Hola!
As you may or may not have figured out, my life pretty much consists of work at the moment and the occasional shopping spree or trip to the internet café. I am now starting my third week straight without a day off and it wasn’t until a couple of days ago that I realised this will not go on forever. As for the week after this one, I will have 2 days off every week! How great isn’t that? But I am a bit afraid it will make me less good at my job..
It has started to become increasingly busy now in the pub. A lot of ‘holiday-makers’ are coming in ordering this and that – many strange things. If someone says ‘don’t you know that?’ when I ask them about a drink they’ve ordered I will just say ‘No, I don’t, ‘cause I am from Sweden and we drink civilised drinks there’. ;-)
Oh and I meant to tell you all that Saddam Hussein doesn’t seem to be dead. He keeps on coming in for half pints close to closing time more or less every day. Alert the media, alert the world! ;-)
It is apparently possible to check the results from Valla online so I will do that at some point. Keep your fingers crossed. Talking about the university there; remember the literature course I took there? Well, I am half way through one of them books we were supposed to read. Better late than never, right? ;-)
So I guess that’s all for now.
Hasta luego!
/k
Monday 9 July 2007
Tuesday 3 July 2007
Life goes on
Hola!
Life in Torrevieja has started to become routine. We still haven’t been touristing or found shops in the city centre. But the ceiling in my bedroom has started to leak (and stopped as we found the reason for it), we’ve encountered our first (hopefully the last) cockroach (monster!) in the apartment, Fiona fell into the sea and I have realised that people drink very strange drinks. Jolita, who is working in a restaurant where basically only men work, have been asked out by every single one of them. Fiona and I saw “L’auberge espagnol” (Pot luck), a movie about being Erasmus, and came to the conclusion that it wasn’t corresponding to our experiences. I have realised I miss Sweden and started to get more and more annoyed with Spanish people – the truth is that I can’t wait to come home to a civilised country where people are normal and where things get done quickly, not left undone with the excuse “well, it’s after 14 and it’s Friday”. P-lease! But I am still enjoying the hot weather when it isn’t too warm and spending too much money on clothes that I will have problems bringing home… Oh well. It will all work out, somehow.
/k
Life in Torrevieja has started to become routine. We still haven’t been touristing or found shops in the city centre. But the ceiling in my bedroom has started to leak (and stopped as we found the reason for it), we’ve encountered our first (hopefully the last) cockroach (monster!) in the apartment, Fiona fell into the sea and I have realised that people drink very strange drinks. Jolita, who is working in a restaurant where basically only men work, have been asked out by every single one of them. Fiona and I saw “L’auberge espagnol” (Pot luck), a movie about being Erasmus, and came to the conclusion that it wasn’t corresponding to our experiences. I have realised I miss Sweden and started to get more and more annoyed with Spanish people – the truth is that I can’t wait to come home to a civilised country where people are normal and where things get done quickly, not left undone with the excuse “well, it’s after 14 and it’s Friday”. P-lease! But I am still enjoying the hot weather when it isn’t too warm and spending too much money on clothes that I will have problems bringing home… Oh well. It will all work out, somehow.
/k
Tuesday 26 June 2007
Drafting pints of beer as if I’d never done anything else...
Hola!
Since last time a lot of things have happened. First Jolita started working in a restaurant with the main responsibility for the ice creams, and then I started working in an English bar last Friday. And Fiona joined us here in Torrevieja. I have watched a lot of educational tv-shows on SVT and spent all my free time on the balcony where I can see the sea. Who would have thought this a few weeks ago?
So yeah, one week and a little more has passed by here in Torrevieja and both me and Jolita have jobs. It is rather funny really, the fact that she, who has a lot of experience in bars, is working with ice cream, and me, who has been working with smoothies – almost ice cream – is working in a bar… Oh well, I gotta learn properly sometime. And isn’t an English bar a good place to start?
My boss is English and apart from her I am working with her daughter and a Chilean guy. It has been going all right so far. I think I can become relatively good at the job. Most of the customers are English, some are Irish and very few Spanish. There are a lot of regulars that I am supposed to talk to. I don’t know, I guess I am more Swedish than I thought, doing small talk with people I have nothing in common with is not one of my strengths. I can be polite and nice in a normal way but I am not too good at talking about nothing and feel I don’t know these people good enough to start telling them my life story. The worst thing is that the regulars have all been introduced to me and remember my name while I am completely confused as to which English lady is Dolly and which English man is John…
It’s fun though and on Saturday one man asked me how my second day was and then continued to ask how long in fact I had been in Torrevieja. When I replied one week today, he said "and already you’re drafting a pint like you’ve never been doing anything else!". That was nice. Otherwise Saturday evening was hell. I was working first a couple of hours in the afternoon and then from 18-03. I came home with so much pain in so many places on my body that I exhausted stumbled into bed and decided that I was going to sleep many, many hours. Normally the bar isn’t open that late, but we don’t close until people go… Welcome to Spain – you’ll never get thrown out of a bar here!
Apart from working I’ve spent a huge amount of my first wages on a shopping spree and is spending a lot of my time at home on the balcony. Even late at night it is nice to sit out there and just enjoy the still rather warm evening.
I’ll be back soon with more information.
Hasta luego!
/k
Since last time a lot of things have happened. First Jolita started working in a restaurant with the main responsibility for the ice creams, and then I started working in an English bar last Friday. And Fiona joined us here in Torrevieja. I have watched a lot of educational tv-shows on SVT and spent all my free time on the balcony where I can see the sea. Who would have thought this a few weeks ago?
So yeah, one week and a little more has passed by here in Torrevieja and both me and Jolita have jobs. It is rather funny really, the fact that she, who has a lot of experience in bars, is working with ice cream, and me, who has been working with smoothies – almost ice cream – is working in a bar… Oh well, I gotta learn properly sometime. And isn’t an English bar a good place to start?
My boss is English and apart from her I am working with her daughter and a Chilean guy. It has been going all right so far. I think I can become relatively good at the job. Most of the customers are English, some are Irish and very few Spanish. There are a lot of regulars that I am supposed to talk to. I don’t know, I guess I am more Swedish than I thought, doing small talk with people I have nothing in common with is not one of my strengths. I can be polite and nice in a normal way but I am not too good at talking about nothing and feel I don’t know these people good enough to start telling them my life story. The worst thing is that the regulars have all been introduced to me and remember my name while I am completely confused as to which English lady is Dolly and which English man is John…
It’s fun though and on Saturday one man asked me how my second day was and then continued to ask how long in fact I had been in Torrevieja. When I replied one week today, he said "and already you’re drafting a pint like you’ve never been doing anything else!". That was nice. Otherwise Saturday evening was hell. I was working first a couple of hours in the afternoon and then from 18-03. I came home with so much pain in so many places on my body that I exhausted stumbled into bed and decided that I was going to sleep many, many hours. Normally the bar isn’t open that late, but we don’t close until people go… Welcome to Spain – you’ll never get thrown out of a bar here!
Apart from working I’ve spent a huge amount of my first wages on a shopping spree and is spending a lot of my time at home on the balcony. Even late at night it is nice to sit out there and just enjoy the still rather warm evening.
I’ll be back soon with more information.
Hasta luego!
/k
Monday 18 June 2007
Torrevieja
Hola!
I am writing this on my laptop in my new apartment, in my new city – Torrevieja, but as there is no internet in the apartment to either steal or pay for I will be blogging it from an internet café most definitely.
These last few days have been an emotional roller coaster, going from leaving Valladolid and saying goodbye to the last few people, to going to somewhere we don’t know (we didn’t even know where to stay, but that worked out just fine). At this moment things are on the right track. We got to stay in my relatives’ flat, but first in Vaida’s new home village – Daya – where we arrived on Thursday evening.
But first thing is first. Wednesday. The day was spent packing, cleaning and talking to one of my last remaining friends there, Gabo. And of course finished with a last (?) visit to the bar of mine and Jolita’s choice; the Dublin Bay. That was where most of the things started and that is where we ended.
Then came Thursday and the time to leave. We brought ourselves and our in total 8 bags to the bus station and off we were. We arrived in Alicante 20.30-ish and were picked up by Vaida, her boyfriend Angel and a friend of his, and off we were (once again) to a small pueblo (village) called Daya (where there are only three streets) where we had a place to stay at for the weekend before going to Torrevieja, where we are to live and find a job (hopefully). The funniest thing was when Angel just picked up the 3 heavy bags and carried them as though they weighed nothing…
As we arrived in Daya it was time for dinner (cenar) and so the grill was out on the street and Vaida says to Angel “on the street, no?”, “claro”. It turned out that “on the street” truly means on the street. We set up a table and there we were drinking beer and eating grilled “ratas con un poquito cucarachas” right then and there on the street. Friends of Angel and Vaida came and went, some brought beer others just drank some. We stumbled into bed around 1 totally exhausted from the travel, emotions and heat (it was still very warm in the evening).
Vaida said it is only Spanish from no on, I said of course. I really need to get into my Spanish. I do know quite a bit, understand rather well and the speaking is becoming better as well. That is why blogging in English may be more difficult, but challenges are what keeps us going, right?
They speak a completely different Spanish here, well, maybe not completely different, but a rather different accent. It’s kind of like Aino’s “baby-Spanish”. They say ‘maomeno’ instead of masomenos, ‘do’ instead of dos, ‘tre’ instead of tres, ‘etoy’ instead of estoy, ‘epañia’ instead of españia and so on. We’re happy we were in Valladolid in the beginning to learn the ‘proper’ Spanish, but will probably be influenced by the people here after we have gotten used to it.
On the Friday we went to the one bar in Daya with internet access. We actually went there twice as we needed to check about the apartment in Torrevieja. We really felt how we were ‘extranjeros’ (foreigners) as we were more interested in the internet than in drinking beer and talking to people… We also went to the ‘piscina’ (swimming pool) of Daya – so nice! In the evening we had dinner in Vaida’s bar with some of Angel’s friends. It was cool, but my head got so tired towards the end as I was speaking and listening to only Spanish. After dinner I spoke to Valladolid and it turns out it has been raining since we left – Valladolid is crying because we left! ;-)
Saturday was a crazy day. It started 10.15 with Vaida coming into our room and saying that we will leave for Torrevieja in 45 minutes. It was just to wake up, pack and get ready and then after some additional waiting time we left for the agency in Torrevieja where we were to get keys to the apartment. The only problem was that there wasn’t anybody in the office. I called the number I had and got a hold of a guy who worked there – Swedish one – and after some time he came and after some additional time I had the keys in my possession.
As we had no idea really where the apartment was except for the address we took a taxi and suddenly stood in front of a 12 floor apartment building with a pool, gates and balconies. We took the lift up with our 8 bags and found our way to a 2 bedroom apartment definitely up to Swedish standard. We went to the Hiper Todo Todo around the corner to buy some basic food and imagine my surprise and delight when I found loads of Swedish food in there! We’re talking Swedish brands and Swedish lingonsylt (lingonberry jam), even Swedish Bob saft! I think I will like it here I said to Jolita as she ran around the shop in search of anything Lithuanian (she didn’t find anything).
After unpacking and relaxing on our balcony we had dinner and then eventually went for a walk to the beach (which is about 10 minutes walk away…). Found several Irish bars, restaurants with menus in Swedish and eventually a small shop with Russian food. This place is hilarious! Oh yeah, I almost got a job before I even had a chance to look for it… But am not sure how it will work out…
Yesterday I met I think 3 different Swedish families just in this house. The whole “I am here so I can learn and speak better Spanish” – idea is being questioned already. Oh well.
Apart from that we found the beach and laid down for a bit with the result that the two of us are red now in several places on our bodies… Shit happens. And fucking hell Real Madrid scored the goal in the league – what a shit! But vale, next year for Barca and this year for MFF...
As we don’t have internet in our new apartment, don’t expect quick answers. I will do my best to find a nearby internet café but am not sure how lucky I will be on that front as there are mainly apartment buildings and villas around here…
Hasta luego!
/k
I am writing this on my laptop in my new apartment, in my new city – Torrevieja, but as there is no internet in the apartment to either steal or pay for I will be blogging it from an internet café most definitely.
These last few days have been an emotional roller coaster, going from leaving Valladolid and saying goodbye to the last few people, to going to somewhere we don’t know (we didn’t even know where to stay, but that worked out just fine). At this moment things are on the right track. We got to stay in my relatives’ flat, but first in Vaida’s new home village – Daya – where we arrived on Thursday evening.
But first thing is first. Wednesday. The day was spent packing, cleaning and talking to one of my last remaining friends there, Gabo. And of course finished with a last (?) visit to the bar of mine and Jolita’s choice; the Dublin Bay. That was where most of the things started and that is where we ended.
Then came Thursday and the time to leave. We brought ourselves and our in total 8 bags to the bus station and off we were. We arrived in Alicante 20.30-ish and were picked up by Vaida, her boyfriend Angel and a friend of his, and off we were (once again) to a small pueblo (village) called Daya (where there are only three streets) where we had a place to stay at for the weekend before going to Torrevieja, where we are to live and find a job (hopefully). The funniest thing was when Angel just picked up the 3 heavy bags and carried them as though they weighed nothing…
As we arrived in Daya it was time for dinner (cenar) and so the grill was out on the street and Vaida says to Angel “on the street, no?”, “claro”. It turned out that “on the street” truly means on the street. We set up a table and there we were drinking beer and eating grilled “ratas con un poquito cucarachas” right then and there on the street. Friends of Angel and Vaida came and went, some brought beer others just drank some. We stumbled into bed around 1 totally exhausted from the travel, emotions and heat (it was still very warm in the evening).
Vaida said it is only Spanish from no on, I said of course. I really need to get into my Spanish. I do know quite a bit, understand rather well and the speaking is becoming better as well. That is why blogging in English may be more difficult, but challenges are what keeps us going, right?
They speak a completely different Spanish here, well, maybe not completely different, but a rather different accent. It’s kind of like Aino’s “baby-Spanish”. They say ‘maomeno’ instead of masomenos, ‘do’ instead of dos, ‘tre’ instead of tres, ‘etoy’ instead of estoy, ‘epañia’ instead of españia and so on. We’re happy we were in Valladolid in the beginning to learn the ‘proper’ Spanish, but will probably be influenced by the people here after we have gotten used to it.
On the Friday we went to the one bar in Daya with internet access. We actually went there twice as we needed to check about the apartment in Torrevieja. We really felt how we were ‘extranjeros’ (foreigners) as we were more interested in the internet than in drinking beer and talking to people… We also went to the ‘piscina’ (swimming pool) of Daya – so nice! In the evening we had dinner in Vaida’s bar with some of Angel’s friends. It was cool, but my head got so tired towards the end as I was speaking and listening to only Spanish. After dinner I spoke to Valladolid and it turns out it has been raining since we left – Valladolid is crying because we left! ;-)
Saturday was a crazy day. It started 10.15 with Vaida coming into our room and saying that we will leave for Torrevieja in 45 minutes. It was just to wake up, pack and get ready and then after some additional waiting time we left for the agency in Torrevieja where we were to get keys to the apartment. The only problem was that there wasn’t anybody in the office. I called the number I had and got a hold of a guy who worked there – Swedish one – and after some time he came and after some additional time I had the keys in my possession.
As we had no idea really where the apartment was except for the address we took a taxi and suddenly stood in front of a 12 floor apartment building with a pool, gates and balconies. We took the lift up with our 8 bags and found our way to a 2 bedroom apartment definitely up to Swedish standard. We went to the Hiper Todo Todo around the corner to buy some basic food and imagine my surprise and delight when I found loads of Swedish food in there! We’re talking Swedish brands and Swedish lingonsylt (lingonberry jam), even Swedish Bob saft! I think I will like it here I said to Jolita as she ran around the shop in search of anything Lithuanian (she didn’t find anything).
After unpacking and relaxing on our balcony we had dinner and then eventually went for a walk to the beach (which is about 10 minutes walk away…). Found several Irish bars, restaurants with menus in Swedish and eventually a small shop with Russian food. This place is hilarious! Oh yeah, I almost got a job before I even had a chance to look for it… But am not sure how it will work out…
Yesterday I met I think 3 different Swedish families just in this house. The whole “I am here so I can learn and speak better Spanish” – idea is being questioned already. Oh well.
Apart from that we found the beach and laid down for a bit with the result that the two of us are red now in several places on our bodies… Shit happens. And fucking hell Real Madrid scored the goal in the league – what a shit! But vale, next year for Barca and this year for MFF...
As we don’t have internet in our new apartment, don’t expect quick answers. I will do my best to find a nearby internet café but am not sure how lucky I will be on that front as there are mainly apartment buildings and villas around here…
Hasta luego!
/k
Friday 15 June 2007
and the adventure has begun...
Hola!
Just a quick note saying that Jolita and I now are in a small village near Alicante visiting Vaida before going to Torrevieja Sunday or Monday. All is good except the heat which almost kills you... But here you have dinner on the actual street outside your house and drink beer until it starts to get less warm.
Will be back soon with more information...
Hasta Luego!
/k
Just a quick note saying that Jolita and I now are in a small village near Alicante visiting Vaida before going to Torrevieja Sunday or Monday. All is good except the heat which almost kills you... But here you have dinner on the actual street outside your house and drink beer until it starts to get less warm.
Will be back soon with more information...
Hasta Luego!
/k
Wednesday 13 June 2007
Goodbye Valladolid, hello new adventure!
Hola!
In the middle of packing and cleaning and throwing away I thought it might be a good idea to write about my recently decided plans. Well, they’ve been kind of there for a long time now, but anyway… Tomorrow I am leaving Valladolid if everything goes according to plans. And I my never return again. (Well, one should never say never…) It is with some emotionality that I look back on this semester, it has been a few months of good times and good friends. The university was a bit of a disappointment as I’ve already mentioned, but the life here has been to say the very least, relaxing.
Sol left yesterday morning, a sad goodbye, but as I know we will meet again in September it was still ok. And tomorrow I’m off to new adventures. My first destination will be Alicante (as that’s where the bus goes to). It will be interesting to go and rediscover my childhood places around there. We’ve talked about Torrevieja, Benidorm or in fact staying in Alicante. At this very moment we do not know where we’re going to stay. Hopefully I will be back with some information about that. I am looking forward to going, but so much has to be done before leaving, and the fact that it will be supposedly 40 degrees or so in the shadow down there is scary. I am going with Jolita and Fiona will later join us after her exams. Neither of us are very used to that sort of heat, being from Sweden, Lithuania and Ireland. Oh well, give it a week or so and we will get used to it, or will we?
Keep your fingers crossed that everything will work out for us. If it won’t I guess some of you will see me sooner than you think. Now I’m off to say goodbye to some more friends and to the city that has been my home for these past few months.
Hasta luego!
/k
In the middle of packing and cleaning and throwing away I thought it might be a good idea to write about my recently decided plans. Well, they’ve been kind of there for a long time now, but anyway… Tomorrow I am leaving Valladolid if everything goes according to plans. And I my never return again. (Well, one should never say never…) It is with some emotionality that I look back on this semester, it has been a few months of good times and good friends. The university was a bit of a disappointment as I’ve already mentioned, but the life here has been to say the very least, relaxing.
