Hola!
Yes, it is still raining here in Santiago; the couple who owns my apartment keep apologizing for the weather-the worst winter they and their friends have ever experienced here, of course. Despite the nasty weather I am still enjoying myself here, just spending more time indoors than I normally would. Not as exciting as my Paris days, but still good. Earlier in the week, Monday I think, I decided it was time to start making all my meals, and headed to the Carrefour (a cheap grocery/other stuff store) after class to store up. It's in the zona nueva, a looong walk from my house, but no worries, I'm young and strong...right? By the end of my shopping I had two big, heavy bags of stuff, and about a 30 minute walk ahead of me...not my best idea. However, to proud to break down and take a bus, I manged to make it all the way home, occasionally stopping to rest my arms and switch hands...I'm kind of an idiot sometimes. But now I have lots of cooking supplies! Yay! I decided to try and imitate the curry chicken dish Florette and Laura made, and although it ended up having waaaay to much sauce, I have to say it came out pretty good...I was proud, even took a picture :). Oh, I also went out to dinner with my roommates Biaggio and Samuel Sunday night, which was really nice. Unfortunately, Samuel is going to visit his girlfriend, and is going to be gone for the next four weeks :(. Oh well, he'll be back. Dinner was really interesting though, we talked a lot about Poland; he was asking us why we thought it was so impossible for the Polish to come to the States, even to visit. Apparently just about all the other countries around him have been getting admitted more within the last year or so...but not Poland (who he says are very pro-America, ex. the war in Iraq). I couldn't really give him an answer...didn't really make sense to me either. He also talked a bit about the Polish view towards Russia (EXTREMELY negative); he mentioned that he finds all the Russians to be very rude, stand-offish, and have an "I'm better than you" kind of attitude...of course, his opinion is probably pretty damn biased, but it was interesting nonetheless. I also tryed "pulpo" (octopus) for the first time at dinner; it actually wasn't too bad, although I don't feel the need to order it myself, haha. Also, I am doing this post completely backwards as I remember things, I had a nice night on Saturday. In the evening Florette and I went over to Sam and Laura's place (which is really nice, perfect hangout place), and played Scattegories for a long time, which was actually really fun (plus I won most of it with my mad gaming skillz, which is always a plus...;). Biaggio came over later and we all headed out to find a cafe and get a drink. We sat around talking, Laura filled us in on some of the kenyon drama we missed. Apparently there was a big argument going on through allstu (emails that everyone gets), as our school newspaper (the collegian, produced/written by students) had pubished an article with an inflammatory title ("Rape at college, fraternities at fault"?, or something along those lines), that really upset members of Greek life. It's always been a little tense on campus when it comes to Greek life, lots of mixed feelings about it in general, but apparently it got pretty ugly. As a member of a sorority, Laura said it was like the worst month of her college experience. The other news was that there was a big drug bust or something; which is interesting, sometimes I forget that hard drugs exist on campus, ah well. In any case, it was interesting to hear about what has been going on back in Gambier; after drinks we walked around and found a cheap cafe for some dinner. Very good, and more interesting conversation. At this point Biaggio got a call from one of our friends on the program, and we planned to meet up with them at this cool bar not far from my house, called Momo's. It's really neat, in the old district, and in the downstairs of this cool stone building. It was a good time, and we ordered a pitcher of sangria, my fave! haha. Florette, Laura and I headed out a bit earlier than the others and made the treck home, overall a really great night.
This week I've been spending lots of time coordinating travel plans, and getting really excited about all that kind of stuff. So far we've got plans for a trip to Southern Spain, Madrid and environs, and hopefully by the end of the day we will have finalized a trip to Marrakech! I'm really pumped, and Florette, Laura, and Ryan will hopefully be coming to most of these as well, yay! Last night Laura invited me over for dinner along with Florette (and Sam too, as she and Laura live together). It was a nice dinner, Laura's a great cook, and afterwards I taught everyone how to play Eucker (I don't actually know how to spell this, but it's a really great card game-dad knows it). Another fun night at their place, and I headed home late to finish up some homework. Tomorrow Sam and I are heading to London to stay with Ryan, which I'm so excited about!!! Will post when I get back and tell you how it went, should be a great time.
