un poco de mi vida

new blog

2010-11-04T18:05:00.002+01:00

okay, kids, this is just an informative entry: I am making a new blog! The address is http://corazonesyhuesos.blogspot.com/ and again, you can sign up using your favorite feed reader or subscribe via email to get new updates. I'm still working on it, so it will get prettier (I hope), but for now, it's there, and there's even an entry. check it out, if you wish. Otherwise, thanks for reading here, it's been fun. Hope you enjoy the new one.
Hearts and bones,
Lindsy

circles and lines

2010-10-12T21:51:00.006+02:00

I've been avoiding writing for a bit; not sure where to start. So many endings and beginnings. Hugs and kisses and goodbye's that I don't want to be goodbye's. Hello's, too.

summary? I'll try:

- left Portugal, back to Granada
- finished my thesis/project
- went to Barcelona, visited friends, went to tournament in Roses (north, almost in France)
- back to Granada, presented thesis--and not only passed but got a good grade! yay!
- lots of hanging out with close friends, trying not to let them be goodbyes...- to Madrid, more hanging out with close friends
- flight Madrid-> D.C. , picked up by good friend and taken to hang out in Charlottesville, VA w/ cousins + friends!
- up to D.C. again to see more cousins/friends and stroll through the monuments/museums, etc.
- flight D.C. -> Denver -> Tucson, picked up by Mom and Dad
- back in NM, doing laundry and eating green chili
- being daunted by next steps, and missing people like crazy

it might be time to retire this blog...

nós

2010-09-07T14:44:00.001+02:00

my Portuguese dental adventure

2010-09-03T21:30:00.002+02:00

So, remember a while back when I was so proud of myself for having avoided (at least temporarily) a big expensive crown-job in the U.S. by going to a dentist in Granada and getting my filling taken out, tooth cleaned, and a new filling put in? Yeah, it wasn't actually that long ago. 'Bout two months. Well, about a month later I was chewin' on some tasty baked-in-a-wood-burning-oven bread from the paderia here and thinking to myself, 'you know, it's been a while, but I still need to be careful with this tooth, to make sure...*crunch* ...uh...don't tell me, DO NOT TELL ME...yup. broke my tooth. awesome.'

Turns out there was so little left of the tooth that it just wasn't very strong. Or something. Anyway, so I broke me tooth, and didn't really know what to do about it, being home alone and car-less at the time. "Well, does it hurt?" my parents asked when I told them about it. "Mm, no...just worried I'll break it more and will really mess things up..." "Well, keep it clean, and see a dentist as soon as you can. Maybe they can do something temporary to make sure it doesn't break more and then you can get it fixed when you get home."

So that's what I did--although the as-soon-as-you-can dentist visit was a little prolonged...due partially to valid delays and partially to what could be chalked up (or down? kind of an odd expression) to laziness.

Today I finally made it; Maria called for me earlier this week and got me an appointment. She ended up having to go to Lisboa, though, so I found me some bus routes and times and headed out to get my poor little toofy looked at. Alfarim-> Santana, no prob. I asked the bus driver to tell me where to get off, and some nice ol' lady also helped out. Then once getting off I asked in a little antique shop where the primary school was (knowing the clinic was next to it). Some other nice ol' lady was just leaving the shop in that direction and the shopkeeper told me to go with her, and thus the senhora became my guide. I explained that I actually wanted to go to the clinic, which I thought she understood (note: this should probably be, "I thought I explained" as I'm the one with limited language skills, not her) but apparently not, because she asked if I was sure it was open... "Yes, I have an appointment at 5 in the afternoon." "Oh, okay, then. There is a front and back entrance, will you be wanting the front one?" Um... yes? Then she asked if the senhora (me) would be here this year. I wasn't quite sure about that question, but I answered that I was just here for two months in the summer. Then we met someone she knew on the street and mentioned that I was going to the school, to which the other replied, its closed... "No, no," I assured them, "I want to go to Clinica do Campo, but I was told its right next to the school, so I thought it would be easier to ask for that..." Comprehension dawned on my guide and her friend waved us good-bye. "Its here, right after the school." Nice. She left me at the entrance, I thanked her three times, said good-bye twice, and then said thank you again. (They are very polite in Portugal. Sometimes the say "excuse me" before hanging up the phone.)

The clinic was probably the cutest dental office I've ever been in. Just think quaint. (Embarrassing confession: it seriously took me like 3 minutes to spell that word...jeez.) The building looked like a little cottage, with front yard and everything, and you had to go down this little curvy steps to the W.C. or the radiography room. There was an old safe-lock underneath the stairs which I had to touch, and there was a distinct basement smell down there. I don't know if that's quaint or not, but anyway, back to the story.

After nearly-successfully giving all my personal information to the receptionist (a term which here means that I didn't have my current address written down anywhere and had to just give the village name and contact info of Maria) I sat down in the waiting room and watched a boring interview of someone who knew the person recently condemned to seven years of prison. Then the assistant came in and started leading me down the anti-handicap accessible staircase for X-rays.... "Um... is it necessary?" "Yes, of course, because..." "Well, I just..." And I managed to convince her that I wasn't going to be a returning patient, had recently had X-rays done, didn't want a cleaning or anything and that I just wanted my broken tooth looked at. She went and talked to the Doctor, who agreed to take a look first, though an X-ray might be necessary later. Fine. Perfect. So I sit down and and she asks how much longer I'll be in Portugal, and if I speak Portuguese or if she should speak English. I'm learning, please speak Portuguese and if I have trouble then maybe you can use some English. So she begins giving me a brief med-history interview, and then we move on to more interesting topics like where I was living in Spain. She'd been to Granada twice to go snowboarding. Niiice.

She takes a look at my tooth, tells me she's just going to do a little something (I though put some temporary filling material?) to the side there, where its broken, and it should be okay until you get home. Awesome, thanks. She does a little grind-grind on the corner of my tooth (okay, I realize that sounds a bit funny, but after that realization, any combination of "grind" and "my tooth" sounded equally amusing, so just deal) and asks how it feels. "Oh, no pain," I say. "No, no, with your tongue, is it okay?" "What? Oh, yes, its fine." "Ok, just be careful with it so it doesn't break any more and you should be okay until you get back to your dentist." That's it? "Okay, that's all, then?" "Yep, see you later." Okey-doke... that took about 3 minutes. On my way out I waited until the receptionist was done talking to someone else to see if I had to pay something (although kind of thought I wouldn't). "That's it." "That's it, no? Okay, thank you (thank you, see you later, bye-bye, thank you)."

I even made it back to the bus stop in time to wait for the same bus I rode in on to do its loop and come back around to go the other direction. Same driver and everything. I was grouchy about not having bought the round trip ticket (which I realized after hearing to woman behind me buy it on the way there, but the driver wouldn't--and couldn't, I'm sure--let me change). But it's not every day that one goes to the dentist without spending any money OR getting at least mild pain inflicted upon oneself. Plus I'd just had some pretty complicated (well, maybe not...) conversations in Portuguese, so I was feeling pretty good about that. (Apparently I'm feeling good about my English, too, from the length of this post...next stop: SPANISH THESIS, GO!) I celebrated by buying some nectarines and little chocolate things for my trip back to Spain on Sunday. But I will not write now about that, because I might start crying again (not for a lack of wanting to go back to Spain, but rather sadness for leaving here). And its tea-time (a frase which here means that Lindsy will happily sip some Aveda deliciousness from a mug, edit some bibliography citations, pet the puppy, and then go to sleep).

love

2010-08-23T13:25:00.007+02:00

me n' the Samster

Jano + Sami

deliciousness cooked by our Italian friend who was here for a visit last week

abandoned monastery on the top of a cliff

odd, vaguely arabic-looking sanctuary built to honor the Virgin of Cabo Espichel who saved fishermen by calming a storm from the cliffside. also, she was dressed in white and riding a burro. hmm..

walking in the steps of the ancient ones

2010-08-20T01:00:00.003+02:00

I have a sleeping puppy on my lap. That's your cue to go *aawww*

In other news, today I walked above the clouds, above the sea. And I sat in the footprint of a dinosaur to watch the sunset.

--------

And today is a good day to translate the poem from before:

POORNESS, Eduardo Galeano

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who have no time to waste time.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who haven't silence and cannot buy it.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who have legs that have forgotten how to walk,
like the wings of chickens who have forgotten how to fly.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who eat garbage and pay money for it as if it were food.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who have the right to breath shit,
as if it were air, without paying anything for it.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who have no more freedom than to choose between one channel and another on the television.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who live passionate dramas with machines.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who are always many and are always alone.

Poor,
is what the poor say,
they are those who know not that they are poor.

-------
translation from the original in Spanish by Lindsy Glick 2010
traducción del original por Lindsy Glick 2010

poem.

2010-08-10T23:04:00.002+02:00

Guys this poem is awesome. I'll translate it another day, for those of you who don't follow the español. Its about those who are classified as living in poverty ("developing countries") saying that the reverse is true--"those who call us poor are the poor ones." I'll leave it at that for now.

POBREZAS, Eduardo Galeano

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que no tienen tiempo para perder el tiempo.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que no tienen silencio ni pueden comprarlo.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que tienen piernas que se han olvidado de caminar,
como las alas de las gallinas se han olvidado de volar.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que comen basura y pagan por ella como si fuese comida.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que tienen el derecho de respirar mierda,
como si fuera aire, sin pagar nada por ella.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres
son los que no tienen más libertad de elegir entre uno y otro canal de televisión.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que viven dramas pasionales con las máquinas.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que son siempre muchos y están siempre solos.

Pobres,
lo que se dice pobres,
son los que no saben que son pobres.

philosophy of life in Spain vs. America, as narrated by John Dos Passos

2010-07-22T16:41:00.004+02:00

These are two small excerpts from one of the books I'm analyzing for my thesis work, "Rosinante to the Road Again." Apart from being amusing, I find the mentality surprisingly similar to things I've been told by Spaniards now, some 80-odd years later: "En América, se vive para trabajar; en España, se trabaja para vivir." (In America, one lives to work; in Spain, one works to live.)

excerpt one:
For a long while the arriero walked along in silence, watching his toes bury themselves in dust at each step. Then he burst out, spacing his words with conviction: "Ca, en América no se hase na' a que trabahar y de'cansar.... Not on your life, in America they don't do anything except work and rest so's to get ready to work again. That's no life for a man. People don't enjoy themselves there. An old sailor from Malaga who used to fish for sponges told me, and he knew. It's not gold people need, but bread and wine and ... life. They don't do anything there except work and rest so they'll be ready to work again...."

excerpt two:
The tough swaggering gesture, the quavering song well sung, the couplet neatly capped, the back turned to the charging bull, the mantilla draped with exquisite provocativeness; all that was lo flamenco. "On this coast, señor inglés, we don't work much, we are dirty and uninstructed, but by God we live. Why the poor people of the towns, d'you know what they do in summer? They hire a fig-tree and go and live under it with their dogs and their cats and their babies, and they eat the figs as they ripen and drink the cold water from the mountains, and man-alive they are happy. They fear no one and they are dependent on no one; when they are young they make love and sing to the guitar, and when they are old they tell stories and bring up their children. You have travelled much; I have travelled little--Madrid, never further,--but I swear to you that nowhere in the world are the women lovelier or is the land richer or the cookery more perfect than in this vega of Almuñecar.... If only the wine weren't quite so heavy...."
"Then you don't want to go to America?"

"¡Hombre por dios! Sing us a song, Paco.... He's a Galician, you see."

The goblin driver grinned and threw back his head.

mothers and children and friends and inbetweens

2010-07-20T18:44:00.002+02:00

So there is this change of relationships between mothers and their children, and vice-versa. It starts out with the mother being all mother, the child being all child. There is nourishment, support, love, affection (in what should be normal cases, but perhaps should be labeled "ideal"). As the child grows there are times when the mother can become a friend, talk about things not just as a mother but a peer. But she will have to return to being a mother: disciplining, teaching, sometimes being appreciated, and sometimes, perhaps, even hated. The child is part of this imperfect balance, swaying it along from one side to the other, depending on the situation, maturity, needs, wants.

And gradually the relationship moves more and more toward friendship. The mother will still have those special maternal influences and aspects, and the child will still sometimes seek those, but more and more they will become companions. Intellectually more equal, though each have always and will always learn from the other. the mother will have less a teaching role, learning things from her child, and the child able to bring new things and ideas to the mother. But it is not always easy to know when to be part of which role. The mother sometimes being mother when she should be friend. Sometimes friend when she should be mother. The child sometimes being child when a friend is needed. Sometimes being a friend when it is better to be a child.

And after the more mutual stage has endured--perhaps the longest of the three--and the child has children, too, possibly, the mother will lose certain abilities and age and life will show their toll. The child now is turning into the mother, supporting, loving, caring for her. Instead of being taken from one place to another, getting fed... physical and emotional needs met by the mother, as was the case when birthed, the roles are completely reversed. The child is now caring for the mother, even to the most intimate of details, and simplest of things that can no longer be done independently.

And this is how one of the circles of life returns to meet its proverbial beginning, and continue on.

Happy 89th, Grandma.

mundial, work, play

2010-07-13T12:41:00.006+02:00

And I finally took some lightpictures:

This is Tó, who I work with, fun guy. But for some reason was rooting for the Netherlands...so, obviously, we had to fight. ;)

This is the pretty sunset, seen from my bar/restaurant. :D

And these are my boys (María's kids) at the beach.

And this is someone being cooler than me.

estou em Portugal

2010-07-07T18:20:00.002+02:00

Commence summer:

Last week I franctically packed up all my belongings of two years, got rid of several bags of clothes + other random stuff, sent a big suitcase (+other random stuff) with my flatmate to store at her house for the summer, and hopped myself on a bus, then plane, to Lisboa. Now I'm staying with my friend and her two kids in a lovely beachside village. Working long hour weekends in the fish restaurant on the beach. And on days off going to the beach (or lagoon--hello, wind surf!!)... and trying to motivate myself to work on my thesis as well... *sigh* It should be a fun two months...

pictures as soon as I take my camera with me somewhere...

numbface

2010-06-18T13:08:00.006+02:00

Its a pleasant morning--sunny with scattered clouds and a bit of breeze. Not hot, but also not chilly or raining like a few mornings ago. (?!) So far I've done these things: some stretching, breakfast, email and news catch-up, grocery and fruit shopping (for a friend's bday party tonight and a picnic/goodbye party at my house tomorrow), and, ah, yes, the dentist. Hence the title of today's post. I got a filling removed and a new one put it. This because the old one was just temporary, or something? They wanted to do a crown? But they told me here it wasn't necessary. So I'll take a 55 euro new filling-job over a several hundred (800?) crown-job in the States... Maybe I should go to the eye doctor here, too...

Anyway, so just when I was putting on some music and settling down with a couple of Hemingway books and literary translation articles I decided I'd procrastinate a liiittle longer and write a blog post. [[Queen of Procrastination.]]

This weekend was an adventure to the Netherlands--primarily for Windmill Windup, the largest grass tournament in Europe: 82 teams, three divisions (Open, Women, Mixed). I went with the team from Madrid, Los Quijotes. I have a lot of good friends on that team, and we had a great time. (Despite the wet and chilly weather the first two days that had me cursing the country and wondering why I'd ever left Spain...Did I mention we were camping? We were camping. And there were too many of us in the tent... But I digress...) We ended up 14th (?) out of about 33 teams in our division, which isn't so bad, considering a lot of these teams are going to Worlds in a month.

After the tournament I went into Amsterdam with a friend and went to a delicious thai restaurant he knew of. Mmm. We walked about the center for a bit, then he hopped on a train to go home and I found my way to my gracious hosts' house. (A fun Canadian couple who had been at the tourney. And friends of a friend. Yay, frisbee world!) The next day I wandered about a bit then met a friend who was also in the city for the day. We went to the VanGogh museum (my main complaint: too expensive--and no student discount!). It was a small museum, which is actually kind of nice because you can see everything without rushing or getting overwhelmed. (I have that problem in big museums.) Most of the famous works are not housed there, at least not on permanent collection, which is kind of too bad. In Paris, I suppose? But it was still nice and there were some works by other artists that I also really liked.

Then we went to a delicious bakery! and a huge park. (Dear Spain, please increase the number of these two things in your cities... they are both awesome.) Then more wandering about the center, looking at funny lean-y buildings, pleasant canals, flowers, orange-ness, and bicycles. Lots of them. And it was a lovely day. Luck, for once. The next day I was back on a plane to Madrid and then the usual bus ride home. yippee. Nice trip.

Sunday, June 6, 2010. evening.

2010-06-06T21:31:00.002+02:00

The cat that's been hanging out on the roof across the street all afternoon is now trying to catch a bird that just flew in under one of the tiles.

There's a beautiful sunset to the West, and beautiful mountains to the East, still snow-capped and rosé-tinted from the setting sun.

The air is perfect: cool and refreshing after a hot, sunny (beautiful) day, but still warm enough for me to be sitting on our balcony in my shorts and not much of a top...

There are swallows circling overhead and I can almost forget I'm in the middle of a city (albeit in a sweet barrio that's generally quite calm).

The cat continues to wait out its prey: I think there is a nest under there somewhere.

The reds and oranges are turning to purples and greys, and the cat waits patiently, haunched and ready.

2010-05-21T18:34:00.002+02:00

So I ran across this picture of my sissie and I in front of a statue somewhere in Sevilla. I touched it up a bit, to make it more fun. melikes.

what are the haps my friends

2010-05-19T16:32:00.005+02:00

(it should be noted that I totally stole that line from Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics)

So! Time for an update! Mostly there are exclamation marks there because I actually have something to update. That is, I am no longer in limbo about summer plans, sending my CV to everyone in a hotel, English academy, English summer camp, sport summer camp, etc. whose email address I can find... And I told my landlady that I was leaving the flat in July without having a job/house in another place, so that was slightly stressful... BUT! now I do! Have a job! and place to live! For July and August, anyway. Supposing nothing changes and nothing falls through, I will be going to the little beach town in Portugal just south of Lisbon to live with my Portuguese friend and her two kids (middle school, high school) whom I went to visit this Christmas. And I will be working in her friend's bar/restaurant. On the beach. Oh yeah. I will probably end up doing a lot of the dirty work, especially at first, since my Portuguese is not exactly at a fantastic level... (but most people will speak English or Spanish. Especially the tourists.) But anyway, should be great. Plus I'm totally going to learn Portuguese. That's right, in two months I'll be fluent. *ahem*

Anyway, I bought a Portuguese book+CD when I was there at Christmas and have been listening to it, doing the exercises on my way to work in the mornings. So I can say those basic things like "My name is Lindsy." "She is Japanese" "What is his profession?" and lots of other interesting things... The good news is that comprehension is pretty easy, since its so close to Spanish. Well, written, anyway. Spoken is a bit more difficult.

Um. Let me back up a week or two: I had a college friend come visit! His name is Colin. It was fun! To prove it to you I'll put up a picture. One of the fun things we did was go to a barbecue/picnic/birthday party of my friends. It was on the top of a mesa with a gooorgeous views of the Sierras, olive groves, valleys, etc. I will try to put a video here of my Canarian friends singing...it was a good time.