Sol left yesterday morning, a sad goodbye, but as I know we will meet again in September it was still ok. And tomorrow I’m off to new adventures. My first destination will be Alicante (as that’s where the bus goes to). It will be interesting to go and rediscover my childhood places around there. We’ve talked about Torrevieja, Benidorm or in fact staying in Alicante. At this very moment we do not know where we’re going to stay. Hopefully I will be back with some information about that. I am looking forward to going, but so much has to be done before leaving, and the fact that it will be supposedly 40 degrees or so in the shadow down there is scary. I am going with Jolita and Fiona will later join us after her exams. Neither of us are very used to that sort of heat, being from Sweden, Lithuania and Ireland. Oh well, give it a week or so and we will get used to it, or will we?
Keep your fingers crossed that everything will work out for us. If it won’t I guess some of you will see me sooner than you think. Now I’m off to say goodbye to some more friends and to the city that has been my home for these past few months.
Hasta luego!
/k
Saturday 9 June 2007
the time has come and the goodbyes have started for real...
Hola!
Since Monday and that rather interesting exam in ‘European integration’ we have mainly been studying for the next exam, writing silly paragraphs for the Dragon and drinking coffee. On Thursday we then wrote the literature exam which at least was in English although still a bit silly considering our teacher asked us to name books that we hadn’t read but which were written by the authors who wrote the books we were supposed to read. I say supposed because in reality we didn’t read much at all. It was a total of 7 books that we were supposed to read, and given our rather generous amount of free time here it shouldn’t have been a problem, but somehow we just didn’t. Anyway, the exam went ok, we think.
The Dragon still hasn’t told me I passed the scientific and technical English and today was the exam. I didn’t go. I was so annoyed that I decided that it was enough now. She can’t think for real that I will do even more work than everyone else. One thing if I do extra paragraphs because she is unable to admit her mistakes, but an exam or even to go there just to hear what are you doing here. No, I decided it was enough. I will try to get a hold of her on Monday and then play dumb.
Thursday evening Sabine, Sol, Jolita, Naomi and I went to the beach here in Valladolid (a constructed one by the canal…) to have a traditional Spanish Botallón. We had wine, beer and sambuca and sat on some benches enjoying the warm summer night. We had originally planned to go to some bars after, but we were all rather tired and decided that going home was the better alternative. On the way home I saw my first live cockroach here in Spain. It was on the street and truly disgusting.
Friday was an incredibly warm day. It was so warm that it was almost impossible to be in the sun for more than 5 minutes. In the shade about 30 degrees. Sol and I concluded that while some people go to saunas, we just stay in Valladolid… Later, after I had exploded with anger towards the Dragon it started raining and there was thunder and lightning and I found myself in the university with Jolita thinking how to get home in the best way, without getting completely wet.
And yesterday it started for real. The goodbyes. Last week we said goodbye to Vaida, but I will most probably see her rather soon anyway. Yesterday it was time for Sabine and Naomi to say byebye. It was a bit surreal the whole evening as we somehow ended up talking about wars, diseases, rapes, dictatorships and other less nice things. Then at one point Sabine and Naomi decided they wanted to sleep for a few hours before having to leave at a stupid hour today in the morning, so there were hugs and kisses and promises to keep in touch and repetition of memories and after a long goodbye they left and we were left with a funny feeling after the discussions on horrible things and having to say goodbye.
Jolita decided that we were to go out and got us all (Sol, Fiona and me) to get ready. After almost falling asleep in one bar we went to Lola – the one bar/club that we all really love and that we only found recently. They were playing reggae when we arrived and then moved on to house/lounge. There were several guys in striped t-shirts and us, as they were showing animal porn – animals ‘doing it’ - on the tv, we found ourselves wondering if we accidentally came there on gay night. We didn’t care, we just sat in the comfortable sofa beds and talked and drank until we decided it was time to sleep.
According to Fiona men are complicated in a simplistic way, Jolita has promised to take care of any future cockroaches for me, Naomi is happy that she’s going home, Sabine is hoping that she will get to see the Alhambra and Sol isn’t feeling the way she thought she would about going home. Me, I’m just happy that I soon won’t have to deal with neither silly classes nor silly teachers in Valladolid.
‘Til next time, hasta luego!
/k
Monday 4 June 2007
Europe is the place to be! (alt. Bullshit!)
Hola!
A week of constant (well as constant as it can be) studying with Sol who only wanted to read our old books from Malmö University and Naomi who is a Lily Allen in disguise and is going to have three daughters called Guillermo, Amadeo and Steve (the last after Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi) lead us to today and the highly anticipated horrific exam. At 10 o’clock we sat there and looked and listened to our dictator teacher giving us one last scare before starting to write possibly the biggest amount of bull ever. I even finished off by writing that Europe is the place to be! Ridiculous. The high point was when our dear teacher says “We’re in the university, I’m teaching you to think” – yeah right, you’re teaching us wrong facts, things that can’t be verified anywhere and tell us to repeat them all while threatening us that we will be judged as much on our character as on our academic results. Since when was that encouraging someone to think? Naomi said it best when she said “There is the truth and then there is an arctic canal”.
But it is out of our hands now. It’s kind of weird not to have to think and correct the notes we had to study from. Not to sit and try to figure out who might be hiding behind a Spanish name (Francisco Fernando, Carlos Gustavo, Domingo Sangriento etc) or why we’re once again going back in time and talking about the congress in Vienna. John says he thinks she’ll be nice to us. I guess we’ll just have to see. Her “Que tal el examen” as I handed mine in wasn’t comforting. And oh yes, I corrected her a couple of times, or maybe rather educated her, in my answers… Someone had to!
After the exam I went to look for my English for scientific and technical purposes teacher to ask her why she hadn’t passed me already. She says “You didn’t hand everything in”, I said I believe I did. She says “You missed several, look”, I say well that one I handed in and got back when we did the exercise in class and figured I didn’t have to hand it in again as you had already seen it. Basically she told me I had missed loads of them, when in reality Sol at least had not handed them in either and still passed. She told me if I just write something and hand it in before Friday she’ll pass me. Again the Spanish educational system has shown its great deficits and I will never return to study here. Spain okay, but not for studying. It’s all just bullshit (Sol’s and my theme this week).
So on Thursday we have our final exam here giving I don’t have to do the English for scientific and technical purposes on Saturday. A girl never has a chance to relax.
Hasta luego!
/k
A week of constant (well as constant as it can be) studying with Sol who only wanted to read our old books from Malmö University and Naomi who is a Lily Allen in disguise and is going to have three daughters called Guillermo, Amadeo and Steve (the last after Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi) lead us to today and the highly anticipated horrific exam. At 10 o’clock we sat there and looked and listened to our dictator teacher giving us one last scare before starting to write possibly the biggest amount of bull ever. I even finished off by writing that Europe is the place to be! Ridiculous. The high point was when our dear teacher says “We’re in the university, I’m teaching you to think” – yeah right, you’re teaching us wrong facts, things that can’t be verified anywhere and tell us to repeat them all while threatening us that we will be judged as much on our character as on our academic results. Since when was that encouraging someone to think? Naomi said it best when she said “There is the truth and then there is an arctic canal”.
But it is out of our hands now. It’s kind of weird not to have to think and correct the notes we had to study from. Not to sit and try to figure out who might be hiding behind a Spanish name (Francisco Fernando, Carlos Gustavo, Domingo Sangriento etc) or why we’re once again going back in time and talking about the congress in Vienna. John says he thinks she’ll be nice to us. I guess we’ll just have to see. Her “Que tal el examen” as I handed mine in wasn’t comforting. And oh yes, I corrected her a couple of times, or maybe rather educated her, in my answers… Someone had to!
After the exam I went to look for my English for scientific and technical purposes teacher to ask her why she hadn’t passed me already. She says “You didn’t hand everything in”, I said I believe I did. She says “You missed several, look”, I say well that one I handed in and got back when we did the exercise in class and figured I didn’t have to hand it in again as you had already seen it. Basically she told me I had missed loads of them, when in reality Sol at least had not handed them in either and still passed. She told me if I just write something and hand it in before Friday she’ll pass me. Again the Spanish educational system has shown its great deficits and I will never return to study here. Spain okay, but not for studying. It’s all just bullshit (Sol’s and my theme this week).
So on Thursday we have our final exam here giving I don’t have to do the English for scientific and technical purposes on Saturday. A girl never has a chance to relax.
Hasta luego!
/k
Wednesday 30 May 2007
Let's enjoy ourselves, not study
Hola!
Why is it so easy to sleep in this country? Or maybe I should rephrase that; why is it so easy to sleep long in the mornings – ‘cause ‘morning’ is relative no? My morning usually doesn’t start until well after noon. Lunch around 16-17 and then dinner 21-ish. Is that weird? Especially now I’ve come into a period of sleeping almost too long (when you open your eyes and look at the time and realise it is 2 o’clock in the afternoon, or 3 even, then it is a bit excessive even for me…). Sol and I try to force ourselves to fall asleep earlier and wake up earlier but it is difficult when our friendly kebab-guy starts screaming on the street 3 o’clock at night…
Anyway. We are in a period of studying for our dear exams. The literature exam is more fun to study for than the European Integration one (which we have outbursts about at least once a day). We take way too long breaks – well, one got to have that coffee – and even though we realise it will be easier if we in fact would study, neither of us seem to care enough to say “hey, break’s over. Let’s get back to work”.
Today we were supposed to find out whether we passed the English for Scientific and technical purposes or if we have to do the exam. We couldn’t find the paper. Guessing it’s that whole Spanish ‘mañana, mañana’ attitude that is playing with us. On the way back we went to have a coffee outside just by the cathedral and two tables away from us sits a Spanish couple who whistles. They whistled a good half hour and Sol and I tried to give them angry looks. We tried to make them stop, but they just didn’t get it! Who goes to a café to whistle! I mean seriously!
By the way, I want to tell you all what our European Integration teacher is teaching us here about the Nordic countries and other interesting things; Iceland is a big exporter of potatoes and vegetables, Finland is poor and has Finnish mark as their currency and oh, people want to build a canal in the Arctic from England to Japan as the English people then will be able to go to Japan quicker and then the Arctic would be worth more! Is it understandable that we are frustrated with this course? I mean come on, Iceland – potatoes, vegetables? Isn’t the name Iceland a clue to the fact that there aren’t many things growing there? Isn’t it pretty easy to find out that Finland is in the EU, has the Euro and in fact is not so poor anymore? I miss real university studies where you can rely on what the teachers are saying since they look into the latest facts…
Oh well. Let’s continue to play in air bands, enjoy the sun, decide what we're going to be when we grow up, discuss how to make Sol scary and look for mistakes in the stuff we have to read for our exam in European integration.
Hasta Luego!
/k
Why is it so easy to sleep in this country? Or maybe I should rephrase that; why is it so easy to sleep long in the mornings – ‘cause ‘morning’ is relative no? My morning usually doesn’t start until well after noon. Lunch around 16-17 and then dinner 21-ish. Is that weird? Especially now I’ve come into a period of sleeping almost too long (when you open your eyes and look at the time and realise it is 2 o’clock in the afternoon, or 3 even, then it is a bit excessive even for me…). Sol and I try to force ourselves to fall asleep earlier and wake up earlier but it is difficult when our friendly kebab-guy starts screaming on the street 3 o’clock at night…
Anyway. We are in a period of studying for our dear exams. The literature exam is more fun to study for than the European Integration one (which we have outbursts about at least once a day). We take way too long breaks – well, one got to have that coffee – and even though we realise it will be easier if we in fact would study, neither of us seem to care enough to say “hey, break’s over. Let’s get back to work”.
Today we were supposed to find out whether we passed the English for Scientific and technical purposes or if we have to do the exam. We couldn’t find the paper. Guessing it’s that whole Spanish ‘mañana, mañana’ attitude that is playing with us. On the way back we went to have a coffee outside just by the cathedral and two tables away from us sits a Spanish couple who whistles. They whistled a good half hour and Sol and I tried to give them angry looks. We tried to make them stop, but they just didn’t get it! Who goes to a café to whistle! I mean seriously!
By the way, I want to tell you all what our European Integration teacher is teaching us here about the Nordic countries and other interesting things; Iceland is a big exporter of potatoes and vegetables, Finland is poor and has Finnish mark as their currency and oh, people want to build a canal in the Arctic from England to Japan as the English people then will be able to go to Japan quicker and then the Arctic would be worth more! Is it understandable that we are frustrated with this course? I mean come on, Iceland – potatoes, vegetables? Isn’t the name Iceland a clue to the fact that there aren’t many things growing there? Isn’t it pretty easy to find out that Finland is in the EU, has the Euro and in fact is not so poor anymore? I miss real university studies where you can rely on what the teachers are saying since they look into the latest facts…
Oh well. Let’s continue to play in air bands, enjoy the sun, decide what we're going to be when we grow up, discuss how to make Sol scary and look for mistakes in the stuff we have to read for our exam in European integration.
Hasta Luego!
/k
Sunday 27 May 2007
It was a happy birthday for me :-)
Hola!
So yet another year in the life of me has passed by leaving me a year older and hopefully a little bit wiser. It was of course celebrated, as being in Spain isn’t a good reason not to party. The celebration started on Thursday night in Dublin Bay in the good company of some of my Valladolid friends. It was beers, chupitos, laughter and later on a bit of dancing in a couple of the clubs we usually go to. It was a late night (or early depending on your perspectives), but lots and lots of fun.
My birthday then continued after some sleep with several phone calls, text messages and e-mails from everyone back home, as well as a couple of visits to cafés for coffee and then a nice birthday dinner in the evening with Sol and Fiona. We even made a cake with candles in the shape of 23. It was a rather calm evening with good food and drinks, good company and good conversations.
So should I get into a philosophical discussion about how it feels so different to have become 23? ;-) Maybe I’ll skip it. Since birthdays rarely imply waking up the next day and being 10 or more years older, one year doesn’t really feel like a big difference. Are there things that I couldn’t do before reaching this age that I can do now?
But anyway, a big thank you to everyone that remembered me. I had a great day(s).
Hasta luego!
/k
So yet another year in the life of me has passed by leaving me a year older and hopefully a little bit wiser. It was of course celebrated, as being in Spain isn’t a good reason not to party. The celebration started on Thursday night in Dublin Bay in the good company of some of my Valladolid friends. It was beers, chupitos, laughter and later on a bit of dancing in a couple of the clubs we usually go to. It was a late night (or early depending on your perspectives), but lots and lots of fun.
My birthday then continued after some sleep with several phone calls, text messages and e-mails from everyone back home, as well as a couple of visits to cafés for coffee and then a nice birthday dinner in the evening with Sol and Fiona. We even made a cake with candles in the shape of 23. It was a rather calm evening with good food and drinks, good company and good conversations.
So should I get into a philosophical discussion about how it feels so different to have become 23? ;-) Maybe I’ll skip it. Since birthdays rarely imply waking up the next day and being 10 or more years older, one year doesn’t really feel like a big difference. Are there things that I couldn’t do before reaching this age that I can do now?
But anyway, a big thank you to everyone that remembered me. I had a great day(s).
Hasta luego!
/k
Wednesday 23 May 2007
Veni, Vidi, Vici - Patetico Madrid-Barcelona 0-6
Hola!
Yesterday I came back from possibly the best weekend ever! A combination of several factors – mainly one though – meant the greatest time in a long time, if not ever. But first thing’s first. Last week, after coming home from abroad, we had a lot of work to catch up on. Our big and final Spanish exam for one, but also other assignments that our teachers told us to do if we wanted to pass our courses (which I guess we want in the end…) Thursday was the final day of Spanish and the exam went okay. I passed it. :-) That of course meant that we had to celebrate and out we went.
The Friday came and that day meant finishing everything that needed to be handed in, packing and preparing in general for a weekend in Spain’s capital with my dear older brother. You see for a while my bro and I had talked about him coming here for a visit and a football game. He found a weekend which worked for him, and a game of interest and booked an airplane ticket. So after checking in to our hostal just off Gran Via, central Madrid, we went to the Vicente Calderon stadium in order to see if the tickets were truly finished or if there was a possibility to still find a couple of seats. After some walking, some pep talk and some talking (in Spanish) to a bartender, we bought ourselves some ridiculously expensive tickets to the game of our choice – Atletico Madrid-Barcelona FC - and went back to the city centre to celebrate. The weather was wonderful, some 30 degrees during the day and around 22 later that evening. Some tapas, mojitos and beers later we were back in our room and made plans for the next day.
We decided that that specific Sunday was to be dedicated to our greatest interest, football, completely. Jocke found that it was possible to take a tour at the other big stadium in the city, Santiago Bernabéu stadium (the home of Real Madrid, which takes about 80 000 spectators), and we decided that while some go to Madrid and go to the Prado museum, we went to Madrid to go to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. Jocke who had already been to the Prado, said that the stadium was far more interesting. I think I probably would agree (but as I haven’t been to the Prado yet I guess I can’t be all sure about it…). To walk around inside the stadium, to sit in the spectator chairs, on the ‘bench’ and see the museum of Real’s greatness was truly an experience worth our time and money. After a couple of hours of walking around, we went back home to the hostal to change and then have a quick drink with my friends before going to the actual highlight of that day and of the weekend itself.
So to the game. Anyone who hasn’t seen the result yet? Well, it was 6-0 to Barca. And we, the lucky bastards that we were, got seats among the Barcelona supporters. Imagine watching all the great ones, last year’s CL winners and some of the world’s best players play your favourite sport. For me it was complete happiness, and for my brother too. But it was really difficult to grasp that we were there, sitting next to some Icelandic people who only wanted to see Eidur Gudjohnsen play, screaming Barca, and the players’ names. It was truly unbelievable. The last 7 minutes of the first half of the game were filled with 3 beautiful goals and suddenly the rain that had been falling, making me completely wet, didn’t bother me anymore. There were greater things to pay attention to.
The second half came and with it 3 more beautiful goals, and as Deco was to be exchanged and all the Barca supporters and myself chanted his name my brother turned to me and looked at me. I replied by saying “When will we ever get the chance again to chant his name not to the TV or to the radio, but to him at a stadium during a match?”. Needless to say Jocke chanted just as much after that. How many can say that they have screamed ‘Messi, Messi’ to the actual Messi? How many has been clapping and chanting ‘Barca’ to the real Barcelona team? I have. My brother have. And all the other Barcelona supporters have as well. And talking about chanting, while the Barca supporters were ridiculing their derby-oponents Espanyol (even though they were playing against Atletico), we joined them and just changed their Espanyol for Helsingborg. It is important to know where you stand, no matter which game or which opponents.
The best part of the game, apart from the goals was in the beginning of the second half. Barcelona started kicking the ball within the team, and no Atletico players had a chance to even touch the ball for about 10 minutes or so. As more and more Atletico fans left the stadium we didn’t want to stop chanting our great Barcelona team. The funniest end was when the Barcelona supporters started calling their opponents ‘Patetico’ Madrid instead of Atletico. ;-)
After the game we contacted my friends again and met up with them, making the short Dublin-reunion longer and bigger. Naoise, Martin and Pablo were visiting Miguelito this very weekend and it was great seeing all of them again. Some friendships are not complicated at all, just there, now and forever, and that’s what makes them special.
