little update

¡Hola todo el mundo! (Literally: “hello all of the world”…they say the whole world here sometimes which is kind of comical to me). It’s been a while since my last blog, I guess that’s because there isn’t really too much new going on here. I’ve been kind of in a fixed schedule of class, studying and hanging out with my family. I’ve been going out on the weekends a little bit to get a feel for the night life here and the local culture…it has been a lot of fun but also very draining because they are known for staying out really late (like 6AM) and I am definitely not used to that. I am starting to figure out some more of my plans for traveling coming up and I think my fist big weekend trip is going to be to Leon Spain with my sister’s boyfriend Emilio. The snowboarding trip kind of fell through for me to go because they are thinking about going during the week now, so that leaves me with the trip to Leon as my first real travel experience.

Classes have been going alright, I have one called “translation” which I don’t care for too much I think it’s partly because it’s really hard and I feel like I don’t know what’s going on during the class. My favorite class is the one that I added last minute called practices and theory of theatre or something like that…we only meet once a week for three hours and all were doing is learning about and preparing our own performance which we will present to the public at the end of the semester. This is going to be the class which I practice speaking the most by far and I think it should be a lot of fun. I am also starting these things called “intercambios” which is just a chance for us to practice speaking Spanish for an hour to a local and learn about their culture. How these work is we meet a Spanish person from the Alcala area and we talk to them about whatever we want. Generally they are students who are studying English so we get to practice our Spanish on them and they get to practice their English on us. My first one is this Thursday with a girl who is studying at the university here in Alcala hopefully it will be a good time.

All in all things are going pretty well here, nothing too exciting yet. I feel sort of like my Spanish is at a stand still as far as improving which is kind of frustrating but I think I’m just going to have to start putting in more effort to get some more results. That’s all from me for now. Hope all is well for everyone back in the states or wherever you are while reading this and I’ll post again if anything new happens. Hasta Luego!

Random thoughts

So I’ve been here for a week now and it seems like it’s been a lot longer than that. I think that it feels so long because a lot has happened in the past week with orientation, starting classes, meeting my family, trying to learn my way around a new city and not to mention adapting to a different culture and language. It really has been an information overload for the first part. I have made it through without a lot of problems…I have been really tired every day which is kind of annoying because I need all the energy I can get so I can understand what people are saying to me. It is really taxing for me to speak and listen to a foreign language at all times because I have to constantly focus on what is being said and how I can say what I want to (but I’m sure because of it I will be remarkably better at Spanish when I return). This is not a complaint by any means but more of an explanation of why I’m so tired all the time. That being said I have been taking advantage of the “siesta” time in the afternoons the past couple days, it is a tradition that I think should be adopted in the US; really helps give you a boost for the rest of the day.

As I have previously said, all is well…I really like my family, the program seems to be pretty accommodating and I am doing pretty well at adapting to the culture. The food here is really good (I think that’s because my mom is a good cook). Everyone I’ve met so far that is a native seems to be really nice but that list pretty much includes my family a few of their friends and professors. The students in my group/program are all college students from the US and I am getting along with all of them well too. My only worries at this point are if I’ll have enough time and money to travel to all the places I would like and if I can understand my professors well enough to pull off good notas in mis clases.

Well that’s pretty much everything up till now so hope everyone is doing well back in the states and Ill probably post something again soon once I have a new adventure. Adios.

mis clases

So I have now been to three days worth of classes and have decided which ones I am going to take. The first week of classes is structured different than in the US…you can go around and check out any class that you are interested in and by the end of the week you have to set up a final class schedule.

The first class is mandatory and it is a Spanish grammar class that is taught by the director of my program. It sounds like it is going to be a ton of work but hopefully will help my Spanish a lot as well. I also am taking a econ class which will be pretty hard but I think will be interesting, a translation class which is also going to be hard because it is for high level Spanish ability but I hope that will challenge me and help out a lot in the end. The final two classes I am going to take are contemporary Spain which I hope wont be too hard and acting theory or something like that which also wont be too hard. I was going to take a class called Spain in images where we watch movies and learn about the history of Spain but I decided to drop that and take the acting one. I have not been to the acting class yet but I hear it is basically practicing and learning about acting theory and then producing a play in Spanish that we present at the end of the semester.

All in all I think my classes are going to be a lot more work than I had expected but as long as I don’t have to give up a weekend of travel time because of homework on a regular basis I think I can manage and it will be fine.

Mi familia

My family is great! I Couldn’t have asked for a better fit. My mom is a teacher who works with special needs kids, so she has a lot of patience and is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and my dad is really nice (not sure what he does yet). My mom loves to talk which is a good thing because I get a lot of practice with my listening skills but bad because I don’t know what she’s saying a lot of the time. I have three sisters, all of which are older than me I think between 27 and 32 or something like that. One sister just got married in august, one has a serious boyfriend and the youngest is single but always hangs out with one of her good friends at the house. The house is very big especially for standards in Spain (I will try to put up pictures on facebook at some point). We also have a dog whose name is Boni…He’s very playful and pretty well behaved.

The two sisters that have significant others live in apartments that are pretty much across the street so they are always at the house and the younger sister is currently living with a friend but is also at the house quite a bit. The family also seems to be friends with almost everyone, as there are people at the house constantly, which I also like because it makes me feel like one of the locals. I have been spending a lot of time with Emilio (my sister’s boyfriend). He said that the wants to take me to a Real Madrid game-his treat-and I think go on the field but that might be a mix up in translation. They are also planning a trip with my other sister to go skiing / snowboarding in the mountains in a couple weekends and invited me to go with them, so I’m hoping that we can find some gear for me so that I can go. Emilio also seems to be the best at knowing when I don’t understand something. The second day I was here he called me out and said that I say “si” a lot responding to things even if I don’t understand…which is true. But as a result he is also very good at re-wording things or explaining things better so that I can comprehend what is going on.

Overall my family is really outgoing and I am really happy with the match up so far. That’s pretty much all I can think of for my family as of now, but I’ll write more if I think of anything.

Arrival

Hey all just a quick note letting you know that I have made it safely to Alcala Spain. I will be staying at a hotel until friday and then meeting/moving into my families house before classes which start on monday. That's all for now but I will let you know more later once I know how classes are etc.
-Tim

First post...preparing

This is just my first post to make sure everything is working...I am starting to get ready to head out on the evening of tuesday January 6th. It is coming faster than I could have ever imagined. I have mixed emotions some excited, some scared, some worried really dont know what to make of it but Im sure everything is going to be great and I'll have an awesome time. If anyone ever wants to contact me while I'm there just shoot me an e-mail at taw12@albion.edu. I can not garuntee that I will respond too fast but I will do my best. Hasta Luego