Um, and here is another picture of the view from our party site:

Yup. sweet. Anyway, now jumping forward: In two weeks I finish at the high school. And I have to turn in the last of my papers/projects for my masters classes. Then in June I shall be working like a squirrel or ant or something on my "thesis" research project plan thing. Then off to Portugal. Then who knows what. Then present my thesis in September. Then proooobably back to the States. (Don't ask me where or what I'll be doing...that's way too far in the future to know, yet...) ;) But let's say "southwest" in general.

Okay...that's enough for now. I feel like I just planned out so many things, I'll try not to get overwhelmed... haha. G'day to ya'll, and hugs and elbow-skin pinching to those who accept them... :D

springtime

2010-05-03T14:07:00.003+02:00

finally..! sun and warm weather... wearing sandals and even a skirt one day. and this weekend playing ultimate here in GRANADA!! We hosted the first ever (hat) tournament in Granada, which tourned out to be a great success--people came from all over Spain, some from England, some from Germany, some from Italy. We made up teams mixing up experienced players with those who had never played before, and everyone got a t-shirt with their new team name. (theme: tapas!)
I was worried about it being hectic/crazy and not working out well (our "organizational" meeting on Tuesday was an absolute disaster...haha), but in the end it was a lot of fun, and the weather was great. People loved the tournament and of course being in Granada (especially the English...they were flipping out looking at the snow-covered mountains while playing in 75+ degree weather and plastering themselves with sunblock...hehe). Yay.

Hopefully the team here will pick up more force and maybe people will get excited enough to keep it going even next year when none of us "americans" are here, nor my friend Felipe who has gotten quite hooked on the sport and did most of the organization for the tournament...hope so!

semana santa, and other things

2010-04-01T22:03:00.002+02:00

So this week is don't-try-to-go-anywhere-in-the-city-center week, due to about 50 million processions every day (slight exaggeration). I've been mostly avoiding leaving the house at all, except to run by the river. Last night, though, I braved the streets (SO full) to see the gypsy procession. I've been told its really special. So even though I'm not into these things, I thought I'd check it out. After fighting our way through the tiny streets packed with people (drinking, smoking, singing, sitting by fires, etc.) we found a nice place up high by the caves where we could see the road below. Perfect. Except it was really cold. And past my bedtime. :) And we waited a long time and could still not hear the procession approaching. My friend had seen it last year, and I was really excited about the prospect of going home, making some hot chocolate and going to bed... so we decided to give up our prime viewing spot and walk down the street to meet up with the procession where we could, let it pass and then head home. Which is what we did. It was kind of neat to see people singing and clapping as it went by, but there was also a huge population of merely spectators like me, and it was really crowded and not overly impressive. Interesting that they yell "gitano, guapo!!" a lot, though. "gypsy, handsome!" ? I'll let you decide what you will, here's a video. (Pictures didn't come out too well.)

Also, I love the names of the associations responsible for the processions... Like this one for example:HERMANDAD DE NUESTRO PADRE JESUS DE LAS TRES CAIDAS Y NUESTRA SEÑORA DEL ROSARIO EN SUS MISTERIOS DOLOROSOS DE LA MUY ANTIGUA, PONTIFICIA, REAL E ILUSTRE ARCHICOFRADÍA DE NUESTRA SEÑORA DEL ROSARIO. ("Brotherhood of our Father Jesus of the three fallen ones (?) and our Lady of the Rosary in her painful mysteries of the ancient, pontificial (?), royal and ilustrious arch-brotherhood of our Lady of the Rosary." more or less.)

Anyway, it's Semana Santa, and I'm basically hiding at home, trying to get some class work done, revise my resumé, search for and apply for summer employment (in Spain), and relax a bit after another fun tournament. :) This time in Girona (Catalunya), on the beach. I played with a team from Santander (in the north) and had a blast. Lots of friends there, and good play. My team ended up getting 4th of 24 teams, which is pretty good. Teams came from all over Europe--France, Latvia, England, Germany, Belgium and more. I'm going to miss this.

2010-03-19T17:48:00.006+01:00

wow. long time no blog.

In the past month and a half I've probably been complaining a lot about the weather, so it's in your, dear reader's, best interest that I've not written. :) Lots of rain, and cold--not compared to some of the places you live--but for Andalucía it broke a bunch of records. The bad kind. Too much precip., lots of floods, ruined crops, etc. But here now, I'm complaining again and we've just hopped into Spring, finally! So the last week has been rather delightful and my mood has been about 7x better. happier? better? yeah. The almond trees are bloomooming, along with some irises and even some tulips I saw the other day... also the weeds on the roof across the street from me--little yellow flowers that look really pollen-y. Allergy-sensative people, beware!)

Last Sunday I went to riding arena/school (horse) to watch my friend compete in her second-ever competition. It was fun, she did well (no faults or anything) and I was outside all day, yay! hay! (is for horses...)

A few weeks ago I went again to the island of Tenerife (one of the Canary Islands, off the coast of Morocco, part of Spain) for, yep, an ultimate tournament. I went with my "American team" --about half of which consisted of people from our team last year when we went to a beach tournament in Italy (and won). Did I mention our team name is "Manifest Destiny?" Haha.. Anyway, take 2 was not quite as successful in ranking, but we had a good time and dressed-up really obnoxiously as over-patriotic American cowboys... awesome. We also gave ourselves/each other permanent-marker tattoos.

And now I've just finished my "last" class for my masters program! Which means not-a-whole-lot, unfortunately... Still a test and several final projects/papers to do. And seminars and conferences that start Monday. And then the final final paper--research plan... yick. Anyway. Its Friday, and I'm off to the thrift-store and the rock wall, hurrah!
Happy Spanish Father's Day, Papá, love you! mwah.

some thoughts on translating/interpreting/life/films and their relations

2010-02-10T12:50:00.003+01:00

So. The other day in one of my [masters] classes on "text and discourse," the professor was explaining her research project (doctoral, I presume) about analyzing film transcriptions and comparing the conversations with actual, real-time speech patterns. This is done using a huge "corpus" of recorded speech (then transcribed) and comparing word patterns, spacers, pauses, etc. to see how "realistic" these screen interactions actually are. And then there are arguments about different inter-semiotic translations/adaptations (i.e. book to film script, film script to what actually is said in films, film to subtitles or dubbing, etc.). Some researchers say that film conversation is not actually like real-time. Others say it is quite similar, because the actors change the script somewhat in their "interpretations" and tend to use more natural patterns. ETC.

My point is this: I was listening to these different arguments, occasionally adding comments, discussing with the class on this topic and suddenly thought: Oh my goodness. This is the most worthless thing in the world, right now! (A little exaggeration for dramatic purposes.) I suppose that studying these things will eventually mean that the area in general has more credibility which may eventually lead to a higher level of professionality (inventing words) in translation and interpreting in general. Which will have effects also on those people who actually need such services (immigrants, deaf/hard of hearing people, indigenous language speakers in countries with other official languages...) supposing there is a better network and qualification standards and pay and actual interpreters available. But that's kind of a stretch from studying movie transcriptions. And I cringe at the thought of spending hours and hours transcribing the speeches and then comparing them with pre-collected material. Clearly I'm not meant for the research department. And I suppose, also, that this comes more highly contrasted because of the recent earthquake in Haiti and thinking of so many practical needs that are not getting met in a timely or well-organized manner. INCLUDING the need for interpreters, which in such situations is often left to anyone with vaguely bilingual capabilities--quite often children. Not that this hasn't been going on for centuries... but. There is so much room for improvement. But no, I'm in class talking about which elements impede the realistic qualities of oral interaction in popular films...

On a related and more uplifting (?) note, in another class (Audiovisual/Audio-description) we were talking about the audio-description process of films, in order to make them more accessible to those with poor eyesight/blind people. I'd never watched a movie with audio-description. We watched segments (with our eyes closed) to experience and critique it. On the one hand, its an excellent step in the right direction--universal access. On the other hand, so much content is lost that I think I personally would prefer to listen to books on tape (or CD, or whatever...). Which is a obviously a dumb statement because If I were blind, I would still want to be able to experience aspects of popular culture (selectively, of course) and be able to talk about the same things as my friends, even if our experiences were different. And it also leaves a lot of room for creative imagination and self-development of characters and settings. It was just a shocking experience to hear everything that happened in the movies with intermittent comments like "Daytime. A tall man, dressed in ___ is walking through a field towards a small house. He is interpreted by __[actor's name]." and know that they cannot possibly describe everything in a few phrases that we take in with our eyes in a few seconds... Both frustrating and incredibly cool.

The "ONCE" (assoc. of "disabled" people in Spain) has done a lot to increase accessibility in the country. (And, interestingly, is largely/almost entirely--okay, I don't know the statistics!--funded by the lottery, tickets of which are sold by people with disabilities (sorry about the un-politically correctness of these terms) in little cabins (?) on the streets. So, simultaneously 1. employing someone who is physically or mentally unable to do many other types of work 2. earning money towards the development of institutions and organizations to help said people be more integrated in society, access proper medical/pschological attention when needed, etc... like. Um, but I still haven't bought a lottery ticket. hmm...

Well, there you are. A nice little introduction to some recent class discussions and my reactions to them. I complain about the lack of practical things that I am doing in my masters (i.e. NOT actually learning to translate/interpret) but occasionally we get through some theory and history to interesting things, and I *am* learning things, so I suppose all is well. :)

Have a great day, and appreciate the physical and mental capacities that you have.

the Sierras, nevadas

2010-01-08T23:14:00.006+01:00

So the last...oh, entire month? has been really rainy. Its been rather gross and the other day coming home from work and going to the bank, my pants got wet up to mid thigh. AND I was using an umbrella. Ridiculous. Anyway, rain here generally means snow in the mountains, and then last night it decided to get muy cold . Which meant that in the morning the clouds lifted for a bit, the sun came out, and even this winter-grinch thought it was beautiful. =) Do love the mountains with snow. (Apparently there are 3 meters in parts of the ski slopes!) Um, and then the clouds came back, and it even snowed in the city, though didn't stick, of course.

So yeah, this is the view from my roof.

And then a little zoom zoom.

And then ... well, you can dry your clothes on the roof, and I kind of liked the image. So there you have it.

Anyway, so these are all pretty pictures, but the amount of rain has actually been really bad for most parts of the country... lots of flooding, houses destroyed, people getting trapped, crops ruined, olives falling prematurely off the trees, etc. So for selfish AND non-selfish reasons, it would be nice if it dried up a bit.

Um... and to end on a happy note, I'm drinking some delicious rooibus+orange tea. mmm

year new

2010-01-06T21:39:00.007+01:00

hola!
It's been a while since I've written... now I'm not sure where to start. I think I will just summarize my holiday adventures.

I headed out on the 23rd to Madrid on a bus. It was cold and rainy.
Got to the airport with several hours of "koosh" time. Then my flight was delayed, because everything was delayed... bad weather in much of Europe = airports a mess. 2 or 3 of the several gates that my flight was supposed to leave from were right next to the smoking room (i.e. glass box) and I didn't like breathing there. I'll save the smoking rant for another blog post, though. Anyway, got to Lisboa after a very rough fligh, the majority of which I slept through (I took my pillow, of course). [note: travel time with bus + wait + plane is about equal to going all the way in bus or train, but slightly cheaper and supposedly more comfortable.] I was picked up by my Portuguese friend and her youngest (13) son, who I hadn't met. Off to her house in a little pueblo beach town.

Time there = relax and lots of good food. Also on the one day it didn't rain we took a lovely walk along the dunes/forest by the beach. yay!

I also went to a Christmas dinner at her ex-husband's aunt and uncle's house. Without her. yup, a little odd. But then the last 3 days I stayed with him (and their sons) and got to tour Lisboa. It also rained there. I only got really wet twice. I liked walking around Lisboa, took a zillion photos and decided it would have been more fun with a touring buddy. Alternately I could limit all my traveling to visits and ultimate tournaments. Oh, wait, that's already true/what I was doing. :) My point is that while I like cool buildings and famous statues, I tire of the general touristy-ness.

Anyway, after Lisboa, I hopped on a night train (though I didn't pay for a bed...) and slept-ish the 10 hours it took to get back to Madrid (It takes about 4 in a car!) and got in to the station at 9ish am on my birthday. Went to breakfast with my friend, walked around a bit and then went to her work. That night we went out with some other friends (all these are frisbee friends, mind you) to the main plaza to do the New Year's thing, eat 12 grapes, etc. Then we wandered about the city, went in some bars/clubs, ate churros con chocolate and then waited in the cold for the metro to start up again in the morning. Oh, and at one point we were asked if we were from Australia (?) to which we, of course, said, "yes!" And later Kika and I became sisters. So by the end of the night we were sisters from Sydney. =)
Slept till late and then we saw Avatar 3-D (in ORIGINAL VERSION!!! This is impossible in Granada, btw, so that's why its so exciting). Then the next morning I hopped back on the Madrid-Granada bus. Since then I've not been doing too much of anything, and its back to work tomorrow, and a group project for class...
The end! Hope you enjoyed this edition of "un poco de mi vida" and had lovely holidays all! Happy New Year, best wishes, and Spanish besos to all... :)

al campo, compai!

2009-11-04T19:02:00.007+01:00

Recently I'd been feeling a little city-trapped. Kind of bummed to not be able to get out into the mountains/beach whenever I feel like it (due to lack of car, mostly). And then the past two weekends I was invited to do just those things. Yay for friends!
That's the beach (because I'm sure you needed an explanation). We played Volleyball and tossed a frisbee around and ate sandwiches and generally had a good time.

Then this past weekend--which was a 3-day weekend thanks to a Monday-holiday--I went with friends that I met at the rock-climbing wall (and more of their friends) on a bouldering/camping trip. YAY!
The next morning it was really foggy. We bouldered a bit more anyway. Then it started to sprinkle, so we packed up camp and headed to a little town nearby. Then we went to this other awesome place (National Park?) where I'd been climbing once before. We did a little hike and admired the rock formations seen here in the background:
Then it got dark and we went home.

I may have missed out on some sleep during the weekend, but I feel much better. Refreshed, if you will.

Oh, one more picture. This is my flatmate, Rocío, and I on Halloween. We went out with her boyfriend who was visiting for the weekend. At the Irish Pub near our house they were giving out free pumpkin hats with a birra. I bet you can't tell which one is me (lie).

whyohwhyohwhydidn'tIbringmycamera?!

2009-10-18T13:19:00.003+02:00

I asked myself the other day...I suppose it's so that, at the end of the day, I still have something to write about.

I rode my bike (yes! I have a bike! Bought a small, used "mountain bike" from a girl who was moving) down to a park I'd seen from the highway, but had never been to. I thought I'd investigated every green space in Granada, looking for a place to play frisbee. But NO! Oh, life is always one up on you, eh? Anyway, much to my delight, this park is quite big, and has GRASS! For those of you who have been here, you know its a pretty dry place, and that grass is not a common landscaping element. Anyway, it has enough space to throw a disc around, and if you feel like running some laps or practising hurdles by jumping over fixed metal bars, well, the option is there. *shudder* I digress. My point is that we now have a place (although a bit far away for some...) to practise a bit. whooohoo!

Back to the story...
I followed the river down to this park and when I got there, and was riding around to check it out, when low and behold I see: a herd of sheep; a few goats; an old, limping shepherd with a baby sheep dangling helplessly from one hand; and a scraggly sheep dog, trotting alongside the herd. The goats were stopping to eat leaves along the path, and then they'd get swept along again in the herd. Most of the sheep had bells around their necks which combined with their trotting and baa-ing made quite a racket. They were following a path alongside the park that later went under the highway and eventually out of the city. A cloud of dust followed them and I was impressed by the speed at which they trotted along. I wondered what would happen if the sheep decided to go off the path--the gimping old man didn't seem spry enough to herd them away, and the dog looked pretty ambivilant. But I suppose that looks can be deceiving, and its also possible that the sheep know the route from previous trips.

I assume that the man was bringing the sheep down from the mountain, since the weather is changing, and they have to come down out of the hills when it starts to get cold. Apparently not too long ago they still closed one of the main roads of Granada--which is the old route from the lower lands up to the mountains--to cars during the night sometime in the Spring for all the shepherds to take their animals up into the mountains for the summer. I think that is bad sentence. Oh well. Anyway, it was a fun sight to see in city (albeit the edge of the city) and somehow refreshing. A touch of country-life and a waning lifestyle which, despite modernization, still manages to survive.

[/my picture of 500 words]

same school, different job

2009-10-04T17:15:00.002+02:00

Technically my job hasn't change, and my title is still "English Language Assistant," but I no longer have any English classes. I follow around one class of first years (I say more or less equivalent to Freshman, but I think it would be more like seventh graders, since they don't have middle school, but do have a 2 year pre-professional program after secondary school) and help out in the music, math and history classes. So far its been pretty fun. The material, obviously, is much more varied than last year, and I'm enjoying the change. The past two weeks I've been helping to explain the planets ("Uranus" is really hard to pronounce!), the Solar System, basic algebra, factors, prime numbers, whole notes, half notes, etc.

The professors have done a pretty good job so far in their English speaking, but the class is probably not more than 50/50 Spanish/English for now. If it were more, I think the kids would give up trying to understand. I'm sure the amount of material we've covered so far is much less than the professors would like, but its really like giving two classes at once, since the class gets paused on a regular basis for me to explain something in English. Also, since I have the same kids everyday, rather than 3 different classes each day, I have almost all of their names memorized already, which makes me happy. I also still have a few out-of-class hours with the professors to prep for classes, help with their English homework from the Official School of Languages, work on conversation/pronunciation, etc.

I'm looking forward to starting my masters classes in a week or so, but still nervous about how I'm going to manage to be in two places at once when I need to go to class in the morning while I'm at work...heh. But the director at the high school has told me various times that they will be as flexible as possible and that he knows this is a really good opportunity for me. Awesome. So if all goes well, by the end of next September, I'll have a masters in translation and interpreting! And then I need to find a job... :)

Hope all is well in your worlds.

pictures a la vuelta

2009-09-11T22:42:00.005+02:00

I like graffiti...have I mentioned that? This is my favorite granadino artist, "El Niño de las Pinturas"

hehe

I like the terrace...

so, let me tell you the story about how I've lived in this city for, oh, about 10 months, and JUST NOW realized that the oddly decorative...what do you call these things? poles-to-prevent-cars-from-driving-where-they-shouldn't's are supposed to be pomegranates. Which makes perfect sense, since "Granada" in Spanish is "pomegranate"... but did I realize that? no. I'm embarrassed. Ashamed. So I decided to publish my stupidity in order that you might laugh at me. =)

not restless anymore

2009-09-09T12:04:00.011+02:00

but maybe a bit rest-less.

