My Adventures in Spain

See The Champions Take The Field Now...

2011-01-06T15:34:00.001+01:00

The single biggest difference between now and when I was here before is that now Spain is Spain. These is now (at least where I am) an almost universal identification as being "Español" rather than being "Madrileño." I can only assume that the same thing has happen across the nation.

The only possible explanation I can think of for this is winning the World Cup. It has changed the attitude of the entire nation. They don´t really talk about it but it is almost always there, like a little undercurrent of victory. The best example of this is this song. If you go out at night and hear this song, EVERYONE sings it. And I mean EVERYONE. They all know all the words and most bellow it out as loud as they can as if they were trying to remind the world that they won.

Culture: It´s a real shocker

2011-01-03T16:02:00.003+01:00

So this post is about that terrible phenomenon that so many people have, but almost no one ever really understands: Culture Shock. And I am posting this for what is probably the gayest reason I have ever posted: My mommy told me to.

OK, here is where I cheat. The following is Josh Broward writing about his experience with culture shock in Korea. If you are interested in the full article it can be found here. I don´t know him, and using this bit of his blog is probably plagiarism in some way or another but such is life.

Stage 1: The Honeymoon Period.
This is the stage when everything is new and beautiful and wonderful. You are so excited about your new adventure in a new culture. Everything is cute. Isn't it cute how the little kids ask if you are an American? Aren't those little old ladies selling things on the street just so cute? It makes me want to buy every vegetable they have! I love how the lady in the store just keeps talking to me. I don't understand anything she's saying, but I bought the soap she was selling because she was just so cute!

This stage usually lasts between two weeks and three months. For me, it lasted about 12 hours. After a hot night with no air conditioning and community loudspeakers at 6 a.m., the honeymoon was pretty much over for me.

Stage 2: Frustration.
Eventually things aren't so cute any more.

Why does everyone ask me if I'm American? I'm Canadian, OK?! You want to keep pointing? I've got a finger. I can point, too! I feel sad for those grandmas selling vegetables on the street. I hate when that lady at the store keeps talking and talking and talking. Doesn't she know I can't understand her? Just let me pick my own soap already!

It may be helpful here to remember that some of the frustrations we are experiencing are not because of the host culture. We would have similar struggles in any culture different from our own. Also, part of the frustration is related to change, not culture: new job, new home, new friends, new food, new modes of transportation. That's a whole lot of change at one time, and it can be really hard.

This is the hardest stage of culture shock. We can feel homesick, depressed, angry and helpless. This stage can last anywhere from three months to one year. Some people go home while they are still in frustration mode.

Stage 3: Transition.
You start to learn some things that are helpful. Maybe you actually start studying the language, so you can say more than “Hello” and “Thank you.” You can actually use chopsticks without dropping your food all over your shirt. You learn which stores have more familiar food.

Now, when kids look at me in shock and say, “Foreigner,” I point back and say, “Korean!” Instead of moving awkwardly past the cute lady hawking laundry detergent in the grocery aisle, some of our single guys stop and try to get her phone number. I remember the first time we ordered pizza over the phone in Korean. It was a huge emotional victory!

The transition isn’t always smooth, though. Once, when I was at the city swimming pool, a large group of elementary boys were getting ready for their swim lesson. Some of the boys started pointing and saying, “Foreigner.” I decided to have some fun and practice my Korean at the same time. I said in Korean, “No I’m not a foreigner; I’m Korean. I’m from this city.” This started a raucus argument among the kids. They quizzed me about Korea and divided into camps. Some claimed that I was obviously a foreigner because of my white skin and hairy arms (which they freely touched). Others vehemently argued that I was clearly Korean because I spoke Korean (still somewhat of a rarity among foreigners here). As I stood there, at the center of a storm of elementary boys, I decided this was not helping my culture shock.

The key point in the transition stage is regaining hope. The transition period usually lasts one to three months.

Stage 4: New Balance.
After a while, you start to get adjusted. You find your rhythm in a new place, living in a new way. You feel less out of place. You find a few groups or communities where you really belong. And amazingly, your focus begins to shift away from culture shock and culture and on to just living regular life.

This is the best and easiest stage, but some people never get here. Some people just give up and go home. Some people isolate and form a ghetto culture within their new culture. All their friends are foreigners. All their food is foreign food. Sure they work with Koreans, but once they are done working, it's like they live on a different planet, and all interactions with Koreans are unfortunate necessities. This is really sad. People who don't get to the New Balance stage miss out on many good experiences and good people. They never really see Korea.

Stage 5: Re-entry Shock.
You thought we were done, right? Nope. When we go home, we have culture-shock in our own culture. Home isn't the same any more – or at least it's not the same for us. Maybe new buildings have gone up in your favorite park. Or maybe nothing has changed, and that seems incredibly boring.

Once I asked a Korean KNU worker to help me at the ATM, and she said she didn't know how to work them either. She had just come back to Korea after 15-20 years abroad, and they didn't have ATMs here when she left.
A few years ago, we felt lucky to find more than two or three varieties of cereal in our local grocery store in Korea. While visiting family in Iowa, my wife and I walked up and down the aisles of a small country grocery store just counting the different kinds of cereal. I lost count somewhere after 70!

Some people feel a great sense of surprise and betrayal when they go “home.” Others feel deeply out of place returning to friends and family who have not had the same life-changing experiences.

So that pretty much sums up culture shock except for one tiny thing: He skipped a step. For me (and many of the other exchange students) there are two honeymoon periods. The first lasts just a short time and is when "Everything is so darn cute" as he says. I like to call it The Fog. You are there. You are lost. You walk around like you are in a dream "experiencing" he culture as best you can. 2nd, there are The Frustrations. This is basically the same thing he describes. BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE! Because there is one more stage right after the Transition (and it is probably the hardest one). I like to call it the This-Totally-Blows period, the The-Time-Of-Reckoning-Has-Come period, or the Kick-In-The-Testies period. Take your pick. It is the time where you realize that you have not transitioned completely. I expect that Josh (the guy who wrote the article above) may have not experienced this because (at least I am guessing) he lived with his own family, not an entirely new one. Anyway, this period is when you realize that not only do you need to transition how you act, you also need to transition yourself. This stage requires that you sacrifice a small part of yourself to let the culture shape you into one of its own.

I think that this stage is what makes re-entry is so hard. You have altered yourself to live in a new world and suddenly no longer need the part of you that you gained. And at the same time you kind of need a part of you that you no longer have because you sacrificed it to get that new part of you which you needed to adapt. Because of this, and this may sound really weird, but to try to re-enter your old culture seems almost like a self-betrayal. It seems like you must deny all those changes that happened to you and become the old you (which you almost certainly do not want to be). It is hard but eventually you have to learn to take the best of the two selves and put them together making YET ANOTHER new and improved you. Hard but worth it.

Sorry if that makes no sense at all.

A continuación

2010-12-27T23:04:00.002+01:00

I wanted to title this post "Broken sensors, long flights, angry New Yorkers, dehydration, and Englishmen who do not understand the concept of personal space," but I figured that would have been a little too long. Anyway, I have decided to write a couple posts while I am back on this side of the ocean just to keep myself from losing all English skills while I am here.

The flight over was pretty good. CR to Chicago was probably close to the smoothest flight I have ever been on and I slept the whole time. The rest was good when I got to Chicago because it was FULL of pissy east coast people who needed to fly home after Christmas but couldn´t because of the snow. It didn´t get much better when I got on the plane though because I sat next to a British guy who, too put it politely, took up more than his fair share of the space. I ignored it at first and just went to sleep as we left the gate, only to be woke up an hour and a half late at the gate again. Apparently there had been a problem with temperature sensor in the parking break. So I had to sit with British guy for WAY too long. But he offered me a pen to fill out a immigration form so I forgive him.

But the worst part was that (just like every other time I was on a plane) I got very dehydrated. And I mean very dehydrated. Very, very dehydrated. I almost got sick and haven´t been feeling that great today but getting better. Either way I am tired as hell.

Well I have more to write but I don´t think I am going to get it out tonight. I took a 5 hour nap earlier and am still exhausted. G´night world.

This is just the beginning.

2010-06-30T00:52:00.004+02:00

Although I have learned a new language in the last year, I am still unable to find the words in either language to describe how I feel right now. But I will try none the less.

The last 24 hours have been an insane emotional roller-coaster. For starters last night there was a party with all my friends. Great time. The downside being that I did not get to sleep until 6 in the morning. Which would not have been that much of a problem except for the fact that I had to sleep on the couch because basically everything I owe was spread out of my bed. SO, I got woken up at 10 when Sofía got tired of being kept out of the dining room. So four hours of sleep.

