el 18 de mayo 2010

[9:10am] ¡Feliz cumpleaños a Grant! I just got back to the room from breakfast, and I have about an hour and five minutes before Anne and I leave for the university. Breakfast included the same things: chocolate-filled croissant, bread with butter and apple jelly, and juice. Today I mixed juices: a little bit of juice from the orange juice dispenser, the rest of a pineapple juice container, and peach juice. It was delicious! We've seen many people put tomato juice & olive oil on their bread to soften it, then put ham, tomatoes, and sometimes cheese on it. I think I'll try that tomorrow morning. I'm going to go spend some quality time with God now, since that hasn't happened enough yet on this trip.
After breakfast and hangout time, Anne, Grant, & I walked to the university. On the way, we passed a guy with a truck spraying down the sidewalks... guess that explains why the sidewalks are always fairly clean & litter-free. Once we arrived, we took a couple First Day of School! pictures then headed inside the building to room 422. The desks are lab bench style, with 3 to 4 seats at each table. It was our first Catalán Culture & Civilization class, & it was pretty interesting. We learned about typical things for Spain vs. typical things for Cataluña, the region in which Tarragona is located. After class we went down to the cafeteria to eat, but it wasn't lunchtime yet! It was about 12:30, but lunch isn't served until 1 o'clock. Bummer. We had a meeting to go to in room 417 at 1, though, with a lady we'll be seeing a few times this trip for excursions. She did a presentation about the area and hinted at some things I learned in class today. I was really tired, though, so it was nice when the meeting ended & we were able to go eat (about 2 o'clock). We all got 3 meal tickets (1 per lunch for this week: Tues., Wed., Thurs.) which cover us completely. That's what we'll use until we have our student IDs. The lunch room was crowded, but we found an empty table by a door to sit at. Problema: the wind that attacked us whenever the door was opened was freezing! But that's okay - I am alive, & most of us had jackets. Lunch: vegetables (green beans, carrots, potatoes), pineapples, potato salad (yum), salad, & a veggie salad of sorts (lettuce, cheese, corn...) ...And bread with oil & vinegar, of course! We all met up again after lunch, and we took a couple of pictures as we waited to leave (Jessica, Alyssa, and Kristen in their lab coats!). We then went up to Portal del Roser (a bus stop) by some ruins to start our tour of Tarraco Romana (Roman Tarragona). It took about 2 and a half hours. We walked all around old Roman structures and learned about the historical significance of them. It's a shame that I couldn't focus for most of the dialogues! I was too busy taking pictures & resting my mind :) I do know that we saw a model of what Tarragona looked like in 2 A.C. That means that the city is over 2,000 years old!We also went past a building where the wall was partially deconstructed. It was hit by a lightening bolt, but that made it easier for us to see the actual way it is set up. The walls (2) are parallel to each other, with a perpendicular one in between. As demonstrated by our volunteers (Grant, Ana, Alexa, & Kristen), that makes the structure much more sturdy.We continued through town & made our way to a museum with old mosaics, ceramic carrying containers (like big vases), and other little artifacts like checker pieces, a baby doll, a mask, & a baby's rattle. It's amazing what you can uncover with lots of careful searching! We left & made it to our final destination: parte del Circo (part of the Circo), the amphitheater. We learned about it from our tour guide, then walked around the seating area & down inside of it. This is where some epic duels took place, & we saw where the participants entered & where the winner left (one side) & where the loser left (dead or alive... opposite side). There was also a church within the amphitheater, made in the shape of a cross. After taking many pictures, some of us went to La Rambla and got gelato. I tried Vainilla Cookie this time (easier to pronounce - how convenient :) ), and thoroughly enjoyed it! On the way back to the dorm, we took a couple of pictures with a statue of an old man sitting on a bench... how cute.We hung out at the dorm for a bit, wrote in here, then went to dinner. I ate: fish, chopped potatoes (like hashbrowns... cubed potatoes), tortellini pasta! with cheese & white sauce, and bread. I enjoyed it mucho. I have some time before we celebrate Grant's birthday at 10pm, so I am going to get on the computer now. ¡Hasta luego!