I left the States eaarly Wednesday, on week ago. (Following a 5.5 hour drive to Phoenix the day before.) Flew direct to NY. Had a 7hr. layover. Flew to Dublin. Had another 7 hr. layover (this time I left the airport to explore the streets of central Dublin, walk around the sweetest library ever in Trinity College, and stop at pubs for some tasty vegetable soup and a Guiness. classic. Also, it was cold there. Like maybe 50 degrees. also classic, right? But It was sunny most of the time, so I guess that was lucky. Also the smell of the sea when I first stepped off the plane was great.) then flew to Madrid, and hauled my stupid suitcases through the stupid metro and streets-under-construction to my friens' house. Dropped the stuff off and got back into the metro and went in search of them at a bar. They were relaxing and eating after house-hunting (they have to move soon). I was tired. I wanted to shower and bed. Ohwell. Hung out and talked for a long time, then went back to the house and did the same. It was fun... One Portuguese, one Slovak, and two United Statesians (including me).

The next day, after a long night's rest, I went out to coffee with my friend, we did some exploring, and then had lunch with our other friend during her break. Also along for the ride was her Irish friend who is studying in Pamplona and was going to play with us in the tournament. (In the end I think there were only 2 spaniards on the team...hah...)

So next day, tourney. Open and womens championship of Spain. It was on artificial turf which meant that any of us awesome/stupid enough to layout have burns all over the knees, elbows and hips... And I think the little black chips of tire helped to heat the field and burn us through our cleats in the near 100 degree weather. this is me, jumping up to D a disc from the other team. I have no face, but I have red hair. [photo taken by Hermann Kaser]

For a team of mostly pickups who'd never played together before, we did pretty good and pulled 3rd place out of the 8 teams of chicas there. (I think there were 13 open teams.) We should have actually played int he finals, but we kinda choked when the other team pulled a zone D on us and none of the girls on our team normally play handler...kind of key when you're trying to swing the disc back and forth and find tiny breaks in the D... But anyway, we didn't deserve to win that game, so the other team went on to play finals and get 2nd. I was honestly okay with sitting in the shade and watching it...

And then after two days of ultimate (I am NOT in ultimate shape! wow!) I was really sore. And tired. And having trouble sleeping. Maybe partly from jet lag. The next day I went to a museum with a friend from the Canary islands and then out to lunch. Then walked way too much.

And then I got up the next morning, hauled all my stuff through the metro again (only to find that one of the lines I wanted was closed for construction, so I had to get out, catch the special bus to do that transit, and get back in the metro for a few more stops. All with my stupid suitcases. And taking way longer than I planned. When I got to the bus station I had 15 minutes before the bus I wanted was leaving. Fine, I thought. And then I saw the line at the ticket counter. *sigh* Didn't happen. So then I waited another hour (which is not so bad, sometimes the next bus isn't for 3 or 4) and hopped on to Granada. Got a city bus from the station that would take me close to my new flat, and called my new "compi" (housemate) when I got there. She came to meet me and pulled one of my suitcases along. yay.

Then I went and bought some bread. (And a few other things to survive on until I figure out where the best grocery stores/fruterías/panaderías are nearby.)

But just incase you were starting to feel sorry for me, for being all exhausted and stuff (don't worry, I'm not flattering myself, I know you weren't...) ;) this is the view to the east from my new balcony. That's right, I have a balcony this year. hurrah! And it faces south. Perfect for winter sun-soaking while having a coffee in my pj's...hehe..

friday night, 10:02 pm

2009-08-22T06:02:00.002+02:00

I'm restless. And in a Coldplay sort of mood. Though Coldplay is usually a bit sad or lonely or maybe just mellow, for me. So maybe I am some of those things, too. I've been back from my cross-country adventure for more than a week now. I'm going back to Spain in a little less than two.

I've been to the dentist (twice) and the hair salon (short hair does need more cutting, if less shampoo...) I've gone running and lifted weights. I've read books and painted, and stalked my friends on Facebook. I've written emails and gone out to lunch with a aunt-like friend from my old church. I'm trying to translate a book (its going veeery slowly) and I have several articles of clothing that need fixed. I've just ordered various things (like a rain jacket and a new external hard drive) that are much cheaper here/to buy in dollars. I'm getting most of my list of to-do-before-I-leave done. Or I'm at least on track...

But I'm antsy. Or maybe ADHD, a bit. I clearly have enough to "keep me busy." And I have lots of things to look forward to: seeing my brother and his family tomorrow, eating green chili in every (main) dish I eat until I leave, playing in the Spanish women's national championship in Madrid in two weeks (not as impressive as it sounds...but awesome) moving in to a new flat, starting school/work-school... etc. But... I'm not ready for bed, and I can't pin what it is that's making me unsettled. Unsettled? Antsy. I mean, maybe it's just the espresso I drank a while ago. Or maybe this is just what happens when I want to be creative without a specific outlet in mind... paint? no. draw? no. cook? no. write? sure. ramble, ramble, ramble. Sorry, guys.

friday night, 10:32 pm

sugar on the street

2009-08-19T03:22:00.002+02:00

So, I don't do a lot of creative writing, despite the fact that I enjoy it, and every time I read a good book (/essay/graphic novel...) I think... I want to write! Anyway, today I was vaguely inspired, and below is the result. Its essentially un-editted (as is nearly all of my work...including a good many college papers--due, I suppose, to my tendencies of procrastination...) so please forgive its rawness. Also 1. I have been reading "Tar Baby" by Toni Morrison (which I recommend) so my writing might have taken on a brief Morrisonian touch. Who can say.
2. Mom suggested I edit the part about Dad swearing at the sugar-break so it doesn't sound like he swears all the time. I said, no! thats funny! Can't sensor your kids after a certain age, you say something and it might get quoted! sorry? Besides, personal writing is always subjective... Anyway, here ya go:

There I was, standing in the parking lot, on the hot, black, ugly pavement, with beautiful, white, perfect grains of sugar all over my feet. Spilling out of the bag, spilling onto the trunk of the car, my feet, and the hot, black, ugly pavement. It was such a contrast, those whites and blacks. Ugly and beautiful. I stood there for a minute, not reacting, just looking at it. Then I quickly righted the bag, and laughed inside my head at dad swearing swearing away at the pete-for-damn's-sake of the situation. He went in to exchange the 25-pound broken bag for a brand new one, because otherwise, there go our savings! And in this perfect, consumer world, we do NOT tolerate a broken bag. Oh no.

So he went in, and I stood there and looked at the sugar. White on red. White on black. And white, tiny-sticky all over my feet and flimsy leather sandals I'd bought in Nicaragua for about one U.S. dollar, proud of bargaining down the price using my then-mediocre Spanish skills. And then it hit me. All that perfect, beautiful white sugar that was more perfect and more white than sand, more perfect than natural... I knew where it came from. I've seen the sugar cane fields, the poor Haitians, illegally crossing the border into the Dominican Republic to work for slightly-better-than-starvation wages. Seen the Haitians hop out of the bus when it was stopped on the road for passport inspection. Held little black braided babies who couldn't stop touching my blonde (how so blonde?) hair while the boys and soon-to-be-men played a game of beísbol in the crooked, ugly field. Seen the fiery hell-factory where the workers with black, wet-black skin worked by the furnaces, worked on the docks, worked in the trucks, worked with shovels, to put huge loads of cane onto the conveyor belt. To grind and pound. To heat and melt To refine, refine, refine. That sugar comes out cleaner than anything those men own, and it gets shipped away so fast they hardly see it. Or maybe so they don't touch it. Just back to the fields. Back to the factory, back to the black coals and ashes that don't make marks on their skin, but do on their lungs.

And there I was, brushing it off my feet, self-conscious of the bikers nearby, laughing—where they laughing at me? Laughing at my sugar spill? It wasn't my fault, the bag had a hole. They were not laughing at me, they didn't even see me, and wouldn't have cared if they had. No one cares about a bit of sugar on the ground. But I've seen huge mounds of sugar. They do that, you know? They dump in on the ground in huge, bigger-than-life-ant-hill piles, I couldn't climb a mountain like that. Not if I tried, that hill of sweet, sticky, perfect white sugar, piled before they bagged it up and shipped it to my country, for me to spill on the ugly, hot, black cement and take back, demanding a refund because of the little pile that was sitting on the ground that I could not use. I moved my feet out of the way, but when my dad came back, balancing a brand new big blue bag on one shoulder, he made new tracks on the perfect, too-perfect white-sand sugar. What happened to the old bag? That he took back? Do they throw it away? Or does some unconcerned employee take it home to put that perfect sugar in a fresh peach pie? I hoped so, and we drove away, off of that hot, black ugly pavement of the parking lot onto the hot, black, ugly pavement of the road, just drove away.

Lindsy vs. a lot of the country

2009-08-13T05:17:00.005+02:00

So, approximately a month ago, I embarked on a mega road trip. It started out with a friend, who had come to my wee town to hang out and do some backpacking. We drove up together to Denver, where she lives. Then I headed west to visit some other friends from college. Then up to visit my sister, then south again to a frisbee tourney, then north again, then way east (family reunion) then west-ish a bit (wedding of dear friends) then slowly southwest again, towards home with various stops where friends and relatives live. Yeah, long trip. I decided to map it out, and give you the mileages between each major stop, should you really care. Mostly it was for my curiousity. I think the picture enlarges if you click on it.

In other notes of interest, I have been accepted into the masters program (translating and interpreting) at the University of Granada, signed up for classes, and am trying to figure out how to pay for it. I'm just hoping I can actually attend most of the classes, and get the degree...

And now, since I clearly am not in the "bloggy" mood, I shall put up a few pictures and leave it at that, por ahora.

Beginning of Gila Wilderness Adventure Hike (in which Erin and Lindsy find a crashed plane, nearly step on a rattlesnake, set up terrible bear bags, cross the river a lot, and generally have a great time).

Lunch in the black canyon.

The beautiful vineyard on which live three of my beautiful friends. [insert snarky comment about adjective choice here.]

workin' on the ranch

2009-07-04T18:09:00.011+02:00

So I spent a few long, hot days tearing out old barbed-wire fences on our neighbor-friend's ranch. Besides upping my respect level for those who do physical labor on a daily basis and wondering at the silliness of our continual need to do exercise specifically to stay in shape, as our daily lives become more and more lethargic due to the wonders of modern technology, I was surrounded by a beautiful countryside full of thistle flowers, grazing elk, beautiful skies/clouds, a neat old/fallen down ranch house, and lots of buzzing, buzzing flies (do you think this is a run-on sentence?). On the last day I took my camera and snapped way too many pictures. (And then got lost in a thought-tangent on digital photography... What if I didn't take all these pictures? I still got to see it all. I couldn't share it, or save it, but there's something special about that, too. A once in a lifetime image. Hmm...) Anyway, here are some of my favorites of the day.

~ The olde ranche house ~

~ The somewhat dilapidated kitchen ~

~ apacalyptic scene of abandoned clothing in white dust (dry wall remains, I suppose) in an emtpy room ~

~ ze fotografer ~

~ elkies ~

~ dead juniper and two dying agaves backed by an awesome sky ~

~ classic mirror shot with bonus little mirror and getting-rained-on mountains in the distance ~
*this and many others may or may have been taken while driving... oops*

~ I love storms here ~

Okay, I suppose that's enough. Until next time, enjoy our Wild America!*
* line taken from Marty Stouffer's PBS show, all rights probably reserved.

...there and back again...

2009-06-10T16:08:00.005+02:00

I've been home for about 5 days now, and I miss pan con tomate. Hmm, that was a bad opening line. It could have been, "and I miss friends terribly, think about them everyday and stalk them using facebook so that I can virtually be a little closer..."(true.) or "and it sure is nice to be back, see my family, look out any window and see mountains/beautiful sky." (true.) or even, "and while I'm excited to learn useful things from my papí, get to watch my niece and nephew's softball/T-ball games, etc. three months seems daunting in this little pueblo without any people my age/ulitmate/climbing...better get out into the mountains and go backpacking." (true.) or EVEN, "and have already seen traces of the legendary 3-foot long scorpian (about 1 meter, for those of you who don't understand "American measurements") ;)~ said to inhabit the wild lands of the West, occaisionally stinging and then eating cattle from local ranches..." (false.)

But, I've just had my café con leche and toast for breakfast, really wanted to eat tomato on it, and had none. (What? I was fully expecting huge ripe garden-fresh tomatoes all summer!?) I suppose I'll survive. I HAVE been getting my fill of New Mexico green chili (and red), which makes me incredibly happy. There's nothing like it, really. I might have to end up settling in New Mexico just for the green chili. Eh, lets not say the words "settle down" yet...

This summer I've decided to teach my neice and nephew as much Spanish as I can...they're just at the right age to absorb all that stuff without much effort. We'll see what happens. Either way, they're absolutely adorable. I'm jealous of their beautiful brown skin, hazel eyes and loooong eyelashes (inherited from my dear brother). *sigh*

Pictured above, Marlea and me, posing with our gafas. At left, happy Darrion, playing with Kelcie's dog, Echo.

Yesterday Dad and I mixed and poured 5 loads of cement, to add on to the porch on the the west side of the house. Looks pretty nice. I've also already been to the local "library" twice and am trying to do a pre-application for a masters program in Granada for next year. We'll see what happens! I've also been getting up at about 7am and going to bed at around 10 or 10:30 pm. (...Not an uncommon supper time for me in Spain...) weird. I think I'm going to go sit on the porch and read for a bit...

bombs are bad

2009-05-18T20:52:00.002+02:00

They're pretty destructive. And then sometimes they do this other bad thing, in which they don't explode upon landing, and leave the large surrounding area unapproachable. Deadly. Or, if their presence is unknown, they can detonate by the disturbance of someone or something that passes by. Bad, bad, bad. My life is pretty bomb-free these days. But I've just read/looked at a fantastic photo-essay about bomb clean-up in Uganda. The photos are spectacular, and the story chilling, but not hopeless. I invite you to check it out: http://glimpse.org/stories/view/the-clean-up-crew-bomb-disposal-in-the-wake-of-war/

It makes me ask myself... what am I doing here? Spoiled little me, enjoying the evening breeze coming in my window in my safe, clean, warm (er, during the summer anyway) flat. Spending weekends on the beach playing ultimate.

...

Granada, te quiero

2009-05-10T19:52:00.005+02:00

So, I've been here for about eight months, now. Every time I travel somewhere else, I come back to Granada and give a little contented sigh. *oh, the Sierra Nevadas...* I like that Granada is small enough that I see people I know on the streets, in the park, in a bar, at the library... I like that Granada is big enough that I can go salsa dancing, see Flamenco shows, meet people from all over the world. I don't like that Granada does not have very many green spaces. But I love that I can go 20 minutes out of the city and be climbing on limestone, high above the olive groves, watching mountain goats elegantly sprinting down rock faces, and the ever-present Sierra Nevadas as the backdrop, still snow-covered and ski-able in early May. (Though the temperature today in the city was about eighty degrees farenheit.)

The thought of leaving, picking up somewhere new, finding a job, finding a house, making new friends again was exhausting to me. And sad. I've loved my time here. I'm not done here... So I applied to do my same job again. And got it! So its off to home (New Mexico) for the summer, to do lots of projects with dad, translate a book, do odd jobs for a rancher friend, take an EMT course (???), visit friends and family in CO, and do the same in Ohio and IN. Then I'll come back to my dear Granada, find a new flat (one with a balcony, please!) and head back to my little school to see if a second year can get any of those kids past the present simple and "hhwut eees juur nayme?" Oh and I'll probably climb more and go to more ultimate tournaments. And maybe with the team from Granada we are finally getting together. :) And if I can possibly work out the scheduling problem I will apply for the Masters program here in either translating or Spanish. And go into yet more debt, woohoo! But a masters from the University of Granada would be pretty handy to have, I would say.

So thats the news from Iberia, friends. Enjoy your Sunday and hug your mother if she's anywhere near.

un par de fotos

2009-05-09T11:32:00.005+02:00

Girona. cathedral. beautiful sky.

Girona. River. Cloudier sky, but nice lighting in general.

Venice. Leaning tower framed in bridge railings.

Venice. Fruit, anyone?

I am spoiled

2009-05-05T16:35:00.002+02:00

So I haven't updated in a while. The last three weekends have been spent in ultimate tourneys and a "convention/practise." First Madrid, mostly Spanish teams. Then a weekend in Santander to meet with my team and practise together once before our tournament. We are all United Statesians living in Spain (various parts) put together by an ulitmate player who has been living in Madrid for the past couple of years and met us all at various tournaments throughout the last year or so. Then this past weekend was the tournament: Bibione, Italy. I took off early (no problems with work, tehe.) and flew to Girona for a connecting flight to Venice. It was going to be a long layover before Ryan air pushed my flight back 2.5 hours, so I took a bus into the city and explored all day. Beautiful place, I kind of want to live there... Its not far from Barcelona but I'd never been. Cool old fortified city wall which you can walk along on top. And awesome cathedral.

Took the night flight to Venice and arrived to an absolute downpour. More water coming out of the sky than I'd seen for a while. Waited in the bus stop for about 20 minutes before venturing out to find my hotel. Met up with a friend and her sister. Next day we explored Venice, ate lovely Italian food, and walked around all day. Later some of the boys from my team showed up and we walked around more and ate gelato mmm. Then off to Bibione where the tournament took place. Our team stayed in two trailers together and embraced lots of typical "American" traditions/manners of speaking. It would have been painful had it not been so fun. It was a great team and I hope to play with them/see them all again later.

Next 3 days were spent on a lovely Italian beach wearing tiny red shorts with white "wife beater" shirts, winning all our games, and goofing around a lot. We ended winning the whole tournament which was a first for me. And so fun. I love beach ultimate so much more than grass. And its so much fun to play with/meet so many people from all of the world! There were 33 teams in total--we played teams from Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, etc. I am terrible at picture-taking at tournaments but I hope to rob some of my teammates' soon.

Now I have less than one-month here, unless I change my return flight...which probably depends on whether or not I'm coming back next year or not. (Hurry up! Tell me if I have the job or not!) :) I've loved my time here, and can't really picture it ending. I think I'll stop writing about it for now... Hope to see you all this summer when I'm back. besos.

*** pictures refuse to load currently. will add a few later.

kids today: dense or clever?

2009-04-01T22:15:00.002+02:00

So today in my class with the first years (freshmen-ish high school age) I was getting a bit frustrated. We were doing simple exercises in which they had to look at a picture and later recall details about the drawing or ask their partner what objects were depicted, etc. My English instructions (though always complete with charade-like gestures) are often lost on them, but even when the professor would explain in Spanish, we were met with blank looks, questions, and poorly executed worksheets and nothing learned, I'm sure. * sigh * These were simple things, really! Then the last exercise: cut each line (a sentence). Then cut each sentence on the lines seperating each word. Later they would have to arrange the words to form the sentence correctly. This took AGES. Partly becuase only about half had brought their scissors along. But partly because they just didn't know where to cut. THERE ARE DOTTED LINES! The cutting process took so long that we didn't have time to do the exercise so the professor told them to guard them until the next day. But they'll get all mixed up! Well, put each pile in a different page of a book or something, he says.
After a few minutes I noticed that most pairs were doing something pretty creative in order to keep the little piles of words seperate, but store them safely. One group was color coding their slips with markers. Another group was making mini-envelopes for each pile. Others were following the advice of the professor. (Still others had yet to cut each strip and thus were spared the problem to begin with...) They each seemed rather proud of their solutions.
It was a good ending to the class. I no longer felt that they were lost causes, all. They may be a bit thickheaded from time to time, but they've not lost their capacity to think. [p.s. do not tell me that they were feigning stupidity in order to avoid work... they really didn't get it. And besides, that would just depress me again, and you don't want to do that, do you?]