Love you all,
Brit
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Getting back in the swing of things
Hey all,
Today I'm in a very good mood, as for the first time like all we week we have some sun!!! The weather here was really starting to get to me, every day constant rain, with little breaks in between to trick you into closing your umbrella. It's funny, when I read in the Pre-departure packet that we should wait to get to Santiago to buy a really strong umbrella, I just figured they were being overly-cautious. Wrong. Everyday I see umbrella casualties as I walk around town after our most recent bout of rain/wind. Yesterday I broke down and bought my second umbrella, as my first one was literally collapsed on one side, and it was just becoming too difficult to avoid being jabbed in the face by one of it's many broken rods. So yes, I invested in like a 11 euro umbrella, hopefully it will last me longer than a week! In any case, as I said the last week has been really gray, rainy, and chilly, pretty miserable weather. Plus, the lack of real heating in Spain makes it all the more harder, as you return home unable to warm up or dry off, sigh. I just can't wait until we get out of the rainy season! Other than that not a whole lot going on here, during the week my days are dominated by class and random meals with friends, or on the go. I didn't really go out much during the week, unlike Paris; I'm a lot more chill here, catching up on my reading and staying out of the rain. Thursday night, however, was really fun; almost all of us went over to Fattin and Katie's apartment, which they share with there french roommate Rodain, for dinner. Fattin is a really good cook, and they made some delicious seseame chicken, a nice rice dish, with some really good sauce consisting of just Mayonnaise and honey mixed together. We spent a long time hanging out at their place, consuming copious amounts of wine, before about half of us headed over to this bar close by called "fusion". It was a really cool place, VH1 music videos playing in the background and reminding us of home. The bar is known for having these huuuuge drinks called "confusion", very strong, so a bunch of us girls split about a vase worth of one, haha. It was fun, by the end of it we were all feeling it, and Laura and I eventually headed home together, stopping for a hot sandwich on the way back. It's nice we live so close together, I never have to walk home alone at night, so that's all good. Yesterday (Friday), I had no classes as usual, but the weather was horrendous. I decided to just spend the day doing nothing, and started reading Twilight (thanks Samantha!), and spent the day reading and sleeping. Eventually I got up and went into town to get some food, so I went and sat in a cafe close to my house, ordering a coffee to see if I would like it (I didn't, screw it), and reading more of Twilight. My friend Laura called me and invited me over to Florette's place for dinner, which I happily accepted, and then I went out and got myself my new umbrella (ditching my old one in a trash can on the way, sigh), and a bottle of wine for our dinner. It was a really good dinner, I was very impressed by their cooking ability, Laura even wants to go to cooking school and everything. Laura and I headed out at around 10:30, as Laura thought the bus stopped running at 11 and we didn't want to miss it. At this point, the wind was insane, there was a storm rolling in to Santiago, the rain earlier had been atrocious, but we huddled under the bus station and waited...and waited...and waited...Turns out the bus stops running at round 10, argh! We started the somewhat long trip home, wind whipping around us and the power flickering on and off around us, pretty scary! Finally, we both made it home safely, but the wind kept up all night.
In any case, it's looking like it might actually be a nice day in Santiago today, so I'm going to go out and enjoy it. Love you all, hope everyone is doing well!