There today was a day full of good-byes. I honestly do not know if it is a Spanish thing (and I do not think it is) but I have never been told "I love you and will miss you." by so many people. Some of the people I have met here and become friends with have become some of the best friends I have or could ask for. I had heard it said that leaving is often much harder than coming because when you come, you know you are not leaving everything for good. But when you go back, you do not have a clue when you are going to see these people again. It is hard.

I would like to ask a favor of all of you. I need you all to remember that, while I am still Lucas, I am not the same person I was before I left. I have changed. I am not saying that I need any special care or that I have gone all emo on you all. But for example today I saw someone on Facebook asking another exchange student to translate his status. It took me several seconds to figure out that the status was written in Spanish. To me they often look the same now.

Anyway, I have some last minute packing that I have to do so I should go. (Only 4 hours and 6 minutes until the plane takes off)

See you all soon.

Graduated... twice. Does that mean I am twice as smart?

2010-05-27T22:03:00.003+02:00

Yesterday was my graduation and wow was it Spanish. Normally the whole everything-being-different-in-Spain thing does not really bother me anymore, but during the whole thing I could not help but think "This would never, ever happen in the US."

It started off with the actually graduation ceremony which was at 19:00. (I will be writing with a 24 hour clock to simplify things.) The ceremony was the most recognizable part of the whole thing, everyone crossed the stage, the mayor talked too long, the other speakers talked to long, people sang "We are the world." Basically the same old same old. But after the ceremony, we all went to the school for the graduation party, and that is when things got Spanish.

For one, there was an open bar... in the school. I never thought I would see an open bar in a school and it was rather disconcerting. There were also uniformed waiters circulating through through the crowd with platters of different foods. The cost of this affair was 10€ for 3 people. A school not trying to make a profit off of something was also highly surprising.

After the in school party, the parents and teachers went home and us students went out for the night. We had a discoteca that we had rested out for the night and partied the night away until 5:00 or so. Then we screwed around in the street until the metro opened up and we could take that to get to the bus that took us back to the school for churros and chocolate.

We got to the school at about 7:00, but had to wait until 8:00 to get into the school. As Ray (the other exchange student who is in my class) observed, the whole discoteca experience is really nothing more than the final test. A holy pilgrimage to Madrid and back to prove that yes you really are able to be a Spanish adult. Kind of like hazing in fraternities, but a lot more fun.

All of the non-graduates had class at 8:30 and so, as they began to trickle in, we formed a tunnel at the entrance and chanted "A clase! A clase!" (To class! To class!) as they walk through it. Once they had all gone through the tunnel, we got our churros and went home. I got home at 9:30, went straight to bed, and did not get up until about 5:00. All in all it was a great evening/night/morning, quite possibly the best I have had so far, and I will never forget it.

Sadly, all this lack of sleep/not taking my medicine because I was out for the night has led me to get a sinus infection. AKA, my life is now miserable.

2010-05-25T22:53:00.002+02:00

So big things have happened since my last post. They were so big that I did not have time to write (lie. I am just lazy). Let us start the most recent news and work our way back.

Last Saturday I went to Valencia with my football team for our second playoff game. We lost, but I could hardly be more proud of the team and especially of myself. We lost 34-0, but we were playing a team that had more than twice the number of players, and the majority of them were bigger than all of us. So sure they scored 5 touchdowns on us and made two safeties (our defense did a LOT better than our offense at first, so we would both go 4 and out with them slowly gaining ground on us until they got safeties), BUT I personally managed to block every single extra point attempt. Even though accidentally used my testicles to block the first one. That hurt. The first half I played wing on offense and did terrible. But the second half I got moved to QB and had a hell of a time. We ran a lot of option plays and QB keeps and it was rare for me to run for less than 5 yards. One time it took 6 of them to take me down. (I am rather proud of that.) I do not think I have ever played that hard in my life and my body still hurts as proof of it.

So our season is now over and we have been eliminated. We finished 4-2 and I had more fun playing this year than I ever have had playing football. I will probably never set foot on a football field as a player again but I am ok with that because I cannot think of a better season to got out on.

I have also been done with school so almost too weeks now... kind of. I finished class of the 12th, but I still go to two classes a day of 1º de bachellerato (11th grade) just so that I have something to do while everyone else in my class is studying for selectividad (the spanish college entrance exam). I also have my graduation tomorrow so that will be... an experience. To say the least. The sad thing is that I actually ended up passing far more classes than the rest of my class. I do not know exactly how I did it, but when I counted it up at the end, I had passed almost all of my classes. Which was a very nice surprise!

There was more... but it appears the big things that have been happening are so big that I can not even keep them all in my head! And so I am going to bed. Buenas noches mundo pequeño.

Alumnos de Bach 2C (1 of 3)

2010-05-03T13:40:00.008+02:00

So this post is for Tania Benito, who was curious as to my opinions of the people in my class, of which she is one. So here ya go Tania. Now read it then get back to studying!

Marcos de la Mata: Marcos is one of two people in my class who is also on my football team and one of the best players we have. He is a cool guy, but LOVES being contrary. Alex (another guy on my team) are always arguing like an old married couple, so we call them Mommy and Poppy. Marcos is not fond of being considered a woman.

Estefania Airoldi: Stefi is the first person to get to class ever morning after me and she is odd down to her genetics. She is half Spanish, half Italian and was born in Germany. She refers to me as "f-ing Lucas" but writes it like "faquin Lucas." She always says that she is only going to speak to me in English which lasts about five minutes, and this happens every couple weeks. I could write a lot more

Tania Benito Alfaro: Despite the fact the fact that Tania and Stefi sit together, they do not share the same time table. She usually shows up about 10 minutes late. Sadly, we have only hung out like twice. And she still owes me 10€ from the second time! (sorry just remembered that.)

Maria del Pino Borges: Her name is Maria del Pino but everyone just calls her Pino because her sister's names are all Maria (Maria de las Nieves, Maria del Rosario, etc). Pino means Pine... as in the tree. So I just call her "tree" sometimes to tick her off. She was my second Spanish friend and probably helped me more than anyone else in those first few months here.

Paula Cerezo: Paula is what I guess you would call our class rep. Which means she yells at us when we have not been going what we should have been doing... except she is not very good at yelling at people because she is too smiley. Basically, she is too nice to be mean.

Cristina Ihavenoideawhatherlastnameis: Cris is nice, but I honestly have not talked to her much, which is kind of sad because she sits right in front of me...

Beatriz Sanchez Puerta: Bibi is the skinniest person I have ever met in my life. My thigh is thicker than her waist. She kind of quiet at times and a seems a bit shy. But she is really friendly and probably speaks English better than anyone (except for Sara and Jorge who are both special cases).

Jorge de Solis: Jorge is Jorge. My first day I sat down in an open seat which happened to be next to him. Turns out he had spent a couple years on a US military base (His dad is a lieutenant colonel in the Spanish army. I think he is special forces.) and can speak English almost perfectly. The problems that kid gets into are truly remarkable.

Viktor Montaña: Viktor has had to repeat a number of times for various reasons, most of which are related to certain illegal substances. I think he will be turning 21 pretty soon. But all in all he is an OK guy, even though I would not exactly want to go hang out with him.

Raymond Fuqua: Ray the other rotary exchange student in my school, and as such, we spend a fair amount of time together. He is from Hawaii for which I hate him. But all in all he is a cool guy. So I guess I forgive him his Hawaiian-ness.

So that is the first column. There are 2 more, but I will write about them later.

Yawn.

2010-04-25T16:53:00.002+02:00

So yesterday was our first playoff game, and I can honestly say that it was the most boring game of my life.

We ended up winning 13-12 with all the points scored in the first half. For defense, in the whole game, the opposing team ran three plays to the side I was playing. On offense I played wide receiver and we had one pass play... which was to the other side... and intercepted... Basically I took up space the whole game. Fun stuff.

In other news, psychology is silly. We are doing a project on help in emergencies and decided to make a little experiment of our own. So I went to a classroom where I did not know anyone under the excuse that I am an exchange student who was there to listen. Then I pretended to have an epileptic attack complete with slipping myself a pill so that I was foaming at the mouth . I am happy to say that my ability to pretend to convulse erratically has not decreased at all in the last 8 months, and they were totally convinced that I was having a genuine epileptic attack. On the scientific note, I was helped immediately and one girl even knew exactly what to do. Oh and yes, this whole thing was my idea.

Losing can be good sometimes.

2010-04-17T22:34:00.002+02:00

So as some of you already know, we lost our game. What you all probably do not know is the details, and that is why I am here.

They won by a lot. I got a concussion in the 4th quarter after throwing three interceptions. Alex (the other QB) threw five. Add 2 fumbles on top of that and you get the final score: 50-6. We do not need to talk about this anymore.