An apple a day keeps the Dr. away. The Dr.?

2009-03-25T23:44:00.002+01:00

So sometimes I am impressed with national healthcare, and other times I am not. Today I experienced one of the not-impressed moments. I needed to go to a Dr. to get a form signed/some sort of paper that certifies that I am in good health/mentally stable/not a drug addict/capable of travel, etc. in order to complete my application for renewing my program here. Fine. So this morning I call the first office on my list that is near to my house to see if I could get an appointment for this week yet. Sure, 6:30. Today? Yes, today. Okay, sweet. After hanging up I realized that he didn't even take my name... oh well, must have a pretty open schedule...? Odd.
Later, upon entering the office, I noticed another strange thing: no reception desk. Just a little waiting area. I called out a soft greeting to announce my presence and sat down to read my book. A few minutes later an elderly couple left a room and the Dr. ushered me in to his examining room/office. I sat down across the desk from him and told him what I needed, showing him a sample paper that I'd translated from the suggested form. "Okay," he says, pulling out a pad of letterhead paper, "Let's see your identification." (To write my name correctly on the paper.) "You don't have any diseases or anthing, right?" "No. Not that I know of." He nods and writes something out on the paper. "This bit about the traveling...is that necessary?" Well, I'm not sure, I don't think the wording is too important, as long as it says I'm a healthy individual..." He signs the paper, stamps it and hands it to me. His phone rings and he has a short conversation with a friend. I put the paper away and wait awkwardly for him to finish, trying not to listen-in on his conversation. "I think that's all I need, thank you very much." I say, wondering if he is going to charge me. "No problem, hasta luego."
Um, thats it? I just walk in, have him sign a paper for me without so much as taking my blood pressure and walk out again? I guess I was expecting a physical. But why would he need to do that? I'm clearly healthy and not addicted to drugs and have no diseases. Anyone could tell, just by looking at me! Right...? Whatever. Sure made it easy to get my paper taken care of. But note to self: in case of actual medical attention, find other doctor...

fresas frescas

2009-03-22T21:59:00.005+01:00

So last weekend there was a special offer at the frutería below my flat: big box (1.5 ish kilos?) of strawberries, 3 euros! yuummmy! I bought a box, of course, and made some shortcake to go with it. took along berries when I went climbing with friends. Then yesterday I went down again to stock up on more fruit... box of strawberries, 2 euros! woohoo! I was going to off to share half the box with my flatmate, Gabrielle, knowing they would hard to eat by myself before they went bad.. but she, seeing my box on the counter, went and bought her own! hehe. I guess we love fruit. Gabrielle, by the way, comes to us from Toulouse, France. The new-ish addition (like, since Feb.) to the house, as Sarah left in January. We get along well, and make far too many desserts for our own good, as each of us likes baking a bit more than cooking. Today, inspired by the strawberries and rare presence of cream cheese in my refrigerator, I decided to make fruit pizza. mmm. Crust was a little thin, but that can be fixed for next time.

Had another friend from college come visit this last week over his Spring Break. We did lots of walking/city exploring/climbing/tapas/flamenco listening to/graffitti admiring, etc. All good activities. I had a cold all week, though, so I'm pretty tired. For this week, then, its relax, apply for renewal of current job (I think I could do Granada another year...) and plan for Mom and Dad coming in two weeks!

The Jabberwocky

2009-03-12T18:08:00.003+01:00

My Dad used to tell me this poem by Lewis Carroll...
Its a fun one, and someday I think I shall memorize it (Kathy did so years ago and I think can still recite it upon command...) ;)

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

and a picture of the gorgeous coast on the western tip of Tenerife.

oh, andalucía

2009-03-08T22:44:00.005+01:00

Apparently I've been lax in blogging recently. oops. My excuse is that I've been having too many adventures. tehe. In the last few weeks I've been out climbing in various gorgeous places nearby (It's great way to get out in the country, spend a day in the fresh air, sun, and do a physical activity. Plus its just fun, and the people I go with are also fun. Mostly Spanish, but sometimes with some Germans and Italians as well.)
I also went to Cadiz with my flatmates and various friends. We dressed up as sailors (and a captain, of course) and spend the night trampsing through the streets amongst WAY too many other people. EVERYONE else was dressed up (Carnaval) and it was pretty entertaining for about the first half of the night. Then the amount of people + alcohol was much greater than the number of bathrooms and the streets became a disgusting mess. Plus we lost my flatmate and spent a long time trying to find him again. It turned out to be a long night, but we eventually got back to Malaga where one of the guys lives and we crashed at his beautiful flat right next to the sea. (Then I went swimming in the cold, cold water. But, I was on the beach, so I had to...)
Then this past weekend/week I hopped on a bus to Madrid and then flew to Gran Canaria for an international beach ultimate tournament. Awesome. Beautiful weather and fun times. I have a few more freckles. [But apparently I am not in 3-day ulti tourney shape...eek! tired.] Sunday night I took a boat to Tenerife to visit a friend and the next day we rented a car and toured around the island. I'm amazed at the changes of scenary we saw in such a small space. Tropical beach and desert and mountains and forests and bare volcano and crazy rocks and wild coasts. Then on Tuesday I headed back to Madrid, spent a few hours in the bus station and caught the night bus back to granada. Home by 5am for a short nap before work. I think I'm finally recovered... Ready for a new week.

i heart bibliotecas

2009-02-09T15:22:00.002+01:00

Basically, libraries are awesome.
Here's my list of today's finds:
Guía Costa del Sol (guidebook for southern coast of Spain)
Italiano, curso completo de autoaprendizaje (basic Italian book)
Watchmen (comic/graphic novel...in Spanish so some of the clever word-plays may be lost, but they didn't have it in English, so I don't really have a choice...I read pieces of it during my "Graphic Novel" May term class at GC last year, but never read the whole book. No time like the present, right, Craig?)
The Virgen of Juarez (movie based on violent events that occured/occur in Juarez, Mexico)
El Camaron de la Isla + Paco de Lucia (CD, some of the greatest flamenco artists)

Yay. Excuse me while I go read.

more flamenco

2009-02-08T13:48:00.003+01:00

José Cortés. baile.

This was from last night. A ridiculous line-up of musicians led by Rubén Dantas. (or Rubem, in Portuguese?) He's a brazilian artist, most famous for bringing/introducing the Peruvian cajón to the realm of flamenco. (Now considered THE percussion instrument of flamenco.) This video is more traditional flamenco, but the majority of the show was a bit more jazz-y. Artists from all over South America + Australian/Iran, Cuba, Mexico and I don't even remember where-all-else. Kinda ridiculous. There were probably at least 20 musicians in all.

Also, this guy's footwork is amazing. It takes me a while to master really "simple" flamenco steps. This guy? unbelievable.

and the video...

2009-01-25T17:14:00.002+01:00

now shall we see if it works? I think so...

more flamenco

2009-01-25T11:45:00.003+01:00

Have I mentioned that I'm rather in love with flamenco? The sound, the rhythm, the dance, the guitar, the singing, the cajon...basically everything! I just started taking dance classes, we'll see how much I can learn in a few months....
On Thursday I went to a nearby (tango?)bar to listen to some flamenco. The guitarist "Pajarillo" is someone I've seen a few times now, and been introduced to. The singer (not a traditional "flamenco" voice, but quite good) and the man in the purple are brother and sister. This always makes the dynamics more fun, I think... The man on the right playing the cajon (percussion box) is my co-worker at school. He's a history teacher/anthropologist/flamenco enthusiast. We have English conversations every week (practise for him, since next year he has to teach the first level classes in English) and I always feel like I'm getting a free lecture, its great. Sometimes he brings the newspaper and we talk about something to do with current Spanish politics or culture or society, other times we talk about the same in the U.S. Sometimes I get a history lesson on the area--talking about the moors and the christians and the architecture and placement of villages... Other times we talk about music and he teaches me rhythms or shows me youtube videos of great flamenco or other Spanish artists. Its a pretty fun hour out of my week.

Anyway, after this show my friend and I went with this professor to another venue (smokey!) where we watched what I'm going to call a "gypsy jam session." It was awesome. It was a relatively small place and there were not a lot of people there--all part of the flamenco world, its seemed, save for Tamara and me, and they took turns singing, dancing, clapping, (smoking) etc. Everyone just playing and dancing for fun, not performance. I tried to take some videos there but it was super dark and kinda noisy so they turned out very poorly. All in all, though, a fun night.
** I'm not having success in uploading the video... I'll try it in a separate post?**

school days and walking home

2009-01-16T16:34:00.005+01:00

Sometimes I really enjoy the questions that the students ask me in class... The other day I was asked how old I was. 23. Then one of the boys raises his hand and asks: "Are you boyfriend?" No...I am not boyfriend... Had to review how to ask the question, and then answered that no, I do not have a boyfriend. "Are you asking for you or for your friend?" The professor teased him. "For him, for him!" I told one of my other coworkers about it and we had a good laugh imagining me going on a date with this high school boy (who has to be 7-8 years my junior) and him getting carded when trying to buy a drink. Anyway, I've made plenty of much sillier blunders in Spanish, but they are always kind of fun to hear.Also, yesterday I was asked by some of the students if I smoked. I took the opportunity (speaking in Spanish, which I try never to do in class, so they could actually understand me) to say that no, I definitely do not smoke. Smoking is sooo common here, and kids start really young. I explained, too, that I was an athlete, and smoking and sports don't mix. "What sports to you play?" I wished I could have said futbol, because that would have been more impressive to them, but whatever. "I run and play ultimate frisbee (time-out while I explain what "ultimate" is) and climb." Then they all proceeded to tell me that they don't smoke either, which I don't entirely believe, but I hope is true. Or that maybe, just maybe, they might be sliiiightly influenced by me and other people who do not smoke? Anway, it made me feel good to be able to talk about it in a non-lecture format.

And, because it was a day of funny expressions, apprently, while walking home a guy (older) passing me on the street made the comment, "Muy rubia!" um, what? Okay, I get "rubia!" and "hola, guapa!" from time-to-time, meaning "blonde/light person!" or "hey there, beautiful" but... "very blonde?" that was new. Yes, I am very blonde.

Also this bank's holiday message made me laugh. "Happy urban year"? and the other side of the building said, "Happy urban Xmas." So there you have it... Happy urban year, ya'll!

good news for people who love bad news

2009-01-12T16:10:00.002+01:00

That's a song. But I can't remember who sings it. oops. And I just learned that 2 or 3 google searches releases about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle of water. (I can't say I'm too worried about it, actually. Should I be?) anyway, its true that lots of bad stuff is happening these days. Gaza's getting pounded. An indonesian ferry with several hundred people aboard sunk. A Nepalese reporter was "hacked to death." bleck. no good. But there is also good news out there! On a rather small scale (but related to bigger things!) I finally found a little health food store that has all fair trade products. (Including brown sugar, woohoo! But no vanilla, boo! But David Bon. brought me yummy extracto de vainilla de Mexico. so I'm set. ) I'm excited to finish the average joe (hah...) coffee I bought at the super market so that I can go buy fair trade coffee. And now I'm off in search of fresh cilantro to make a yummy sweet potatoe, black bean dish (from Simply in Season, the burritos) because my dear friend Emily sent me the recipe! Yum good food and good friends. Also today is very sunny. And I will go to my second flamenco class. That's right, when I come back I will be pura gitana. pure gypsy. Everyone tells me I look like a gypsy already. (a lie...) And then to the climbing gym. Um, but anyway, I just browsed the BBC homepage to see if I could put up some more good news...um...kind of hard to find. Scientists got some footage of the Solenodon? (Only mammal that can inject venom into prey. Lives on the island of Hispaniola--DR and Haiti.) Yeah, thats about all I got. Plus an advert for the best job in the world, i.e. "island caretaker" on small islands of Australia. If I thought I had any chance of getting it I would apply...

randomies

2009-01-07T17:34:00.004+01:00

Went out for an afternoon walk and tea with a friend yesterday. Here's a view of the Alhambra from a little plaza in which we stopped.

So I used to think that the weather was the Most Boring Topic On Earth. Adults discussed it all the time. I disgusted it. (hah) We vowed as children to Never be so boring. Guess what? I talk about the weather now. This brings me to the awkward place of either admitting that 1. its not so boring after all, or 2. I have become a lame adult and must seek some form of immaturity to counterbalance this terrible fact. Okay, maybe not, but it also leads one to similar thoughts on slightly more important issues. Take my college idealism, for example. We rode our bikes around everywhere, lived on about 10-20 (high end) dollars for food a week, shared cramped spaces with lots of people and tried to avoid the acquistion of material objects. And if acquired, they were probably from the street, the dumpster, the thrift store or a friend. At some point, though, I will probably have my own (or with a husband/family, but lets not get ahead of ourselves here) flat/house, a car, too many material objects, etc. Where is the balance to holding on to those "ideals of youth" (if I may) and "growing up?" Some things I will just come to realize don't make sense anymore in a certain era of my life. But there's part of me that says, yeah, but they COULD still apply, you're just allowing yourself to let them go. hmm...
On a completely unrelated note, I've been getting really yummy green/red peppers in the frutería below my house. They're quite huge and very sweet and juicy. And cheap. Like tangerines... anyway. I was inspired to take a picture the other day. enjoy.

Escocia

2009-01-04T12:58:00.004+01:00

Trying something new, here: a video. I went to Scotland over New Year's and visited some friends from Goshen who have been there for the past 1-2 years studying and working. We had a lovely time wandering about Edinburgh, looking at cool buildings, entering cathedrals, cooking yummy food, eating at pubs, etc. On New Year's Eve Miriam and I hiked partway up Arthur's Seat (sweet rock formation formed by iceburgs that the city has now encompassed) and got comfortable with our warm mulled wine in a thermos and waited for the fireworks. They were shot off officially from the castle and another hill nearby, so we had an excellent view of both. Also little private fireworks which went off at various minutes before and after midnight. Albeit short, it was quite a lovely show. After the fireworks we could here the whole crowd on the street party singing Aud Lang Syne. One of my highlights of the trip, though, was finding this small Swedish band jamming in a tiiiny street (a "close," if you will) while wandering a street festival full of official performances and theatre troupes arranged by the city.

Other highlights were walking out to a little island off the coast when the tide was down and tromping about with Miriam, taking an early morning walk by the river, seeing Rosslyn Chapel and learning about some of the many symbols in it, exchanging backrubs and good conversation with Miriam, yummy curry and other splendid foods, lots of tea and hot chocolate and coffee (and some Guiness and Scottish whiskey and locally brewed beer as well), wearing six layers outside, and playing a frozen game of ultimate frisbee on New Year's day with fun hung-over players from Edinburgh's uni team, Ro Sham Bo. It was a lovely trip, and--though cold-- I really only got rained on once, which is quite impressive. There were even two days when the sun was out for the majority of the day. Apparently I was quite lucky. :) I look forward to hosting Miriam and Chris when they come to do a quick tour of Southern Spain in early February. It was fun to be able to say, "see you in a month!" instead of one of those awful goodbye's where you are not sure when you'll see the other person again.

video killed the telephone

2008-12-27T21:38:00.003+01:00

I just video skyped with my family (niece and nephew included, though I think Darrion was afraid of me and hid under the table?) for an entire hour. Free, because I already have internet. And I got to watch them open presents and they "moved me around" so that I could see things. And held things up to the camera. Then later I watched my mom play (and lose...) memory with Marlea and Darrion. And I saw the house they made out of a refrigerator box. And my brother snuggling with the dog. Dad took pictures of me on the computer. And Kelcie took pictures of other people and then showed them to me on her display screen via the computer. It was all a little ridiculous and mind-boggling, if you stop to think about it. (I mostly didn't.) But I sure enjoyed being almost there. Not as good as the real thing, but a lot better than a quick phone call.
On a completely unrelated note, I've decide that Spain is the New Mexico of Europe. Among other things this means that it is a. warmer and located in the southwest b. has a little of the "wild west" still lingering around c. has cactus and lots of rocks and d. has strange colonial implications/ironies... Also, I happen to like it.

in the time of the holidays

2008-12-26T16:24:00.005+01:00

Today I made cinnamon rolls. They are really yummy. Unfortunately I have no one with whom to share them. All my friends have officially left Granda for the holidays. The other unfortunate thing about this is that I am also leaving in two days, and cannot possibly consume a dozen sugary rolls between now and then. So, I guess I'll have to freeze the rest. Also it is not really all that unfortunate that I am leaving soon, because it means holiday in Scotland! One of my friends from Goshen (Miriam Loh) has been there for the past.. 2 years? studying at the U of Edinburgh. So we're going to hang out and probably do some festive thing over New Year's because they have a huge street party and fireworks and music and such there every year. It shall be fun. The best part is that flying round-trip plus bus tickets to and from the airport (it was cheaper from the airport 2 hours away) cost around 100 U.S. dollars. Go Europe. Anyway, Christmas was rather tranquil here. I made myself a really yummy pizza with fresh mushrooms (I mean, its not turkey, but, whatever) and went to midnight mass in the cathedral with a friend. Then we went to her house, snacked, toasted to Christmas, and went to bed. The next day we lazed around and then she packed up her bags to go to Paris. Its actually been kind of nice to have the house to myself a bit (my housemates are in their respective homes) and I've been cooking and baking a lot. Also did some art. The weather has also been lovely. Sunny and warm, just like it should be. And just to prove it to you, I'll leave you with a picture of David and I in front of a lovely orange tree. besos, and Feliz (late) Navidad to all. so.. happy Boxing day? And New Year's. and 3 Kings day. And Christmas later, if you're not on the Gregorian calendar... and... the end. :)

lost in translation

2008-12-19T10:28:00.002+01:00

[for English version, see below]

Voy a hacer algo divertido. Escribo en castellano, y cuando termino, pongo todo dentro de una ventana en Google translator a ver qué sale. Si no crees que es importante tener una persona viva que traduce tu trabajo, pues puede ser que este va a cambiar tu opinión. A ver. Un pequeño resumen de los últimos días. El fin de semana pasado, fui a Huelva y Punta Umbría en la costa, cerca de Portugal para otro torneo de frisbee. Fue muy pero muy divertido. Estaba con amigos de antes y también personas nuevas. La mayoria de España y Portugal, como no era un torneo muy grande, pero también había personas de Alemanía y Suiza. Quizás más, pero no me acuerdo. Hizo buen tiempo con la excepcion del domingo cuando llovió y pasamos un poco de frio. Pero el sabado y lunes (como era puente, o fiesta) hizo muy buen tiempo. my bañé en el oceano, aunque era muy frio. Pero... estaba allí, y fue necesario. ;) Este semana llegó un amigo mio de la universidad a visitar una semana. (David Bontrager, para los que le conocen.) Es divertido tener alguien de Goshen aquí, pero tambien una mezcla un poco raro de mis dos mundos. :) Lllegó sin su maleta, asi que teníamos que llamar, llamar, llamar y por fin (2 días luego) quedar con el chico de AirEuropa en el centro de la ciuadad a recoger la maleta. Intenté conseguir algo de compensación para David (aunque no tuvo que comprar otras cosas, solo fue un pequeño inconveniente) pero no tuve éxito. Da igual. Bueno, entonces hoy vamos a hacer algo de turismo y tomar el sol, porque hace muy buen día. Y ahora: la traduccion!