Brit
Today I'm in a very good mood, as for the first time like all we week we have some sun!!! The weather here was really starting to get to me, every day constant rain, with little breaks in between to trick you into closing your umbrella. It's funny, when I read in the Pre-departure packet that we should wait to get to Santiago to buy a really strong umbrella, I just figured they were being overly-cautious. Wrong. Everyday I see umbrella casualties as I walk around town after our most recent bout of rain/wind. Yesterday I broke down and bought my second umbrella, as my first one was literally collapsed on one side, and it was just becoming too difficult to avoid being jabbed in the face by one of it's many broken rods. So yes, I invested in like a 11 euro umbrella, hopefully it will last me longer than a week! In any case, as I said the last week has been really gray, rainy, and chilly, pretty miserable weather. Plus, the lack of real heating in Spain makes it all the more harder, as you return home unable to warm up or dry off, sigh. I just can't wait until we get out of the rainy season! Other than that not a whole lot going on here, during the week my days are dominated by class and random meals with friends, or on the go. I didn't really go out much during the week, unlike Paris; I'm a lot more chill here, catching up on my reading and staying out of the rain. Thursday night, however, was really fun; almost all of us went over to Fattin and Katie's apartment, which they share with there french roommate Rodain, for dinner. Fattin is a really good cook, and they made some delicious seseame chicken, a nice rice dish, with some really good sauce consisting of just Mayonnaise and honey mixed together. We spent a long time hanging out at their place, consuming copious amounts of wine, before about half of us headed over to this bar close by called "fusion". It was a really cool place, VH1 music videos playing in the background and reminding us of home. The bar is known for having these huuuuge drinks called "confusion", very strong, so a bunch of us girls split about a vase worth of one, haha. It was fun, by the end of it we were all feeling it, and Laura and I eventually headed home together, stopping for a hot sandwich on the way back. It's nice we live so close together, I never have to walk home alone at night, so that's all good. Yesterday (Friday), I had no classes as usual, but the weather was horrendous. I decided to just spend the day doing nothing, and started reading Twilight (thanks Samantha!), and spent the day reading and sleeping. Eventually I got up and went into town to get some food, so I went and sat in a cafe close to my house, ordering a coffee to see if I would like it (I didn't, screw it), and reading more of Twilight. My friend Laura called me and invited me over to Florette's place for dinner, which I happily accepted, and then I went out and got myself my new umbrella (ditching my old one in a trash can on the way, sigh), and a bottle of wine for our dinner. It was a really good dinner, I was very impressed by their cooking ability, Laura even wants to go to cooking school and everything. Laura and I headed out at around 10:30, as Laura thought the bus stopped running at 11 and we didn't want to miss it. At this point, the wind was insane, there was a storm rolling in to Santiago, the rain earlier had been atrocious, but we huddled under the bus station and waited...and waited...and waited...Turns out the bus stops running at round 10, argh! We started the somewhat long trip home, wind whipping around us and the power flickering on and off around us, pretty scary! Finally, we both made it home safely, but the wind kept up all night.
In any case, it's looking like it might actually be a nice day in Santiago today, so I'm going to go out and enjoy it. Love you all, hope everyone is doing well!
Brit
Monday, January 19, 2009
Moving in and exploration
So it's official, I have moved into my new place! Last night (Sunday) was my first night here, and so far so good. My roommate's are Samuel and Biaggio; Samuel is a 22 year-old guy from Poland, studying at the university for the next few months. He's really nice, very welcoming, and speaks English and good Spanish (we are speaking spanish, but it's nice in that if I don't know vocab words I can tell him the word in English and he can usually help me out). He also showed me how to turn on the water heater, which involves turning on the gas through various knobs and whatnot, and lighting it and everything. We don't have heating here, in general, but he gave me his space heater to use as he says he no longer needs it. He said he spends a lit of time in Scotland, visiting his Girlfriend, and goes away on the weekends to travel and such. Like I said, really nice guy, I think we will get along well. Biaggio is one of the students on the University of Kansas; he's 27, just returned to Kansas to learn Spanish. Also very nice, although he was really tired last night and went to bed super early, so we haven't really had a chance to talk much. Overall, I'm really happy with my set up, and can't wait for Sam and Laura to move in to their apartment (hopefully tomorrow) so that we will all be close by. The other good news is I have wifi in my apartment, a rarity around here, which is oh so nice. The old couple who own the building are supernice, offereing me blankets and checking in on me, and apparently the wife will even do our laundry for a couple euros, which will be super convenient. They are so nice and friendly, it's like having a host family but with more space, perfection! Besides moving in this weekend, I've been spending time exploring the city a bit. On Friday we walked around the Old Zone, absolutely gorgeous, and found our apartments by reading little notices on lampposts and calling the numbers listed, we were so lucky to have found them! Afterwards we went back and took our "siestas" for a bit, and then me, Sam, Laura went out to get some dinner, and got drinks at a nice little bar. Saturday we wandered around a bit, and at night Sam, Laura, Florette and I went out to a really great dinner. It was a place listed in one of our tour books for having great local food, and it really was great. The food in general is very good here, lots of eggs, seafood (some of which I enjoy, particularly