The last full day in Madrid was for shopping, enjoying good food and drinks and realising that we had been there. We were at the crazy game and saw Ronaldhino do a free kick. We saw Messi score, not once, but twice. We saw it all. Jocke said it was the greatest football game he had ever been to, and I could not do anything but agree. Of course it wasn’t as emotional as seeing Malmö play the really important (or any really) matches. But it was Barcelona who completely humiliated Atletico Madrid. And that is something to remember.
To finish off this blog entry I have to say that Jocke is the hero of my blog and ‘Veni, vidi, vici’. Hope to be back soon with more exciting news. Although will anything seem great after this ever again?
/k
Yesterday I came back from possibly the best weekend ever! A combination of several factors – mainly one though – meant the greatest time in a long time, if not ever. But first thing’s first. Last week, after coming home from abroad, we had a lot of work to catch up on. Our big and final Spanish exam for one, but also other assignments that our teachers told us to do if we wanted to pass our courses (which I guess we want in the end…) Thursday was the final day of Spanish and the exam went okay. I passed it. :-) That of course meant that we had to celebrate and out we went.
The Friday came and that day meant finishing everything that needed to be handed in, packing and preparing in general for a weekend in Spain’s capital with my dear older brother. You see for a while my bro and I had talked about him coming here for a visit and a football game. He found a weekend which worked for him, and a game of interest and booked an airplane ticket. So after checking in to our hostal just off Gran Via, central Madrid, we went to the Vicente Calderon stadium in order to see if the tickets were truly finished or if there was a possibility to still find a couple of seats. After some walking, some pep talk and some talking (in Spanish) to a bartender, we bought ourselves some ridiculously expensive tickets to the game of our choice – Atletico Madrid-Barcelona FC - and went back to the city centre to celebrate. The weather was wonderful, some 30 degrees during the day and around 22 later that evening. Some tapas, mojitos and beers later we were back in our room and made plans for the next day.
We decided that that specific Sunday was to be dedicated to our greatest interest, football, completely. Jocke found that it was possible to take a tour at the other big stadium in the city, Santiago Bernabéu stadium (the home of Real Madrid, which takes about 80 000 spectators), and we decided that while some go to Madrid and go to the Prado museum, we went to Madrid to go to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. Jocke who had already been to the Prado, said that the stadium was far more interesting. I think I probably would agree (but as I haven’t been to the Prado yet I guess I can’t be all sure about it…). To walk around inside the stadium, to sit in the spectator chairs, on the ‘bench’ and see the museum of Real’s greatness was truly an experience worth our time and money. After a couple of hours of walking around, we went back home to the hostal to change and then have a quick drink with my friends before going to the actual highlight of that day and of the weekend itself.
So to the game. Anyone who hasn’t seen the result yet? Well, it was 6-0 to Barca. And we, the lucky bastards that we were, got seats among the Barcelona supporters. Imagine watching all the great ones, last year’s CL winners and some of the world’s best players play your favourite sport. For me it was complete happiness, and for my brother too. But it was really difficult to grasp that we were there, sitting next to some Icelandic people who only wanted to see Eidur Gudjohnsen play, screaming Barca, and the players’ names. It was truly unbelievable. The last 7 minutes of the first half of the game were filled with 3 beautiful goals and suddenly the rain that had been falling, making me completely wet, didn’t bother me anymore. There were greater things to pay attention to.
The second half came and with it 3 more beautiful goals, and as Deco was to be exchanged and all the Barca supporters and myself chanted his name my brother turned to me and looked at me. I replied by saying “When will we ever get the chance again to chant his name not to the TV or to the radio, but to him at a stadium during a match?”. Needless to say Jocke chanted just as much after that. How many can say that they have screamed ‘Messi, Messi’ to the actual Messi? How many has been clapping and chanting ‘Barca’ to the real Barcelona team? I have. My brother have. And all the other Barcelona supporters have as well. And talking about chanting, while the Barca supporters were ridiculing their derby-oponents Espanyol (even though they were playing against Atletico), we joined them and just changed their Espanyol for Helsingborg. It is important to know where you stand, no matter which game or which opponents.
The best part of the game, apart from the goals was in the beginning of the second half. Barcelona started kicking the ball within the team, and no Atletico players had a chance to even touch the ball for about 10 minutes or so. As more and more Atletico fans left the stadium we didn’t want to stop chanting our great Barcelona team. The funniest end was when the Barcelona supporters started calling their opponents ‘Patetico’ Madrid instead of Atletico. ;-)
After the game we contacted my friends again and met up with them, making the short Dublin-reunion longer and bigger. Naoise, Martin and Pablo were visiting Miguelito this very weekend and it was great seeing all of them again. Some friendships are not complicated at all, just there, now and forever, and that’s what makes them special.
The last full day in Madrid was for shopping, enjoying good food and drinks and realising that we had been there. We were at the crazy game and saw Ronaldhino do a free kick. We saw Messi score, not once, but twice. We saw it all. Jocke said it was the greatest football game he had ever been to, and I could not do anything but agree. Of course it wasn’t as emotional as seeing Malmö play the really important (or any really) matches. But it was Barcelona who completely humiliated Atletico Madrid. And that is something to remember.
To finish off this blog entry I have to say that Jocke is the hero of my blog and ‘Veni, vidi, vici’. Hope to be back soon with more exciting news. Although will anything seem great after this ever again?
/k
Thursday 17 May 2007
Lisbon baby!
Hola!
Below is the 4-part story of when miss Sweden, miss Iceland, miss Germany and miss Ireland went on a spontaneous trip to Lisbon, Portugal.
Lisbon, Portugal, part I: We know nothing about Portugal
So last Wednesday Sabine, Sol and I started talking about possibly taking a trip somewhere. We started discussing Portugal and the day after we decided that we were at least going to try to get there. It was one of my goals with this semester here in Spain so you can understand my enthusiasm. At first we thought we’d rent a car, but in the end we thought taking the bus would be better. So Friday morning at 7 o’clock we met at Plaza Mayor, Sabine, Sol, Fiona and I and started walking towards the bus station with hopes of scoring tickets. It proved to be no problem at all so off we were towards Salamanca first where we were to change buses to the one going abroad. But we were left with about 3 hours to kill so we took the Salamanca quick tour which basically lead us to a café which Sol recommended. I must say that I was not incredibly impressed by Salamanca, but who am I to judge I saw almost nothing. (Except for many alternative people and Sol’s favourite café…)
After some confusion we found ourselves on our bus towards Portugal just to find out that we would have to change buses at some point if we didn’t want to end up in Porto instead of Lisbon. The driver had told Sol that we would have to change in a place called something similar to ‘Albuquerque’. We were just generally confused and didn’t really understand all the Portuguese people on the bus – Portuguese is very much different from Spanish, at least in spoken form.
Oh well, we were still in good spirits (although tired), excited about going somewhere and more particularly about the fact that we were on our way, finally, to Lisbon and Portugal.
It was somewhere around here we started doing a mental list of what we knew about Portugal and Lisbon beforehand. That list was rather short. You see in our spur of the moment trying to be spontaneous trip we forgot to look up anything at all about the place we were going to. Our knowledge well was pretty much made up of the following: they speak Portuguese, the capital is Lisbon, they have euros and according to my mother they are more friendly than Spanish people. We spent the rest of the trip asking each other questions that none of us knew the answer to.
We managed to change buses and as we were going south Sabine looks out of the window and suddenly bursts out ‘I can smell the sea! It’s on that side.’ (Whether that was true or not is not something I am able to answer to. I can only smell my way to Irish pubs…) Sol and I spent some time (while the other two were sleeping) having a Nordic language school, trying out how much we could say in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Finnish. Needless to say some languages were easier than others.
We arrived in Lisbon around 22 local time (it turned out that they have different time than in Spain! How silly isn’t that? And Sol and Fiona knew it and told me and Sabine just before we reached our final destination.), about one hour late. Four very giggly and over-tired girls made our way, using the metro, to the hostel Sol’s boyfriend had booked for us earlier that same day. After checking in to a sweet apartment-looking hostel we went out in search for food or drinks (anything really). It took about 5 minutes of walking and then a guy stopped us and asked us if we wanted to buy some weed. He took Fiona’s hand and said: ‘I know you want some’. Fiona took her hand back said ‘No!’ and we walked further.
After a little while we found a small place which was fine for us where Sol and Fiona ordered sandwiches (!) which took forever for the guy to prepare. We kept speaking in Spanish as we figured that would work out fine, but then realised how ignorant we probably seemed. Didn’t we know we weren’t in Spain, that Portugal is a separate country? So we spoke in English instead, which proved to work out just fine. As the place we were sitting at had a clientele consisting of only men and as the preparing of the two sandwiches took forever we were joking about the situation. Sol suggested that we should find a gay bar instead which lead Fiona to say: ‘I’d feel more comfortable in a gay bar than here’. Shortly after that the sandwiches arrived and after they were finished we all went back to the hostel and slept a long nice night. (I had only slept about 2 hours the night before…)
Lisbon, Portugal, part II: The streets go up or down, never sideways (alternatively: Where is Fiona?)
Waking up in the morning after a nice long night we found a surprise in our room. We all thought we were sleeping in a 6-bed female dorm, but it turned out that it wasn’t the case. When we woke up one bed was taken by a hairy guy! We were all equally surprised as we saw it. After getting ready, eating breakfast and collecting all of our things we checked out and went to our next hostel in which we were to spend the rest of our nights (the first one was fully booked the rest of the weekend). We found ourselves staying at a small hostel in which the shower was in a room outside and where they’d prefer it if you didn’t come home after midnight. It was still sweet somehow and we were happy as we got a room completely to ourselves.
The day was spent sightseeing in the city, walking up and down the hills – there were very few streets going sideways, always up or down… We went to the Castelo (castle) and found an art festival going on there with music and clothes and jewellery. It’s the little things that make everything great and this was one of those things. As we sat down in an alternative ‘restaurant’ temporarily there for the festival and listened to the alternative music coming from the DJ (no Spanish music as far as we could hear :-D ) we were all extremely relaxed and happy. We stayed for quite some time just taking it easy and relaxing, but decided to go before we fell asleep.
Then we made our way down the hill and ended up in the middle of a Brazilian samba drum concert on the streets. They were banging their drums and dancing and screaming olé as they lifted the drums above their heads. It was really cool and of course we stayed there for quite some time as well. I thought wow, what a great way to work out and made a mental note to check out if it’s possible to do something similar in Malmö.
We kept on loosing Fiona, or so I felt as I kept on asking ‘where is Fiona?’. (In reality she wasn’t lost at all, I was just not seeing our red-headed miss Ireland at those moments… It was sometime around here that we found Sabine’s future career. She will own a pink hostel in Lisbon where she wouldn’t let Spanish people stay. We even found a pink house for it.
Eventually we made our way back to our hostel to relax and change before going out in the evening. We found a restaurant where they were going to have a buffet and had a seat. The waitress told us that we had to wait with taking food a bit because there was a big party coming and the food wasn’t completely ready. We said all right and ordered some drinks. Sol was extremely hungry and wondered every five minutes when we could start taking some food. The party arrived eventually but they didn’t start taking food until everyone was there (which took forever) so the staff at the restaurant let us take food before. It was great food. Some cold dishes, some warm and a desert (uma sobremesa) consisting of either pineapple (or rather ananas – why is it more or less only in English that it is called pineapple?) or chocolate mousse.
It was during that dinner that we started talking about the many gorgeous guys we had seen during just that day. Sabine, Fiona and I agreed that we had seen more beautiful guys during one day than during three and a half months in Spain. Sol just didn’t get it. She hadn’t seen any pretty guys, but we decided that maybe she hadn’t been looking. So to make her open her eyes we decided upon signs to make her aware of the chicos bonitos. I was to pull her hair, Sabine to get a coughing attack and Fiona get spasms. Then I saw a beautiful guy, turned to Sol to pull her hair but she got it before I finished my sign. Then we all had a long laughing attack.
On the way home we discussed how nice the city was and how most of us could consider living there permanently, and also how the guys are different from Spanish ones. Right then a guy grabbed Sol’s breasts and Sol burst out: ‘I don’t wanna live in Lisbon anymore!’ and gave the guy the ‘fuck-finger’. And so it was settled. Portuguese guys were no different to Spanish ones and the city suddenly looked less attractive to the blonde miss Iceland.
We all concluded during the day that although the city was beautiful it didn’t feel like a big city or a capital. It felt more like a small holiday city, to which you go to stay for a week or so, like cities on the Canary Islands or other holiday spots. It also looked like a poor city, houses were quite run down and sure there were areas which were modernised and cleaned up, but most of the streets that we walked down or up were filled with houses which needed substantial remodelling. The Portuguese people came across as extremely friendly and nice (except maybe for the guy that molested Sol…) and so we could agree with my mother’s opinion, they are nicer than Spanish people, at least the ones that we met, and they speak English!
Lisbon, Portugal, part III: I hate sand.
We decided that we were to visit a beach on this day, our last day in Portugal, a beach that was about 30 minutes outside central Lisbon. On the way we were to stop and look at some monuments and stuff in Belem (which was also recommended to us by the tourist office). As we sat on the train relaxing we suddenly saw the train leaving the station that we were supposed to get off at. Ooops! We went off the train at the next station and jumped on the next train going back. The only thing was that the train we were on didn’t stop in Belem so it was just to get off that train as well and go back one more time. Then we came to the right station and could finally see the things we wanted to see.
We saw a couple of monuments situated by the ocean and walked along the coastline. We sat down and rested our flip flop bearing feet and Sabine got a sunglass salesman to sell her a pair of sunglasses, that he originally wanted 15 euros for, for 5 euros. We saw loads and loads of Americans (mainly old ones) who wore funny clothes. In particular one guy who was so mismatched that it was hilarious. And he wasn’t old. He bought a scarf from a scarf-selling lady which made his outfit even worse. Let’s see if I can describe it; he wore grey surf shorts with white flowers on them, to that he had a shirt with a lot of patterns on it mainly in a reddish scale of colours. From the lady he bought a blue scarf. Talk about loving colours…
After resting and feeding my new-found coca cola addiction we walked to the next train station and took the train to the beach. We arrived in a really small town where they had McDonalds (of course we had to go…) and nice and friendly people. We found the beach and laid ourselves down to enjoy the sun (the water was not very warm according to Sabine and Fiona – and as you know I don’t bathe unless the water is at least 25 degrees warm…). It was windy and the sand found its way through everything and I realised once again how much I dislike sand. We got to lie there for a little while, but then the clouds started turning grey and so we left to go back to Lisbon.
It really was amazing to us that more or less everyone spoke English there, even the bum helping us with our train tickets. A nice contrast to Spain.
We bought Subway sandwiches (yes, McDonalds and Subway in the same day. No we are not extremely Americanised… you just have to understand that these kinds of fast food restaurants don’t exist in Valladolid!) to have for dinner and a bottle of wine. The next day would be starting very early and so we decided to relax at the hostel’s roof terrace. The way home led us through the red light district of Lisbon (ooops!), but I guess it’s something you really should see and know where it is so you won’t end up lost there when it is dark and the middle of the night…
We relaxed on our roof terrace and played a few games of Uno (the card game) and I became the two-time winner while Sabine learnt the word sink and that it is not equivalent to binch. We sat and relaxed and talked and decided it was a pity to have to go back to Spain and Valladolid, Portugal in general and Lisbon in particular had proved to be such a nice place to stay at.
Lisbon, Portugal, part IV: The long way home
The day started approximately 4.30 Portuguese time, our train to the bus station was to leave at 5.36. Arriving at the train station we found no information as to where the train would leave from. We asked some people and found our train. At the bus station we had the same trouble as there was no information whatsoever. A bus driver told us where to wait and eventually the bus arrived.
We had to change buses again in the city which has a name similar to ‘Albuquerque’ and as we went on the bus the bus driver told me ‘no comida en el autobus’, I answered ‘pero solo es agua’. In reality I had both crisps and cookies in my bag but that is not food in my opinion. Those are only snacks, no matter what Fiona says.
As I saw the Portuguese landscape passing by outside the bus window, listening to my I-pod music, I thought about the differences between Spain and Portugal. There are truly many differences. One is about the people’s general behaviour. Most of the Portuguese seemed to speak and understand English, while here in Spain you’ll have to search more or learn Spanish. They seem to eat more proper food, not only tapas (which I don’t think I will ever become properly used to). Everything seemed also cheaper than in Spain – anything from metro tickets to food and drinks. The landscape looks somewhat different to what I have seen of Spain and the language written is possible to understand, while spoken is quite different from Spanish. Someone said it reminded her of eastern European languages.
I quite enjoyed Lisbon, I think we all did, but wouldn’t like to live there. I’d love to come back though for a visit, either back to Lisbon or to other places (maybe both).
As we reached Salamanca we were all hungry and just wanted to get home already. We went to a small snack bar where we immediately got reminded of the Spanish people’s way of being. We came back to Valladolid and home to our apartments around 8 p.m. The best thing was to have a proper toilet not only those disgusting smelly toilets on bus stations or gas stations… Also the last hostel had the worst beds (hard, too short and not wide enough – I had to balance not to fall off), so coming home to my noisy, but comfortable bed was great.
It was so nice to get away for a few days. Now we all just have to study for our Spanish exams and finish our other assignments. Well, hopefully the energy from being somewhere else will make it all easier…
I realise this story of our adventures ‘abroad from abroad’ was rather long, so if you’ve read all the way through you’re worth an award! ;-)
Besos
/k
Below is the 4-part story of when miss Sweden, miss Iceland, miss Germany and miss Ireland went on a spontaneous trip to Lisbon, Portugal.
Lisbon, Portugal, part I: We know nothing about Portugal
So last Wednesday Sabine, Sol and I started talking about possibly taking a trip somewhere. We started discussing Portugal and the day after we decided that we were at least going to try to get there. It was one of my goals with this semester here in Spain so you can understand my enthusiasm. At first we thought we’d rent a car, but in the end we thought taking the bus would be better. So Friday morning at 7 o’clock we met at Plaza Mayor, Sabine, Sol, Fiona and I and started walking towards the bus station with hopes of scoring tickets. It proved to be no problem at all so off we were towards Salamanca first where we were to change buses to the one going abroad. But we were left with about 3 hours to kill so we took the Salamanca quick tour which basically lead us to a café which Sol recommended. I must say that I was not incredibly impressed by Salamanca, but who am I to judge I saw almost nothing. (Except for many alternative people and Sol’s favourite café…)
After some confusion we found ourselves on our bus towards Portugal just to find out that we would have to change buses at some point if we didn’t want to end up in Porto instead of Lisbon. The driver had told Sol that we would have to change in a place called something similar to ‘Albuquerque’. We were just generally confused and didn’t really understand all the Portuguese people on the bus – Portuguese is very much different from Spanish, at least in spoken form.
Oh well, we were still in good spirits (although tired), excited about going somewhere and more particularly about the fact that we were on our way, finally, to Lisbon and Portugal.
It was somewhere around here we started doing a mental list of what we knew about Portugal and Lisbon beforehand. That list was rather short. You see in our spur of the moment trying to be spontaneous trip we forgot to look up anything at all about the place we were going to. Our knowledge well was pretty much made up of the following: they speak Portuguese, the capital is Lisbon, they have euros and according to my mother they are more friendly than Spanish people. We spent the rest of the trip asking each other questions that none of us knew the answer to.
