Good Vibrations

Arguably the hardest year of my life will begin in 9 days. First year of medical school—it feels weird writing it. This has been what I’ve been going after for the past 7 years, and it all seems to have happened in the blink of an eye.
The feeling I have is a strange one. I’ve achieved a huge life goal of mine, and the sense of accomplishment is great; but at the same time I have this sense of uncertainty about what lies ahead in this next year. I have my doubts, but this is normal and somewhat useful for me. I’m a bit scared of the uncertainty, but there is beauty in the mysterious. The joy, the excitement, the anxiety, the fear all mix together into this strange guttural feeling… BUT these are simply superficial.

Today I volunteered at the Jackson Free Clinic, and after seeing the first patient, all of my previous feelings towards school melted away and were replaced by the joy of knowing that I’m where I belong. Happiness vibrates at our core.


The past week that I’ve been full-time in Jackson, I have spent relaxing, meeting people, and just preparing myself mentally for first year. It did not take any time at all to get used to living alone—I love it. I go out and meet people and hang out, but when I come home, I come home to my house- my space. Jackson is pretty great city so far. I like the number of people a lot. I feel comfortable among the crowds.

As I said, my summer has been one of relaxing. At the beginning I stayed around Lucedale with my family there because I know that I won’t have many opportunities to spend quality family time with them this year. In July, I drove with Bryan Estill and Reese Lott down to the Florida Keys, specifically Islamorada. It was a trip that was simple and well worth it. I really enjoy driving, and this trip delivered on the driving part. A great trip with great friends.

Life is hurtling forward, and I’ve never felt better.

Limbo- No pasa nada.

Coming back to Mississippi has been interesting. There literally isn't a day that goes by without me thinking of my Erasmus Year. I'm ready to graduate and move on to the next chapter of my life and take the next turn that leads me further down the road of life.

The medical school application process has been a long drawn out ride, and I am not yet done with it. I am an alternate at the University of Mississippi Medical School. I have been told I stand a good chance of getting into this class, but I feel like they are just dangling a piece of meat in front of me, and I'm a starving wild animal-starving to begin my medical career- to accomplish my dream. I was told to wait until March or May because during this time, people start making their decisions about whether or not they will go to this school.

Limbo is an interesting place to be. I'm not definitively in next year's Medical School Class at UMMC, but I am also not out. I am waiting. Biding my time until somebody gets an offer to a more "appealing" medical school. I have never been a fan of waiting. I hate being out of control of situations. When I went for Alternate Counseling at UMMC, the Associate Dean of Admissions told me that I was "compulsive," but I don't believe she meant this in a negative way. I've always known that I am a bit compulsive but hearing someone who knows me better than many of my closest friends and family (if you want to get to know someone like a brother, read his or her national application to medical schools) really solidified this. I am supposed to sit back now and just wait. I had to apply for financial aid to Medical School, and I am supposed to look into housing and put my name on waiting lists for apartments- it all seems like some sick joke, but I've been equipped to deal with this.

It's like my entire last year was preparing me mentally for this waiting game that has been my application to medical school. The constant chant of the students in the Erasmus Exchange was resoundingly no pasa nada- It's all ok, don't worry about it. That was something that I have been striving to say with conviction for a long time, and Spain really taught me that. Delayed flights, lost luggage, late meetings, failed exams, and the knowledge of departure of some of your closest friends. The only way to process this was to take on the motto of no pasa nada, and we did. We did it, and we lived by it.

Being back in the United States, even though it is the South, has made this mantra more difficult to live by. I really have to work more at it because it seems that our culture sucks the life out of any phrase like that. I think we're taught that not being in control or not knowing exactly what our plan of action is has been drilled into us as a negative quality or a sign of weakness. I'm here to say this isn't the case. Thriving in the times where things aren't perfectly clear is really an art form- a balancing act.

Learn to thrive in the unknown. It's really the mysterious things in life that are the most beautiful, and right now life is beautiful: I feel like I'm leaning back in my chair about to tip over backwards, but I love the feeling.
No pasa nada.

That reminds me of that time

I´m almost done with my year- I´m getting pretty homesick because it´s always on my mine, but I´m in a funk because I have to leave these amazing guys and this wonderful place.

Things that will remind me forever of my Erasmus year:

-I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas
-any song with an Electronic beat (it´ll remind me mostly of Germany)
-Chorizo
-Hard Baguettes
-Any hot weather that is strong enough to take your breath away
-wine
-people shouting
-Compact cars
-Cafés
-Communists (not because the Spanish are, but because we lived in a commune)
-Not Studying
-Clapping
-Public Transportation
-Beer Pong
-The sky

“Man. Probably the most mysterious creature on our planet. A mystery of questions without answers. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? How do we know what we think we know? Why do we believe at all? Countless questions without answers in search of an answer. An answer that will give rise to a new question. And the next answer will give rise to another question so on and so on. But in the end, isn't it always the same question? And the same answer? The ball is round, the game lasta 90 minutes. That is a fact. Everything else is pure theory."
- From Lola Rennt

Lift your hopeful voice...