Note: the internet doesn't work for Katie and me at the same time. But going through pictures was beneficial! We all met up downstairs at ten to go celebrate Grant's birthday! Everyone looked awesome & we walked to la Plaza de la Font. The city is really pretty lit up at night. Somewhat annoying with guys staring & more cigarette smoke, but that's typical. We all sat together & most drank sangria while we talked. Ana brought the cake she got with the money that Grant's mom gave her for that cause, so we sang "Feliz Cumplaños" to him and all shared it. It was white cake with fluffy chocolate creme inside (almost tasted like ice cream - it was actually cold) and chocolate mousse icing outside. Grant seemed to be having a good time, so I hope he has enjoyed his birthday! Kayty Grissler, Jessica, Laura, and I left after a while since Kayty wasn't feeling well, but I wanted to leave early-ish anyway. They are all headed out to a dance place where Tuesday nights are apparently international students' nights. ¡Perfecto! I'm sure they are going to have a great time :)

el 17 de mayo 2010

This morning I woke up, showered, and was getting ready for the day, when BAM- obstacle. My hairdryer, which doesn't work at full power for some reason (even when the voltage convertor is set for 2000), plug came out of the wall while I was trying to dry my hair. No big deal, right? I plugged it back in to continue, & it didn't turn back on. Reset button... nothing. Still not that big of a deal, but kind of a bummer, & I am hoping that it starts working again! Breakfast was the first thing of the day, as always. The same food (pastries) was offered, but today I opted for the long creme pastry (la con crema). It was good, but I like the chocolate-filled croissant better! I also had bread with butter & really messy honey (miel de las flores). Note: messy = desordenado/sucio, but I'm not sure either of those really portrays what I'm looking for. I met Lourdes ("...like the city in France"), a university student, because she sat with us at breakfast... I think she met Jillian at dinner last night. She is really nice! She is in her third year at the university, I believe. She studies psychology, and she is from a town in northern Spain. It would be a 2-hour car ride to get home, but she goes by train. That is more expensive, but it gets her home in 30 minutes. She said that all the students leave to go visit their families on Friday afternoons & come back Sunday nights (hence, the vast emptiness over the weekend then sudden population). After breakfast we met at 9:10/15am & went to the university. It's a pretty walk, though we are still adjusting to how much walking there is to do here! Our legs are going to look awesome after this month :) Once we got to the university, we sat in a room for about 45 minutes waiting for our professors to get there. We were all talking so it was okay, but we were also all tired. Once they got there, we were introduced to women from the nursing program at URV (the university). A couple of them spoke & gave short speeches, then Mr. Costello gave a speech, as well. It was so sweet! It started with "Tenía un sueño..." ("I had a dream...") and went on to talk about how everyone has worked together so much & so well to put this whole program together, & now we are all here. After he spoke Kristen & Ana gave their speeches about how excited we are to be here, & Ana introduced the Duke Dog (apparently James Madison had a bulldog... probably named Duke). (I'm actually not sure if Mr. Costello talked before or after our student assistants... lo que sea.) We then enjoyed some more pastries and more pineapple juice! I wasn't hungry, but of course I had to try some of what was offered. I had a chocolate-filled rolled pastry & an apple crisp pastry. Yum-o. Kristen, Alyssa, & I talked to Raquel for a while, which was great. She works with the international program at URV, and apparently a group from Berkeley comes every summer. But more importantly- we are going to church with her on Sunday! We weren't sure if there are any churches other than Catholic catedrales (cathedrals) around, but Raquel goes to an evangelical church close to the university. I am excited! I hope that excursions don't keep us from going on most Sundays. A few girls went to the catedral close to the dorm this past Sunday & enjoyed it. (I just