Fernandez de los Rios
A quick recap of the last day:
Checked into Hotel Husa Moncloa, extremely nice hotel in the middle of the city...got to meet students in the program, there are about 140 of us. Mostly white American "Laguna Beach" -esque people, which was somewhat disappointing. But I met a realy cool half-Vietnamese half-Chinese girl named Amy, and my fourth roommate Cory is extremely cool as well. So I've pretty much established my crew for the trip. Also met the IES staff, who are also very animated and friendly. Spent the night in the hotel, hopping into an Internet cafe run by Chinese people. I spoke to them in Spanish, which was so wonderfully counter-intuitive. But all the Chinese teenagers were playing like Command and Conquer on the internet or something. I guess Asian dorkiness is universal across all nationalities :) I love my people!
Last night Courtney, Pam and I went to a cute Pizzaria about a block from the hotel. I had this amazing Osso Bucco dish for like 10 euros and we split a bottle of white wine. Yum...we were just laughing and having a good time and our waiter comes over and asks us if we need any more "chupitos" and we say no. He was like "estas segura? (are you sure?") we said no...and we later learned 'chupitos" means "shots"...apparently it's in the Spanish culture for waiters to try and get American people drunk because they'll probably spend more money. Our waiter seemed to be sincere enough, but ya never know... Americans have a pretty bad reputation of being easy and naive abroad!
Today we checked out of the hotel, moved into our aparment, and took a language proficiency test. it was long and tedious, about 80 multiple choice questions of grammar. I think I did fine...
Oh, but our apartment is absolutely amazing. It's an IKEA decorated apartment, three singles and a double. Pam and I took the double because we've roomed together for 3 semesters already, what's one more? Lo and behold, the sheets are the exact same Ikea sheets that I have in my dorm. It's fate I tell you. Hm, what else, we have a huge kitchen, two bathrooms, bright shiny wooden floors, and a well-decorated apartment a la our RA (more about her in a second). It's very cute, makes me feel very urban chic. The location where we are is, Fernandez de los Rios, is great also. it's about a 20 minute walk from the University but also close to major metro and bus stops. It's only 20 min. also to the city center. The actual area is pretty residential, pedestrian friendly, lots of markets, pharmacies, and little bars and restaurants. A quieter, safer area of the city basically. Our apartment complex is shared with local elderlys and family. the walls are very thin so it's easy to hear converastions from other apartments. It's nice, there are very few Americans in the area, so I really feel like I'm a Spaniard...
Our RA, Paloma (which means 'dove" in Spanish) is great. She's extremely friendly, quirky, works for NATO, well-knowledged woman it seems. I was told she was pretty lenient about rules, but unfortunately one rule is that we can't have overnight guests at all, IES rules. So if y'all wanna come visit you're gonna have to find accomodations, unfortunately :( But I'd still love to have you for a few days!
As far as my classes, I don't start until the 30th. Next week consists of Orientation and day trip to Segovia. It seems I'll be taking Translation strategies, literature of Garcia Lorca, Spanish film, and I'm going to try and take up another language! perphaps French or Italian if offered at the local university. They offer ceramic making too! Basically this will be my semester to branch out and try new things, without stressing over my grades for once. Also I will try and find a choir to sing with because I miss it so much, haven't done it since high school.
My Spanish is way better than I thought. I love being immersed in it. It's kind of like being in Vietnam again, making jokes with the cabbies and whatnot. It's pretty easy to transition between Spanish and English, and making educated guesses as to random words. Yay for common roots!
Anyway, tonight I'm going to some club and this weekend I will go grocery shopping and try and get used to walking everywhere. Pics to come as soon as can get my internet to work and my laptop to charge properly. The electricity is weird here...I think I can plug my computer in without an adapter but I don't want to risk frying the thing. Why didn't I decide to be an electrical engineer??
Oops, that wasn't very brief. Will work on brevity. Jess out!
