Bonnies Blog Abroad

Tony (Not) in Australia: I'm Back

2010-08-23T05:01:00.002-04:00

I'm sad to report this entry is typed from the United States of America. I'm officially back and that means this life-altering study abroad experience is over.

During the last couple days, I've slid effortlessly back into my old routine — well, minus the jet lag — but encountered something unexpected.

I thought I'd miss waking up in my vila at Varsity Shores, walking 5 minutes to Bond University or socializing with friends. I thought I'd miss drinking a tall Pure Blonde Naked (don't worry. it's a beer), the Australian culture and enjoying Bond's aesthetically pleasing and state-of-the-art facilities, too.

But what I didn't expect is how much I missed Bondies, and how sad I don't have the opportunity to extend the same generous hospitality back.

Not only were Bondies my classmates, but they're also great human beings. I've gotten to know some amazing people and am honored to be friends with them.

I miss Australia, but I miss Australians more. I miss Bond, but I miss Bondies more.

I'm back, but my heart was stolen and left in Australia.

Though it's starting to sound like a broken record, thank you to everyone that made this summer awesome (which, by the way, sounds incredibly cool with an Australian accent).

Australians — Bondies in particular — taught me about how to treat others with a friendly, open-minded attitude without prejudice; Australians and Bondies' friendliness is something to be proud of and given homage to.

If any Bondies are in Southern California or New York, please don't hesitate to contact me at tony@sheckiiville.com. The least I can do to repay Bond for this incredible experience is to welcome a fellow Bondy to America with the same level of respect and hospitality.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I love you all and miss you already.

Sincerely, Tony Lee.

Tony in Australia: Please Support Bond Uni!

2010-08-18T19:04:00.006-04:00

The best time I had in Australia was at the 2010 Northern University Games (NUG).

Most of the friends I've met in Australia are going to be at the 2010 Australian University Games at Perth from September 26 to October 1, and everyone can vote to give Bond University more funding.

http://apps.facebook.com/universitygames/

Please like this Facebook application and vote for Bond, located in Queensland (QLD). The winning school gets a $20,000 donation from Woolworths, an Australian supermarket.

To see a YouTube video I made of what happened at NUG, look at the video below.

Tony in Australia: Awwwwww

2010-08-11T03:04:00.005-04:00

For those that don't already know, I'm what you would call a Twitter whore. I wrote 202 tweets in July that totalled to almost 4,000 words (3,949 to be exact).

Throughout the last three months, I tweeted about Bond University and the things I've done here, and Bond's official Twitter recognized it.

They sent me a direct message couple hours ago that made me cry a bit in a good way.

With only 11 days left at this country and already having a hard time letting go, this made it that much harder.

Gold Coast's weather at the moment is rainy and gloomy, but I'm hoping that'll change soon. I have two video projects I want to finish before leaving.

I've met some incredible students, professors and faculty at Bond and want to capture and treasure this experience forever. It kills me I have to leave and miss out on another pub crawl, Uni Games at Perth, Bondstock and heaps of other stuff.

Thank you, Bondies! I've fallen in love with y'all and will miss you dearly.

Come visit me back in the States. I'll be sure to return the same hospitality you've given me the last three months.

Tony in Australia: It's All Coming To An End

2010-08-06T06:42:00.003-04:00

It's pretty much official. I received a participating in the International Study Abroad Program certificate saying congrats on the May 2010 semester.

I'm going to leave Australia in less than 20 days and have only a couple days resting before going back to St. Bonaventure for the fall semester.

On Wednesday's barbecue (that's the Associated Press style of BBQ) where I met with other study abroad students, I realized that all of us met really good friends and had a great time.

It's sad that I'm leaving, but I get to start my second semester at Bonaventure and get to see all my friends again.

This is just a simple post showing the certificate and my new haircut. I'm working on a fun project that I can't wait to share with you guys probably on Monday or Tuesday.

Until then, be sad for me that my time at Bond University is coming to an end.

Tony in Australia: Bond's Advertising Course Unearthed The Real Me

2010-08-02T17:12:00.003-04:00

My parents told me to dream big. Imagine their surprise when a 6-year-old kindergartener brought home a building blueprint done on Windows 3.1.

Six. I’m not even in elementary school and holding onto a nanny’s hand.

Yet this building had a R&D department, an indoor baseball diamond, a swimming pool, a nursery, computer rooms and “daddy’s room” (aka CEO’s office).

Flash forward to the 21st century. That same 6-year-old boy grew up and the only one holding his hand is a girlfriend.

However, that creative soul is gone like the nanny. I never seriously considered college until way past graduation and, looking back on it, you can partially blame the traditional educational system.

And to set the next scene, a Korean educational system background is needed.

Since the mid ‘50s, Koreans placed students into majors depending on high school grades and a SAT-equivalent test. Computer science and medical programs to the top 1 percent, public service majors to the other 99.

My dad was a computer science major.

Koreans view sports journalist a skoch below garbage man; and sports journalism is not even a major.

Though I studied in the United States, imagine my dad’s surprise to that same child holding a blueprint of a multi-million dollar corporation wanting to be a sports journalist.

To say something died inside of him would be an understatement.

But is that right? Should a father or son have to experience that mutual heartbreak, disappointment and shame?

Journalism was the only major that allowed and accepted this insanely curious nature of mine. More importantly, it’s the only major I loved.

Plus, journalism kept me at Orange Coast College, where I matured for the first time.

OCC then led to St. Bonaventure University, which led to Bond University, which led to Susie Ting’s Advertising Principles and Practice course.

And this revelation.

Susie’s teaching style is all about challenging traditional methods and discovering different ways to express similar ideas.

Including the educational system.

She assigns watching YouTube clips and “The Gruen Transfer” as homework. Our midterm consisted of taking 20 photos and making a presentation.

We’re even having our last class at Don’s Tavern.

Her ideas, openness and contagious energy helped me rediscover that inner child. To be honest, it’s the one class that inspires me and I study the most for.

To be even more honest, I love advertising as much as journalism. And (hopefully) without sounding like an arrogant prick, I have a future in both.

Since I got accepted to Bonaventure last year, I didn’t just want to be another great journalist.

I wanted to change the industry somehow.

Susie helped me realize I wanted to change this industry through different advertising models, business plans, and change how a newsroom runs and how it’s taught in schools.

And I still want to write a perfect article that is poignant, motivational and significant.

Is it as ambitious as that 6 year old or foolish as that indoor baseball field?

Susie said there is nothing wrong stripping down and questioning something that’s not effective. The communications industry’s bound-for-bankruptcy state seems like it could benefit from a new idea or two.

I want to rebrand journalism and create a revolutionary Integrated Marketing Communications campaign to be used for the next 100 years.

It’s what I said to Michael Jones-Kelley, my Bona’s adviser and an IMC professor, on the first day I met him, but not as eloquently.

Susie’s opened my eyes by her unorthodox teaching method. It also introduced me to incredible group partners and friends, Jacqui, Courtney and Em.

If someone said this advertising class — a second backup class mind you — would’ve accomplished all this, I would’ve bet the house against it.

And it’s amazing to think I had no career ambitions and only had thoughts of pretty girls, money and fame two years ago.

In fact, I wouldn’t have came to Bond without searching #journalism on Twitter, researching information about Bonaventure, listened to Denny’s pitch for the j-school and went into Bona’s study abroad office in the last year.

It’s fate. How else can you explain this story?

I know an indoor baseball diamond won’t be waiting in whatever office I work at. But I guarantee that 6 year old’s ambition, curiosity and creativity will be there, making a difference in this world.

http://www.sheckiiville.com/post/892382945

Tony in Australia: Fundraiser for Bonaventure

2010-07-26T20:37:00.002-04:00

This is the photo fundraiser I’ve been working on for St. Bonaventure’s J-school and golf team. I’m in the process of talking to couple places around Olean to display these photos and sell them. The profits will be evenly split between the two Bona’s entities that’ll effect me the most.

However, I broke my wide-angle lens and only have a telephoto remaining. I planned to have about 12 incredible photos I love (out of the seven, I’m only in love with three), but without a wide-angle lens, I’m not sure I can take any more incredible photos.

I think Bond University might be the most gorgeous campus I’ve seen. At night time, it certainly doesn’t look like my pictures, but that’s the beauty of photography; It can capture what that moment looks or is supposed to look like.

Only a month left at Bond. I’m starting to have the same feeling I had back at Orange Coast College; I can’t believe I have to leave this place.

Tear.

http://sheckii.tumblr.com/post/863413946

Tony in Australia: S#!% and F#^@

2010-07-24T04:34:00.001-04:00

** Note: There are f and s bombs at the very end of this post. Please don't read on if you'll be offended profanity -- even if there is an appropriate use for it. **

One of the Sprouse twins yelled, "But I wipe my own ass." I double check, but "Big Daddy" is really playing on a public TV station at 3 p.m.

Uncensored.

"Kitchen Nightmares" later came on, and Chef Gordon Ramsay cursed like a drunken sailor that specializes in four-letter profanities.

I learned couple things that day. "Big Daddy" will always be one of my favorite movies and the Australian culture has no problem saying bull, um, poo, or other expletives, even on TV.

And it's refreshing.

Even educational.

While America tries to censor everything, Australia has gone the other extreme. I've heard lecturers saying bull, um, crap, without flinching couple times.

I've always felt curse words are just another form of expression. I mean, what other word besides the f bomb describes the feeling of losing your wallet with lots of money in it?

Plus, there is no better word than bull -- oh what the hell -- shit when you catch someone blatantly lying.

As a person who believes there are a lot of unnecessary censoring going on by the Federal Communications Commission and in the journalism industry, I'm loving the Aussie spirit of saying, well, f off when appropriate.

Like I said in earlier entries, Australians are the nicest and most respectful people I've ever met. It shows that censoring everything may not be the best way to go.

I'm going to miss a culture that says bullshit colloquially.

There is only a month remaining until I leave for the States. It makes me want to curse like a drunken sailor.

I'm going to miss this place. Shit. Fuck.

Excuse my French.

I mean Australian.

Tony in Australia: proJECT

2010-07-20T08:40:00.005-04:00

It was nighttime when the proJECT group went into Bond University’s incredible computer labs, but sunlight dawned our faces at 6:30 a.m. when we deliriously stumbled out.

We shared two meals, couple snacks, countless conversations about past relationships and amazing ideas for our Advertising Principles and Practice assignment.

And somehow during that 19-hour marathon otherwise known as cramming, Courtney, Jacqui, Em and I bonded (get it), became great friends and finished a project 6 hours before deadline.

The reason why I’m sharing this story is because it's a microcosm of this life-altering study-abroad experience.

Bond’s culture is something I’ve never experienced. Everyone is friendly, non judgmental, educated and genuinely appreciate what everyone brings to the table.

I've been here and met people for only a short amount of time, but it's like I'm family already. It’s not just the name. Everyone at Bond bonds, and I genuinely want to be a part of it forever.

Despite only being here for 2 months, the entire school has treated me as if they’ve known me since primary school.

Just like I said in the “Tony in Australia: Uni Games” article, creating a life-long bond was too easy, almost as if it was a dream.

As corny as it sounds, Bond’s like a perfect family described in fairy tales and romanticized stories. No one judges each other and treats everyone with a level of respect like I’ve never experienced.

Or even thought it existed.

On a deeper note, meeting Bondies made me look at how I treated people. I’ve learned through example to be more like Australians and Bondies. Thank you for teaching me something I would’ve never learned through a textbook.

Courtney, Jacqui and Em are amazing people, and so is everyone I’ve met at the Northern Uni Games. So are all the Bond instructors, faculty, staff and other students I’ve gotten to know.

In our delirious state, proJECT, which is a combination of our first-name initials and the word pro, kept saying, “What does it mean?” as an inside joke.

Well I know what meeting those three awesome women and being a Bondie means:

This has been one of the best three months of my life.

[Here are some of clippings from our project]

Tony in Australia: Uni Games

2010-07-07T06:13:00.007-04:00

I believe this is my first blog entry in 6 weeks or so, and I apologize for that!

I've been so consumed in the midsemester exams (aka midterms) and doing personal projects. Also, one of my two Canon camera lenses and my cellphone camera broke about three weeks ago and I haven't been able to take pictures.

However, I'm going to start blogging with more regularity to keep everyone up to date, starting off what I did a week ago; it's a bit long at 750 words or so, but I'm trying to make up for lost time.

I had the honor to compete in the 2010 Northern Uni Games (NUG) for Bond University last week, and it was the best part of this study abroad experience.

So far.

The NUG is where different universities get together, play sports competitions and party together. If I had to compare it to something back at St. Bonaventure, imagine spring weekend on steroids with sports competitions with all the western New York colleges.

I left Bond with teammates Dhruv, Andre, Ben, Matt, Andrew and Cheyenne (clockwise) to Toowoomba - a city about 2-hours away - on Sunday morning and returned back to campus Wednesday night.

It's been a week since the NUG, but today is the first day I feel, um, recovered.

Like I said, spring weekend on steroids (I also made a video of the trip, which can be found at the bottom of the blog).

During the 4-day, 3-night trip, I got to witness and be apart of the Australian culture in a way a textbook or a tour guide could never show me.

One thing that stood out is the camaraderie. In my opinion, the U.S. social culture is more about groups, cliques and labels; the Australian culture is more like when we were in kindergarten, when meeting a stranger and introducing yourself in a friendly way was as natural as breathing.

Even my teammates could've treated me differently since I joined at the last minute, but now we're all friends and hoping for another golf trip before the semester ends.

Also, there is less judging and stereotyping here compared to the U.S. I'm not saying Australia doesn't have its handful of negative people and/or racists, but the general population is progressive, educated and positive.

There is another thing called a kangaroo court, which is when a group gets together and laugh about certain, um, transgressions or comical things that happened.

Australians laugh about, and not laugh at, things that happened to someone. There is far less fear of becoming a social outcast for doing anything. If Americans had a kangaroo court, a lot of jealousy, labeling and backhanded compliments would've been said and taken the wrong way.

Speeches and toasts is another thing that stood out. A genuine show of affection and appreciation with poignant words makes everyone feel good and it only takes a minute. What happened to that in the U.S.?

All - not even exaggerating - Australians I've partied or hung out with made me feel like a close friend. In U.S., that's rarely the case. Here, it's about having a good time together without the expense of someone and more Americans should learn from the Australians.

But the mutual respect for everyone is by far the most impressive thing I’ve witnessed.

I saw a group of people helping out a friend that was completely wasted, putting wet towels on the back of someone's neck while that person's crouched over a toilet. Back in the states, a Sharpie would've found that person's face.

I saw partiers respecting students that needed to study and not peer pressuring them into partying. People also stayed out of their rooms to give them privacy and found other places to rage.

Everyone always had designated drivers, traveled safely in groups and chipped in for cab fares and drinks immediately.

Everything I've pointed out roots from having respect for each other. Who can drink the most, score the best in competitions, wearing the hottest brands or having the most money is valued far less here than the States.

It was about respecting one another and what everyone brings to the table, and it was refreshing.

Now I'm probably making it sound like Americans are horrible, but that is not my intent. It's just that, in my honest opinion, more Australians are respectful and friendly and the American culture can definitely learn a thing or two.

I truly had a trip of a lifetime. I have to thank the St. Bonaventure Study Abroad office - especially Alice and Sarah - and everyone else that recommended Bond.

And as a personal thank you to everyone I've met at the NUG, I directed and produced a video titled "Shenanigans in Toowoomba." I'm glad I brought a camera, but disappointed I didn't bring a charger and got more footage.

This video, however, has a lot of alcohol drinking and curse words (if I had to rate it like a movie, it's a PG-13, leaning towards R). It accurately describes the NUG experience, but may not be suitable for children.

Hope you guys enjoy!

[Photo courtesy of Andrew Galligan]

Tony in Australia: Ketchup

2010-06-08T04:48:00.006-04:00

I could've asked, "Do you guys have ketchup?" but instead decided to search for the red bottle alone.

After 10 minutes of failed search and some-what convinced Australia doesn't have ketchup, I decided to man up and ask.

"G'day, mate," said the cashier.

I said, "Do y'all have ketchup?" and got a blank look back with a "Pardon?"

That's because it's called tomato sauce here.

It wasn't culture shock, but it's pretty cool.

What's even more interesting is it comes in a package similar to individual jam and butter packaging found at restaurants, but minus the easy opening (eventually I found you grab the ends and pinch like you would with a lemon and ketchup squirts out).

Getting food is like an adventure down here, and I love it.

I even ordered Dominos online and the choices of pizzas was overwhelming. There were over 20 specialty pizzas and besides Hawaiian, Supreme and Pepporoni, everything was different.

They even had health-concious, under 400 calories pizzas, pastas and salads. And of course I didn't order from that menu!

I instead ordered cheesy garlic bread and half and half of spicy peppers and chicken, feta cheese and tomato pizza.

Though I used anecdotal examples to explain slight cultural differences, I still think it's ridicously cool when I discover these nuances.

This study abroad experience has taught me that even English is unique to its own environment.

As an aspiring journalist and writer, it was eye opening to realize there are a million ways to say the same thing.

Also, french fries are called chips (as in fish and chips), bathrooms are called toilets and trash is called rubbish here.

Calling your professor "professor" is like calling your math tutor the dean of science, footy ball is Australian version of rugby and "getting sorted out" is someone setting me straight.

I know this is part of the study abroad, and I'm enjoying every bit of this experience.

Tony in Australia: Where did my money go?

2010-05-27T01:03:00.007-04:00

Tuition money? Check. Plane ticket? Check. Spending cash? Check.

Food money? Uh, whoops.

While I budgeted from buying textbooks to buying a ticket to see a kangaroo, I failed to plan for Australia's standard of living.

And two weeks in, I'm starting to pay for it -- pun intended.

Everything from a cup of coffee to a fast-food meal costs 75 percent more here than back in the United States. Even a bottled water can be a $3 investment.

Then the $1.80 one-way bus rides, snacks and meals, a 40-percent-more-expensive MacBook Pro charger, golfing, taxi rides and nights out started adding up.

After staring at the credit card charges -- which also has an international transaction fee -- I realized not seeing a kangaroo because of poor budgeting might be a possibility.

And nothing straightens out your priorities like not having money to see a kangaroo.

Luckily, I caught this trend early and committed to a couple lifestyle changes. I hope this blog raised awareness about budget managing overseas and no one else lets it get out of hand like I did.

First change is always having a full thermos. This saved me from countless $2.50 water bottles and $2 sodas that are about 40 percent smaller than U.S. plastic bottles.

Another is avoid buying coffee or snacks by caring food purchased from grocery stores. $6.50 for a muffin and a small coffee is a deal here. $6.50 gets me high cholesterol and a full stomach at a U.S. fast food restaurant.

Third is know the bus system. A 10-minute taxi ride can be $24.10 compared to a $2, 15-minute bus ride.

But most importantly, stock up on groceries like a bear preparing for hibernation and know how to cook.

For about $20, I've cooked this delicious (and extremely fulfilling) chicken-vegetable stir fry with sliced apples and spicy chilly sauce twice. For $5, you can cook a carne asada quesadilla with avocado and sun-dried tomatoes.

Even food ingredients cost more here, but three meals and leftovers roughly costs the same as a 10-minute taxi ride or 20 percent of my weekly rent in Australia.

I wonder if the expression "food for thought" came from this example?

I'm ashamed to release the difference between the first and second week's spending, but let's just say seeing a kangaroo is an option again.

Also, the best way to pad your budget, and trust me it pains me to admit it, is studying. After all, students are studying abroad and not playing abroad.

Don't be consumed by the glamor of being at a new country. There are literally hundreds of new things you could try, but make sure you know what the most financially responsible way to do it is.

Jess in Ireland: Amsterdam

2010-05-22T07:19:00.010-04:00

Amsterdam. Possibly the city known for sin, even more than our own Las Vegas. Where most cities try to hide the sex, drugs and capitalism; Amsterdam made a tourist bonanza out of it. University students all over the world spend holiday in the infamous Red Light District, and after my visit there I can see why.

I took a 10-hour over-night train from Munich to Amsterdam. It was expensive, but worth it. It dropped Bridget and I at the center station, which was just a few blocks from our hostel. The Youth Hostel Meetingpoint was... disgusting. It had great security, a bar with snack food available all night and was cheap. Unfortunately, the carpet was coated in human hair. Practically made of it. The showers had no ventilation, were slimy feeling and had no hot water or water pressure. I'm just glad I got out of it without bed bugs!

Besides that, it had a great location. It was located in the first district of the Red Light District, which is made of 4 separate districts. The first district is made of munchy food stops, coffee shops and sex toy shops. The second and third district have many of the infamous windows filled with a variety of girls.

Once you get over the shock of seeing women half naked/naked in windows you can really appreciate the unusual experience Amsterdam offers.

Europeans often look across the pond at our easy acceptance of violence as wrong. We hide sex, or make it dirty. We hide the human body. I tend to lean to the more European view. America's casual reference to violence in the media is more disturbing to me than the naked body. On the TV in Ireland one of the shows my roommates and I loved to watch was a health series dedicated to educating people on a variety of health issues. Censoring is so different across the pond that the show was able to show the human body entirely in the context of showing you what to look for disease/infection.

* Because of the strict policy and belief that the girls' privacy is sacred, photos are not allowed to be taken in many areas of the city. So I don't have many photos.

Just like in Munich, I took a 3-hour walking tour of the city. There I learned history about architecture, the plague and funny little stories about the tour guides own experience in the city. I learned that all of the buildings were built to tilt forward on purpose. Due to to how high and narrow they are, and the silt underneath, this allows movement. All of the buildings at the very top have a large pole that sticks 5-feet away from the building. At the end of the pole is a pulley system. This allows people to move heavy/large objects in the narrow doored/stairs into the building. The buildings are also tilted to insure that any object being pulled up will not crash, scratch or scrape along the buildings exterior. Our tour guide told us that while he was taking a tour through the city they stopped to watch a man and wife pull a new stove into the house. It seems the wife was in a mood and kept harping at her husband while he was pulling the stove up. He was so distracted from his job of pulling the stove up the side of the building that he accidentally let go of the rope. Resulting in their brand new stove falling 4-stories to the ground below. No one was hurt, but I'm sure the husband got an even greater ear full afterward!

Here is a picture of a front tilted building along the canal -

When the plague hit Amsterdam and relentlessly infected the population built upon canals, the people decided that cats were to blame. So, they killed off almost the entire population of cats. A very bad idea, because rats, the true carriers of the plague breed rampart and infected even more of the population. The people realized their mistake after two more years of the plague, and decided to ship in hundreds of cats from France and Spain. My tour guide joked that they all spoke with French and Spanish accents now, but, what I found most amusing was how cats were allowed to wander in and out of business in today's world. Every store I went into, every restaurant and every coffee house had their own cat! The cats were just allowed, and encouraged to walk around. As a cat person I loved this!

I learned that when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded and took over Amsterdam he gave the city to his brother. Upon doing this, Louis Bonaparte made the quarter, where the Dutch Royal Palace is, very French in architectural design. He built over everything, and upon his introduction to the people of Amsterdam he learned one piece of Dutch. He tried to say. "Amsterdam, I am your king!" What he actually ended up saying was, "Amsterdam, I am your duck!" No wonder Napoleon removed Louis from Amsterdam and gave Holland to someone else after only Louis ruled it for only one year.

Posing at the 'I am Amsterdam' statue was the last little bit of my trip there. I wasn't there for long, but Amsterdam definitely gave me a different view to think about. Here is also a photo of the canals!

Tony in Australia: Week 1

2010-05-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

I thought about how to describe the aesthetically stunning campus, fully loaded iMacs, incredible educational facilities and Australian nightlife into a concise, opening paragraph.

After countless revisions, this is what I came up with.

Holy cow.

That phrase sums up the jaw-dropping, wide-eyed look I've had during the first week at Bond University because everything about the school and Australia left me dumbfounded.

But first and foremost, I am studying abroad, which means getting an education is the No. 1 priority.

Interesting thing about Bond is that even though lectures have over 100 students, the tutorials -- a part two, interactive class that compliments a lecture -- have anywhere from five to 12 students.

Even though Bond is slightly less than 9,400 miles away, the tute's one-to-one-teaching atmosphere reminds me a bit of Bonaventure.