We managed to change buses and as we were going south Sabine looks out of the window and suddenly bursts out ‘I can smell the sea! It’s on that side.’ (Whether that was true or not is not something I am able to answer to. I can only smell my way to Irish pubs…) Sol and I spent some time (while the other two were sleeping) having a Nordic language school, trying out how much we could say in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Finnish. Needless to say some languages were easier than others.
We arrived in Lisbon around 22 local time (it turned out that they have different time than in Spain! How silly isn’t that? And Sol and Fiona knew it and told me and Sabine just before we reached our final destination.), about one hour late. Four very giggly and over-tired girls made our way, using the metro, to the hostel Sol’s boyfriend had booked for us earlier that same day. After checking in to a sweet apartment-looking hostel we went out in search for food or drinks (anything really). It took about 5 minutes of walking and then a guy stopped us and asked us if we wanted to buy some weed. He took Fiona’s hand and said: ‘I know you want some’. Fiona took her hand back said ‘No!’ and we walked further.
After a little while we found a small place which was fine for us where Sol and Fiona ordered sandwiches (!) which took forever for the guy to prepare. We kept speaking in Spanish as we figured that would work out fine, but then realised how ignorant we probably seemed. Didn’t we know we weren’t in Spain, that Portugal is a separate country? So we spoke in English instead, which proved to work out just fine. As the place we were sitting at had a clientele consisting of only men and as the preparing of the two sandwiches took forever we were joking about the situation. Sol suggested that we should find a gay bar instead which lead Fiona to say: ‘I’d feel more comfortable in a gay bar than here’. Shortly after that the sandwiches arrived and after they were finished we all went back to the hostel and slept a long nice night. (I had only slept about 2 hours the night before…)
Lisbon, Portugal, part II: The streets go up or down, never sideways (alternatively: Where is Fiona?)
Waking up in the morning after a nice long night we found a surprise in our room. We all thought we were sleeping in a 6-bed female dorm, but it turned out that it wasn’t the case. When we woke up one bed was taken by a hairy guy! We were all equally surprised as we saw it. After getting ready, eating breakfast and collecting all of our things we checked out and went to our next hostel in which we were to spend the rest of our nights (the first one was fully booked the rest of the weekend). We found ourselves staying at a small hostel in which the shower was in a room outside and where they’d prefer it if you didn’t come home after midnight. It was still sweet somehow and we were happy as we got a room completely to ourselves.
The day was spent sightseeing in the city, walking up and down the hills – there were very few streets going sideways, always up or down… We went to the Castelo (castle) and found an art festival going on there with music and clothes and jewellery. It’s the little things that make everything great and this was one of those things. As we sat down in an alternative ‘restaurant’ temporarily there for the festival and listened to the alternative music coming from the DJ (no Spanish music as far as we could hear :-D ) we were all extremely relaxed and happy. We stayed for quite some time just taking it easy and relaxing, but decided to go before we fell asleep.
Then we made our way down the hill and ended up in the middle of a Brazilian samba drum concert on the streets. They were banging their drums and dancing and screaming olé as they lifted the drums above their heads. It was really cool and of course we stayed there for quite some time as well. I thought wow, what a great way to work out and made a mental note to check out if it’s possible to do something similar in Malmö.
We kept on loosing Fiona, or so I felt as I kept on asking ‘where is Fiona?’. (In reality she wasn’t lost at all, I was just not seeing our red-headed miss Ireland at those moments… It was sometime around here that we found Sabine’s future career. She will own a pink hostel in Lisbon where she wouldn’t let Spanish people stay. We even found a pink house for it.
Eventually we made our way back to our hostel to relax and change before going out in the evening. We found a restaurant where they were going to have a buffet and had a seat. The waitress told us that we had to wait with taking food a bit because there was a big party coming and the food wasn’t completely ready. We said all right and ordered some drinks. Sol was extremely hungry and wondered every five minutes when we could start taking some food. The party arrived eventually but they didn’t start taking food until everyone was there (which took forever) so the staff at the restaurant let us take food before. It was great food. Some cold dishes, some warm and a desert (uma sobremesa) consisting of either pineapple (or rather ananas – why is it more or less only in English that it is called pineapple?) or chocolate mousse.
It was during that dinner that we started talking about the many gorgeous guys we had seen during just that day. Sabine, Fiona and I agreed that we had seen more beautiful guys during one day than during three and a half months in Spain. Sol just didn’t get it. She hadn’t seen any pretty guys, but we decided that maybe she hadn’t been looking. So to make her open her eyes we decided upon signs to make her aware of the chicos bonitos. I was to pull her hair, Sabine to get a coughing attack and Fiona get spasms. Then I saw a beautiful guy, turned to Sol to pull her hair but she got it before I finished my sign. Then we all had a long laughing attack.
On the way home we discussed how nice the city was and how most of us could consider living there permanently, and also how the guys are different from Spanish ones. Right then a guy grabbed Sol’s breasts and Sol burst out: ‘I don’t wanna live in Lisbon anymore!’ and gave the guy the ‘fuck-finger’. And so it was settled. Portuguese guys were no different to Spanish ones and the city suddenly looked less attractive to the blonde miss Iceland.
We all concluded during the day that although the city was beautiful it didn’t feel like a big city or a capital. It felt more like a small holiday city, to which you go to stay for a week or so, like cities on the Canary Islands or other holiday spots. It also looked like a poor city, houses were quite run down and sure there were areas which were modernised and cleaned up, but most of the streets that we walked down or up were filled with houses which needed substantial remodelling. The Portuguese people came across as extremely friendly and nice (except maybe for the guy that molested Sol…) and so we could agree with my mother’s opinion, they are nicer than Spanish people, at least the ones that we met, and they speak English!
Lisbon, Portugal, part III: I hate sand.
We decided that we were to visit a beach on this day, our last day in Portugal, a beach that was about 30 minutes outside central Lisbon. On the way we were to stop and look at some monuments and stuff in Belem (which was also recommended to us by the tourist office). As we sat on the train relaxing we suddenly saw the train leaving the station that we were supposed to get off at. Ooops! We went off the train at the next station and jumped on the next train going back. The only thing was that the train we were on didn’t stop in Belem so it was just to get off that train as well and go back one more time. Then we came to the right station and could finally see the things we wanted to see.
We saw a couple of monuments situated by the ocean and walked along the coastline. We sat down and rested our flip flop bearing feet and Sabine got a sunglass salesman to sell her a pair of sunglasses, that he originally wanted 15 euros for, for 5 euros. We saw loads and loads of Americans (mainly old ones) who wore funny clothes. In particular one guy who was so mismatched that it was hilarious. And he wasn’t old. He bought a scarf from a scarf-selling lady which made his outfit even worse. Let’s see if I can describe it; he wore grey surf shorts with white flowers on them, to that he had a shirt with a lot of patterns on it mainly in a reddish scale of colours. From the lady he bought a blue scarf. Talk about loving colours…
After resting and feeding my new-found coca cola addiction we walked to the next train station and took the train to the beach. We arrived in a really small town where they had McDonalds (of course we had to go…) and nice and friendly people. We found the beach and laid ourselves down to enjoy the sun (the water was not very warm according to Sabine and Fiona – and as you know I don’t bathe unless the water is at least 25 degrees warm…). It was windy and the sand found its way through everything and I realised once again how much I dislike sand. We got to lie there for a little while, but then the clouds started turning grey and so we left to go back to Lisbon.
It really was amazing to us that more or less everyone spoke English there, even the bum helping us with our train tickets. A nice contrast to Spain.
We bought Subway sandwiches (yes, McDonalds and Subway in the same day. No we are not extremely Americanised… you just have to understand that these kinds of fast food restaurants don’t exist in Valladolid!) to have for dinner and a bottle of wine. The next day would be starting very early and so we decided to relax at the hostel’s roof terrace. The way home led us through the red light district of Lisbon (ooops!), but I guess it’s something you really should see and know where it is so you won’t end up lost there when it is dark and the middle of the night…
We relaxed on our roof terrace and played a few games of Uno (the card game) and I became the two-time winner while Sabine learnt the word sink and that it is not equivalent to binch. We sat and relaxed and talked and decided it was a pity to have to go back to Spain and Valladolid, Portugal in general and Lisbon in particular had proved to be such a nice place to stay at.
Lisbon, Portugal, part IV: The long way home
The day started approximately 4.30 Portuguese time, our train to the bus station was to leave at 5.36. Arriving at the train station we found no information as to where the train would leave from. We asked some people and found our train. At the bus station we had the same trouble as there was no information whatsoever. A bus driver told us where to wait and eventually the bus arrived.
We had to change buses again in the city which has a name similar to ‘Albuquerque’ and as we went on the bus the bus driver told me ‘no comida en el autobus’, I answered ‘pero solo es agua’. In reality I had both crisps and cookies in my bag but that is not food in my opinion. Those are only snacks, no matter what Fiona says.
As I saw the Portuguese landscape passing by outside the bus window, listening to my I-pod music, I thought about the differences between Spain and Portugal. There are truly many differences. One is about the people’s general behaviour. Most of the Portuguese seemed to speak and understand English, while here in Spain you’ll have to search more or learn Spanish. They seem to eat more proper food, not only tapas (which I don’t think I will ever become properly used to). Everything seemed also cheaper than in Spain – anything from metro tickets to food and drinks. The landscape looks somewhat different to what I have seen of Spain and the language written is possible to understand, while spoken is quite different from Spanish. Someone said it reminded her of eastern European languages.
I quite enjoyed Lisbon, I think we all did, but wouldn’t like to live there. I’d love to come back though for a visit, either back to Lisbon or to other places (maybe both).
As we reached Salamanca we were all hungry and just wanted to get home already. We went to a small snack bar where we immediately got reminded of the Spanish people’s way of being. We came back to Valladolid and home to our apartments around 8 p.m. The best thing was to have a proper toilet not only those disgusting smelly toilets on bus stations or gas stations… Also the last hostel had the worst beds (hard, too short and not wide enough – I had to balance not to fall off), so coming home to my noisy, but comfortable bed was great.
It was so nice to get away for a few days. Now we all just have to study for our Spanish exams and finish our other assignments. Well, hopefully the energy from being somewhere else will make it all easier…
I realise this story of our adventures ‘abroad from abroad’ was rather long, so if you’ve read all the way through you’re worth an award! ;-)
Besos
/k
Monday 7 May 2007
I am not studying at a university
Hola!
So today I got the ultimate proof of what I so long have believed – Spanish university studies equals Swedish secondary/high school education! Here’s what happened, Sol and I were sitting in our Cinema class (yes, the classes seem to continue even though we’ve already handed in the final project…) minding our own businesses and being frustrated with the fact that once again the film was dubbed into Spanish. Suddenly a girl faints and the teacher and some nearby students try to help her and eventually leaves the class room in order to get the girl to feel better. As the door closes behind them everyone except me and Sol starts speaking loudly. I mean really loud! Anyone who has ever been in Spain understands what I mean. The talking continued until the teacher opens the door again, being back, then everyone shuts up as if there had been a sign or something. Does that happen in a Swedish university during a cinema course when there is a film on? I don’t think so.
Otherwise it was a rather interesting weekend with new friendships being made, parties and a lot of laughing. I am now looking forward to tomorrow’s game (or rather to listen to it on the webradio… :-(
Adíos for now! Hasta luego!
/k
So today I got the ultimate proof of what I so long have believed – Spanish university studies equals Swedish secondary/high school education! Here’s what happened, Sol and I were sitting in our Cinema class (yes, the classes seem to continue even though we’ve already handed in the final project…) minding our own businesses and being frustrated with the fact that once again the film was dubbed into Spanish. Suddenly a girl faints and the teacher and some nearby students try to help her and eventually leaves the class room in order to get the girl to feel better. As the door closes behind them everyone except me and Sol starts speaking loudly. I mean really loud! Anyone who has ever been in Spain understands what I mean. The talking continued until the teacher opens the door again, being back, then everyone shuts up as if there had been a sign or something. Does that happen in a Swedish university during a cinema course when there is a film on? I don’t think so.
Otherwise it was a rather interesting weekend with new friendships being made, parties and a lot of laughing. I am now looking forward to tomorrow’s game (or rather to listen to it on the webradio… :-(
Adíos for now! Hasta luego!
/k
Thursday 3 May 2007
Finally...
Finally hell is over (for now) and the essay is ready to be handed in. It's not my best work ever, rather the opposite, but at this moment I don't think I could have handled it better. Erasmus students should get a break.
/k
/k
Tuesday 1 May 2007
reunions
Hola!
Another rather exciting weekend has passed and my extra days of holidays are coming increasingly close to an end. So what has been going on? First of all Sol and I got IPES visitors in the form of Pernille and Fred. Pernille kept on saying Fred with a French accent, while Fred has been giving us treats from her future stand-up show.
But I left the reunion Saturday morning to go to Madrid and have my own little reunion. Sabine joined me and we spent the day shopping, looking, walking, eating ice cream, eating at KFC (only because it was a fast food restaurant and they don’t exist at all in Valladolid, of course one must take the chance…) and finishing of the day with eating tapas at a place in the area La Latina in central Madrid. Those tapas were funny, ‘cause our waiter chose them for us and thus we had no idea what was coming or what the bill would end up at. It all turned out rather well and apart from having a nice dinner we got a free round of drinks.
After the dinner Sabine and I said goodbye and as she went to the bus station to catch her bus back to Valladolid, I went on to the airport in order to be the welcoming committee for Ainita who was just coming back to Spain after moving to her and Klas new apartment back home in Malmö. As we made our way back to central Madrid and tried our best to find the hostel we finally got a room in, we met a lot of weird people. But we found it after some wandering around the Madrid streets…
We rested a bit and then went out to meet some of Aino’s Sevilla-friends to go dancing. We eventually found ourselves in a small club where they played mixed music, a crazy girl with a huge behind danced for attention and guys just didn’t get it when you said ‘no comprendo’ and turned away. It was anyway fun, but after a whole day of walking my old pains in my right foot started coming back and so we left and began walking back to the hostel.
As Aino convinced me to stay at least until later that Sunday evening we walked around, relaxing and spontaneously shopping at the few shops open. (You would think that in a big city like Madrid the shops would be open also on Sundays but no, so don’t go there leaving your shopping ‘til the last day…) We ended up sitting in one Irish bar after another, watching football games and discussing everything between heaven and earth (or maybe rather between the first game of the season to the last… ;-) In between we had some tapas in what I called ‘fattigast i kvarteret”, but that was of course not the correct Spanish name…
In the end we ran to the bus station and I went back to Valladolid, while Aino made her way back to her other friends.
I got some great news from back home during that Saturday afternoon, Malmö beat AIK 4-0 at home and seeing as I had people there I of course got live score results. It was really complete happiness, now if we could only beat all the other teams in the same way that would be great. Aino, who had seen the game on television, described every one of them 4 goals and it seems like we put up a show worth watching. :-D As I write we are playing the Swedish cup and are leading 5-0 a bit in on the second half of the game. I dare guess that we will win the match. :-)
Another week awaits, or maybe rather a few days. On Thursday my cinema course paper is due and we’ll see how I manage in my writing.
Besos and hasta luego!
/k
Another rather exciting weekend has passed and my extra days of holidays are coming increasingly close to an end. So what has been going on? First of all Sol and I got IPES visitors in the form of Pernille and Fred. Pernille kept on saying Fred with a French accent, while Fred has been giving us treats from her future stand-up show.
But I left the reunion Saturday morning to go to Madrid and have my own little reunion. Sabine joined me and we spent the day shopping, looking, walking, eating ice cream, eating at KFC (only because it was a fast food restaurant and they don’t exist at all in Valladolid, of course one must take the chance…) and finishing of the day with eating tapas at a place in the area La Latina in central Madrid. Those tapas were funny, ‘cause our waiter chose them for us and thus we had no idea what was coming or what the bill would end up at. It all turned out rather well and apart from having a nice dinner we got a free round of drinks.
After the dinner Sabine and I said goodbye and as she went to the bus station to catch her bus back to Valladolid, I went on to the airport in order to be the welcoming committee for Ainita who was just coming back to Spain after moving to her and Klas new apartment back home in Malmö. As we made our way back to central Madrid and tried our best to find the hostel we finally got a room in, we met a lot of weird people. But we found it after some wandering around the Madrid streets…
We rested a bit and then went out to meet some of Aino’s Sevilla-friends to go dancing. We eventually found ourselves in a small club where they played mixed music, a crazy girl with a huge behind danced for attention and guys just didn’t get it when you said ‘no comprendo’ and turned away. It was anyway fun, but after a whole day of walking my old pains in my right foot started coming back and so we left and began walking back to the hostel.
As Aino convinced me to stay at least until later that Sunday evening we walked around, relaxing and spontaneously shopping at the few shops open. (You would think that in a big city like Madrid the shops would be open also on Sundays but no, so don’t go there leaving your shopping ‘til the last day…) We ended up sitting in one Irish bar after another, watching football games and discussing everything between heaven and earth (or maybe rather between the first game of the season to the last… ;-) In between we had some tapas in what I called ‘fattigast i kvarteret”, but that was of course not the correct Spanish name…
In the end we ran to the bus station and I went back to Valladolid, while Aino made her way back to her other friends.
I got some great news from back home during that Saturday afternoon, Malmö beat AIK 4-0 at home and seeing as I had people there I of course got live score results. It was really complete happiness, now if we could only beat all the other teams in the same way that would be great. Aino, who had seen the game on television, described every one of them 4 goals and it seems like we put up a show worth watching. :-D As I write we are playing the Swedish cup and are leading 5-0 a bit in on the second half of the game. I dare guess that we will win the match. :-)
Another week awaits, or maybe rather a few days. On Thursday my cinema course paper is due and we’ll see how I manage in my writing.
Besos and hasta luego!
/k
Monday 23 April 2007
Annie, wonderful sunshine and Pucela en la primera
Hola!
After a weekend of sunshine, parties, ANNIE and Real Valladolid winning the second division and thus moving up to the Primera Division I felt it was time to write something again. It has been crazy. And warm. Incredibly warm. But obviously not too warm. ;-) So many coffees have been enjoyed in the sun and a lot of ice cream has been purchased.
Anyway, Annie arrived last Thursday in the evening and we spent most of the night talking and catching up (some news more chocking than others…) and then it was time for the big day – Annie’s birthday. Some shopping and sitting in the sun before going out first to Dublin Bay and then to Intermedio – where we got a free bottle of champagne (compliments to Jolita’s boss) and lastly to a club at Plaza Mayor. The girls, Sol and Annie, even got me to buy a dress during the day which I wore in the evening. (Does anyone remember the last time I wore a dress? I sure don’t…)
The Saturday was spent enjoying the sun (yet again) and doing some additional shopping and ice cream eating. In the evening Annie and I went out to a few more clubs just because we really couldn’t come up with something better to do and olé Spanish people behave weirdly sometimes. In one of the clubs that we went to people were particularly weird, or maybe I should say peculiar. Things just aren’t the way we’re used to from good old Sweden. The funniest was when Annie pretended not to speak any language but Swedish to get rid of a guy and the weirdest when a guy said ‘if you are from Russia I will be very happy…’. Oh well, this is Spain, what can I say?