the calimari), and then various meat dishes. It's also sooo much less expensive here than it was in Paris, which is always nice. The people are also very friendly, in general, which is also really nice. Sunday Sam and I went and explored the Cathedral, which is absolutely amazing. It is incredibly beautiful, and exploring the inside was great. After grabbing a late lunch, we went to a monastery that was also in the Old Zone, and checked out its museum. Another beautiful building, and very interesting. At night it was back to my new apartment to get everything arranged. I have a couch, small twin-sized bed, nice closet/bureau, a little round table, and a bedside table. It's pretty small, but cozy, and I have plenty of space :). I will post some pics, soon! Today our first week of classes began. My Islam class seems like it will be really good, with this really, really sweet young woman, she's seriously like the nicest person ever, and her class seems like it will be interesting. As an introduction we watched an episode of "30 days" (a reality show done by the maker of "super-size me", where a christian man from West Virginia spends thirty days "as a Muslim", which proved to be pretty entertaining. I also had my class about Transatlantic Hisapnic-something or other, which also seems like it will be interesting. I am pleased to report that I haven't been having trouble understanding (spanish) and such, which is always nice. Alrighty then, well I should do some homework now...it's weird to have daily homework again! Will get pics out soon, so get excited. Much love, Brit
Friday, January 16, 2009
Success!
Hey all,
So good news from Santiago, Brittany has an apartment, yayy! After much searching and just as much stress, I managed to find an apartment in the old district of SDC. It's really cute, in a nice location, and relatively cheap!!! The place is owned by an older couple, who are really sweet; the husband actually lived in Paris for a couple years, so we had fun talking french for a bit. I will be living in an apartment with two guys, one of which is on the Kansas program, and another who is actually from Poland-but speaks spanish really well. I don't really know anything about either one of them, but it should be interesting! The place has a nice kitchen and bathroom that we will all be using, as well as wifi, which will be so nice to have. It's right by north campus, where I have my morning classes, which means I get to sleep a bit longer-always good. Sam and I did rock-paper-scissors to see who got it, as we were both in love with it. Obviously, I won, but shortly after we left my place we saw an announcement that there was another apartment in the area for rent. The three of us (me, Sam, and Laura) went and checked it out, and it ended up being really nice. So the two of them took it! It's really nice, although more expensive than mine, but I'm so glad they are going to be living so close to me. It worked out so perfectly, and I can't wait to move in and get all settled! The last couple days we had our classes, which I'm pretty excited about. I've decided to take Islam in Spain, Transatlantic Hispanic culture, and Women as a site of change, all in addition to the daily language course we are required to take. I think it will be a challenging semester, and am convinced that my Spanish is going to really improve, which is exciting. The professors all seem really great, all so nice and welcoming, and all Spanish. It will be nice in that I think the classes will be very similar to those I would take at Kenyon, so I wont have to worry about the European way of doing things like I did in France. So yes, overall I'm feeling much better about being here, and am looking forward to moving in (which I will probably do tomorrow...). The other good news is that Sam finally got her second bag today, so all our stuff is now here (only took them a week, haha). Will keep y'all updated as I explore more,
Brit
So good news from Santiago, Brittany has an apartment, yayy! After much searching and just as much stress, I managed to find an apartment in the old district of SDC. It's really cute, in a nice location, and relatively cheap!!! The place is owned by an older couple, who are really sweet; the husband actually lived in Paris for a couple years, so we had fun talking french for a bit. I will be living in an apartment with two guys, one of which is on the Kansas program, and another who is actually from Poland-but speaks spanish really well. I don't really know anything about either one of them, but it should be interesting! The place has a nice kitchen and bathroom that we will all be using, as well as wifi, which will be so nice to have. It's right by north campus, where I have my morning classes, which means I get to sleep a bit longer-always good. Sam and I did rock-paper-scissors to see who got it, as we were both in love with it. Obviously, I won, but shortly after we left my place we saw an announcement that there was another apartment in the area for rent. The three of us (me, Sam, and Laura) went and checked it out, and it ended up being really nice. So the two of them took it! It's really nice, although more expensive than mine, but I'm so glad they are going to be living so close to me. It worked out so perfectly, and I can't wait to move in and get all settled! The last couple days we had our classes, which I'm pretty excited about. I've decided to take Islam in Spain, Transatlantic Hispanic culture, and Women as a site of change, all in addition to the daily language course we are required to take. I think it will be a challenging semester, and am convinced that my Spanish is going to really improve, which is exciting. The professors all seem really great, all so nice and welcoming, and all Spanish. It will be nice in that I think the classes will be very similar to those I would take at Kenyon, so I wont have to worry about the European way of doing things like I did in France. So yes, overall I'm feeling much better about being here, and am looking forward to moving in (which I will probably do tomorrow...). The other good news is that Sam finally got her second bag today, so all our stuff is now here (only took them a week, haha). Will keep y'all updated as I explore more,
Brit
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Get oriented!