Bond also uses an unique teaching style that heavily incorporates research and Web-based class participation, and I absolutely love it.

After talking to one of my professors, she said one of the reasons that she loves teaching here is Bond's willingness to adjust to the modern world's needs. If that means debating why a certain YouTube clip has over 3 million clicks and what an advertising agency can learn from it, then so be it.

That's right. For three out of four classes, I've spent three hours surfing the Web and researching (and referencing) from the most up-to-date textbooks -- the Internet.

After finishing a lecture or tute, I'm greeted by a campus too beautiful for words (A little side note: I'm working on a photography project that I hope to display somewhere near or at Bonaventure. More details will be revealed later).

By the way, that picture above is a self-portrait under the campus archway about two-and-a-half-Devereux-Halls high.

I can also stop by the state-of-the-art campus gym, the multi-tiered library with as many books as computers or the cafeteria where a 10-ounce steak with trimmings costs only $15.

For fun, it's a short bus ride to Surfers Paradise where there are literally as many clubs in a four-minute walking area than the Las Vegas strip. Clubs are open until 5 a.m. and on Sundays, too.

If daytime fun is more your thing, then you'll love Surfers Paradise's beach that stretches across the entire city or the Robina Town Center, which is a mall bigger than Bonaventure's campus.

Like I said. Holy cow.

Combine that with incredible weather, legal drinking age of 18 and 4,000 other college students, I'm completely overwhelmed in a good way.

However, it's Friday night, and I'm working on an assignment due next Tuesday. The last thing I want to do is fall behind and miss out on everything Australia has to offer.

But my Monday class doesn't start until noon. Who knows? A Sunday nighttime fun might be a possibility.

Seriously, somebody pinch me.

Emily (not in Spain anymore): Home

2010-05-19T01:12:00.002-04:00

Well, folks, the journey ends here. My semester abroad has ended and I am officially home.

I feel a little lost now. I have just accomplished one of my major life goals. Where do I go from here? I need to occupy the heck out of myself.

As you may have read, the goodbyes to Carmen were terrible. Friday night was so sad. I was hoping Saturday morning would not be as bad, but it was worse.

Megan and I lied in bed Friday night, looking around our room that wasn't ours anymore. Everything was packed up and we may as well have already been out of there. I got about three hours of sleep.

We woke up at 4 a.m. to start getting ready to leave. Carmen called a cab to get us at 4:45. She walked outside with us as the driver packed all of our bags. Carmen stood in between Megan and I, holding each of our hands until the driver was ready. "As long as I'm in good health, you can always come back," she told us. She saw us into the car and then bent over to peek into the windows at us as the driver prepared to pull away. We were all crying.

As the taxi drove us up Almirante Topete for our very last time, we stared out the back window at Carmen and waved to her, as she stood in the middle of the empty road waving to us until we could no longer see each other.

It was like saying goodbye to a stand-in mother or grandmother who you had gotten so close to, and who you weren't sure you would ever see again. Quite literally, it was awful. But all I could think of is how lucky we were to have been with a woman who made leaving so awful.

Carmen called me a few hours later (around 6:15) once we were through security to see how we had gotten through. That was the last time I have spoken to her since then, but I think about her every day. I am going to write her a letter and include pictures once I print them off. She does not have a computer or e-mail address.

I am happy to be home, but when I think about her, I get very sad.

My semester in Sevilla was everything I'd hoped for and more. I know that city now. I lived and breathed it for four months. I walked by the same shop owners every day, ordered toast from the same waitress, and saw the same people walking their dogs. I learned the ins and outs of the language, the differences between Andalucian Spanish and the rest of Spain's Spanish. I learned how Franco changed Spain, and how King Juan Carlos changed it again. I have gotten to know real people and real families, and have learned that people really are all the same.

I do not know what I want to do with my life, but I feel more confident now, with anything. Living in Europe was a thrilling experience. I've done so many thing I never imagined I would do. I am so blessed to have been able to have this opportunity. Study abroad should be a requirement for students! It has enriched me further than any class I have taken in my life.

For all my faithful readers: thank you! Your questions helped me appreciate my semester and I wrote better blogs knowing that people out there were reading them.

So for the last time, hasta luego, everybody! It's been real.

P.S.-- This blogging has gotten addicting! I decided to create my own separate blog about my life as a 20-something college student, trying to make a name for myself. Check it out at thewannabeglamgirl@blogspot.com

Jess in Ireland: Still here

2010-05-18T05:57:00.002-04:00

I'm still here in Ireland for the next two weeks. Technically, finals are able to be scheduled until May 31. To prevent having to reschedule my flight, and pay a huge fine I made my flight for June 1st. I have no more finals, my parents left and I have the apartment to myself. So here is for the good times!

Tony in Australia: Settling in

2010-05-17T16:06:00.007-04:00

It's been two days in Australia, and I'm in love.

Despite arriving Sunday afternoon in Gold Coast, I walked the beach at Surfers Paradise, "pass the piss," shopped at an incredible shopping mall, chilled at a night club until 4 a.m. and gambled at the Jupiter Casino.

Then on Monday afternoon, I attended a lecture at Bond University -- which may be the most gorgeous place in the world, and I'm not just talking about the architecture.

I know; I'm pinching myself to see if this is a dream, too.

The reason for the seemingly effortless transition is the Australian community. They have been warmer than the summer weather back home to ease this study abroad opportunity.

Plus, anything sounds sexy, comforting, amazing, sexy and sexy in an Australian accent.

Adjusting to the time change, unpacking, learning the bus routes and navigating a campus about six-times bigger than Bonaventure will be a struggle, but when your campus looks like this...

...how can you complain about being in paradise?

The welcoming to Bond has been better than imagined. Here's to hoping the next two-and-a-half months will be just like the last 36 hours.

I'll keep updating this journey here and on my Twitter and tumblr accounts.

Cheers, mate!

[Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org]

Jess in Ireland: A trip to Munchen! (Munich)

2010-05-17T05:46:00.013-04:00

My trip to Munchen, or Munich, the anglo-saxon translation, was an exciting whirl-wind event. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, but the capitol of the regional territory of Bavaria. The two days I spent there was packed full of history, funny folklore, regional beer at the traditional beer halls, and the best shower I have had my whole semester in Europe!

Flying to London, and from London to an airport far outside of Munich was the cheapest way to go, followed by a bus into the city center that stopped at the main train/bus station. The hostel I chose for my trip there, the Euro Youth Hostel, was a perfect match! It was close to the station, the ending location for a Beer Tour (explained later), pretty cheap at 12 euro for a Friday night, very clean, great security and the BEST shower I've had in Europe!

You don't understand how excited I am to take an American shower once I get home. The water heater in my apartment lasts 12-minutes, and requires you to turn a knob that "boosts" the system to get that 12-minute shower. That normally isn't an issue, but every once in a while a girl just needs to drown herself in a hot shower to contemplate life - that doesn't happen here! Anywhooo, the showers at the hostel were hot, clean, great water pressure and didn't run out of water!

The rest of that day was pretty much a bust after traveling all day, so Bridget, my roommate, and I decided to eat a late dinner and crash so we would be able to get up early the next day.

First thing on the agenda, a 3-hour walking tour of the city! Almost every city in Europe has a free, 3-hour walking tour offered. It is a great opporunity to learn about the history, folklore and traditions of the city. The company that runs them (I can't remember the name) employs college graduates who have moved to the city because they love it. I've taken tours with this company before and ever single tour guide is young, funny, energetic and full of stories. Our tour guide was Anna, a native or Florida who moved to Munich to complete her masters in german history. She is fluent in german, german by heritage and loves the city.

The tour started at 9:30 at the Marienplatz, the city center of Munich that was used for market, executions and home to the Glockenspiel. The Marienplatz is beautiful. Full of gothic architecture it was one of the few buildings of Munich that survived the bombings of World War II. It survived because a) it was too beautiful to knock down and b) it provided and air marker to identify the cities location to pilots so they may bomb it.

The Glockenspiel is a percussion instrument, with three levels of turning figurines. The first level portrays revelers at a festival drinking beer and dancing. The second level is of a jousting tournament between a german man and a french man; they go around three times and on the third round the french man is unhorsed. The third, and final level, is of a king and queen drinking, what else, but beer. On the very top of the chimned clock is an owl, that on the final bell waddles forward and whoots once. All of this lasts a good ten minutes, and it is no wonder the Glockenspiel is rated the #1 most boring tourist event of Europe. It is BORING! However, when in Germany...

In the very center of the Marienplatz square is the column of Saint Mary. Built at the end of a war in 1638, it signifies the cities survival. The statue is pure gold. At the very base of the column, on each corner is a putti (statue). Each putti symbolizes the cities overcoming of the four great fears of the time - war, pestilence, hunger and heresy.

After leaving the Marienplatz, Anna, our tour guide, walked us through the city telling us much of the history. We learned about WW II, the stein, plague, religion and so much more. Munich is a completely rebuilt city. After WW II and the bombings almost nothing stood, and countless gothic buildings full of history were destroyed. Suspecting this would happen, the people of Munich went around the city before the bombings, and took thousands of pictures of thier home so it could be rebuilt to its original glory.

Before WW II Munich had a large Jewish community. In 1932, Adolf Hitler was given a reason to pin his hatred on this community. One Jewish man struck a member of Hitler's military, who fell and cracked his head open upon the street. This gave cause to a massive outright execution of all of the Jewish people within the city walls. Out of the approximate 1500 Jewish men, women and children in the city, 600 went to nearby concentration camps. 800 were murdered.

A nearby Catholic community learned of the planned massacre a day before it was to occur. Led by a priest they went to the local temple and warned them of what was to happen. Too dangerous to help them much more, the priest offered to take all religious relics and documents from the temple and put them into hiding. They promised and succeeded in returning these religious artifacts to what remained of the Jewish community in Munich after the end of WW II.
However, the Catholic church this community belonged to did not survive the air raids.

Fifteen years after WW II, the Catholic community was still trying to gain enough donations to rebuild its church. The Jewish Temple had already been rebuilt, subsidized by the government. However, the church was forced to attain donations, and during the hard economic times, few were able to donate enough to get the project in gear. In thanks for saving their communities religious relics and documents, the Jewish community donated enough money to help rebuild the Catholic Church. To this day, on the painted ceiling of the Catholic Church, there are symbols for each group who donated money to rebuild the church Up there, in gold paint, repeated throughout the church is a minorah. A symbol forever of the bonds of humanity surviving tragedy together, despite differences.

On the lighter side of the city's history, many of the arch ways are pictured to have a friar with outstreatch arms. In one is a bible, and the other is pointing. Locals will tell you, with a devilish smile, that he points to the local beer hall. This is not the case, however great that would be. The friar points to St. Mary's column, the very center point of the city.

At this point in the tour we have come upon numerous Catholic Churches. Each one has a story to tell. A quick run down - one claims to hold the devil's foot print. Turns out to just be the architects foot print, and a really cool local story. Another one holds a beer stein claiming to be a religious relic. Supposedly the cross at the top of the church fell down, and upon one brave man climbing up the tower, and replacing the cross, he pulled out a stein and drank deeply. After drinking the man threw down the glass stein to the street, and supposedly it did not shatter on the cobblestones. It is now considered to be a religious item - nevermind that when the man replaced the cross to its rightfull location, he put it on wrong, and it points the opposite direction of all the other crosses in the city. Another church fails to advertise its stories, but it does have an intrigueing sign across the entrances -

I get 1,2,3 and 5 - pretty standard. But, the fourth one to the right is a new one for me. There has got to be a story there, and that is all I am going to say about it.

After this the tour took a 15-minute lunch break, and Anna recommended a place to get a traditional quick german meal. I got a bratwurst with mustard on a hard crusted roll, and a beer, for 5 euro total. It was great! Munich has no open container law, so while walking the streets you will see many people on their lunch breaks walking with a drink in hand. The city asks you to be respectful, know your limits and place all glass containers on the outside of trash bins for recycling and returns purposes. Talking about this lunch is making me miss it. The spicy bratwurst was delicious, and the beer washed it down so well on the warm afternoon.

After the tour, Bridget and I did some shopping and wandered the city. We had a 10:30 p.m. train to Amsterdam to catch directly after a beer tour at 6:30 p.m. The train to Amsterdam was easily the most expensive transporation of the trip. It cost us 150 euro! Oh well. Back to the beer tour.

The free walking tour company offers a variety of tours that you must pay for as well. Bridget and I decided to take the beer tour. It cost 13 euro, went to four beer halls and gave you two free drinks. It ended at our hostel, which was conveniently across from the station in a familiar area of the city, since we had to catch a train at 10:30 p.m.

The first stop of the beer tour was outside the Hofbrauhaus, easily the most famous beer hall in Germany. You drink from beer steins, hear traditional music and meet lots of people. I tried the traditional beer. I have to say that steins - especially when full, are really heavy to lift. I don't know how people drink out of them once they have had a couple of them. The beer was really good, but couldn't compare to a Guinness. :)

After the Hofbrauhaus we went to a new beer hall and tried Augustina. I think if beer could be heavenly this would be it. It is called the "Pope's beer." Augustina, is Pope Benedict XVI's favorite beer. Originally from Bavaria, Pope Benedict get this brew specially delivered to him occasionally. True Bavarian beer has no preservatives in it, from a edict in the 16th century which still holds today. This means it cannot be sent out beyond its borders for any length of time, or shipped out in massive quantities. So, the Pope has it specially delivered to him by plane. I have to say, Pope Benedict has great taste. I think Augustina is the best beer I have ever had, and I'm sad I will never taste it again.

I also tried Paulina - can't say I was a fan. So I gave my half a liter to a fellow member of the beer tour. It was an amazing group to have this experience with, and I loved meeting all of them. There was a guy from Canada, a sister and brother from California, a guy from Denver and a sister and brother from Spain in our group. They were all so funny, and I wish I could have spent more time with all of them.

Too soon however, Bridget and I had to rush off to catch our train. Goodbye Munich and hello Amsterdam!

Emily in Spain: Crying my eyes out

2010-05-14T17:28:00.003-04:00

That is what I am currently doing. Today was my last day in Spain. The words finally are real now. I knew this day was coming and kept throwing around numbers, but it didn't sink in until today.

I had a great day enjoying the city with Megan and Kevin and spending a few last meals with Carmen. She has been an integral part of my enjoying Sevilla so much. After dinner her daughter and family came in to say goodbye and the tears started. Little Patricia and the rest of the kids.

Megan and I wrote Carmen letters for the things we wouldn't be able to tell her without crying. We passed the night talking, laughing, crying.. I felt like I was going in and out of hysterics.

I keep crying and just thinking, how blessed am I to have lived with a woman so wonderful who is making it so hard for me to leave her. What a gift I have lived with this semester. Carmen is just wonderful and I am going to miss her so much. This process would be so much easier if I knew I would see her again. She came into our room and seemed so sad about it being empty, and told us that when we grow up and have kids we can take the family back to visit her. Oh I am just bawling. You guys have truly seen it all in this blog now.

I will write one last post when I get home about my whole experience here. It has changed my life. I feel confident to do anything now. Like the eccentric Judy Cotter says, you have to have some "cojones" once in a while and this semester gave me my cojones.

A part of me will forever be in Sevilla.

Thank you to everyone who has read this blog. I hope I could teach you a little about this wonderful place.

It is midnight now and I am going to get a little sleep before getting up at 4 a.m. to catch my 7 a.m. flight to Madrid.

Hasta luego, amigos!

Emily in Spain: Jlkfivioiluki Volcano

2010-05-11T16:58:00.002-04:00

...or something like that.

Anyways, airports in Seville were closed today due to the ash cloud being above us. For some reason I thought the ash cloud being above us would make everything look gray and like the Wizard of Oz. It looked like a regular, old day though.

Honestly, I am kind of hoping the guy sticks around through tomorrow or something and then has another country to ruin over the weekend. I am worried that if the cloud leaves Spain over night there is still time for it to come back and ruin my flight home.

If that is the case, obviously, there is nothing I can do. I got my housing deposit back yesterday and my 2.5 week paycheck for Gabriela today. I was planning on turning that money into dollar$ on the way back home but if I get stuck I will drink wine in the airport and buy myself a nice meal. What else can you do, really?

Three days left in Spain. I packed my whole carry-on today after my final. I fit all my souvenirs in there and lots of clothes too! I hope it goes that easily for my big checked suitcase.

Tomorrow I am doing my last souvenir trip! Please e-mail me if there is anything I can pick up for anyone. I'd be happy to! sorokeee@bonaventure.edu

PS-- any Tweeters out there? Tweet me! EmilyESorokes :)

Hasta luego!

Emily in Spain: My first bullfight!

2010-05-10T07:45:00.003-04:00

*Disclaimer: This post is about bullfighting. I enjoyed it but others may not. Pictures are not gory but I know some are disturbed by this topic. I encourage you to still read the post and maybe learn something new!

Sunday (May 9) I went to my very first bullfight! It was the Real Maestranza Plaza de Toros de Sevilla. I surprised myself by really loving it!

I'll give a brief explanation of what goes down, and what Judy told us about it. There are three parts, about 5 minutes each. The whole thing goes really quickly. From start to end it is only 15 minutes or so per bull. Each torero gets two bulls per bullfight. The whole evening of bullfighting lasted about 2 hours.

It sounds like the bull is being tortured, which I guess I can't really argue, but think of it this way: bulls weigh 1000 pounds and the men are less than 200 pounds, so isn't it extraordinary that a man can learn such art and skillmanship that he can kill something 5x his size?

Watching the torero wave the cape and shout "ole!" for the bull to run through it was just amazing. The bulls sprint SO fast at the beginning. It's crazy the bullfighters don't die. Each section the bulls get more tired and slow down a little. It seems like a very natural process.

Also, bulls live the best lives. They are nurtured as soon as they are born. They graze the fields and can run around as much as they like, very contrary to how most cows are raised (locked in a tiny metal cage?). Lastly, if any of you have ever seen any of the PETA videos that show how animals are slaughtered, they are terrible. Not that PETA endorses bullfighting at all (ha..) but I am starting to be a believer that bullfighting is a good thing!

There are three toreros or matators per day. Each of them fights two times. I went to a "novillero" match, where the toreros aren't full matators yet. They are "novices" to bull fighting. The novices try extra hard to give a good show so the crowd will support them and help them get to a full matador. The novilleros I watched were Paco Chaves, 25; Patrick Oliver (French), 21; and Antonio Rosales, 21.

During his first match, Patrick Oliver got gored by the bull!! He was okay though. It is amazing how quickly the helpers or "ayudantes" come out to distract the bull so he doesn't nudge the torero with his horns.

The whole thing happened really quickly: Patrick got tossed into the air by the bull's horns and then landed on the ground and rolled away (as they are instructed to do) and then hobbled off to the corner. The picture that I have is Patrick bent over and the other guys are around him. He bent over for a long time and I thought maybe he was throwing up, but he was probably only on the side for a few minutes until he stood up straight and returned to finish the fight!! It was amazing. I would have been so scared.

The whole plaza. It was so pretty. I can only imagine how awesome it would be to go during the Feria when everyone is all dressed up. That would be so cool.

Here are all the toreros in the first line, and then their helpers behind them. They all did a little lap around the bullring at the beginning with everyone on each "team" if you can call it that: the toreros, the ayudantes, and the picadors.

When I got home I looked up the news story online and it actually got bad reviews, haha! After I had loved it so much! I guess the people thought it was boring. There were a lot of silent times during the fight when the toreros couldn't get the bulls to move through the cape. I still thought it was so cool though, and now I really want to go to a real one!

They have bullfighting in Latin America. Maybe someday I will go to one in Mexico City-- the largest bullring in the world!

Bullfighting is part of the final for Culture and Society. We have to memorize the parts and what everyone does. After seeing the corrida 6 times, I think it was a pretty good review for my final Wednesday.

Speaking of finals, one down and four to go! Woo!

Thanks for reading, everyone! sorokeee@bonaventure.edu if you have any questions. :)

Hasta luego!

Emily in Spain: Friday

2010-05-09T10:10:00.003-04:00

Friday was our last ICS field trip/ city visit to the Tio Pepe sherry wine bodegas in Jerez and then to the beach in Cadiz. It was so much fun! The winery was so pretty-- dim rooms filled with barrels of different types of wine. At the end of the tour we got a few glasses of the wine, too!

After that we went to the beach in Cadiz for the afternoon. It was quite windy but nice to be there one more time before we left. We got to just hang out, eat lunch, and enjoy the day.

Friday night We Love Spain hosted a party boat on the Guadalquivir from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m.! It was outrageous, ridiculous, and a ton of fun. There was only one bathroom for each gender, and I kid you not, I waited 45 minutes in line for the bathroom for ONE use. I probably spend about a total of 2 hours in line, at least, all night. I don't know if girls were doing drugs in there or what, but people literally took 5 minutes "going to the bathroom" in the single stall while there were 30 girls in line behind them.

I was worried I would get tired, but we were awake and having fun all night. There were drinks and music, and everyone had a really good time knowing this was the last weekend in Sevilla. Megan, Kevin, and I walked home after that and got to our apartments around 7 a.m. Crazy!

Time to start getting dressed for the bull fight. Crossing my fingers.

Hasta luego!

Emily

Emily in Spain: Less than a week

2010-05-09T10:04:00.003-04:00

This semester got busier and busier as it went on! I wish I could have posted more often during the second half but I managed to get myself into activities over here that kept me too busy.

Tonight I am actually going to a bull fight. I really did not think I was going to, but Judy's talk in Ronda a few weeks ago kind of talked me into it. The tickets I got are to a novice bull fighter, so they were cheaper, only 15 euros. I will not feel guilty leaving early if I need to but I heard they are actually better the longer you watch. The first one will be rough I'm sure but I am really trying to think of it as an art of the bullfighter and the energy from the crowd rather than torture.

We will see how I do.

One of my friends here went and she really loved it so I hope I am the same!

On another note.. that volcano better not spew any ash that goes any farther south than it already has. As of now Madrid airport is still open so I should be okay. I am PRAYING that it stays okay. Not that I am super antsy to get out of Spain, but it would be really quite rough to have anticipated leaving on May 15 for four months and then sleep in an airport until our flight got re-scheduled. So for any of you who are prayers, please say one for me!

Cannot believe my finals start tomorrow. This last week should be a nice time though. For the most part I only have one final a day so before/ after we are going to enjoy studying outside or in little cafes around the city. I am getting very nostalgic about saying my goodbyes to every spot I have grown to love.

All for now. I will post a blog about my awesome party boat experience soon!

Jess in Ireland: Family

2010-05-08T06:56:00.003-04:00

My parents and my Nana are here for the next 10 days to visit! I am so excited to see them.

In sad news however, two of my roommates left today to go back to Boston, and the last one will be leaving on Monday.

My parents coming to visit couldn't have come at a better time. Instead of 3 weeks alone in my apartment I will only have 2.

Emily in Spain: Last week of classes!

2010-05-06T13:25:00.002-04:00

My classes here in Sevilla are officially OVER!

Oh wait..

Juan Carlos, the man who cancelled class Monday, decided to re-schedule class for Monday during Finals Week because he did not cover all of the information for the final yet. Final is Wednesday. Could that be because after midterms he started history at the beginning of mankind?!?!? Yup, maybe.

Anyways, all of my other classes are over at least. Thank goodness!

Meeting with Gabriela went well this week. We stayed inside both days and she was 100x more focused. I did not get paid for last week or this week because her dad was away on business, so Tuesday, my last day, I hope to rake in the cash.

Speaking of her, funny story: I told her next week I was going back home and she asked, to England? I said no, to America! Her eyes got all big and surprised and then she pointed to the huge map on the wall and started saying, "With elephants? And lions?" and I realize she is pointing to Africa!!

I was like no no, not Africa, America! But the -ica must have tripped her up because the rest of the day she kept asking if I missed my parents, and that I am here all alone and they are in Africa, and if they speak English in Africa, and all this. I just kept laughing every time and tried to explain America!

Lunch today was.. great. Squid and potato stew, and additional roasted mushrooms. All of which, I imagine, tastes great for people who like those types of things. Ohh how I am craving some good American food.

