. School is annoying and hard. Not easy, by any means. 2 hours of grammer a day. Need I say more? I'm also learning about the politics and the constitution of Spain. YAWN. We did get to learn about flamenco, and that was cool. We got to watch a video. It makes me miss tap dancing. I've done more shopping, of course, and gone to the beach. I bought some addidas shoes that were on sale (red, of course) and got Tiffany her birthday present. Tiff- I know you're going to love it, because it is our favorite colors, and I got one for me too. If you don't like it, then I'll just have two! ;) (This guy next to me is smoking, and I kinda made a face, and he asked if I liked the smoke, and I said no, but he's still smoking anyways. People here smoke WAY TOO MUCH. I'm looking foward to the smoking ban in Austin. I can't think of anything else more to say. Nutella is good. I miss Chili's. Siestas are wonderful. Homework sucks. My room is sooo small. Did I mention my dorm used to be a seminary? Yeah, the rooms are about 6 feet by 8 or 9 feet. About as big as a walk-in closet. Well people need to use the computer, so I'm off for now. Please email me at sabsinspain@hotmail.com. I don't like empty mailboxes. :) Sunday, June 05, 2005 Hello people, Another boring Sunday. Let's see...Thursday night we went out to this really awesome Cuban club. It wasn't that crowded,and there were professional dancers there who teach there during the weekdays. It was really neat to watch them dance together to salsa, merengue and chacha songs. A lot of guys were asking us to dance, and it was interesting to see how people dance. By the way, Columbians can dance, and Italians can not. (except for Matt, he can dance). The 3 younger Italian paratroopers from my dorm somehow ended up there (there is this one girl from A&M commerce who like to hang out with guys only, if you get my drift and I think she told them to come to the club with her...she's quite a friendly girl...ahem anyways) and the one named Luigi was all over my friend. Later this Texan and I had to go save her from him. We girls told him that we had to go home to sleep (to try to get away) and he suggested walking us, and we were thinking NOOO so we "went to talk to someone else real quick" and when I saw he went to talk to his Italian people we said bye to a few people and literally bolted around, up the stairs and out the door. Good club, funny experience. I think we got to bed around 3, and school was really funny the next day because since almost everyone from TX was at that club till late, everyone was falling asleep in class. haha...I siesta'ed from 3 till 7:30 that day after lunch. We get to sleep a lot while we're here. Friday I had a laundry party, and that's about it. I don't think I said anything about Salamanca, which is where I went last weekend, so I'll fill you in on excursions in general, and about Segovia, which was where we went yesterday. Excurstions leave at 9:30 am on Saturday on a bus with our group. It consists of people from Texas State, Texas A&M Commerce (Dallas), Towsen (Maryland) and some school in Pennsylvania. We have a guide who doesn't speak English, and he talks so fast that only a few people can understand what he's saying, but the Towsen teacher translate some of the more interesting facts. Salamanca and Segovia are about an hour and a half away from Valladolid. the country side in Spain is really pretty. Lost of hills and mountains with farms and such. Salamanca has a big University so there is a younger crowd there. We looked at a lot of churches and cathedrals while we were there, ate at a McDonald's (yes!) and listening to a military band in the Plaza Mayor (the main open square type thing that every town has). The band made me miss my band nerd friends, and they played New York, New York. :) yay band! Segovia was sooo pretty. I think it was my favorite excursion yet. We saw a side of a hill with all these sheep and a shepard. It was cool. There were no border collies, but there were some doggies. This dude from Maryland overheard me talking about Border Collies and told me he has some too. It was cool. They have a real Roman aquaduct where tons of birds fly around because they put their nests in the holes between the rocks. All the stones were just laid on top of another, no cement! It was a strange and interesting sight. This city is famous for eating a dish that has baby piggies. There were some in the windows and it was sad and gross at the same time. The best part was a real live CASTLE! It looks like a storybook castle with towers and everything. It cost 4 euro to get in, but i figured why not! There was a 152 step spiral tower to the top (just like in Sleeping Beauty!) and it proved to be hard to get up while people were coming down. Apparently, it was built like that so only one person could get up and down for defense reasons. The view was wonderful. Inside the rooms were gorgeous. Lots of detail, and armory room with medieval cross bows and swords, hude dining table, thones, paintings and even a bed. The most important fact about this castle is that the one and only Queen Isabelle and King Ferdinand lived there. Yes, those people who told Columbus, "Hey! Here is some dough, go find America. " How cool is that???!?!?! There was a moat too. I was looking to buy a princess hat. After that we had lunch (and ice cream!) and shopped around. I was short on cash, so I didn't get much. Some people went to look inside some palace, but I didn't want to pay to get in that, so we chilled outside and that was fun. A couple of people and I went to a really great Italian restaurant and stuffed our faces. It was sooo good but I was so full it hurt. Last night we went out for a bit, but it got quite lame just sitting around in a smokey bar, so we went home. Sprite and white wine is good. I had one to settle my stomach. Only 2 weeks left! I am exicted to come home and see people. I feel like I've had plenty of experiences, and now I'll just be looking foward to coming back with people I know well, and doing fun things on what will be more of vacation, and less of an education thing. "I want to be in America..." Have a good week everyone! I think I'm going to the beach today. It's not like there is anything else to do since all the stores are closed. Darn. :) Love, me Friday, June 10, 2005 I CAN'T WAIT TO COME HOME!!!! I miss you and you and you and you. and you too. I can't wait to go to the beach, and be able to get into the water, I want to ride rollercoasters, I want to eat mexican food, I want a cheeseburger, I want a glass of ICED anything, I want Dr. Pepper, I want Chili's, I want SOUTHWESTERN EGGROLLS, I want a hug from someone I've known for more than an month (no offence Jamie). I could go on. But I won't. I'll talk about something fun. Thursday night is THE night to go to that Cuban Club. I had so much fun. I danced with some of the other Americans fromBalimore and had a blast. There was this chick who would belly dance and shake her thing sometimes between songs, and while she had a nice body, she was pretty ugly. BUTTER FACE!!! (if you don't know what this is, email me and I'll explain). I was just waiting for her to get off the floor so I could boogie to salsa and reggaeton. Fun Fun Fun. I hope everyone is having a good summer. I am reading a new book and it is good. I finished Ya-Ya's in Bloom, and now I'm reading Jemima J. It is soo cute. I don't really have any more stories, but I'll be hanging out this weekend by myself with the 2 or 3 other people that didn't shell out the dough to go to Barcelona or Rome. yay sleeping, eating and books. Miss you all. Wednesday, June 29, 2005 I am so glad to be back. It was a wonderful trip, and I'm glad I took it. I learned a lot of Spanish, and a lot about the people, both Spanish and American, and about the culture, food and more. Here is a link to the 100 digital pictures that I took. I hope you enjoyed my journal entries as much as I enjoyed my time in Spain. :) Pictures (click on slide show) I won't be using the SabsinSpain email as much anymore. Contact me at SV1012@txstate.edu or AIM: Tinyfoxie