Six and a half weeks is what´s left until my journey here comes to an end, and I go back home. I leave on the 1st of July if everything goes well and am able to catch the plane on that day. Most of my friends are leaving before that, so we´re all thinking about the end now although final projects and exams are helping take our minds off of it. I´m not ready to embrace "goodbye" yet, so I´ll not talk about that until the absolute end. I´ll focus on just normal life.
Well, I have a final in El Mundo Actual, Alemán, and Bioética. I have projects in El Mundo Actual and Psychology. I finished my project for Alemán which included giving a ten minute presentation in German which was a blast being as I have taken a few months of German lessons and DEFINITELY don´t speak that complicated language, but I did fine in relation to everyone else, so now worries. As if University here isn´t keeping me busy enough, I´m in the process of applying to medical schools in teh US, and this isn´t an easy task- it´s coming slowly. I would just like to have my application submitted by June 1 or somewhere around that date, so that I can travel with Bryan and Jacob when they come.

My travel plans for Bryan and Jacob are the South of Spain: Granada, Sevilla, etc. I also want to travel out of the country once or twice: definitely Rome and maybe Paris. I am going in June with one of my housemates to France- about two hours from Bourdeaux, and I´m pretty excited about that trip.

It´s pretty crazy what happens when you put about 500 twenty-something year old students from all over the world in one city. I´ve made some truly profound friendships here in Alcalá- and in record time. There´s something about it. I´ve had many late nights that included a friend, life-conversation, and wine; and I really can´t think of a better way to unwind.
I´ve figured out how to really just enjoy whatever is thrown my way-

Growing...

Maybe it´s just a normal " I´m-22-and-trying-to-figure-out-my-life" thing, but I have spent, believe it or not, a lot of time this year thinking about, well, basically everything- the main thing that is always on my mind is- how can I better myself today?
I´ve met a lot of people in the past year- most of the people I probably won´t see again, but a few I will keep in contact for the rest of my life.
I have recently found myself growing tired of meeting people and having meaningless conversation. Maybe this is a little harsh, but the truth is, is that I try to treat everyone I meet as an opportunity to grow and open my eyes a little more. We all have our particular ways of doing things and ways of seeing the world- I may not agree with everything or even ANYTHING that a person does or thinks, but I always note the difference.
I´ve had some incredible conversations with some extraordinary people during my travels. The freedom that comes when you can just sit with a person and talk about whatever comes to mind is absolute.
I believe that building a friendship that will last a lifetime doesn´t take a lifetime.
I believe that time or distance can´t change the impact that people make on you and this makes any time you spend with someone worth the while.
I believe that everyone you meet changes you a little, so why waste time talking about inane things when the small amount of time I may have with a person I meet is precious. Tell me about what you think, about who you are, what makes you mad, happy, sad- The words you choose say a lot about you and impact whomever you speak to.
It feels good to speak your mind, be passionate about your interests, and connect on a fundamental level with people that are probably different than you.
This I believe.

“When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self." - Confucius

Alemania- 31.4- 11.4

I was fortunate enough to have the chance to go to Germany in order to visit a great friend who would prove also to be a really good host and provide me the chance to see a lot of Germany
I flew to Frankfurt on the 31st of March to visit my good friend and to see a bit of Germany. I was really impressed with what I saw of Germany. I think it reminded me a bit of Mississippi because of all of the forests, and it was really easy to get out of the city and into nature which for me is awesome.
So I flew to Frankfurt where I was picked up by Erik, and then we went to Darmstadt to hang out with other guys. After Darmstadt, we drove to Pützchen, which is a small suburb of Bonn, to Stay with Erik´s family for a few days before driving to Holland. Bonn was a great city on the Rhine river- really pretty-.
After a couple of days in Bonn, we decided to make our trip to the Netherlands. It was an interesting drive because we picked up some hitchhikers (it´s an organized hitchhiking thing on the internet) and drove them to Aachen, Germany and then we went directly to Maastricht, Netherlands. We just spent a few hours walking around the city and just relaxing. After a few hours in Maastricht, we went to Eindhoven- this is where our hotel was. We didn´t really see too much of Eindhoven because we arrived late and basically just crashed at the hotel in order to be able to get up and drive to Amsterdam the next morning.
Amsterdam was an INCREDIBLE city. The architecture is REALLY beautiful and typically Dutch. The canals really make it a special city. So yes, there is TONS to see and do in Amsterdam besides prostitutes and Coffee Shops.
We didn´t spend the night in Amsterdam because it was around easter time, and all of the Hostels were even more expensive than normal. We left at night to drive back into Germany and stay at Erik´s grandmother´s house. On Easter morning we got up and had breakfast at this house and left to spend Easter with the Koppermanns in Bonn.
After the trip to Holland, we stayed and did around Bonn for several days. I saw Köln- another beautiful city on the Rhine. Towards the end of my trip, Erik, his friend Moritz and I took a road trip down to the South of Germany to München. The drive takes about 3 and a half hours but is a scenic drive- makes things easier. We spent two nights in München at one of Erik´s friend´s house, Tony. München was probably my favorite city that I saw while in Germany, although Köln was close too. Having a Maaß (Gigantic beer) in a sunny Biergarten while having some Fries and half a chicken- well it´s hard to beat that, isn´t it?