On sunday we took a long walk and continued to enjoy the hot weather (in between we listened to the crappy game on the crappy radio, I still believe that we will win the league this year and I’ll soon get to why…). In the evening Sol was incredibly restless and asked us to join her for a walk. It turned out that it was the day that Real Valladolid were ready for the Primera Division and people were completely loco, but happy, singing, bathing in the fountain at Plaza Zorilla and one guy even climbed up on the statue on Plaza Mayor to hang a purple and white flag in the hand of the man standing there. We were all quite afraid that the guy would fall down and die, but it turns out it really is true that you are invincible when your team has won…
We finished the night singing Eurovision songs with Jolita and Vaida on Plaza Mayor in different languages. Well, I guess one has to make a fool of oneself on Plaza Mayor at some point.
Early today Annie and I walked to the bus station and she was off back home. I went back home to rest a bit more before waking up for real. On the way we met several late party-goers on their way home after what I guess had been a really long celebration. I understand them.
After some additional hours of sleep I eventually woke up and went out for a coffee with Sol. Sabine called to let us know and to ask us to join her in celebrating the Real Valladolid team at Plaza Mayor later as they were going there to celebrate their winning with their fans. The whole plaza was completely purple and white and when the team eventually arrived there was endless screaming of happiness. ‘Estamos en la primera’ ropades om och om igen.
This is when I realised that since I missed the celebrations after our last gold medal in Malmö due to some stupid consequences, we’re going to win this year and nothing will stop me from celebrating (as I have now seen the way to do it… ;-) Selfish? Maybe. But then again football is a huge part of my life and Malmö FF is in my heart and on my mind most of the time. We have a good enough team and if we don’t let old ghosts scare us we will do a good season.
After a long weekend it feels wrong to go back to the university tomorrow and have classes. Study? Me? What? Oh, and yet again a Spanish person has mistaken me for Spanish after talking to me. I am impressed.
Anyway, hasta luego!
After a weekend of sunshine, parties, ANNIE and Real Valladolid winning the second division and thus moving up to the Primera Division I felt it was time to write something again. It has been crazy. And warm. Incredibly warm. But obviously not too warm. ;-) So many coffees have been enjoyed in the sun and a lot of ice cream has been purchased.
Anyway, Annie arrived last Thursday in the evening and we spent most of the night talking and catching up (some news more chocking than others…) and then it was time for the big day – Annie’s birthday. Some shopping and sitting in the sun before going out first to Dublin Bay and then to Intermedio – where we got a free bottle of champagne (compliments to Jolita’s boss) and lastly to a club at Plaza Mayor. The girls, Sol and Annie, even got me to buy a dress during the day which I wore in the evening. (Does anyone remember the last time I wore a dress? I sure don’t…)
The Saturday was spent enjoying the sun (yet again) and doing some additional shopping and ice cream eating. In the evening Annie and I went out to a few more clubs just because we really couldn’t come up with something better to do and olé Spanish people behave weirdly sometimes. In one of the clubs that we went to people were particularly weird, or maybe I should say peculiar. Things just aren’t the way we’re used to from good old Sweden. The funniest was when Annie pretended not to speak any language but Swedish to get rid of a guy and the weirdest when a guy said ‘if you are from Russia I will be very happy…’. Oh well, this is Spain, what can I say?
On sunday we took a long walk and continued to enjoy the hot weather (in between we listened to the crappy game on the crappy radio, I still believe that we will win the league this year and I’ll soon get to why…). In the evening Sol was incredibly restless and asked us to join her for a walk. It turned out that it was the day that Real Valladolid were ready for the Primera Division and people were completely loco, but happy, singing, bathing in the fountain at Plaza Zorilla and one guy even climbed up on the statue on Plaza Mayor to hang a purple and white flag in the hand of the man standing there. We were all quite afraid that the guy would fall down and die, but it turns out it really is true that you are invincible when your team has won…
We finished the night singing Eurovision songs with Jolita and Vaida on Plaza Mayor in different languages. Well, I guess one has to make a fool of oneself on Plaza Mayor at some point.
Early today Annie and I walked to the bus station and she was off back home. I went back home to rest a bit more before waking up for real. On the way we met several late party-goers on their way home after what I guess had been a really long celebration. I understand them.
After some additional hours of sleep I eventually woke up and went out for a coffee with Sol. Sabine called to let us know and to ask us to join her in celebrating the Real Valladolid team at Plaza Mayor later as they were going there to celebrate their winning with their fans. The whole plaza was completely purple and white and when the team eventually arrived there was endless screaming of happiness. ‘Estamos en la primera’ ropades om och om igen.
This is when I realised that since I missed the celebrations after our last gold medal in Malmö due to some stupid consequences, we’re going to win this year and nothing will stop me from celebrating (as I have now seen the way to do it… ;-) Selfish? Maybe. But then again football is a huge part of my life and Malmö FF is in my heart and on my mind most of the time. We have a good enough team and if we don’t let old ghosts scare us we will do a good season.
After a long weekend it feels wrong to go back to the university tomorrow and have classes. Study? Me? What? Oh, and yet again a Spanish person has mistaken me for Spanish after talking to me. I am impressed.
Anyway, hasta luego!
/k
Thursday 19 April 2007
It's getting hot, hot, hot...
Hola!
So. Now (dare I say it?) I am more or less well again. The cold is not much more than a distant memory, and although I still have problems with my foot, it is also getting better. Maybe all that extra relaxing helped.
Anyway, after about 2 whole weeks of being unable and unwilling to do anything but taking it easy, things are starting to get back to normal. Classes, including Spanish (which we actually got a two weeks long holiday from), have started and I have yet again realised how uninspiring it all is. Except for Spanish. That is the one class that offers both a challenge and an interest – even though a lot of it has to do with grammar, which as you may know isn’t my favourite cup of tea. Oh, and I got the result from my Spanish exam. Yes, I did pass it. I passed it rather all right actually. A nice surprise to say the very least. ;-)
And when I’m talking about the university and my courses, we found out yesterday that there will be no exam in our cinema history course. That should be good news, but believe me, it isn’t. Instead of writing an exam we are expected to write about 15 pages about something that has to do with our course (sinister films). Oh yeah, IN SPANISH!!! And the teacher was much less sympathetic to our situation than we thought, so wish me good luck, this time I’m really gonna need it. Or if anyone could write it for me, in Spanish, that would be brilliant… ;-)
Now to some exciting news. Malmö FF won their first home game 1-0 against GAIS. Junior scored the 3000th goal in MFF history. As I was stuck here listening to the web radio, Jocke called me when Junior scored and said “You’re in the wrong place, little sister”. Well, I know that. Can’t wait until I can stand there and sing and scream. ‘Til then I will have to make due with screaming on my own in my room in Valladolid…
Also Annie, who went to the game with Emma in a supportive attempt to be there for MFF since I couldn’t, is coming over for the weekend! It’s gonna be great fun I’m sure. Visitors are of course greatly appreciated. :-D
The sun is here by the way. It’s getting so warm in the middle of the day that it is hardly possible to wear anything warm at all. I have even already burnt myself a little. A little sunlight (or a lot) really works miracles on my mood (and everyone else’s).
Lately I have seen several musical movies and they make me want a musical life. I am therefore trying to get Sol to express herself in melodies (which isn’t actually very hard… ;-) Anything to make us laugh a while I guess! ;-)
‘Til next time, hippety hoppety!
/k
So. Now (dare I say it?) I am more or less well again. The cold is not much more than a distant memory, and although I still have problems with my foot, it is also getting better. Maybe all that extra relaxing helped.
Anyway, after about 2 whole weeks of being unable and unwilling to do anything but taking it easy, things are starting to get back to normal. Classes, including Spanish (which we actually got a two weeks long holiday from), have started and I have yet again realised how uninspiring it all is. Except for Spanish. That is the one class that offers both a challenge and an interest – even though a lot of it has to do with grammar, which as you may know isn’t my favourite cup of tea. Oh, and I got the result from my Spanish exam. Yes, I did pass it. I passed it rather all right actually. A nice surprise to say the very least. ;-)
And when I’m talking about the university and my courses, we found out yesterday that there will be no exam in our cinema history course. That should be good news, but believe me, it isn’t. Instead of writing an exam we are expected to write about 15 pages about something that has to do with our course (sinister films). Oh yeah, IN SPANISH!!! And the teacher was much less sympathetic to our situation than we thought, so wish me good luck, this time I’m really gonna need it. Or if anyone could write it for me, in Spanish, that would be brilliant… ;-)
Now to some exciting news. Malmö FF won their first home game 1-0 against GAIS. Junior scored the 3000th goal in MFF history. As I was stuck here listening to the web radio, Jocke called me when Junior scored and said “You’re in the wrong place, little sister”. Well, I know that. Can’t wait until I can stand there and sing and scream. ‘Til then I will have to make due with screaming on my own in my room in Valladolid…
Also Annie, who went to the game with Emma in a supportive attempt to be there for MFF since I couldn’t, is coming over for the weekend! It’s gonna be great fun I’m sure. Visitors are of course greatly appreciated. :-D
The sun is here by the way. It’s getting so warm in the middle of the day that it is hardly possible to wear anything warm at all. I have even already burnt myself a little. A little sunlight (or a lot) really works miracles on my mood (and everyone else’s).
Lately I have seen several musical movies and they make me want a musical life. I am therefore trying to get Sol to express herself in melodies (which isn’t actually very hard… ;-) Anything to make us laugh a while I guess! ;-)
‘Til next time, hippety hoppety!
/k
Wednesday 11 April 2007
If it isn't one thing, then it's something else...
Hola!
No, I am not well yet. The eyes are better, the cold is better, but now I seem to have done something to my foot 'cause I can't stand or walk properly at the moment. And of course I realised this after the last visit to the doctor - Sol has wisdom teeth problems. Yes, we're almost becoming regulars there, and I never go to the doctor! I don't understand this and I don't like this. At all.
I realise that this month hasn't started too good, but things are going to get better. Positive news is that the weather is getting warmer!
/k
No, I am not well yet. The eyes are better, the cold is better, but now I seem to have done something to my foot 'cause I can't stand or walk properly at the moment. And of course I realised this after the last visit to the doctor - Sol has wisdom teeth problems. Yes, we're almost becoming regulars there, and I never go to the doctor! I don't understand this and I don't like this. At all.
I realise that this month hasn't started too good, but things are going to get better. Positive news is that the weather is getting warmer!
/k
Monday 9 April 2007
half-blind
Hola!
What has happened since last time? Well I’m still sick. Sick both in terms of this stupid cold and sick of the Easter parades. How many men and women dressed like ku klux klan should a girl have to see before it’s over? And how many times do the parades have to walk pass my bedroom window with their drums and trumpets? It’s all getting quite annoying really. Good thing we’re at least free from school, but then again being sick is no holiday. Yesterday was hopefully the end. I agree with Sol, I’m even less religious after all of this, and I wasn’t religious before.
Malmö played their first game against last year’s champions, Elfsborg, and the score came out an even 1-1. Better then loosing of course, and I am still sure that we will be fighting in the top close to the end. Annoyed with TV4 who only broadcasts tv on the internet for people in Sweden. If I was in Sweden I would be watching the game on TV not on the internet. Am a bit happy that I didn’t watch the game after all, if I would have, I would probably have been angry at the referee who was blind. Then again, there are no good referees judging Allsvenskan.
Sol came back to Valladolid last Friday with her parents. We had some nice discussions and conversations, ate Icelandic chocolate and I got an invitation to Iceland. Nice one! :-)
Now to today’s adventure… You see today I woke up hardly able to open my eyes. They were incredibly red and hurt like hell. Sol had pain in her head and so she said that we were to go to the doctor and check us both out. After a walk that almost covered all of Valladolid we were finally at the right health clinic and just had to sit down and wait for a few minutes before we got to see the doctor. And I haven’t been to a doctor in years so I really didn’t know what to expect. With some lack in communication he examined us and wrote prescriptions for us. It was obvious he was hoping it would be enough and that he will not have to see us again. Oh well, we’ll see. I hope my eyes get better (a cold I can take, but being half-blind is much worse…) so I won’t have to walk around with sun glasses… Oh and the medicine he prescribed was probably the cheapest medicine I’ve ever bought; my pills and eye drops cost in total €1,70!
‘til next time, wish away my cold! ;-)
/k
What has happened since last time? Well I’m still sick. Sick both in terms of this stupid cold and sick of the Easter parades. How many men and women dressed like ku klux klan should a girl have to see before it’s over? And how many times do the parades have to walk pass my bedroom window with their drums and trumpets? It’s all getting quite annoying really. Good thing we’re at least free from school, but then again being sick is no holiday. Yesterday was hopefully the end. I agree with Sol, I’m even less religious after all of this, and I wasn’t religious before.
Malmö played their first game against last year’s champions, Elfsborg, and the score came out an even 1-1. Better then loosing of course, and I am still sure that we will be fighting in the top close to the end. Annoyed with TV4 who only broadcasts tv on the internet for people in Sweden. If I was in Sweden I would be watching the game on TV not on the internet. Am a bit happy that I didn’t watch the game after all, if I would have, I would probably have been angry at the referee who was blind. Then again, there are no good referees judging Allsvenskan.
Sol came back to Valladolid last Friday with her parents. We had some nice discussions and conversations, ate Icelandic chocolate and I got an invitation to Iceland. Nice one! :-)
Now to today’s adventure… You see today I woke up hardly able to open my eyes. They were incredibly red and hurt like hell. Sol had pain in her head and so she said that we were to go to the doctor and check us both out. After a walk that almost covered all of Valladolid we were finally at the right health clinic and just had to sit down and wait for a few minutes before we got to see the doctor. And I haven’t been to a doctor in years so I really didn’t know what to expect. With some lack in communication he examined us and wrote prescriptions for us. It was obvious he was hoping it would be enough and that he will not have to see us again. Oh well, we’ll see. I hope my eyes get better (a cold I can take, but being half-blind is much worse…) so I won’t have to walk around with sun glasses… Oh and the medicine he prescribed was probably the cheapest medicine I’ve ever bought; my pills and eye drops cost in total €1,70!
‘til next time, wish away my cold! ;-)
/k
Tuesday 3 April 2007
me and Mr cold
Hola!
My visitors left this morning and I’m alone in the apartment. Well, I’m actually not alone. I have my dear companion Mr Cold. You see I felt something strange in my throat the other day and yesterday I woke up without a voice. Me and my non-existing voice (and Emma and Marlene of course ;-) went to the pharmacy to get something, anything really, that could help. I did my best to explain in Spanish with my non-existing voice that I needed something and the nice pharmacist gave me a box with pills. Those pills were magic. My voice came back in the afternoon, but my dear Mr Cold is still with me. It seems he likes here and won’t disappear even when I tell him he’s not welcome.
The weekend has still, cold or not, been wonderful. Friday evening in Madrid (seeing as I had been to a birthday party on Thursday evening I was needless to say unable to go too early), hanging out, eating out and going out. I spoke Spanish to some half Mexican-half Spanish guys and remembered once again how much I like the Mexican accent. :-D It is so much easier to understand!
On Saturday after very few hours sleep we went to Valladolid again for a quick nap before going out again… One guy asked me if I was from Valladolid (seeing as he wasn’t, he was from Galicia if my memory isn’t mistaking…), which I thought was pretty hilarious. What Spanish person in his/her right mind would guess that after hearing me speak? Maybe it was a combination of understanding him (well, I did, after saying que like three times…) and not having blonde hair like everyone else in my company…
Sol went to Madrid to meet her parents on Sunday and they will all be coming here on Friday. Full house? Well, why not…
Otherwise the Semana Santa (Easter week) is going on loud and clear – marches are passing my window all hours of the day and drumming their drums and chanting. I know that this is a religious country and all, but would it really be too much to ask to have their noisy parades during siesta hours or later? Some of us use our holidays for sleeping!
And soon comes the day. This Saturday. Saturday the 7th of April. The day that Allsvenskan (the Swedish football league) starts (or actually it starts the day before, but who cares, it starts for us on Saturday…). Malmö starts with an away game against Elfsborg (last year’s winners) and we will do a good game. I am just so bothered and annoyed that I can’t be there and cheer for my team. I was thinking earlier today (in between trying to breath like a normal healthy person and napping) that if this first game would have been a home game, then would I have gone home to be there? Right now it feels as though I could have thrown myself on a plane right this minute just to be able to go and scream (with my still rather non-existing voice) and cheer and watch them. It is hard to be so far away sometimes. Guess I’ll have to listen to the game on web radio. I sure hope that everyone at home watches the game on TV at the very least – since it is broadcasted on channel 4 I think – and report back to me. ;-)
So, that’s all for now.
/k
My visitors left this morning and I’m alone in the apartment. Well, I’m actually not alone. I have my dear companion Mr Cold. You see I felt something strange in my throat the other day and yesterday I woke up without a voice. Me and my non-existing voice (and Emma and Marlene of course ;-) went to the pharmacy to get something, anything really, that could help. I did my best to explain in Spanish with my non-existing voice that I needed something and the nice pharmacist gave me a box with pills. Those pills were magic. My voice came back in the afternoon, but my dear Mr Cold is still with me. It seems he likes here and won’t disappear even when I tell him he’s not welcome.
The weekend has still, cold or not, been wonderful. Friday evening in Madrid (seeing as I had been to a birthday party on Thursday evening I was needless to say unable to go too early), hanging out, eating out and going out. I spoke Spanish to some half Mexican-half Spanish guys and remembered once again how much I like the Mexican accent. :-D It is so much easier to understand!
On Saturday after very few hours sleep we went to Valladolid again for a quick nap before going out again… One guy asked me if I was from Valladolid (seeing as he wasn’t, he was from Galicia if my memory isn’t mistaking…), which I thought was pretty hilarious. What Spanish person in his/her right mind would guess that after hearing me speak? Maybe it was a combination of understanding him (well, I did, after saying que like three times…) and not having blonde hair like everyone else in my company…
Sol went to Madrid to meet her parents on Sunday and they will all be coming here on Friday. Full house? Well, why not…
Otherwise the Semana Santa (Easter week) is going on loud and clear – marches are passing my window all hours of the day and drumming their drums and chanting. I know that this is a religious country and all, but would it really be too much to ask to have their noisy parades during siesta hours or later? Some of us use our holidays for sleeping!
And soon comes the day. This Saturday. Saturday the 7th of April. The day that Allsvenskan (the Swedish football league) starts (or actually it starts the day before, but who cares, it starts for us on Saturday…). Malmö starts with an away game against Elfsborg (last year’s winners) and we will do a good game. I am just so bothered and annoyed that I can’t be there and cheer for my team. I was thinking earlier today (in between trying to breath like a normal healthy person and napping) that if this first game would have been a home game, then would I have gone home to be there? Right now it feels as though I could have thrown myself on a plane right this minute just to be able to go and scream (with my still rather non-existing voice) and cheer and watch them. It is hard to be so far away sometimes. Guess I’ll have to listen to the game on web radio. I sure hope that everyone at home watches the game on TV at the very least – since it is broadcasted on channel 4 I think – and report back to me. ;-)
So, that’s all for now.
/k
Wednesday 28 March 2007
and we're back online...
Hola!
The weekend was nice and relaxing, and on Saturday we finally got our new washing machine. J In the evening we had some of the girls over and then Jolita talked me into going out. After all it was Saturday.