But in the end, it worked out nicely. For one thing the second place medal looks a lot cooler than the first place one. Second, losing made people realize that we are not invincible and there are teams that are a lot better than us which is an incredible motivator. And last of all losing put us in a better bracket for the playoffs. Bwhahahaha.

On a totally unrelated note, I finally got accepted to the U of I. Also got an apartment now and will be living at in the 500 block of South van Buren. Coolio.

Strange Days In Spain (And Portugal)

2010-03-22T22:06:00.006+01:00

Well well well... I suppose it is about time I got off my butt (or rather sit on it) and write about my trip. And as a special bonus because I took so long to write, I will be including a bunch of other things including but not limited to:
A Football Game!
A Ski Trip!
THE ZOO!

So our trip began on the 8th and finished on the 17th. To our collective surprise, we only had one chaperon: David. Before I say anymore I should say that David was/is the man. He let us do more or less what we wanted and we collectively responded by more or less behaving ourselves. That trip could have been terrible if he had decided to be a turd. But he was not, so it was good.

Our first stop was Granada. To be honest, I did not life Granada that much. Basically all we saw there was El Alhambra and the hotel. El Alhambra was very cool, but so huge that by the end we kind of just wanted to finish and go take a nap.

After Granada we went to Sevilla, but on the way we stopped in Córdoba to see La Mexquita. La Mexquita is a greek temple that was converted into a Christian church, then into a mosque, and later converted into a cathedral. So it is a huge jumble of every type of architecture that has existed in the last 2000 years. Probably my favorite thing that we saw just because the contrast between the different styles was so huge was so huge. Especially when we got to Cathedral part. When we got to Sevilla it was already late so it was not until the next day that we started our touring and my personal high point of the trip occurred: I successfully recognized the palace from the planet Naboo in Star Wars. No one believed me when I said it was there, then the guide was like "Hey! You kids know George Lucas?" I would not shut up about that moment for the rest of the trip. All in all Sevilla was my favorite city even though I am totally unable to say exactly WHY it is.

After Sevilla it was off to Portugal. We spent the night just south of Lisbon right on the coast in a 4-star hotel. It was sweet. That night of chilling on a peer on the Portuguese coast talking with great people was by far one of the best in my life. The next day we crossed the River Tajo to Lisbon and spent 2 and a half days there making day trips to the surrounding area. It was nice, but I definitely preferred Spain. Portugal was basically like Spain, only less interesting and Portuguese speaking...

When we got back to Spain we went to Merida, Salamanca, and Cáceres. By this time everything is kind of jumbled up in my mind due to a severe lack of sleep. However, I can say that it was a very good time, and I was extremely happy to be back in Spain where I could talk to the waiters.

A couple days after I got back we had our third game which was also our first away game. ...5 people did not show up... Many of which were starters... So we had people playing positions that had never played that position before and even some that had flat out never played before. Best part? We still won. My personal low point was the interception that I threw. Luckily the very next play I intercepted the ball and ran in back 70-ish yards for a touchdown to give us the lead which we held for the rest of the game. Other than that it was not quite as fun as the other games though. Boo that. Final Score: 18-10

The Monday after the game I went skiing with Guillermo and some of his friends. The second time down I fell bad and screwed up my knee pretty hardcore. It hurt. Bad. Walking was... interesting.

So after I back from the Rotary trip, I only had 4 days of school-3 actually considering I skipped one to go skiing-until vacations for Semana Santa which just ended this Tuesday. During Semana Santa I:

Went to the zoo.

Ate the best beef I have ever eaten.

Went to the house of the abuelos way out in the country which involved driving on an extremely long, curvy, and bumpy road when I was already sick

And much more.

Our next football game is on Sunday and if we win this one we will have won la liga madrileña. So it will a hard game. Maybe I will let you all know about it less than three weeks later. haha.

Good night world.

Later

2010-03-05T18:24:00.001+01:00

So this isnt so much an update as a notification.

1) No game this Sunday. Apparently the other team had problems with their field. Boo them.

2) I am going to Portugal. And as such, I will not have a computer until I get back on the 17th.

Hasta entonces.

2-0, 32-0, 1. Such Beautiful Numbers!

2010-02-23T23:01:00.003+01:00

So we had our second game on Sunday and I am proud to announce that we won 32-0, makes our record 2-0, and I ran for a touchdown. Felt good.

That score when you break it down equals out to 5 touchdowns and a safety. We dominated them. The only bad part was that it was raining buckets so we could not pass. Had we been able to pass we would have destroyed them because the other team always blitzes all but 1 linebacker and only have 3 DBs. (Sorry if you do not understand that.)

On defense we had all had an amazing game. I personally had a great game playing Free Safety with a recovered fumble and the two best hits of the game, although the second hit screwed up my shoulder and I was not able to lift it above my head until today. I was not the only one with an amazing defensive game either since there were two defensive touchdowns and a safety.

But the very, very best part was the last play of the game. Sebas (our offensive coach) called a passing play and gave me 500 other little instructions as to what I should do to. Then when I turned to run the play into the huddle, he muttered "Or just ran the damn thing if you want to." So almost immediately after I took the snap, I had to bootleg to the left because of the blitzing linebackers and suddenly realized that there was no one in front of me. At all. So, remembering the last words of Sebas, I proceed to prance 60 yards down the field for a touchdown that ended the game. That felt good.

And after the game I once again led the whole team in the Washington Fight Song (with minor adjustments). The field echoed with shouts of "Demons, Demons! Fight for victory!" like had never been heard before. So all in all it was just a great game.

Before I go I should tell you all that something is screwy with the time/date thing on all my blogs. It always says that I posted them two days before I actually did. So I think I have fixed it bit I do not know if it will come back. FYI. Toodles.

I should really stop being such a turd and write more...

2010-02-18T22:41:00.004+01:00

Well life has been busy as of late with several interesting developments and, luckily for you all, this is the place where I write about said interesting developments... Just not all of them because that would take all day!

First and foremost, I shall address the subject of the chorus. For those of you who I have not told already, The Fayette County Select Chorus (basically Atlanta, GA) visited my school and stayed in Madrid for the weekend. Since I too am American, my vice-principle asked me if I would mind going places with them along with some other students from my school to help with translation/basic directions/etc. We stayed Madrid on Friday, took a trip to Segovia on Saturday, and tour El Escorial on Sunday. All in all it was a grand time with only one problem. Saturday night I was on the bus with Ryan (another exchange student), and I had to tell him that we needed to speak in Spanish. Not because I felt a great need to practice, but because I literally could not even think in English anymore after thinking in it all day. This thought scares me because I have NO idea what I am going to do when I get back to the US!

On a related topic, because of the fact that I was the only one on the above trip who is fluent in both English and Spanish, I had to translate for Spaniards sometimes with the end result being that I met a lot of really cool people who go to my school who I had never met before. In fact, several of them I had never even SEEN before... This may seem odd at first, but you have to remember that here in Spain the students stay in the same classroom the whole day and the teachers move from room to room. So I spend the whole day with the same people and do not meet new people to often. But I met two or three people on the trip who keep introducing me to other new people that I never knew existed. It makes for an interesting day!

So tomorrow is my next football game and my coach informed me that I will be starting once again as quarterback even though the starting quarterback (although I guess I cannot call him that anymore, anyway his name is Alex) is perfectly fine. Needless to say, when he told me this it was greeted my a large amount of swearing on my part and and great deal of smug happiness on the part of Alex. (He prefers being receiver too.) This should be a hard game too because apparently the team we will be playing likes to blitz 3 of their 4 linebackers every down. Boo being QB.

Today, in geography I was able to successfully argue that true love does not actually exist. (Technically I was arguing that only God can truly love us because only can is capable of truly knowing our complete being) Calm down, it had nothing to do with geography class itself. I must say though I was rather impressed with myself because I was able to catch my opponent in several verbal traps. Hurray for being able to argue about irrelevant topics again! Welcome back being a smart-ass! I have missed you dearly!

Well there you all have 4 interesting developments. That should be enough for at least a bit.
Hasta luego.

Run Forrest! RUN!

2010-01-30T13:37:00.004+01:00

I have two stories for you all tonight.

The first story I have to tell about needing to run fast is the story about when I got (sort of) mugged. It was about 5 in the morning and I was coming home from Madrid on the night bus. (N903 if you must know.) Now the night bus stops about 5 minutes from my house, and I have to walk from there. I have two routes to go home: The long way, which follows the more populated roads but takes 5 minutes longer; and the quick way, which is shorter but no one else is ever there. Anyway, I got off the bus and decided to take the quick way because I was tired. Three other guys got off the bus too, and-as soon as the bus left-they start pushing me around a tad and asking me if I had anything of value. However, I like my things. So pushed one outta the way, took off, and did not look back. Interesting experience. The thing that is most interesting is that they got off the bus BEFORE me, which means that they live around here... I have decided to take the long way from now on...