A lot happened in Germany, but I feel like it gets repetitive to say everything, but I´ll leave on this note.
It´s an incredible opportunity to travel to another country and be completely submerged in a "normal" life there. I lived for about 2 weeks with a German family and saw how they live. It can be difficult because I was sinking in German (Ich spreche KEIN Deutsch), but the people I met were REALLY emphatic about speaking English around me. I enjoy hearing the German and learning a few words, but after much time of not understanding, your head hurts and can get a little frustrating. For the most part, no problems on that part. But I digress.
It´s a different feel when you can stay with people from the country you´re visiting. Doing tourist things is fine and often very interesting, and I did tourist things; but it´s great to be able to just hang out and sit and talk to people from that country. It really opens your eyes and is a great opportunity to learn. Travelling and learning has been my goal this year, and all of my trips and the people I come across have taught me something different. I found the people in Germany really easy to talk to and extremely warm. Truly a great first impression of the country- I must go back.
I met a lot of really interesting people and had one of the best times of this year if not my life.

Germany

I´m in Germany now- I have been to the Netherlands: Eindhoven, Maastricht and Amsterdam. In Germany I arrived in Frankfurt and then went to a small city of Frankfurt (Darmstadt) for the night. Most of my time has been spent in Bonn with a few visits to surrounding cities like Cologne. Also, I went and spent Easter in Erik´s grandmother´s small city.
I am packing as we speak to go to Munich to finish off my trip. I´ll describe more in detail later.

More to come.

A bit late

Better late than never- I went home to visit family and friends at the beginning of March, and it was a great time. For some reason I had in my head that things would change, but that was far from the case. At first it was a bit awkward upon first arriving, but I think the majority of that awkwardness came from the fact that I really didn't know what to say. It's one thing being away from home for 1 or 2 months and having a lot of stories to tell, but I had been away from home for 6 months and basically had been living another life filled with a ton of new adventures and friends- there was no way to even begin to talk about what my life had been like in any detail. After realizing that the best thing was to just go about as if I hadn't been away, and this was the best approach. Quickly the awkwardness faded and life resumed its normal flow.
I was only home for a week which is just enough time to get over the jet-lag, but it was well worth it. I made a visit to MSU to see some friends there, but I spent most of my time with my family on the coast.
At the end of the week I was ready to get back to Spain and finish up the year enjoying the time with people there and visiting different places.

Home is where the heart is- I guess this means I have more than one heart.

Where are you from?

Where to begin? The last two weeks have been insane for me.
One of my housemates, Georg, had two of his friends over for a couple of days two weeks ago, and I spent those days doing around with them- always fun going around with visitors and doing the normal tourist stuff. Also, my friend from Madrid, Sergio, came for one night and we had a great time hanging out in Alcalá. This is on Friday the 12th of March. The following week was supposed to be an down-week for me because I was getting tired of constantly going and doing during the past week, and the truth be told, I can only do la noche en blanco(all-nighters) like once or twice and then I´m needing some heavy sleep for a while; but of course, things don´t go as I´d have liked. The week of the 15th got off to a good smooth start and then kicked off with St. Patrick´s day on that Wednesday and another housemate´s Birthday party on Thursday (Camille). This birthday party was GREAT, but the electricity shuts off completely that night. It wasn´t a simple flipped breaker, it was major ´call your electrician´ electrical problems. We decided to rough it out that night and wake up the following morning in order to call our landlord, Rosa and have the problem solved. Little did we know that Señora Rosa was in Rome. "No worries! We´ll have a few days of no electricity or hot water!" - this is where it begins.

The following day, Friday the 19th, the entire house wakes up early (there were 9 of us at the time) and go have lunch at the local Mexican restaurant- don´t get excited, it´s not good Mexican- and afterward we go to our grocery store Carrefour in order to buy a grill and food to go with it. We get back home and start preparing all of the food that we bought along with food that was going to ruin in the fridges.

As night falls, we begin to light all 10.000 candles we bought and light up the grill. The night was incredible- literally one of the best nights I´ve had this year in Spain (nearly :) ). We sat around and talked, sang, played games and just bonded in a way that I haven´t experienced in a very long time. The conversation was light yet at times deep and thought-provoking. We stayed up until about 7.30 in the morning doing this.

The next day was a lazy day filled with the same things except a little bit of reading and studying too. Everything was just so much easier without the clutter of the constant stimulus of THINGS invading your senses at all times. We decided to put 3 of our individual mattresses together in the common area on the third floor and make "Supermattress" so we could all just have a place to lay, talk and read. That night we all cooked the remnants in the fridges and 6 of us watched a film and then slept. On Sunday, we were able to get in touch with our landlord, and she had someone come and repair the electrical problem by mid-afternoon.
It was a great yet simple 3 days filled with a lot of different conversations and a lot of thinking on my part. One conversation I had with a really interesting character made me think a lot.

We were talking about nationalities and things- The first thing you ask someone you meet is "where are you from?". Why is this? I believe it´s because we as humans love to put things into boxes that are labeled because by doing this we give order to our crazy lives, but I honestly think this is ludicrous. At best, knowing someone´s nationality gives you a minute inkling of what they COULD have been exposed to throughout their lives, but in reality tells nothing of value. All it seems to do is make people think they know things about you, and the majority of those things are probably not positive. Me being from the United States of America- What does that say about me? What does someone being from Germany say about them? Nothing- yet we all are obsessed with this question, myself included. Why?
Each person is their own- French, English, German or American. Yes, we are a product of our environment, but our environment is so much more than our nationality- it´s who we associate with, our parents. It´s that one time we were embarrassed in front of the entire class or that one trip to a foreign land. My nationality is only a small SMALL part of what defines me.
Asking someone where they are from or what their parents do for a living are good questions to point you in very broad direction in getting to know a person, but once you do get to know a person you can quickly trash any ideas of their nationality. If you want to get to know someone; sit, talk, ask questions and listen. When you make first contact with a person and ask ´Where are you from?´ you will have a marble slab and by bonding with this person and just having personal conversation you will slowly chip away at this "slab" until slowly, very slowly what´s left is a unique person that no country can claim as their own.