Sunday was calm and spent mainly at Sabine’s house using her internet. It must have looked quite funny, the three of us (Sabine, Sol and I), sitting with a laptop each. Well, what else is there to do?
Yesterday (or today, it was in the middle of the night) I suddenly found our internet again. Now it is just to wait and see whether it will continue to work or disappear again. Keep your fingers crossed.
And also I had my first ever Spanish exam today. Don’t ask me how it went, I studied like a maniac but think (know) that I did some mistakes. I mixed the irregular versions of the verbs in the different tenses. Oh well, I tried my best and we will see how it went.
I wrote the following paragraph earlier today:
“Today Sweden plays Northern Ireland in the Euro 2008 qualifications. Imagine, they don’t show the match here! I don’t know what to do… But I will watch the Spain – Iceland match and root for Iceland, obviously. Why? 2 reasons, nr 1 – Sólveig, and nr 2 – they have less points than Spain – less of a threat in other words… ;-) And Zlatan is back and probably playing, so is Freddie. Oh I so want to watch it! Damn.”
Now the game is over and Sweden lost again Northern Ireland! Loco! How could we let them score? Well, obviously I am upset now. I might be able to deal with loss later.
This weekend I get visitors again, this time Emma and Marlene, and then starts the Semana Santa with everything surrounding it. It’s going to be nice to have some holidays. (Because my life is not a long holiday as it is…)
Ha’ Luego for now!
/k
The weekend was nice and relaxing, and on Saturday we finally got our new washing machine. J In the evening we had some of the girls over and then Jolita talked me into going out. After all it was Saturday.
Sunday was calm and spent mainly at Sabine’s house using her internet. It must have looked quite funny, the three of us (Sabine, Sol and I), sitting with a laptop each. Well, what else is there to do?
Yesterday (or today, it was in the middle of the night) I suddenly found our internet again. Now it is just to wait and see whether it will continue to work or disappear again. Keep your fingers crossed.
And also I had my first ever Spanish exam today. Don’t ask me how it went, I studied like a maniac but think (know) that I did some mistakes. I mixed the irregular versions of the verbs in the different tenses. Oh well, I tried my best and we will see how it went.
I wrote the following paragraph earlier today:
“Today Sweden plays Northern Ireland in the Euro 2008 qualifications. Imagine, they don’t show the match here! I don’t know what to do… But I will watch the Spain – Iceland match and root for Iceland, obviously. Why? 2 reasons, nr 1 – Sólveig, and nr 2 – they have less points than Spain – less of a threat in other words… ;-) And Zlatan is back and probably playing, so is Freddie. Oh I so want to watch it! Damn.”
Now the game is over and Sweden lost again Northern Ireland! Loco! How could we let them score? Well, obviously I am upset now. I might be able to deal with loss later.
This weekend I get visitors again, this time Emma and Marlene, and then starts the Semana Santa with everything surrounding it. It’s going to be nice to have some holidays. (Because my life is not a long holiday as it is…)
Ha’ Luego for now!
/k
Friday 23 March 2007
Again I am happy that I am not blonde
Hola!
Another week has almost reached its end. So what has been going on so far, apart from the weather’s crazy turn towards coldness (well, it’s getting warmer again but I can’t get over the fact that it has been snowing here this week… I mean this is Spain!). Sol had to realise that yet again her pelo rubia (blonde hair) had gotten admirers. I’m talking about the Spanish boys in our European Integration course who are so in love with her that they’re acting like 10-year old boys messing with her hair and giggle. I’m just laughing. Again I am happy that I am not blonde.
We’ve also been trying hard to ignore the crazy hombre de kebab (kebab guy) who also has fallen for her light hairdo. That’s more creepy though as he lives in the same apartment building as we do, and thus Sol always listens at the door before opening it.
Now we have our own bartenders as well, not only the guys we’ve met, but Jolita and Vaida. They started working yesterday in two separate bars and so of course Sol, Sabine and I had to go for a quick look. But then again this is Spain and in Spain there are no such things as a quick look. But we didn’t arrive home too late after all. Vaida works in a small very Spanish bar which reminded us of a tropical holiday spot. Jolita works in a bar with a small dance floor where the boss treated us to several shots of different kinds during the hours we stayed watching Jolita do her thing. We tried all kinds of things from purely Spanish liqueur to American whiskey. No, your eyes didn’t cheat you. I wrote whiskey. If someone offers you a free shot it is rude not to take it.
This weekend will probably be quite calm. We had been talking about going somewhere but as our landlord has promised to bring us a new lavadora (laundry machine) tomorrow morning, we’ll have to stay here in Valladolid.
The internet is still not working, although Sol believes that it is a good thing that we can’t even find the network in our lists anymore – maybe they’re fixing it? Oh well, hopefully. It’s just to relax and say mañana, mañana as everyone else in this country.
Hope all is well!
Besos
/k
Another week has almost reached its end. So what has been going on so far, apart from the weather’s crazy turn towards coldness (well, it’s getting warmer again but I can’t get over the fact that it has been snowing here this week… I mean this is Spain!). Sol had to realise that yet again her pelo rubia (blonde hair) had gotten admirers. I’m talking about the Spanish boys in our European Integration course who are so in love with her that they’re acting like 10-year old boys messing with her hair and giggle. I’m just laughing. Again I am happy that I am not blonde.
We’ve also been trying hard to ignore the crazy hombre de kebab (kebab guy) who also has fallen for her light hairdo. That’s more creepy though as he lives in the same apartment building as we do, and thus Sol always listens at the door before opening it.
Now we have our own bartenders as well, not only the guys we’ve met, but Jolita and Vaida. They started working yesterday in two separate bars and so of course Sol, Sabine and I had to go for a quick look. But then again this is Spain and in Spain there are no such things as a quick look. But we didn’t arrive home too late after all. Vaida works in a small very Spanish bar which reminded us of a tropical holiday spot. Jolita works in a bar with a small dance floor where the boss treated us to several shots of different kinds during the hours we stayed watching Jolita do her thing. We tried all kinds of things from purely Spanish liqueur to American whiskey. No, your eyes didn’t cheat you. I wrote whiskey. If someone offers you a free shot it is rude not to take it.
This weekend will probably be quite calm. We had been talking about going somewhere but as our landlord has promised to bring us a new lavadora (laundry machine) tomorrow morning, we’ll have to stay here in Valladolid.
The internet is still not working, although Sol believes that it is a good thing that we can’t even find the network in our lists anymore – maybe they’re fixing it? Oh well, hopefully. It’s just to relax and say mañana, mañana as everyone else in this country.
Hope all is well!
Besos
/k
Wednesday 21 March 2007
Snow in Spain? It must be a mistake...
Hola!
I couldn't believe my eyes earlier today when I went out to meet Sabine before my Spanish class. It was snowing! Yes, you read it correctly. It was SNOWING! Not much, but still some. And the cold ahora aqui! I don't know where to go more than to my bed under my blankets. It is one thing if it is cold in Sweden - one knows how to dress for it and it is warm indoors. But here? I only have a very thin jacket to wear! Jolita said it was atleast a deci meter snow in Burgos not far from here. We are now afraid that it will come here as well. If it does I will go to sleep and refuse to wake up until the sun is shining and it is warm again. Crazy one, I'll tell you this much.
Otherwise not so many news. We're getting a new washing machine in our apartment on saturday! That is good considering the old one is broken...
Yesterday evening we went to see some live jazz in a cafè and although it started off rather experimental it finished off being really good! And talking about music, my dad is apparently doing a comeback as a pop star with his old band. Unfortunately I will miss it since it will be during my exam period, but it is still something! ;-) If anyone is nearby, please film it! ;-)
Our internet seems to, by the way, be permanently off limits for Sol and me from now on. This sucks, but we'll see. Maybe it will work sooner or later... Keep your fingers crossed!
Ha' Luego for now,
/k
I couldn't believe my eyes earlier today when I went out to meet Sabine before my Spanish class. It was snowing! Yes, you read it correctly. It was SNOWING! Not much, but still some. And the cold ahora aqui! I don't know where to go more than to my bed under my blankets. It is one thing if it is cold in Sweden - one knows how to dress for it and it is warm indoors. But here? I only have a very thin jacket to wear! Jolita said it was atleast a deci meter snow in Burgos not far from here. We are now afraid that it will come here as well. If it does I will go to sleep and refuse to wake up until the sun is shining and it is warm again. Crazy one, I'll tell you this much.
Otherwise not so many news. We're getting a new washing machine in our apartment on saturday! That is good considering the old one is broken...
Yesterday evening we went to see some live jazz in a cafè and although it started off rather experimental it finished off being really good! And talking about music, my dad is apparently doing a comeback as a pop star with his old band. Unfortunately I will miss it since it will be during my exam period, but it is still something! ;-) If anyone is nearby, please film it! ;-)
Our internet seems to, by the way, be permanently off limits for Sol and me from now on. This sucks, but we'll see. Maybe it will work sooner or later... Keep your fingers crossed!
Ha' Luego for now,
/k
Sunday 18 March 2007
There are no excuses, only beer!
Hola!
Sol’s and my internet connection is yet again messing with us. But that’s not the only reason I’ve been hiding since last time. Little Ainita came for a visit from the south to spend Paddy’s Day here with us. It’s been a crazy weekend, and catching up was fun.
But first of all, this week has in itself been a bit weird to say the very least. Tuesday night Sol smelled a funny smell in our bathroom, and as we didn’t know what it was we were scared it might have been a gas leak. And gas leaks lead to explosion according to the Spanish news so we stayed awake laughing at our little situation and fell asleep around 4.30 in the same room with a window completely open. At that point we had decided it wasn’t a dangerous smell and the next morning the smell disappeared. Our washing machine is leaking as well, so life's wonderful here in the middle of Spain. ;-)
About my little soap opera in my Spanish class: both the Italian guy nr 1 and the German girl have been to class, but seem to have completely left each other. Instead the German girl seems to have started a story of her own with the Greek guy in the class. The Italian guy nr 1 is trying to ally himself with another Italian guy (one of the German girls followers of course), but I doubt it will work. His next step was to try and make the German girl jealous by hanging out with the Greek girl. Am not sure if this works either. And to be completely honest, the German girl fits much better with the Greek guy. My love story is disappearing or maybe rather taking new shapes.
Sol and I have some suitors in our European Integration course. They are three, Spanish and probably younger than us. When we arrive to class they are always waiting outside the class room chatting along, but as soon as we pass them they shut up. Either they think we’re really cute, or they think we are just plain weird. Sol and I are trying to come up with the best idea to make them embarrassed. Me scaring them with a ‘what you looking at, huh’ has been one idea, another would be to flirtatiously say ‘hey boys, how you doin’?’ – Joey style. Any suggestions?
Aino arrived late Thursday evening and we spent most of the night chatting about this and that – I mean, sleep, who needs it really? After my literature class on Friday we went out shopping and sightseeing and imagine our surprise when we in a small shop suddenly hear ‘Jag känner en booooooot…’! Boten Anna in Swedish on Spanish radio, played exactly the weekend when Aino visits me. It’s all too good to be true!
But that wasn’t the only Swedish music we heard in public during our time together.
Paddy’s Day evening was spent in Dublin Bay with friends, Irish and others, wearing green Guinness hats (you got one with every two pints of Guinness), drinking Guinness (of course, it’s Paddy’s Day!) and suddenly out of nowhere the DJ puts on Timbuktu ‘Karmakontot’! This can’t be for real, Aino and I said, but oh it was! We even made the DJ play the song again… Not very Irish I know, but there was no Irish music at all, only the average Spanish bar music, and then Timbuk is a great surprise!
Hope everyone had a great Paddy's day, 'cause I sure had, as always on this green holiday!
Paddy’s Day motto 2007: There are no excuses, only beer!
/K
p.s. Stay away from el hombre de kebab! ;-)
Sol’s and my internet connection is yet again messing with us. But that’s not the only reason I’ve been hiding since last time. Little Ainita came for a visit from the south to spend Paddy’s Day here with us. It’s been a crazy weekend, and catching up was fun.
But first of all, this week has in itself been a bit weird to say the very least. Tuesday night Sol smelled a funny smell in our bathroom, and as we didn’t know what it was we were scared it might have been a gas leak. And gas leaks lead to explosion according to the Spanish news so we stayed awake laughing at our little situation and fell asleep around 4.30 in the same room with a window completely open. At that point we had decided it wasn’t a dangerous smell and the next morning the smell disappeared. Our washing machine is leaking as well, so life's wonderful here in the middle of Spain. ;-)
About my little soap opera in my Spanish class: both the Italian guy nr 1 and the German girl have been to class, but seem to have completely left each other. Instead the German girl seems to have started a story of her own with the Greek guy in the class. The Italian guy nr 1 is trying to ally himself with another Italian guy (one of the German girls followers of course), but I doubt it will work. His next step was to try and make the German girl jealous by hanging out with the Greek girl. Am not sure if this works either. And to be completely honest, the German girl fits much better with the Greek guy. My love story is disappearing or maybe rather taking new shapes.
Sol and I have some suitors in our European Integration course. They are three, Spanish and probably younger than us. When we arrive to class they are always waiting outside the class room chatting along, but as soon as we pass them they shut up. Either they think we’re really cute, or they think we are just plain weird. Sol and I are trying to come up with the best idea to make them embarrassed. Me scaring them with a ‘what you looking at, huh’ has been one idea, another would be to flirtatiously say ‘hey boys, how you doin’?’ – Joey style. Any suggestions?
Aino arrived late Thursday evening and we spent most of the night chatting about this and that – I mean, sleep, who needs it really? After my literature class on Friday we went out shopping and sightseeing and imagine our surprise when we in a small shop suddenly hear ‘Jag känner en booooooot…’! Boten Anna in Swedish on Spanish radio, played exactly the weekend when Aino visits me. It’s all too good to be true!
But that wasn’t the only Swedish music we heard in public during our time together.
Paddy’s Day evening was spent in Dublin Bay with friends, Irish and others, wearing green Guinness hats (you got one with every two pints of Guinness), drinking Guinness (of course, it’s Paddy’s Day!) and suddenly out of nowhere the DJ puts on Timbuktu ‘Karmakontot’! This can’t be for real, Aino and I said, but oh it was! We even made the DJ play the song again… Not very Irish I know, but there was no Irish music at all, only the average Spanish bar music, and then Timbuk is a great surprise!
Hope everyone had a great Paddy's day, 'cause I sure had, as always on this green holiday!
Paddy’s Day motto 2007: There are no excuses, only beer!
/K
p.s. Stay away from el hombre de kebab! ;-)
Tuesday 13 March 2007
A Swedish captain
Hola!
Just wanted to comment that Henrik Larsson, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Kim Källström all were part of the European team which played against Manchester United tonight. Anyone who knows me knows of course that I missed one person in the team... But it was cool that Henrik L was the captain of the Europeans almost beating Man U. He really does have a high standing outside Sweden and of course, not even I can talk bad about him after his last adventure abroad.
It was hilarious to watch the game (as any game) on Spanish television - it's possible to learn a lot of important new words (football terms) - the commentators' way of pronouncing Larsson and Ibrahimovic made me laugh... How can I ever go back to watching games being commented by Kåmark or Glenn Hysén? It is just not the same!
/k
Just wanted to comment that Henrik Larsson, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Kim Källström all were part of the European team which played against Manchester United tonight. Anyone who knows me knows of course that I missed one person in the team... But it was cool that Henrik L was the captain of the Europeans almost beating Man U. He really does have a high standing outside Sweden and of course, not even I can talk bad about him after his last adventure abroad.
It was hilarious to watch the game (as any game) on Spanish television - it's possible to learn a lot of important new words (football terms) - the commentators' way of pronouncing Larsson and Ibrahimovic made me laugh... How can I ever go back to watching games being commented by Kåmark or Glenn Hysén? It is just not the same!
/k
Monday 12 March 2007
Waking up is hard to do...
Hola!
Oh my God! Waking up sure is hard to do when one has changed one’s rhythm. I tend to fall asleep way too late and then wake up before noon? Come on! But don’t think I want more classes in the evenings. I just want less classes, period. I know, I am complaining about this a lot, but it really bugs me. I am used to classes 2-3 times a week, and then only for like 2 hours at a time. Now I have 16 hours of classes spread out during the whole week! Completely loco!
Anyway. To make everyone jealous back home in Sweden I can say that the sun has permanently arrived it seems and it’s hot, hot, hot! (Well, maybe I am exaggerating some, but yesterday Sol and I were out walking and finishing off with a coffee outside on Plaza Mayor, just relaxing, sitting in the sun, without jackets… ;-) So the weather is a big plus.
We also saw Last king of Scotland yesterday and my God, someone should have warned us about them really disgusting scenes near the end of it. (Maybe that was why I had problems falling a sleep??)
Today there will be no continuation of the soap opera in my Spanish class, ‘cause none of the main characters chose to make an appearance. (Although I saw the Italian guy nr 1 later in the evening, so he was not sick just too lazy to come! Ha! – whatever, who cares…) And I was anyway so tired, so it was probably good that I had to put all my energy on actually learning stuff.
After the Spanish class I had my Spanish coffee with not only Sabine, but also with Jolita and Fiona. We discussed last week’s Erasmus party on Thursday and all agreed that although it would be great if we all spoke Spanish to each other, it would at the same time be difficult as neither of us would be able to have a conversation stretching further than small talk. This is a huge dilemma! I mean if we would speak more Spanish to each other we would probably get better at some point (possibly soon) but at the same time we all of course want to have proper conversations right now as well. In the end it was decided that Jolita would bring her friends who only speak Spanish more often, then we will be forced to speak.
Today we finally received the books for our literature class. That means we will now also have to read them. No more holiday and time wasting in front of the computer in other words…
Oh well.
In the cinema course we got to see the shower scene in Psycho. Fiona and I were very excited afterwards and talked about how much fun it was watching old movies. I mean, they speak in a funny way (“We all go a little mad sometimes”, “Oh mother, blood, mother, oh no” and so on) and when the knife was supposed to cut the lady in the shower it didn’t even touch her skin!
On the way home Sol and I decided to eat out as we were really, really hungry, so we went to this Mexican place we’ve been wanting to try out. We ordered a huge plate of nachos with guacamole (so delicious!) and some tacos with something we didn’t understand. It turned out that the part we didn’t understand was fat, pure fat, in a sauce. Needless to say we didn’t finish that, but the nachos were truly wonderful!
Otherwise I’ve now got my headset, so I’m just sitting here looking cool, waiting for someone to call me! ;-) Just joking… But it will be one way of contacting me from now on. (Even if my internet still is messing around at times…)
So, that’s all for now. Over and out.
/k
Oh my God! Waking up sure is hard to do when one has changed one’s rhythm. I tend to fall asleep way too late and then wake up before noon? Come on! But don’t think I want more classes in the evenings. I just want less classes, period. I know, I am complaining about this a lot, but it really bugs me. I am used to classes 2-3 times a week, and then only for like 2 hours at a time. Now I have 16 hours of classes spread out during the whole week! Completely loco!
Anyway. To make everyone jealous back home in Sweden I can say that the sun has permanently arrived it seems and it’s hot, hot, hot! (Well, maybe I am exaggerating some, but yesterday Sol and I were out walking and finishing off with a coffee outside on Plaza Mayor, just relaxing, sitting in the sun, without jackets… ;-) So the weather is a big plus.