* I'll put little comments in brackets *

I'm going to do something fun. I write in Castilian, and when finished, put everything inside a window on Google translator to see what comes out. If you do not think it is important to keep a person alive who translates your work, as it may be that this is going to change your opinion. Let's see. A short summary of recent days. Last weekend, I went to Huelva and Punta Umbria on the coast near Portugal for another tournament frisbee. But it was very fun. She [I] was with friends before and also new people. Most [people were] of Spain and Portugal, as it was not a very big tournament, but there were also people from Germany and Switzerland. Perhaps more, but I do not agree. He made good time [the weather was nice] with the exception of Sunday when it rained and we had a little cold. But the Saturday and Monday (as was the bridge, or feast [bridge is what they say when they extend a weekend holiday to a weekday. or fiesta]) did a very good time. my bathe in the ocean, but it was very cold. But ... was there, and it was necessary. ;) This week a friend of mine came from college to visit a week. (David Bontrager, for those who know him.) It's fun to have someone here from Goshen, but also a bit strange mixture of my two worlds. :) He arrived without his suitcase, so I had to draw, draw, draw [call, call, call] and finally (2 days later) left [met up] with the boy AirEuropa in the center of town to collect the bag. I tried to get something to compensate for David (though he did not have to buy other things, was only a small drawback) but I was not successful. Never mind. Well, then today we're going to do something for tourism and sunbathing, because it makes very good day. And now: the translation!

* really not as bad as I was expecting! But I also was more careful in my Spanish writing than I usually am...* :)

la otra tierra del encanto

2008-11-29T12:32:00.009+01:00

The last two weekends I have been out in the mountains doing a university course on rock climbing. um, AWESOME. The first weekend we went up into the Sierra Nevadas. Walked through the snow to this gorgeous cliff, and set up. Climbed all day, and went back to the university-owned lodge to sleep. Also we saw a mountain goat, perfectly silhouetted on the rocks on our way back. Next day, same thing, though a different rock face. Did I mention that it was incredibly beautiful? It was. Also the group was really fun, and, as I am coming to expect now, very international. People from all over Europe. I guess its hardly "international" now... its just...Europe! Well, that could be argued either way. Anyway, I always enjoy it. Talking to Germans, Italians, Austrians, Spaniards, French people, etc. (Why do we not have a better name in English for people from France? or do we?) Next weekend we went to a place closer to Granada (Alpujarras). It looked like New Mexico. I got to do my first partner climb. The instructor climbed up first and set the rope. I followed and then another girl as well. When we all got up to the first "reunion," meeting, we tied ourselves in, pulled the ropes up and did it again. We had a total of three reuniones...And were waaaay up. It was spectacular. Then we repelled down. Three times. Sweet. So I'm learned all the knots and tools for this kind of thing. I love it. Also, I learned a lot of climbing vocab in Spanish, which was fun. My favorite is climbing shoes: pies de gato. Literally, "cat feet!" The last day we went to a place down south, near the coast. Also could have been New Mexico. More fun climbing, and afterward we drove to the beach and watched the sunset, drank a beer/coffee/tea (your choice). Played in the water, wrestled, pinky-wrestled, did gymnastics, etc. This week some of us got together at one of the guys' house for a potluck meal. Good times. I guess that can be my Thanksgiving meal. :)

more on daily life...

2008-11-13T22:10:00.003+01:00

as per request, since I tend to write about the more exciting things I do...

a regular work day for me might go something like this:
7:30 get up, eat b-fast, etc.
8:30 30 min. walk to bus stop (often listening to music and dodging dog-poop on the sidewalks...)
9:00 bus to pueblo: Alhendín. (I've realized that I kind of use this time as "quiet time" or thinking time. I am noticeably irritated when I meet one of the other teachers and have to make small talk at the bus stop and throughout the ride. It was the same in Goshen, actually, when I met people on the trolley on the way to Elkhart. It was fun seeing people, but I actually preferred to let my mind wander...)
9:30 first class or conversation. If it is a class, it can be with any grades (high school-ish age). If it is a conversation, its with a professor who is signed up to be in the bilingual program and next year will need to give classes in his subject area in English. At least to the incoming first years. At first I thought these conversations would be very hard to sustain throughout the year... an hour of conversation was difficult at first. They've become quite interesting, however, with some of the profs. Particularly with one who is very interested in flamenco music (and plays the cajon!) He is also very well educated and passionate about history, anthropology, archaeology, etc. So really, I've started getting free lectures on these topics, and he practises the vocab, etc. in English. Good deal. Also, I learned one of the flamenco 12 beat rhythms from him the other day, and practise it while I walk places... :) On Monday I took my menno hymn. book to show to the music teacher. He really liked it and we sang a few hymns in the teacher's lounge, much to the delight (and no doubt amusement) of some of the other teachers. So I've been getting to know the other teachers in the school better, and its quite enjoyable. (Particularly the very animated Lit. teacher who calls me the Brazilian Dancer... not sure why... and is in my Wednesday evening English class-- separate from normal school stuff.) Developing relationships with the students is somewhat harder. Since I only have each class once a week (there are 2 or 3 classes in every grade), I don't see them often. This is good, because my presence is still interesting to them (I think) but bad because it makes it harder to get to know them (and learn their names! which was one of my first goals... going slowly...) I have anywhere from 2-4 classes/conversations each day. Sometimes I have an hour in between (which usually consists of having a café with one or several other teachers in the school cafeteria).
12:30/1:30 bus back to Granada
1:30/2:30 lunch time
afternoon: if sunny, read a bit in park. If cold/cloudy, siesta.
later: go running. sometimes around the university, sometimes through various streets-- a fun way to explore the city. shower, then supper.
rest of the evening probably spent on the computer.

This is "normal" day, which doesn't often happen. That is to say, there is often something going on in the evening, or I go on a walk with a friend (like tonight...went "shopping" but only bought tea. dried mint, mmm!) Or, some random friend of a friend needs a place to say and I am hostess. Also, there are a few of us here in Granada who play ultimate (and surely more, if we find them) and we are trying to organize a team. Our main problem is the lack of proper fields. i.e. grass. most of the futbol fields are dirt or cement. hmm.. But, it sure would be nice to have a group of people to play with, and something other than running to get a good work-out. Every time I go by the futbol fields I want to play. But there are only guys playing. Seriously, never seen a girl/ girls' team. Which is not normally an obstacle for me, but there is the fact that I don't actually play futbol so much... It would be fun to learn, but these guys have teams and probably aren't too keen on teaching me.

Anyway, so my schedule is quite nice, really. And its only four days a week. I never work on Fridays. (I know, I know...enjoy it while it lasts!!)

The picture is the Sierra Nevadas all beautifully covered in snow. View from the train station, early evening/sunset.

more beach ultimate for Lindsy

2008-11-08T13:40:00.005+01:00

Last weekend was the Porró open, a hat tourney near Barcelona (now in its eleventh year). I paid way too much money and went. Had a fantastic time. European ultimate is pretty different from US...mostly in how international it is, I suppose. There were people there from Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, France, England, Germany, Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Colombia, and who knows where else. :) I love it. We mostly spoke in English, because that is the language that almost everyone speaks, but all the other languages were flying around on the side, being translated-to, etc. I just love it. And after every game, the teams get together and do high-fives/kisses and then huddle together. Someone from each team speaks about the game, playing, the sportsmanship, etc. and if there is time a silly little game is often played, as well ("Bear, Ninja, Hunter," and interactive version of "rock, paper, scissors," for example). Good times, good times. We didn't have too great of weather, and it rained every day. :( The sun did come out on Saturday, though and we had several matches in beautiful weather by the beach. Sunday morning rained and even hailed a bit and we had to cancel the first games (so we played a song & clapping game to determine winners). The semi-finals and final were played out, though, and after a full three-day weekend tournament (fiestas every night, of course) I was drained. Went back to my friend's house in Barcelona and crashed. The next morning I got up at 4 to catch my flight back to Granada, and took two buses to get straight to work. I spent all week trying (and failing) to catch up on sleep, but now that its the weekend again, I've finally accomplished it. (Only to get called by a friend in Barcelona to come play in the Liga Española!!! Spanish nationals this week... I wish I could, but I really can't afford it, and I need the rest. I guess I'll have to settle for salsa dancing.) :) foto #1: sidelines, Belgian girl and two Portuguese from my team + dog from Madrid. foto #2: blurry picture of the mountains from my bus ride to school. foto #3: my lil' school

poverty/ la pobreza

2008-10-15T18:53:00.002+02:00

some thoughts on the subject, not clearly organized:

This morning I woke up with a bit of a sore throat, a stuffy nose and a wanna-be cough. Ick, I thought. It was dark outside, and I had no desire to get ready for work and walk to the bus station. I'll make oatmeal and drink tea for breakfast, I thought. At least its warm. When the oatmeal was ready I reached for my sugar and remembered !no brown sugar! They only white and raw here (I found this out when buying ingredients for cookies). Humph. And then I thought, that's it. I have no idea what it's like to be hungry. I'm complaining about not having sugar of the right consistency to add to my bowl of cereal. How pathetic. Pathetic in that I am so blessed and could even be annoyed at such a tontería, silly little thing. But now what? I realize I am extremely fortunate. What do I do about it? I went through a very idealistic phase in high school and part of college where I kind of thought I should give up the majority of my material possessions (to the "level of marginal utility" meaning to the point where giving more to alleviate suffering would cause me to suffer, and thus not solve any problems). I've kind of drifted from this idea, but not because I've somehow justified my life/lifestyle. I've come to realize that I should use my privilege for good somehow, not feel guilty about it and disown it, because others do not have the option. So what is left now is to do something with my privilege. Do something with my education. With my experiences in the world. So after this year of teaching English (hardly to suffering people for whom this will open a huge opportunity for work)... what will I do? And if I don't work for an organization that directly works toward reducing poverty/suffering... is that okay, too? Probably. It is probably okay to live, and love others, and do things of service in less "direct" ways. But I don't want to convince myself out of thinking its important. There is a lot of suffering in the world, and much of it needless. Maybe I will work to improve trade laws, so that small farmers in Latin America do not need to sell their land and move to a city to work in a factory. Maybe I will work with immigrants in the U.S. who must learn to speak English in order to survive in our society. Maybe I will teach in a school and work to inspire others to look beyond the simple things they see around them. For now, I will continue to think about these issues (and welcome any conversations on the topic!) and put white sugar in my oatmeal, being grateful that I have food to eat, among many, many other blessings. Have a great day, and don't pass up the opportunity to help someone out or simply take a few minutes to be grateful for what you have. Besos to you all.

afternoon arriba

2008-10-14T19:06:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I got a text message from Mustafa, a Morracan guy I'd met while waiting in line at the Comiseria de Policia (another story altogether about how I am still trying to obtain my foreigner ID number...) He was going on a hike with his housemates (an Italian and a Canary Islander) and asked if I wanted to come. I decided I was only going to go if I could convince someone else to come with me, because I didn't know him all that well. Just so happens Maya, the girl I work with, came in to Granada for the day, and was game to go along. [While walking around with her earlier we passed the Cathedral where there were stands of spices...gorgeous! I lowered myself to "tourist" status and took pictures... it was a holiday and there were a lot of tourists about anyway, and, lets face it...I'll never look like I'm from here...] So we met up in a plaza in the afternoon and headed up the hill beside the Alhambra. Walked up a beautiful wooded path, and then crossed a bunch of parking lots and lines of people waiting to get into the Alhambra. Then across some fields (private?) And up a hill. I mean up. None of this follow-the-little-paths-to-switch-back-up... But once we got up! What a great view! Although it was very hazy and cloudy (the weather here has been very strange lately, and the air kind of dirty-- "desert winds from Africa") so the mountains weren't as clear as they normally are. Then we walked down and up again, to the next ridge (bush-wacking the whole way...) There was much more wind (and menacing clouds to the south) and the dirt was red, red. And I could see fields of olive trees and look over on the whole of Granada. And the monastary of Sacramonte. Quite a lovely time. Getting off that ridge was a rather steep descent, and reminded me of trails in New Mexico. Once we got back into the city we sat and rested on a rock wall and chatted a bit, and Mustafa invited us to go drink tea at their house. Tea to him is a very sweet, strong mint ("not mint! its different!") tea, brewed on the stove in a cute little metal pot and served in decorated glass .. vases? cups? with sweets he stuffed in his suitcase and brought from home. All made with Almonds. Quite tasty. We got rather wet on the way to their house, but enjoyed out tea and when the rain stopped, Maya and I headed out again, she to catch a bus to go home, and me to walk. (I got rained on again.) It was a fun afternoon, and hopefully only the first of my outdoor explorations/adventures.

teaching/learning

2008-10-10T22:30:00.002+02:00

I officially started working at the school this week. There is another girl working there as well, from Belgium. Our time is split between the English classes with the students and conversations with professors of other subjects, who need to be able to give the classes in English next year, or the year after. The school entered a bilingual program and beginning next year, the students who enter from the primary school will also have been in the program. I like the classes pretty well. The kids actually seem pretty interested and attentive so far (more so than I expected). I've enjoyed rephrasing things, using hand motions, drawing pictures, etc. in order for them to understand what I'm saying. The conversations with the professors are somewhat more difficult. I think I will start working more on specialized vocabulary with them about their area of study-- History, Math, etc. There also seems to be some interest in the pueblo, with the other teachers, or with friends of people at the school who might like classes or private lessons in English. Maybe I'll do some lessons some afternoons and use the money to take Flamenco lessons or something... :)
The other night I went in search of a bar that has flamenco shows every week. After turning down a tiny street, following a graffiti-type sign around the corner and down some small steps, I found the door. It was closed, as it was early evening (siesta time), but they had information about the shows. Sunday nights they have live flamenco or jazz music. Not free, which is of course always what I look for, but I'll probably go anyway. Afterward I decided to do some exploring and walked upwards toward the mountain. (Granada is built at the edge of the mountains.) I took tiny streets, meticulously built and patterned with small stones. Up stairs, around corners. Looking into tiny yards and over tile roofs. The view got better and better, but I didn't stop until I couldn't get any higher. I sat on a wall, one leg dangling over someone's patio, 15 feet below. I could see a good portion of the city: the train station, part of the cathedral, buildings of the university, the main street that runs through the center. It was helpful for orientation. And the mountains... have I mentioned that I love mountains? The sun was just setting, and the evening light was, as always, gorgeous. I sat there for some time, just feeling the breeze and watching the sky. Then I got up and explored the plaza I could see from the wall. The bars were setting up their tables and chairs for the evening tourist crowd, and I walked to the other end, where there was a church. I was hoping it was open and I could take a peek inside, but the heavy wooden doors were shut firmly. So I stepped to the other side of the street and did a quick sketch of the entrance, doors and molded sculptures overhead. I could see that the light was turning more red, so I rushed back to my perch on the wall, now also occupied by several other people. I took a picture of a German (?) family and then turned my attention back to the sky. As soon as the sun disappeared, it got several degrees colder. I stayed a little longer, and then began my windy way down the hill toward home. These are the things I must always remember to do, I thought. Partway home I saw that people were entering a church, and decided to follow. It was evening mass, and the church smelled of candles. But the first thing I noticed was GOLD! Some of the altars built during the baroque era have a lot of gold. A little too gaudy for me, but this one... it was just overwhelming. I wasn't sure what to look at, and I had more than a little trouble with depth perception, everything all shiny and reflective. Intense. I stood in the back and listened to some of the litany, and fumbled my way through part of the Our Father. but didn't stay long. As I exited, the woman who was begging at the door I entered had switched and was now begging at the other door. I guess begging should be another entry entirely... maybe for blog action day: POVERTY. (oct. 15, thanks, Kimberly).
In other news, Maya, the Belgian girl, stayed with me last night (She lives in our pueblo, so if she wants to do anything in Granada at night, she can't get home) and we went to a small latino bar/discoteca. Danced salsa, merengue and bachata, and had a blast. I'll definitely go back. There was even a guy there trying to direct a group in the Rueda Cubana (group salsa dancing), and I recognized some of the moves from dancing with people at Goshen. There were several really good dancers there, and I loved watching them. Feet, hips, bodies, hands, and faces. Dancing, dancing, dancing.

bit o' an update

2008-10-02T20:12:00.002+02:00

So, where to start? My last day in Barcelona was a great one-- I went to a Castellers event, at which the batteries in my camera died after two pictures. alas, I cannot show you the tower in all its glory of 7 or so levels. But, it was incredible. At the end, they send two kids (with helmets) to the very top, they (sometimes) pose for a few seconds, before starting their descent back down...practically sliding the whole way down, arms around the bodies of their fellow castellers. They also did towers of one per level. And even sent two girls up a rope to a balcony (see video, found on Youtube: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=UWFufkeyBBI ) Anyway, quite impressive. In the evening I went to the FC Barcelona vs. Betis game at Camp Nou... awesome!! I went with they guy I was staying with, and some of his friends. Going to a futbol game was one of the things I was very sad about not doing last year when I was there, so I was pretty content. :) After the game, we went to the end of the Merce celebration fireworks, which they set off to music. In front of a huge fountain with colored lights. I went last year and was very impressed. We barely got to see the grand finale, because we were late and there were SO many people there. Incredible. The next day I flew to Granada and caught a bus into the city, where a friend of a friend picked me up. I stayed with him for 3 days, all the while looking for housing, calling numbers, looking at flats ("pisos") and continuing to live out of my suitcases. Sunday I moved in to my new home, which I share with a Spanish guy and a French girl who is here on an exchange program. Hopefully I can learn some french. I don't think there will be much common cooking, which makes me sad after sharing meals with four lovely ladies who cook very well last year... (miss ya'll!!) Its sad to buy groceries for just yourself. I've met a fair amount of people here, and gone out a few times with people, but so far don't really feel like I have "friends." I guess it's only been a week. :)
I went to my school, though, and met all the teachers and the other language assistant who will be working there (from Belgium). Should be fun. The bus to Alhendín takes only about 15-20 minutes, but the stop is about 25-30 minutes walking from my house. Which is fine. I could take a bus if need be, but, I like walking. I had thought originally that perhaps I could buy a bike to get to my school, but I see now that it would be rather dangerous...It's not just a straight rode, but has lots of roundabouts and doesn't seem too bike friendly. So I'll stick with the bus and walking. The last picture is my team, Peixets C"riminales." i.e. there were three teams from Peixets (Barcelona team) at the tournament, so we split into three groups. C became Criminales. It was a fun day. Its a good time to be 22 and living in Spain.

oranges.