Now story number two about needing to run fast has a much happier ending. It is, of course, the story of my first Spanish football game. We played Los Osos (The Bears) and going into the game they were the all around, overwhelming favorites. The optimistic predictions had us losing by just a few points. They had more people, more size, and more speed. So it gives me great pleasure to announce that we won 13-6. What you cannot see from that score is that not only did we win, we (in the words of their own web site) dominated them. We led the whole game, and the team as a whole had (at least) 10-15 sacks. It was a great game and when it was all over and we had won, I led the whole team in the WHS Fight Song. (With some minor adjustments because-although our mascot is the Black Demons-our colors are red and black and we do not live in Washington.)

As for my individual performance, I did better than expected. We ran the ball a lot which is kind of what saved me. We actually only ended up running 3 pass plays, although far more than that were called. Every time one was called, there would be a penalty or something and the play would get changed. But I was 1 for 3 (one of which was NOT my fault because it hit the guy in the chest), but that one was run for 30 yds and turned into a TD. My only really big mistake was when I open up to the wrong direction on a reverse, but considering that I started learning this stuff five days ago I feel like I should be pardoned.

Well those are my stories of running, and now that I have no more and my legs hurt quite badly, I am going to hobble off into the sunset. G´night.

"Lucas Asbury: Quarterback" Something I though I would never see. Or what to!

2010-01-26T21:50:00.002+01:00

So my football team has problem. Our starting quarterback has hurt his meniscus and might not be able to play in our first game on Sunday. Soooo the only other person on the team who has any really idea of how to throw is me, thus I am the back-up. That should tell you something about just how bad they are! My only hope is that he can play and does not get hurt halfway through the game because if that happens I am SCREWED! (actually we all are!)

I had the geography test from hell the other day over the different sectors of industry and agroculture in Spain. I was able to fumble my way through most of it, but totally failed the definitions part. (I have some doubts that "trashumancia" was actually even in the book...)

Physical therapy for my finger will finally be over over on Thursday which will finally put an end to this whole finger business. And if you ask me, it is about time because this "injury" happen the 18th of November. Which means that when this all over, it will have been 2 months and 10 days. Ugh.

Well I believe I might be getting sick so I am going to bed early tonight. Buenas noches.

"Enjoy The Little Things"

2010-01-16T16:57:00.005+01:00

So the first few days back in school just flat out sucked. Getting up early, sitting for long periods of time, listening to lectures on things that-to be honest-I have absolutely no interest in. For example, I just cannot bring myself to be interested in psychology since I had a hard enough time paying attention when it was in English! Ugh.

Speaking of school, I had to give my presentation in philosophy the other day. I can honestly say that was the most nervous I have ever been in my life. My whole body was shaking. It is best if we did not speak of it although I was able to successfully defend my ideas through the whole class debate so it was not a total disaster.

So apparently it has been decided by my host parents that I have to pass all my classes this trimester. Now that may appear fairly easy, but you have to realize that there is a difference in the difficulty between American and Spanish schools. Thus, passing all your classes in Spain is about like getting better than a B in all your classes in America. With the whole foreign language complication thrown in there, it just flat out sucks.

As you may remember I was feeling a little down because my English was getting worse and my Spanish was not improving much either. The upside is that I now able to understand basic Italian and French as a result of the fact that they are very similar to Spanish. I find this awesome.

(Warning: Contains awkward metaphors)
Another grand achievement is the realization about my feelings about Spanish. Before coming here, Spanish was like the hot girl in class. It was a lot of new, exciting, and just all around awesome. However, a couple weeks after arriving my feelings about it had shifted so that it was like the clingy ex. I wanted nothing more than to escape it back into the (relative) sanity and familiarity of English. But now it is like a best friend. Sure it pisses me off at times, but we know each other so it is all good. If these metaphors made no sense, I apologize.

I had a lot more to write, but I lack motivation to actually do it. So that is all. Good Night World.

Ok Ok! I will update!

2010-01-11T21:47:00.002+01:00

Well today is the last day off school (boo).

Actually we were supposed to have school today, but there was something like 3 inches of snow and Spaniards had a collective panic attack. Although to be fair-considering none of them know how to drive in the snow-I was freaked out too! But the panic is not the real reason that this snow fall is worth mentioning. The real reason is that this is the 2nd snow day since 2002 and the other one was earlier this school year! It is following me! AGH!!!

...Sorry about that...

So I kind of hate life right now. My philosophy professor has decided that because I do not take all of the test (there are some parts which are just too hard), she should assign me extra work. Thus, I have to read this book over the break (San Miguel Bueno, Mártir) that is about a man who is a literal saint, but has the deep dark secret that he does no actually believe in God, Satan, nor any type of an afterlife. He sole reason for keeping up the façade is that is gives the people hope. Anyway, I have to write a summary of the book as well as my opinion on the questions is raises... then present both to the class to open a class debate. While this is normally something I would not really mind because I like presentations, doing one in Spanish scares the piss out of me! Literally! Every time I think about it I have to pee!

On a totally unrelated note: learning languages is evil. While I was writing this post alone I had to sit for several minutes to remember "assign," "evil," and "break." But my Spanish is not that great either, at least by native standards. So I have basically traded one language for two half languages and am only half fluent in both. Yarg. MY VOCABULARY! And to top it all off, my arm keeps twitching!

OH! I went to a cool parade! There were explosions, flying people, and candy. T´was quite grand! I would treat you all to a grand explanation, but my description would be lacking and I would not do the parade justice. But I WILL tell you that it was for Reyes who came at the end of the parade much like Santa Claus would. The other interesting thing was the "American" section of the parade. It was a river boat, on top of which danced a woman who appeared to be a conservative Muslim stripper (I know that makes no sense. Her costume did not either), a steam engine, and a procession of "Native Americans" which we just Spaniards with big fake noses and a lot of feathers. To be honest, it was a little disturbing.

Alas, my battery dies as I type. Thus, I must cease with my ramblings. Hasta luego. Os echo de menos.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T15:58:00.003+01:00

As you may have guessed by the title of this post, this is the promised post about Christmas. I suppose I should start as the beginning with with Noche Buena.

Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) is when the main celebration is. The abuelos came over at about 4 or 5-which is basically right after lunch-and started making food. Dunner was at about 10-which is early for a Christmas dinner. I wish I could list off all the things that we ate, but to honest I can not remember it all because there was so much! I know these was cordero (roast lamb), rojos (they are like giant shrimp that are fantastic), bread of course, and much more. Needless to say it was all amazing. The only downside was the family dinner is a formal occasion here, therefore I had to dress up which I am not terribly fond of. Oh well.

After the dinner was the gift giving. Christmas presents are kind of different from in the US because the giving is broken in two. The gifts from "Santa" are given on the 5th of January and are from "Los Reyes Magos" or as we call them "The Three Kings." The other presents are given Noche Buena. Anywho, after dinner and presents we played some poker (I lost 10 cents) and then Miguel, Guillermo, and I went to hang with some friends. Very good night that I will never forget, especially the food.

Noche Vieja (New Years Eve) was basically two days in one. It started out normally enough except for one fact: by three in the afternoon the kitchen was full of cooking smells. Finally it was time to dress up and eat! We had some more rojos, filet mignon, and a bunch of other things that I can not remember.

After dinner played another game of poker (I won some... dont remember how much but I in all of the games we have played I am 1.50€ ahead) but our game was interrupted by midnight. Now in Spain there is no ball that drops (thank god! I have always thought that was the stupidest thing ever.) instead they have a clock tower. And as the bell rings they eat grapes; twelve grapes for twelve chimes of the bell. I do not know if you have ever eaten twelve grapes in twelve seconds, but it is rather comical! Guillermo gagged, almost threw up, and had to spit out all his grapes! Good times.

After the grape eating, we-brothers and I-went over to the house of a friend to party. We stayed there until 11... AM. On the way home we stopped to get churros-which were fantastic-and then crashed when we got home and slept until 5. It was a good time.

Anyway, that was my holiday season. It was definitely unforgettable but now I have to go read some don Quijote before practice. Adios mundo.

2010? I think I shall!

2009-12-31T14:00:00.002+01:00

Well I am in my last 12 hours of 2009 (actually I am in my last 10 but 12 sounds better because it is a half day) and it has made contemplative.

1) WHAT THE HELL! I turn 20 this upcoming year! That is two times the age of 10! I can remember 10! Craziness...

2) I want to know why you never hear about crappy superpowers. Why is there never a superhero tag-along that has the ability to flush the toilet from 30 feet away? Or have an invulnerable pancreas? It seems to me that the majority of superpowers are caused by some kind of accident or are there from birth. Therefore would it not be just as likely that the superpowers would totally suck? (This has nothing to do with New Years but it bothers me none the less.)