Speaking of food, I get to eat my first meal back next Saturday!! Anyone have suggestions of what I should get? I am thinking pizza and subs, Chinese, or Mexican. I am particularly leaning to A&Js subs. Mouth is currently watering actually. And I made a deal with my mom and Olivia that they have to bring me homemade popcorn and/or white trash to the airport with them so I can eat it on the car ride home. :)

Sorry this blog has been all over the place. Sometime this weekend I will write one about the Cinco de Mayo and my overall blog for the semester, which is bound to be a lengthy one.

Thanks for reading, everyone!

Send me any suggestions, etc... sorokeee@bonaventure.edu

Hasta luego!

Jess in Ireland: Recycle

2010-05-04T09:51:00.002-04:00

Recycling is HUGE in Ireland. As renters, we will actually get fined if we do not seperate our trash and recycling properly in Niland House, and this is one of the most 'chill' places to live available in Galway.

As Niland House renters we must seperate glass from everything, our paper, plastic and cans must be seperated into a clear trashbag and then our trash - including food scrapes and food wrappers go into a black trashbag. On the ground floor there is a back door to a room filled with horse stall-styled enclosured rooms. Each of these rooms are labeled for a particular type of waste, and have large bins to throw your black or clear trashbags.

When you go grocery shopping you have to pay for bags, at 60 cents a piece. So, typically many people bring their own reusable bags, backpacks and sometimes even rolling suitcases to carry their groceries home. I use a backpack because I find it easier on the shoulders to carry my heavy items, and a large reusable Stop N' Shop bag. The reusable bag is used for items like bread and eggs that do not fit in my backpack.

Your food packaging will actually have comments such as "after enjoying... please remember to recycle and keep our environment clean...". Not to mention a frozen pizza package will also recommend making a salad to accompany it!

I really like many of these ideas Ireland's government has mandated. Recycling should be an important part of our daily lives. It should be a natural habit we don't even have to think about. I don't know your stance on global warming, if you believe in it or not, but, I think recycling makes sense either way. It is a healthy way to dispose of packaging and waste for an individual, while conserving resources and energy. Recycling just makes sense, and I love that it has become a natural part of the Irish way of life.

I hope the US makes thses changes as well. They are simple, and can only bring beneficial results. Leave you reusable bags in the car and bring them in with you when you go grocery shopping. Instead of using 20 plastic bags you can fit the same amount in 12 reusable bags. Reusable bags don't break - easier for the consumer, and they are easier for the bagger - I know, I've been one. Reusable bags prevent uneccesary waste in energy output and resource. The Irish (and many European nations) have enforced this change over the past 10 years by charging the consumer for using plastic bags. This is a great idea. 60 cents is not enough to break the bank if you forget your bags for a quick grocery run, however, it will get mighty expensive if you go every week to your weekly grocery shopping trip and keep forgetting them.

Emily in Spain: Lagos, Portugal

2010-05-03T16:04:00.009-04:00

I was feeling kind of sad about missing out on the best weekend at Bonas-- Spring Weekend. That was, until, I experienced my own Spring Weekend in Lagos, Portugal.

This picture above is from Saturday night. We watched the sunset at the "end of the world." It was pretty but SO windy up there! Pretty, and pretty chilly.

Friday night we spend the day at the beach after we arrived. We went out to dinner at a "Power Hour" restaurant with dinner and all-you-can-drink for 10 euros. Woo!

Then we went to Joe's Garage, the bar Discover Sevilla took us to. They gave you 5 drink tickets upon entering which could be used for beers, shots, or a large mixed drink. You can see which we chose!
Saturday we did one of the most fun things of the whole trip: the Bom Dia sangria grotto tour. We got onto this funky, cool sail boat around 3 p.m. and headed out to sea. The boat had cool music playing and bottomless cup sangria for the whole 2 hours! We sailed around the coast and then got into a smaller boat and toured the awesome grottos and little caves around the coastline! It was so much fun. After that we were able to swim out in the middle of the ocean! I was glad I had my bathing suit on and could do that. The water was cold but it was a once in a lifetime thing to do.

Me on the beach Saturday morning! Look at that blue water :).

My pictures got a little messed up here-- whoops!

That is one of the little caves that we toured around. We kept going in and out of different ones and it was just so awesome.

This is Megan and I on Friday afternoon, drinking sangria out on our porch! It was just me, Megan, and Kevin in our awesome hotel room. It had a bedroom, a living room with 2 couches, and a nice luxury kitchen! Plus we had a corner room so the balcony wrapped all the way around. So cool.

Bonas <3>

This trip was really SO much fun. I think it was one of the best parts of my studying abroad, actually! Everything was so relaxing and the Discover Sevilla guides really come to party, too. The whole thing felt like what I imagined spring break in Cancun would be like. Relaxing at the beach all day, having a good time at night! I am so glad that I got to do this all before I left Europe.

As for this week, I cannot believe it is my last week of classes! Next week is finals and Saturday I go HOME. Megan, Kevin and I have been making "bucket lists" for the things we need to do before we go home. We finished one and made another for finals week!

OH MAN and guess what?! You all remember Red Pants Man, right? Well, we heard from a previous study-abroader that Samantha Brown went to Sevilla and during her tour of the Parque Maria Louisa MET Red Pants and he told her (on her horse & buggy) his whole life story and then sang to her with his little guitar!!! I am praying that that re-run is on this summer when I am home. I would die. I encourage all of you to be on the lookout for it!

P.S.- As this semester winds down and I need to end my blogging soon, I am getting sad about finishing it! I know all of you only read it to read about my cool experiences over here, but I am thinking of making a new blog account just about my own, college-kid live. Any takers? Gimme your feedback! sorokeee@bonaventure.edu

Thanks for reading, everyone!

Happy Monday!

Chelsey (Austrlia)- Bond Student?

2010-04-30T07:51:00.002-04:00

I have to say that I have enjoyed being in Australia, and being a Bond student so much that I have applied to transfer here. I just revived my letter of acceptance. I am not fully sure of what I am going to do, but I know whatever I end up doing I will be happy. St. Bonaventure University and Bond University are amazing schools. This is going to be a hard choice. I am officially done and on my way home! I had the most amazing time that I will never forget!

Chelsey (Austrlia)- Sydney Trip

2010-04-30T07:50:00.001-04:00

Now, sadly, it is the end of my trip. Maria and me have been in Sydney for the past three days. We have been staying with my friend who lived down the hall from me at Bond University.

The first day we were here we went to Palm Beach. My friend took us on a lighthouse walk. It was a very long way up, and my sister was not happy about climbing up all of these rocks to get up there. However, when we got up there was could see three different beaches. Each of them didn’t have anybody on them. It was a sight that I thought only existed in magazines that tried to make a place look better. We went to the set of “Home and Away,” which is an Australian TV show.

The second day we did a “Hop on Hop off” bus. This bus runs all through out the city and took us to all the major spots. We had so much fun just going throughout the city and taking picture after picture. When we got hungry we ate at “Pancakes at the Rocks.” It is famous all over Sydney for the pancakes, and they did not disappoint. At the end of the day we came back to my friends house. My friend and her friends took me out to see the nightlife in Sydney, while my sister stayed home with my friend’s sister. It worked out nice because they were the same age.

The third day we did the “Hop on Hop off” bus again, but we took the route that took us to Bondi Beach. The sun didn’t want to come out, but that didn’t stop us. We were able to see all the beaches that Sydney is known for. Maria was able to meet up with a friend that she had met when she lived in Costa Rica, and they went out for a while.

That about wraps up my time in Sydney. Now, I am packing and on my way back to the United States of America!

Chelsey (In Australia) Cairns

2010-04-30T07:33:00.002-04:00

I’m done! I’m done! I’m done! So I am finally done with studying, essays, projects and exams! Now I am free to vacation! My sister, Maria, is with me still and we went to Cairns for a little break.

We stayed in a hostel, which ended up being very nice. The fist day that we were there we just got settled into our room and explored the city around us. We went out to eat to a place called Outback Jacks. Maria had wanted to get fish and chips the whole time we were here, so that ended up looking like a good place to get it. Then when we got back to the hostel we booked our next day. The second day that we were there, we went to the Great Barrier Reef! It was amazing! We woke up at 6:00 a.m. and got on a shuttle bus that took us from Cairns to Port Douglas. From Port Douglas we took a huge boat two hours to part of the reef. We were served breakfast and lunch on the boat. The boat made three different stops in the reef. We had ordered an underwater camera so we could take proper pictures while we were there. It might have been our best decision the whole day.

The third day we went bungy jumping! I did not want to go!!!!! But my sister has wanted to go for years, so I told her I would go with her. It ended up being so much fun, and so funny. I bought the DVD of my jumping off. You can see the fear in my face as the guy pushes me towards the end. Then we did a jungle swing. It is the fastest jungle swing in the world. It was a day of adrenalin.

The forth day we went on a tour in the mountains to see waterfalls and the rainforest. We were able to swim in the waterfalls and in a pure spring water river. The river water was filtered through the mountains, and the tour guide said it was drinkable but we didn’t drink it. We also saw an old castle that was made by a Spanish man. It was a beautiful and relaxing day.

Now we are off to Sydney.

Chelsey (In Australia) Sister is here!

2010-04-30T07:32:00.001-04:00

My sister, Maria, is here!!!!!!! It is getting close to the end of my stay here at Bond University and she has some to visit. I am so excited. There was a little bit of drama picking her up from the airport because my mom gave me the wrong flight information, and I did not think that Delta did not fly in Australia. So, when I got to the airport I could not find her. Finally she popped up and I have never seen a more beautiful face in my life. I thought I lost my baby sister. I took her back to Bond and introduced her to the Australian college way of life. It was a little hard to balance everything between studying for all of my finals and showing my sister around the Gold Coast. We have gone to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanguinary. It was the first time that I had ever really done any tourist type of things. When we first got there we had a huge dinner. During the dinner there was a baby crocodile that was brought around that we could hold. My sister was so excited to do it. All I did was take the pictures. I could not bring myself to even touch it. After dinner we went through the sanguinary. First we held a koala and got a picture taken. After, we went to see all the other animals. Then, we went to pet and feed the kangaroos! They were so friendlily. They would jump right next to you, and some would wrap their hands or paws (I’m not sure) around you. It was such a fun night! That was the biggest thing that we did. Other than that we went to the beaches and hung out around the university.

Emily in Spain: Heat wave!

2010-04-29T12:52:00.004-04:00

Those chilly, rainy February days are long gone. This week Sevilla has been under attack by the heat wave!

Monday I walked to El Centro after class to get some souveniers. The walk there was beautiful-- hot and sunny, and I had my iPod for background music. After searching Barrio Santa Cruz for the perfect pottery, buying it, and leaving with what felt like a 25-pound bag of gifts, I was definitely feelin' the heat.

The bedroom windows were thrown open, and the breezes were freely flowing into my room Monday. It felt great.

Tuesday was the same heat.

Wednesday Megan, Kevin and I went out to lunch (the kebab place was closed :( so we got Dominos instead haha because it was the closest place) and then went to Pedalquivir!

Pedalquivir (a mix of pedalboat and Guadalquivir-- how clever) is a really cool bar that floats on the river and rents out boats! I had gone there before for drinks and renting a boat always looked fun. I read that it was 15 euros to rent a boat, but ours was 20. Still not bad. We paid about 7 euros each for an hour trip.

This is yours truly with Calle Betis (bar street) in the background. It was such a beautiful day to float on the back of a pedal boat and dip my feet into Spain's Guadalquivir! If I had my bathing suit on and didn't have class and tutoring after, I may have just jumped in.

We had so much fun boating. I would definitely do it again. We might do it once more during finals week and bring some tintos de verano with us next time!!

After class (we made it from the beginning of mankind to Franco's dictatorship in 4 weeks! Impressive.) I went to tutor Gabriela again. Her mom met me at the door and said Gabriela was at the park and for me to meet her there.

When I arrived she was playing with her friends (in this crazy heat) and did not seem interested in speaking any English with me. I felt so awkward.. literally like the loner at the playground. I knew I was there to speak to her, so I tried to walk over and talk a little but she obviously just wanted to play with her friends! But then I felt guilty standing there watching her because her nanny was there watching her too, so it was really unnecessary for me to be there.

Eventually we went to another park and then home where she brightened up. I tell ya though, I was about to leave the park and come back another day!

Tomorrow I am going to Lagos, Portugal for a beach weekend :). I encourage you to Google Image search that up! It looks amazing. I am very excited.

Tonight I am trying to get a lot of work done in preparation for next week, when I have 2 papers due. Obviously I am going to be writing zero papers while in Lagos.

Will update more after my beach weekend!! Vivo la vida aqui. I live the life here.

Hasta luego! :)

Jess in Ireland: One month to go!

2010-04-26T18:42:00.003-04:00

I can't believe the one month mark is here! It doesn't seem possible that I have been in Ireland for the last four months. The cliche of 'the time goes by fast and you won't believe when it ends' is so true!

I have made so many friends here in Ireland and across Europe and it will be sad to say good bye. From Eammon, the Irish television producer, to Murphy, the Irish serviceman, and Rebecca, the Australian that is on a three month holiday! They were all so wonderful to me and made my trip an amazing experience I will never forget.

I can't name everyone I met in this blog post, the list would be too long, and I undoubtably would forget someone's name. However, they all have a special place in my heart and my memories. Of course Facebook friendships make staying connected easier than ever!

Emily in Spain: Another Day with Gabriela

2010-04-26T16:34:00.002-04:00

I don't know if you have noticed, but since the first week I tutored/ played with Gabriela in English, I have not mentioned her again since.

Well that is because I had not met with her again until this week!
Alan was here for Semana Santa, then Gabriela was sick, then my family was here, then it was the Feria! I was about to not even text Jaime and let him message me if he still even wanted me to come by, but I decided to text him and he said yes, I should come over.

So after class I met with Gabriela and we went to the park. It was part fun/ part me feeling guilty. I really tried to speak English to her most of the time, but sometimes I had to bust out the Spanish to show her I meant business!

Example: She wanted to go on the swings. There were only two. She literally got so close to the children swinging, she was about to get hit! I tried telling her to stand back and wait patiently but she was not having it. When she finally got a turn on the swings she wanted it to last all evening. There were parents and little kids waiting in line, so I was trying to get her off but she kept saying "No, it's better that I stay on!" Hmm.

Example 2: Children going down the slide. Gabriela decides she should go down on her belly. I just pictured her chin scraping the pavement and me having to take her home and explain I did not do a good job watching her. So she goes down on her belly, and then every child behind her wants to do that too! I was like, I gotta get outta here! Every parent in there must have been cursing me in their minds after their 2-year-olds were trying to slide down face first.

Other parents looked happy still, or somewhat, but I was embarassed that they all heard me speaking English to a child obviously speaking Spanish, and when I spoke Spanish to her I obviously could not speak it as well as the rest of the mothers. So, needless to say, it was a little awkward at times.

The rest of the time she was cute and it was kind of fun just jumping rope and playing outside to enjoy the weather!

As for the beginning of today...
I sweated my butt off walking to El Centro after class. I am really hating El Centro lately. The walk is out of control. I was able to get lots of cool pottery though, and for really cheap! Lots of those stores are so over-priced. I found a place I liked way back in February when I was finding Alan a hostel for Semana Santa and then never could find it again-- until today! So I got some nice pieces for family and friends and I can safely say, almost, that I am done souvenier shopping!

Watch I probably forgot to buy for like, my best friend or someone really important.. but I think I have all my bases covered. Hallelujah!

Time for reading and bed time.
Hasta luego!
Emily

Emily in Spain: Madrid-- Thurs. 22 to Sat. 24

2010-04-25T08:54:00.004-04:00

The second half of Feria week, I went to Madrid with Megan and Kevin. It was the most relaxing trip I have taken this whole semester! No guided tours, no schedule to keep up with, just the three of us touring by ourselves at our own pace.

This is Megan and I at the Plaza Mayor. It was build for Felipe III in 1620. So, it's quite old! There were lots of cafes all around the perimeter, as well as flamenco dancers, mime people, and artists. We watched a soccer game in a bar there Thursday night.

Friday morning we woke up and went to the Museo del Prado. It was really awesome. They have so many masterpieces there! The most exciting were Velazquez, Goya, and El Greco. I had learned about them in lots of different Spanish classes. "Las Meninas," considered by some the best painting ever made, surely was impressive.

And after the Prado...

McDonald's! Haha. I rarely eat fast food at home, but once I saw that McDonalds really were everywhere around the world, I had to feed into the international business... literally. Plus, it was a cheap meal. We actually ate really cheap the whole trip. We all really, really loved being able to choose what we were going to eat and when. Don't get me wrong, having a woman cook every meal for you is awesome, but it get's redundant. We're all missing our American food variety and getting an input on what goes into our mouths. This trip satisfied our craving for a while.

After lunch we walked to the Palacio Real. It was so impressive. It really reminded me of the movie "Marie Antoinette" with Kirstin Dunst, even though that took place in France. The castle was just huge with marble floors, linen on the walls, velvet carpets, lush furniture, harps and pianos in the rooms. One of those castles with a room for changing clothes, a room for conversation, a room for lunch. King Carlos and Queen Sofia still use the palace, but only for special occasions.

The museums only cost 3.50 and 4 Euros with our student ID cards, which was a huge plus. They were only about 8 and 6 Euros otherwise, but half price helped our pockets.

At night we hung out in our hostel room. Kevin was in a room wiht 3 other guys. Megan and I were supposed to have 1 or 2 other girls in our room but luckily had the room to ourselves!

If you notice in the picture Kevin is looking at his "watch." This hostel has the most Inspector Gadget-like room keys ever. These "go-gos" as we referred to them as, magnetically unlocked both your bedroom door and your locker just by pressing the watch face to the door knob. It was awesome, and strange.

Saturday we just walked around for a little while before taking the metro back to the bus station. This street is "Gran Via," is kind of like the Times Square of Madrid I guess. It was very metropolitan.

Well, now I'm off to hang out by the river with Megan and Kevin now.

Fireworks at midnight end the Feria tonight! I can't believe in 3 weeks I will be home.

Week of school, weekend at the beach in Portugal, week of school, beach and sherry tasting in Jerez, then finals and home. Crazy crazy crazy!!

Thanks for reading, everyone. :)

Hasta la vista, bebes.

Emily in Spain: La Feria de Sevilla

2010-04-25T07:39:00.005-04:00

Welcome to La Feria de Abril in Sevilla! The April Fair is two weeks after Semana Santa and is every single traditional thing that you think of when you think of Spain.

Everyone dresses in traditional flamenco dresses. Carmen helped Megan and I find the proper dress, hair comb, flower, shawl, and earrings, and told us exactly where to put them and how to wear them. She was not about to have her girls wear the un-proper clothing to the Feria. Believe me, I had to go out and buy all new accessories because she told me my first color (yellow) did not match turquoise.

This is called the portada. When the Feria begins Monday night at midnight, it begins with the lighting of the portada. Each year the portada is a different symbol of Sevilla. This NO8DO is a symbol of their town hall.

Due to that Jklovllolvlkoil Volcano (or something like that...) my parents got to be here for a part of the Feria!

Megan and I decided that the Feria would be the most amazing time ever if you, your friends, and your family all lived here. The key to the Feria is that there are private, graduation-party-like tents with free food and drink that you need to be invited to. Families and companies have tents where everyone dances and parties all day and night. Since we did not have a caseta to go to, the Feria got dull after a couple hours of walking around. There were a few public casetas, though.

When I say everyone dresses in flamenco clothing, I mean everyone. This was a group of women just randomly clapping and dancing the flamenco.

These little babies were just the cutest thing ever. Hopefully their mama didn't mind that I snapped a picture of them. How old can they be, 2?! Girls in strollers who couldn't even walk were wearing flamenco dresses. It's just out of control, and really neat to see.

Wednesday night was Kevin's 21st birthday! Unfortunately it wasn't as much of a big deal since the drinking age is 18 here. My brother, Adam, came out to the Feria with us to celebrate. Megan's blisters were so bad that she couldn't come! I think Kevin probably enjoyed having things the other way around though and having another guy instead of being the lone guy.

Cheers! "Rebujito" is the drink of the Feria. It is sherry/ manzanilla wine (strong!) and 7Up. Pretty much like a clear version of tinto de verano, my fave drink here (red wine and Fanta). We bought some pitchers of celebratory rebujito and then got churros to end the night.

My family went home the following day.. or tried to. They made it to Brussels and found out Heathrow was still closed, so got a flight to to DC and rented a car to drive home. Sheesh! Thank goodness they are home safe and sound now though. I am praying the ash cloud stays where it is or disappears before I go home! Our flight it from Madrid to Philadelphia, so no stops in the UK is hopefully a good thing.

Next blog: Madrid weekend! Stay tuned.

Emily in Spain: Ronda pictures

2010-04-25T07:12:00.003-04:00

Here are my long overdue pictures from Ronda! I believe I already gave a brief blog. This is the bullring-- the oldest in Spain.

This is the old Roman bridge and gorge. We hiked around the paths and it was really fun, and luckily it was warm and sunny, too! Legend has it that one of Judy's students actually fell down into the gorge before and survived with nothing more than a few broken bones.

Emily in Spain: Tomorrow, I promise!

2010-04-24T19:16:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow's blog(s) will entail:

- trip to Ronda
- my family's visit to Sevilla
-the Feria de Abril
-Megan, Kevin, and my weekend in Madrid

Sorry for the slacking.
Hasta luego, amigos!

Jess in Ireland: Volcanic Ash

2010-04-21T07:27:00.002-04:00

Luckily I really haven't been affected in any way by the volcanic ash. So far the only way it has affected me personally is a package I expected to receive over a week ago hasn't come in yet.

Unfortunately, that is not the case for two of my roommates. Traveling to Rome, Venice, Florence, Barcelona, Sevilla and a few other locations they have been trapped in Barcelona for over a week! They expected to end their Spring Break on Thursday last week, unfortunately, flights started getting canceled due to the volcano erupting in Iceland and the ash finally making its way to the UK. Flights are still not going through so they decided to spend the money and take multiple buses and a few ferries. It cost them almost $500 to get home from their Spring Break! I think if it was me I would have decided just to chill out in whatever city I was in until the flights were back up and running but, I also have finish all of my finals until May 5th. So they isn't any really pressure for me to be in Galway.

Well they just got home and I am sure they love that they are back in their own beds again.

Emily in Spain: Woah!

2010-04-18T19:23:00.002-04:00

Crazy week! I don't have much time to write but I thought I'd say:

- I bought a used flamenco dress for 25 euros! Such a steal. I am excited for the Feria! It starts tomorrow at midnight! Cannot believe it is here already. This semester is almost over!

- Had a nice visit with my family.. and they get to stay even longer due to the volcano in Iceland!! Yep. My parents and brother were supposed to fly out early this morning but are delayed until Thursday. Tomorrow and Tuesday they will stay in Sevilla, get a taste of the Feria, and then (hopefully!) fly out early Thursday morning. I read online that supposedly the ash really does not affect flights so maybe that will give a head start to all these backups! Rather safe than sorry with the ash thing though. I think they are doing the right thing by waiting!

Hope I can write more later!
Thanks for reading!

Jess in Ireland: Pub Life

2010-04-18T15:11:00.003-04:00

Haha It couldn't be helped. If you're staying in Ireland one of the major aspects of life is the pub. Pubs are not bars. To understand the Irish you must make sure that you know and understand the difference. Pubs are not one room affairs with a smoked riddled bar in the front. They are not the place you go just because you are drunk, they are the place you go for company, for music and to meet your friends for friendly conversation over a few pints.

Yes, drunkness happens in these places. But, pubs are more about the company. Going to a pub allows you to meet so many new people. When I go into a pub I end up talking to people ranging from their 20s all the way to the 60s, and in Ireland that is not odd. Last weekend, I had a lovely conversation with two older gals, and after I continued to drink with my friend and coworkers that he introduced to me that night.

In Galway there are 97 different pubs. Each of them has their own style and taste and it is fun to explore the different kinds of people they attract. You can stay on the cobblestones for some of the more famous and expensive pubs or you can travel off Shop and Quays Street to find a cheaper pint. The variety of people that you end up talking to in a night is amazing and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Pubs in a small town are different than in Galway but they are both still centered around talking to people. In a small town of possibly one or two pubs you can find parents trying to get their children to eat their vegetables while they talk with their neighbors over a drink. You can find craggy old men debating the upcoming horse racing season (horse racing is very popular in Ireland). Don't forget the live music scene! From top 40 to classic rock and off course the Irish ballads the Irish certainly love their music!