2008-09-30T18:07:00.002+02:00

So today I bought some peaches and some juice oranges from a stand on the street. they were pretty cheap, and I love fruit. When I got home, I realized that my oranges were from South Africa. South Africa?! Hm, not so great. They have to travel a long way, which means they are 1. not fresh, 2. cost of lot of money to transport, and 3. probably were not obtained for their value. i.e. bought really cheaply. So I thought, maybe next time I'll pay a little more, and buy oranges from Spain, or somewhere a little closer. But then I thought... hmm.. For a long time, Europe has had direct trade with a lot of countries in Africa and South America. Now that they've become the European Union, they've put a higher priority on goods produced within the Union. Now, thats good, because its more local, doesn't have to travel as far. And then, countries that can grow/produce things well, do that, and trade for the stuff they can't. Same idea as before, only closer proximity. In general, not a bad idea, for those of us unwilling to minimize our consumption to solely local products. However...what happens to the prior markets? The ones that invested so heavily in monoagriculture or production, because they were told, no, each should do what it can do best. i.e. you grow coffee and you grow bananas, we'll buy from you, and then sell you whatever else you want. But then... the demand goes down. (or the market drops out due to local deals.) Now what do these poor countries do? No one wants their coffee anymore. or their bananas. or their oranges. So they rot. or get sold at a huge loss. And they have nothing else to sell. And they just lost a bunch of money, so they can't invest in other things. So.. they take out loans from... yep, those same big, bad countries (in europe, the U.S.) who told them to grow those things in the first place. Maybe the loan will help. or maybe its very conditional. and is only for growing, say, corn. Which doesn't grow there. But its ok, because look how much foreign aide we sent! yay! Hm... Clearly a very complicated issue. I'll have to research European trade, particularly with Africa, because I know a lot less about it than with Latin America. What other market does South Africa have? Besides diamonds, which are all owned by a company (maybe two or three) in London... Ah, international trade.

Barcelona, take II

2008-09-20T23:10:00.006+02:00

Have I mentioned that I love this city? I've been here 2 or 3 days, I'm not really clear on time right now.. And I've been to the beach three times, seen a peruvian documentary, been at two concerts, eaten tapas and drank claras (half beer, half lemonade), played ultimate, gone dancing, met new people (from all over-- barcelona, chile, colombia, switzerland, england...), visited my favorite cathedral in the city (Santa Maria del Mar), visited my host mom from last year, had cafe con leche and a chocolate croissant, and walked around the city a lot. Also today I borrowed the bici (bike) of the guy i'm staying with and rode around a lot. Its a good city for biking--lots of bike paths and/or wide sidewalks. At first my Spanish felt really awkward, but its getting better quickly, and I'm falling back into a Castilian/Catalan accent. Of course, I'll have to learn a new one in Granada... I'll be so mixed up in accents by the end of all this.. Oh well. Tomorrow I'm going to Tarragona to play in a beach ultimate tournament with my old team. Should be a good time, I'll try to take pictures. Unfortunately tomorrow is the day they do the Castellers (human towers) for the festival, which I won't get to see, but I guess you can't have (quite) everything... :) Anyway, I'm having a great time and looking forward to the year. I also have a few contacts in Granada, now--none that I've actually met yet--which makes it seem a lot easier. I have a place to stay while I look for housing and someone who wants to start an ultimate team in Granada. Also a friend of a friend from Georgia (the country) and some random exchange student from the U.S. whose blog I found while doing a google seach for things like "granada spain ulimate frisbee." Ah the internet. Okay, this is very rambly. But suffice it to say, I am well, and I hope all is well with you, too. I really do heart hearing from you! emails, skype, letters (once i have an address), whatever. okay, bed time. besos a todos.
p.s. photo credits go to Kelcie. She took this when visiting last Christmas.

land of enchantment

2008-09-09T21:46:00.005+02:00

summary of my weekend:
fri: drive to South Bend, catch train to Chicago. Haul 2 rollers and 2 backpacks (one on the front: hot.) around downtown to pick up my visa for Spain. Catch public transit to Midway airport (including hauling all crap up 2 flights of stairs... do they not believe in elevators?? If you're in a wheelchair...you... take a taxi?) Fly to Denver. Meet up with sister and her boyfriend, Nate. Fly on same plane with Nate to Albuquerque, meet up with parents. Wait for Kelcie. Make Juevos Rancheros in the camper. Drive to polo field in the middle of the desert outside of Santa Fe and camp for the night.
sat: hang around while Kelcie and Nate start warming up for the tourney, throw a disc around. Some guys from a Santa Fe/Española team desperately needed women. (i.e. their 2 didn't show.) So I ended up playing in the tournament with a strange mix of people, ages 22-50. Three of the men on the team are sikhs and wear turbans. One guy (my age-ish) brought a banjo to play between games, and we all hung out and had a lot of fun. Since out team only had 2 women, we both had to play all 7 games on friday. And this tournament was called "Savage 7777777." Which means you play 7 games to 7. 7 people on the field, of course. No subs. One injury sub if needed and one time out, if needed, per game. It was pretty exhuasting. Afterward we went to the roller rink that was rented out for the tourney and ate some yummy enchiladas and watched other people rollerblade around. I didn't have the legs for that.
sun: wake up sore, go out to the fields again, play 3 more games. Hang out and watch Kelcie and Nate's last game and a half. Watch the finals. good times. And did I mention that it was beautiful weather (if a bit more wind at times than desired)? It was gorgeous. mountains.sun.warm. ah, New Mexico. Took Kelcie and Nate back to the airport in ABQ and went to stay with some family friends.
mon: do some gross shopping in ABQ, drive home. gorgeous.
tues: watch a storm roll through over the mountains. admired the parents' garden. go get books from the library. make yummy food. I should be a chef in a New Mexican restaurant, no? ;) its good to be home. I guess our self-named motto of "land of entrapment" is holding pretty true.

606

2008-08-24T23:53:00.003+02:00

So today was my last sunday at Benton Mennonite Church, my home-at-college church. Its been quite a great place for me, and I've been realizing this summer just how much the people mean to me--and how very sad I will be to leave it behind. At least, as I promised several people today, I'll be back next August because some dear friends are getting married in Goshen then. As one last request from my Benton family (as if they haven't fed me, talked to me, given me rides, counseled me, prayed for me, and generally supported me enough already) I asked that we sing 606. I knew it would be not only my last Sunday there for a long time, but probably my last Sunday at a Mennonite church for about a year. [For those non-mennos out there, "606" is a 3-page long, 4-part harmony praise hymn elevated to quasi-holiness by our singing standards. And 606 is the number in the old Mennonite hymnal. "Praise God from whom all blessings flow."] So instead of the planned benediction, the worship leader had everyone turn toward me (a little strange at first, but very powerful, and it sounded amazing) and sing. Most people didn't use the hymn books, even-- we all have it memorized. The bench beside me was vibrating from a few strong basses, and I could hear each part, beautifully swelling about each other. It may or may have made me cry a bit. Afterward so many people came up to me to hug me, kiss me, wish me luck, give me their blessing, wish God's blessing on me, thank me for requesting the song, because it was so beautiful and so much fun to sing and hear. Several elderly people gave me hugs and told me how much they've enjoyed having me come to Benton, even if they didn't speak with me often. I felt more love and more loved all at once than I have in a long time. We then had a good Sunday school and an fantastic Bolivian-food pot-luck congregational meal. It was the best last-Sunday that I could have hoped for. Like Emily (housemate, now in Denver) said... why am I leaving? ... I guess I am leaving because I have an amazing opportunity ahead of me, and because leaving one beautiful, amazing community does not mean that others do not await me in other times and places of life. But Benton, thank you for everything. I love you. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Amen.

había una vez...

2008-07-24T04:05:00.004+02:00

once upon a time...
there was a girl. this girl liked to travel. she loved seeing new places, and new things. she was not very good at holding still. especially if she had to sit in one spot, and not move for a long time. this is what happed to the girl today. she had to sit for many hours in a car, then a train, then a train again and then a car again. she did this, though, because she needed to go somewhere to turn in some very important papers. she went to a consulate, which is when one country has an office in another country. the consulate tells people if they are allowed to go visit or live in that other country for a period of time. this is what the girl wanted to do: she wanted to travel far across the ocean to another country, called spain. she wanted to go there to live for a while, and help other people learn her language. she also wanted to become better at the language they speak there, which is spanish, because it is one thing to be able to speak and understand another language, which she can do, and quite another to be able to quickly switch back and forth between two languages, and help other people understand what is being said, even if they do not understand the language. this is something this girl might want to do, but she has to practise a lot to be good. so today the girl went to a big city, and turned in some papers to the consulate, along with a good deal of money, because thats just the way those sorts of things work. then she had a little bit of time before she had to get back on the train to go home. she wandered around in a park and heard a very peculiar sound. it was the sound of music, coming from somewhere in the park. she kept walking, until she realized that the music was coming from a very big and very pretty stage. it looked like a big sculpture--all silver and twisty. and underneath, all the people were singing or playing pretty instruments, and all doing different things, but making a very nice sound, because they were all watching one person, who told them when to do what things. He is called the conductor, because he conducts the orchestra and the choir. trains also have conductors, she thought, but she didn't get to see the conductor on her train, just a man collecting money for tickets. he was very nice, though, and she thought how nice it is when people are cheerful and helpful instead of sad or angry. the girl did not stay long, however, because she did not want to be late for the train, so she walked back to the station, and bought a big, yummy cinnamon roll to eat on the way home. it is nice to be able to travel places, even if you don't own a car, she thought. but it also meant she had to get up very early to catch the train, and so she was very sleepy by the end of the day. perhaps she should go to bed early, because tomorrow is another day.

sketchy business

2008-06-04T20:07:00.002+02:00

On Sunday I walked down the street to a nearby house. I don't know any of the current residents, or at least, I don't know who's living there presently; I guess I might know some of them. I walked in the front door, heard some music playing upstairs, but continued to walk through the house to a little nook off of the living room area. I placed my week's money in the collection box, marked my name off (actually the name of a friend who no longer lives in town...) and took my supplies from their storage area. Walked out of the house, and down the street to home. No one in the house ever knew I was there, or cared, I'm sure. Another note to mention is that I don't know the suppliers, and they don't know me. I don't know very many of the other buyers. Its a completely honor-based system. But fairly efficient.
Are you curious yet? Want to know what I bought? Milk. Fresh, whole, raw milk and free-range farm-eggs. Someone picks up a load of said items from a farm each week, and various people have signed up to buy them, but have to go pick them up from a specified location. The humor of it just caught me this week, and I wanted to share it.

sunny day at home

2008-05-28T21:10:00.005+02:00

I've spent way too much of the day inside, and mostly on my computer. BUT. I've gotten a lot done. A lot of things I've been putting off because of busy-ness.

Thus far accomplished today:
~got health insurance
~cleaned fans in my computer
~labeled misc. music in my files
~downloaded email archive from goshen account
~backed up various files and music
~got interview for job at Optical One (tomorrow)
~worked in garden: planted corn, re-planted cucumbers, watered all

Yet to do today:
~read something for fun
~write letters to friends on SST
~make card for family of dear, deceased friend
~organize desk?
~hang out with friends

Sounds good. Maybe I'll even do some art. I haven't painted or drawn in ages. Well, off the computer! I'll leave you with a random picture I find while browsing. Perfect. A gorgeous picture of Barcelona, taken by the friend of a friend. I think it's taken from Tibidabo, the old monastery on the edge of the city, up a mountain. Looking east-ish toward the sea.

no, Simon and Garfunkel, the theatre is NOT really dead!

2008-04-25T06:27:00.002+02:00

Watched "My Name is Rachel Corrie" at the GC Theater tonight. Quite the compelling show--about a woman who was killed by a bulldozer in Palestine because she was standing between it and the house it was about to demolish. So many thoughts and questions that came out of that, but I didn't get a chance to write them down immediately following the performance (because of a talk-back session and then helping out with the strike/ load up of the traveling set) and I think many of them are gone, now, or at least numbed down a bit. Thats too bad.
But a general question about activism and what I want to do with the rest of my life (common theme). What things would I be willing to die for? Am I even willing to die for things? What are ways that I can help with situations like the Israeli/Palestinian conflict without going there? One of the suggestions was simply to talk to people. I think I need to become more informed about the conflict and world events in general. I've been saying that for a long time. I've done a bit better this past year, but its still not to a level that I'd like it to be. Also, the power of story was demonstrated well with this production. Its not everyone's "call" to go be activists. Maybe being a theatre artist is what you want to do, and what you're good at. And with that, you can tell stories that make people laugh and cry. So basically it gets back to me not knowing what it is that I want to do, and not really knowing what I'm good at. I have too many interests to really want to focus on one thing. Maybe I don't have to.
But, if I want to write: I have to write. I've got to put down words, even if they aren't part of a coherent story or poem or essay. I've just got to write.
If I want to be an architect, I've got to study more. I've got to figure out how things work. Figure out how things look, and how to make them look like I want.
If I want to work with immigration, or refugees, I've got to find a place to start. Goshen has some of those opportunities...how should I get involved?
If I want to rock climb, I've got to climb! Got to get in better shape, and build those forearm muscles.
If I want to dance, I've got to find a place to take lessons. Learn the steps, learn the music. Learn the movements.
If I want to ramble away in a blog entry, I've already got it covered. Time for bed.

college is... over?

2008-04-21T06:07:00.004+02:00

Not quite, but its winding down. I keep having these moments -- standing around the kiln during the wood firing talking, roasting hot dogs, and listening to Latin music; hacky-sacking in the lawn; watching choir and performing arts series concerts in the music center; eating cornbread at friends' houses at midnight, having a picnic by the dam, making bad puns in the living room with my house mates-- and I think, "this will all end soon!" Which isn't true, of course, because after graduation, I will still have May term. And After May term I will still have summer. And all these things will kind of be a gradual shift into the next phase of my life. Slowly my friends and I will disperse, maybe by ourselves, maybe in clumps. But close friendships can last. And new friendships can form. And I have to remind myself that just because people tell you that college years are some of the best--and you believe them--doesn't mean that life after college sucks. Its what you make it, I guess. Just like everything else. cliché, cliché. So here's to college, and friends, and moments that last longer than the stress of finals.

In the Time of the Butterflies

2008-03-18T01:58:00.002+01:00

So, that book has nothing to do so much with this entry. Its just that when I clicked on the title space, a bunch of options came up from previous titles. I think this was probably from a paper? Anyway, I wish it were the time of the butterflies, because its COLD and SNOWY and GROSS. We had this few-day tease of beautiful sunshine and warm weather. (I played ultimate outside twice! And got quite muddy...) Its amazing how intensely the weather affects my mood.
This weekend I remembered that I liked to write. Because I don't have enough quasi-hobbies as it is... and Anne Lamott (writer) says that you've got to just write. write, write, write, if you want to write. (not a quotation.) It kinda makes sense... So here I am, putting off my reading homework, putting off the million things that I need to do, and even putting off sleep! in order to write something. Even if its just a useless ramble about writing itself. One must start somewhere.
I also had a conversation with a classmate about architecture. He's an art major, with plans to go to architecture school after graduating from Goshen. Sometimes I wish I would have done that. But, I guess that would mean that I wouldn't have gone to Spain. And wouldn't have seen so much cool architecture there. In the mean time, though, while I lackadaisically ponder opportunities for my future, I should find something to do for the next few months (well, okay, once summer starts) and then, the next year. No need to plan my whole life. But I should take a shower... then maybe I can settle down to homework. *wink*

its been a while...

2008-02-09T21:25:00.000+01:00

maybe even a couple whiles, since I've blogged. I'm currently sitting in the comfy living room of my cousins' house. Kathy is making yummy soup (to cater to my non-solids post-wisdom teeth extraction diet), Kimberly is taking a nap, and Craig is winning at an Ohio State football video game thingie. Its nice to just sit around and relax, and have an excuse to do so.
The whole "going under" procedure during teeth pulling is really strange. (I asked about gettin it done with just local anesthesia like Kelcie did a month ago, but they said they'd only do one side at a time like that, and who wants to go through that twice?) I wondered if things would just sort of fade out and get blurry and confusing like the only other time I passed out (while donating blood) but they didn't. I didn't really notice ever being out. I was talking and listening to the nurses talk and then I was still listening to them talk, except my teeth were on the little tray table in front of me, and there were more tools than there were before. It was confusing. And then I got up and got nauseous and had to lay back down again. And I got all cold and sweaty, but it was okay, because Kirsten took my pulse the whole time and I looked up and winked at her. And then I felt better and we left. And then I couldn't talk because I had lots of gauze and blood in my mouth. But I have good friends and housemates and they pampered me and I sat around all day and wrote notes to people and put ice on my mouth and did crosswords and su doku's and watched a stand-up comedian video. And then slept. And I feel pretty good today. Which is good, because tonight I get to go to Kimberly's hour after. Which I hear from those who went last night is super-amaaazing (with an eye-roll, Kathy...are you at 7 now?)
Ok, enough about my boring mouth. The semester as a whole is going quite well, though entirely toooo fast! I've been enjoying being around Goshen friends and family again, and my house/housemates are fantastic. Its almost spring break, which is exciting because I'm going home! I and a few friends (2 or 3) are going to road-trip it. Which is kinda silly. But shall be quite fun. So long as we don't get caught in a blizzard in Oklahoma. Which is kind of inevitable, but ideally it will just slow us a down a bit, and nothing more. (My family has had terrible luck with Oklahoma in the past...)
And spring break makes me realize that half of the semester is over and that I really ought to be plotting out the next year or so of my life. Many friends are moving Denver-way, so thats a possibility. Closer to home. Mountains. Sun. Friends. Diverse and interesting place. Sounds promising. A ver.

