SNC Reunion

Hello Everyone!

So I´m going to start off my blog with a few things from the past week that I forgot to mention and then I´ll tell you all about my trip to Barcelona.

First, the elections. What an experience to vote from a foreign country, see all the coverage in Spanish, and not know who the next President would be until I woke up the next morning due to the time difference. I have to say it, I wasn´t surprised with the outcome. It was pretty clear to most college students who the favorite was, not that I agree with this, but we´ll leave it at that. I also couldn´t believe how much the Spaniards love Obama. They were all so happy and excited about the election, which is weird, because I don´t get excited about other country´s lections. Anyways, it was cool to be able to vote for the first time and be able to vote for the candidate I thought was best.

Also, I sent in my student-teaching application in already. I know, so crazy!!! I am not teaching until Spring of 2010, but they start working a year ahead on these things. I´m excited to see where I will be placed and with what age level. On that note, I´ve been volunteering at a school here in Toledo. I work with a first grade, second grade, and fourth grade class. The first graders are by far my favorite! I just love walking into the classroom and getting all sorts of poorly spoken English thrown at me and hugs and all sorts of uninmportant stories. Now as much as I enjoy it, I don´t know if I have the patience to do it every day. I also had the opportunity to be a translator yesterday. The teacher asked Jenn and I to sit in on a parent-teacher conference because the teacher didn´t speak English and the parents (who were from Lithuania and had just moved from Iceland) didn´t speak Spanish. Being able to switch back and forth between the two languages was a lot at once, but I can tell you that my language has improved dramatically since I´ve been here. I never would have been able to do that if I wouldn´t have had this study abroad experience.

So I have to tell you all a funny story about my history teacher. I love his class (I think I´ve mentioned that in previous blogs), but when he tries to speak English it is just terrible. So he wants to meet with students for an hour in between classes if they have time and practice speaking English and Spanish. This week after class he invited us all out for a beer after class to talk current Spanish politics. Now I don´t know if this would ever happen in the US, but it´s so nice and laid back here. I thought it was really nice of him to extend that invitation to us so we can all learn during our time here.

I also was asked to fill out a form for the upcoming study abroad students about what to expect when you get here. I could probably write a novel now on what to pack, what not to bring, cultural differences, traveling tips. I still can´t believe I´m going home soon. Don´t get me wrong, I´m excited to come back home and be with my friends and family and at SNC again, but I will miss the laid-back, "no pasa nada" attitude, the things that have become part of my daily routine, and the new friends I have made. I will especially miss being able to just leave the city or country for a weekend to travel and see all that I can.

Now, here goes the Barcelona story. First of, Barcelona is in a region called Cataluña. They have their own flag and their own language (a mixture of Spanish and French). So I wasn´t sure how helpful my Spanish really would be. We left at one on Friday from the Madrid airport. Got into Barcelona around 2 and then had to wait around for the rest of our group to fly into and then we were going to go to the hostel together. SIDENOTE: NEVER FLY RYAN AIR! It was an absolutely awful experience. We didn´t have assigned seats, you had to pay to check luggage and to check in and they weren´t so friendly either. To say the least I will never fly with them again. There is a reason their flights are so cheap...because they flight into airports hours outside of the city you want to be in. So we had to pay 20€ to take a bus into Barcelona. It´s a huge city too. We did a ton of walking and finally found our hostel and then met up with the others. We were there with a bunch of SNC study abroad kids, Cyle from Germany, Michael and his friend from London, Caitlin and Amy and 4 of their roomates from Italy. It was quite the weekend.

Friday night, we walked across the city to see the Font Monjüic. It was the most beautiful thing have seen in all my time in Spain. It almost brought me to tears (no surprise there). The fountain was time to music and had different colors and types of water effects. It was unbelievable. No words or pictures could do it justice. We walked back towards our hostel and stopped at a cute little restaurant. We spent hours sitting there catching up, drinking sangria and enjoying the company. It was a perfect night.

Saturday we got up early and did all of our touristy things. We bought passes for the touristy double decker bus for the day to get us around which SAVED OUR LIVES! There is no way we could have seen all that we wanted to by walking or taking the metro. It was also nice to have more of a guided tour. We saw the Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, some of Gaudi´s other famous buildings here, the 1992 Olympic Stadium area, and the FC Barcelona Stadium (their soccer team). We also did some shopping on the Mediterranean Sea and ate some good food. For dinner some of the girls and I went to a Flamenco show. For 30€ I got paella, sangria, a salad and crema de cataluña. It was delicious and followed by a spectacular flamenco show. It was a great night and wonderful to be able to show off some of our Spanish culture to the people visiting from outside the country.

Sunday we got up a little later, had a small breakfast and headed for the airport. That was after we walked to the bus station with our stuff, rode on the bus for an hour, and waited to board. We got back to Madrid without any problems (not including all the stupid fees RYAN AIR made us pay). I was home around 7 and had some time to catch up with my family, do some homework and skype with my real family.

I think that should just about do it for this entry. I will get some new pictures up tomorrow and throughout the weekend from my latest travels to Barcelona and Sevilla.

The US better get ready for me! I´ll be home before I know it. That´s really bittersweet.

Abrazos como siempre,
Amy