Well I am going to take a little nap before going out to hang out with Fito and the others, but we went to Muros today and wow was it beautiful. Muros is a small town near the Asturias airport where Merce grew up, and also where Pedro and Merce got married. We went for a little walk along the road near the beach and got some fantastic photos. I have tons of pictures, but I thought I could at least leave you with this:
01 March 2008
Muros!
MediaMarkt and more
Hooray! Wifi is working in the house again! If anyone wants to chat with me at some point, you can go to www.skype.com and download the program, hook up some headphones and a mic, and we can talk for free without too many problems. Just let me know and I will send you my username so you can add me to your contact list.
MediaMarkt yesterday was a lot of fun, and I picked up a 4gig thumb drive for a cool 16 euros while I was there... well, Merce refused to let me pay for it, which was very nice of her indeed. I only wanted 2 gigs, but the 4 gig was only 2 euros more because it was on sale so I figured hey, why not. Merche bought a new laptop, which will cost only 100 euros after she gets her rebate back from the government... and man does it look nice. MediaMarkt really wasn't like a BestBuy like I expected, because in addition to the normal stuff that BestBuy sells MediaMarkt pretty much sold anything that uses electricity. Computers, phones, hair dryers, washing machines, blenders, radios, cameras, you name it.
Merce bought a new radio for herself because she likes to listen to the news in the morning while she is in the kitchen making breakfast. She didn't know what to look for exactly so she asked a salesman for an opinion. He asked what she would primarily be using it for, and she said "Well, I need something that can take a lot of hits and still work, something I can throw on the floor without problems." "... m'am, you really shouldn't be throwing your radio on the floor." "Yes I know but I need it to be able to survive that." (You see, Maria sometimes likes to listen to music on the little radio while she is in her stroller and inevitably the radio ends up on the floor sometimes.. but it was hilarious to see the salesman's reaction as he got the impression it was this mature woman repeatedly throwing her radio on the ground)
Merce also bought a "hand blender" as the English translation on the box called it, which is something I had never come across before. Basically it is a mixer of sorts but you hold it in your hand and so you can move it around the bowl or whatever you are doing to puree things. It was actually pretty cool I thought, and looked a lot easier to deal with than an electric mixer like we usually use in the U.S. They also come with all sorts of attachments and such too of course. Here is something like the one she bought:
Oh yeah, and on the way to MediaMarkt I saw this supermarket called Almerika I think, which couldn't be missed. It was painted bright yellow inside and out, and was so bright I'm willing to bet you could see it from space. As we passed it I commented "Ay look how YELLOW that is!" and Pedro explained that it was just another supermarket but that he preferred others because the yellow paint on the walls was really annoying after awhile. As a joke I asked "Well how does one find the bananas in that place?" Merche and Merce didn't get the joke, but Pedro responded "Oh, they have signs labeling where the bananas and the lemons are, so it isn't a problem."
29 February 2008
Some pictures of San Francisco Park
This is another fountain, in the San Francisco Park along the "bombbe pass." Thanks to a recent governer of Oviedo, there have been many improvements to city in attempt to beautify the streets. Almost all of the traffic circles have fountains, flowers, sculptures, statues, etc.
This is an arch from the original door of the Church of San Francisco which was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, but now remains in the San Francisco park.
The peacocks run wild in the park! They also make a lot of noise!¡Que locura! (What madness!)
As a continuation of the translation class fiasco yesterday...
So I did in fact find the langauge lab, but I along with 2 others girls were waiting there for 30min for a professor to arrive. Finally the girls went to see what they could find out and asked me to stay behind to wait to see if anyone did arrive. Long story short, the class apparently changed rooms on me (I shouldn't be surprised at this point) so me and the other two girls had missed half the class but we caught the second half. Sigh. I did like it a lot though, I think it will be a good class if it makes. 10 people have to register for the class to remain alive, and right now there are 7 people. I am sure this whole random changing rooms thing isn't helping. The others in the class are really amused by my "cute American accent" in English, haha... they are mostly British, but there is one Welsh girl, and one Hungarian.
This morning there was more "fun"... I was supposed to go to my first Law and Cinema class today from 10am till 2pm and watch the Cider House Rules, but once again, madness ensued. I was looking for the "Aula Magna" and I had remembered seeing a sign for it near Paloma's office which is in the faculad of Economics... so I figured I would be okay. Boy was I wrong. Luckily I went to campus about 30min early to give myself some extra time. After wandering around forever to find the Aula Magna (literally, The Big Classroom, it is named literally as such), I found it and it was locked. A guy came around 10am to open the door so I figured it was the normal nothing-starts-on-time thing. I asked him if this was the room for Law an Cinema and he told me no, that there isn't class there today.