realized that we ate & talked before los discursos... the speeches... oh well, irrelevant. It happened.) So after the speeches, we got a tour of the URV library & academic building. There are at least 4 campuses, but ours is for languages & nursing. The staircases in the library are really confusing because they're not all in a row like we're used to... there will be one set of stairs going from first floor to second floor, then you'll have to walk to a different part of the room to find the next staircase from floor 2 to 3. We also felt like we were on display, since so many people were staring at us... we expected it, though. However, the library is nice & available for us to use. We got temporary ID cards with our bags of goodies (tshirt, keychain, info. packet w/ events, restaurant listings) to use at the library & cafeteria. The rooms we'll be using for classes are on the 4th floor of the academic building, and the nursing classrooms (w/ set-ups for practicals) are on the 5th floor. Again, the building is nice. Remember to take a jacket since it's chilly in the shade & inside sometimes! We ventured to lunch after that, where we can take one plate for salad stuff, one plate for main course stuff (or 2 main course & no salad), one dessert or fruit plate, & a drink. I had: salmon w/ red sauce, green beans & carrots, salad, 2 kinds of pasta salad, bread, & mixed fruit (melon, watermelon, & pineapple). All washed down with some good ol' agua. The cafeteria food at the university is better than that at the dorm. Everyone really enjoyed it. After lunch, Anne wanted to go get shoes, so we headed toward the shopping mall (Parque Central) but ended up stopping at a shoe store on the way. She got two pairs of cute & comfortable shoes to walk around in. ¡Perfecto! We also found a great hole-in-the-wall tienda with a bit of everything. I think it was called La Tienda de Linda or something of the sort. We came back, relaxed, I finally finished my bracelet that matches Andrew's, and we continued on to meet up with the group again. Today was Belkys's birthday (!), so Lauren bought flowers & a small balloon for her on behalf of the group & we all sang "Feliz Cumpleaños" a ella.

After that we walked to the hospital where many students from our group are doing their practical ("Hospital Universitari Joan XXIII"). There is a new & an older part of the hospital, and the newer part is more sleek with metal finishings & wall decor. They are really creative with specific colors to create certain moods, & it was interesting walking around & learning about different parts of the hospital (including neo-natal section & the nicu). We also stopped in the chapel in the hospital, which was bigger than I expected & really pretty. By the time we left, we were all exhausted and struggling to stay awake. I think their culture has siesta time for a reason! We came back to the dorm, hung out for a bit, & had dinner at 8pm. Dinner: sausages, pasta, cream of vegetable soup, a pear, & about three pieces of that same addicting bread. The veggie soup was particularly delicious. After dinner, some of us watched TV in the TV room (also our meeting room downstairs). "Bob Esponja" ("Spongebob") was the show of choice for a good while! Bob Esponja, Patricio (Patrick), Calamardo (Squidward)... I love the Spanish adaptation. For some reason it's even funnier in Spanish. The voices aren't quite the same as the show in America. Soon after tha, Belkys, Kevin, & little Patrick arrived & we received our cell phones [provided with the program to use while we're here] & free chocolate bars. They are so nice to us. We already have 12 euros on the phones. Calls are 30 cents/minute & texts are cheaper, so we'll probably text a lot. After that fun reunión I came back upstairs & put pictures on the computer & talked to Andrew! (Amor & Leopold are the most awesome elephants ever). We start classes tomorrow! Randomosity: Catalán, a form of Spanish, is all around the city (instead of Castellano, which is what we know). I can read it & figure out what it says most of the time, but I can't understand it when I hear it. ¡Confuso! It's like a mix between French & Spanish... muy interesante. Pero ¡me gusta! I'm sure the Beginner's Catalán class once a week will help :) Last thing: this journal is totally not going to be enough space for this trip. I write too much for that!