3) 2009 was a very good year. Sure there were crappy parts-had the worst sinus infection ever for example- but they were FAR out weighed by the good parts making this one of, if not the, best year of my life so far. So I would like to thank you all, Spanish, American, or other, who were around this year (unless you were an ass) for making this year truly amazing. And I promise that this sounded a lot less like an acceptance speech when I started...

Anywho... grapes tonight! Should be a good time. Os echo de menos.

Christmas.

2009-12-28T23:22:00.002+01:00

PSYCH! This is not the Christmas post either! This is just a notification say that I am going to combine a Christmas post with a New Years post to make one Super Post. So if you are just hanging around waiting to hear about Christmas, it will not be up until after New Years (maybe the 3rd?).

For those of you do not care about Christmas updates (applause for you), here is a regular post:

I am extremely bored. Spaniards-at least the ones I am around-do one of two things during the holidays: vacation or study. Since I am currently one of eight-and one of those is five-vacation is virtually impossible because everyone has a different schedule to work around. So I am left with the second option, study. Now as most of you know, I do not exactly "study." I go to class. I pay attention. And I do my homework... usually. But once I am out of class that is my time and I do NOT want to spend it reading about the different types of Spanish literature, especially since my grades do not matter to me this year. And normally I would just ignore the need to study, but there is a problem.
The problem is a rather simple one even though I am unable to complex to resolve it. Remember when I said at the start of the last paragraph that Spaniards spend the holidays studying or vacationing? Yeah... that is the problem. Everyone is either studying or on the coast (or as far away as Egypt). So that means I can either go hang out with myself or stay at home and study. Great options huh?

Sorry but Christmas will have to wait.

2009-12-24T12:39:00.007+01:00

So I know I promised some of you a Christmas post, but it will have to wait because it is time for a moment of honesty: This is hard. I prepared myself for coming here by telling myself "Hell. If I can do this, I can do anything!" I am now almost four months in and I now realize that was far more true than I realized then. Not to say that Spain is not amazing or than I am not having the time of my life, but every once and a while it gets to you. Making new friends is great and all, but when you are like me and have lived in the same place all your life, there really is not anyway to replace the friends and confidants that you have had since you were born. Oh sure with modern technology such as Skype and Facebook you can still keep in touch, but it is no longer the same. You are still talk, you are great friends, and sharing the knowledge that one shall return. But the physical aspect is gone. There is something about a face-to-face conversation that cannot be replicated through technology. The blunt truth is that you are living different lives, and until the two are reunited the essence of the friendship lacks.

All this is to say that, as expected, there are times when loneliness sets in. When friends-and especially confidants-are missed, and one really begins to understand that "No man is an island."

By now you are probably wondering how on Earth I am still alive. Well I thought you might want to know what keeps me going day to day so here it is. (Oh and I needed something to keep this post from being totally emo!)

1) The letter W
The majority of Spaniards remain unable to say words that start with W. They just can not make the sound so it ends up sounding like "goo.
2) The Break
We have a 3.5 week break here for Christmas instead of the 1.5 that I am accustomed to. The only downside to this is that my philosophy teacher gave me a book to read and when we go back to school I have to present an exposition to the class to open a class debate. But it is still a much need break that I am enjoying greatly!
3) My host family/friends in Spain
My host mom would probably be extremely disappointed that I do not, in fact, feel completely comfortable telling her everything about my life. But then again, I do not tell my biological mom everything either! (Mom, if you did not already know that: I am sorry, but it is time you faced reality. However, I am presuming that you already did so disregard this.) Anyway, between them and Spanish friends I occasionally am able to spit something out.
4) The Mountains
The first time I saw the mountains clearly it was early morning and the sun was streaming over my head and hitting the peaks. It was quite possibly the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. And in that instant I promised myself that I would never become so accustomed to the mountains that I would not look at them whenever I could. And every morning that I look at them, they still take my breath away a little.
5) Cards
I do not know if any of them read this, so can someone please tell the CS people thank-you for the cards. I opened the last one a couple days ago. They were all extremely helpful.
5A) Can someone give a special thanks to Victoria for the frog card that had Is. 58:9 in it. It was the last one I opened and-ironically-probably the most helpful! I have probably read it 10 times already. For the rest of you, should you ever be feel down, I strongly recommend Isaiah 58:9 (or for special occasions Isaiah 58:6-9).

And now it is 2:30 in the morning so I am headed to bed. Good night.

I almost saw the sun last night.

2009-12-19T16:34:00.003+01:00

So to reiterate how late the Spanish fiesta goes into the night I am going to make a few wee observations for all of you.

1) There is a 7 hour time difference between Iowa and Spain.

2) I got home at about 7 A.M. last night.

3) If you take into account the two above facts, I went to bed after you if you went to bed before midnight even with the time difference.

I find this humorous.

The Undulation of Moods Continues

2009-12-17T22:09:00.002+01:00

So my theory about the undulation of my feelings about Spanish are proven yet again. The pessimism reflected in my last post has been overwhelmed by two realizations:

1) I am fluent in Spanish.

2) I am in Spain.

The former I realized lying in my bed. And since I came here with 2 main goals (become fluent and have a good time), I am doing what I need to be doing and that is really all that matters.

The latter I realized this for the 100th time as I was talking out the trash a couple nights ago at 23:30. I responded by throwing mt head back, running down the middle of the street with a trash bag in both hands, and laughing hysterically. My neighbors must think Americans are insane.

On a totally unrelated topic I took my math test today and feel as though I did quite well. This is the first time I have actually felt like I did well on a test since I have come to Spain-wow I missed knowing what I am doing! But I I knew how to do all but one of the problems, which is a definite improvement over my last test when I was only sure how to do one thing! TAKE THAT MATH!

Anyway-on yet another totally random topic-I just tried "gulas" which are a farmed form of "angulas" which translates to "elvers" which dictionary.com defines as:

Elvers
-Noun
a young eel, esp. one that is migrating up a stream from the ocean.

Anyway, angulas apparently cost about 1000€ per kilo, thus we were eating the farmed form which, while still extremely expensive, are far more reasonably priced.

... They were not very good.

Hola Niños Y Niñas.

2009-12-13T22:09:00.004+01:00

Buenos días mundo (aúnque no debo decir "mundo" porque la unica gente que lee esto están en EEUU).

Nada ha pasado.

Me aburre.

Siento como mi español está empeorando.

Y hemos empezado estadisticas...

Odio estadisticas.

¿Que divertido, no?

My Hand Is Green... Does That Mean It Is Jealous Of The Rest Of Me?

2009-12-01T15:58:00.002+01:00

Well boys and girls I finally got my cast off. And even though I still cannot bend my pinky and have to keep it buddy-taped (not to mention that my hand is a mixture of purple and green), I am still extremely happy that it is gone! It also means that I can type again, thus I now feel compelled to write about all that has happened during the imprisonment of my poor, innocent hand.

To start off the list I turned 19. Now let me say this: Spaniards know their cake. I have eaten many cakes in my day and this cake-while fairly small-was by far the best cake I have ever eaten in my life. The only real downside was I had a hellacious headache when I got home from school, which would not have been a problem except my bed was covered in balloons and presents when I got home so I had to clear my bed of obstructions before napping. But speaking of presents, I was gifted rather heavily by my host parents. They gave me a shirt, a couple books, and a jacket. That may not seem like a ton but clothing is extremely expensive over here with a regular T-shirt costing about 30€. Thus the jacket-which is a Calvin Klein jacket and about 8 points more preppy than I would normally wear but it is really nice-probably cost around 300€. To be honest I do not really like to wear it because I am terrified that I am going to ruin it in some way...

School is rocking... or at least as much as school can. I got invited on a weekend trip to Salamanca yesterday, and even though I can not go because of Rotary rules and all that it was still nice to get invited! I also passed my geografia test! This might not sound like much of an accomplishment but I should explain the difference between American and Spanish schools.

In American schools, if you go to class, do the homework, and study, you will pass no matter who you are. (There are exceptions to this of course.) Thus we focus more on how much you pass by. We have an honor roll and give out awards for good grades. There are students who make it through all of high school with a 4.0 but score under 30 on the ACT. In Spanish schools, grades do not matter so long as you pass. Of course it is also infinitely harder to get a passing grade and there is NO ONE who ever gets a 10 (the equivalent of an A), even they over-achievers who live for studying and would normally get a 36 on the ACT. A passing grade is a 5, thus anything better than a 5 is something to rejoice about. Well I just so happened to get a 5.6 on my geografia test and I am most definitely rejoicing!

Other classes are coming along somewhat too. I got a 2.1 on my math test which is quite bad, but half of my class did worse than that and no one in school who has this class was able to pass it. I blame the teacher, she it terrible.

