Thursday, March 19, 2009

Things I will and won't miss about Spain

Last weekend, I went to Granada. Tomorrow, I'm going to Valencia for Las Fallas. I don't have the energy to write about my Granada trip yet (it takes a lot out of you to remember these things and put them in order, etc.) and next week is going to be just as busy (if not more) than this week, so look for a post about Granada on Thursday... cross your fingers anyway.


Right now, a quick post to put off packing. I can't imagine giving up procrastinating. I've found it's really for the best. If I work ahead, I go back and edit and revise and drive myself crazy with whatever it is I'm working on. And then I come to loathe whatever it is I'm working on, for taking up so much of my time, for not ever being exactly the way I want it to be, etc. If I took this working ahead approach in everything I did, it's possible, and possibly even likely, that I would come to loathe everything I do. Now what kind of life would that be? No. I'm a procrastinator for life. Let's hope I can get through medical school with this logic.


Time for: Things I won't miss about Spain.

1. The building where I go to school. It was huge lie that we were going to go to the University of Alcalá. The Americans, from Bowling Green at least, are shoved into this tiny school way out in the middle of nowhere. It's also the school where the English-education majors go, I think, as the hallways are decorated with children's books and posters in English. It looks far more like a middle school than a college. And, in order to print, you have to put whatever it is that you want printed on a flashdrive, give it to the librarian (at this excuse for a library building) who prints whatever you want, and then you have to pay five cents a page. I -really- miss Bowling Green, where I can mosey into any computer lab I want, sit down at a computer, print 300 pages of whatever I wish while checking my email or otherwise wasting time on the internet, and then mosey on out. No money, no hassle.

2. Electricity issues. A lot of Spanish lights are on timers, which is a huge hassle when you are trying to use the restroom and the lights go out on you and you can't quite remember where the switch was, so you try to find it without actually touching the walls, because who wants to touch the walls in a public bathroom? I don't actually have a big problem with this. I think it's a really good idea for public buildings and they probably save a ton in electricity costs. The problem is the lack of outlets. We fight over outlets at school in order to plug in laptops and the like. And it's impossible to find them elsewhere. The first day I arrived, I used the airport restroom and I couldn't quite figure out why there were two girls sitting in the bathroom watching a movie on a laptop until I realized that it was plugged into the outlet that they had unplugged the hand-dryer from. Ridiculous.


Things I will miss about Spain.

1. The kids. It's a little depressing when you hear a 5 year old speaking and it's painfully obvious that they can speak Spanish far better than you can, but the kids are adorable. One day, I was walking to school and heard a kid talking. I think he was probably around 7 years old. I wasn't really paying attention to him until I heard him say, "Por ejemplo", which means "for example". At first, I was a little amused to hear a phrase that all of my teachers say and have said for as long as I have been taking Spanish. But then I stopped and thought about it. What kind of kid says "for example"? What kind of 7 year old qualifies his monologue through exemplification? I was a bit blown away, but it's possible that he was just a crazy smart kid. Then, the other day, on the way home from Granada, I was walking through the plaza. It was filled, absolutely filled, with people. They shut down the streets around the plaza on Sundays and everyone goes there (when it's nice out, which it was) to sit and talk. There was a man selling balloons and every available seat was filled. It was nice. Anyway, I was just about to cross the street to leave the plaza when a little girl (I'm going to go with 5 or 6 years old) dashes across the street to reach the plaza, turns around to look at her parents, puts her arms straight up in the air, and yells "LA PLATHA!" (remember that the Spanish lisp, so I spelled it the way it sounded) in the happiest voice. Her father laughed and said, "Sí, la plaza. Yay!" I cracked up. This little girl sounded like she had just arrived at Cedar Point when she was only going to the plaza, which she probably passes everyday on her way to school or something. I mean, yeah, there was a guy selling balloons, but I didn't feel it warranted an arms-in-the-air rejoice. It was adorable.

2. My host mom. She is great. She calls me so many different things that I have trouble keeping up. She usually prefaces it with "AAY!". I believe I mentioned that she calls me "pobrecita" whenever I'm struggling with something (poor little one). She calls me "carino" a lot, which is "loved one" or "darling" or she'll say, "AAY, mi niña!" (my child). Today, I realized that she had been calling me "cielo" for awhile and I only just put together that she was calling me "heaven". But my absolute favorite was the day she called me "brujita" (little witch). I'm not a big fan of the breakfast here. I usually eat cereal, but I'll never really be able to stomach the milk. Usually, on my days off, I'll sleep in pretty late and then stay in my room until it's lunch time. One day, I had to go to the school to meet my partner to work on a project on my day off. I didn't really want to eat any breakfast, so I got ready and packed up and tried to sneak out the door. "AAY, brujita!" She caught me and she wasn't very happy about it. I could only crack up. She forced me to take a roll and a juice box with me when I insisted that I didn't have the time to eat. She's fantastic. 


Well,  I need to pack and then get some sleep. I'm going to be up all night tomorrow night. The city should be one big party. Let's hope because we can't check into our hostel until 9 in the morning.


I'll write next Thursday.

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