I found an information booth in the building and asked them what happened to the class, if it moved or something. The lady told me that I needed to go to the Aula Magna in the facultad of Law. Another building with an identically named room. Seriously. It was about 10:10 at this point, so I figured hey, by Spanish standards I am early right? So I walk over to Facultad of Law, which I am starting to get to know fairly well, and I find the building with the Aula Magna that I needed. I get to the door of the building, and it is locked. I try 4 or 5 other doors to other buildings but all of them are in fact locked. I found a sign (Can you believe it? They posted a SIGN!) that said that today was a holiday for the facultad of law, so that everything would be closed. So yeah, I guess I won't get to join that class until 3 weeks into the semester. Somehow, I am nolonger surprised.
I walked back over to the facultad of Economics and talked to Paloma again, registered for my classes, and she said she would send me an email if I needed to come back to clarify anything. So, back home I went, and here I am.
Merche is going to buy a new computer today at MediaMarkt and a router, so perhaps we can get the wifi working in the house soon. She told me that there is this deal that the government of Asturias is offering for anyone between the ages of 25 and 35 where they will give you a 500 euro rebate or something like that if you buy a computer with internet capabilities because they are trying to encourage students and the upcoming workforce to use the technology more. Since Merche is not in that age range, essentially Becky is going to put her name down in order to get the rebate, haha.
Fito invited me to another party this weekend, a smaller one, and I will probably go just to get to know some more people my age. We shall see.
Well I will leave it there for now, I think I'll take a siesta since I don't have anything else to do today until we go to MediaMarkt.
Adios!
Ladies and Gentleman, the first edition of...
THINGS I HAVE LEARNED WHILE IN SPAIN, vol. I
(I hope you can note the sarcasm in some of these statements)
- If lost, ask the oldest person you can find for directions. They are so happy that you bothered to speak to them, they will tell you everything you need to know in great detail, plus the history of every building along the way. Younger people however, seem to think they have better things to do.
- It is entirely acceptable, nay, expected, for a woman to add 20-30min to her trip or pay bus fare to any given place in the name of wearing fashionable shoes.
- If a Spanish woman asks if you are hungry, and you are in deed starving, you should respond with “Just a little, I just need a snack.” If you really are just a little hungry and only want a little bit of food, you should respond with “No, I couldn’t eat another bite.” Otherwise, you will be stuffed until you explode.
- Everything is twice as old as the United States.
- There is no need to make men’s pants in sizes above a 28” waist in Spain, because apparently all Spanish men either do not eat or have fantastic metabolisms to deal with their Spanish mothers shoving food down their throats.
- The Simpsons is a children’s television show that comes on with Saturday morning cartoons and after school specials.
- Crosswalks are only a faint suggestion to the elderly as to where one should actually cross the street. In fact, just because the little green crosswalk guy light is on doesn’t mean that the path of travel is actually stopped in any way, it is more of a yield signal to drivers who in fact encounter a yellow light, not red.
- Driving on sidewalks is a perfectly acceptable means of completing a U-turn or just navigating traffic in general.
- Anyone who misses the Formula One races must either be dead or insane.
- Just because a sign in a building indicates that your destination is in a certain direction does not necessarily mean that it will be there, or even in the same building at all.
- A humid 65 degrees F is in fact sweater and parka worthy weather.
- If class starts at 2pm, that means you should start thinking about walking over in that general direction around 2ish.
- Classes have minds of their own, and in fact change rooms, times, days, etc without warning or notice.
- Apparently us Americans have been singing the famous soccer chant all wrong. It is not “Oleeeee ole ole ole!” It is in fact, “oh-ehhh oh-eh oh-eh oh-eh!” “Ole” is reserved for bullfights.
28 February 2008
What? You mean there really is a tomorrow in Spain?
Written earlier, but posted now while I am on Campus Milan:
Today was a bit crazy, I managed to find my way to the international relations office and straightened out the translation class business. Turns out the TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS lady was actually incorrect as well... good thing I didn't trust her or I would have been showing up to Spanish-German translation class. Whoops. The woman I talked to said that I didn’t need to pay right now and that I could go to class tonight and next week to see how I like it and then we’d worry about paying. I will say that is one really nice thing about the “manana” mentality, they are really relaxed about getting payments in on time.