el 16 de mayo 2010

[4:35 pm] I am currently soaking up the sun by the Mediterranean Sea! It is GORGEOUS (but more about that later). My alarm clock was set for 7:30am today (thanks for giving it to me, Grandmommy and Granddaddy!), and I'm beginning to figure out how to use it. However, I hit the snooze button about 6 times and got up at 8:30am. I needed that extra hour, though! The showers are nice - good pressure & temperature range. Lots of stalls, so pretty convenient! After that, I got ready for the day (representing with an Invisible Children shirt!) and talked to Allison and Patrick on Facebook for a bit. Patrick's going to meet Haley in England on Tuesday = awesome. Jillian got to the dorm at the perfect time and she, Katie, and I got breakfast together at the dorm. We had chocolate-filled croissants and bread with butter & jelly. I had peach jelly & pineapple grape juice. Delicious! Then I went to charge my camera battery for a little while, grab a light jacket, and roam the computer. We met up in the meeting room downstairs to talk about tomorrow's schedule & any concerns/questions we have. Note to self: be on time to everything! [time warp -> 12:17am 17/05/10] I am back in the dorm now & headed to sleep soon. But anyway... after the short meeting, we took a walking tour around Tarragona. It is such a beautiful city! We walked through Las Ramblas again, but before that we went to the university where we'll be spending a lot of our time this month... La Universidad/Universitat Rovira i Virgili. At this point, it was obvious how cute & troublesome Patrick, Belky's & Kevin's 6-year-old boy, is. He's going to be quite the heartbreaker, for sure. Belkys taught a couple of us about the bus stops before getting to the university, telling us about the best beach nearby (about a 5-minute bus ride away). We left the university & walked to Las Ramblas, where we came across a festival, of sorts. It was called Festa Dels Tres Tombs (in Catalán), and it consisted of horses pulling carriages & other random trailers containing things (gourds, sticks, logs). The ponies were adorable, of course, and accompanied by children. Apparently the people in carriages & things of the like were politicians and more important people like that. After getting our visual fill of the caballos, we continued past the beach view on to more of Tarragona. I snapped a lot of pictures of the buildings, some including old cobblestone streets (these aren't everywhere, but in the older parts of the city it happens). We got a great sight overlooking ancient ruins (including an amphitheater) and the Mediterranean Sea. I believe we are going to go back & learn more about the ruins sometime soon as an excursion. We headed back to Las Ramblas (can you tell we're there a lot?) and got gelatos & water. Our professors paid for all of our gelatos... so kind! I got coco (coconut) & menza xiocolata (mint chocolate) gelato. So delicious! Gelato is like ice cream, but less creamy and more delicious... especially legitimate gelato like this. We ate on the patio area and enjoyed each other's company and the environment. Las Ramblas was buzzing with people because of the festival earlier, but it thinned out by this point (about 2pm) since it was about time for siesta. The shops started closing, to open again at 5pm. We went back to la Residencia (dorm) for lunch: ham, lasagna with white sauce & meat, potato chips, lettuce/salad, & yogurt. And bread, of course! I could eat bread all day long. Hello, carbs. After lunch, we changed and went to the beach! Which... I don't have any pictures of, since I didn't take my camera. Crazy, right? Too risky with la arena (sand). It took us a long time to walk there since it wasn't as straight-forward as we thought, but we eventually got down to the proper level (sea level... how appropriate) and crossed the train tracks; we had to walk down past the train station to the right of Las Ramblas. It probably took us upwards of 45 minutes to get there and should have taken us like 15 minutes. Whoops. The beach itself was pretty, though! Blue water, soft sand... that side of the beach was pretty crowded, though, & we quickly learned that some Spanish women decide to sunbathe topless. Awkward, but that's part of their culture. We put our feet in the water, but not for long because it was cold! Grant went swimming though... "not enjoyable, but bearable." We laid out on the beach and soaked up some rays as we talked... mostly Jillian, Anne, and I were the only ones talking. There were about 4 really strong guys doing flips & insane things like that & handstands on each other... maybe preparing for the fiesta de Castells?! We stayed at the beach until about 5:20 (so about an hour) then made our way past the busy wine festival (Day 2) to the dorm to change. There was a Barcelona fútbol (soccer) game at 7 (big deal!), so Grant & I went to a bar in la Plaza del Font to watch that with a bunch of passionate Spaniards decked out in Barce colors. We ordered 2 tapas (appetizers): tacos de tortilla (like a potato omelette) & nachos with queso & salsa (there were green chilis too, so I obviously avoided that spice factor). Both were good, & the experience was fun until the bar just got really smoky because of the high cigarette usage. Gross. We left to go find others in the plaza, sitting down to dinner outside of Piscolabi's Cerveseria. They ordered all kinds of interesting tapas: fries w/ dipping sauces, mini-hamburgers, fried calamari, "skewered" vegetables (aka - eggrolls-ish), & stuff like that. Every time Barcelona scored, people threw a really loud firecracker that scared many of the girls at our table. I'm glad I'm not very jumpy! Many people were watching the game outside, ad they got so excited when Barcelona scored. Yells, hugs, chants, flags everywhere. It got pretty crazy when they won (Barcelona 4 - VLL 0). So many people flooded the plaza & more were entering when we eventually left. Lots of yelling & Barcelona flags/jerseys/colors flying. The city came alive. There were a lot of people honking & yelling down Las Ramblas on our way back to the dorm. It was a big contrast with the pleasant setting sun. America needs to become passionate about something like that! Got back to the dorm (after a short trip in the grocery/convenience store... La Croc? [Open Cor]), & visited people at dinner to find that a lot more students are here now. We're not sure if they're moving in now, or if they just had all left for the weekend. Either way, we have more friends to make. Hopefully I'll be able to be bold enough to make that happen! I hung out with Jordin & Jillian for a bit before they went back to their apartamientos, then talked with Allison & Andrew for a while on Facebook. I am so glad that that type of communication (...free) exists. It's currently 1:14am; the alarm is set for 7:15 and I actually need to get up at that time! Fun fact: I heard "Viva la Vida" three times today (bar, plaza, dorm hall).