Hello again,
So i've been here a few days now, still without one of my bags, but hopefully that will be taken care of today...maybe I will even get some money out of it. As far as my first impressions, I don't know how I feel about this whole thing. I don't know, I guess I'm just missing Paris, plus right now we're living in a hotel, without one of my bags, and I can't sleep, so overall I'm just not feeling at my best. Hopefully after I get settled into my new apartment and classes start up I will be feeling better. I just wish I could have had more of a break between trips, I'm kind of sick of being abroad, and having to speak my crappy Spanish isn't making it any easier. Oh well, wish me luck, I guess I just need some time. In any case, the last few days we've just been doing orientation in the mornings, talking about the University, culture shock, apartments, etc. Yesterday I went and saw a couple apartments with three other girls; basically the program just gave us a list of about 15 apartments to check out, and we need to visit them all and pick one in like a week. Hopefully it should go okay, i just want to get out of this hotel and be able to get settled. Other than that, I've just been going out for meals and stuff with people, mainly Sam and the two girls from Kenyon (Laura and Florette), but haven't really gone out at night yet, but hopefully will soon. Unfortunately, it seems like the twenty kids from KU (out of 25 total on the program) seem to already be friends and are sticking together, plus I feel like I missed out on some major bonding at the Madrid airport (where the rest of the group spent the night). Will give more of an update as I start exploring more.
Love, Brit
So i've been here a few days now, still without one of my bags, but hopefully that will be taken care of today...maybe I will even get some money out of it. As far as my first impressions, I don't know how I feel about this whole thing. I don't know, I guess I'm just missing Paris, plus right now we're living in a hotel, without one of my bags, and I can't sleep, so overall I'm just not feeling at my best. Hopefully after I get settled into my new apartment and classes start up I will be feeling better. I just wish I could have had more of a break between trips, I'm kind of sick of being abroad, and having to speak my crappy Spanish isn't making it any easier. Oh well, wish me luck, I guess I just need some time. In any case, the last few days we've just been doing orientation in the mornings, talking about the University, culture shock, apartments, etc. Yesterday I went and saw a couple apartments with three other girls; basically the program just gave us a list of about 15 apartments to check out, and we need to visit them all and pick one in like a week. Hopefully it should go okay, i just want to get out of this hotel and be able to get settled. Other than that, I've just been going out for meals and stuff with people, mainly Sam and the two girls from Kenyon (Laura and Florette), but haven't really gone out at night yet, but hopefully will soon. Unfortunately, it seems like the twenty kids from KU (out of 25 total on the program) seem to already be friends and are sticking together, plus I feel like I missed out on some major bonding at the Madrid airport (where the rest of the group spent the night). Will give more of an update as I start exploring more.