We also saw Last king of Scotland yesterday and my God, someone should have warned us about them really disgusting scenes near the end of it. (Maybe that was why I had problems falling a sleep??)
Today there will be no continuation of the soap opera in my Spanish class, ‘cause none of the main characters chose to make an appearance. (Although I saw the Italian guy nr 1 later in the evening, so he was not sick just too lazy to come! Ha! – whatever, who cares…) And I was anyway so tired, so it was probably good that I had to put all my energy on actually learning stuff.
After the Spanish class I had my Spanish coffee with not only Sabine, but also with Jolita and Fiona. We discussed last week’s Erasmus party on Thursday and all agreed that although it would be great if we all spoke Spanish to each other, it would at the same time be difficult as neither of us would be able to have a conversation stretching further than small talk. This is a huge dilemma! I mean if we would speak more Spanish to each other we would probably get better at some point (possibly soon) but at the same time we all of course want to have proper conversations right now as well. In the end it was decided that Jolita would bring her friends who only speak Spanish more often, then we will be forced to speak.
Today we finally received the books for our literature class. That means we will now also have to read them. No more holiday and time wasting in front of the computer in other words…
Oh well.
In the cinema course we got to see the shower scene in Psycho. Fiona and I were very excited afterwards and talked about how much fun it was watching old movies. I mean, they speak in a funny way (“We all go a little mad sometimes”, “Oh mother, blood, mother, oh no” and so on) and when the knife was supposed to cut the lady in the shower it didn’t even touch her skin!
On the way home Sol and I decided to eat out as we were really, really hungry, so we went to this Mexican place we’ve been wanting to try out. We ordered a huge plate of nachos with guacamole (so delicious!) and some tacos with something we didn’t understand. It turned out that the part we didn’t understand was fat, pure fat, in a sauce. Needless to say we didn’t finish that, but the nachos were truly wonderful!
Otherwise I’ve now got my headset, so I’m just sitting here looking cool, waiting for someone to call me! ;-) Just joking… But it will be one way of contacting me from now on. (Even if my internet still is messing around at times…)
So, that’s all for now. Over and out.
/k
Sunday 11 March 2007
the weekend is over soon...
Hola!
Once again the weekend is coming to its end. It’s been a rather relaxing weekend. We were supposed to go out again yesterday, but were all too tired. I just went over to Sabine’s to watch the el clasico game. That was fun. After Messi’s second goal I said ‘he will score a hat trick tonight’, and yes, he did. I was very proud of him. Too bad it wasn’t good enough. I mean, now they’re out of Champions League, they should at least get to win the Primera Division, am I right? Sanda asked me which team I thought should win the Champions now that both Arsenal and Barcelona are out, and I am clueless. I just know which teams I don’t want to win. Some have predicted Valencia, others Milan or Man U. I am not sure if I want either of those teams to become the champions.
Anyway… So on Thursday evening we went to this Erasmus-party with dinner first in a bar – only traditional Spanish food and drinks, all were really delicious except for the calamari. We were about 15 people eating dinner together and then moved on to the night club and danced like there was no tomorrow. Most of the usual gang was there, with a few exceptions, and a few new faces. We even at one point went to the Captain-nightclub opposite our apartment, but it was shit, so never again. It was a cool evening though and the clock was already 4 a.m. when Sol and I walked Sabine home.
Friday we just relaxed, made tacos and watched Blood Diamond with among others Leo DiCaprio speaking with a peculiar accent. Sol and I watched the Departed earlier this week and have had a vote and decided that Leo is a good actor. Both movies were brilliant, although they both contain a lot of unnecessary killing.
Yesterday came the result: the Ark will be representing Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest! Now on a scale from 1 to 10, how great isn’t that!? Sweden represented by the Ark! ;-)
/k
P.S. Someone pointed out that Mika possibly is a one man band, in which case it was wrong of me to write ‘they’re brilliant’. I think I just assumed that the band playing with him (Mika) in the video to the song ‘Grace Kelly’ was the band which together with the singer were called Mika. Oh well. Then HE’S good. ;-)
Once again the weekend is coming to its end. It’s been a rather relaxing weekend. We were supposed to go out again yesterday, but were all too tired. I just went over to Sabine’s to watch the el clasico game. That was fun. After Messi’s second goal I said ‘he will score a hat trick tonight’, and yes, he did. I was very proud of him. Too bad it wasn’t good enough. I mean, now they’re out of Champions League, they should at least get to win the Primera Division, am I right? Sanda asked me which team I thought should win the Champions now that both Arsenal and Barcelona are out, and I am clueless. I just know which teams I don’t want to win. Some have predicted Valencia, others Milan or Man U. I am not sure if I want either of those teams to become the champions.
Anyway… So on Thursday evening we went to this Erasmus-party with dinner first in a bar – only traditional Spanish food and drinks, all were really delicious except for the calamari. We were about 15 people eating dinner together and then moved on to the night club and danced like there was no tomorrow. Most of the usual gang was there, with a few exceptions, and a few new faces. We even at one point went to the Captain-nightclub opposite our apartment, but it was shit, so never again. It was a cool evening though and the clock was already 4 a.m. when Sol and I walked Sabine home.
Friday we just relaxed, made tacos and watched Blood Diamond with among others Leo DiCaprio speaking with a peculiar accent. Sol and I watched the Departed earlier this week and have had a vote and decided that Leo is a good actor. Both movies were brilliant, although they both contain a lot of unnecessary killing.
Yesterday came the result: the Ark will be representing Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest! Now on a scale from 1 to 10, how great isn’t that!? Sweden represented by the Ark! ;-)
/k
P.S. Someone pointed out that Mika possibly is a one man band, in which case it was wrong of me to write ‘they’re brilliant’. I think I just assumed that the band playing with him (Mika) in the video to the song ‘Grace Kelly’ was the band which together with the singer were called Mika. Oh well. Then HE’S good. ;-)
Wednesday 7 March 2007
Is it okay if your English teacher can't spell in English?
Hola!
So I think that the Italian guy nr 1 is suspecting something (either that or he thinks I’m checking him out, which I guess I am in a way, but anyway, that’s not the point…). My secret stories must stay secret! (That’s why I’m posting them on the internet! ;-) But anyway, the latest juice is this: Italian guy nr 1 arrived to class today in the company of a Greek girl. The German girl came later and when she arrived she was embraced by another Italian guy and went to sit next to him as Italian guy nr 1 already was sitting next to another girl…
Anyway, moving on…
I’ve also had the English for Scientific and Technical purposes, and our teacher there emphasised how important it was to check one’s spelling before handing in an essay or project. Look who’s talking! On the papers we get from her there are almost more spelling mistakes than correct spelling! Today she had written copper (as in the metal) sometimes correctly and sometimes as ‘cooper’. When she said it, she pronounced it ‘Cooper’. Kind of funny, that’s all.
As for the European integration course I still understand very little and the devil, oh sorry that was a mistake, the teacher talks and talks and still says her ‘correcto’ after every single sentence… Oh well.
Yesterday my dear Barcelona was kicked out of Champions league even though Sol’s favourite compatriot Gudjohnsen scored. Tonight it is time for Arsenal to stay in the game so my dream comes true. (If Arsenal and Roma plays the finals, Emma, we’re gonna have to go as in my dream! ;-)
Tomorrow there is going to be an Erasmus party including dinner and free drinks. Oh and I downloaded skype if anyone is interested. (Just gotta go and buy that headset…) Let me know if you wanna talk sometime.
Otherwise I’d like to make a general recommendation, listen to a band called Mika. They’re brilliant!
Ha’ luego for now!
/k
p.s. Annette, det är ändå fotboll som räknas mest! ;-)
So I think that the Italian guy nr 1 is suspecting something (either that or he thinks I’m checking him out, which I guess I am in a way, but anyway, that’s not the point…). My secret stories must stay secret! (That’s why I’m posting them on the internet! ;-) But anyway, the latest juice is this: Italian guy nr 1 arrived to class today in the company of a Greek girl. The German girl came later and when she arrived she was embraced by another Italian guy and went to sit next to him as Italian guy nr 1 already was sitting next to another girl…
Anyway, moving on…
I’ve also had the English for Scientific and Technical purposes, and our teacher there emphasised how important it was to check one’s spelling before handing in an essay or project. Look who’s talking! On the papers we get from her there are almost more spelling mistakes than correct spelling! Today she had written copper (as in the metal) sometimes correctly and sometimes as ‘cooper’. When she said it, she pronounced it ‘Cooper’. Kind of funny, that’s all.
As for the European integration course I still understand very little and the devil, oh sorry that was a mistake, the teacher talks and talks and still says her ‘correcto’ after every single sentence… Oh well.
Yesterday my dear Barcelona was kicked out of Champions league even though Sol’s favourite compatriot Gudjohnsen scored. Tonight it is time for Arsenal to stay in the game so my dream comes true. (If Arsenal and Roma plays the finals, Emma, we’re gonna have to go as in my dream! ;-)
Tomorrow there is going to be an Erasmus party including dinner and free drinks. Oh and I downloaded skype if anyone is interested. (Just gotta go and buy that headset…) Let me know if you wanna talk sometime.
Otherwise I’d like to make a general recommendation, listen to a band called Mika. They’re brilliant!
Ha’ luego for now!
/k
p.s. Annette, det är ändå fotboll som räknas mest! ;-)
Monday 5 March 2007
Finally I knew something already! :-D
Hola!
So, today in my Spanish class I was almost caught when I was spying on my favourite soap opera. Italian guy nr 1 saw me as I was trying to figure out where he was looking (at the German girl of course) and was he was thinking. The German girl was sitting next to yet another Italian guy (I think my now she has sat next to every single Italian guy in our class except maybe one...). They were chatting and sharing a book, while Italian guy nr 1 sat on the same row but several seats in between. I caught him as he was glancing in her direction and he then caught me glancing at him. I wonder if he knows he has become the star of my online soap opera? Probably not.
Anyhow, the Spanish class today actualy made me very happy. We dealt with future tenses and I already knew it all from my classes back home with Elmer. It was such a relief to finally be able to finish an exercise and quick at that. I think I probably finished before everyone else! ;-) Now if my teacher would only bring up my dear Torro as well then I will be fully satisfied. It was nice though to feel like I know something, but after a weekend of speaking a lot of Spanish it should be expected, no?
Afterwards Sabine and I continued with our new idea of 'Spanish coffee' (basically have a coffee after our Spanish lesson in the café at our street) and had invited Sol to join us. We spoke about James Bond (Sabine had just seen Casino Royal), Spanish in general and the young people in Copenhagen who are currently destroying the city.
Then it was home for a quick sandwich before having to go to more classes (when is the me-time?); the cinema course and the European integration course. The cinema course was all right, we watched parts of Citizen Kane and listened to our teacher enthusiastically speak with her high-pitch voice about how fantastic it was (in Spanish of course). The European integration course sucked as normally. Sol says she is afraid of the teacher and I just kept on looking at her over made-up eyes.
On the way home we went grocery shopping and Sol paid. She owed me some money from yesterday so I said 'we're evil now'. Another quote for the collection I guess...
A last word for today will have to be one of Barney: 'It's gonna be - wait for it - I hope you're not allergic, 'cause yes it's - dairy! Legendary!' Otherwise, remember to suit up!
/k
So, today in my Spanish class I was almost caught when I was spying on my favourite soap opera. Italian guy nr 1 saw me as I was trying to figure out where he was looking (at the German girl of course) and was he was thinking. The German girl was sitting next to yet another Italian guy (I think my now she has sat next to every single Italian guy in our class except maybe one...). They were chatting and sharing a book, while Italian guy nr 1 sat on the same row but several seats in between. I caught him as he was glancing in her direction and he then caught me glancing at him. I wonder if he knows he has become the star of my online soap opera? Probably not.
Anyhow, the Spanish class today actualy made me very happy. We dealt with future tenses and I already knew it all from my classes back home with Elmer. It was such a relief to finally be able to finish an exercise and quick at that. I think I probably finished before everyone else! ;-) Now if my teacher would only bring up my dear Torro as well then I will be fully satisfied. It was nice though to feel like I know something, but after a weekend of speaking a lot of Spanish it should be expected, no?
Afterwards Sabine and I continued with our new idea of 'Spanish coffee' (basically have a coffee after our Spanish lesson in the café at our street) and had invited Sol to join us. We spoke about James Bond (Sabine had just seen Casino Royal), Spanish in general and the young people in Copenhagen who are currently destroying the city.
Then it was home for a quick sandwich before having to go to more classes (when is the me-time?); the cinema course and the European integration course. The cinema course was all right, we watched parts of Citizen Kane and listened to our teacher enthusiastically speak with her high-pitch voice about how fantastic it was (in Spanish of course). The European integration course sucked as normally. Sol says she is afraid of the teacher and I just kept on looking at her over made-up eyes.
On the way home we went grocery shopping and Sol paid. She owed me some money from yesterday so I said 'we're evil now'. Another quote for the collection I guess...
A last word for today will have to be one of Barney: 'It's gonna be - wait for it - I hope you're not allergic, 'cause yes it's - dairy! Legendary!' Otherwise, remember to suit up!
/k
Friday 2 March 2007
HAPPY BIRTHDAY (one day later)
Hola!
Yes, Perzza, you’re right. I haven’t been blogging in a few days, but that has been because I have been busy going to school, to a football game and so on. But seeing as it really was your birthday yesterday (together with my bro) and because I couldn’t call you (I hate the Spanish mobile system!) although it truly was a big day, here comes an official HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I am sorry I couldn’t be there, but I do hope you had a great day!
Now, as I mentioned above, I went to my first football game of the year and in Spain. It was Real Valldolid vs Deportivo de la Coruña in the Spanish cup and oh my! This was truly a football game! 2 red cards, the crowd chanting ‘Coloccini, hijo de puta’, the referee almost getting a ‘tjottablängare’ (a beating) and people throwing empty bottles towards the away team bench. I, Sol and her boyfriend, 4 Irish guys and 1 German (or Austrian, don’t know where he was from, he spoke Spanish…) sat and tried to blend in with the purplewhite supporters. They didn’t sing (but the Deportivo-fans did, they sang very familiar melodies which I didn’t dare to sing a long to…), they screamed. And it wasn’t really nice things either. They used words which translated would never exist in the MFF context.
Coloccini (whom the Valldolid-supporters didn’t like too much) got a red card in the first half and in the second half someone saw him standing in the players’ entrance and some Spanish kids, as well as the guys in our company went over and continued the chanting from the first half. The German guy yelled ‘Tarantini, un foto!’ and Tarantini was mildly put not too excited.
In the end the score was 1-1 (at least we got to see a goal and see the supporters happy), but that didn’t matter since Deportivo had killed Pucela (Valladolid) in the previous game with 4-1. It was great to go to the stadium still and I immediately felt at home as I often do at football stadiums. I couldn’t full-heatedly support Valladolid though. There isn’t room for them in my football heart, but of course I wanted them to win instead of Deportivo! Oh well…
Moving on… My on-going episode guide about the soap-opera in my Spanish class. On Wednesday the German girl spoke to yet another Italian guy (what is it with her and all the Italians?) but then Italian guy nr 1 went and fetched a chair so he could sit next to her. Watching his turf maybe? Yesterday the German girl arrived late and couldn’t get a seat where she normally sits, Italian guy nr 1 laughed at her. Then the Italian guy she spoke to on Wednesday sat next to her instead. It was obvious she wanted to sit next to Italian guy nr 1, so maybe things are changing? Maybe he has directed his attention elsewhere while she has realised that she wants what she can’t have…
Yesterday evening, to Sabine’s great delight, we went to our first Erasmus party. We started off at the Dublin Bay, Sabine, Fiona, Jolita and I, and after a few hours, a few beers and a few more people arriving (an Argentinean guy and three people from Romania) we continued to a few nightclubs. As the evening/night continued we all spoke great Spanish! Most of us (except Sabine and the Argentinean guy) are in the same group in Spanish – initial, but still oh my how we spoke! I had a really long conversation with the Argentinean guy, who was really nice by the way, and we really understood each other (most of the time). I have started to yet again consider my original plan of taking a shot in the morning before class so I will feel more comfortable speaking Spanish. We’ll see if I’ll stick to it…
All in all it’s been a good week so far, but I am really happy it’s weekend and no more running to the university every day. (It’s crazy, they expect us to be there every single day! Loco!) I might have a go at an exercise that we got in our English literature class – to write a campus novel (not because I know exactly what it is, but I’m sure that will work out anyway, somehow. At least it would be in English…) or just continue reading about great football players in ‘Offside’. We’ll see what happens.
‘Til next time,
ha luego!
/k
Yes, Perzza, you’re right. I haven’t been blogging in a few days, but that has been because I have been busy going to school, to a football game and so on. But seeing as it really was your birthday yesterday (together with my bro) and because I couldn’t call you (I hate the Spanish mobile system!) although it truly was a big day, here comes an official HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I am sorry I couldn’t be there, but I do hope you had a great day!
Now, as I mentioned above, I went to my first football game of the year and in Spain. It was Real Valldolid vs Deportivo de la Coruña in the Spanish cup and oh my! This was truly a football game! 2 red cards, the crowd chanting ‘Coloccini, hijo de puta’, the referee almost getting a ‘tjottablängare’ (a beating) and people throwing empty bottles towards the away team bench. I, Sol and her boyfriend, 4 Irish guys and 1 German (or Austrian, don’t know where he was from, he spoke Spanish…) sat and tried to blend in with the purplewhite supporters. They didn’t sing (but the Deportivo-fans did, they sang very familiar melodies which I didn’t dare to sing a long to…), they screamed. And it wasn’t really nice things either. They used words which translated would never exist in the MFF context.
Coloccini (whom the Valldolid-supporters didn’t like too much) got a red card in the first half and in the second half someone saw him standing in the players’ entrance and some Spanish kids, as well as the guys in our company went over and continued the chanting from the first half. The German guy yelled ‘Tarantini, un foto!’ and Tarantini was mildly put not too excited.
In the end the score was 1-1 (at least we got to see a goal and see the supporters happy), but that didn’t matter since Deportivo had killed Pucela (Valladolid) in the previous game with 4-1. It was great to go to the stadium still and I immediately felt at home as I often do at football stadiums. I couldn’t full-heatedly support Valladolid though. There isn’t room for them in my football heart, but of course I wanted them to win instead of Deportivo! Oh well…
Moving on… My on-going episode guide about the soap-opera in my Spanish class. On Wednesday the German girl spoke to yet another Italian guy (what is it with her and all the Italians?) but then Italian guy nr 1 went and fetched a chair so he could sit next to her. Watching his turf maybe? Yesterday the German girl arrived late and couldn’t get a seat where she normally sits, Italian guy nr 1 laughed at her. Then the Italian guy she spoke to on Wednesday sat next to her instead. It was obvious she wanted to sit next to Italian guy nr 1, so maybe things are changing? Maybe he has directed his attention elsewhere while she has realised that she wants what she can’t have…
Yesterday evening, to Sabine’s great delight, we went to our first Erasmus party. We started off at the Dublin Bay, Sabine, Fiona, Jolita and I, and after a few hours, a few beers and a few more people arriving (an Argentinean guy and three people from Romania) we continued to a few nightclubs. As the evening/night continued we all spoke great Spanish! Most of us (except Sabine and the Argentinean guy) are in the same group in Spanish – initial, but still oh my how we spoke! I had a really long conversation with the Argentinean guy, who was really nice by the way, and we really understood each other (most of the time). I have started to yet again consider my original plan of taking a shot in the morning before class so I will feel more comfortable speaking Spanish. We’ll see if I’ll stick to it…
All in all it’s been a good week so far, but I am really happy it’s weekend and no more running to the university every day. (It’s crazy, they expect us to be there every single day! Loco!) I might have a go at an exercise that we got in our English literature class – to write a campus novel (not because I know exactly what it is, but I’m sure that will work out anyway, somehow. At least it would be in English…) or just continue reading about great football players in ‘Offside’. We’ll see what happens.