I am going to miss being able to walk 5-minutes down the road in either direction and find myself at a pub. I am going to miss being able to talk to so many people without anyone thinking it is odd or stange that yes, some random girl started to talk to you and she isn't going to mug you. Galway is the safest city in Ireland and the Irish are some of the most friendly souls I have ever met. I am going to miss Galway and all of the new friends I have made here.

Jess in Ireland: Easter

2010-04-13T09:10:00.002-04:00

Celebrating Easter in one of the most Catholic countries in the world was an interesting experience. Much of it was familiar due to my Catholic upbringing but some traditions were new.

To start, on Good Friday every business was closed except one emergency pharmacy that one of my roommates parents found (they were visiting for the week). Everything being closed caused a problem when I realized due to traveling recently I had almost no food!

On Saturday a few of the local businesses were open for very limited hours. I believe everything closed by 4 p.m. The grocery store and the Saturday market was filled with tourists and mothers everywhere trying to prepare for the large family Easter meal they were about to cook the next day.

Easter Sunday had my roommates and I, and Angela's parents walking to the Cathedral for mass. It was a shorter service than I expected after experiencing how long mass can run on holy days at my local parish. It was beautiful ceremony and after we grabbed breakfast from a local cafe.

Changing out of my Easter clothes I finished the day off alone because my roommates left for Rome, Florence, Barcelona, Milan, Venice and Sevilla. They have been gone for about 10 days and I don't expect them home for about another 5. I was surprisingly productive though and wrote about 800 words on my final paper for my Literature and Culture: (Post) Modernism class.

A week before Easter I was talking to some of the home students (someone who truly attends the university/Irish student) about Easter. When I mentioned that I had been looking for an egg coloring kit or dye for eggs they asked me if I had fallen on my head recently. Apparently, colorings and hard boiling your eggs for Easter is just an American thing. Instead, when the Irish talk of getting an Easter egg they get an eight inch tall chocolate egg!

Emily in Spain: 5 more weeks!

2010-04-11T05:40:00.002-04:00

Time is really winding down here. I can't believe we only have five more weeks until we leave for the U.S.!

Friday we took a field trip to Ronda. I have not uploaded photos yet but will do so soon. They have a really awesome Roman bridge there that goes over a pretty gorge on the side of a hill. We were able to hike all around and get some cool pictures! They also have the oldest bullring in Spain, so we got to see that.

Judy Cotter, a really eccentric American woman who teaches here, gave us a presentation on bull fighting. She explained how she didn't like it at first but then learned more and appreciated the art of it and how the life of a bull is really way better than the life of any other type of livestock, etc.

So she kind of talked us into going to see one while we were here. This week we may go get (the cheapest) tickets to see a bull fight.

Megan and I tried to book a trip to Portugal for the weekend of April 30 to May 2, and we were so excited, but then we both got emails saying our cards had been denied! I have taken money out of the ATM since then, so it must be they have a fickle machine or something. I guess this week we will have to walk up there and sign up in the office instead of online.

All of my family is in Spain today!! How funny. Olivia landed yesterday and toured all of Madrid. My parents and Adam must just be landing soon. I will get to see all of them this week, which I am excited about.

Yesterday there was a huge soccer match-- Madrid vs. Barcelona. Barcelona won. I don't really have a preference but Messi, one of Barcelona's players, seems like a really good-natured guy, so I was happy to see him win. Some of the tickets for this game were selling for 1500 Euros! Carmen says "And we're in a crisis?!" Haha.

Now I am trying to finish a paper for History of Spain. It is kind of a pain trying to log into the library website and use all the databases because they all have different passwords. I e-mailed the reference desk so hopefully I will get an answer sometime today.

That's all for now! Hope everyone had a nice weekend. :)
Hasta luego!

Emily

P.S.-- if anyone has any questions, I will direct you to a new e-mail address: sorokeee@bonaventure.edu

Bonas got a new email system and I am having a hard time remembering to start using it. If I get a question of the day, it will prompt me to use it more! Thanks all!

Emily in Spain: Sad story and recent news

2010-04-08T17:28:00.002-04:00

Two women were killed during Semana Santa by a drunk driver. It's really a terrible story. The driver was over 2x the legal limit alcohol in the blood, he wasn't even supposed to be driving because he had had past incidents with the law, he was going 2x the speed limit, and went through a red light. The two women, one from Madrid and one from Seville, were stepping out of a taxi to cross the street (green for pedestrians, red for drivers) when they got hit and killed. One of the worst parts is that one girl's boyfriend was still inside the taxi paying the fare and watched the whole thing happen.

The driver has 8 years in prison. And that was that. Really disgusting, irresponsible, and sad.

In lighter news, I had my first gazpatcho today! I didn't realize that the vegetables in the soup are not cooked. It tasted literally like a really good, pureed salsa. We added chopped hard boiled eggs to it.

Other funny news, anyone who knows me well knows that I get some sort of random skin rash atleast once every couple months. Well, today I got my first one here! On my elbows. In literature class my left elbow started feeling hot and itchy. I could only see it a little, but Megan said it looked kind of bumpy and red and covered the whole thing. It went away about an hour later.

Now tonight the same thing is happening to my right elbow! It is so strange. A part of me feels like I should be worried, but this has happened to me so many times that it has become somewhat of a fun game. It might be going away already! I always say, the only way you can tell I'm Irish is that my skin will flare up at the flick of a wrist. Oh well.

Our trip to Ronda is tomorrow! We will be there all day pretty much. I can't believe it is our second to last field trip! Crazy.

Time for bed now. Hasta luego!

Emily in Spain: Semana Santa!!

2010-04-06T15:24:00.005-04:00

Hello friends and family!
Semana Santa was my busiest week here in Spain by far. *Warning* This blog is going to be very long! Feel free to skim :)

Sunday morning I woke up to go get Alan from the airport. As I walked to the bus there were lots of white nazarenos walking to their paso. It was really funny to see costumed people just walking through the streets.

I picked up Alan (yay!) at the airport and we went into town for the afternoon. We got to see a couple paseos and go out to lunch, and then catch the bus to Cadiz!

This is us on the balcony of our hotel, Playa Victoria. It was so nice and classy! It was kind of expensive but worth it to be right on the beach and have a nice place. Monday during the day we explored downtown Cadiz and the historic section. The roads were small and the buildings were pretty! Tuesday and Wednesday we went to the beach :). It was quite windy but we found an old wall to put our towels behind to block the wind so we could tan in the hot sun. It was great.

Wednesday night back in Sevilla we ran into some pasos. Alan's hostel was right behind the cathedral, very, very close, which was good and bad. At the time I booked it I thought it was good to be so close to everything but then it would be frustrating to squeeze and squeeze through the people just to try and get back to his place.

This is one of the beautiful imagenes of Mary. There were so many candles around her and lace. It was very pretty. People were very dressed up during the week. Holy Thursday and Good Friday many women wore black veils and dresses, as if they were going to Jesus' funeral. It was neat and strange at the same time. The pasos were really interesting and I liked seeing them, but everyone was right-- you really only needed to be there for a few days to appreciate it all. Spaniards think they can tell the difference between every single imagen (statue) which is ridiculous that they really can. Often there is only a slight difference between each statue, but if you try to say they all look the same the Spanish get very offended.

Alan and I really enjoyed going to all the bars around his neighborhood in Barrio Santa Cruz. They were open much later than usual since everyone was staying out for Semana Santa. It was fun to try out different tapas and just enjoy being together.

One day we went out and walked over the whole city. This is Alan in the Plaza de Espana. I have never been on my feet as much as I was this week. Honest to God, I think I was walking and standing for 18 hours, then I would go sleep for 6 hours, and then get up and do it all over again. By Sunday and Monday I literally thought the bones in my feet were breaking. I kept thinking, Is this what it feels like when pregnant women's feet hurt? I sure hope not. My sore feet were the worst part of the week. It was humorous in a way, but on the other hand I just wanted to sit on a curb and cry until someone picked me up and carried me!

This is Barrio Santa Cruz from the top of Alan's hostel. The hostel had really cool barbecue's every other night with 1 Euro cerveza and sangria, and then burgers and things. We never ate up there but had drinks a few times. It is pretty during the day and at night, too.

You would be shocked to see how full the city streets got. All these red fences would go for meters and meters blocking the way so only the pasos could be in there, and there were stacks and stacks of chairs that families would rent for the entire week just to sit and watch the pasos.

One afternoon Alan and I went to a neighborhood called Alfalfa and got some awesome tapas for lunch. We got a fried chicken breast, spinach with garbanzos, and croquetas. And cerveza and tinto de verano of course. This was the same place Megan's business teacher took us before. The food was awesome and homemade, fast service, good drinks, and not too busy! We really enjoyed it.

Saturday we spend the day in Granada! I left the house at 6:45 a.m. (WOOF!) to get to the bus station at 7:30 so we could leave at 8. It was a beautiful sunny day. I had been there before with the school, so it was extra fun going again and being somewhat familliar to show Alan everything and be able to tell little stories that the tour guides told us.

This is the Albacin, the only Moorish neighborhood left over after the Christian Reconquest. This is a long street filled with little Moroccan shops. It was really fun to look around at everything.

After the Albacin we climbed up out way onto the top of the San Nicolas Mirador to get an amazing view of Granada. Alan really loved the Sierra Nevadas in the background. That is the Alhambra behind us.

On our way back down the hill we stopped for a small lunch at a little restaurant outside. Granada has an awesome thing where if you order a drink, they give you a free tapa! We ate here and then got another drink further down the hill that came with a little sandwich. We saw other people whose tapas looked even better, but we were too full to keep ordering drinks and food. We walked around and enjoyed the rest of the day and then took a bus back home which arrived in Sevilla around 11:30.

Easter Sunday we went to mass in the cathedral! It was so awesome. I was thrilled to be able to go there. Alan and I decided to just meet at 10:30 and walk around until we found an open church, and the cathedral happened to have an 11 a.m. mass! After that we went to brunch across the street at the Horno San Buenaventura. Bonas is where we met :) so that was special too.

I got to talk to my family on the phone for a little bit Easter afternoon. It was nice talking to them. I missed them but was so glad Alan was there with me! I was surprised that Sunday seemed much more like a regular day for people, whereas Thursday and Friday were the huge days when the stores were closed and people were dressed to the nines.

Monday was Alan's last day here. We just relaxed and enjoyed the last day together. Megan told us about this tiny little bar that is actually ON the Guadalquivir. We went there and got fancy drinks and tapas. It made me a little nauseaus when a boat would rock the water underneath us (I get motion sick very easily) but the rest of the time there was really cool. You could rent a kayak or pedal boat there, too! I wanted to do that but we were too pressed for time.

After that we walked around and hung out in the park for a while. We got one last cafe con leche before catching the bus to the airport, and got our coffees for free! An old man at the bar started chatting me up when he saw "Universidad de Sevilla" on my t-shirt. Then he started asking where we were from, etc. and told us the coffees were on him! I think he may have been somewhat tipsy because his friends next to him seemed to be laughing at him a little, but hey what nice Andalucian people there are here ;).

Saying goodbye was hard because we'd have such a nice week, but I felt silly being sad because I was lucky that Alan could even come visit. He is now on his way to Texas to get an apartment and start his army officer life down there! Hopefully I will visit him in June after I get home.

I cannot believe that I only have 40 more days here. My family comes in less than a week! I wish I didn't have class while they were here so I could show them around more, but atleast they have each other.

Now I am hoping to get to bed early! I really love sleeping even more than usual this week since I got such little sleep last week. Sitting doing homework is actually very relaxing now, haha.

Thanks for reading, everyone! Congratulations for making it through. ;)

Hasta luego!

Emily

Emily in Spain: Soon!

2010-04-06T14:30:00.001-04:00

Hello all-- Semana Santa was the most busy I remember being in my whole life! But a ton of fun. I am working on homework now but will put up a nice LONG blog later tonight. It will be so long you will all be very bored I'm sure.

"Talk" to you soon! :)

Jess in Ireland: A month late St. Paddy's Day Post

2010-04-06T12:00:00.009-04:00

St. Paddy's Day in Ireland is an all week celebration. While the Irish don't paste fake shamrocks onto their faces and wear those funky green and orange outfits that Americans love to wear they do make sure to celebrate. (Yes, my roommates and I did make sure to represent our Irish Americanness!)

The day started off with the parade at 11:15 a.m. The streets were crowded and people young and old came around to watch one of the best St. Paddy's Day parades in Ireland. Galway is the Irish capitol, many of its inhabitants still speak Irish and signs all across the city still read in Irish because it is next to Connemarra were the largest percentage of Irish speakers still live today. Galway in Irish in fact is Gaillimh.

The difference with a real Irish parade and an Irish American parade is that unlike our hyper-Irish themed parades real Irish don't just celebrate one aspect of being Irish. They celebrate every ethnicity and culture found in Ireland and make sure to include youth clubs from the county.

Little tykes with flutes, recorders and countless other instruments were a big hit with the crowds! They were so cute!

Yes, haha they even had belly dancers!

Many adults had a little green on them to celebrate the day, but nothing as gaudy as what we do in the US. Instead the adults often has sprigs of clover tucked into their hats, coat pockets or pinned to their jacket.

My favorite moment in the parade would have to be the very cheerful Irish man and his choo choo train. He threw candy to the children in the crowd and walked his train throughout the whole parade by himself!
Overall St. Paddy's day was a blast and I really enjoyed meeting new people on the street and in the pubs. The Irish are always friendly but on St. Paddy's Day they really shine.

Jess in Ireland: Sorry!

2010-04-04T09:42:00.002-04:00

I am sorry for the lack of posts recently, I have been very busy the past couple of weeks!

On the agenda and hopefully to be posted within a week are posts about -

1) St. Paddy's Day
2) Trip to Munich and Amsterdam
3) Trip to Killarney
4) Easter Sunday

There will probably be a few other small posts on interesting random occurances in there too!

Chelsey (Austrlia)- Sydney Trip

2010-04-03T07:39:00.002-04:00

One of the main things Bond is know for is how much money it costs to attend the Uni. Now I was told any Australian that I met was most likely to have a few extra dollars than other people.

I stayed with a friend this past weekend in Sydney, and a few extra dollars was an understatement. I was clued in a little when she told me her dad bought her two new cars, one for home and one for uni. Maybe a little more when she mentioned her house in Japan.

I arrive at the 3-story house, which looked like something you would see off of MTV cribs. It was the most beautiful house I have ever visited before. Her parents welcomed me into their home like I was one of their children. This house had plenty of rooms and bathrooms to go around for the whole family and some extra guests. This being said, I had my own room and bathroom for the duration of my stay.

On the first of my four-day trip, we went shopping on Oxford Street. If that does not ring a bell for anybody, Oxford Street has an array of designer shops to indulge yourself in. The clothes ranged in price from $300 to $30,000. Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything. We eat lunch at lovely sushi restaurant and continued shopping for the remainder of the day.

The second day was The Harbor Bridge Climb. This was one of the most exhilarating things I have done in my time here in Australia. When you first arrive the have you sign a sheet of all the risks then breathalyse you to check your alcohol level. They then give you a jump suit to wear that has all of your clips that will keep you safe while up on the bridge. Before putting on the suit you have to remove everything from your pockets. They are very sticked about what is brought to the top of the bridge. You are then introduced to your tour guide who briefs you on how the climb will go. First the tour guide put the group through a test run. They have a mini bridge inside the building that you climb to get a feel for what it will be like climbing the iconic Harbor Bridge. Then, off to the tunnel that takes you to the bridge. You hook your belt up to a railing and off you go. The total time it took to climb the bridge was an hour and 30 minutes. When we got to the top the tour guide took pictures of us that could be bought for $35 each. Expensive, I know, but it was the only pictures that were taken. I bought two different ones. At the top of the bridge you are able to stop and enjoy the 360˚ view of Sydney, while also getting a few facts. One interesting piece of information was that when the famous Sydney Opera House was built, it was made to complement the Harbor Bridge. The Opera House is exactly half the size of the Harbor Bridge. This was so the icons would not be fighting for people’s attention, but rather so they could be viewed together. For the rest of the day we just walked around the city and rested.

The next day we continued to see the sites. My friend took me to all the iconic places that Sydney is known for. Along with a few extra places she liked.

The final day, I spent at Bondi Beach. I was heaps excited to go because of the show Bondi Rescue. It is a reality show about the lifeguards’ on Bondi’s beach. I went up to the lifeguard tower and took pictures with all the lifeguards from the show. Then I continued up the endless beach of white sand to the Boost Surfing Competition. This is where I watched Kelly Slater fight for another surfing metal. After a few hours tanning and swimming on the beach it was time to head to the airport to go back to Bond University. Overall an amazing weekend!

Chelsey (Austrlia)- Brisbane Trip

2010-04-03T07:39:00.001-04:00

The next trip on my list was the city of Brisbane. Lucky for me there is an old family friend who lives in Brisbane, Dianne. When I first learned that I would be studying in Australia Dianne was the first person my mom called to tell. My mom was my age the last time she saw Dianne, and was also in Dianne’s wedding. This meant a lot to my mom for me to spend some time with her while I was in Australia, so the past weekend I went to Dianne’s house to stay. I was only able to spend one night there because I had been working on a huge advertising assignment, and did not have a lot of free time to spare.

The first day I was there I was very tired because I had not been sleeping the past few nights due to my assignment. She made a typical Australian dinner that consisted of sausage rolls, mashed potatoes and pumpkin. After dinner we watch Crocodile Dundee. I had heard about the movie before I came to Australia, but I am glad that I was able to watch it after I had been her a while. I recon I was able to understand the jokes more because I know so much about the Australian culture now. After the movie I went straight to bed.

The next morning I was woken up bright and early for a day in the city. Dianne took me to all the major places in the city. There was not as much to do because it is not a very big city, but enough to fill a morning and afternoon up. We took a boat cruise along the river followed by a ride on the ferris wheel. At the top, you were able to see the whole city. Then, we went shopping in the markets and ate lunch. After that she took me to the train station to send me back on my way to Bond University.

Emily in Spain: Nararenos, pizza, and mojitos

2010-03-27T08:56:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was a day of firsts for Megan and I! After two long months, we decided we needed to eat pizza, and we were thrilled about our decision.

We headed over to Alfalfa (a neighborhood) and it ended up that there were early Semana Santa processions going on!

We will probably never get this close to a real, big procession. This is the "imagen" of Jesus carrying the cross.

Look at those feet! Those are the men underneath the float (Spaniards, excuse my language) carrying the huge imagen.

This is a capirote. The nazarenos are the guys with the pointy hats.

These nazarenos held candles. Others held huge crosses. It is tradition for the children to make a ball of wax from the candles and see who can get the biggest one. Also, the nazarenos carry caramelos in their pockets to give out to the kids, too! Some of them walk barefoot to further make their penitance.

After we randomly saw the small procession, Megan and I headed to get PIZZA! We were so excited. It was so good. We each ate a whole one for ourselves, haha! They were smallish but definitely could have been shared, too. The crust was thin though so it didn't feel like I was shoving too much into my stomach.

After the pizza and after staring at the dessert fridge all night, we each got a slice of triple chocolate cake. The top layer was mousse and the bottom layers were straight up white and dark chocolate. To die for.

With the wonderful dinner in our bellies, we headed down the street to meet Kevin and Daragh. They were at a place that had mojitos for 5 Euros, and they were HUGE!

A "copa" or mixed drink, is usually 4 to 6 Euros, but these were exceptionally more bang for your buck. Mine lasted a good, long while and was very refreshing :).

We went to Calle Betis to a bar "Demo" after Alfalfa, hung out there for a few drinks and then caught a cab back to Porvenir, the neighborhood we live in.

At Demo, though, something that caught my attention was people doing shots of absinthe. Every time I think of absinthe, it reminds me of that movie Moulin Rouge. I guess I always thought absinthe was some sort of hallucinogenic drug, but really it's just very strong alcohol? I need to look into it. Everyone has a different opinion of what happens when you drink it: some say you hallucinate when you add sugar, some say it's just very strong (75% alcohol!). Jeese louise.

Nevertheless, this stuff is illegal in the U.S. so something's gotta be dangerous about it.

Alan is flying from the U.S. to Spain today! I will pick him up at the airport tomorrow afternoon. I am worried I will mess something up like get there late or be waiting at the wrong . Carmen offered to make us bocadillos for the ride to Cadiz. She is such a sweetheart.

Time for lunch! Packing later and getting ready for the week! :)

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Hasta despues de Semana Santa!!

Emily

Emily in Spain: Day 2 with Gabriela

2010-03-25T19:35:00.002-04:00

Today was my second time playing with Gabriela. I am finding it very interesting.

The maid/ nanny (I think her name is Marisela or Mariela or something like that) was in street clothes and walking Gabriela back from her flamenco lesson as I was arriving. We sat in the kitchen for a little while looking at her papers she brought back from school and then went up to the play room.

We played with dolls for a long time and they reminded me of how I used to love those as a child. She has the Baby Born one that shuts her eyes when you give her the pacifier, and "pees" after drinking water. It is a little gross how realistic baby dolls are but it is so cool for a kid to have a doll that is almost real. One of her dolls was very obviously a boy, and I'm not just talking about Ken doll style. Strange.

I find it strange how normal Gabriela is and yet how much she is treated like a little princess. When we were "feeding the baby" she kept spilling water all over and whereas most kids would not notice, she kept cleaning it up right away and saying (in Spanish) "My mom is going to kill me!" It was kind of funny.

Later on in the night her "Mariela" gave her a bath. It was kind of awkward for me to be standing in there during bath time. The scene kind of reminded me of a movie because you had this little girl who just wanted to play with the bubbles, and then this maid in a dress scrubbing her little fingernails and making sure she would pass the mother's inspection later. Sometimes if Gabriela would fool around too long Mariela would say something like "Your mom won't be happy!" and they would kind of joke about the mom.

The mom (her name is Gabriela, too) seems nice. She is very tall, thin, and pretty. There are pictures of her and baby Gabriela at the beach, in flamenco dresses, etc throughout the house and Gabriela Sr. looks like she could be a model. She looks way better with a baby and in a bikini than I probably ever will. She doesn't necessarily seem like the strict, my-child-will-be-perfect type of mom, but it must be in there somewhere.

I feel a little bad writing about another family's life on my blog. Is this legal? Maybe I should pull a name change.

Tonight I stayed in and Skyped with my dad and then Alan. Tomorrow hopefully I will get some homework done so I don't have to work during my vacation! :)

Thank God for no Friday classes.
Thanks for reading, everyone!
Hasta luego :)

Emily in Spain: Better late than never!

2010-03-25T09:52:00.003-04:00

Shannon tagged a picture of me today that I thought you'd like to see!

This was my from my birthday! Look at that pretty table and Carmen lighting my candles. It was so much fun and so sweet of her. :)

Hasta luego!

Emily in Spain: This week

2010-03-24T16:35:00.004-04:00

I was supposed to go to my 2nd tutoring Gabriela today but her dad texted me and asked if we could switch it to tomorrow because she was at a birthday party.

I swear, kids here go to so many birthday parties. Carmen's grandkids practically have a new invitation every day. Do Spanish kids have more friends than I did? Or maybe their parents are all loaded and invite the whole grade to every party?

Culture and Society of Spain has been ridiculously boring this week. We are done studying the holidays and festivals of Spain, and have moved on to history. Our professor straight up told us that we won't cover anything before Franco in 1939, but then continued to start teaching from the beginning of man kind.

I kid you not.

He started drawing out evolution on the board and homo erectus, homo sapiens, yadda yadda. Megan and I stared at each other like.. are you kidding me? Exactly how far back into the history of Spain does this guy intend on going?

Today he continued on and on with everything we have all already learned in our actual History of Spain class. I was able to do some homework and write some post cards in class today. I am not the type of person who usually does that sort of thing, but you guys, this was brutal. An hour and a half of pure history that we aren't even going to be tested on!!

After class while walking home, I was shocked to see Gabriela's maid out on the streets and in street clothes! I knew she must have a life, but it was so strange to see her in a hoodie with and iPod and not in an 1800s maid dress.

The Spanish people really love the standard of wearing 1800s clothing here to show longstanding tradion and money in a family. Seriously, I will be walking down the street and see a modern looking mother walking with a child who looks like he was plucked out of a picture of London's Industrial Revolution era. Kids wear pink and blue knit bonnets, shorts with knee socks (for boys!) pretty sweaters, suspenders, dresses. It is just ridiculous looking!