Love, Brit
Saturday, January 10, 2009
A new semester begins, complete with airport horror story
helllooo,
So i did it, I made it to Spain for the second semester, still can't believe it actually happened but here I am! So here we go, a new semester of adventures, and blogging. Hopefully the process of getting here isn't indicative of how the semester's going to go! Wednesday (the day before I was scheduled to leave), I woke up feeling nauteous, complete with a slight headache and overall nasty feeling. It was all to familiar, just like how I was feeling my last night in Paris, where I spent several days puking my guts out and other such unpleasant things. So the rumbling in my tummy was very unwelcoming, and I spent my last day or so at home feeling pretty terrible, eating almost nothing and staying close to the bathroom. Thursday morning I woke up still feeling sick, but it was time to go. No problems at RDU, everything went smoothly and quickly, my bags were checked to Santiago de Compostela (SDC) so I wouldn't have to deal with them, so I got myself a frappacino and settled down to wait. The flight was fine, and I got to Chicago, where I had a four-hour layover. It was funny, I guess everyone was leaving for there various study abroad programs that day, so there were lots of college kids milling about, finding people from there upcoming programs in Rome, Madrid, etc. I sat by myself for a while, plugged in to my Ipod and annoyed by the constant chatter coming from some preppy girls sitting around me,until finally the huge group of students heading to Rome left to board. A few minutes later, who should I see, but Sam! I ran over and surprised her, and we sat together and caught up a bit while waiting for our flight. Eventually we boarded, and I ended up being in what must have been the Business class or something, definitely not first class, but I had a bigger seat and more room than what most have been Economy class. Also, the seat next to me never filled, so Sam and I got to sit together on our way to London, yay! We arrived at around 9:45, and my flight to Madrid was scheduled to leave at 10:55. Of course, I had to transfer to a different terminal, got through security, and all that, so I was pretty worried I was going to miss my flight (Sam was scheduled for the later flight, at 12:15, so she wasn't worried). Me and a few other hurriedly made our way to our terminal, pretty much running the whole way, only to find that all Madrid flights were delayed. By this time a group of six of us had met up, two of which were on my program, from KU-Becca, and Chris, both of which were sporting Jayhawk sweatshirts. There was also this guy Mike, who was on his way to Alicante via Madrid to study abroad, as well as a girl named Jess? (i'm not sure about that), who was teaching English in Madrid. They were all really nice, and we banded together in our collective frustration. We went to find more information, and learned that Madrid was having snow problems, and was CLOSED! So basically we couldn't do anything except wait, so the six of us went off to find some breakfast. To make a long story short, we ended up being in the airport for hours, and made friends with some other people stranded as well. They cancelled the 12:15 flight altogether, transferring those people to our flight (which was perpetually delayed). We set up camp in a small-ish waiting area, people lying on the ground and sleeping, we were pretty pathetic. After several hours of waiting, Chris and Becca were called to the desk, and given the "good news" that there was a flight that they could catch to La Coruna, a city in Northern Spain about an hours drive from SDC. The three of us contacted one of the program coordinators, and made the decision to take that flight (at no extra charge). By this time they had figured out I was in the same situation, and had given me the green light as well. We still had a few hours of waiting, but at least we weren't going to have to spend the night in London. Meanwhile, Sam called me via security, as she was outside the terminal seeing our friend Ryan Lloyd, and learned of the new plans. So eventually we made it to La Coruna at around 9pm, I had no problems getting through with my British passport, and the four of us made our way to baggage claim...where we waited, watched everyone else get there bags, and then went off to find someone to help us. I nice woman working at the aiport came and helped us, and took us to another room where some bags were. Fortunately, Chris and Becca found both there bags, although I was missing one, and Sam was missing both. :(. We gave the woman all the information she needed to get us our bags, and then went off to find a bus. The bus to the main bus station in La Coruna came every 30 hour, so we waited outside about 20 minutes for the bus. It finally came, and took us to the station, where we bought tickets for another bus that would take us to SDC. We had about a two hour wait, of course, and headed outside to wait, only realizing that we should have waited a while inside before dragging all our stuff down and out for no real reason...whoops. It was pretty cold, and after awhile Sam and I went back in to find some food, as by this point I was starving (I hadn't eaten much at all in the past 48 hours or so, as my stomoach was upset). I