Class and Free Time

             Having class here has been so much different than what I have been accustomed to at Maryville over the past several years. I'm going on about 5 weeks since I started my first days of class here and I've still barely had any classwork outside of class. This is exremely different than Maryville where I typically finish a class and go straight to the library in my free time whether it be in the time between classes or after having finished my classes for the day because I always have something do. Here you actually have free time.. and lots of it. All this free time has been really nice. I've been able to do a lot of travelling to cities close by as well as just being able to go out with friends and meet new people.    
              For the first four weeks  I essentially only did two seperate intensive classes of soley learning spanish in order to prepare us for when our actual courses started.  With that being said there has definitely been no shortage of class hours. During the first two weeks we were place in a class depending on our results from our spanish placement test. Of course when i arrived for class the day after taking the placement test my name was the only one that was not listed on the sheets for what class you will be in. So it ended up that i got placed in a random class that turned out to be the level below advanced so it turned out alright. However, back to the point, during the first two weeks i had class with erasmus students from all over from 9:30 to 2:00 everyday. This turned out to be great for meeting people and still some of my best friends here are people i met from these first two weeks. After, the first two weeks i began my particular erasmus program of isep in which I essentially had another two weeks of what we had been doing but with a different teacher and only the students participating in my isep program. This has been the only dissapointing about my program for me; our class only consists of other other americans and students from china. Therefore, there is not much variety and I feel that I'm around to many americans and english during the class hours. Back to the topic again, this past week I actually started the actual courses which make up our program which include: literature, politics, art, music, and grammar. However, I also have another spanish course in the afternoon based on my level two times a week from 6 to 8 with other erasmus students which has been my favorite class. Then to add to that, next week we start a geography class that we have once a week from 6 to 8 as well. Therfore, three days of the week I will be taking 6 and a half hours. This is a lot of time but I actually prefer it because I'll be around spanish more and the workload has been a lot lighter than what I'm used to so I think it's a good balance. So yea.. that's a little bit on how my classes have been here. Maybe next time I'll fill you in on some of my travels.

Fiesta and Siesta... It's Real

So before going to Spain, probably like most all others who have at set off for  Spain, I had heard all about the siesta (nap) and of course fiesta. Well, it turns out that they weren’t lying. Of course in the United States we also have naps and people take them when they have time for it. However, here it is on a completely different level. It is essentially something that is penciled in or should I say inked in on the schedule.. it is a part of the lifestyle here. Essentially from 2-5 in the afternoon, everything shuts down except for the a few small stores  and everyone takes a break from the day and what they’re doing to go home and eat and take a nap or whatever they please. This is very different from the lifestyle in the U.S. in which it always seems as if there are never any breaks in the day and everyone’s always on the go. At home it’s always “what do I have to do next?” or “Where do I need to be now?” but here it’s more relaxed and easy going. People take their breaks, get their rest in and return to work after the hours of siesta for a couple more hours to finish what they need to do.

Fiesta.. Also something that I have found to be very much a part of the lifestyle here.. at least for the younger crowd. Here, it is not uncommon for people to go out about any day of the week, not just the weekend. And when people here go out, they go really go out. I found out very soon when I arrived in Spain over the summer that parties worked a little differently here in Spain. Typically when people go out with their friends, it doesn’t happen until at least 12:30 to 1:00. Furthermore, it is very normal to see people returning home from parties anywhere from 5:00 – 8:00 am in the morning. During the summer while staying with Marcos I was able to get accustomed to how going out worked in Avila. One of the things that I thought was really cool was how there were many fiestas de pueblos (village parties). In Spain there are many pueblos or villages and each pueblo typically has a weekend in which they host a party. So, everyone would get a ride to the village however they could, usually around 1 at night, and hang out on the streets until the event started. These fiestas always consisted of a stage with a group who would sing and dance and everyone would fill the streets in front of the stage.