I am used to seeing people spend money on cute baby clothes. It is just funny because in our culture it is cute to make a baby look like a mini-adult. I picture babies wearing Baby Gap, maybe Baby Ralph Lauren if you're trying to get all classy. It is just a very funny sight to see a fully modern family walking down the street pushing a Civil War doll look-a-like in the carraige.

Tomorrow my 9 o'clock class is cancelled, hallelujah! Two classes and then no school for 10 days.

I am so excited for Semana Santa and for Alan to come! We are going to a beach in Cadiz Sunday through Wednesday, and then returning for the Semana Santa "paseos" (parades). The Spanish are very particular about their S.S. language. For example, the life-size statues of Jesus and The Virgin are not called statues, they are "imagens." And they are not carried on "floats" or in a "parade." I am not exactly sure why but whatever.

Although I am very excited for the upcoming week, I am feeling a little sad about missing out on my own family's traditions. I know I will be busy and enjoying everything here and not really thinking about what my family is doing at home, but it is a little sad thinking about everyone getting together and having fun and me not being there. Megan and I talk about how we wish we could teleport home just for the day and come back here sometimes. I would kind of like to do that. Or have my whole family teleport here to be in Spain with me. That would be fun.

A school cleaning lady, "Chelo," made Semana Santa sweets for all of the students yesterday, and that was so sweet of her. I have never even seen the cleaning staff around here, so I don't know who to thank, but both types of treats were so good!
Chelo made:
Torrijas-- a souped up French Toast, pretty much. It is bread soaked in honey and wine or champagne. It tastes like a really sweet French Toast.

and

Pestinos (n with a tilde that I don't know how to type)-- these are thick, deep fried square cookies with the corners folded into the middle like a baby blanket. They have a slight anis flavor, like a pizzelle. They were also somewhat soaked with a sweet liquid. I liked these ones a lot. They also reminded me of Easter pizzelles, and what I will be missing out on at home! Oh well, I will just eat pestinos and pretend. :)

That is all for now! I am all signed up for fall classes. It was a little difficult doing that so far away from my advisor, but he was great and really helpful so it was okay. I think I got into all the classes I want, too, so hallelujah!

I will try to write atleast once more before Holy Week.
Thanks for reading, everyone.

Any questions for this week? sorokeee@sbu.edu

Hasta luego!
Emily

Emily in Spain: First Tutoring

2010-03-23T09:02:00.002-04:00

If you could really call it tutoring, that is.
Pretty much little Gabriela and I played in English for 2 hours.

I arrived to the Fernandez Salvador residence after my class ended at 6:30 last night. Upon ringing the door, I was greeted by a young woman who couldn't be much older than I am. She was wearing a blue plaid maid's dress with the matching apron and little white sneakers, like something you would see in a movie. She showed me to the living room to meet Gabriela and then returned to work in the kitchen.

Gabriela is a tiny little girl, who is 6 years old, and she seemed excited about me being there. She and her mom led me up to her room where she showed me all her English homework papers. She pretty much knows what I learned in 7th grade, which is impressive. Her mom left us there to play and Gabriela didn't seem to mind being alone with a stranger.

The one rule that her dad, Jaime, told me when we met was that I was to speak only English to her. So we colored animals and flowers and I tried to teach her new words along the way. She gradually started speaking more and more, but only Spanish.

After we colored we played memory games and I taught her words of the things on each card (apple, tree, leaf, pear). I think she knew a lot of the words already, but it seemed like she got more comfortable saying them after I did.

While we were playing in the play room, the young maid went into Gabriela's room across the hall and layed out her pajamas and folded back the corner of her bed sheets.

I am not sure how many countries this is common place, but it certainly has never been common where I grew up. I don't know if this young woman lives with them or what, but she was still there at 9 p.m. when I left to go home.

I'd say yesterday went pretty well. I am going back tomorrow so I will update again then!

Hasta luego!

Emily in Spain: Out of Commish

2010-03-21T18:03:00.002-04:00

Hey readers, I have to apologize again. My internet has been down practically all weekend and it is finally working now but I have not gotten to write since Wednesday!

This weekend I went out with my friends Thursday and that was all. Friday and Saturday Megan and I were just exhausted, and rightfully so. We had gone out almost every day for a week. Woof! I don't know how people do it. I could practically see the glasses of vino protruding out of my gut.

When my internet worked, I was able to look up classes and I think I decided what I am going to take.

Tomorrow is my first tutoring session with Gabriella, the little Spanish girl I am going to teach English to! She is 6. Her dad wants me to meet with her for 2 hours, twice a week! I have a feeling she is going to hate me for that. Hopefully I can color with her and just do fun things, but in English. We will see.

Gabriella was my Confirmation name so maybe it will give me a little luck. Funny thing, too, is that I picked it because in the Bible, the Angel Gabriel was always the messenger angel who came and talked to the people and brought good news. I knew I wanted to do journalism in college, so I picked Gabriella as a form of Gabriel to maybe give me a little saintly luck in my career. Maybe Gabriel is already starting to intervene!

Speaking of saints, Semana Santa starts a week from today! Holy cow. I can't believe Alan is almost going to be here and the semester is half way over!

This is all I can really write for now, because it is time to get to bed soon!
I will try to write another post tomorrow or some time this week.
Hasta pronto!

Emily

Emily in Spain: Note to my fellow blogger, Jess

2010-03-17T10:35:00.002-04:00

Dear Jess in Ireland,

I hope you have an awesome St. Patty's Day in Galway!! (Although I heard they don't celebrate there as much as we Americans would think.) I am expecting a blog post from you on how the day went.

I am celebrating in an Irish pub Flahertys, maybe one called O'Neils, and then Esencia, the bar my friends Hayley and Daragh work at.

Bona friends Megan Kane, Kevin McGarr, and I are all jealous of you.

Besos from your fellow Bonnies Abroad blogger,
Emily in Spain

Emily in Spain: Question

2010-03-17T09:21:00.002-04:00

Complements of my Uncle Craig...

Q. Are you finding yourself speaking primarily Spanish during the course of the day? Are you still speaking English to the other Bona students with you? Or do you find yourself in a Spanglish mode, going in and out of both languages?

A. Great question! I have actually asked myself this before, too.

I am still shocked at how much English is spoken over here. Before studying abroad, I thought my world was going to be all Spanish, all the time, and I would be struggling to find someone to speak English to. Mostly though, it is the opposite.
My classes are in both Spanish and English, and all the people at the school office speak English, too. I go to school with all American students.

Megan and I have made an effort to take it upon ourselves and speak Spanish on the way to class and back to avoid English a little. We speak Spanish at home with Carmen at meals and things but when we are doing homework/ surfing the web in our rooms, we speak English to each other. I speak Spanish to my Spanish friends, but of course they want to practice their English with me, too.

I do find that when I speak English, though, I often want to throw in words I say in Spanish, like "vale" (okay) and my speaking patterns are starting to mimic the Spanish patterns.
Ex. "Ohh si si, vale vale" turns into "ohh yea yea vale vale" or something like that. They repeat the same words a lot. Simple phrases like that I tend to say often in conversations with American friends too.

I will say, though, that it is a lot harder than you'd think to find opportunities to speak Spanish. For example, sometimes at a bar or store someone will tell you the price and if you don't hear them correctly and maybe raise your eyebrows or say "que?" in a "one more time?" kind of way, they will repeat it in English. That is frustrating because I understand Spanish and have no problem speaking it but when your store/ bar is crowded or noisy with people and music, it is hard to read lips or hear slurred words that you aren't used to seeing or hearing.

I feel that it is up to me to go out and learn it and make the effort because if I had no initiative to learn it, I could honestly get along just fine barely speaking it.

I think it depends on the day to see whether or not I speak more English or Spanish. When we are on field trips or in class and our tour guides or teachers speak Spanish, so do I obviously, but when we go out with American friends we always speak English unless we have Spanish friends with us. When there is a Spanish person in my presence I always try to speak Spanish to practice and make them feel more comfortable.

So, sorry to keep rambling about this: during the course of my day I switch back and forth depending on where I am and whom I'm talking with. I think the Spanglish is the best answer for me, because Spanish words have crept into my day-to-day English language, too.

Thanks for the question! Hope I answered everything.
Hasta luego! :)

Emily in Spain: My weekend :)

2010-03-16T15:37:00.003-04:00

Hello, world! I will write to you all in chronological order of how my weekend went. This top photo is of me on the roof of my apartment. It is so beautiful up there! You can see every apartment building pretty much, and even the Plaza de Espana in the Parque Maria Luisa. I feel like there should be an ocean behind where the buildings stop. Alas, there is not, but a girl can pretend.

So that was the "abroad" part... now for the "study" part. Our new literature book is really interesting, but difficult. The Spanish language is so lofty that practically every 5 words I don't know, and when I translate them to English, half the time they don't even exist in dictionaries and the other half I have to go and look them up in English dictionaries to find out what they mean! Very lofty. Luckily, this was the only homework I had to do all weekend after that agonzing midterms week. I really can't complain about reading five chapters when I got to "tomar el sol" meanwhile.

Megan and I went out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this weekend, which was a first for us! Usually we will go out Thursday or Saturday, or maybe just Friday, etc. But this weekend we were ready to unwind after midterms! Thursday we went back to La Carboneria with Kevin and Gina to re-live the good times.

Friday we went to a few bars on Calle Betis with some of our Spanish friends. They brought a lot more friends this time that we hadn't met, most of which were girls, which was fun. One of them was fair skinned with blondish red hair who they made fun of for looking American, haha. I am slowly getting used to people being named Jesus [pronounced hay-soos]. I think if they said Jee-suhs like we do, it would be a ton weirder. It is still funny to look at your friend's Facebook page and see that Jesus wrote on their wall though... hahah.

Saturday we went out with Daragh and his girlfriend, Sarah, who was visiting for the week. I think Megan, Kevin, and I were all jealous that our boyfriends/ girlfriends weren't here! Mine will be shortly though :). We went to a few bars and then the club Buddha before retiring to bed. I forgot if I mentioned Buddha before, so I will give you a short briefing: it's a 3-floor club with (who woulda guessed) Buddha decorations, an Asian feel, and dimmed colored lights. The first floow plays Spanish music, the 2nd straight-up techno, and the 3rd American pop. The third floor actually had go-go dancers Saturday when we were there. Hard not to make fun of, really.

Sunday was a sleepy, relaxing day.

This leads us to Monday, the Ides of March, and my 20th birthday! Carmen gave me a big hug and "felicidades" when I woke up. I went to class and after that Megan and I went to the Nervion shopping center. I bought a cool dark gray leather motorcycle jacket with birthday money from my grandmas :). My mom left me a voicemail on my mobile (using my dad's international phone) and sang happy birthday. Then when we got back to the apartment Carmen's grandkids sang Happy Birthday (in English!) to me and we made strawberry ice cream to eat with lunch.

After lunch Carmen gave me a present! She got me a pretty, thick striped scarf from Massimo Dutti. When I opened it she said it was so I would always remember her, haha, because when Megan and I get colds she tells us it is because we do not keep our throats warm with scarves! I told her I would have always remember her anyways.

After the day of classes was over I came back to my room and got on my computer to check my email as usual. I barely noticed that Megan left when suddenly she walked back into the room with Gina and Shannon! Our senora had told her to invite them over as a surprise for my birthday! :)

We all talked in Megan and my room for a while. When we came back out, this is the beautiful dinner table that Carmen had all set up in the dining room! We had so much food: croquetas, breaded chicken breast, tortilla espanola, tomatoes, cauliflour (okay I know what you're thinking about that one but seriously, this stuff is awesome! It is literally califlour and olive oil but it tastes like stuffing!) and little appetizers. We had a good wine with dinner and then after dinner Carmen brought out an apple cake sort of thing with candles in it for me to blow out :). While we ate dessert we had "sidra" which is like a cider-y drink, almost like champagne.

I was so happy. My mom might have actually been happier than I was when I told her, because she was worried I would not have a cake or anything! Carmen was on top of that. We just had the nicest time all eating together. Gina and Shannon's house mom really doesn't cook very much, so I think they were really happy to endulge in Carmen's cooking, too.

After dinner Gina and Shannon had to go home, but Megan and I met Kevin and headed to El Centro for a couple drinks to finish the celebration. We went to "Alfalfa," a neighborhood behind La Catedral. The bar we went to was called Blues Bar and it was decked out in Blues Brothers paintings and pictures. Pretty funny. So we returned home and that ended my day!

Today I was pretty sleepy all day since we had been up all night. I got 2 more As on my midterms! Woohoo! After leaving literature, Kristin stopped me in the hall and told me I got a package! I went into the office to get it and it was really huge! By the time we finished walking home my arms were hurting and I was curious to see what was inside it.

It turns out I have the best boyfriend's family in the world. :)

Alan's mom, sister, and brother had put together a huge box of goodies for me and sent it over here! This picture barely does it justice. The box was just full of snacks and goodies, and everything was wrapped in pink flowery tissue paper. As you can see in the picture, they send Ranch (haha!), Ritz Chips, Little Debbie Easter cakes, Easter Hershey's Kisses, Pringles sticks.. there is even more I am forgetting! It was so sweet of them to send that over to me. I felt very special. :)

The only bad thing about this is that is going to be very detrimental to my waistline. I have not finished all my Valentine's candy from Alan and my mom & sister yet! I think I am going to have to bring daily bags of goodies into school with me, and bribing the grandchildren.

Megan got a big package of candy today, too, before I got mine. We were laughing in the afternoon about how much Easter candy she/ we have now and how we still need to finish mine, and then laughing even more now that I have a cupboard worth of snacks under my bed! I wish you could all see it. I have a huge box under my bed (compiled Valentine and birthday candy) and Megan had a drawer of candy before which is now stuffed with Easter treats too. If anyone walked into our room they would think we were a part of that movie "Heavy Weights," hahaha.

Tonight I was suppsed to meet with my Spanish kids to tutor but alas, I still have not. The Spanish people really have a way of putting things off. It is probably one of the things I like least about the culture. If I don't meet with them next week I may just tell my teacher I'm not interested any more. It seems a little silly to only tutor them for two months and then leave. But who knows, 8 Euro an hour might end up being worth it.

Now I am going to get ready for bed! I have eaten so much in the past 24 hours, I am worried that it is going to be irreversible.

Thanks for reading, everyone!
Hasta luego :) Besos!

Emily in Spain: MIA

2010-03-16T09:23:00.001-04:00

Sorry I have been MIA for the past (almost) week! I tried to upload pictures for a blog over the weekend and it didn't work so I just put it off for later. I enjoyed my birthday and will update later tonight or tomorrow! So expect a good, long one.

Hasta pronto! :)

Chelsey (Austrlia)- Airport People Watching

2010-03-15T05:12:00.001-04:00

The plane takes off in three hours; I’m on my way to Sydney for the weekend.

Now I think I’m going to get a little comfortable and watch the people around me. This is what I do when I am board.

First we have a woman, who I believe is late for her plane. She ripped off her sliver stilettos, those maybe too young for her age, and proceeds through security. Yep, she’s all clear. Off she goes.

An elder man sits reading his newspaper from the Gold Coast. Sneezes right into his article: Fitness and Fun- Rowing in the Gold Coast. Not much interesting about him.

An artsy-looking man to my left; has little, but round glasses and wearing a stripped shirt with an argil tie. Talking on his cell phone, laughing, and having fun.

A father is sitting across from me, on his cell phone. His wife and baby just left. The baby was crying. Beautiful little girl but has way too many toys with her. Family laughs together, and kisses for everybody.

As people walk past back and forth, I start to realize how everybody is so much alike all around the world. From New York to Australia you will still find the businessman on his cell phone clearing up the latest problem in the office. The vacation bound family, who has smiles from ear to ear, and last but not least, the study abroad student getting ready to explore more of the world.

Excited for Sydney! : )

Jess in Ireland: Happy Mothers Day!

2010-03-14T18:39:00.002-04:00

Today, March 14, is the Irish Mothers Day. I sent my mother an Irish Mothers Day card and she recieved it today. Perfect!

So for all those moms out there, as the Irish say, Happy Mammies Day!

Emily in Spain: Vacation weekends

2010-03-12T08:36:00.002-05:00

Today I was planning on sleeping in late but I actually woke up at 9 and felt pretty happy. I slept a little longer and then Megan and I got up at 10:30, ate breakfast, and went up to the roof by 11:30. We just laid up there and tanned for three hours and it was delightful. I got a chapter of literature read (we have FOUR chapters of out new book with really difficult vocab) and listened to our iPods.

Now we are about to eat lunch. This afternoon I might walk outside for a little or go shopping somewhere, or maybe hang out on the roof later. Then we are going out with our friends tonight! I am not on the beach but this feels like a beach vacation. It is supposed to be nice and sunny all through Monday, my birthday!

If I go back up on the roof later I will take pictures so you can see the view I have.
I am a happy girl :).

Any questions for this week? sorokeee@sbu.edu

I heard the weather is lovely at home too so enjoy, everyone!

Emily in Spain: Hooray!!

2010-03-11T13:11:00.002-05:00

Today is a great day. Allow me to tell you why.

1. Midterms are OVER!
Gracias a Dios. I honest to God woke up this morning like it was Christmas. My alarm went off at 7:30, there was SUN outside my window (a sign of A. the days getting longer and B. sun and not rain in Spain), and I jumped out of bed (a rare thing for me) and was thrilled to get this day over with.

2. I know I got atleast one A on my midterms.
I got my History of Spain test back already and got an A on it. A lot of these midterms were very open-ended and so it was difficult to know if you really wrote enough, etc. I am hoping this won't be my only A haha but atleast it's a good starting point.

3. My birthday is Monday!!!
Ahhh the glorious birthday weekend. It has come at the perfect time. I have lived in my room the past week preparing for midterms. My dentist excursion has been the most exciting thing I have done this week.

4. Saint Patrick's Day is Wednesday!
Most of my friends here are Irish, too, which is even better. Megan, Kevin, Daragh, me, and more students at our school all have Claddagh rings that we wear every day. Some of our Spanish friends think they are some sort of American promise ring because we are all in relationships and wear them the same way. Haha. But alas, Wednesday we will be celebrating in Flagherty's and O'Neil's.

This, of course, brings us back to Thursday again, which is a new weekend. We deserve it after the nasty week we have just finished! :)

Emily in Spain: Now you see it, now you don't

2010-03-10T07:56:00.003-05:00

Notice anything different in my mouth?

No?

That's the point! :) I got my retainer today. It looks just like Invisalign. I am very confused to how it works because it seems just like a mold of my teeth, so I don't know how it really moves that much. The bottom half, one side is kinda loose. Like it pops off a little. So I am not sure if it is working or if it's no big deal. I might ask someone tomorrow.

Tonight I am supposed to meet the little kids who I'm teaching English to. I am excited and nervous. I am not sure what I am supposed to do, really. I guess I'm just supposed to play with them and speak mainly English.

I surely will update you all. :)

Hasta luego!

Jess in Ireland: Lecture? Seminar? Tutorial?

2010-03-09T07:39:00.005-05:00

One of the most frequently heard questions during orientation in January was concerning classes and the variety of options we have at NUIG. What is a seminar? What is a lecture? Does it matter which one I take? What's the difference? When. Who. What the heck is a tutorial?

Well for all that are thinking that I've lost my rocker because, I too was concerned over the differences and what it meant academically I will explain the differences.

All of us at Bonaventure know the system. We have credits. Generally each course is worth 3 courses, with few exceptions depending on majors and Clare College. Well at NUIG we work on ECTS. a TYPICAL lecture is worth 5 ECTS. A lecture has no attendance policy, you will be in a lecture hall filled with 50 - 300 people, however, the Irish students in a majority don't attend their classes so you have no real estimate of how many of you are enrolled in the class. Why they don't attend lectures? Well, as I will repeat, no attendance, professors have no clue who you are and probably in general don't care and like our Web CT they have Blackboard. Blackboard however contains all lecture notes and slides and often professors don't elaborate much more than the slides. There is also no work to complete and your complete grade is based on your final.

Now, a seminar is worth 10 ECTS. Double. Why are they worth twice as much? Well a seminar is like a typical Bonaventure course. You are only allowed to miss two classes, you must talk and participate at some point, (did I mention in lecture courses you just sit and listen? No talking). Seminars have the option of having work through the course, however, that has not happened in the one seminar course I am taking at the moment. A student is allowed to take only one seminar course in a subject and it is a limited availability and spots available that tops off at 30 students. Again, your final is worth at least 80% of your grade.

A tutorial? Nothing at Bonaventure has you prepared for these. A month into your course you will be assigned an extra hour of class time from your lecture. Where, in small groups of 15, you will meet with a professor (not even specifically the professor that teaches your course). This hour will be dedicated to going over details of the lecture so you are prepared for the final. You will have 6 to 8 tutorials and then they end before the course ends.

School at NUIG is a good experience. When I was applying for colleges as a senior in high school I wanted to go to a large university. However, after visiting Bonaventure I fell in love with the place and chose it as my institution. While I may have chosen Bonaventure I still had that reserve of "What ifs." What if I went to a large university? What if I lived in a city?

Attending NUIG has settled those "What ifs." There was a reason that I fell in love with Bonaventure. I love knowing my professors as individuals and having them know me. I love being able to call out to people and wave to almost anyone on campus because I know them from .... or .... I love having school work during the school year so that my grade is not entirely made up of a final. And, god help me for saying it, I love attendance policies and going to class and feeling like there is a reason to go to class. I love interactive classes and I love that I chose Bonaventure as my home.

Emily in Spain: Earthquake Obsession

2010-03-08T10:17:00.002-05:00

Turkey has a quake today.

No one is safe, I tell you, no one!

Emily in Spain: Midterms

2010-03-08T08:09:00.002-05:00

Midterm week has started for me. I am trying to take it one test at a time. This weekend I pretty much did nothing but sit around and study. I really got cabin fever, especially knowing that I was locked inside studying for midterms and wasting my time here studying and not out taking advantage of the city! I kind of panicked. But I am okay now, phew.

I think I did well on my Mediterranean World essay this morning. My teacher found me a family of children to teach! He said he'll have more info by Wednesday. Also, he gave me another really awesome offer that I will update on later once I know more info.

After my exam I went to the dentists office to get a mold for my retainer. It was like a cementy pink paste that slowly turned rubbery in my mouth. I got one mold of the bottom and one of the top. The people said I could come tomorrow to get it but I am too busy to I'm getting it Wednesday. I am excited kind of!

Now I am going to study for Culture and Society. The exam is on a little geography and then the big holidays and parties in Spain. I don't think it should be too hard but I am worried because I have not gotten any grades in that class yet, so this is my first one.

After class Kevin and I are going to study for History of Spain tomorrow. I have that at 9 a.m. We have to write a 5 paragraph essay and define some vocab. Hopefully that won't be hard either but once again, it's the first grade.

My posts this week may be lacking due to the exams but I will still write if anything cool happens.

Questions for the week? sorokeee@sbu.edu

Thanks all :)
Emily

Emily in Spain: Bracing myself

2010-03-06T16:35:00.003-05:00

I have been meaning to look up where the tectonic plates are on the globe since the Haiti earthquakes. Now that the whole world is under earthquake attack, wouldn't be surprised if there were a quake here. Seeing this map made me brace myself 100x more.

Pretty much the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate meet right between Africa and Spain. We are like 2 hours away from the coastline but seriously? Seriously?! If the ground starts rumbling underneath me one day, I am going to roll my eyes because I knew this would happen.

Knock on wood now, all of you!!

You're all probably thinking I'm morbid now but hey, I am thankful that I know where the tectonic plates are now! God willing no earthquakes come my way but wow was I surprised when I saw that. Gotta be prepared right?

Ay de mi. More studying now.
Hasta luego!

Emily in Spain: Cordoba and this weekend

2010-03-06T10:10:00.005-05:00

Hello amigos! This is the Mesquita that we went to in Cordoba yesterday. The whole place was filled with these pillars and arches with red and white stripes. It looked really cool. The building (like almost every cathedral here) used to be a mosque and then the Christians took it over during the Reconquest.