Speaking of teachers, my teacher of lengua castellana LOVES saying "Eh?" She says it so much that we started counting the number of times she says it in one period. The two days we have counted she said it 169 times one day and 175 times the next. This is in a 50 minute period so she was saying "Eh" an average of once every 17.75 seconds and once every 17.14 seconds respectively. Some of you may frown and say tsk tsk that I am passing my time doing such pointless activities instead of "utilizing" my time. But one must realize that in order to count all the times she says "eh" I have to actually pay attention to her the whole class, which is an improvement.

Thanksgiving was... well... thankful. I rather love the way the Spaniards celebrate Thanksgiving, which is to say, they do not. They live more from the perspective that if you are thankful all year round you should not need a special day. We Americans tend to sometimes use Thanksgiving as an excuse to not be thankful for the other 364 days of the year (365 during a leap year). However Rotary rejoices in holidays likes Thanksgiving therefore there was a turkey dinner for all the exchange students and their families in the Madrid area. The turkey was OK, but lacked pie.

In the last two weeks there was also another Rotary Excursion which-although I do not want to whine-was quite boring. We went to Soria which is about 255 km away so it took almost 3 hours to get there. When we got there we went to a church/museum that was interesting, but nothing fantastic. Then we went to lunch which was quite tasty, and from there got on the bus for an hour bus ride to a little pueblo to see a Roman arch. Then we went home. Do not get me wrong. Everything was interesting, but considering that we were gone for 12 hours and spent 6 of it on the bus it felt kind of like a waste of time. I also forgot the memory card for my camera on the coffee table so I have no pictures. Boo.

That is far from all I have done these past few weeks, but you all will have to content yourselves with that because my brain is tired today. GOOD DAY!

Also for those of you who dont have a Facebook or just did not see it. If you want a postcard send me a message on Facebook (or if you do not have Facebook send me an E-mail). Might want to include WHY you of all people deserve a postcard as well as an ADDRESS to send it to!

This will be brief because typing with one finger on your right hand due to a cast sucks.

2009-11-20T15:55:00.002+01:00

So I have an irony to point out!

About a week after I got here my status on facebook read something like "they say that you should be more or less fluent in 2 months, by this reasoning I should be more or less fluent before my birthday." Well boys and girls I had my first spanish dream on november 19th... eg the day before my birthday... eg the last time I slept before my birthday... eg the last possible opportunity for that prediction to come true.

Even my subconscious procrastinates.

Matt Damon Should Never Ride A Scooter On Screen...

2009-11-15T23:07:00.002+01:00

So I have discovered that watching movies in Spanish is by far one of my favorite pastimes. Watching movies that I have never seen before (like The Godfather, Death At A Funeral, etc.) it great like always, but there is also watching the great old favorites just to hear the same lines but in Spanish. My favorite so far is "No es volando. Es caer... con estilo!" (for those of you who are too lazy to translate, the quote is from Toy Story.) It also frees up some attention cells because I have seen it before so I notice odd things, like the fact that Matt Damon looks like a complete moron on a Mo-Ped.

Mondays suck. Tomorrow is one. Good Night.

Irony

2009-11-09T21:57:00.002+01:00

I find it extremely humorous that my feelings about Spanish are in constant flux. (Of course feeling that is humorous fluctuates too.) One day I will be feeling like crap because I am feeling like my Spanish has not improved in weeks and I am just wasting time, and the next day I have a day when I have some great improvement. This happens fairly regularly, and it happened today.

The past few days I have been feeling kinda down on my Spanish skills because, like previously stated, I felt they were not really improving. My vocabulary was not grow (at least it felt like it), and I had to concentrate like all hell just to understand what is going on. Then today I was sitting in Psicología when I realized I was understanding the Jav (see previous posts if this confuses you). The fact that I was understanding was not in itself remarkable because I can usually kind of understand-more or less-what he is saying, but the fact that I was kind of-more or less- understanding WITHOUT CONCENTRATING struck me suddenly.

I was going to write way more than this but I am extremely tired so that is all.

buenas

WARNING! DANGER! TAKE EVASIVE ACTION IMMEDIATELY!

2009-11-05T16:53:00.003+01:00

My host mom has started to threaten birthday festivities...

And now on to a topic that has nothing to do with the title of this post. (the above line is, while true, really just an excuse to write "evasive action")

School is getting better. I had a philosophy exam yesterday, and today the philosophy teacher sought me out to tell me that I had done better than most of the class. I also do homework now because I can actually understand when the teachers tell us what we have to do, but I still usually have a reduced assignment. Not that I usually do it right, but I am getting there.

I am trying to cut back on English a little so that is all for today.

Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

2009-10-28T22:35:00.002+01:00

Well everybody it's Wednesday (Hump Day), and that sucks. Luckily it's Wednesday night and almost Thursday, but unfortunately Thursday-for me-is the worst day of the week. Here's a glance at why:

Monday: School until 2:10, futbol americano 6:30-8:30
Tuesday: School until 2:10
Wednesday: School until 3, futbol americano 6:30-8:30
Thursday: School until 3
Friday: School until 1

So as you can see Thursday is a definite weak point in this schedule. It ties for "getting out of school latest" with Wednesday, but lacks the redeeming "futbol americano." In fact it has almost no redeeming qualities except that first hour is English. But even that isn't much because it just means that I'm expected to occasionally answer a question.

*RANDOM TOPIC SHIFT*

So I don't really think Spaniards understand how difficult it is to be a foreign exchange student to Spain if you are American, especially the ones who have gone/are in EEUU. For one most of them have studied English for something like seven years whereas I only had two (I technically have only been studying for two years even though I took Spanish 1-4). Also they have English injected into them daily through movies, TV, and music whereas Spanish is much harder to find in EEUU. So the people who have lived in the US for a year (they are surprisingly plentiful) think "Oh! I know what these exchange students to Spain are going trough because I went to America!" when in reality it's profoundly different.

*RANDOM TOPIC SHIFT #2*

Spaniards have discovered the secret to eternal youth/looking older when you are young. They literally do not age at all from the age of 15 to the age of 35. It's amazing. By the time they are 15 they look about like they are in their early-20's, when they are about 35 they look to be in their late-20's. For example: there is a girl in my class who looks for all the world like she should be in college... she's 16. I didn't believe her when she first told me that so she got other people to confirm it... I looked like a douche.

But that's all it from Spain for today. Sorry for the pointless ramblings but I am quite cansado. Buenas noches.

Correction

2009-10-20T22:57:00.003+02:00

I suppose I should clarify my last post a little. What I should have said is that I can almost always understand most Spaniards so long as it is conversational Spanish, lectures at the Institute are another story. For example, on Saturday Miguel and his friend Adrian were arguing about whether Madrid or Barcelona is better (which is an extremely heated topic here), and I was able to understand not only that they were arguing about which was better, but also the individual points that they were arguing. This is a fairly normal occurrence now.

However, there are still some things that elude me which mainly fall into three main categories which I have organized from least frustrating to most:

1) The Lola*

This category is all the people who have an accent (which is kind of ironic because I have a massive one). Lola is my professor de mates and has one of the most odd/annoying accent/lisps I've ever heard. It's even hard for the other students to understand her sometimes so I have companions in incomprehension, thus this category is the least frustrating.

2) The Javier*

This category is for all that vocabulary that I just don't have. What makes this so frustrating is that when I go home and look up what a word means, it's usually either so painfully obvious that I kick myself for not realizing it or it's impossible to remember. Anyway Javier is my psicologia professor and loves to whip out words that I don't understand, so for that I name this category for him.

3) The Pilar*

While I get better and listening everyday, there are still people who at times just talk too fast. The best example of this is Pilar, profesora de historia. She has a voice like a Sine wave. She'll start off talking in a normal tone (but really fast), progress to shouting (but enunciating her words very clearly), regress back to a normal (but fast) tone, continue to get quieter and quieter until she is almost whispering (but again enunciating very clearly), and finally return to her normal (but fast) tone to complete the cycle. She does this the whole period.

*The people for whom the categories are named are not the only ones I have trouble understanding, merely the best examples of their respective categories.

Anyway, all this comprehension has come as a result of a realization I had the other day about the Spanish language in general. This may sound a tad stupid, but it's the truth so live with it.

The Spanish language is not, in fact, a language but rather more like a mental state. You have to live the language, not just learn it. To be honest this kind of sucks because it means you have to make the decision to not only talk in only Spanish, but also THINK in only Spanish. And that isn't a decision that you can just make and that's that. You have to keep making it every single minute of every single day, constantly forcing yourself to use only Spanish. It's exhausting.