After that I ran around trying to find a kiosk to buy a bus pass so I can get back and forth to Milan. I finally found it after stopping at a tourist information kiosk and was on my way. It turns out the one in that area was actually tucked inside of a McDonalds, of all things. Oh yeah Paloma was totally right about the university ID card... they totally didn't care that I didn’t have it and just took my word for it so I got a sweet discount. 7 euros for 10 trips, not too bad I guess compared to the 12 euros or so it usually costs.
I got lost on the way back and I found myself with just 15 minutes to get to class which was at least a 30-40 minute walk from where I was even if I knew exactly how to get there, which I didn't. The streets don't have much in the way of signs on them so unfortunately a map can only help so much. I decided to just use my new bus pass to catch a bus to the hospital and then it is just a 10 min walk from there, and I would know where I was. It was one of those crazy accordion buses too, about 60ft long with nice plush seats and even a digital sign displaying what the next stop is. I must say, it was a comfy ride, and the maps are really easy to read. You don’t even scan the card in, you just wave it past this weird sensor thingy and away you go.
I got off the bus and it was 12:29, class starting at 12:30. I walked as fast as humanly possible up that tremendous hill, I was sweating like crazy and breathing so hard I thought I would have a heart attack. Since this is one of those classes that counts attendance, I did NOT want to miss it. I finally arrived at 12:35, out of breath and with my bladder about to explode because I had been putting off that bathroom break as I made my way around the city. I and I opened the door to the classroom... nobody is there.
I decided that now would be a good time to take that bathroom break and eat a couple of the pears that Merce left out for me as a mid day snack. They are so juicy that I actually had to eat them over the sink in the bathroom because juice just spills out all over the place and there is no way to avoid it. They really are delicious. Merce had caught wind that I really liked them so she has been leaving a few out for me every morning for me to take to campus. She is so sweet.
I recognized a girl standing outside as being in that class so I asked her what was up and she said that people only needed to come today if they were studying certain topics for their final paper or whatever. No matter I thought, I haven't selected a topic anyway, so it is just as well that I show up. The professor comes along THIRTY MINUTES LATER. I was a little angry that I had used my bus pass when I probably could have walked there, found my way, and still been on time. Oh well, such is life, and I got some backpack hill repeats in there too, as Jay and Cammarata would call it.
After that I decided to make a pass by the departmental secretary’s office again to see about getting those syllabi… miraculously the older woman that had spoken with me yesterday actually was true to her word and had a stack of syllabi waiting for me with the post-it note that I had written for her stuck on top. Manana finally came!
I went to the facultad bookstore which is actually owned by Corte Ingles (like the wal-mart of Spain apparently, but instead of having all the departments in the same building, they are broken up into separate stores) and looked for a few of my books. From what I can tell they don’t actually expect you to buy most of the ones that they list, and in fact, I didn’t see most of mine there. I went ahead and purchased a copy of the “codigo civil” (Civil Code) that the Civil Law professor keeps referring to in class so that I could follow along a little more easily. Apparently I can reclaim the IVA on that too (impuesto de valor anadido, or Value Added Tax in English) if I take it back home with me. I imagine I will, because apparently they don’t do the whole selling books back thing here.
While I was over in that area I dropped by Paloma’s office again and said I had my classes all figured out, but I didn’t know the codes for them offhand. She said it was a bit of a pain to do it without the codes and asked if I could just come back tomorrow. No worries, I figured I’d give it a shot while I was over there. I have to go back over there for film class tomorrow anyway and I can take a little time tonight to look up the codes. Paloma is a busy lady, so I would have felt bad taking up her time so she could look up the codes herself anyway.
I feel a lot better today in general. I am still getting really fatigued and such and I still feel a bit homesick, but it seems that things are finally starting to come together a little bit. I need to choose a topic for Servicios en red class (I suppose Networked Services would be the best way to translate that).
Now I am in the campus Milan, awaiting my translation class. I went to the same building where Tuesday/Thursday lady was since I remembered it having a sign for the Language Lab, where the class actually is held despite what Tuesday/Thursday lady said, but as I combed through the building following numerous signs pointing to the lab, the lab just didn't seem to exist. Eventually I found out that this phantom lab is in fact, not even in the same building. I have to wonder, why was the sign there? I couldn't help but take a picture of it. I had asked a student for help but she was just as confused as I was.
I took some more great photos today since I had to pass through San Francisco Park earlier and there are some wonderful fountains and a few regal turkeys, uh I mean peacocks, were out and about.
I am going to go locate the phantom language lab now, I am told I am on the correct floor in the correct building so it shouldn't be too hard.
Coming soon: Things I have learned thus far in Spain. Stay tuned.
27 February 2008
...more frustrations....