‘Til next time,
ha luego!
/k
Tuesday 27 February 2007
My professor is a cartoon!
Hola!
I figured Sundays were boring and all that, they are at least relaxing in comparison to Mondays. English for scientific and technical purposes, Spanish and then again off to school in the evening to attend my first (Sol's fourth?) lesson in European integration history. My god! That's all I'm going to say. I was sitting there looking completely like a questionmark (I'm sure of it) trying to get at least the general idea of what the professor was saying. I think I wrote down one word every 5 minutes. This course will not be a vacation at all and the professor in charge of it speaks Spanish really, really fast and looks like a cartoon while lecturing. I think I won't be getting a lot of new input to my knowledge well from her.
In contrast to it though, we have the English class which deals with pre-writing activities at the moment. We had another class of it today and all I want to say is 'Hey lady, listen! I have been writing academic papers for 2,5 years now and all of this that you're talking about, well, it's all unnecessary.' But then I remember that we are in Spain, and in Spain the teacher (or professor) is always right. (Even when it is obvious to anyone that they aren't...) They almost even get a bit angry if you question them! Completely loco!
As for the Spanish class, there wasn't much drama going on as to the little soap opera I was talking about in previous blog entries. Maybe I was to fast in my judgement of the situation? Or maybe something has happened when I wasn't there. Who knows! I spent my class talking to a really nice Irish girl asking questions like 'Con quién hablas espanol?' (with whom do you talk Spanish?) and 'Qué desayunas normalmente?' (what do you normally eat for breakfast?) etc etc. We have really nice conversations in class as you might understand. ;-)
But the Italian guy who played one of the leading roles in my Spanish class soap opera have started to talk to me in like hallways and other places around campus. Today he stopped me and asked what I was looking for as I looked really confused. I thought that was kind of nice of him. Even if I was only confused 'cause I was on the wrong floor, and that he couldn't help me with it.
Otherwise Sol and I (especially Sol) take every opportunity to sit outside and enjoy the nice warm weather. Today it wasn't necessary to wear a jacket even! I long for the following weeks when they say it will become even warmer.
Beccis I envy you! I also want to go to the premiere of Allsvenskan! If I was in Sweden I would have come up to go with you. But most probably we would have had to sit on different sides of the stadium... ;-)
Well, well. Tonight our next visitor arrives - Sol's boyfriend. He is bringing loads of movies and tv-shows for us - in English! ;-) I know, that will not increase our knowledge of the Spanish language. But we are increasing it as we speak anyway just by being here so I think we deserve some relaxing time with some good movies. Am I right?
/k
I figured Sundays were boring and all that, they are at least relaxing in comparison to Mondays. English for scientific and technical purposes, Spanish and then again off to school in the evening to attend my first (Sol's fourth?) lesson in European integration history. My god! That's all I'm going to say. I was sitting there looking completely like a questionmark (I'm sure of it) trying to get at least the general idea of what the professor was saying. I think I wrote down one word every 5 minutes. This course will not be a vacation at all and the professor in charge of it speaks Spanish really, really fast and looks like a cartoon while lecturing. I think I won't be getting a lot of new input to my knowledge well from her.
In contrast to it though, we have the English class which deals with pre-writing activities at the moment. We had another class of it today and all I want to say is 'Hey lady, listen! I have been writing academic papers for 2,5 years now and all of this that you're talking about, well, it's all unnecessary.' But then I remember that we are in Spain, and in Spain the teacher (or professor) is always right. (Even when it is obvious to anyone that they aren't...) They almost even get a bit angry if you question them! Completely loco!
As for the Spanish class, there wasn't much drama going on as to the little soap opera I was talking about in previous blog entries. Maybe I was to fast in my judgement of the situation? Or maybe something has happened when I wasn't there. Who knows! I spent my class talking to a really nice Irish girl asking questions like 'Con quién hablas espanol?' (with whom do you talk Spanish?) and 'Qué desayunas normalmente?' (what do you normally eat for breakfast?) etc etc. We have really nice conversations in class as you might understand. ;-)
But the Italian guy who played one of the leading roles in my Spanish class soap opera have started to talk to me in like hallways and other places around campus. Today he stopped me and asked what I was looking for as I looked really confused. I thought that was kind of nice of him. Even if I was only confused 'cause I was on the wrong floor, and that he couldn't help me with it.
Otherwise Sol and I (especially Sol) take every opportunity to sit outside and enjoy the nice warm weather. Today it wasn't necessary to wear a jacket even! I long for the following weeks when they say it will become even warmer.
Beccis I envy you! I also want to go to the premiere of Allsvenskan! If I was in Sweden I would have come up to go with you. But most probably we would have had to sit on different sides of the stadium... ;-)
Well, well. Tonight our next visitor arrives - Sol's boyfriend. He is bringing loads of movies and tv-shows for us - in English! ;-) I know, that will not increase our knowledge of the Spanish language. But we are increasing it as we speak anyway just by being here so I think we deserve some relaxing time with some good movies. Am I right?
/k
Sunday 25 February 2007
I'm missed...
Hola!
I just had to write about something my mother told me over the phone a little while ago. She said that I had received a letter from Malmö FF where they ask where I am and that they miss me! I knew my team and I had a special relationship and that we miss each other equally. :-) Oh, MFF, I will be back soon. ;-)
/k
I just had to write about something my mother told me over the phone a little while ago. She said that I had received a letter from Malmö FF where they ask where I am and that they miss me! I knew my team and I had a special relationship and that we miss each other equally. :-) Oh, MFF, I will be back soon. ;-)
/k
sunday, boring sunday
Hola!
Today it is sunday, and sundays in this country (at least in Valladolid) are rather boring. Nothing is open (not even grocery stores), well maybe some bars and cafe's but that's it. At least the sun is shining, but it still feels like a day for doing nothing. I could have been doing my Spanish homework of course, but the book stores have finished their books and won't have any more until tuesday, wednesday. So what is a girl to do?
In a few minutes Real Valladolid starts playing a game which is supposedly shown on local television. Maybe I could check if we have that local TV channel. Earlier we watched some basket ball and a dubbed Scooby Doo movie. That is about as exciting as it gets here on Sundays. Of course, if you party like the Spanish you might need a day for resting before the new week starts...
Yesterday Sol and I went to see a Champion's League game. But it was the wrong sport, at least for me, the players were scoring with their hands rather than their feet. It was handboll, BM Valladolid vs Gummersbach (a German team). Sol was excited since several players from the Icelandic national team plays for G, and so we sat, amongst only Valladolid fans, cheering quietly for the Germans. I must say handboll is rather exciting. Then again seeing any sport live is more exciting than seeing it on TV, but it really made me curious about the game and watching more matches. In the end the two teams landed on an equal score of 36-36.
On wednesday we will hopefully go to the football stadium for the first time in order to watch the white and purple players of Valladolid meet Deportivo in the Spanish cup. I don't even know if it is possible to get tickets, so keep your fingers crossed.
Moving on to more football. Ronaldhino is being called Gordinho here in Spain (Gordo means fat in Spanish) and pictures of him are on every news channel. Sol and I talked about going to Barcelona and letting him know we don't think so. He is still a brilliant footballer.
Tomorrow starts another week of classes, and hopefully the spring is here to stay now. Enjoy the snow back home in Sweden! ;-)
/k
Today it is sunday, and sundays in this country (at least in Valladolid) are rather boring. Nothing is open (not even grocery stores), well maybe some bars and cafe's but that's it. At least the sun is shining, but it still feels like a day for doing nothing. I could have been doing my Spanish homework of course, but the book stores have finished their books and won't have any more until tuesday, wednesday. So what is a girl to do?
In a few minutes Real Valladolid starts playing a game which is supposedly shown on local television. Maybe I could check if we have that local TV channel. Earlier we watched some basket ball and a dubbed Scooby Doo movie. That is about as exciting as it gets here on Sundays. Of course, if you party like the Spanish you might need a day for resting before the new week starts...
Yesterday Sol and I went to see a Champion's League game. But it was the wrong sport, at least for me, the players were scoring with their hands rather than their feet. It was handboll, BM Valladolid vs Gummersbach (a German team). Sol was excited since several players from the Icelandic national team plays for G, and so we sat, amongst only Valladolid fans, cheering quietly for the Germans. I must say handboll is rather exciting. Then again seeing any sport live is more exciting than seeing it on TV, but it really made me curious about the game and watching more matches. In the end the two teams landed on an equal score of 36-36.
On wednesday we will hopefully go to the football stadium for the first time in order to watch the white and purple players of Valladolid meet Deportivo in the Spanish cup. I don't even know if it is possible to get tickets, so keep your fingers crossed.
Moving on to more football. Ronaldhino is being called Gordinho here in Spain (Gordo means fat in Spanish) and pictures of him are on every news channel. Sol and I talked about going to Barcelona and letting him know we don't think so. He is still a brilliant footballer.
Tomorrow starts another week of classes, and hopefully the spring is here to stay now. Enjoy the snow back home in Sweden! ;-)
/k
Friday 23 February 2007
Soap opera in my Spanish class
Hola!
So, mom and Jocke left yesterday. Therefore I thought that it was about time to update the blog a bit.
Last Monday I was supposed to hand in my course plan at the international relations office. Was it possible? Of course not. Apparently it is impossible to do that if you don’t have your professor’s signature on your learning agreement. And Sol’s and my professor is not in Spain so now we have to go and chase him or someone else to get the signature. Brilliant!
Instead I went to another course that we are taking, English for scientific and technical purposes and oh my that was crazy. The teacher is like a military and she acknowledges herself each time she has said anything. The actual course seem to consist of things that Sol and I already have studied so it shouldn’t be a problem.
I also had my first Spanish lesson and the teacher refuses to speak any other language than Spanish. One guy, who apparently didn’t know any Spanish at all, tried to ask a question in English and then the teacher just told him he had to ask in Spanish because she didn’t understand any other language. ‘Solo español’, she said. It freaked me out a little, but then, as the lesson continued, it was apparent that she was fully able to explain things in a way that I could at least understand.
My Spanish group consists of a majority of Italians, some Germans, a few Eastern Europeans (nationality unknown for me at this point, although there is one girl from Hungary and one from Lithuania) and me. I really am angry at the Italians at the moment, seeing as they already know so many more words than I. I asked one Italian guy why he was in the initial Spanish group if he was Italian, and he said it was because he didn’t know the verbs and stuff. Oh well, they’re all quite funny.
Also there is a soap opera going on in my Spanish classes. Let me explain, that Italian guy that I had talked to, he seems to have a crush on a German girl in the group. And he was rather disappointed being stuck working with me instead of with her. He took every opportunity given to him to talk to her anyway. Next class he found himself not even able to sit next to her and was rather upset about it (although he tried to hide it, no one can trick me though! ;-). And then at the end of the class another Italian guy talked to ‘his’ girl and the first guy rushed over to get an opportunity as well. Now I have decided to keep a close eye on future happenings. Something in the midst of being confused in general that brings me some joy…
Otherwise this week has meant further holidays for me. I decided it was more important to be with my family and show them around then going to classes. But we all went to celebrate Sabine’s birthday with good food and drinks, watched 2 champion’s league games (Real Madrid-Bayern München and Barcelona-Liverpool). It seems my dream about Arsenal-Roma in the final is becoming further and further from reality. Jocke believes in Valencia. I still believe that both Arsenal and Barcelona has a chance. Otherwise I don’t really know.
Harlem Café was one of the few places I had time to show to my guests, and they both enjoyed it and understood my liking of the place, although mom thought the beers were a bit too small. But that’s the way it is here in Spain, things are small, the coffee is small, the sandwiches in cafés are small, the people are small… etc…
We have now met and talked to some more Erasmus-students; one English girl, a few Irish people, a Lithuanian girl and some Germans. The Irish are rather appreciated as one might understand – Paddy’s day is coming soon and since I have adopted the Irish holiday as my own, I will need some to celebrate it with. Am thinking that the Dublin Bay can be a good place to do it at, even though the waiters working there never have heard of Sambuca. Crazy one, offering us free shots and not having the best one!! It’s a disgrace.
Now it’s anyway weekend again, and in an attempt of not being so disturbed by the noise in our street, we are planning to go out for a round or two. Spanish people don’t believe in having the weekend as a recreational oasis, they believe that the weekend (from Thursday night) is there only for drinking and screaming and other weird things! ;-) And I, who am a bit tired after the intense week with Spanish class starting and meeting new people and having my family over, would actually prefer to stay in tonight and relax with my newest issue of ‘Offside’ that Jocke brought for me. It has an article about the best Larsson ever existing, Bosse Larsson. Am looking forward to reading it, but there will be time for everything I am sure.
‘Til next time, hasta luego!
/k
So, mom and Jocke left yesterday. Therefore I thought that it was about time to update the blog a bit.
Last Monday I was supposed to hand in my course plan at the international relations office. Was it possible? Of course not. Apparently it is impossible to do that if you don’t have your professor’s signature on your learning agreement. And Sol’s and my professor is not in Spain so now we have to go and chase him or someone else to get the signature. Brilliant!
Instead I went to another course that we are taking, English for scientific and technical purposes and oh my that was crazy. The teacher is like a military and she acknowledges herself each time she has said anything. The actual course seem to consist of things that Sol and I already have studied so it shouldn’t be a problem.
I also had my first Spanish lesson and the teacher refuses to speak any other language than Spanish. One guy, who apparently didn’t know any Spanish at all, tried to ask a question in English and then the teacher just told him he had to ask in Spanish because she didn’t understand any other language. ‘Solo español’, she said. It freaked me out a little, but then, as the lesson continued, it was apparent that she was fully able to explain things in a way that I could at least understand.
My Spanish group consists of a majority of Italians, some Germans, a few Eastern Europeans (nationality unknown for me at this point, although there is one girl from Hungary and one from Lithuania) and me. I really am angry at the Italians at the moment, seeing as they already know so many more words than I. I asked one Italian guy why he was in the initial Spanish group if he was Italian, and he said it was because he didn’t know the verbs and stuff. Oh well, they’re all quite funny.
Also there is a soap opera going on in my Spanish classes. Let me explain, that Italian guy that I had talked to, he seems to have a crush on a German girl in the group. And he was rather disappointed being stuck working with me instead of with her. He took every opportunity given to him to talk to her anyway. Next class he found himself not even able to sit next to her and was rather upset about it (although he tried to hide it, no one can trick me though! ;-). And then at the end of the class another Italian guy talked to ‘his’ girl and the first guy rushed over to get an opportunity as well. Now I have decided to keep a close eye on future happenings. Something in the midst of being confused in general that brings me some joy…
Otherwise this week has meant further holidays for me. I decided it was more important to be with my family and show them around then going to classes. But we all went to celebrate Sabine’s birthday with good food and drinks, watched 2 champion’s league games (Real Madrid-Bayern München and Barcelona-Liverpool). It seems my dream about Arsenal-Roma in the final is becoming further and further from reality. Jocke believes in Valencia. I still believe that both Arsenal and Barcelona has a chance. Otherwise I don’t really know.
Harlem Café was one of the few places I had time to show to my guests, and they both enjoyed it and understood my liking of the place, although mom thought the beers were a bit too small. But that’s the way it is here in Spain, things are small, the coffee is small, the sandwiches in cafés are small, the people are small… etc…
We have now met and talked to some more Erasmus-students; one English girl, a few Irish people, a Lithuanian girl and some Germans. The Irish are rather appreciated as one might understand – Paddy’s day is coming soon and since I have adopted the Irish holiday as my own, I will need some to celebrate it with. Am thinking that the Dublin Bay can be a good place to do it at, even though the waiters working there never have heard of Sambuca. Crazy one, offering us free shots and not having the best one!! It’s a disgrace.
Now it’s anyway weekend again, and in an attempt of not being so disturbed by the noise in our street, we are planning to go out for a round or two. Spanish people don’t believe in having the weekend as a recreational oasis, they believe that the weekend (from Thursday night) is there only for drinking and screaming and other weird things! ;-) And I, who am a bit tired after the intense week with Spanish class starting and meeting new people and having my family over, would actually prefer to stay in tonight and relax with my newest issue of ‘Offside’ that Jocke brought for me. It has an article about the best Larsson ever existing, Bosse Larsson. Am looking forward to reading it, but there will be time for everything I am sure.
‘Til next time, hasta luego!
/k
Sunday 18 February 2007
Tomorrow vacation is over...
Hola!
Tomorrow is the first day of Spanish class and the day to hand in my study plan. We have so far decided that we will take the English Literature course that we visited last friday, another course in English about scientific and technical texts, a course in European Integration (in Spanish) and a course in cinema history (also in Spanish). The two courses given in Spanish will be hard, but seeing as Sol and I already have studied European integration that course should be okay. The other two will hopefully be less work (even though we are supposed to read loads and loads of books...)
My dear mother and brother are also coming for their visit tomorrow. They will stay for most of the week. It will be nice to see someone from home and show my new home town with pride. At some point I will probably add some pictures here of the city, but I haven't been too much of a paparazzi so far. (Don't know what has happened with me...)
Oh well, otherwise there aren't that many news. Sabine and I went out for a few beers on friday and yesterday I saw the Spanish Mision Eurovision on TV. The songs weren't great, but then again how often are the Eurovision songs brilliant? I did, however, hear a very good song called "Mastarna" (the Champions). It was about MFF's brilliant history and predicted great things in the nearest future... :-D
Anyhow, I will be back soon.
/k
Tomorrow is the first day of Spanish class and the day to hand in my study plan. We have so far decided that we will take the English Literature course that we visited last friday, another course in English about scientific and technical texts, a course in European Integration (in Spanish) and a course in cinema history (also in Spanish). The two courses given in Spanish will be hard, but seeing as Sol and I already have studied European integration that course should be okay. The other two will hopefully be less work (even though we are supposed to read loads and loads of books...)
My dear mother and brother are also coming for their visit tomorrow. They will stay for most of the week. It will be nice to see someone from home and show my new home town with pride. At some point I will probably add some pictures here of the city, but I haven't been too much of a paparazzi so far. (Don't know what has happened with me...)
Oh well, otherwise there aren't that many news. Sabine and I went out for a few beers on friday and yesterday I saw the Spanish Mision Eurovision on TV. The songs weren't great, but then again how often are the Eurovision songs brilliant? I did, however, hear a very good song called "Mastarna" (the Champions). It was about MFF's brilliant history and predicted great things in the nearest future... :-D
Anyhow, I will be back soon.
/k
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