Luckily after a while thinking in only Spanish starts to get a little easier, but at the cost of your English skills. For example, today I was day-dreaming in economy class and tried to translate my thoughts from Spanish into English (which I like to do every once and a while just to make sure that what I am saying makes sense), and I just couldn't do it. It wasn't that I was thinking great abstract thoughts that have no literal translation in English (it was something about tires), I just couldn't make my mind think in English at that point in time. It was a very odd feeling.

Anywho, I should get going.

TOCA!

2009-10-19T15:48:00.002+02:00

I would just like to announce that I can understand Spanish people now.

That is all.

Ay! Mi amor! Yo te he buscado por fin!

2009-10-14T21:05:00.002+02:00

Football! Football! Football!!! ... But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So today I had my first exam in Lengua Castellana. Lucky me huh? Well it wasn't all bad because the teacher realize after about 5 seconds (and I'm not exaggerating) that I didn't have a chance of taking that test. So she wrote me up 3 questions to answer. They were:

Describe tu familia y ciudad.

Que te gusta mas aqui?

Que echo de menos?

I won't bother with the description but I will inform you of my other two answers!

The thing I like the most here is the food. At first it was like getting drop-kicked in the face by a large burly man named Chuck because the flavor was so strong. But now I love it. I have a LOT more to say on the topic of food and one of these days I'll get up the motivation to write about it.

The thing I miss the most I am sad to say was football (the other day I found my doodles turning into pass routes). But that's because it was on my mind because today was the day I started playing futbol americano here in Spain.

There's a team here in Las Rozas that practices less than a kilometer from my house so I can walk there are back if I need to. It's actually one of only three teams in all of Madrid (which means it's probably one of about 10 in Spain) and they're called the Black Demons... now read that again and try to tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor!

So anyway, today was the first day and I am happy to say I would have done Coach Roth proud. There wasn't a single person who I was guarding that caught a pass, and after the first hour the coaches had started asking me questions about how to do some things. I must say it's quite satisfying to go from semi-decent JV player to varsity all-star without actually doing anything other than get on a plane! So I have so high hopes for this spanish-american-football.

Anywho it's getting late and I do have school in the morning even if it is only ingles first hour.

"And that's the way it was."

2009-10-09T16:14:00.006+02:00

So I don't have the motivation to write about food (it's a pretty big topic), so instead I am writing about the differences between Spain and E.E.U.U.

#1) Swearing in more common. Actually it's more like pretty much everyone does it... parents, little kid, teachers, etc. Everyone is just kind of desensitized to what we would call "bad words." To them they are just strong words. (Not that they won't take offense if you call them something bad.)

#2) Man-jewelry. Most guys have at least one earring and it's not unusual to have 2-3 piercings. Guys wearing bracelets, necklaces (especially one's that have a cross or some other religious medallion), and rings way more here than in Iowa.

#3) They live on a different schedule. Lunch is usually at 2 and supper is usually at 9. They still eat breakfast at 7 though. And they also eat at 11 and 5-6.

#4) There are mountains.

#5) The temperature is about 70 right now and there isn't a cloud in the sky... and this isn't usual weather.

#6) People don't say thank-you as much. When I first got here they were constantly remarking how odd it was that I was constantly thanking them for everything when I wasn't saying thank-you more than I normally do. I was talking to some people who were intercambios TO Iowa last year and they said they were kind of shocked at how much the were expected to thank people. This leads to...

#7) People are much more honest about their feelings. When I first got here I thought everyone was a tad temperamental because they would start yelling at each other over the smallest things, but that's just how they are. When they are mad, they yell. When they are sad, they cry. When they are really truly thankful, they say thank-you.

#8) Bread is awesome. I'm convinced that it is baked daily by God and just dropped down to the bakeries. (They use the chimneys as funnels to catch it.) It's amazing normally, and then I had some that had JUST come out of the oven. But candy ain't got nothing on that.

#9) If you're in school, you study like 1-2 hours everyday. The other American in my class asked somebody if he wanted to do something after school (and this person is probably the least studious in the class) and the reply was "Dude. It's Monday. I have to study!"

#10) There are no penalties in school for skipping of being tardy. However, if you ARE tardy the teacher might just refuse to admit you to class because all the doors have to be opened from the inside.

#11) The teachers also don't really do anything if you talk in class except maybe tell you to leave. So there will be times-especially in lengua castellana-where the whole class is carrying on a conversation.

#12) There aren't really clocks anywhere... you have to either have a watch or a cellphone to know what time it is.

#13) Racism is-at least in my area-much more common. Calling someone a faggot (pardon my French) is trite, but calling someone a Moor is grounds for bloodshed.

#14) Everybody smokes, unless they have a medical condition which prevents them from doing so.

#15) Everybody drinks, no exceptions.

#16) They LOVE tomatoes, vinegar, and olive oil. Everything is cooked with olive oil, usually has tomatoes in some way, and the often pour vinegar on it once it's on their plates.

#17) Clothes cost a ton. It's a big sale if you can get a shirt for 30 Euros.

#18) They don't drink very much water. I find this odd because I drink a ton compared to them, and I am still dehydrated all the time. So maybe I am just lacking the Spanish genes that allow me to retain water. Who knows?

#19) Little kids drink coffee all the time. And their coffee is more akin to espresso than to our coffee.

#20) This one isn't really a difference, but everyone thinks I am Russian. Nobody over here really has freckles... or my color hair (Whatever it is. It's getting redder)... and rarely pasty colored skin (although it's probably more common than in the US). So they all know right away that I am foreign. But people rarely guess than I am American. I have actually had strangers come up to me and ask if I am Russian. It's quite odd.

So that's my list... there are more but I am lazy.

La familia Moreta

2009-10-06T20:14:00.005+02:00

So I suppose I should write something about my host family since they are kind of letting me live in their house for a year... Anyway there's 8 of them.

Daniel (Padre) is the CFO for a company called Sedecal that sells medical equipment world-wide. They have offices in Madrid, Chicago, and Beijing. He works a ton and I don't actually see him that much. He usually leaves before I get up at 7:00 and gets home sometime between 18:00 and 1:00 (usually closer to 1:00 than 18:00). He was in Chicago last week and when he got back (at 6:00), he came home, took a shower, and went to work. He is definitely one of the hardest working people I know.

Silvia probably works even harder than Daniel because she is always working! They don't have any alarm clocks in any of the bedrooms because Silvia wakes everyone up when they need to be woken up each morning. Breakfast is the only meal she doesn't cook for everyone everyday in addition to doing all the laundry (which also includes ironing everything from dress shirts to jeans to my Under Armor. They seriously hate wrinkles here). She also cleans the whole house when it needs clean; picks me, Sofia, and Paola up from school everyday; does all the shopping; and is basically one of the nicest people I've ever met.

Guillermo is the oldest of the hijos at 23. He's in his final year at university and is studying to become and engineer. I am probably more like him that anyone else in the house. Whenever we go to the fiestas or anything like that I always go home early with him because neither of us has the desire to stay for 8 hours. He also spends hours on the computer reading manga and watching anime. He's a huge One Piece and Bleach fan (for those of you who have any idea what that is) so we get along pretty well just because of that! He's also asthmatic like and a little bit of a hypochondriac, but I think that's because he gets sick pretty easily. For those of you who didn't know this, Guillermo is the Spanish version of William.

Miguel is the second son and he just turn 22 a week ago. He's studying Law and Economy. He also spent a month as an exchange student in England when he was younger, so his English is just about perfect. He's the one that we call when something needs to be explained. Everybody tries to get me to call him "Papi" because he is always worrying about how everything is going for me and he's also the one that keeps track of me when we go somewhere so I don't get kill by Spaniards or something along those lines. One time a friend and I played joke on him pretending that I had gotten lost during the fiestas and he totally freaked out! His name is the Spanish version of Michael and he is so named because he was born on El Dia de San Miguel which is a big deal here.

Daniel (hijo) is the third son at the age of 20 and is technically named Angel Daniel, but everyone just calls him Dani. He's is studying to be an industrial mechanic. He's one of those people who can fix just about anything if you give him 5 minutes and a spoon. He's the one that I share a room with but at the same time he is the one that I see the least. Partially because he speaks the least English but I also think he feels kind of uncomfortable with the whole random-foreign-kid-who-can-barely-speak-Spanish-sleeping-in-my-room-and-awkwardly-walking-around-my-house-for-a-year thing. Not that he isn't extremely nice, he just seems like he doesn't know what so say to me.

Rafael is 16 and the last boy. He is in the Rotary Exchange Program too and is living in Kingston, NY. I honestly can't say too much about him because I've never actually met him.

Paola is 11 and goes to the same school as me. I would probably have never gotten to school the first day I rode the bus without her because she has at least SOME idea of what's going on. But it's also her first year at El Instito, so sometimes we get lost but at least I am lost with somebody who speaks Spanish! Plus there's the added benefit that if there's a word to describe Paola it's sensible. She really loves Spanish dance which I can't remember what it's called but it's pretty intense and not flamenco. I think she was a little freaked out by the whole random-foreign-kid-who-can-barely-speak-Spanish-awkwardly-walking-around-my-house-for-a-year-and-following-me-the-whole-way-to-school thing but I think she's starting to get used to it.