       Here are a couple pictures from earlier on in the summer when I took a bus with Marcos and his friends to a pueblo about an hour away. The bus left at midnight and we got back at a nice, early hour of 9 in the morning. Needless, to say I slept until about three only getting up to eat lunch and go right back to sleep utilizing the siesta. This was one of the strangest things for me as well, that is so accepted to just to go out all night and sleep all the day. His mom always telling me you must be tired or hungry or why don’t you take a nap. Slightly different than waking up my house at two and my mom yelling at me that I need to do something with my life. So yea.. fiesta and siesta is real. Til the next time.

3 Months In

What's up all my peeps out there! I know you all have been dying to get a look at my first post. Well, the time has come and although this may be my first blog post, turns out you all have missed out on a quite a bit. Actually, as of today it makes 3 months exactly since the day that I left the U.S. to start my travels abroad. Hard to believe after waiting for so long to start this trip, I've already three months in. As I have been here for quite a while now, I'm not even sure where to start. So, I'm just going to use this first post to fill you in a little on where all I’ve actually been and a few of things I’ve done.

Turns out it can be pretty beneficial having international friends. Last year, as I did not have any eligibility remaining to play soccer at Maryville, I had more free time and ended up becoming good friends with quite a bit of the internationals studying at Maryville. This has turned out to be a great help for my travels abroad. During school last year after I had found out that I was accepted to Spain, I began making my travel plans to come early and visit my friends before starting my classes in Spain in order to travel and be able to have more time to be able to learn Spanish. As two of my friends are Spanish this was a great opportunity for me.

During time of first semester last year

I actually began my trip by going to Northern Ireland to stay with my friend MaryClaire and her family in Belfast. This actually worked out well as the flight was much cheaper to Ireland although I had to take the interesting route of making two stops in Canada and eventually arriving at the Dublin airport. However, I did eventually arrive and I had one of my best weeks here. During my time in Ireland, I think I practically did all of the touristy things possible in Northern Ireland as it's not very big. Although they don't speak Spanish in Ireland, at times it did feel like I was practicing a different language due to the strong accents in many places. Additionally, one of my highlights here was attempting my first horse ride in which I was surprisingly able to carry out without dying. And if you were wondering.. yes it is very green in Ireland and it does rain just about every single day. However, it is a country with some awesome scenery and a lot of fun stuff to do.

Trying to pretend I know what I'm doing

Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland

After my first week flew by, it was time to make my way to Spain to stay with my friend Marcos in his hometown of Avila about an hour to the northwest Madrid. I’m not going to lie, although I was very excited, I began to get a little nervous for the first time as I was making my bus trip from Belfast to the Dublin airport at 2am in the morning. It began to hit me that I was about to enter a country with a completely different language and different culture. Making matters worse, my flight was

 at 6am and I was not able to get any sleep before the flight or during the flight thanks to some party hard Irish goers sitting right behind me. However, everyone that I met here in Avila was super nice including Marcos’ family, making everything really easy. Although the Spanish was definitely difficult to get accustomed to for much of my time here in Avila, it has really helped me as now I feel that I have a head start on most all of the other erasmus (international) students in my university. Additionally, during my time at Marcos’ place, one of the best things was that we were able to travel quite a bit as we went to several different cities/beaches throughout Spain as well as traveling to Amsterdam and Belgium for a week.

With Marcos and his friends at the pool in his neighborhood

Amsterdam

After about five weeks in Avila, Marcos and I made our way to the region of Murcia where I have actually begun my studies now and where Sofia also studies. MaryClaire flew in as well and we all stayed at a house on the beach that Sofia's parents had rented. We had a blast here as we had the tough task of visiting a ton of beaches and laying out in the sun every day. After this week I spent a couple more weeks with Sofia and her family before actually beginning my courses. These weeks here helped me to get accustomed to the city in which I would be living and the differences between Murcia and Avila. So yea.. that's all I got for you all this week. It's been quite the tough life here abroad. Til next time.

First time downtown in Murcia

A small beach near the mountains