Todo Nuevo

Well, the new semester has come. This is the first new year that I actually felt EVERYTHING would start fresh. I start new classes... new people come....old friends leave... It´s a little refreshing but nerve racking at the same time. I´m a big fan of constants and this year is not one of constants. I like to be comfortable and know what will happen, and this doesn´t happen very often here. So I´m learning to thrive on the uncomfortable situations which I feel is good for me.
I used to love the fact that if I wanted to get things done, I had only to ask any of the brilliant people that I was surrounded by and I would have almost any problem solved, but this last semester a friend showed me the satisfaction that comes with figuring everything out on your own and the huge amount of learning experiences that surround us everyday- no matter how small. I thought I knew that, but then I looked back and realized that it wasn´t the case.

I love my new house and the guys that I live with- we have a lot of fun.

The weather has been getting nice, then it randomly snowed, and now it´s back to "normal." I assume that the weather will start warming up nicely soon, and I´m excited.

Lanzarote- I spent a 5 days in Lanzarote which is one of the Canary Islands (Spain) off of the West coast of Africa. The islands are Volcanic. The weather was amazing there- My body took 2 days of pure beach and made me look like a black man. We rented a car for 2 days and drove around the entire island almost. It was a great feeling to drive for the first time in 5 months although I drove a Kia Picanto- it´s the equivalent to a go cart. Our four-wheelers at home in the States have more power... literally. But nontheless, it was really fun driving for 10 euros for 2 days. One day we went to a national park (Tinyama.....something). It was super touristy, but really was incredible to see the landscape that was formed by a volcano. As far as your eyes could see, there were lava rock formations and the earth that you could see was red. I felt as if I was on Mars. One final remark- we stayed in a hotel that had 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen for 8 euros a night- awesome.

Classes:

Psychology
Bioethics
The Recent World
German I

I really love my classes- it´s good to take Psychology (only had it in High School) and Bioethics is going to be an incredible class because it´s taught by a doctor and a pharmacist and seems to be really clinically based which is great for me.

My last 5 months in Spain will prove to be just as incredible as the first 5 months even with the change of tides.

"Know yourself and you will know the world."

Mia gets 2 birthdays?!?!

It's been 3 years since my youngest sister became apart of our family, and it's absolutely incredible to look at pictures of her then in China and see her now with us. It is really difficult for me to be away when my youngest sister is changing the most, but I know she knows I love and miss her. A lot is going on with me in Spain, but I just wanted to update and wish Mia a happy birthday and let my family know that I have all of the respect in the world for them. What a privilege to be apart of a family that has the will and ability to change the life of a little girl.

Scotish Christmas- it's BALTIC here

I arrived on the 22nd of December to Edinburgh, Scotland where I was picked up by my friend's brother and uncle and taken to Glasgow. The normally 45 minute drive took 4 hours because of a blizzard that had traffic at a stand-still. I was greeted after the long day of flying and driving by my friend Tina's parents with a warm meal of vegetable soup, steak pie and wine. It was amazing to eat food that was really close to the food that I'm used to- meat and potatoes and vegetables> after months of ham and bread and olive oil, it was a welcome change. I spent the night talking to the family and just enjoying myself. The next morning I got up to have a huge breakfast of 4 different types of sausages, eggs, toast and tea. Wow- I go on about the food, but it was so great to have incredible home-cooked food. I just spent that day with Tina's mother in the mall: I had to buy gloves. That night I went out with my friends Tina and Kieran to eat and have a few drinks before catching the bus to Edinburgh with Kieran to spend the night. The meal that I had was Haggis, turnips and potatoes- AWESOME! After some ginger beer and cider, Kieran and I caught the bus to Edinburgh.

I woke up this morning to a blizzard! The snow is everywhere, and I'm excited about being out in it at least for a little bit. The plans for today are to go to the castle and just do a little site-seeing. Tonight, I catch the bus back to Glasgow in order to be there for Christmas day with Tina's family.
Edinburgh seems to be just an incredibly beautiful old city with great architecture. Glasgow is more of the big city with tall building and the bustling crowd.

The plans for my stay are to see the dungeons in Edinburgh and maybe do a ghost tour of some of the local places. New years eve I will be on the streets of Edinburgh. I have to catch the train at 9.20 am to catch my 2 o'clock pm flight from Glasgow to Barcelona. Now I am seriously considering changing my flight to the 2nd in order to just sleep in on the first. We will see how much that change costs and if it's a prudent decision.


Oh yeah! I feel like a moron because I constantly have to ask people to repeat what they say: the accent is still really REALLY difficult for me to understand. If they aren't talking directly to me, I am usually REALLY lost, but usually it's OK if they're speaking to me. Usually I just miss a sentence or two- USALLY. I expect it will just take a few days to get used to the accent- the word differences are a different story.