Checked into Hotel Husa Moncloa, extremely nice hotel in the middle of the city...got to meet students in the program, there are about 140 of us. Mostly white American "Laguna Beach" -esque people, which was somewhat disappointing. But I met a realy cool half-Vietnamese half-Chinese girl named Amy, and my fourth roommate Cory is extremely cool as well. So I've pretty much established my crew for the trip. Also met the IES staff, who are also very animated and friendly. Spent the night in the hotel, hopping into an Internet cafe run by Chinese people. I spoke to them in Spanish, which was so wonderfully counter-intuitive. But all the Chinese teenagers were playing like Command and Conquer on the internet or something. I guess Asian dorkiness is universal across all nationalities :) I love my people!
Last night Courtney, Pam and I went to a cute Pizzaria about a block from the hotel. I had this amazing Osso Bucco dish for like 10 euros and we split a bottle of white wine. Yum...we were just laughing and having a good time and our waiter comes over and asks us if we need any more "chupitos" and we say no. He was like "estas segura? (are you sure?") we said no...and we later learned 'chupitos" means "shots"...apparently it's in the Spanish culture for waiters to try and get American people drunk because they'll probably spend more money. Our waiter seemed to be sincere enough, but ya never know... Americans have a pretty bad reputation of being easy and naive abroad!
Today we checked out of the hotel, moved into our aparment, and took a language proficiency test. it was long and tedious, about 80 multiple choice questions of grammar. I think I did fine...
Oh, but our apartment is absolutely amazing. It's an IKEA decorated apartment, three singles and a double. Pam and I took the double because we've roomed together for 3 semesters already, what's one more? Lo and behold, the sheets are the exact same Ikea sheets that I have in my dorm. It's fate I tell you. Hm, what else, we have a huge kitchen, two bathrooms, bright shiny wooden floors, and a well-decorated apartment a la our RA (more about her in a second). It's very cute, makes me feel very urban chic. The location where we are is, Fernandez de los Rios, is great also. it's about a 20 minute walk from the University but also close to major metro and bus stops. It's only 20 min. also to the city center. The actual area is pretty residential, pedestrian friendly, lots of markets, pharmacies, and little bars and restaurants. A quieter, safer area of the city basically. Our apartment complex is shared with local elderlys and family. the walls are very thin so it's easy to hear converastions from other apartments. It's nice, there are very few Americans in the area, so I really feel like I'm a Spaniard...
Our RA, Paloma (which means 'dove" in Spanish) is great. She's extremely friendly, quirky, works for NATO, well-knowledged woman it seems. I was told she was pretty lenient about rules, but unfortunately one rule is that we can't have overnight guests at all, IES rules. So if y'all wanna come visit you're gonna have to find accomodations, unfortunately :( But I'd still love to have you for a few days!
As far as my classes, I don't start until the 30th. Next week consists of Orientation and day trip to Segovia. It seems I'll be taking Translation strategies, literature of Garcia Lorca, Spanish film, and I'm going to try and take up another language! perphaps French or Italian if offered at the local university. They offer ceramic making too! Basically this will be my semester to branch out and try new things, without stressing over my grades for once. Also I will try and find a choir to sing with because I miss it so much, haven't done it since high school.
My Spanish is way better than I thought. I love being immersed in it. It's kind of like being in Vietnam again, making jokes with the cabbies and whatnot. It's pretty easy to transition between Spanish and English, and making educated guesses as to random words. Yay for common roots!
Anyway, tonight I'm going to some club and this weekend I will go grocery shopping and try and get used to walking everywhere. Pics to come as soon as can get my internet to work and my laptop to charge properly. The electricity is weird here...I think I can plug my computer in without an adapter but I don't want to risk frying the thing. Why didn't I decide to be an electrical engineer??
Oops, that wasn't very brief. Will work on brevity. Jess out!
posted by J at 9:45 PM
3 Comments:
Chupitos, literally, means "little suckers," as chupar = to suck. I don't think the figurative, English-meaning of sucker (i.e., chump) translates, but it's of some note.
Love!
Yes, obviously I know the literal meaning, but the Spanish colloquialism means "shot"...in other countries it means "kiss"...so we weren't really sure as to the intent of the waiter...
mwahahahah EEs shall rule the worldQ
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