I found this really impressive. It's a huge monstrance (where they put the host) made of all silver and gold. It's about 200 pounds! If that isn't impressive enough, there are scenes carved into the monstrance from Jesus' life. Really incredible! And they carry this out into the streets during Corpus Christi, the celebration of the Body of Christ.

This was an awesome sight. You can see the tower from the little patio gardens. Very pretty.

Gina, Megan, and Kevin walking through the streets. We shopped around, got lunch, and then got ice cream. I have to admit, the ice cream we got was way better than our Helado Thursday ice cream. It was so smooth and there was a super variety of flavors.

Cordoba was fun. I liked the Mesquita the most. Unfortunately, these city visits tend to feel a little monotonous after a while because they all look the same. I am glad that they are only once a week though and not a couple every day like other tour groups do when they visit countries. This way I can atleast process what I have seen before I see another that looks a lot like it.

The rain in Spain continues to fall.. We honestly have not had many days here where it has not rained. I feel like I am in Ireland. Today Kevin and I studied History of Spain for hours. We got a page of 6 essays that could be on our midterm. Our professor will pick two of those and then we only have to do one. I am very happy that we got to look at them ahead of time but I feel compelled to practically write each one so I am prepared.

Spanish Literature will be my hardest test, I'm sure. We have to know themes, authors, authors' birth dates and places! All this stuff for every poem, book, play we have read. Rawr. It's safe to say I will be stressing about that.

My stomach has been bothering me lately, and Megan and Kevin said that too! It is only after I eat something. We had spinach with lunch and dinner last week; Megan said maybe it had e-coli haha. I hope not! Oh well.

We both have colds too. Carmen said it is our fault because we don't wear scarves when we go out. The thing is, it's kinda chilly here but not really. It's jeans and hoodie type of weather. High 60s and low 60s but rainy and cloudy. When we layer up, we are all sweaty by the time we get to school/ wherever we're going! I sure hope the rain stops soon. I get very happy when it is sunny.

Guess I need to study more soon.

Thanks for reading! :)

Hasta luego!

Emily

Emily in Spain: Question of the Day

2010-03-05T14:00:00.003-05:00

Hello all! I am back from my day trip to Cordoba. We had a nice time there! I will upload pictures and a blog later tonight or tomorrow, but for now...

Q. What exactly is henna?

A. Good question! Henna is a typically Indian/ Middle Eastern tattoo that lasts about 2 weeks. It ranges from orangish brown to black in color. It is painted on your skin and looks just like mud. As the paste dries it gets all crackly like a mud mask and eventually kinda chips off your skin. The longer you keep it on, the darker it gets, supposedly.

This is what the powder that I bought looks like. I hope I can get it to work correctly!

This is the henna tattoo that I got in Morocco.

It is weird to think of how exactly henna works.. so I think of it as a sunless tanner kind of. Like a topical product that stains your skin for a short period of time. I have always really loved henna because I like the idea of having a cool design on my body but I don't know if I'd ever want anything forever. I was very excited to buy my own box so I'd be able to do my own designs some time at home!

Also, I got a question about the reaction boxes at the bottom of the page and if I could add new ones. Unfortunately, I don't think I can! I think funny, cool, or interesting might just be the options Blogger gives you. I will look into it though, because I would like to branch out my adjectives as well. :)

Thanks, everyone!

Emily in Spain: Starting to feel like a Spaniard!

2010-03-04T09:33:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was a successful day in the Spanish world for me!

Young people have this thing "Tuenti" (pronounces- twenty) that is like our Facebook. They have Facebook, too, but prefer Tuenti. Tuenti is a little different because you can't just sign up, you have to get someone to invite you.
Side Note- I wonder if this cuts down on internet creepers and pedofiles of the world?

Joaquin, Daragh's house brother and my new friend, invited me, Kevin, and Megan to Tuenti, so yesterday I got my page all set up and I am officially a Tuenti member. I am not great at navigating around yet and I only have 3 friends haha but I am making progress!

Another other thing that made me feel good was that Carmen told me I was starting to think in Spanish. Now, every time I think about "thinking in Spanish" I always pictured a situation where you think in your head and having it be Spanish.

She and I were sitting at the table just talking about things casually and she pointed out that I could just speak freely without having to translate every word, and that showed that I was thinking in Spanish because I could speak without thinking about it. Realizing that was awesome to me. It made me want to speak Spanish every minute of the day in hopes of getting better and better!

The last super thing of yesterday.. When I was in high school we had a Mexican foreign exchange student named Miguel. I have met a few other Miguels here, and I often think about my first friend Miguel, so I wrote on his Facebook wall last night saying hi and explaining how and why I have been thinking of him often. He wrote back to me and among other things said he was impressed with my Spanish fluency!

I don't mean this blog to sound like I am bragging about how good at Spanish I am. It's quite the oposite really. I mean, I know I am not terrible at Spanish and can speak fairly well but hearing from Carmen and Miguel that I spoke well was just really nice! They are legitimate Spanish speakers and not just a teacher or someone, so it means more and is way more of a confidence boost coming from them.

Tonight I am going out with the usual Bona and Sevillano friends. Our trip to Cordoba is tomorrow. I think tonight is the only night this weekend I am going out since next week is midterms... snore.

I will take pictures tomorrow and post them up for everyone!
PS- Anyone have a question for this week? :) sorokeee@sbu.edu

Oh yeah and PPS- Loving how you are all clicking the feedback buttons. ;) Thank you!

Hasta pronto!
Emily

Emily in Spain: Spanish Life- No Pasa Nada

2010-03-03T10:01:00.003-05:00

Friday night I went out with this lovely bunch of people, and Megan (who took the picture). I would just like to share with you a short story to describe the Spanish way of doing things.

Every time Megan, Kevin and I walk from our houses to El Centro, we walk around the park because it seems shorter that way. Saturday these people (Joaquin [on the canon], Alvaro [behind the canon], Miguel [next to Kevin] and Monica) wanted to walk through the Parque Maria Louisa. So we were like, okay, cool, we'll take the scenic route.

Upon arriving in the middle of the park, we noticed a construction area in the middle and a fence blocking off the part of the road we needed to get to. The guys start kicking at the fence and trying to see it we could get around it. Megan and I are like.. we can walk around the other way.. but they keep terrorizing the fence until they tipped it over and we all walked across it.

Once on the other side of the fence, who starts walking our way? A police officer. So I'm like great, all I need is to be arrested in another country. What does the officer do though? He tells us we aren't allowed to be in this side of the park and to go back where we came.

That was all!!

So we turn around, re-break the fence, walk over it, and that was that.

I wanted to be like.. what?! I have never done this in the U.S. but I would assume that if anyone 1. broke a fence and 2. was somewhere he shouldn't have been, the U.S. police might do a little more than tell everyone to turn around.

But that is typical Spain for you. Like our favorite phrase here says, no pasa nada!!

Translated into English, no pasa nada means something like.. nothing happened, it's okay, don't worry about it.

So don't worry friends and family, no pasa nada. :)

Hasta luego!

Emily in Spain: My Arabian Weekend in Morocco!

2010-03-02T12:42:00.009-05:00

Woohooo! Rode a camel in Morocco! Check this blog out :)

Hello friends and family! I have returned safely from Morocco and I have to say for the most part, it was really awesome. This picture above is where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean. It was so beautiful! I'm going to explain what each picture is and then write more at the bottom, since the pictures are unfortunately not in chronological order. This top one was taken in Tanger on our last afternoon.

This is Tanger as well. The top of the dunes are where we rode camels!

We are dinner in a huuge tent Sunday night. It was called the Fantasy Dinner. We had these dancing performers, children acrobats, a magician, a belly dancer, and even more! It was so much fun.

These men with horses started off the Fantasy Dinner. They reminded me of Aladdin and the Forty Thieves.

We went to the Medina market places on Sunday afternoon. These chickens kind of freaked me out. At times the market place got very crowded.

This was in Chefchaouen. Everything was painted blue to keep the mosquitos away! It looked very neat. The Rif mountains were in the background, too.

Me and the camel I rode! Doesn't it look like it's smiling? :)

Bonas Abroad in Africa.. gotta love it. I went down and touched the water just for a second before we left because I was pretty sure I'd never be to an African beach again!

This is Megan and I with our tour guide in Chefchauen again. He was a very interesting character. Most of the trip he kept a small dallop of some brown tobacco substance on his hand and would sniff it every once in a while. Our whole group was like, wait what?!

Now for some chronology! I'll try to keep it short for you all.

We left Sevilla Saturday afternoon and had a 2 hour bus ride to our Fast Ferry, which was actually a really nice yacht-like boat! The ferry was an hour long trip and we finished in Ceuta, a Spanish city in Morocco.

From Ceuta we went through the border and made our way to Gibraltar. The skies were gray but the water still looked so beautiful and blue!

After Gibraltar we went to Tetuan for the night. The weekend we went was the celebration of the Muslim prophet Mohammed's birthday, so there was no alcohol served. It was cool to be there for the birthday. I was hoping we would see some celebrations but we didn't.

Sunday morning we were up at 7:30 to hurry around and leave the hotel by 8:30. We went to Chefchauoen (I know I spell it different every time.. every language spells it different so I can never remember how, haha) the city that was mostly blue. There we walked around the small streets and went to a carpet factory where we got a small demonstration on each type of linen they made and we got to see the carpet weaver, too.

I went to the bathroom in this factory and it was literally a ceramic hole in the ground. There were spots marked out where you put your feet on and squat down. Quite the endeavor.

After the carpet place we got to do a little shopping around the town and then we left to head back to Tetuan. In Tetuan we ate lunch in an old palace and they had some musicians and performers there. I got a henna tattoo and the lunch was really good.

After lunch we walked around the Medina market place, where the pictures of the chickens were. They had everything from food, clothing, spices, and pottery. The Medina was the only place I felt a little unsafe. Luckily we had tour guides who we followed the whole time but sometimes the streets got so crowded that there were people pressing up against you in every direction. If you were not very aggressive you would definitely lose your group and get lost. The people pressing against me made me feel like I was getting pick pocketed! I had everything in my "hipster" bag, but it still made me uncomfortable. One time a man actually put one of his hands on my back and one on my chest (like a sandwich) as he walked by me. That really freaked me out. Some of the people in my group said he was moving me out of his way but jeese. We made human chains to stick together through those rough spots.

At the end of one street we saw a government building. We were not allowed to take any pictures. There were military men standing outside and in the streets around the building with big guns. It made me hope that no one made the wrong move.

On another street we went into a really awesome spice shop. We got another demonstration there. They sold teas, spices for cooking, henna, makeup, lotion, oils, and perfume. I got some cool gifts there.

After the spice shop we went to one more shop and I got an awesome little tea pot. Upon arriving in Sevilla though, I realized that the spout of the pot doesn't have a hole in it and it is just for decoration. Oh well, it's still cool.

We got on our tour bus just in time for it to start pouring. We headed to Tanger for Sunday night. That was when we had the Fantasy Dinner. It started with the men on horses dressed in authentic Middle Eastern clothing. They ran around the field with flaming sticks and then guns. At one point they all fired the guns and I think everyone in our group was terrified.

Dinner in the tent was so cool. The tent was striped shades of red and purple and there were people performing the whole time. Dinner was served in one huge dish and then we dished it up onto smaller individual plates. It was really fun.

Megan and I just went to bed after that. Some people were going out but I developed a cold over that weekend and was not feeling very well.

Monday we packed in a lot of fun things for only a few hours. We left the hotel at 10 and went to ride camels by the ocean. I think that was my favorite part of the trip. When am I ever going to ride a camel in Africa again?! The beach was so beautiful, too, and it was a nice sunny day. We went to a souvenier place after the camels and I bought a few more cool gifts :).

Out last stop was this really cool cave thing. It was basically a horseshoe shaped hole on the side of a mountain. The entrance went down into the cave where men were selling little trinkets and things, and then the other side around the corner was this beautiful hole in the wall of the cave that went out into the ocean! We could hear the water splashing in below where we were standing. It was dark inside where we were but bright blue outside. Very neat.

After that we left Tanger and headed back to the ferry. We got home to Sevilla around 6 p.m. Everyone really enjoyed Morocco but we were so thankful to be "home" in Sevilla. It was nice to be back in a familliar place with familliar people and customs.

Next big trip? We're thinking Portugal beach weekend soon and Rome for the end of Feria in April. Kevin found tickets to rome for 35 Euros round trip! Yes, please. :)

Very much still enjoying my time here!

Hasta pronto!

Emily

PS- Megan and I are transitioning into speaking only Spanish to each other. It has gone well so far. We presented Act III in literature today and that went well too. Midterms are next week, ahh!

PPS- Tomorrow I am hoping my Mediterranean World professor gives me a family of children to teach English to! That is a hot commodity over here. I would really enjoy it and it's a simple way to make money too! :)

Adios!

Jess in Ireland: Mid terms

2010-03-02T11:26:00.002-05:00

Well, mid term week has come and gone and for the first time since being in Ireland for last two months I actually had an assignment. Two mid terms, one for my Medieval Europe, 5th - 9th Century and the other was for my Ireland in the 19th Century. Both are histories and each had an essay worth 25 percent of my final grade. The other 75 percent would be made up of my final.

The difference between these courses and my other ones is that I actually have something else besides my final to be graded on. Apparently it is very common, and expected, that you only have a final to make up your complete grade. It makes me shake in my boots at the very thought, but the reason I came to Ireland and wanted to study abroad was to gain a new experience... this will just make up one of them.

My Medieval Europe, 5th - 9th Century course had a mid term that was a 500 word essay evaluating and examining three letters from Theoderic the Great, a ostrogoth barbarian king, to Clovis, a Frankish barbarian king that was contained in the Variae of Cassiodorus.

The other mid term essay was for my Ireland in the 19th Century course and it was 1,500 to 1,700 words on the British government's policies during the time of the Irish Potato Famine.

So far I have gotten my Ireland in the 19th Century course mid term back and graded. When I first received it I saw in blazing red letters the grade... 66. I panicked and wanted to throw up. I have never received such a grade on an essay ever and to do so as my first graded assignment in Ireland made me shake in fear. However, there was nothing to fear. The grading system is out of 70, so in actuality I received an A on my mid term. Panic resided and I was able concentrate on the professor asking me if I had any Irish relations and converse with him for a few minutes before leaving his office.

I should really look harder at what is in front of me before I panic. Lesson #23 of being in Ireland.

Chelsey (Australia)- Creepy Crawlers

2010-03-01T13:13:00.001-05:00

Australia is home to many stunning animals…and some not so good-looking animals. It seems that the not so nice animals want to live in my room. Over the past week I have had cockroaches and lizards grace my room with their presence.

The other day, while talking to my mom on Skype, I realized that it was too bright outside and the shades needed to be shut. I reached for the shades and as started to shut them as I hear a crackling noise. Then, I see this brown critter with freakishly long things attached to its head crawl out from behind. It was a cockroach. I must have startled it by shutting the shade because it started running around like a maniac. Well, it startled me too! As soon as I saw it, I let out a huge “YELP” and jumped up on my chair. I could hardly hear my moms laugh in the background for I was too frightened by this bug that was crawling right next to me. At this point I knew what I had to do. I had to kill this not so little sucker! But how, it was moving so quickly. I looked towards my shoes and scanned them for what would have the biggest impact. Flip-flop: no, to weak. High heal: no, not enough surface. Glittery sneaker: okay that will do. I grabbed my favorite pair of Guess sneakers and prepared to strike. But every time I got near it my arm would become like Jell-O. I heard my mom yell from the computer, “Remember, it is more scared of you than you are of it.” But, I don’t think she was right about this one. After about a five-minute battle of hits and misses with this creator, I finally killed it. Squashed it!

After that I was so nervous to touch my shades. Let alone sleep in my bed. You never know where the next bug might pop up! I got over it with-in a few days. But then…

I come home from breakfast two days later, and I have a new “friend” that has allowed himself in my room. A lizard! Yep, right in my room, a lizard. Not outside, but in coziness of my Australian dorm room. I was frozen in my tracks when I saw this green, unpleasant creator attached to my clean, white wall. Four legs, a head and a tail, that was him. When I got over the initial shock factor that a lizard had somehow made it up two-stories and through my door, I realized that I had to get him out. He was not welcome in my room! I dashed down my friend’s room and told her the situation. She is Australian so a lizard to her is an every day thing. But even she freaked out when she saw the thing in my room. I was instructed to go and get a clear cup from the common room along with a piece of paper. So I did. When I handed her the supplies she said, “No, not this cup, this one is mine!” So then I went back, and got another cup, but it was another one of hers. So the finally I got another one. Ok were good we had a cup. Now a piece of paper, but the only thing in my site was a costar I had gotten from the local bar. So I handed it to her, but she said it was too thick. I just couldn’t get it right, I was too nervous about not being able to catch this creepy crawler. Finally got a piece of paper. She tried to trap it in the cup, but that guy wasn’t going down with out a fight! She chased him around my room while he crawled over my desk and all over the pictures on my wall. Snap! The cup hits the wall, and she got him! Slips the paper underneath, and the lizard was trapped in his own little cage. She ran with it out onto the balcony and threw him down to the ground.

Can I say, I am officially scared to sleep in my own bed at night. I don’t know how they get in there, and I don’t want to know. My room is spotless. I vacuum and dust it every day. I am a bit of a neat freak. There is no food in my room, any pop or sticky juices. So I don’t know why my room has been so attractive to these critters of Australia. I am the only one in my corridor who has been lucky enough to get these things in my room. So far, it has only been the two times and I am hoping it will stay that way!

Chelsey (Australia)- Midterm Week :/

2010-03-01T08:53:00.001-05:00

It is midterm time here in the sunny Gold Coast of Australia. It amazes me how people are so similar all over the world. Exam time seem to always mean procrastinating to the fullest and overdue cramming sessions in which you try to fit all the information you can into your brain. Late night runs out to the corner because you need a “study break” and the fact that nobody can ever seem to log off of Facebook long enough to finish one chapter in the book you are supposed to be reading.

Just like if I were at home, I pulled my traditional all-nighters. Which seemed to work out fairly well, in the end. This was my plan, to stay up all night because my exam was at 8:00 a.m. However, around 6:00 a.m. I started to get very tired. This was fine because I had studied a lot. So I was keen to the idea of going to sleep for about an hour before I had to get back up and get dressed for the ever so long day I had ahead of me. Well, I woke up at 7:57 a.m. with my eyes burning from not enough rest. All I could think of was I was about to miss my exam that was worth 40% of my grade. I jumped up out of my bed, wiped the sleep from my eyes, throw clothes on and brushed my teeth before making my way out the door. I got half way don’t my corridor, but remembered that my exam would not of been in my normal lecture spot and had to run back to my room for the directions. I was so frustrated at this point. When I got the sheet that said where it was, it also said the time of the exam. My exam wasn’t until 6:30 pm. I got so excited and because I was so tired I decided that I didn’t want to go to my lecture. So I went back bed. I got up in the afternoon after a very pleasant sleep. Studied some more and was felt very prepared for my exam. It was about 6:15 p.m. and I decided to head to my exam spot. When I arrived I went to walk into the room when the lecturer stopped me. He said I couldn’t go into the room because there was an exam going on. I informed him of my name and that I was supposed to be taking the exam as well. He then explained that he moved the time of the exam and it started 45 minutes ago. My stomach dropped. I asked when that happened because I had it written down for 6:30 p.m. He said in the lecture that morning. Well, I guess that is what I get for not going to the lecture. He said I could take the exam but I only had 30 minutes to take it. I said ok, and he said again that I only had 30 minutes to take it. I said it was fine and in a hesitant way he let me through the door. The room was still full of students working hard with confused faces as they took the exam. This worried me because if they had already been here for 45 minutes and still working then how was I going to do it in 30 minutes! I sat down and began my exam on the computer. I flew through the questions, finishing the exam in 15 minutes.

I have not gotten my grade back, but I flew through the questions because I knew the answers. I continued to study hard for the rest of the week and took my exams in confidence. Now, it is time to relax. This weekend I have a night trip to the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise.

Emily in Spain: You go, Catholics, you go!

2010-02-26T12:53:00.004-05:00

First off, for your viewing pleasure... the Horno San Buenaventura. I have yet to go inside but I've been to the Horno Felipe II and enjoy it. I think they are owned by the same people. That is where we get ice cream every Thursday.

So, today we had our tour of La Catedral: the biggest cathedral in the world! This place has 23 doors inside it and get this, the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris would fit inside here FIVE times! For a long time people said St. Peter's in Rome was the largest, but they re-measured a few years ago and updated the Guinness Book of World Records. Pretty awesome.

I really extra-love being Catholic here because everything makes sense to me. When the tour guide has to explain something like the host being the Body of Christ or Catholics going to confession I am like, wait you guys don't know this stuff?! Haha.

Today was like Catholic Pride Day for me though. I mean this cathedral is so huge and so beautiful. Of course the people who made everything weren't always called "Catholics," but that is what they turned into. The art on every wall was so beautiful and I really could relate with the beauty of everything.

People here love Mary, which I can relate to, too :). In fact they love her so much that they have a saying something like "Every Jew is beautiful" because Mary was a Jew. Our guide says she tends to "steal the show"during Semana Santa sometimes because she is so adored.

This is the tomb of Christopher Columbus! They are actually just his bones inside the casket. Our guide told us the story of how first his body sat somewhere for some process of decaying where they let it sit until the skin rots off and just the bones remain. Pretty gruesome images. Then the bones were in a couple different places like the Dominican Republic (I think) and Cuba. Finally when Cuba won it's independance they sent the bones back to Spain. So atleast some of Columbus's bones are in Spain, but there is a possibility that some of them are in other islands as well, because each of those previously mentioned countries still claims to have Columbus's tomb.

This is the oldest chapel in the cathedral because it used to be the room the Muslims used for praying. The painting in the middle of the altar is of Mary holding Jesus and is actually the oldest thing in the whole church. The people hid it during the Moorish take over and then it was recovered years later. Our guide Judy said many people have weddings here. The chapel was really quite small so not many people would fit at all. Maybe 20 on each side of the aisle.

This stained glass window is called a rose. Below it is Jesus on the cross. The stained glass windows were really pretty.

This is a shot of the ceiling of the cathedral. The arches on the ceiling supported the weight of the building and then came down unto unified pillars that they called "piers." The base floor and body of the church was called the "nave." There were lots of nautical references, as you see.

These are all orange trees in the patio outside the cathedral door. Our guide, a really great eccentric woman, said once the trees blossom they are like an aphrodisiac. Then she went on to explain what an aphrodisiac was, just in case no one knew...

So that was the cathedral! I was really glad I went. Side note, last night we went to Esencia, the bar Hayley and Daragh work at. Daragh's house brothers and their friends were all there, so we met them and it was a lot of fun! We actually got to speak Spanish! It was funny because a lot of the time they would speak English to us and we'd speak Spanish back but hey better than nothing. It was so loud in there though, I couldn't even understand the person next to me. So that got frustrating.

Tomorrow we are going to Morocco! I am so excited. I need to go pack my things soon. I am a little nervous about taking my passport with me, just because I like having it safe in my room here. We will be using the touristy necklace passport holder things though, haha.

Carmen's daughter's maid/ nanny is from Morocco and Megan and I talked to her a little before we left. I talked to her a few weeks ago and asked how to say "no, thank you." Today Naima told us how to say "how much is this?" something that sounds like "Michelle" or "Miguel" kind of, haha. I am planning to say one of those names and hope they know I'm asking how much this costs.

Megan and I are presenting Act III of "Tres Sombreros de Copa" (Three Top Hats) for our literature class on Tuesday. We are a little nervous because we are expected to know it in and out and answer questions from everyone, explain the plot, characters, etc. We will probably be working on that in our hotel room a little this weekend.

I am off to go pack now! Have a good weekend, everyone!

Hasta luego :).

Jess in Ireland: The World Outside my Window

2010-02-26T08:02:00.005-05:00

Staying at Niland House Apartments has some definite pluses. And it is all location, location and location.

Located right on Merchants Road I am right behind Shop Street which is the main street to be on if you wish to get anything or do anything in Galway. There are 97 pubs in Galway and most of them are located on Shop Street or side roads right off of Shop Street. All of the shopping, restuarantes and anything else you would wish to find in a city is location on Shop Street. The Saturday market and all of the street performers congregate on Shop Street as well. It is the hub of the city and I am located just one street away.