28 December 2009

Still haven't done a lot of site seeing just walking around and doing a small bit of Christmas shopping. Tomorrow morning we're getting up to visit the castle before I have to go back to Glasgow. Tonight I tried to talk Kieran and Tina into going for the Terror Tour of Edinburgh at 22.00, but only Daryl, Kieran's brother and I wanted to go. Tuesday or Wednesday I WILL DO THAT TOUR!
Today was just spent relaxing around Edinburgh, with the evening spent in Kieran's flat just talking. It's so different for me because most of my previous travelling had been done solely focused on doing the touristy stuff, but a lot of my travels abroad are just doing normal stuff. It's great to spend regular days in Edinburgh.

ACCENT UPDATE: I think I've got the accent under control, but then again I haven't been around anyone except people my age lately, and it's the older generation that gives me problems it seems.
Cheers!

Quiero aprender de ti- I want to learn from you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8XzR_McpCQ

Hoy quiero aprender a recorrer vuestra noción desnuda.

Today I want to learn to pour over our naked notion.

Hoy quiero aprender eso que nunca permito en la vida.

Today I want to learn that which I never allow in my life.

Y quiero aprender y liberar de dentro esa ternura.
No lo dejaré, hoy lo haré.


And I want to learn and liberate from within that tenderness.
I won´t leave it alone, today I will do it.

Hoy quiero aprender y escucharé todo lo que me digas.

Today I want to learn and I will listen to whatever all you tell me.


Y deben saber que en vuestra voz existe la cordura.


And they should know that sanity exists in your voice.

Esa que hace ver que falta tanto en esta linda vida.

Your voice which shows that so much is lacking in this beautiful life.

Y voy a aprender, hoy lo haré.

And I´m going to learn, today I will do it.

Y cuando nadie para un rato y mira a su alrededor,
no se deja afectar.

And when no one stops for a little bit and looks around them,
it doesnt affect them.

Y es que este mundo gira tan deprisa,
sólo se llega a pensar locura de los demás y nunca miro la mía.

And it´s just that this world spins so fast,
the only thing that is thought about is the craziness of everyone else and I never look at my craziness.

Y hoy voy a entender y lo pequeño que soy en la vida.

And today I´m going to learn just how small I am in this life.

Y hoy voy a aprender que lo pequeño es grande día a día.

And today I´m going to learn that the small things are the big things from day to day.

Y hoy voy a saber y recoger toda vuestra caricia,
que llega a la piel y hará bien.

And today I´m going to know and hold on to all of your caress
that comes to my skin and it´ll do good.

Y cuando nadie para un rato y mira a su alrededor,
no se deja afectar.

And when no one stops for a little bit and looks around them,
it doesn´t affect them.

Y es que este mundo gira tan deprisa,
sólo se llega a pensar locura de los demás y nunca miro la mía.
Y que existe y que sé que ahí está.

And it´s just that this world spins so fast,
the only thing that is thought about is the craziness of everyone else and I never look at my craziness and it exists and I know it´s there.

Y cuando nadie para un rato y mira a su alrededor,
no se deja afectar.

And when no one stops for a little bit and looks around them,
it doesn´t affect them

Y es que este mundo gira tan deprisa,
sólo se llega a pensar locura de los demás y nunca miro la mia.
Y que existe y que se que ahí está.

And it´s just that this world spins so fast,
the only thing that is thought about is the craziness of everyone else and I never look at my craziness and it exists and I know it´s there.

21 Christmaseeeees, all the same except 1

My first Christmas being about 4.000 miles away from my family, and it´s really not how I expected- granted I have some days until actual Christmas, but by this time in the States I´m already at home on the coast and spending time (arguably TOO much time) with my family- and I miss it.
I guess I´m not as....cozy, we´ll say... with the idea of being away from my friends and family for the holidays, but I´m certainly glad I have the opportunity to spend it in an English-speaking country with great food (I´m sure).
Long story short- I´ll be thinking about you all during this Christmas-

Miss you all!

Lisbon, Portugal Nov. 3-6, 2009

The weekend right after Marrakesh, I went with some people to Lisbon, Portugal. The price for the flight to Portugal wasn´t as cheap as the flight to Marrakesh, but it still is cheap compared to flights in the US.
The weather in Lisbon wasn´t the best- the entire peninsula seemed to have pretty cloudy and rainy weather, but this didn´t detract from the trip as a whole. We all had a blast. We did a lot of walking and seeing as things, but we had a good mix of down-time as well which is necessary when traveling.
Portugal for me really has a Latin American taste to it because of the bright colored buildings and the food and such: all-in-all a really lively place filled with really warm people.

It was a lot of fun to speak Spanish to the Portuguese people and listen to them reply in Portuguese and THEN have to think about what that KIND of sounds like in Spanish and hopefully make the right decision on what they were saying- seriously I loved it. It´s a TON easier to read the language than to understand what they are saying, but they understand Spanish, and that made it really easy to get around.

Hostels are incredible. This hostel we stayed in was an actual real-deal hostel: filled with students traveling, many alone, and wanting to hang out and make friends. One night we didn´t go out, we just stayed in the hostel, cooked, and hung out with the other visitors in the living area. That´s what it´s all about. It´s so interesting to meet people that are basically doing the same thing are you are- it really is easy to talk to people when you are more-or-less in the same boat.