got a tortilla, which in Spain is more like quiche, basically a slice of egg, cheese, and potatoes; very tasty. Then it was back in the cold to wait, and to find our bus among the many buses that were continuously pulling in and out of the station area. After incorrectly trying to get on another one, we eventually found ours, stowing our heavy bags underneath and got on the bus for the hour ride to SDC. It was a pretty ride, obviously dark at this point, but I still got to see parts of the landscape and the lights of the city. We finally made it to SDC, and found a couple taxis to take us to our hostel, getting in at around midnight. Sam and I are together, Becca is next door, and Chris is just down the hall, so we said our good nights and stumbled into bed. The Group was apparently stuck in Madrid for the night, so it was just the four of us, I guess going separately actually worked out for us. This morning we slept until almost 2pm, and then Sam and I got up and wandered out to find a bite to eat and do a bit of exploring. There's a little cafe right next to our hostel where we got tortillas (which ended up being egg, ham, and cheese on a baguette-style sandwich, so we're still not sure what a "tortilla" is, as we now have three different definitions, but they are all tasty so it's okay with me). We haven't seen much of the city, but honestly what I've seen today hasn't been all that impressive, just lots of little stores in a kind of run down area, but like I said we only saw a little bit, and none of the areas Santiago is known for, so I'm not worried. Since we arrived here, however, I have realized just how rusty my Spanish is. I'm having a really hard time understanding and communicating, so this semester will by much more language-centered one than the last one, where I understand and could communicate with ease. It's going to be tough, that's for sure, but I will definitely improve, I've already started learning new words and adding to my vocabulary. In terms of the other people on my program, we have only met Chris, Becca, and I just met momentarily another guy named Taylor. I'm not sure when the group got in, but our orientation meeting for the day was cancelled so I'm guessing they just got in pretty recently and are all passed out in there rooms. We are still having a group dinner tonight, though, so I should meet more people then. In any case, there's the update, I'm safe and sound, didn't get stranded in Madrid (just in London, but didn't have to spend the night), so all is well. I miss you guys at home, it was so good to be home for a while, wish I could have been there longer. Love you all, big kiss :), will keep this thing updated,
Brit
So i did it, I made it to Spain for the second semester, still can't believe it actually happened but here I am! So here we go, a new semester of adventures, and blogging. Hopefully the process of getting here isn't indicative of how the semester's going to go! Wednesday (the day before I was scheduled to leave), I woke up feeling nauteous, complete with a slight headache and overall nasty feeling. It was all to familiar, just like how I was feeling my last night in Paris, where I spent several days puking my guts out and other such unpleasant things. So the rumbling in my tummy was very unwelcoming, and I spent my last day or so at home feeling pretty terrible, eating almost nothing and staying close to the bathroom. Thursday morning I woke up still feeling sick, but it was time to go. No problems at RDU, everything went smoothly and quickly, my bags were checked to Santiago de Compostela (SDC) so I wouldn't have to deal with them, so I got myself a frappacino and settled down to wait. The flight was fine, and I got to Chicago, where I had a four-hour layover. It was funny, I guess everyone was leaving for there various study abroad programs that day, so there were lots of college kids milling about, finding people from there upcoming programs in Rome, Madrid, etc. I sat by myself for a while, plugged in to my Ipod and annoyed by the constant chatter coming from some preppy girls sitting around me,until finally the huge group of students heading to Rome left to board. A few minutes later, who should I see, but Sam! I ran over and surprised her, and we sat together and caught up a bit while waiting for our flight. Eventually we boarded, and I ended up being in what must have been the Business class or something, definitely not first class, but I had a bigger seat and more room than what most have been Economy class. Also, the seat next to me never filled, so Sam and I got to sit together on our way to London, yay! We arrived at around 9:45, and my flight to Madrid was scheduled to leave at 10:55. Of course, I had to transfer to a different terminal, got through security, and all that, so I was pretty worried I was going to miss my flight (Sam was scheduled for the later flight, at 12:15, so she wasn't worried). Me and a few other hurriedly made our way to our terminal, pretty much running the whole way, only to find that all Madrid flights were delayed. By this time a group of six of us had met up, two of which were on my program, from KU-Becca, and Chris, both of which were sporting Jayhawk sweatshirts. There was also this guy Mike, who was on his way to Alicante via Madrid to study abroad, as well as a