The good news is, it is getting a little easier to understand the professors.... even though some of them talk very quickly. Today my professor for Civil Law even called on me for a question, and miraculously I got it right. Of course as soon as I opened my mouth he asked (I'll translate)
--"You aren't from around here?"
--"No"
--"Where do you come from?"
--"United States" (I usually don't bother saying which state unless asked, since most people here are not familiar with U.S geography anyhow so it doesn't mean much to them.)
--"What state?"
--"Virginia"
--"ah, Tell me, why Virginia is called Virginia?"
--"That's a good question."
--"You don't know?"
-- "No"
--"Well I know! I know why Maryland is named as such too!"
--"Then you know more history about the United States than most Americans."
--"How do you not know?"
--"I thought world history was more interesting than U.S History"
--"Well, that's a good point. I can understand that. For Monday, find out why Virginia and Maryland are named what they are, and you can tell the class. It might not have anything to do with law, but it will be educational."
--"Ok, I'll find out."
People here seem to understand me well enough, but I can't hide the accent. The good news is though sometimes confuse my accent for a south-american, so I suppose that isn't so bad. I am sort of resisting the "ceceo" lisp that the people have around here, but every once in awhile I catch myself doing it anyway.
So, after class I went to talk to Paloma to ask about the magically disappearing translation class. She informs me that it is indeed only offered on the Milán campus. I asked where in Milán, and she had no idea. I asked how I could get there, she said to take a bus. I asked which bus, since there are atleast 5 different companies with busses waiting outside of various routes most of the time and I didn't have the faintest idea which one went where. She told me to talk to the international relations office to find out all this info, even though Paloma is supposed to be the one scheduling my classes. Grr. Since it was already 2:30pm and I had not eaten since 8am, I decided to go home for some lunch. Merche informed me that the international relations office closes at noon every day. Some help that is, I had class up until then!
Meanwhile, I decide to make a pass by the facultad de derecho again to pick up my syllabi. In lieu of distributing copies in class or online, apparently they print up little pamphlets here that you can just pick up at the departmental office. Okay, fair enough. So since I thought I had my classes more or less secured, I should go ahead and figure out what the hell is going on. I look over the pamphlets, and I see one that I recognize: International Organizations. I am probably going to drop it, but I thought I would take a look just in case. However, I did not see any other classes of mine. I ask the secretary if this is all of the classes available, and she tells me that if they are out of pamphets for my classes that I can go downstairs to the photocopy center and that they can make a copy of one for me.
So I make my way downstairs and find the photocopy center, and I ask the ladies down there for the classes I need. They stare at me blankly and tell me that those are all available upstairs with the secretary. "They sent me here, they said you had originals of all the pamphlets and that I could just get a copy from you." "No... we don't have those, they are all upstairs. We could make a copy of this one for you though (pointing the pamphlet I already had)" "... I already have this one." "Go back upstairs, we don't have them here." Ugh.
I go back upstairs, and tell them that they didn't have any. They in turn tell me once again, to go downstairs, I suppose assuming that I simply didn't understand. That is one frustrating thing I am running into: the admninistration hears an accent come out of my mouth and they assume that they are never in the wrong, it's just that I'm a silly foreigner who doesn't know anything. Getting very frustrated at this point, I tell them very slowly and clearly that they don't have any of the pamphlets, and that they had no idea what I was talking about. Finally one of the older secretaries, overhearing our conversation, comes over and tells me to write down the classes which are missing and that she would print up extra copies tomorrow. Mañana, mañana.
For one of the classes, the "Law and Film" class that I'd like to take, she said actually didn't have a syllabus printed up yet and that she was currently typing it up. Are you serious? 2 weeks into class and the syllabus isn't finished? She assured me that she would have them done by 1pm tomorrow. I intend to follow up on that. Why do I get the feeling I'll get another "mañana"?
So I decide to just make my way to Milán campus early and just try to find the class on my own. Pedro gave me a ride to campus because he was headed that way to pick up Merce from her cooking class in that area anyhow. I went into one of the buildings that seemed to still have people around, and found an information desk. Score! However, when I got there, I either caught the lady on a bad day or she just really hates foreigners.. or she hates her job, who knows. Either way, it wasn't pleasant. I asked her which classroom the class was in, and she told me that it is only offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays, despite what my paper from the international relations office tells me.
I ask her to please confirm what time the class was, since the rest of my information appeared to be faulty, and she just decided to keep repeating "TUESDAY AND THURSDAY!" louder and louder. I calmly explained that I understood this, but that I needed to know what time since my sheet was obviously wrong. Louder still, she starts yelling "TUESDAY AND THURSDAY ONLY" at me, and finally tells me to just go to the international relations office... you know, the one that is only open for a few hours in the prime time for classes on the other side of town. Ugh.