Easyjet is NOT incredible. We were delayed on the flight to and from Lisbon and not just by minutes. The thing about Easyjet is that they don´t really tell you you will be delayed. It just is something that slowly dawns on everyone. "ohhhh..ohhhh I think we´re going to be delayed." After everyone has that thought, and after the plane should have taken off for 20 minutes, then workers for Easyjet show up and change the monitor in the waiting area to "delayed." I´ll probably fly Easyjet again because they´re cheap :)

"And your very flesh shall be a great poem."
Walt Whitman

Marrakesh, Morocco: Nov. 26-29 2009

After hearing the great news that my final paper for Current Spain is not due until after Christmas, I am taking the time to fully update my blog- mainly with trips that I´ve been on.
Tina, a friend from Scotland is addicted to finding cheap plane tickets, so we were so fortunate as to find round-trip tickets to Marrakesh, Morocco for 17,50€! We spent three nights in this city in central Morocco in the North of Africa, and it was incredible.
The appearance of the city in regards to the buildings and such is supposed to be close to that in the south of Spain, but I don´t know first-hand. All I can try my best to do is describe the different world that we flew into.
First of all, it was incredibly dry- not really surprising there- but I´m not kidding, my entire body felt as if it were shriveling up. That plus the fact that you couldn´t drink the water made for a very interesting experience.
The first day that we arrived in Marrakesh we spent walking around the city and seeing what we could. It´s incredible to just wander through the incredibly small streets filled with people and mopeds. The streets are filled with vendors selling anything and everything for an extreme profit (you must bargain: offer less than half and take half price). The streets are filled with the smells of spices and food- overpowering and incredible. The main square was not far from our hostel and there you could find tons of fruits and nuts as well as people shining shoes, charming snakes, and allowing people to take pictures with their monkeys. *I was convinced that the monkeys were going to steal my money* All-in- all the general appearance was a lot like Aladdin for me (sounds ridiculous, but seriously- that´s what I thought).
Being as the country is Muslim, you can always hear the Muzim from the Minarets calling for the people to stop and pray- this occurred, obviously, five times a day. It was really quite eerie especially during the night. What´s more is that on the second day when we took an excursion out of the city to the Atlas Mountains, and we weren´t around any big cities, Muzims could always be heard doing the prayer call: the resonance in the mountains of the Salat(the 5 prayer calls) was awe inspiring.
The second day, as I just mentioned, we paid 45€ and got in a bus with a group of 7 people from the US Air Force and went for an excursion that included the following: tour of a Berber house (Berbers are an indigenous people from that region) and breakfast there, a camel ride, a hike up the Atlas Mountains to a small Waterfall, finalized by lunch in a restaurant situated in the mountains- it was an incredible day. The Berber house was one of the less interesting events of the day because it was full of tourists, but the breakfast was great. The camel ride was exactly what I hoped it would be- a ton of fun (we won´t go into the fact that camel riding in the Moroccan sun should not be done without long pants). The hike was a blast. The waterfall was interesting, but not comparable to the view from those heights. We had to go slower on the way down because of our members gets bad vertigo, and we were high up. The day was filled with people crossing things off their list of things to do in a lifetime.
The third day everything was closed because that day there was the Festival of the Sacrifice: every family previously bought a sheep and on this day the families got together, sacrificed, and ate the sheep. The entire old city was filled with the smoke of burning sheep heads and legs. In order to get out of the smog of burning sheep we took a walk to the new part of Marrakesh which is literally the polar opposite of the old part. The new city is what you would expect from any large city in the world. We did a lot of walking and just looking around that day. The day was topped off with a handsome cab ride back to the Mosque and from there, we walked to the hostal.
This was one of the more influential trips I´ve been on simply because I felt like I accomplished so much in this trip: I´d seen and done things I´ve never seen or done before- the trip was unforgettable.

"Realize that from the start, every activity that comprises the journey has value and the ability to teach you something."
Bill Toomey

First things first

I've done quite a bit of traveling in the past 2 weeks, but I will have to write about the trips to Marrakesh, Morocco and Lisbon, Portugal later because they are worth writing about, at least a little, in depth. For now I'll just give an update on what's going on here in Spain.

Life outside of school:
Everything is going incredibly well outside of school. Like I said, I've done a good bit of travel and a lot of hanging out. Christmas is coming up soon- I will be flying to Scotland on the 22nd of December until the 1st of January, and I am thinking about taking the bus from Glasgow to Manchester, England to visit some friends there; but we will see how that works out.
After having a bank account here in Spain for almost 4 months, the account was blocked because my bank Santander, which is normally great, lacked my documentation, namely my Residency Card- that kind of bothered me, but mostly because it makes no sense that they discover that they lacked documentation for me after MONTHS of having used the card. So, I presented my documentation only to be told that it would take 15 days to get everything in the computer and have it unblocked. I would probably be more perturbed by not being able to deposit or withdraw money and being literally without money to spend, but I'm getting used to this sort of thing now, and besides- what good does it do? So I'm depending on my friends and the little money that is left over from my paycheck after paying my first months rent in my new house- which brings me to my next topic: my new house.

I will pay my first months rent and receive the keys to my new house this Wednesday. The house is really big and really nice- I haven't seen my room yet, but it doesn't matter because the house is great, and the people that live there are as well. The rent is cheap and includes everything, and the house is a couple of minutes from the Plaza de Cervantes. I'm really excited, but I still have to tell the family I live with now that I am moving out.