I am a five-minute walk from Dunnes, the cheapest grocery/department store. This helps when I have to carry all of my groceries back to my apartment and then up to the fourth floor, which is the fifth floor to Americans. I am also only a quick walk to either of the bus stations or the train station, which is incredibly handy for when I travel outside of Galway.

Besides the key location for the shops, clubs and pubs I have a view of Galway bay from my window and it is only a 7-minute walk away. One of my favorite activities is to escape the stresses of my apartment or anything else that is going on and walk along the shore and to sit on the large rocks dotting the sea scape. It is just so beautiful and clean that I can't help to feel refreshed and my confidence restored.

Galway is a gorgeous city and I'm incredibly lucky to experience the life here for five months of my life.

Jess in Ireland: London Bridge is Falling Down, Falling Down, Falling Down

2010-02-25T11:41:00.009-05:00

My first trip outside of Ireland and London was the destination. For 30 Euro I had a two-way ticket from Shannon to Stansted (an airport right outside of London) and I was up and ready to go. Ryanair is amazing, while you are only allowed one carry on with a very strict weight and size requirement the prices cannot be beat and I highly recommend it for any flight you need while in Europe.

Leaving Galway on a 3:30 a.m. bus to the Shannon Airport to make a 6:30 flight we (my roommates and I) made it to Stansted by 8. Once there we had to take two different buses, one from Stansted to Golders Green and from Golders Green to Hendon Central. Hendon Central was the Tube station and bus stop right beside our hostel, London Backpackers. We had finally made it to London and we were exhausted! Begging the french hostel employee to let us check in an hour before the official 1 p.m. check in time we crashed in our 17-person room like a run away train into a brick wall.

Three hours later we were up and somewhat ready to take in London. It was pouring, cold and windy but we were certainly too excited to care. Our destination? Platform 9 3/4. Yes, we are that geeky for all of those of you who got the Harry Potter reference immediately. With day light already gone because of the storm we made our way to King's Cross from Hendon Central without a hitch. The difference we found however between the NY subway and the Underground is that you must slide your "Oyster" or metro card when you get into the station and when you leave the station. Their escalators also make ours look like slow poke grannies out for a stroll with their walker. They are incredibly fast and you must hop on them quickly or the crowd will push you forward.

After playing major Harry Potter tourist we went in search of dinner and found a lovely Italian place that wasn't going to break our piggy banks wide open. One thing I have definitely noticed about eating out in Europe is that it is a slow process. You don't order food, eat the food, get the check and then pay in Europe. In Europe you sit down, talk, order your food, talk, talk, talk get your food, eat, talk, talk, plates get taken away, talk, talk, talk, desert menu, talk, talk, check, talk and then finally you pay, and possibly more talking depending on what type of restaurant you have chosen to go to for the evening.

Taking the Tube/Underground back to the hostel we were greeted with a much more crowded room filled with occupants from all around the world. Across from our beds to the left were three French men who were in London to improve their English so that they may get better jobs in the future. There were also Brazilians, Argentineans, Australians and a British man looking for a flat after getting a job in London. Our first night we went out and took the Tube to Campden Town, it was a Thursday night and we didn't expect much. We spent a quiet night in a pub talking to the three French men about our different experiences and reasons for visiting London.

Waking at 8 a.m. the next day we were prepared with a game plan. We had previously bought a hop-on hop-off bus ticket online. By buying the tickets online we received a two-day pass for the price of a one-day pass. Our first stop was Buckingham Palace to be sure that we would not miss the 11:30 a.m. changing of the guard ceremony that only occurs on odd-numbered days. It was amazing the amount of ceremony the guard went through and to realize they do this every other day regardless of the weather. The royal band played a variety of tunes, everything from Les Miserables to the theme song to Star Wars and Star Trek.

Leaving Buckingham Palace around 1 p.m. we were frozen Popsicles so we got right back to the bus and went to our next stop. We saw Big Ben, Parliament and St. Paul's Cathedral. Big Ben was amazing, but did you know that the tower's name is not actually Big Ben? The bell inside the tower is called Big Ben but the actual name of the tower we refer to as Big Ben is actually St. Steven's Tower. Leaving the Westminster area of London we walked down to the river to take advantage of the ferry ride down the Thames River that came with our hop-on hop-off tour. It gave us a chance to thaw out and eat a snack as we sat inside and gazed out the windows listening to the tour guide give us the history of the Thames.

Getting off the ferry we walked to the Tower of London and took a tour around it before heading to the next bus stop and traveling to the London Eye. The London Eye is the largest Ferris Wheel in Europe and my roommate Angela really wanted to ride on it. The London Eye makes the company that owns it 7,000 pounds each turn. It is possibly one of the greatest get rich schemes I have ever heard of, and yes, I contributed to it. I paid the 20 pounds to ride the Ferris Wheel. It is the highest point in London and you can see everything from Buckingham Palace to Big Ben and so much more from up there that I really can't feel bad that I paid such a gross amount.

Leaving the London Eye it was almost 6:30 and the tour buses ended their service at 6:45 so we booked it to the nearest bus stop and took that to the nearest Underground Station and found ourselves falling asleep on the ride back to the hostel. By the time we got back to our hostel it was 9 p.m. and we needed to find food and shower. We were so exhausted that Friday night we couldn't scrounge up the energy to even want to go out. So after food and showers we went down to the hostel lounge and hung out with other people staying in. We watched movies, played pool and laughed at all of the stories people told us of their home towns and friends. While we didn't go out I can hardly say it was a wasted night because of the new friends we had made.

Once again we woke at 8 a.m. and I believe we seriously were the pain in the butt people of the room since everyone else was still sleeping. We tried to be as quiet as we could but it is hard to sneak out of a bunk bed silently. Leaving the hostel, there was work on the Tube being done so we had to take a bus into the heart of the city. Once we got there it was about 11 and we were determined to make it to a few different destinations.

Saturday was filled with Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Shakespeare's Globe Theater (the third one at least), The Tate Modern Art Museum, St. Peter's Cathedral, walking across the Wobbly Bridge (yes, another Harry Potter moment!), seeing the outside of the London School for Boys, the High District Court and learning about the history of the city. We also saw the Tower that commemorates the London Fire of 1666 that virtually wiped out most of London.

Another interesting monument we saw was great metal statues of dragons up on high stone pillars in the middle of the main two streets leading outside of Westminster (where Parliament and politicians spend their time). These dragons were built to protect London from the evil of Westminster, as it was not officially a part of London when these dragons were built. Our tour guide declared that these dragons must not work properly since his ex-girlfriend walked by them everyday to work and he assured us she was certainly evil.

Sunday morning we slept in until 10 and took a bus to the center of the city, however, traffic made it a much longer journey then normal and we did not get into Trafalgar Square until 1 p.m. A little souvenir shopping was done as well as visiting the National Gallery which hosted painting by Picasso and Rembrandt and so much more. I will never forget the realization that I had just seen Picasso's sun flower painting in real life. I was only a foot away from his paintings and it just astounds me to this day.

Sunday was also Chinese New Year and there was a large celebration commencing in Trafalgar Square to take part of. It is now the Year of the Dragon. Most of Sunday was at a slower pace realizing that to catch our once again 6:30 a.m. flight on Monday we were going to have to leave our hostel and get on the bus at 3 in the morning. So we chose a Moroccan food place to have dinner in Campden Town and spent two hours laughing and talking about all that had happened to us in London. Even our new French friends joined us in the merriment!

Getting back to the hostel at 10 we went in and packed our things, showered and made sure we were all ready for the journey home back to Galway. London was an incredible experience and I would love to visit again someday but it certainly made me happy that I had chosen Galway as my home away from home.

Emily in Spain: This week

2010-02-24T14:26:00.002-05:00

Guess there has not been much new this week to comment on! The food has been good. Weather is looking up. I am going to Africa this weekend and tomorrow is Helado Jueves.

I scoped out my choice today and think I'm going for the Trufa (truffle) or Philadelphia Cream Cheese & strawberries. They call cream cheese "philadelphia" which is simple.

Carmen has to get a converter box for her TV this week because they are switching them over like they did in the U.S. too. We watched a cooking show at lunch today, and I was so happy! I have not been able to watch anything like Food Network for over a month! I actually resorted to watching YouTube cooking videos yesterday.

I really love reading Carmen's cookbooks, too. I thought about buying one here, which I still might, but the hassles are 1. I will need to look up Spanish words I don't know, and 2. everything is in grams. The Spanish vocab I think I could deal with quite easily but having to weigh out my food in grams.. and buying a scale for that, would be quite frustrating. I think I would need a scale, right?

Well, time for dinner now.
Hasta pronto!

Emily in Spain: Question of the Day

2010-02-24T06:37:00.003-05:00

Q. What do most Spanish people wear? What is most popular to wear?
*particurly fasionable/ notable things are in red

A. Overall, I would say the Spanish style of dressing is somewhat fancier than we are used to in America. People really never wear sweatpants out of the house to the grocery store or anything. Layers are very popular for all ages. Elderly women tend to wear what I think of as church-type outfits every day: skirt and tights, blouse, sweater, coat, pretty scarf.
People wear scarves with any outfit.
Most people tend to wear dark colors. When I first got here I remember feeling like I stuck out like a sore thumb by wearing my yellow and white striped cardigan. People wear a lot of purple but I would say they really don't have as much fun with color as we do. That could be because it's "winter" here and everyone is trying to stick to dark colors for the season.
Trendy young women have started wearing jean shorts with opaque tights a lot. Belts and scarves are worn often with the layering technique. For example today I saw a girl wear a tank top and cardigan with a belt and then a light jacket and scarf on top of that. She was also wearing jean shorts, tights, and boots.
Boots are huge here, and for any age. Young girls, teens, and middle ages women wear boots all the time! Sometimes I look around and can only find 3 people in a crowded area who aren't wearing boots! Leather, suede, heeled, flat, tall, short-- all different types are extremely popular for any time of day and occasion.
"Hipster" bags are popular both for fashion and to keep away the pick-pocketers. Women of all ages, and the occasional male ;) use these too.
Speaking of males, I was expecting to see tons of European men who look very fashion flamboyant, but I really have not seen many. Men wear jeans way more often than women and wear a typical sweater and blazer or something of that type.

I am excited to see how clothing changes as weather gets warmer, like maybe see if colors get lighter or anything. There is a rule here that you don't stop wearing your coat until the 40th of May (aka June). We'll see how true that is. As of now, I feel like the U.S. has more fun with clothing and is not restricted into as small of a category of colors and styles. If you wear something a little "off" here, people make a point of staring at you.

I think Spanish people are all very self conscious. It is sort of their way of life that "it's not how much money you have, it's how much money you look like you have." They will go to all limits to look like they are very wealthy, so when they see someone looking not wealthy and not caring (ie. someone wearing sweatpants) it is just apalling.

Thanks for the question, Clare!

I will write more about my week later.
Hasta luego. :)

Emily in Spain: P.S.

2010-02-22T08:22:00.003-05:00

P.S. - thank you for clicking my cool, funny, or interesting boxes, haha! :)

Emily in Spain: Questions of the Day

2010-02-22T07:45:00.004-05:00

I received a couple questions to answer about life here already!
*Kudus to my Uncle Craig for being the ambitious first-question-asker.

Q. Are the Olympics a big deal in Spain?

A. Unfortunately, they're really not. Spain is seriously lacking some good sports bars. I see everyone's Facebook statuses from home about certain Olympic events and I feel very clueless because I have not watched the Olympics once here. I have seen a couple re-caps on the nightly news but not very many.
I think this is for a couple different reasons:
1. Vancouver is 6(ish?) hours behind Spain so the majority of the events geared for viewing are not at ideal hours for Europe.
2. Spain does not exactly excel in much other than futbal (soccer), basketball, and tennis. You can guarantee that for world soccer matches all of Spain is a hot mess about the games, but winter sports, from what I can tell and what I've heard, are not necessarily that important to the culture here.
So, while the rest of the world is celebrating victories and global unity.. Spain keeps on keeping on.

Q. What is the most popular television show?
A. Kinda hard to answer this one because I live with an older woman so what's popular to her may not be popular with the younger people, but from what I can tell reality TV is quite popular here. We watch gossip talk shows quite frequently, and "Mira Quien Baila!" which is Spain's version of Dancing With the Stars. Also there are commercials for Gran Hermano (Big Brother) quite often as well. I believe they have different versions of American Idol and America's Got Talent, etc, too.
Disney Channel shows all the same US shows like Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Wizards of Waverly Place, etc, but all in Spanish. These are popular with the kids. They also really love Zorro: Generation Z or something like that. It's an animated Scooby Doo type show.
There are a couple other shows we watch weekly. One is a Robin Hood type. It is a new show that is set in the old days and is basically Robin Hood saving villages, etc. Another is a show set in the 20s about spies. It is more like James Bond. Carmen loves both of these shows and we watch the new episodes every week. They are addicting and fun to watch but I cannot tell if the whole population loves them or just her.
A lot of American shows are on TV here in Spanish: CSI, Bones, the Simpsons, Family Guy, Friends. Basic television.

My final answer would be that reality TV and weekly shows are the most popular, and of course soccer games.

Thanks for the questions! Keep them coming! :)

Kayaking Adventure

2010-02-22T06:37:00.000-05:00

The other day I took my black marker out to cross yet another day off the calendar. Time has flown by! All of a sudden I realized that I have been here for about a month. I couldn’t believe it when I looked back on my time here so far. Sadly I haven’t done very much. Yeah, I have gone to the beach, movies and explored the town, but no real Australia expeditions. So I set out to plan as many adventures as time and money would allow me.

With that said, this past weekend I went kayaking at Byron Bay. Along side of my three friends we spent all day in eating, shopping, snorkeling and kayaking. It was an all day event that required me to wake up a little to early for my taste. I got over it fairly quickly when I saw the crystal clear ocean that was about to become my play ground for the next eight hours.

Upon getting off the bus, which was a short hour long, we headed off to breakfast. We were allowed to explore by ourselves for five hours before having to return for the main events of the day. We walked through a town where everything was about the surf. It truly was the first time I felt I was in Australia. As went ventured in and out of the shops we were greeted by people with hair dreaded down to the middle of their backs who would say, in their thick Aussie accent, “how you doin’ mate!?” Many of them were traveling along the coasts of Australia for the “perfect wave.” Well, good thing they were at Byron Bay; it is in the top 10 surfing spots in all of Australia.

We went to a little café called Why Not for our meal, which was recommended to us by the manager of the local Rip Curl store. After eating, I went to buy an underwater camera before heading to the beach. Then, to the beach it was. The sand was perfectly white along with a sky that was so blue it looked “Photoshopped.” We tanned, swam and laughed for the next couple of hours.

It was about 1:00 p.m., and time to head back. On our way back we got a little lost, which is my favorite. Whenever I get lost I find new places that not everybody knows about, which are always the best places to go to. One of the places I found was a homemade jewelry store. While the other stores had bracelets for $30 that looked the same as the store next to it, this one had a unique selection to choose from. I felt that I was required to buy some of the jewelry there, because it was so beautiful, so I did.

We managed to find our way back. We ate lunch and got our kayaking gear in order. After about 30 minutes of instruction we were set out into the picturesque ocean. My partner, Whitney, and I were fairly good when we first started paddling. Our first stop in the ocean was to see sea turtles. They were popping in and out for a breath of the salty air. These beautiful animals had shells the size of coffee tables and heads as big as a mini fridge. Then we contented to paddle. Our next stop was watching for dolphins. This is where Whitney and I ran into some problems. They told us if we felt strong enough that we could stand up in our boat to get a better look outwards. I went first. My balance was good and I looked around at my surroundings, and when I was satisfied I sat back down. Then it was Whitneys turn. Her balance was not as good. She ended up tipping the boat, resulting in us going with it. As we were laughing our heads off we tried to get back in. I got back in and as she was getting in the boat I felt it was a good time for a photo. However, while I was taking the photo we fell again. Third times the charm. Finally we were both in the boat and paddling our way to the next spot. Needless to say, we were a little behind the group.

Next spot was snorkeling; we jumped out of the boat and enjoyed the view of colorful fish that surrounded us.

As we were all getting back into the boats, ready to head back in, an already sea sick boy didn’t know how to use his snorkeling equipment exactly right and swallowed heaps of salt water. It was inevitable that this boy was going to get sick. And sure enough, he did. You could tell that the tour guild was not too happy about this guy to begin with and while he is throwing up in the water he looks at him and says, “Are you okay mate?” As the boy continues to get sick the tour guild rolls his eyes and calls out and says “Will somebody get this guy back in his boat?” You felt back for this guy, but couldn’t help but to laugh at the tour guilds reaction.

Finally it was time to ride the waves into the beach. They taught us how to surf the waves in the kayak. By that time Whitney and I had the paddling down and rode the gnarly waves in. Then we got dressed and hopped back on the bus to Bond University. All in all, a great day. I have many more trips planned with high hopes they are as great as my kayaking adventure.

Emily in Spain: Cool, funny, or interesting?

2010-02-21T18:36:00.005-05:00

Hey everyone, I think you should all start checking the boxes under my blog if my post is "cool, funny, or interesting." It makes me feel special knowing lots of people read my blog.. and I'd feel very special if one of you thought my post was cool, funny, or interesting. ;)
Gracias!

And while we're doing requests.. What do you guys want from me? Anything I could add to my blog to make it cooler? Do you have any special requests for something you'd like me to write about? Questions about school, food, life, people abroad?
I'd love writing about something for any of you! Even if I don't know you.
My e-mail address is sorokeee@sbu.edu so feel free to message me anything!

Have a good last week of February, everyone! :)

Emily in Spain: Granada!

2010-02-21T07:18:00.006-05:00

The Granada overnight trip was this weekend and I had a lot of fun!

We left pretty early on Friday morning. The bus ride there was 3 hours long and the scenery was mostly fields of olive trees the whole time. I guess it was like going through the East Coast's farm country where we have fields and fields of corn, but olive trees and mountains looked a lot cooler. Upon arriving we went to the Cepilla Real, where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried. We actually got to see their coffins, so that was cool.

Then we drove up to the top of a mountain to see the view of the city. It was so beautiful. We could see the Alhambra from the other side of the village. We walked back down the hill to the hostels and on the way passed all these Moroccan restaurants and shops. Later that night Megan, Gina, Shannon, and I walked back up and did some shopping there.
We went to La Bella & La Bestia for a drink and tapas before dinner. Granada is famous for free tapas when you order a drink. This place gave us each like a bagel sandwich, fries, and pasta salad with our drinks! It was awesome.

After tapas we ate at this Moroccan restaurant. Megan and I split hummus and chicken tandori. We got a pot of tea for the table. After dinner we went to another tea place that was really cool too. Our table was in like a cubby in the wall with a little curtain separating us from other tables. The seats were really pillow-y. I got Pakistani tea made with milk and it was so good!

This is a view of Granada from the Alhambra. Everything looked so quaint and pretty!

This is me in one of the Alhambra rooms. The Alhambra is a fortress and royal palace. Granada was the last surviving Moorish city in Spain. Spanish kings took over after they kicked out the Muslims, but most of the palace is Islamic looking. There is Arabic writing on lots of the walls and things.

This is one of the walls. Everything was so intricate and beautifully decorated! Our tour guide said the walls were made with a mold, so the people didn't have to carve everything.

The ceilings of some rooms were gorgeous!

These are the gardens outside the Alhambra, next to the summer home. Yeah, in addition to a beautiful palace the family had a "summer home" too, right next door.

Italian family members moved into the summer home after a while and added these fountains to the gardens.

These are the Sierra Nevadas in the background! The whole city had them surrounding the hills and it just looked gorgeous. Lots of Spanairds take their ski trips to these mountains. It is funny because Granada is actually south of Sevilla, but the mountains are so high that they have snow. We ate lunch outside at a cafe Saturday and I felt like I was in a movie. The sun was so nice and warm but in the background we could see mountains covered in snow!

Granada was really beautiful. A lot of students said they liked it even more than Sevilla. It is smaller than Sevilla so it has more of a quaint feeling, but it is still really large and has good shops. The streets are wider in Granada than Sevilla, so there was more sunlight. It was a lot of fun. I am really pleased that all these trips are included with our school program! I wouldn't know how to plan for anything if I had to plan this all myself. I spent kind of a lot of money on food and souveniers this weekend but I am not regretting anything. I am excited about the things I bought! I wish I could show my friends and family right now!

The weather is continuing to be sunny and rainy, off and on. Hopefully it stays sunny soon! I can't believe next weekend is Morocco already! It is going to be a lot ot fun.

Pictures take so long to upload on here. I am not sure why, but it takes atleast 10 minutes to upload 4 pictures. Feel free to look at my photos on my Facebook page! :)

Guess that is all for now. We are going to eat lunch soon. I will write more tonight or tomorrow.

Hasta luego, everyone!

Emily in Spain: Miercoles de Ceniza

2010-02-17T16:20:00.003-05:00

As all you Catholics of the world know, today is the start of Lent aka Ash Wednesday.

I have not decided what I am going to give up/ do for Lent but I did go to an Ash Wednesday service tonight.

There is a church really close to our apartment that I walked to. Carmen told me where it was and what time I could go. I was stunned when I walked inside at how ornamental everything was. In class we have been talking about Semana Santa and how during the year they keep the big Mary and Jesus statues on the altar the rest of the year. This church definitely had lots of them. The walls were painted gold and everything looked really fancy. It wasn't too big though.. maybe about the size of the Bona chapel.

The ash service was a mass too, so it was about an hour long. Sitting there was probably the most homesick I have been since I have been here because I always go to church with my family. I thought of all my friends and family back home and how they were probably all getting ashes at some point today, too. I did not feel really sad or anything, just maybe a little nostalgic. The people in the church were mostly elderly people and they were all very kind. It's nice to know you can find some good people wherever you go.

Now, I don't want anyone to get the impression I was sitting in church all alone, depressed, missing my family.. that is not the case. Yes I was alone but I didn't mind being alone. I was thinking about my family but missing them and everyone in a nice way because I knew we were all keeping on with our lives in different places but doing the same things so it was kind of like we were together.

As I left the church I turned back to look at it again, and I wished I'd had my camera with me. The sliver of a moon was hanging right down by the church steeples. It was really beautiful.

So, then I came home and ate dinner. Now I need to read Act One of this Spanish play... ugh. 30 pages of Spanish literature. Good news though.. tomorrow is Helado Thursday! I am getting "trufa" for sure, I already scoped it out. Chocolate truffle. Amen.

Oh yeah, and I bought another pair of boots today. So much for a day of Lenten piety. Meh.
Time for reading!
Hasta luego :)

Emily in Spain: Weather

2010-02-16T08:16:00.003-05:00

Is Earth being punished for doing wrong?

-earthquakes in Haiti
-earthquake in Illinois (I believe?)
-flooding in the Canary Islands
-flooding in Australia
-snow in parts of Spain where it has not snowed in 50 years
-snow in Washington DC

There has to be more that I'm missing but jeese!

I have decided that Global Warming does not exist. I think the world is slowly just becoming one temperature.. like 30 degrees. And maybe the polar ice caps can't handle the heat wave.

Honestly though, Spain's weather has been so weird since I've been here. It was chilly the first week or so, and then it warmed up to the point where we could lay out on the roof! Since then it has gotten cold and rainy again. Obviously this weekend was pretty chilly. Today has been so weird. It was raining this morning and looked very chilly but actually was about 57 degrees out. We walked to get more literature books between classes. It looked pretty clear but would start raining out of nowhere (no rainbow to be found). After getting our books we stopped for coffee and toast in a little cafe. While we were in there it started down pouring!! And then 5 minutes later it was sunnier than it had been all week. It has continued to be sunny and now it's about 60 degrees out and quite a lovely day.

I keep expecting a dove to fly through the air with an olive branch in its beak.

Hasta luego!

Emily in Spain: Carnaval!

2010-02-14T16:43:00.007-05:00

I feel like there is so much and yet so little so say about the 3rd biggest party in the world. It sure was an experience. Megan and I were on a different bus than all of our friends. The tour company gave us each a can of Fanta, a bocadillo (sub sandwich) and a shot on our way off the bus. The Fanta and sandwich were a God sent through the night.

Since we were on a different bus, it took us a while to find all of our friends. I think Spanish men took it as an invitation to hit on us since we were obviously by ourselves. Right away we had men telling us they were in love with us. That type of thing doesn't happen in America, I don't think.

