Map showing where my house is

Map to where my house is, Click Here

1st Week of School Done

Well the first week of class is over here in Spain, and it was a good one I think.  I feel like my classes are pretty good and that I’m going to learn a lot.  I’m really excited about the internship that hopefully will start next week for everyone.  I am going to try to get a position at a tennis complex.  I really really hope it works out because I think it could be a fun job, and I could get to know some other people interested in tennis.  If it works out I’m not really sure what I’m going to be doing but…. Time will tell.

It is still SUPER hot here and the lack of A/C in the house is a problem.  It is hard to sleep well or enjoy yourself in the house much.  We always are sweating when we eat our meals so that really is a bad deal.  It has been over 100 for like the last 3 days, and it is supposed to be over 100 until at least Monday.  Our host mom is pretty nice usually, and she makes great food.  The only thing is that she has never had kids so I know that that affects things here.  I feel that some things are hard for a person that has never been a parent to understand when trying to act as a host parent.  I’m not sure how to explain it well, but I think you probably know what I mean.  And I can’t really think of a specific example so …. Well yeah you get the picture.

Today we were supposed to go to Italica, a place near Sevilla with Roman ruins I think.  We were supposed to leave at 9 from a bus stop across town, but of course my roommate and I over slept.  I’m really feeling like crap about it too.  It is something I wanted to attend, and I hate that I missed the first excursion.  It makes a really bad impression to the teachers, and I’m not sure what the consequences will be.  I don’t feel like that is something I would normally do by any means.  I’m, generally speaking, a responsible person I think.  I seem to always have problems getting up in the morning though even back home.  With the difficulty of falling asleep, sometimes the mornings are even worse for me. 

Isa our host mom is also not happy about us missing because she got up earlier than normal to make our breakfast of toast and coffee.  She also tried to wake me up because I told her yesterday that I have problems getting up in the morning when I have to wake up earlier than normal.  See normally my roommate and I don’t have class until 10am so we don’t have to wake up so early, but this morning we had planned to get up by 7:45.  Anyway Isa said she is never ever getting up early for that kind of thing again for us because we didn’t even get up for her.  I felt like that was a little harsh and maybe that’s what I was talking about that she has never had kids.  I know a parent would be upset but would be able to get over it without making statements like that.  Anyway enough about that, as you can tell I’m not happy about how this morning has progressed.

On a better note, I think my Spanish is improving.  I’m still having some serious problems with the differences in sound of Mexican Spanish and Spain Spanish.  Some people I can almost understand completely and others I have no clue what they are talking about.  It is getting better though.  Our director told us that the South of Spain has a pretty distinct and heavy accent, so that makes me feel better.  He also said that once you are able to understand this Spanish, it will help tremendously to understand almost all the other dialects of Spanish from around the world because our ears will already be trained to pay very close attention.  I can understand all the teachers very, very well when they speak Spanish.  I would say I understand about 95-100% of what is said in class. 

Also, I rented a bike this a few days ago which has been much better than walking everywhere.  Sevilla has a public biking system where there are bike stations throughout the whole city and you can take and return a bike to any station.  So it is not so much that I rented a bike, it is more like I have the availability to get a bike whenever I need. 

As of right now, I’m only taking two classes every day.  Our schedules change in mid-October, and I think I’ll actually only be taking on class then but not sure yet.  The two classes I’m taking are called “Basic Conversation” and “Advanced Grammar”.  I really like both my teachers for those classes.  They are nice, fluent, enjoy their jobs, and very helpful.  And honestly, I enjoy the classes most of the time.  I, however, am mainly looking forward to making some native friends here.  I think my best opportunity for that might be the tennis place where I hope to work.  Some Spanish friends here would awesome and would help my Spanish by leaps and bounds.  

Isa has two nieces that go to the University of Sevilla that are going to be coming to stay here during the weeks starting sometime in September as I understand.  They apparently have done it for their duration while attending the university.  I hope they are nice people and are glad to have Americans in the house.  If they are nice, they could really help to make this trip great.  Maybe they can help us meet people and show us around.  Plus, it would give this house a little more excitement.  Right now there is no internet and only one TV which is in the living room which also happens to be Isa’s bedroom.  So when we are at the house there isn’t much going on.  Its sitting in the room, eating, doing homework, or sitting on the couch with Isa watching TV.  

Ok this one is long because, well, I’m sitting in my room waiting until it is time to eat.  After we eat I plan on taking a siesta then go to an internet café…. Exciting day.  Anyway, I’m about to save this in Word so I can upload it later haha.  