The family I live with now are really nice, but after living with people my age for 3 years now any family (including my actual family at times) gets old really fast. I'm constantly being watched out for- Elliott, wear warm clothes because it's cold- Elliott, eat food because you're sick and need to get better- Elliott, don't go out the door with that jacket put on another one-- I'm seriously going a little crazy because of them, but I realize they're not used to having someone my age in their family.

School:

After not having done much during the semester, I am scrambling to write essays and finish projects before the 15th of December. My finals aren't until the end of January and the beginning of February, but the projects are due soon. I have a small essay for my Current Spain class, a project for Spanish Geography, and I have to translate Spanish to English and vice versa for my Translation class; but it all is coming along slowly but surely. Today is a fiesta day, so I´m trying to spend it wisely.

We´ll see how my grades look at the end of this semester, but the truth-be-told, studying in a foreign university isn´t too easy.

"We are either progressing or retrograding all the while; there is no such thing as remaining stationary in this life."
James Freeman Clarke

Barcelona: 5/11- 8/11

I´ve recently become a little obsessed with doing as much as I can because of the fact that my closest friends now, a good bit of them, will be leaving at the end of January, so there isn´t a lot of time that we have left. With this in mind, Erik, Philipp, and I bought flights to Barça. We spent 3 nights in the city and did as much as we could with our time there. I´m used to being near the water, so for me Barcelona was perfect.
In Barcelona, the people speak another language- Catalán, and yes, it is a very different language. For me, Catalán is a crazy mix of Spanish and French. I didn't really encounter much Catalán because we reek of foreigner, so everyone spoke mostly English to us. The city is incredibly international which for some reason really surprised me. So many foreign people speaking so many different languages- for me, Madrid isn´t like this much at all- but I do love Madrid, and after 3 days of reading a language I don´t know, I was happy to land in Madrid and read signs in Spanish- my brain was able to just sting with the normal "I´m not reading English" burn.
So, in Barcelona we tried to do a little, but not too much: La Sagrada Familia Cathedral, Picaso Museum, visited some of Antonio Gaudí´s houses, some parks, etc. The cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, really was impressive. Before going to Barcelona, I´d seen pictures of the cathedral, and to be honest,I wasn´t impressed by it at all- it just looked really strange. After I saw the cathedral in person and read about Gaudí´s inspirations, I was really intrigued. The thing with Gaudí is that he was obsessed with nature. With that in mind, you can see how his architectural designs mimic natural designs. In the cathedral, the pillars are supposed to be designed to look like trees, and you can always see leaves and such in his designs. Check out the website because it does a really good job of explaining the different symbology that is used:
http://www.sagradafamilia.cat/sf-eng/index.php
Other than the cathedral, we visited Parc Montjüic and Parc Güell- both really beautiful parks. Güell is situated on a small mountain overlooking the Port, and it is where Gaudí lived for some time.
One night we went to one of Erik´s friend´s house to hang out- and little did I know, there were all Germans there except for 3 people- me being one of those 3. It was really late at night,and I'd never met any of the people before, so it was just really awkward for me to sit there and listen to German for hours with a few Spanish conversations thrown in there (I jumped in on the Spanish conversations). Those are the delightfully awkward times that I´ll remember for the rest of my life- "you know kids, this one time I was in a room filled with Germans speaking their mother-tongue..."
The trip wasn´t without the occasional problem, however. First of all, there were 3 guys who, for the most part, wanted to do different things- Philipp is one who loves to go and do everything that is possible: efficient. Erik is one who wants to see stuff but also have some relaxing time. Me- well I tend to lean more towards the doing stuff until it´s siesta time and then relaxing, but I try to meet in the middle. Well, Philipp and Erik kind of had their awkward moments and there I was being the "non-opinionated American" (I just wasn´t going to input a 3rd opinion in a sea of really opinionated people). I think all of that may sound worse than it was- it wasn´t bad. Also, one night Erik and I (we lost Philipp because he was out still doing stuff) were walking back to the Hostel, and we took a really sketchy street that was filled with, what I can only assume to be crack- whores. I´m from the South of the US and everything is dangerous there- so I was kind of uncomfortable going down "crack-whore alley." We walked faster, and in no time, we were back to the hostel. A similar story happened the next night, but ended with black girls approaching and touching all of us (not completely inappropriately)- including jumping on Erik´s back.
All-in-all it was a great trip- One that won´t be forgotten. I´m going to have to go back to Barcelona during the Summer so that I can go to the beach. My next trip is to Marrakesh, Morocco at the end of November and Lisbon, Portugal the first of December. I haven´t bought anymore plane tickets, but I know I´ll do some small traveling around Madrid soon. I may try to spend Christmas with a friend in Dublin- but as of now, I've no set Christmas plans. It´s great because when I tell everyone I´m not going home for Christmas, and they assume I´m spending Christmas alone. When I told this to some of my Irish friends in class, this guy, Darryl came back the next day to class and said that his dad gave me permission to come-- so an Irish Christmas may happen. Also, I am starting the hunt for an apartment to move into after I´m supposed to move out of the house I´m in now- it shouldn´t be hard to do.