Back in Goshen

2008-01-16T23:27:00.000+01:00

So I've been back in Goshen, back in school for just over a week now. It feels pretty good. I'm living in the upstairs apartment of a pretty cool (note both senses of the word here apply) old house quite close to campus with 4 fabulous women. We take turns cooking supper and cleaning and shopping. Being back in "normal" school is also nice. I'm having to readjust to the style of teaching (i.e. homework and readings) but I have some interesting classes. I haven't yet started my TESOL field experience, which will most likely consist of assisting in the teaching of English to students at the local high school, or perhaps some one-on-one tutoring sorts of things. I will get busier when this starts...
Sunday I went back to Benton Mennonite, my "home-college" church. It was so beautiful to hear hymns sung in (good) four-part harmony again! Some of my favorites, along with "Be thou my vision," which reminded me of my Grandpa Glick's funeral in which almost all of the Glick grandchildren sang that song. It shocked me to realize that it has been around 5 years since he died.
Keith Graber Miller, one of the Bible, Religion and Philosophy prof.s at Goshen gave a guest-sermon on the importance of scripture, which was quite interesting and relevant to my recent skepticisms of religion in general and the divinity of the word. Good things to think about.
Though, pleasantly, my spanish class does not seem to be too challenging, I will be challenged in some of my other classes, especially, perhaps the intro to Econ. Development (a class which I am only auditing due to lack of space). Today we talked about World Millennium Development Goals from the 2000 UN summit. Interesting. Idealistic and not necessarily feasible, but ... there are possibilities. I hope to learn more.
I'm also reconsidering plans for next year. They originally involved a move to Kansas to live with my sister while she finished up vet school. Living with her might now be post-poned a year with a move to somewhere I find more drawing in its place. I'm up for suggestions or cool opportunities you might hear about. =)

land of enchantment

2008-01-01T06:43:00.000+01:00

yesterday I killed a scorpion in the hallway and kelcie and I sat in the hot tub and looked at the gorgeous stars.

today I went out in the garden and dug up a carrot to eat with my lunch and went on a beautiful walk/hike up a nearby canyon with the sobrinos. Kelcie dyed my hair with henna and we ate at a chinese restaurant. It was a lovely birthday/new years and now its quarter till 11 and I'm going to go to bed. =)

Tomorrow i'm going to read more, cook some yummy food and help dad out on the sawmill?

Break is nice, and so is the New Mexico sun. and our special planet, Pluto. Which is by state legislature, still a planet when it passes over our skies. oh yeah.

home again home again

2007-12-29T18:31:00.000+01:00

A few hours ago Kelcie and I drove up the gravel lane to the house in the early light of morning after watching the mountains emerge out of blackness on our beautiful drive home from Phoenix. And by blackness, I of course mean STARS!!!! amazing. anyway, when I looked at my watch which was still on Spain time, it had been almost exactly 36 hours from when we'd left on a night bus to get to the airport in barcelona yesterday. I got stuck in Chicago's nasty weather and flight fiasco for about 6 hours so when Kelcie got to Phoenix ahead of me she went to our cousin's house to nap before picking me up at about 2 in the morning. She was then ok to drive and we headed straight home. It feels amazing to be home. (Within about 25 minutes of arriving we were making ourselves some yummy green chili juevos rancheros breakfast dishes and snacking on all manner of chocolate covered fruits and pretzels and such...) The last few weeks in Spain were busy-busy with exams and papers then a lovely visit from Kate Harnish who is spending the year in Bradford, England with MVS. She overlapped a few hours with Kim, so we sat in the airport together and had cafes con leche and yogurt. lovely. Then the next day my sister came and we spent several days touring the city. (I am such a good guide..?) Except it was kinda cold and rainy. icky. Then we headed south to Andalucia. Granada and Sevilla. Absolutely beautiful. We also met some really fun people from all over and cooked and walked around with them. Then we returned to Barcelona, swam in the frigid water (I mean, you have to, right?) of the Med. Sea and got up early to come home. A lovely trip. and now I'm even poorer. (and now I'm even poorer, and now I'm poorer still.....) So, it is officially time to relax and catch up on sleep. and yummy food. and my super-awesome family. And reflect about an amazing semester abroad and one last semester to go at Goshen. I'm quite looking forward to it. (except the weather... ill try not to complain too much. actually, maybe I shouldn't make that promise... I prolly will... at least there's tea. and friends. and life in general. ) Well, until I see you, much love, and have a lovely week. slash new year slash remainder of your holiday time. besos.

insignificants. maybe.

2007-12-03T19:32:00.000+01:00

so...i´ve realized something that bothers me about the metro. My sense of direction gets totally screwed over. As much as I try to keep my head straight while going through winding passages and stairs and such, I can´t. And then once you´re in the train and its underground, of course you can´t know where you´re going. So you just have to go in, get out and orient yourself. But you miss everything in between! Of course, they´re fast and efficient and really a good idea for cities. But that doesn´t mean I have to like them. Same goes for my apartment building. I enter on one side wind up the stair s and the balcony looks out over the other side. not hard to understand, but what I don´t understand is how the other apartments work, because I´ve never been inside. I just see where the doors are, and i want to see a floor plan! Silly me.

Hugo Chavez´s referendum didn´t get passed. 51% against, 49 for. This is a rather good thing, I think.

One week left of classes, and then finals. eek, finals? And papers! eek! and then only a tiny bit of time left in spain? que sad! but que awesome to go home!!! (And have kimi and kelcie here for a bit of traveling first!!!!!!) =)

Venezuela

2007-11-30T14:09:00.000+01:00

So, I can´t decide what I think about Hugo Chavez... There are definitely things I like about him, and I think its good to have a strong force in the Americas opposing the U.S. but the whole constitutional changes regarding presidential terms (i.e. making it possible for him to be pres. for life) sound a bit too dictatorial for my likings. Latin America has seen too much of that already. I guess we´ll see what happens with the referendum on Sunday. And I´ll have to read more about him to see his policies and relations with other countries. (He´s quite the buddy of Daniel Ortega, pres. of Nicaragua and has promised financial and development support... which the country needs..but.. I just don´t understand these things well enough!)

more rome pictures!

2007-11-30T12:14:00.000+01:00

And a brief note. The semester is coming to a close. One week of classes, and then finals! How can it be? I think I ask that at the end of each semester. Time goes by sooo fast. Or seems to. Porque el tiempo no cambia, as my friend recently reminded me. (Although...how do we reeeally know? A question for quantum-physicists?) Anyway. This weekend I am attempting to get some work done on a 10 page paper (1.5 spacing? what is that?) for my Union Europea class. And I´m hoping to see a flamenco presentation tonight. And go to Montserrat, this sweet monastery way up in the rocks outside of Barcelona. And go again to the menno church on Sunday. So, baaaasically, still not getting enough studying done. Hope your finals are going well, those of you who are beginning them, and I shall see many of you quite soon. =) (I mean, January... just a touch over a month...) =)

church!

2007-11-26T16:26:00.001+01:00

or ¨turch,¨ as I used to say as a youngen´.
I went to mass once at the beginning of my time here, but other than that have been essentially without attendance to any service (though full of visits to churches and cathedrals). Partially due to travels and other such excuses. Anyway, near the beginning I found the address for the only Mennonite church in Barcelona in a city guide book. But of course, since all I had was the address, I never went, because I didn´t know what time to show up. (9:30 would be a little early in Spain??) Last week I finally searched the interenet and found mention of the service starting at 11 am. So This Sunday, along with the other Mennonite in the group, Dietrich, and the other linds(e) in the group, we made our way to the very outskirts of the city. And when we found the right place, we knew it by the peace-dove sign and wound our way down some stone stairs into a lovely silvan patio. ok, so it wasn´t a woods, but it had more trees than most of the city. Very beautiful. And Mennonite, I thought... We were late, but snuck into the teeny room with around 30 other people sitting along 2 sides. We sang several more worshipy praise songs (no four-part harmony, much to my dismay, though a very talented guitar player) and then moved into the sermon part. Oh, did I mention one of the songs was in Catalan? That was kinda fun. Anyway, the Guy spoke on something he never talks about, he said: Revelations 16 and the wrath/justice of God. Interesting. At the end he made a small comment about much of Revelations being pure gargabe. At least, thats what I understood him to say. =) Afterwards we talked to many of the people in the service and they were all exceptionally nice, as I expected (but we didn´t get asked to lunch at someone´s house...) ;) Turns out the guy who spoke, Dennis Byler, went to Goshen. Knows my parents. ohhhh, what a smalll (menno) world, it is! so, mom and dad: A big hello from Dennis!!! And we also met a girl from Switzerland who is also an exchange student here and so invited her to go with us to a park and to go up to Tibidabo, which is a monestary on the top of the mountain at the edge of Barcelona. We all had a lovely time, and I think I shall return on Sunday.
And now, I´m off to try to find the Faculty of Law so that I can get a book I need for a paper...ugh.
greetings to all, and encouragement to all you goshenites who have a full, most-likely icky 2 weeks ahead of you...

Todos los caminos conducen a Roma...

2007-11-21T15:38:00.000+01:00

Or so they say. I took a plane. It was cold and rainy for much of our 3 day excursion (I went with 3 friends from BCA), but we had a wonderful time despite the weather, and so SO many cool things. Unfortunately, I am having many troubles getting my pictures onto my flash drive. So i only have a few. You´ll have to content yourselves with the colliseum for now... My favorite site/art I think was the Sistine chapel, though... I read an entire book about it my freshman year for JohnD.´s European History class, and unfortunately remember very little. But its incredible. So. I´ve been to Rome now. And I now want to learn Italian. I don´t think it would be too hard. Well, I bet I could learn to understand it quite quickly, and speaking wouldn´t take too much longer, methinks... We had a fun Italian <-> Spanish conversation with a man who worked in a coffee/gelato shop.
Tomorrow we a have a Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant with the other students in the program. Should be fun, and I´m excited for it, but I do miss you all, and look forward to coming back and seeing family and friends. Enjoy your thanksgivings and long weekends and whatever activities you do!

even shorter

2007-11-14T11:47:00.000+01:00

craig won. not anymore. =)

Navidad, ¿ya?

2007-11-13T11:22:00.000+01:00

So Christmas decorations--things like tinsel stars, my favorite!-- went up on the streets and such here just after Halloween. *sigh* I thought it was just the U.S.

Here´s a random thought: maybe with all the christmas shopping that will happen in the next month and a half, the U.S. economy will get a little boost and make a slight come-back on the euro... (wishful thinking, I know.) I´m getting more and more interested in economics and how so many things affect so many other things. (good sentence, eh?) I think I´d like to take an economics class to learn more. At present I know very little.

Also, on a semi-related note, my host-mom told me that because the dollar has fallen so much, people here are taking weekend trips to the U.S. to go shopping. WHAT?! yeah. Somehow its cheaper to fly across the ocean, buy a bunch of crap and fly back. (This is assuming you´re doing some serious shopping, I presume.) What a world. I don´t know what to think.

Look, a short-ish blog entry! go me!

autre week-end

2007-11-12T16:49:00.000+01:00

hola, bonjour!
I know I´m not good at writing short blog entries, but I will try to summarize the weekend. :)
Friday we had a walkind tour of the gothic zone in barcelona for our history class. And in the evening I had an international potluck with my frisbee team. quite lovely! I kind of made a green chili quiche, but couldn´t find the right ingredients and had to improvise. also the oven didn´t have a temp gauge and was really hot, so i burnt the bottom. =( oh well. had lots of yummy food from all over.
Saturday 10 of us (frisbee people) drove to Marseilla, France (in 2 different cars) for a beach tourney. We arrived early evening and walked about a bit in the FREEZING, WINDY-ness and ate together in a restaurant. We stayed in a cheap hotel and sunday morning drove to the beach (beautiful). It wasn´t quite as cold or windy, but still pretty touch to make nice passes... The tourney was a 4X4 so we had two teams. Played with teams from France (obviosly) and Italy. How cool is that? So many different languages being used. I love the international-ness. We had a fun day and came out 6th or 7th out of 10 or 11 teams. But my team won the spirit award, which is almost as good or better than winning the tourney... ;) We finished in the dark and had a crepe in a beach-side restaurant before heading on the road again.
p.s. the glow-y tower thing is a building right near where i live. kind of a new icon ish thing for the city?

tranquilo

2007-11-07T14:59:00.000+01:00

So this weekend was a bit more tranquilo. This was due to the fact that I had midterms this week and needed to study. I´m not sure I like the system where you don´t have any tests or homework to speak of until bam! a mid term test and then bam! a final exam, and thats your whole grade for the class! I think they all went okay, but I shall have to wait to get them back in order to know. Not too great, but not bad, either. regular. Finished. ;)
I did go out one night to hang out with a friend from Goshen who is studying in Madrid. He and 3 people from his program came to check out Barcelona, so we met up one night and had a pleasant evening. I also went to the beach outside of Barcelona on Saturday to watch part of an ultimate hat-tourney. Unfortunately I didn´t know about it until too late to sign up. Too bad. But I guess better for my studying... It was a lovely day, bright and sunny and it was nice to be outside for the day. And fun to hang out with other people on my team who went to watch. But it would have been more fun to play. ;) This weekend I´m planning to go to a one-day beach tourney in France. Its a 4X4 tournament and I think 10 people from my team are going, so we should have 2 teams. We´re planning to go on Saturday morning, spend the day(afternoon/evening) in Marselle, sleep in a hotel, play on Sunday and then drive back. I´m excited.
I have realized that my time in Spain is going by quite quickly! I´ve already been here for 2 months, and have a bit less than 2 before I fly home. And only about 5 (6?) weeks left of school. This is both happy and sad. Happy because I haven´t been home or seen the majority of my family in a year. Thats a long time. I´m excited to see them again, and be in New Mexico. It will also be nice to get back to Goshen--I like small universities, Ive decided, and I miss my friends. Sad, because I´m having a lovely time and I´m doing something that will never happen again--spending a semester studying in Europe. I think I am taking advantage of it. On that note, I think I will walk home today and enjoy the unique architecture Barcelona has to offer. =)

about Madrid and Toledo

2007-10-31T12:12:00.000+01:00

Brief summary: Thursday night 11 pm, get on bus in Barcelona (with Matt, a fellow frisbee player, aslo exchange student in another program).
Friday 6:45 am, get off bus in Madrid.
7:00 am, get on bus in Madrid.
8:00 am, get off bus in Toledo.
8:00 am-2:30 pm, go to cafe for breakfast, walk around Toledo, take pictures, enter free museums, see lots of cool buildings, look at swords in sword shops, eat lunch in a bar.
2:30-4:00 pm bus to Madrid.
4:00-6:30 pm walk around Madrid, see national palace, Cathedral, etc.
6:30-8:30 meet up with friend (Andrew Murto, for Goshenites) who is studying in Madrid and go to bars for supper
8:30 pm, find transportation and direction to sports complex
11:00 pm meet people and go to bed
Saturday
get up, eat breakfast, walk around, find grocery store and buy lunch, hang out with the rest of the team and get ready to play.
Play 2 games, win both! Go Piexets!!! (new name of team) We brag that we are the only undefeated team in spain and mabye the world...
Supper and party with all teams in the tourney
SUnday
Get up, eat a bit of breakfast, play 3 games in a row. win the first, lose the second two. tired. lost some players to injuries and didn´t have subs. boo. stretch and lay around nearly dead for a while. watch the finals of the tourney. we tied for 5th out of 9 teams. much better than i was expecting. (And largely due to the AMAZING japanese guy we picked up from the other Barça team.) Showered and went to bars with 3 other team members who were going home in bus. 11 pm, get on bus. 7 am, arrive in Barcelona. slept for an hour, got up and went to class. ughh.
Tired and sore, but it was a good time. =) I guess that wasn´t a very brief summary...
p.s. pictures are not uploading..I´ll try again later.

some randomies

2007-10-31T12:02:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I saw 2 guys hauling a full size mattress through the gates into the metro. I´ve been keeping a mental list of interesting things I see in the metro (thus far easily beaten by chickens and such in the latin-american buses) but none were really too note-worthy before, just dogs, baby strollers, bikes and little european shopping carts...

I picked up a little cold this weekend in Madrid. I´m drinking tea out of my Nalgene and hoping to set the cold down again quite soon in some inconspicuous place where I will not be tempted to pick it up again...

The rainy October weather seems to about done. This makes sense, I guess, as it is the last day of October. Now its generally sunny, or parcially cloudy, and chilly-ish. Fall weather, one could say.

One of Spain´s (or Catalunya´s, I guess I don´t know how far the tradition extends...) traditions near All-Saints day is to sell roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes on the street. They look really yummy and I think I shall have to try them this weekend.

another fun weekend in BCN

2007-10-24T12:48:00.000+02:00

This weekend some friends and I went dancing at a latin club. (yay!) We met lots of people from all over South America (and el Caribe) and stayed out until way too late in the morning. And we all wore high heels, which was really silly. I knew this desde el principio, but wore some short heels with straps anyway. We all had blisters and/or sore feet. And walked back to the one girl´s house barefoot. Which is really unacceptable in Barcelona. oops. Then I went to bed and woke myself up three hours later to go to frisbee practice. (yay!) During which my feet continued to hurt. Silly me. ANd I was tired. My fault, clearly.
After practice we all went out to a bar (restaurant) and had some sandwhiches and salads. It was a fun time to just chat with people. We proceeded then to go buy uniforms! yippee! And next week (after the tourney in Madrid this weekend!) we hope to get logos printed on them. I´m a little bit excited.
After this full afternoon I was thoroughly exhausted and went home, ate and went to bed for many hours.
Sunday I did some homework and in the evening some friends and I went to a movie. We decided that while we were here we wanted to see a SPanish movie. So we did. Its called ¨Las Trece Rosas.¨ About the war/Franco and women who resisted and were killed in a firing squad because of it. Awful. Awful. But an excellent movie. (We all cried quite a lot...) So it was a good movie to see in Spain, because it had so much history in it. It was also fun because I understood it! Nice to be at a level where I can watch movies in Spanish and understand. =)
So, there´s my weekend. After this weekend I shall have more stories to tell. I leave tomorrow night at 11 by bus to get to Madrid... ugh.
Enjoy fall, if it is indeed fall where you are!
p.s. more pictures added to previous blog entry.

cosas variadas

2007-10-17T13:09:00.000+02:00

** Last week friends and I went to Park Güell and La Padrera (park and house designed by Gaudí) They are really neat.
** This weekend I took a road-trip with my host-family (Ana; her daughter, Mar; her son, Moises and his dog, Pluja). We went to visit Ana´s sister, who lives in Navarra (the state...northern Spain, about 4 hours from Barcelona) in their parents old house. Highlights of the trip include: being in the country! I really like Barcelona, but it was amaaazing to be in the campo again. We drove up one night into the mountains. It was cold, but beautiful. I guess like my old cowboy friend Hal says, ¨You can take the girl out of the country, but you can´t take the country out of the girl...¨ cliché, I know... And I went out with Mar, Moises and some of their friends ( as kids they spent their summers there). Lovely time. Also, Ana and her sister went out and bought a bunch of roasted red chilis! que heaven for me! So they canned and froze them. We eat them with pork. Its fantastic.
** Second frisbee practise today, since I have classes on Monday nights and can´t go. I´m excited.
** Classes are still going well, some more interesting than others. My drawing class if fun, and I like being in a class with Spanish students. The professor speaks in Catalan, though, which is a bit unfortunate. I usually understand, and if not, I ask people. We have 2 breaks during each class (since its 3 hours long) and everyone goes outside to smoke. I think I am less bothered by cigarette smoke than I used to be. This bothers me. Means I´ve been around too much. hmph.