Moving Into Host House

Well yesterday my roommate and I moved into our host house.  We are staying with a lady named Isabela, or Isa for short.  She is a single lady with no kids and some nieces and nephews.  So far she is very nice and she has a nice place.  Of course within the first 15 minutes I knocked something off of the wall and it broke...  She was clearly upset, but I think she got over it by now.  She is a very good cook so far from what we have eaten and she enjoys talking with us.  She also enjoys quiet though, and she gave us quite a bit of information on how to open and close doors so that we don't bother anyone with noise haha.  I'm not sure if I understood her correctly or not but it seems that 2 nieces of hers will be coming to stay at the house also.  They should be there sometime in September I think and one of her past students is also coming back for a short visit in September.  She has been hosting kids in her house for 26 years and Americans for 22 years so she knows how its done I think.  We don't have A/C or internet at the house so that is pretty aggravating.  It is very hot and that makes it tough to sleep.  I think we will get more used to it as the time goes.  There are also like 7 wireless internet networks that we can reach from our house but they all have passwords.  We are planning on meeting some of the neighbors at some point and asking if we can use the internet.  Our first day of class was today, and it looks like we are going to have a pretty wide variety of levels in the class with me being somewhere in the middle which is good.  I was worried about that.  Also, I have talked to the teachers about my internship, and we have a place or two in mind that we are going to look into when things get going around here again.  Much of the city of Sevilla goes on vacation during August and/or July so the tennis clubs are kinda on half operation right now.  Today I'm planning on getting a phone for here and then I think I'll be able to rent a bike also which will be great.  Well that's all for now so over and out.
Joe

Spain 2010

Germany 2010

Sweden 2010

First Post - Sweden, Germany, and Beginnings of Spain

Hello people,

Well I don't have much time so I'm not sure how long or detailed this will be but here it goes. Oh and no judging on grammar or spelling, POW. I have now been in Europe for a little over a week, I guess this is officially my 8th day in Europe. I left on a flight with my friend Elliott from DFW after a frantic evening of packing. I had had my Organic Chemistry II final the previous day which was 19 pages of an culmination of 10 weeks of materials encompassing 22 chapters. I say that because it explains why I wasn't able to get things together much before the departure. The flight went from DFW to Amsterdam which was about 9 hours. It was pretty rough. I of course was lucky enough to be seated near a screaming child and behind someone who never had his seat in the upright position. During the final hours of the flight, I was standing and walking around quite a bit. We landed in Amsterdam and had a short layover until our flight to Gotenberg, Sweden. In Sweden we had a little bit of a scare in the airport, but we got it all sorted out. In Sweden we stayed with the Shasteen family. Mrs. Shasteen was my tennis coach all through high school and always had said I was welcome to come to Sweden to stay with her and her family. The Shasteen's have three great kids that I knew from when they lived back in the USA, and Mr. Shasteen is a Texas native which was great. Elliott and I had an amazing time in Sweden. It was really a beautiful country. We were able to tour around Gotenberg which is the second largest city in Sweden and also able to see some of the not so populated hills of Sweden. Elliott and I took alot of pictures while we were there because of how nice everything was. I will put a link to the pictures at the end of this. Our only regret about Sweden was that we didn't have much time. We were able to see many things and spend some great time with the Shasteen's, but it wasn't long enough by any means. Oh and by the way, there are ALOT of very good looking people in Sweden just like you may have heard. We were only in Sweden for 2 nights and then we were off to Germany.

From Gotenberg Elliott and I flew to Berlin then to Nuremberg where we were picked up at the airport by the Jojo Hirmke and her family. Jojo went to Meridian Community College with both Elliott and me. I was very very excited to be in Germany for the first time. Living in Lindsay and being part of a family that comes from Germany it was very exciting to finally be in a place that I had always heard so much about. We stayed in a town called Bamberg. Bamberg is a world heritage site and has many beautiful places and things to see. There is a town hall that was constructed in the middle of a river, an area known as Little Venice along that river, 10 breweries for a town of 70,000 which does not include the breweries just outside the town, a cathedral thats over 1000 years old,and many other churches. Bamberg is also the basketball capital of Germany, which the Hirmke family is very much a part of. Jojo plays college basketball, her boyfriend plays pro-basketball, her dad is a basketball coach, and all her brothers and sisters play. Bamberg has a week long beerfest which we were lucky enough to be around for. It was alot of fun, and we were able to hang out as many of the locals did. We also traveled to Nuremberg, Germany. Many of you may have heard of Nuremberg because of the Nuremberg Trials for WWII. Nuremberg was also pretty much the government capital for Hitler, and we were able to see where he held his government. In Nuremberg we visited a old castle and were able to get some great pictures from the top of it of the entire city of Nuremberg. Germany was a really great country, and we had a great time there. Again the only thing lacking was more time there. I hope to be able to visit Germany and Sweden again soon in the future.

We are now finally in Spain. Elliott is in a hostel for the first bit of time then he will be taking a tour for a few days since his program doesn't start until the 1st of September. I, however, am already in a hotel with my program going through the orientation process. I will get assigned to my host family tomorrow and classes start Monday. Today we did have a small walk about town, and I was able to visit the cathedral here in Sevilla. The cathedral here houses Christopher Columbus's tomb which was very exciting. The cathedral is huge and beautiful. It is the largest Gothic style building in the world. Volume-wise it is the 4th largest church in the world and by floor plan it is the 5th largest church in the world. The interior is decorated like you would not believe and is incredible. It has parts that are from the 8th century, but I'm not sure when the entire thing was built. It has Roman stones at the bottom of it from ruins. Anyway, we have more orientation stuff tonight at 5. I think Elliott and I are going to watch tennis until around then. Until next time.

oh... this got a bit longer than I had expected... oh well.  I'm going to put the links to my pictures below this and I should be posting pictures as much as I can.  I'll try to let people know when I update this blog too.

Pictures:

Germany     Sweden

Joe