girl named Jess? (i'm not sure about that), who was teaching English in Madrid. They were all really nice, and we banded together in our collective frustration. We went to find more information, and learned that Madrid was having snow problems, and was CLOSED! So basically we couldn't do anything except wait, so the six of us went off to find some breakfast. To make a long story short, we ended up being in the airport for hours, and made friends with some other people stranded as well. They cancelled the 12:15 flight altogether, transferring those people to our flight (which was perpetually delayed). We set up camp in a small-ish waiting area, people lying on the ground and sleeping, we were pretty pathetic. After several hours of waiting, Chris and Becca were called to the desk, and given the "good news" that there was a flight that they could catch to La Coruna, a city in Northern Spain about an hours drive from SDC. The three of us contacted one of the program coordinators, and made the decision to take that flight (at no extra charge). By this time they had figured out I was in the same situation, and had given me the green light as well. We still had a few hours of waiting, but at least we weren't going to have to spend the night in London. Meanwhile, Sam called me via security, as she was outside the terminal seeing our friend Ryan Lloyd, and learned of the new plans. So eventually we made it to La Coruna at around 9pm, I had no problems getting through with my British passport, and the four of us made our way to baggage claim...where we waited, watched everyone else get there bags, and then went off to find someone to help us. I nice woman working at the aiport came and helped us, and took us to another room where some bags were. Fortunately, Chris and Becca found both there bags, although I was missing one, and Sam was missing both. :(. We gave the woman all the information she needed to get us our bags, and then went off to find a bus. The bus to the main bus station in La Coruna came every 30 hour, so we waited outside about 20 minutes for the bus. It finally came, and took us to the station, where we bought tickets for another bus that would take us to SDC. We had about a two hour wait, of course, and headed outside to wait, only realizing that we should have waited a while inside before dragging all our stuff down and out for no real reason...whoops. It was pretty cold, and after awhile Sam and I went back in to find some food, as by this point I was starving (I hadn't eaten much at all in the past 48 hours or so, as my stomoach was upset). I got a tortilla, which in Spain is more like quiche, basically a slice of egg, cheese, and potatoes; very tasty. Then it was back in the cold to wait, and to find our bus among the many buses that were continuously pulling in and out of the station area. After incorrectly trying to get on another one, we eventually found ours, stowing our heavy bags underneath and got on the bus for the hour ride to SDC. It was a pretty ride, obviously dark at this point, but I still got to see parts of the landscape and the lights of the city. We finally made it to SDC, and found a couple taxis to take us to our hostel, getting in at around midnight. Sam and I are together, Becca is next door, and Chris is just down the hall, so we said our good nights and stumbled into bed. The Group was apparently stuck in Madrid for the night, so it was just the four of us, I guess going separately actually worked out for us. This morning we slept until almost 2pm, and then Sam and I got up and wandered out to find a bite to eat and do a bit of exploring. There's a little cafe right next to our hostel where we got tortillas (which ended up being egg, ham, and cheese on a baguette-style sandwich, so we're still not sure what a "tortilla" is, as we now have three different definitions, but they are all tasty so it's okay with me). We haven't seen much of the city, but honestly what I've seen today hasn't been all that impressive, just lots of little stores in a kind of run down area, but like I said we only saw a little bit, and none of the areas Santiago is known for, so I'm not worried. Since we arrived here, however, I have realized just how rusty my Spanish is. I'm having a really hard time understanding and communicating, so this semester will by much more language-centered one than the last one, where I understand and could communicate with ease. It's going to be tough, that's for sure, but I will definitely improve, I've already started learning new words and adding to my vocabulary. In terms of the other people on my program, we have only met Chris, Becca, and I just met momentarily another guy named Taylor. I'm not sure when the group got in, but our orientation meeting for the day was cancelled so I'm guessing they just got in pretty recently and are all passed out in there rooms. We are still having a group dinner tonight, though, so I should meet more people then. In any case, there's the update, I'm safe and sound, didn't get stranded in Madrid (just in London, but didn't have to spend the night), so all is well. I miss you guys at home, it was so good to be home for a while, wish I could have been there longer. Love you all, big kiss :), will keep this thing updated,
Brit
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