**more pictures later? I´m having trouble attaching them and I need to go to class. Adeu!

a few social issues

2007-10-10T16:47:00.000+02:00

So, I keep seeing all these ads here for vacation trips to various islands. All expenses included in big packages (flight, hotel, meals, etc.) In particular, Dominican Republic. This of course catches my eye, as I spent 3 months there last summer. It makes me sad. Because I learned that most of the hotel resorts are foreign-owned. Mostly European. So this means: A European, lets just say a Spaniard books a vacation package to the D.R. The money to the travel agent goes to a Spaniard. The airline is Spanish, money goes there. A Spaniard also owns the hotel, so that money also goes to a Spaniard. The Hotel has two big restaurants in it, also Spanish-owned. Probably cousins of the hotel owner. While there, guests can take a day-long boat trip out to...see the whales, say. This business is Spanish-owned as well. (This is all hypothetical, but I learned that it really works this way.) So, the economy of Spain is helped, and the Spaniard gets a nice, comfortable vacation. Effing cheap, I might add, because all the hotel workers, and restaurant workers, and boat workers are Dominican. Or Haitian. And they get paid dirt cheap wages. But its a job. And for them, the wages aren´t too bad. And they might be able to learn English or Italian or something while working there, because of all the foreigners. And then they can get moved up, or get a better job somewhere else. And what does the economy of the DR get? Not much. Def. not as much as if the resorts were all owned by Dominicans and the money went into the economy, rather then never touching it and staying in Europe. But of course, any Dominican rich enough to invest in something like that would have to be part of one of the top 10 families in the DR who already own something like 90% of the businesses and land in the country anyway.... And then there are the enviromental problems: I´m sure I don´t know all of them, but the resorts are taking away precious beaches and destroying the habitats of the few special species still left on the island. And they´re using a ton of water. And energy, because heaven-forbid the guests of the hotel not have hot water for showers, even though all the campesinos take bucket showers or bath in rivers and the city people don´t have hot water and the electricity only works from time to time because people tap the wires and it causes outages/ the company tries to compensate for lost energy by simply shutting it off.... And then there are the sewage systems, which probably get dumped into the ocean and cause more problems, but, hey, the Dominican government isn´t going to bust the resorts because, well, its money and tourism...(even though, see above...)
So, it makes me sad. But from the perspective here, not knowing or choosing not to know about those things... its a really great deal. Why not go?

Besides that, I feel that I have been pretty far removed from my social/political/religious/economical/everything world of thought this summer. Meaning, in Nicaragua, doing what I was doing and talking to the people to whom I talked, I had nearly constant stimulation in these areas. I had to think about them. And I liked it. It was hard, sometimes, but I like those questions. Here, I´ve had very few. Its quite easy in this setting for me to relax and just have a good time. To forget about the world´s problems. To forget about the injustices. To think it is normal for people to be able to travel and study. These are not truths. And while I think its okay not to constantly be thinking about the injustices and the problems (breaks are good. and necessary.) I want to be sure that I don´t get too caught up in my fun/easy/priveledged world. I want to have a balance. This opportunity is giving me a good view on the other end of the spectrum (ok, maybe not the end...other side of what I know...my personal middle-ground= what I know/am used to/my lifestyle of growing up??) That probably doesn´t make sense. Just know that I am experiencing new and good things, and enjoying life. Curious about where these new things will take me. Excited.

FRISBILLERS!!!!

2007-10-05T13:54:00.000+02:00

This is the name of my new ultimate frisbee team. Thats right, I joined a team. And by that I mean that I went and played on the beach with some people last week and went to a meeting at someones house two nights ago and we decided to form a team. There´s another team already formed in Barcelona (Patatas Bravas) but they apparently don´t have enough space for all the people who want to play. I´m so excited. We are planning practise days and looking for a field we can rent. We´re looking at which tourneys we can go to (YIPPEE--a fantastic way to travel around spain!!!) and what uniforms to buy/what the logo should look like. Also, there´s a possibilitiy of a name change, if someone comes up with a better one. But, for now, we´re the Frisbillers. Saturday I´m going to go play on a beach a little further down from Barcelona with the Patatas Bravas folks (pick-up day, open) and some of my team. Jijijiji. I´m excited.
On other exciting news, some other BCA friends and bought tickets to Rome in November. 60 euros round trip. I´m excited. Though we don´t have enough time to see all we want to... ;) Hard life, I know.

classes and cuisine

2007-10-01T17:17:00.000+02:00

Classes:
Mondays are really full. All four classes. Literature del siglo de oro (golden century), History of Spain, European Union and finally, from 6-9 at night, Drawing. For the art class I have to go to a different campus (by metro), I´m headed there soon. I shall now expand a bit on the classes. The Lit class is going to be fun. Gonna read some Cervantes and other classic stuff. The prof is really interesting. She knows a lot, too. History of Spain has thus far been somewhat unremarkable, but I´m excited to learn it. European Union I have only had twice, but I love it. The prof is a bit intimidating, and I´m going to have to work hard, but I´m going to learn a lot. The drawing class is a regular university class (the others are taught by reg. professors, but only offered to the BCA students. a little bit lame. not much, just a little). The professor sometimes breaks into Catalan and I can follow her, but not understand well. I don´t know if the whole term is figure drawing, but last week was and we drew a naked model for 3 hours. (Not something Goshen does....) I think it will be neat, and hopefully I will make some friends.

Cuisine:
Breakfast: Cafe con leche. y azucar (of course). I usually dip some little galletas in my cafe... they taste a bit like animal crackers, but are big and flat and round. and yummy. bread (white baguette) with margarine and jam. a new and wonderful addition: cheese! The past week we have had those cute little triangles of cream-cheese-ish stuff all wrapped in tinfoil. yummy. I sometimes eat a peach or an apple at breakfast too. And Ana got a box of Muesli with dried fruit from her daughter or something? So sometimes I eat cereal, too. I am content with breakfasts.
Lunch: If I am gone during the day (have classes at the university) I get a bocadillo (sandwhich on baguette bread) and a piece of fruit. The bocadillo generally has jamon del pais in it, which is a cured (not cooked) ham that looks a little like raw bacon. Its pretty good, but I get happy on the days when my bocadillo contains jamon dulce, your reg. sandwich meat and a slice of cheese. I like cheese. If I am home for lunch (2-3 in the afternoon) we have various dishes. sometimes a pasta dish. sometimes fried fish. sometimes a plate of cooked peas. sometimes lentils. I like nearly everything. (Somehow after my childhood years of incredible picky-ness with food I have become rather open to most food set before me. cool, huh, mom?) We usually have a little bit of salad (iceberg lettuce) with vinegar and olive oil. Sometimes I get a cut up tomato with chunks of garlic on it. Quite tasty. But I wouldn´t want to go out for a couple hours after all the garlic... =) Dessert is a piece of fruit. Again, usually apple or peach, but sometimes melon or grapes or a banana.
Supper: supper happens any time between 8-9:30 at night. Sometimes later. But usually its 8:30. Supper always has more than one course. Similiar to lunch options. Last night was a light supper and the main dish was a tortilla. Don´t think ¨tortilla¨ of latin america. This is basically an omellette and has nothing to do with flour or corn. The ¨tortillas francesas¨ are just egg, and the ¨tortillas españolas¨or de patatas have chunks of potato in them. quite tasty. The night before we had lentils and fried anchovies. (yup, ate those, too.) There is currenly a jar of snails on the counter and I wonder if they are for the grandkids to play with, or if I shall soon get a meal of them. Either way, its kind of fun. =)
Other random notes: If I go out to a bar to eat with friends (not very common, becuase when I can eat for free, why pay?) its easy to find food from all over. The most common thing in Spain, though, is a tapas bar. Tapas are little appetizers or entrees that one generally eats with a cup of wine or bottle of beer. They are things like meatballs, patatas bravas (fried potatoes with tomato), fish, etc.
Panadarias are all around and today on my search of a public library (found, but closed) I took advantagea and bought a yummy pastry. They smell so good when you walk by... I think I might start stopping more often (surprised? didn´t think so...) and spending my change on breads instead of at cafes... we shall see. its easier to sit and chat with friends at a cafe...

pictures of Santiago trip

2007-09-27T17:44:00.000+02:00

I like arquitectura

me, climbing on a wall near an old cemetary (see tombs in background)

Carmen and I in Santiago

really cool stair case in a church

some yummy wine, actually. white, house wine.

this is the way-cool catedral de santiago...

capitulo 3: in which lindsy has an amazing weekend

2007-09-27T11:46:00.000+02:00

This weekend was one huge party for the whole of Barcelona. Dia de la Merce. So friday, saturday, sunday and monday pretty much no one worked and everyone played. Except for the poor people who own restaurants, clean streets, serve beer, etc. I shall try to sum up all the things we did. ¨We¨ generally being a group of 4 or 5 of us BCA people who have found good companionship with one another and are on the whole rather frugal/cheap and don´t spend half the money that some of our fellow study-abroad students do. We are quite proud of this. Other people say things like, oh, how cute. *shrug* that is beside the point.
Friday, go: History of Art test. then a cafe for cafe con leche. Home for dinner. Off to the beach where there was a fireworks show. pretty nice. Then walk along the beach find a cumbia band playing at an outdoor bar. Turns out I really like live cumbia. Band consisted of a mexican, a chilean, paraguayan, and maybe a guy from uruguay? I hope I spelled all those right... anyway, they were really fun and quite good. After they ended we walked around some more and then went home.
Saturday: Home in the morning/afternoon. Evening went to a plaza to try to find a break-dancing performance. Found a Rumba band instead. turns out I also really like rumba. and reaaally want to learn how to dance it. (surprise, surprise, eh?) Then we walked around some more and found the break-dancers. They were quite good. I want to learn to break dance. Then walked to another plaza where there were more free concerts (I heart free concerts). Watched a sweet band from Barcelona who´s name currently escapes me. THen The Undertones came on (this was the band we went to see). From Ireland. Anyone know them? THey were pretty fun. Meanwhile we got smashed into a lot by an extreeemely drunk woman and met some Italian guys. Then we went via metro to yet another plaza to try to catch The Thrills (also Irish) but the place was SOO packed and huge and there for 4 different stages and we were tired and our feet hurt. So we found a bar and sat down and talked instead. Got home late.
Sunday: Home for the morning. Left in the afternoon to meet friends at the Sagrada Familia and go from there to still more free concerts. Couldn´t find one friend. waited. waited. called. waited. went to eat supper at a yummy greek rest. called. went to concert. found her! and other friend! amazing. Watched the end of another Barça band. Pretty good, till they stared singing in English. And then....we pushed our way up to the front. about 20 feet from the stage. and saw... TRAVIS!!! One of my favorite bands, actually. in Barcelona! free! and we were so close! and they were amazing. then to a restaurant and split a yummy pesto pasta dish. Then home.
Monday: home for the morning. Afternoon met friends at Picasso museum (free for the day). waited in line and then walked through museum. Picasso is not my favorite artist, and he still isn´t, but I like his stuff better after seeing the whole progression of his work. neat. then to another plaza to eat our packed suppers and share some sangria while we waited for the fountain/fireworks show. It was well worth the wait. we had good seats and the show was spectacular. best show ive seen, i think. combo of fountain, fireworks, and music. (tho a strange selection-opera to rock to country and pop...) And it lasted a long time. I think it made up for me missing the last three fourth-of-july´s. Afterward waited for the crowd to leave and saw two guys throwing a disc around! went and played with them. German, but living in Barcelona. Told me that people play on wednesday nights on the beach. yippee!
Wednesday night on the beach: played frisbee! have lots of sand-scrapes. had so much fun. made friends. now on the ultimate listserve, I think. que happy!!!
well, im off to study grammar for a test tomorrow. This was a long blog. It was a long weekend. =)
amor to all!

general news

2007-09-19T12:46:00.000+02:00

This weekend our whole BCA group took a trip to Santiago de Compostela. Its in the northeastern part of Spain and apparently usually has Atlantic-type weather (rain), but it was sunny and nice almost the whole time we were there (friday p.m. to tuesday a.m.) The reason for our visit was to study the architecture there for our art history pre-semester course. We flew there as a group, which kind of boggles my mind still, because something like that just wouldn´t make sense in the U.S. Anyway, it was a great time, for the most part. I looooved the Cathedral there (de Santiago, you could look it up online) which is fairly famous and which constantly has pilgrims arriving on foot from all over. We saw a lot of people coming in with big back-packs and walking sticks, etc. Also, there are several old monostaries and the university is quite old as well. Its fun to be in buildings built before the Americas were, well... something. Discovered by other people? Anyway. We also had lots of free time to wander about in the narrow crooked streets of Santiago. I hadn´t realized how much Celtic infuence there is in that part of Spain. Its a completely different culture from Catalunya (Barcelona) and they also have another language that they speak there, in addition to Spanish. Quite cool. I also went dancing one night with a couple other girls and we had a good time. Though I wanted more latin music. =) The pieces of the trip I didn´t enjoy so much were walking around in a group of over 30 people and being such obvious tourists/foreigners. I´ve never liked that feeling, and its worse when I´m in a big group. Plus then you have all the annoyances of splitting off into little groups to do things and trying not to leave people out etc. But this was our last real group activity, and from now on our schedules will be more individual. I´m hoping to make Spanish friends and find some fun things to do around the city. This weekend is a holiday, so there should be plenty of opportunities to hear live music, etc. And maybe I can go dancing again.
Classes started today and this morning I had a literature class. I think I´m really going to enjoy it. Its a BCA class, so there aren´t other university students, but tomorrow I am going to a Spanish class at the university, so we shall see how it goes. =)
I guess thats it for now. I hope to put up some pictures of Santiago soon. Thanks for the comments and emails, I love hearing from you!!!

a few pictures

2007-09-12T17:04:00.001+02:00

Why I am in love with Gaudi...(La Sagrada Familia and La Pedrera) and a blurry picture of my room

september in barcelona

2007-09-09T20:19:00.000+02:00

i love it. or do I love Barcelona in September? I think both. Today I went to the beach--about 20 minutes walking from my house--and enjoyed the beautiful sea. I live in a big apartment building, as do the majority of the nearly 8 million people who live in Barcelona, I think. The city is pedestrian friendly, unlike some latin american cities *cough * Managua. But I miss the public transportation of Managua. I haven´t taken the bus or metro yet here, but I will tomorrow to go to the University. I´m trying to figure out the new biking system here--you can buy a card and take a bike from one rack and leave it in another. Still have to figure out how to buy a card and where the stations are, to see if it will work to go to and from the university, I hope so, that would be fantastic. Oh, about my family. Its really just an older woman. Kids all older and away from home. some married, some not. I think the youngest daughter (30 ish) Mar will be in and out. she seems really nice. Well, I hope to put pictures up soon. Maybe when I am using free interenet at the University instead of a cafe.
P.S. my mailing address is this, and you would make me extremely happy if you were to send me a lil letter!

Lindsy Glick
c/o BCA
Montealegre 6-8
Facultad de Geografia e Historia
Univerisidad de Barcelona
08001-Barcelona, SPAIN

*kiss kiss*

Estoy en Espana

2007-09-04T23:17:00.000+02:00

Hola mis amigos! I arrived a sleepy one in Paris and met up with most of the other BCA students there and we waited for a few house before getting out flight to Barcelona. They we all got on a bus (after a bit of a detour in the airport trying to get the luggage...) and headed to a hotel south of Barcelon. Its only a few blocks from the beach, which I took advantage of during our free time today. Thus far weve had some spanish classes, orientation lectures and tasty food. Im pretty excited about chocolate croissants and fruit for breakfast. Though I shall have to get used to fish, I think. Ive met most of the other BCAers, but don´t remember everyones name yet. Most seem pretty different from the Goshen crowd, but I think we can all have a sweet time together. =) I´m also pretty excited about meeting my host family this weekend and picking out classes to take at the university. And I even found a site online about an ultimate frisbee team in Barcelona. they play on the beach once a week. I want to be friends with them. =) Well, internet time is about up. More when I get a chance and have more to tell--I harldy feel Im in Spain at this point, since were staying in a hotel. ciao.

2007-09-01T19:33:00.000+02:00

Ok, this has nothing to do with Nicaragua or Spain. Its from Spring Break last year. The Everglades. I was testing some things on this blog, thought I'd leave it.

the space between

2007-08-27T01:55:00.000+02:00

I am back in Goshen for a few days. Just over a week, actually. It feels nice. I'm seeing friends and some family, though I won't get to see my immediate family until Christmas time. Working backwards, I got in to Goshen on Thursday after a night in Chicago with some friends. I had to stay over night in order to pick up my visa for Spain. But that is future, so that will have to wait. I flew into Chicago por Miami from San Jose, Costa Rica on Wednesday. On Tuesday I took a bus to San Jose from Managua, Nicaragua, where I spent most of my summer. (Hows that for confusing?) I was working with Mennonite Central Committee (relief/development agency of the Mennonite Church) and local Nicaraguan organization, CEPAD. I mainly accompanied delegations/church groups from the U.S. on their short term mission trips or partner relationships with Nicaraguan communities. Did a bit of translating, and a lot of traveling, thinking, seeing and doing. Overall a great experience. I definetly have a lot of questions about my future, the church (Latin American and North American), God, service (particularly international), economics, justice, politics, development, etc. But since this whole experience was made possible through a program at Goshen called "Service Inquiry Program" I feel validated in my questioning. Not that I needed validation.
Moving on to the future: I have one week here to do things like visit with friends, go to the eye doctor, laundry, financial stuff, writing essays, talking with advisors about classes and graduation... the list goes on. Come next Sunday, I am flying off to another 3-4 month adventure. This time to Europe--Barcelona, Spain, to be exact. (And thats "Barthelona," mind you.) I'll have to learn Spanish all over again. Not that I'm fluent by any means, but Central American-Spanish and Spain-Spanish are waaaay different. Not to mention I have no idea how to use the "vosotros" form. And they speak Catalan there. Eeek. So, in Barthelona I will be studying at the university there. Which is somewhere around 70 times the size of Goshen, my dear college here in Indiana. This along with the fact that I'm coming pretty much straight from a "third-world" country (Supposedly the 2nd poorest in all of the Americas, above only Haiti) might give me a bit of culture shock, though I usually deal pretty easily with change. But lets just take a little look the difference in public transportation in Managua and Barthelona: city bus anywhere in Managua: 2.5 cordobas or around 15 U.S. cents. taxi? 20-25 cordobas if you're not going far. Lets call it U.S. $ 1.25. In Barth a one-journey ticket to the metro is E. $1.25. U.S. $ nearly 2. (don't know the exact conversion yet) and a taxi from the airport to our orientation hotel? E. 30-35, or about U.S. $ 40 !!! I don't know what I'm going to do... I'll be the cheapest Estadounidense in Spain, probably...
At any rate (U.S., Euro, Cordoba, Colone...) I'm quite excited to go to Spain, live with a family there, meet new friends and see a lot of sweet architecture. I'm also pretty bummed about being gone (again) from friends and family and coming back to Goshen College with only one semester to go. Its a bit creepy thinking about life after college, so I often try to avoid it. =) Well, I guess thats enough for a first blog. I'm off to go Salsa dancing. Tenga un buen dia, buena noche o cualquier tiempo...