el 15 de mayo 2010

[11:33 pm] The rest of the flight went well. I worked on the friendship bracelet & got about halfway through, then tried to sleep (mostly unsuccessfully). The landing was really smooth due to the ginormousness of the plane & the pilot's apparent skills. We didn't have to take our large suitcases (checked bags) anywhere within the Madrid airport, thank goodness (they transferred them for us), so we made our way to the correct terminal. We got our boarding passes & waited for about an hour before the plane loaded. No one from our group was next to each other, but we all had window seats. This plane was smaller... 5 seats x 25 rows? I slept the entire flight. Thank God that I didn't feel sick at all during the flights! Retrieving luggage was a pleasant surprise in that we all got our bags quickly & easily. We went through customs, etc. and easily found Mr. Costello, where we met our University contact & two student assistants: Gerardo & Robert. They're all really nice & helpful. I got some euros using my debit card at an ATM (3 euro commission charge - lame), then we headed off to Tarragona via greyhound-style bus. The views of terra cotta villages & the sea & pretty landscapes were beautiful, but I also couldn't help but to sleep a bit on & off... neither could anyone else. Once in Tarragona, we stopped by the apartments to let those residents drop off their luggage, then we all continued on toward the dorm. Once here, we were assigned roommates (those who didn't request one already, that is), received our room keys, & headed toward our unique destinations. I am rooming with Katie Cummings who was not here at that point, but our room is smaller than others on the hall. It is still nice, though. Simple, but nice. Lunch downstairs in the dorm consisted of: spaghetti, meat, french fries, watermelon, & flan from a pudding cup-esque container. Water was available in pitchers on the tables & from the water fountain. The food was alright - pretty tasty but not spectacularly delicious. Gerardo & Robert said that it's like that pretty much all the time. I don't mind... we're spoiled by D-hall & all the options at JMU. I eventually unpacked my stuff into the shelves of my half of the closet, my desk in the drawers, & shelves of the makeshift wall between beds. Everything fits pretty nicely! I was able to talk with Andrew (using the Skype voice feature so it was like a phone call) for a few minutes, which was great. I felt bad, but I had to run pretty quickly since I had heard more girls get here... including my roommate Katie! Dinner followed around 9pm: salad + pineapple, chicken, & a slice of a baguette (also at lunch), and an apple for later. Many people went out after dinner, but I stayed home due to tiredness! I was also able to talk to Andrew via Skype instant message & sort through pictures to put up on Facebook from before the trip. Around 6pm today, all who were already in the dorm went through Las Ramblas - the main street between here & the beach - because there was a wine tasting festival. I didn't drink, but rather took pictures & played photographer. Perfecto! That was 5 euros to taste 5 different wines, but I didn't crave trying it. People did generously offer me sips from theirs, however. So kind. I really enjoyed viewing all the interactions between people and the beautiful architecture of the buildings. Many photos were shot & hopefully be viewed in the near future by friends & family in the USA. I am falling asleep as I write this, so I need to wrap it up... but it still doesn't feel like I am actually in Spain and will be for a month. I love it!