I saw a group of people dressed up like Star Wars characters and took their picture for my brother, who is a very proud Star Wars geek :).

The plaza looked really awesome and was all lit up. Each tiny little street going off the plaza (it was shaped like a wheel with spokes going out in every direction) had some sort of light theme. There were lots of groups of clowns playing music and singing songs.

We finally found our friends and hung out with them the rest of the night. There was some song that the people sang a lot, every time a glass bottle dropped and broke, which was quite frequently.

Megan and Kevin; Daragh dressed as the Green Man from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and dancing on a light pole. People really loved that, for some reason.

There were so many people dressed up as police that it was honestly hard to tell who was the police or not. I think I saw three cops all night, and they were standing together. There really was no security at all. Carnaval was just a huge mass of people drinking.

Around 3 a.m. we started getting bored. We got churros for something to do. It was pretty cold out and drinking warmed you up but I was so scared of drinking too much and then having to take a bus home... Yea. Bad. I get very, very motion sick so I did not want to do anything to add to that feeling of nausea.

All in all Carnaval was really awesome, but I wish there was a little more to do. When you are out in the cold night from 10:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., you get a little bored of drinking. I would have liked some sort of game or maybe a DJ or something. They had groups playing drums and things, though.

I think 4:00 would have been a good time to leave. Our bus left at 6 or 6:30. I was so exhausted. I slept on the way home and when we arrived at Sevilla it was 8:00 a.m. It was so cold outside of the bus. There were no taxis around either.

Megan and I walked across the bridge as the sun rose. We waited at our bus stop, thinking we'd be able to get a ride home since Bus 31 was parked right around the corner. However, the bus never moved. We found a taxi and rode home instead. It was like 8:30 when we got to our building. In 24 hours we'd be leaving the building for class. Gross.

Carmen was up when we got home and she had hot chocolate and toast made for us. She is so nice. It was 9:00 when I went to sleep. I slept to soundly, too, and did not get out of bed until 5:30 p.m. This evening was so weird, trying to prepare myself to go to bed in 6 hours again.

Carmen really liked the Valentine's Day present we got her-- a heart shaped box of Lindor truffles.

We are watching Las Goyas now, the Spanish Oscars pretty much. It is interesting. I am ready for bed now though!

Hope you all have a good work/ school week! Tomorrow morning is going to come too soon..

Emily in Spain: Worst Day So Far

2010-02-13T06:06:00.005-05:00

But don't worry.. it wasn't that bad. I'll try to give the short version but you know that's hard for me.

Yesterday (Friday) was our city visit to Italica, the Roman city like 15 minutes outside Sevilla. Megan and I took one bus as far as it would go (the Prado San Sebastian bus station) and then had to walk to the second bus station (Plaza de Armas) to meet everyone for Italica.

As soon as we got on our first bus it started raining, so we were like hey good thing we brought rain coats and umbrellas! It was raining harder by the time we got to the Prado. We had never been to the Plaza de Armas before so we are like booking it, in the rain, checking our phones every 5 minutes and thinking the bus is going to leave without us. We were both saying "We should just turn around and not go to Italica." We probably should have listened to ourselves.

We got to the Plaza de Armas bus station and found the ICS bus. It was a relief to sit on the bus on the way to Italica, even though we were sitting in wet clothes kind of.

We passed gypsie "houses" (Romanian I think) on our way. They were horrific. It literally looked like a garbage dump with houses made of propped up fences and things.

Upon arriving at Italica, it was raining with no sign of stopping. Already decently wet, we get off the bus to start our tour. My group started out at the ampitheater which was cool. Our tour guide told us about how the gladiators would fight the lions and so on. Everything was really amazing but I just could not think about anything other than how cold and wet I was. We moved on up a hill to look at the floorplans and what remained of old houses. There were pretty mosaics on the floors and things but pretty much a quick glance was good enough for me. The rain just kept coming down and the cold really sunk through your bones.

Note: For some reason it looks like there is sun or something in these pictures? There was no sun.

After an hour and a half Megan and I decided to leave with Hayley and Daragh. We left the group and quickly toured the rest of the place together and then tried to catch a bus back to Sevilla. We got a coffee and tried to warm up at a cafe across the street while waiting for the 2:00 bus. We were really freezing at this point and our heads were starting to hurt from being cold and wet.

The bus ride home was okay but uncomfortable. Water was running off my rain coat and onto my jeans. Our tour guide ended up being on our bus too. He is a really interesting guy. We enjoyed talking to him during the ride home. He has lived in lots of different countries like the US, France, Cuba, England, and Finland. He said while he was in the US he worked in Epcot at Disney World in "Spain" being a tapas expert, haha. Cool.

Once back at the Plaza de Armas Megan and I braced ourselves for the wet walk back to the Prado station. We dodged puddles and things along the way and our shoes were water logged.

We finally arrived at our little Bus 31 cubicle waiting area. Other buses passed by and after 15 minutes ours still wasn't there. We figured it had to show up any minute. Another 15 minutes passed by and there was no sign of 31. We were still being rained on a little, and our heads hurt so bad. I kept looking around to the main road and it looked like the whole city was in a traffic jam. I think everyone was trying to drive and take taxis today because of the rain, and the city wasn't used to having so many drivers on the road.

After 40 agonizing minutes we realized our bus was not coming any time soon, and we could have been home now. Begrudgingly we left the bus station and started heading home in the cold , cold rain.

The walk was surprisingly simple since all the cars were stuck in place due to everyone's lack of knowing how to drive around the city. Megan and I got even more wet, if possible, and were praising the Lord as we finally approached our apartment.

We walked in and we were SO wet. Our jeans were soaked up to our knees.. shoes were muddy, hands were freezing. I hopped in the shower to warm up but that was a bad choice because it hurt!! I literally had chilly water running over me to try to warm up to a normal temperature and still hurt my hands. Pain.

Now, I know you all might be thinking rain is better than snow.. it is 20 degrees at home and 40 degrees here but picture being so cold and wet for 5 hours and not having any time to warm up or dry off. It really was treachorous. I went back and forth between laughing and thinking I might cry.

The best/worst part? When we changed our clothes and were looking to a warm meal to heat our bodies... the lunch of the day was a jellied mold of fish, shrimp, imitation crab, and tuna. Its juices were mixing with a small pile of a coleslaw looking thing next to it. I took one tiny bite and doubted that I could finish this. It tasted like what I imagine dirty feet taste like.

If I imagined what Ped Egg shavings tasted like, this fish loaf would be it.

Praise the Lord that in addition to this meal, there was a bowl of turkey and rice soup on the side. Megan and I scarfed down the soup in minutes.

I kept looking at the piece of fish that looked very similar to canned cat food. I decided I should try to eat atleast half. Swallowing my second bite, I then decided I am positive I would gag if I needed to finish this. Megan suggested we put half in our pockets and throw it away later. I thought about doing that but then we were scared Carmen would think we liked it and would make it again.

We felt so bad not eating it.. but not bad enough to try and finish it. We scraped the whole plate into the garbage after lunch. Megan tried to cover hers up with her pear peel. I put my napkin over mine.

After lunch I popped in 2 Sudafed Cold & Sinus and took a two hour nap. Dinner was pasta and meat sauce, thank Jesus.

It rained all last night but looks like there might be a few rays of sun tonight. I would die if it rained for Carnaval tonight. Knock on wood that it doesn't!!

Meg and I are going to El Corte Ingles (this awesome high-class Walmart type of thing) after lunch to buy Valentine candy for Carmen and a few other things for Carnaval.

Back at Bonas all my friends are trying to figure out housing for 2010-11. It is hard only being able to communicate with them through e-mail. I wish I was there to tour places with them or have a face to face conversation and not be so out of the loop and distant from everyone.

Oh well!!

I will give a detailed post about the tale of your favorite female pharoahs tomorrow evening.
Have a good weekend, everyone!

Emily in Spain: P.S...

2010-02-10T14:21:00.003-05:00

Red Coat Man (the updated Red Pants Man) was walking down the street holding an umbrella and a guitar today as Megan and I were heading home from class. Seriously... a guitar?! He gave us that creepy smile like he was up to no good, and said something but we're not quite sure. (Our senora and teachers tend to be the easiest to understand, naturally.)

Megan thought he said "puedes llamar" and I thought he said something about "los manos." So either we can call, or he said something about our hands. Who the heck knows.

Oh and P.P.S. I talked to Naima today (I don't think I wrote about her before. She is young, 30s I'd say, and a maid/ nanny for Carmen's daughter and her family next year. She often comes over to help Carmen with dishes and things though since Carmen and her daughter are so close. Another side note, Carmen makes meals for her daughter's family every day so Megan and I think her daughter must pay her rent or give her money for groceries or something.)
Anyway, Naima speaks Spanish fluently but is from Morocco. Today I told her Megan and I were going to Morocco and showed her our little itinerary card. I think she enjoyed looking at what we were doing. She wrote on a piece of paper how to say te quiero, mi amor, and also Emily. She told me I could say that to my boyfriend. The Arabic looked awesome but I can't begin to remember how you say the words.

I asked her how you say "no, gracias" and she wrote that down as well. I believe it is pronounced like "socran" or "shocran." Figured that would be important to know.

Emily in Spain: Almost done with the week!

2010-02-10T13:27:00.003-05:00

Wednesday is over which means 3 classes tomorrow and the week is done! They do go pretty quickly here.

It is cold and rainy here today. Good thing I got a new rain coat for Christmas! It's low 50s outside which isn't bad when I think about the snow at home but you know that terrible feeling when the bottoms of your jeans get wet and you struggle to stay dry on your 20 minute walk to class.

This is my senora, Carmen, cutting cured ham off of a pig's leg! The hoof is still on it, as you can see. These legs are all over the cafes and delis here. I think they're pretty expensive, too, but I'd guess they last a while. She cut it into thin slices like salami or something. We had the ham and little crackers for a snack before lunch.

This was our lunch today, arroz al horno. Kinda like paella but made in the oven and not over a flame. It has chick peas, garlic, and tomatoes in it. Oh and that black stuff is sausage. I am a big fan of rice, so I liked it a lot. Also we have a side dish here that is just cut up tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, sea salt, and oregano. Love it.

That is all for now! Still haven't decided about the teeth situation but I will be sure to update.

Adios :)

Photos take FOREVER to upload onto this blog, by the way so I hope you all are happy ;).

Emily in Spain: Feb. 9

2010-02-09T15:39:00.003-05:00

It's Tuesday night and that means my week is halfway over! Woohoo :) Less than 48 hours til Thursday Ice Cream.

Everything's been going well.
I feel like I have been stuffing myself lately though! It's a combination of the food being so good, and finally being comfortable to think about having seconds, and also I feel bad denying Carmen when she tries to put seconds on my plate. They keep leftovers but sometimes she dishes things up for us right away and it's like, ugh come on I can't eat all this!

Megan asked for a couple bars we could go to to speak Spanish to people and meet people who aren't American or English speaking. No time to do that this weekend though!

I did almost all of my homework for tomorrow and Thursday. I am going to try to finish my literature paper tonight so tomorrow I am stress free!
I'll let you know how that goes.

Other than that, nothing exciting going on! Oh, but it is supposed to rain and be windy starting tomorrow :( And our senora just said today that the next sunny weekend will spring the growth of the orange blossoms! Darn.

Hasta luego!

Emily in Spain: You might enjoy knowing

2010-02-08T17:48:00.003-05:00

1. I prefer America's teeth cleaning. My gums are scabbed and bled again when I brushed my teeth tonight because of that metal drill thing the lady "cleaned" my teeth with. Ow :(

2. Red Pants Man got a new outfit this week! He now has jeans and a red coat. Red Coat Man.

3. Megan and I both got Valentine's Day packages today and we are very happy to eat chocolate and American snacks. We are buying Carmen a Valentine's gift for Sunday, also. She has had about 50 students stay at her house since she started hosting in 2001!! We hope we stick out. :)

4. We are also addicted to this spy show that is on TV Monday nights here. We watch it with our senora and it's just a grand old time.

5. Carnaval is Saturday! It is a party for the body.. Carnaval. It was outlawed during Franco's dictatorship to "protect the people." Seems like he did a lot to "protect" his people.

Time for bed! Hasta manana!

Emily in Spain: The park next door..

2010-02-08T14:15:00.003-05:00

...is great for exercising in! Today I decided it was time for some physical activity that wasn't just walking to school and back. I walked across the street to the park and ran there for a little while. They had lots of benches and just cement block type of things so I was able to do tricep dips, lunges, step-up block things, etc. It was actually kind of fun thinking of what I could do to utilize the things I had. Let's see if it continues being fun...

My legs are really killing me today though, so I am just thrilled to see how they are tomorrow. I did lots of lunges Saturday that made me sore and showed me how out of shape I was. I'd like to build up a little work out routine to do atleast 2 or 3 times a week. I'm not too concerned since we are walking a ton but I don't want to have to have a gigantic wake-up call the next time I try to do something physical.

It is really convenient that the park is right next door to our apartment. Other people were there walking/ jogging around so I didn't feel like a weirdo. I was the only one doing calisthenics but I didn't mind. And thanks to my new iPod arm band I could do all of these activities without having to worry about what I was doing with my iPod! :)

PS- Guess I picked a good day to do a workout because I got Alan's package today! His camera works just great and I am very happy to have one that works! What I might be more happy about are the Valentine's Day treats in there ;). I think I already ate half a can of Pringles. Whoops. Ohh, how I love care packages!

Emily in Spain: Wisdom Teeth

2010-02-08T08:33:00.003-05:00

Well, I had my dentist appointment today at 12:20. Carmen picked me up at 12 after my class and we went to the dentist's office. It was very nice of her to take me there and go with me for moral support/ another person telling me what was going on.

First someone cleaned my teeth (I wasn't expecting that). She like sanded my teeth right away which was somewhat frightening. The only time I've had that before was when I was getting a cavity filled. It bothers me when I can see tooth dust flying around me.
ThenI did that little x-ray thing where you bite the plastic and they scan your teeth.

Here's the odd part, when I went into the other room to look at the x-rays and talk to the doctor, he said my wisdom teeth looked completely normal (and they really did! Not like before where they looked tilted towards the other teeth.) He said I have a small mouth and big teeth, so it's more of a spacing issue. They could give me a retainer for top and bottom teeth for 216 Euro (roughly $300 I think) to spread them out. I am not sure how much a retainer is at home.

The doctor said if I decided I wante them, I could obviously take the retainers home with me and then have my dentist re-fit them or something if I needed to later on. He said to wait another year or so and get an x-ray again and see if my teeth changed any more, and that some people wait 15 or 30 years until their teeth start bothering them to get their wisdom teeth out! Sounds good to me, ha.

That's all for now!

Emily in Spain: La Carboneria

2010-02-07T10:04:00.007-05:00

Last night Megan, Kevin and I ventured out to the famous La Carboneria for a night of flamenco shows and fun, and boy was it fun.

We are sure that this place is a mystical little location because we had to walk around and around the little streets of Barrio Santa Cruz before finally coming to Calle Levies. Once we found the place we thought was right (we had to follow some people, all heading down the same deserted road into a building) the place didn't even have a sign on it. So, naturally, we asked the friendly smokers outside the door "Que es esto?" and he proudly answered "La - Carboneria."

So we walk inside and it's unlike any place I've been to thus far. There are little fire pits in corners and fire places on the wall to warm the place up. Then we walked into the next room, which was a lot bigger and more open but packed with people. There was a bar on the left side of the wall, a stage on the front wall, and tables filling up the rest of the place. The ceiling had rows of wood that hung potted plants. Nightly flamenco shows start at 11. We got there more at 11:15 so the place was jam packed and we didn't get to see a whole lot of the main event, but they'd take breaks and then continue a singing/ clapping act with the occasional dancing. We each got a drink to enjoy the shows.

After the shows were over the place cleared out a lot and we were able to get a table to enjoy our (drum roll please): Agua de Sevilla. Oh yes, the famous La Carboneria drink. One website claims "Your night will end as quickly as it started if you aren't careful."

A pitcher of this beautiful mix: pineapple juice, cava (a Spanish sparkling wine/ champagne), whiskey, and triple sec topped with loads of whipped cream to take the edge off is 20 Euro. The table next to us split a pitcher between 6 people. We're from Bonas, keep in mind, so we split a pitcher between the three of us.

Let's just say that website knew what it was talking about.

A couple hours, a couple people hitting on us (I actually had a man go through his woman friend to ask me for my number. People amaze me. Not that I would have given it out anyway but you'd think maybe striking up a conversation and then asking for a number is more plausible? Or maybe creepy stares from across the bar has worked for him before?) a couple chats with Texas students studying here (they're on the same bus to Carnival!), and a couple more cervezas/ tinto de veranos later, we were ready to leave the bar.

Oh yeah, I talked the bartender into letting us take a picture by the board!

It took a while for us to find our way out of the mystical land that is La Carboneria's neighborhood (no streets are parallel and there is no sort of order among them). We finally found our way to someplace we were familliar with and then proceeded to walk home.

A fine night was has by all.

Emily in Spain: February 6

2010-02-06T08:48:00.004-05:00

Megan and I got female pharoah costumes for Carnival. Very funny. It was nice of our senora to take us!

The point of this post though was to tell you all that Megan and I just tanned on the roof of our apartment :). On February 6th. It's atleast 70 degrees here. I can't tell you how happy I was to lay out in the sun for a little while.

It's lunch time now so we are going to eat and hopefully go back up on the roof and do homework for the afternoon!

Emily in Spain: Feb. 4-5

2010-02-05T18:47:00.004-05:00

Hello all--

Last night after dinner Megan and I met Gina and her roommate Shannon for a glass of wine at a bar around our neighborhood. Two kids from our school Brooke and Chris were at the same place playing chess so after their game was over they sat with us for a little bit before the place closed around 12.

Then we walked over to Lazaga, a cafe bar on the corner of Felipe II where lots of ICS students hang out, to meet Kevin and Andrew. We sat there for a while with the group.

While we were sitting there this homeless man came over to ask us for money and just kinda stood there for a minute begging. Then he proceeded to walk inside the bar and ask people for money. This sort of behavior shocks me. Do you know how angry American shop owners get mad when people do that kinda thing?! These Spaniards do not seem to make any effort to stop it.

I don't know if I have written about the homeless man before, but I will now. Megan and I call him Red Pants Man because he wears red pants every day. (Surprisingly there is actually another homeless man who hangs around the same area and wears red pants so looks like I need to find a new name. Scared the heck out of me when I thought I passed Red Pants Man and then 3 stores later saw him again.)

So anyways he wears red pants and has these really, really bright blue eyes that are just scary. He stares Megan and I down as we walk from our apartment to class multiple times a day and smiles slightly as we approach. One time he walked towards us and behind a tree on the street as we passed. SO weird. One day when we had to walk separately to class we carried our umbrellas even though it wasn't raining so we could whack him with it if we needed to. This was before my mom send whistles :). Also this man lives inside the bank lobby. I do not understand it, but he does. At night here is a cardboard box with an umbrella over the top of it inside the little section in front of the ATM. And the bank allows it. I continue to be flabbergasted.

So yes that is Red Pants Man and he never bothered our friends at Lazaga before but did last night when Megan and I were there. Peculiar.

After Lazaga we walked to this bar Essencia where Hayley and Daraugh got jobs bartending Wednesday and Thursday nights. It was a pretty cool place. It had Victorian looking mirrors and wallpaper but with purple and green colored lights on the ceilings and walls.

After that we went to the famous Buddha del Mar, or Buddha Bar. It is a pretty awesome place. It is three stories, and each floor has a different music theme playing. The first floor is really chill with relaxing music and people smoking hookahs and stuff. The second floor turns into Latin/Hip-Hop kinda stuff, and the third floor is pretty much U.S. pop music. All floors have an Indian/ African decor theme and the same kinda purple and green lights. The top floor was sweltering hot. It had rained earlier in the night so Megan and I were carrying umbrellas and Kevin was wearing a rain coat. We didn't want to put them down and we weren't quite in the club mood so we headed out around 3:30. I was glad to finally go there, though, and hopefully we'll go back soon.

I was so happy to go to bed when we got home and didn't want to get up at 10 a.m. for our city visit but did. We went to Archeological Museum today in the Parque Maria Luisa. There were tons of Roman scuptures and stuff. So many different groups of people were in Spain/ Sevilla so they had lots of different artifacts. It was all really impressive.

The second part of the exhibition was short and sweet. It was the Treasure of Carambolo. From what I understand, the treasure was on a Spanish ship years and years ago and it sunk and no one could find it. Finally in the late 1950s Americans found it and wanted to keep it but it belonged to Spain. It actually belonged to the King of Tartessus, an old city filled with gold and riches. The city was so rich that some people actually thought maybe it never existed. Tartessus in the Bible and also Greek mythology.

The coolest part was that the real gold was actually in the museum! Not a replication! They are taking the real stuff out of the museum on Feb. 28 so I was excited I got to see it.

This is what it looked like. We weren't allowed to take pictures (..not that I could have anyways..) but it was kind of nice to just walk around and not have the pressure of taking a perfect picture of everything.

After the museum we came home and had paella for lunch! It had chicken, snap green beans, these super-size cannelini beans, and lots and lots of rice. Very yummy.

Later we went to the We Love Spain office on Calle Sierpes and booked our trips to Carnival at Cadiz and Morocco Fantasy Weekend! I am so excited. I will give more information on both of them later.

Carnival is only a week away! It is supposedly huger than the Mardi Gras party at New Orleans. Everyone wears costumes and things. Carmen said that she can take us shopping tomorrow to look for costumes! We think we might be Greek goddesses or something and wear togas and headband things. Seems simple enough. I get the feeling that people dress up more as traditional things like gyspies, knights, jesters... Not like Michael Jackson, which was my Halloween costume this year.

After we booked the trips we got a postre (pastry dessert) at a really cute little pastry bar thing. There were markets that Megan and I went to after that. They were selling mostly scarves, jewelry, handbags, and leather goods. I bought a couple pairs of earrings. I liked them a lot. Actually, I am really looking forward to going back and getting more stuff while I am here. A lot of it seems pretty authentic and handmade.

Still exhausted from the morning, Megan and I came home, ate dinner, and hung out with out senora for the evening. We watched TV and wrote in our journals, etc. February is going to fly by! I am so excited for all the upcoming trips:

Feb. 13 Day- Italica-- pretty much Little Italy for the ancient Romans in Sevilla.

Night- Carnival at Cadiz! Bus leaves at 9 p.m., party all night, and leaves for home at 8 a.m. No hotel, no nothing. Just partying on the beach til the break of dawn!

Feb. 19-20 Overnight trip to Granada

Feb. 27, 28 March 1- Morocco Fantasy Weekend

March 5- Cordoba

And then it is time for midterms! Holy cow. I am very excited for all of this! Today was a successful day.

Hasta manana!

Emily in Spain: Thursday = Friday in Sevilla!

2010-02-04T09:33:00.004-05:00

We don't have Friday classes here so I'm about to have my last class of the week- hallelujah! And what better way to celebrate another week abroad than to get helado from a classy cafe/bar we walk past and admire every day? Megan and I scoped out what flavors we wanted yesterday after class so today after class we will be fully prepared to reward ourselves with an ice cream treat. My guess is that we will be charging out the door once 6:30 strikes and dodging bodies on the street to get to our ice cream. But that's just a guess... ;)

Tomorrow we have a city visit to the archaeological museum. Not sure what we are doing tonight. It will probably be short lived though, since we have to be up at a decent hour (ie- before noon) for our city visit.

I have been having dreams about friends and family back home a lot lately! Not bad dreams or anything, but just dreams. My friend Abbie (old hallmate and fellow cheerleader) has shown up atleast 3 times. I am not really homesick or anything but I guess my subconscious is reminding me that I do still miss my friends from home and Bonas. Also I made my team keep me on the e-mail list so I get notifications of hang-outs they're planning or words to a new cheer. I like staying in the loop but it is sad thinking of them doing fun things and me not being there.

I am going to finish my Spanish literature paper now (one page, so it was easy) and e-mail it to the teacher. Then off to finish our school week we go!
Hasta luego!

Oh, PS-- I had "Choco Pillows" for breakfast this morning. Different brand, same great taste.