" Life is not governed by will or intention. Life is a question of nerves, and fibers, and slowly built-up cells in which thought hides itself, and passion has its dreams."
- Oscar Wilde

¡Acelera un poco más!

It´s been almost 2 months since I´ve been here in Alcalá de Henares, and everything is going well. Classes are in full-swing now, and I guess now everything is normal. Because I am studying history and humanities, there isn´t an urgent need to go to class, so last week I skipped a lot in order to hang out and basically just do whatever I felt like; but this week will be a "good-student" week (well, except for yesterday because I skipped Translation in order to go to the Thyssen-Bornemiszma Museum- it was worth it). Other than the random trips to Madrid, I´ve not been up to anything really interesting. I´m watching a good bit of fútbol (soccer), and it´s great. Just a good atmosphere, I think.

A couple of weeks ago, I went with 4 German guys to Toledo- we rented a car, and spent the day in the city. Toledo in car has got to be one of the most interesting things ever because of the fact that the streets are designed for people and thus are very VERY narrow. We drove a Seat Leon down streets that were literally as wide as the car, and the streets were packed with people. It was like a sick game of bowling where the car is the ball and the people were the pins- thank goodness we lost that game of bowling.
Me and my friends have booked a trip to Marrakech, Morocco for the end of November (at least I think it´s then.. really not too sure). Also, we are probably going to buy a flight to Lisbon, Portugal soon because they were just as cheap as Marrakech. I really want to travel around Spain, so a trip to Barcelona is probably going to happen soon, but it will be full price which is fine with me.
I almost forgot, last week there was a Medieval Festival here in Alcalá for a few days: food, drinks, hand- things, and different boothes showing how things were made in the Middle Ages- it was quite interesting.
The university here in Spain is a lot different from what I´m used to in the States. I don´t have to go to class because all that happens in the classes are lectures, and we only have one final exam in almost all of my classes with a few exceptions (the exceptions are just one project besides the final exam). So I try to read and keep up, but that hasn´t really worked out as well as I would like. It´s getting easier to follow my professors in class, but still my brain is mush at the end of the day. The hardest part of my days are when I have two hours in one class. I´m not used to that at all. At MSU, I find it almost unbearable to sit and listen for an hour and fifteen minutes- and here, in the 2 hour classes, most of the teachers REALLY lecture for 2 hours solid. Usually we get a break in between the hours, but if a professor is on a roll, we go straight. It was not fun in a straight 2 hour class of Historia de Europa en la Edad Media (History of Europe in the Middle Ages).

"People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. "
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Classes and life outside of the Comisaría

Classes are basically in full swing now except for "Grado" classes which start the 5th of October. I´ve had to do some rearranging (ok, quite a bit of rearranging) of my classes in order to make everything work, but I guess because we´re Erasmus, they let us do whatever we want. I only have 4 classes as of now because, after listening to my teacher in Philisophic Anthropology ramble and watching the class of native speakers struggle to follow him, I decided that would not be a wise class choice for me. This is my schedule:

Monday: Spanish Geography and Cultural History of the Middle Ages

Tuesday: Spanish Geography, Spanish-to-English (and vice-versa) translation

Wednesday: Cultural History of the Middle Ages and History of Europe in the Middle Ages

Thursday: History of Europe in the Middle Ages

Friday: NO CLASSES

The way my schedule works, and it seems to be the norm in this university, is that one day a week you are in a specific class for 1 hour and the other day it is for 2 hours, so it´s great that it works out perfectly to 3 hours a week of classes- MSU will be thankful. As you can see, it´s not a lot of classes, and the translation class won´t really count for me in MSU- I just think it´ll be helpful for me. I am going to look for a Grado class to take that will count.

Another thing, I got a job teaching english 6 hours a week, and the pay is NICE. I work in a place called Academio Metodo (I think that´s the name), and it is located on the 3rd floor of a building in the Calle Mayor (pictured). I have classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I have adults and teenagers. Most of the groups are upper intermediate- although I do have a group or 2 of elementary level. I´ll just kind of follow the book that they´ve given me, but the main point is to get them to talk. Today is the first day of class, so I´m going to get suggestions from them in order to see where they want to go with the class. My friend from the UK had her first day of teaching yesterday and said that it was a lot of fun- I´m kind of excited.

The police station.

Today should be my last time to go the that hellish place. They told me to bring my health insurance information last monday, and that was all I lacked. After going there and waiting only an hour or so- I went to the table and was told that they didn´t have my letter of acceptance from the University of Alcalá (UAH) and that I have to return today with that.

One thing I´m going to do is tell the coordinators of this exchange at MSU ALL OF THE DOCUMENTS that you have to present upon arrival in Spain- there are a TON. I guess that´s why I´m the guinea pig- next year´s group will have it EASY.

It´s become evident that I could stay here for 10 months and not improve my spanish speaking too much at all because of the number of English speaking people around. So I´ve decided that I have to start studying Spanish on my own because I really do speak a good bit of English, and in the classes I can just sit back and listen- no speaking necessary. Well, I say I listen, but I´ve been in the habit of tuning out the teacher when it gets to messy with all of this huge vocabulary. I´m going to buy the books for the classes that are the most difficult and do some of my own studying so that I have a bit of a better vocabulary for the subject.
My friends and I here have decided that we´re going to stop speaking English, and we´ve been quite successful.

I think that covers all of the important points- I really need to study a little before going to the Comisaría again.