I gave up on her, because she was for whatever reason livid with me. I don't think it was my speech skills, because like I said, everyone else hasn't had an issue with it generally and I wasn't exactly trying to say anything difficult. I called Pedro to let him know that I wouldn't be in class and to just drop by after getting Merce and I would be waiting at the bus stop.
So tomorrow I'll go to the inernational relations office since I happen to not have class until 12:30 and try to finalize this. I would really like to take the translation class, since it is directly related to what I'd like to eventually do for a living, but I've already missed a class thanks to this insane system that seems to continually change. I'm not really thrilled to pay the 135 extra euros for it either, and money is getting tight already as I am looking at the price of textbooks. We'll see how it goes. I have a bad feeling that the class time will have changed by the time I get to the international relations office tomorrow and that it will have some horrendous conflict with my classes. I really hope not.
I am really starting to lose my patience with things around here. On top of that, I seem to have lost my corsair flash drive. I think I left it in the chemistry facultad the other night when I was taking an entrance exam for what I thought was a translation class. I hope they can use the same assessment test to place me, since I placed in the advanced class anyway. I really wish I had that jump drive though, it was my favorite. I asked people around the computer lab where I was hanging out but nobody had seen it, and there is no such thing as a lost and found.
Well I need a shower... the weather is cooling down a little with the rain, but it is still super humid and I sweat like crazy inside. Hopefully tomorrow something will be resolved. Tomorrow afternoon I am going to MediaMarkt withthe family, which appears to be like a Spanish BestBuy, so that should be fun. Their slogan on TV is "yo no soy tonto" (I'm not stupid) with this somewhat frightening guy in a military outfit and a wicked mustache who is way too excited about their low low prices.
Until next time..
26 February 2008
The internet lives... sort of.
Well we somehow got the internet to cooperate for a moment at least, so I will take advantage and do another quick update.
Today was frustrating. One of my classes apparently didn't exist, another has changed classrooms without notice 3 times now (no email, no notes, nothing... leaving about 20 students including myself milling around the locked door before I finally decided to go to the departmental office to ask what was up. Twice now, for the same class, has this happened.) Tonight I was supposed to start my Translation class, but apparently that has changed rooms without warning as well, and in fact, isn't even on the same campus anymore.
I am going to have a talk with Paloma again tomorrow to figure it out, because I don't know if I can even get over there in time. There are supposedly busses that go that way, but I have no idea how they work, and it would be a several mile walk to get there even if I knew where I was going. I had been placed in an advanced class for "Spanish for foreigners" and no wonder, most of these people had only studied for a couple years, and a few from portugal had never studied before. About 20min into the class I realized there was no way I was in the right place, it was ridiculously easy.
The lack of internet access is very frustrating. The wifi is terrible, the computer labs have ancient equipment that can't get VT webmail for some reason but seems to be okay with Gmail (I have all my messages forwarding to gmail for now, so if you want to still use VT mail that is fine, but I might respond from Gmail). I miss Jay, and it is really annoying not being able to talk to him even though we have the means via Skype, just not the decent connection. I miss being spoiled by superior internet connections on VT campus. It is ironic though, because Oviedo has put everything online much like VT, but with the local ISPs it seems almost impossible for me to access anything. Plus, the computer labs close at 5pm....
That along with a complete overhaul of my class schedule in process, second week in, has got me a bit stressed out. This weekend we're going up to the mountains to see something, what I'm not sure to be honest. More on that later.
Another photo from my walk around the Casco Antiguo, the Cathedral of San Salvador:
I also found a bronze statue of Woody Allen, who apparently won one of the Asturian Awards they do every year and made some nice comments about the town, so now he's in bronze. Hmm.
25 February 2008
Quick update!
Well, I am using the wifi on campus now but it is shaky at best. I can't seem to get skype or any messaging services to cooperate except using Gmail to access AIM. Weirdness. I am thinking that maybe this is on purpose. As most of you already know, I have lost internet access at the house for the time being so I'll be making updates when I can from campus.
In any case, I thought I would give a short update of sorts. I explored the Casco Antiguo (old town) with Merche a couple nights ago and scoped out some neat shops that I need to check out in the next week or so while all the winter sales are still on. Everyone is trying to get rid of the winter merchandise and clear out for spring, already.
This is Plaza de America, featuring the Fountain of Gabinona
This is the church of San Juan, where Francisco Franco was married.
I have a lot more pics but I need to go geting I think because the janitors are turning off the lights... Bye!
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