Sofia is only 5 but makes up for by talking about 5 times as much and at least twice as loud. When I got here I couldn't understand a single word that came out of her mouth because it all sounded like a high-pitched squeal, but now I can usually understand most of what she's saying. She's also is a bit of a drama queen. For example, today I shoved the dog out of my room with my foot so she didn't speak to me for a couple hours because she thought I was being mean.

Well that's all eight so I'm all done. Tomorrow I might write about food if I have the courage.

Party! Party! Party! Party! sleep. (repeat) This is life during the weekend.

2009-10-02T19:32:00.003+02:00

So today I'm talking about the fiestas in Spain.

Fiesta has 16 definitions which are:

party
holiday
feast
feast day
leap day
fete
feteday
shindy
shindig
convocation
frolic
do
junket
gala
carnival
festival

So as you can see a fiesta can be just about anything you want it to be so long as the people have a good time! Tonight is the continuation of the week-long festivals in Las Rozas which are kinda, sorta, a lil bit, not really like the Fair in EEUU. There's definitely the whole carnival atmosphere, but at the same time almost everyone is more or less drunk (usually more).

You also have to be extremely careful at these festivals. The first night I was at the festivals in Las Rozas I saw 3 fights that were all quite entertaining. Unfortunately these festivals also have a habit of turning into riots at about 6 so it's usually a good idea to leave at about 5 because after that things can get rather nasty. (Apparently the police showed up in riot gear at about 6:30 on Saturday night. I had already left but two of my host brothers stayed until 7 or 8.) Now all you Americans are probably saying "Why on earth would you still be out at 5 AM?!" But you have to remember that everything is several hours later here. I usually eat lunch at 3 and supper at 9 or 10. So people don't actually start leaving their houses until about 12-1, so it's not really that late just scheduled differently.

Before I continue I would like to point out that if you aren't drunk and don't try to mess with any drunk people, you will be fine. They fiestas are also a good deal of fun so if you ever get the opportunity to attend don't avoid it because something bad might happen.

But that's about it for fiestas because I have to go. I got invited to join an american football team so we're going to go check that out.

Oh I wish I were an Oscar Meyer Weiner... That understood Spanish.

2009-10-01T20:13:00.000+02:00

So day's theme is bullfights:

Today, I went to the bullfights for the second day in a row, and I have to say I like it. There's the argument that it's cruel and barbaric, but I for one would much rather be a bull that dies to the applause of hundreds after a fight to the death than a dog that lives in some fashionista's purse who is only there because of some stupid trend and will probably eventually be dumped on the street or euthanized.

Here's is a description of what happens in a bullfight. I just have a couple of corrections/additions.

1) The bull probably weighs more than 1000 lbs. These things are big! I saw one get his horns underneath the picador's horse's belly and pick them both up! And the picador's horses ain't no prancing ponies either! That and the fact that they are wearing leather armor and carrying an overweight, middle-aged man on it's back make picking it up rather remarkable.

2) The bull doesn't become more aggressive towards the end. By then it has lost a lot of blood and is pretty much just tired.

3) The bull actually does very little all out charging. It charges into the ring and runs about a bit. But then it eventually settles down and starts trying to kill things instead of trying to run them over. During the final stage the matador is rarely more than 20 ft from the bull.

4) In my opinion the banderilleros are the real heroes of the show. They have to reach over a charging bulls horns in order to stick the banderillas in the bulls shoulders and they don't have the luxury of hiding behind a cape!

5) After the matador stabs the bull in the heart it doesn't die instantly, it runs around a bit and then collapses. Then the matador's assistant steps up and stabs in the spinal column with a short knife thus killing it. So the matador isn't actually the only that kills the bull (so it's something of a misnomer).

6) When the bull is dead the people wave handkerchiefs if they believe that the matador has done a good job. If the president agrees, he will wave his too and thus the matador gets 1 or both of the ears depending on how the president waves his handkerchief. If he has done an amazing job that surpasses all expectations then the matador gets the tail as well.

7) While the conclusion is the death of the bull, that's not what the show is about. Despite all the machismo and swagger of the matadors it's really the ultimate version of a nerd's dream where superior intelligence dominates something that has almost every physical advantage (speed, strength, horns, etc).

Well that's all for tonight. I'll probably post pictures on Facebook eventually.

I finally caved and got a blog.

2009-09-30T21:41:00.000+02:00

I suppose it's a little odd that I'm just now start this when I've already been in Spain for 23 days. But I finally caved and got a blog for three reasons:
1) I need to organize my thoughts in English to keep from going insane
2) I have too much to say to fit in Facebook status.
3) I kinda hate writing notes on Facebook

But on to the stuff about Spain:

I'm gonna start with school because that's what I'm thinking about right now. School is... interesting. I have 8 classes: Historia de Espana, Ingles, Matematicas, Economia, Geografia, Filosofia, Psicologia, and Lengua Castellana y Literatura.

I should also say that like most schools in the world, but unlike schools in the US, I don't have the same classes everyday. The classes are 50 minutes long and all in the same room, except for geografia and psicologia which are in desdouble 4. We also have two recreos a day which are 25 and 15 minutes respectively. My schedule is as follows;

Lunes Martes Miercoles Jueves Viernes
8:30-9:20 Geografia Ingles Economia Ingles Mates
9:20-10:10 Filosofia Economia Lengua Psicologia Historia
10:10-11:00 Mates Mates Geografia Geografia Geografia
11:00-11:25 Recreo Recreo Recreo Recreo Recreo
11:25-12:15 Psicologia Historia Historia Filosofia Economia
12:15-13:05 Economia Lengua Psicologia Historia Lengua
13:05-13:20 Recreo Recreo Recreo Recreo Recreo
13:20-14:10 Lengua Psicologia Mates Mates ---
14:10=15:00 Ingles --- Filosofia Lengua ---

(Before I go any farther I am going to post this link to a translator. It's easy to use and pretty reliable. I would advise bookmarking it because I will post somethings in Spanish that I won't feel like translating for various reasons.)

Historia de Espana is SO different from US History. We spent the first 2 days talking about the evolution of the different races which came to inhabit the Iberian Peninsula. I understood almost none of what the teacher was saying, but after the first few days I found people who I can sit next to (we sit where we want) that will let me copy their notes. So I understand most of it more or less. The only down side is the teacher kinda scares me (she's really intense all the time).

Ingles is hilarious. They whole english book is full of articles about Shakira or Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) and activities that any painfully easy. It's good for a laugh though and it's made me realize how stupid we all must have/do look in Spanish class. The teacher gave me permission to skip class, which I do occasionally, but I usually go because for those 50 minutes I am God.

Mates is odd. We're learning about the different types of numbers (integer, whole, rational, etc.) which I learned in the US during the first week of 9th grade. But at the same time the entire class has the quadratic formula memorized... I get most of it but the teacher has a really odd accent and is even hard to understand for the Spaniards, so I get lost easily.

Economia is probably my favorite class. The teacher is really nice (she occassionally lends me her book so I know what's going on), and I usually understand that class the easiest. The only bad thing is I completely understood one lesson and so now she has an overly-optimistic (all false) view of my Spanish skills.

Geografia sucks. I know we're talking about the different soil types throughout the Iberian Peninsula... but that's about all I understand. I mostly just look at the pictures in the book and copy whenever some shoves a paper at me and says "Luca, escriba esto. Lo necesitas."

Psicologia: where should I start? For one this is the one class that I have a male teacher for, and he is kinda temperamental. Today he got mad because people in the back were talking and he just walked out. Of course I had no idea why he walked out and was EXTREMELY confused. I also wasn't there for the first class because I had trouble figuring out where to go (actually I wasn't the only one). But none of the classrooms over here have handles on the outside. They can only be opened by key or from the inside. Anyway, he didn't let us into class. So we went to the park. It was kinda nice.

Lengua. I don't have a clue what's going on in this class, and to be honest, I've stopped caring. I basically just open my book and ignore the teacher. Not to say that I don't learn! I probably learn the most in this class because this is when I learn various slang terms/swear words. So at least I'm working on my Spanish!

Filosofia is complicated. Some days I get it, some days I don't (like today). But the teacher is what I suppose would be called our homeroom teacher or at least the Spanish equivalent. She always asks me how everything is whenever she sees me in the hall, and if I really need something I can ask her.

Anyway, that's all for now. I gotta get up in 8 hours and I still need to get ready for bed. Not to mention the fact that this Spanish business is just flat out exhausting.

Buenas noches mundo de EEUU