Sunday, March 8, 2009
Time flies by
I can't believe that my semester in Spain is half way over! Between all the classes and travelling time really gets away from you. Since my last post I've been to Granada, Barcelona, Lisboa, and Malaga. I'll be in class all this week and then next week is our school spring break trip to Madrid. Sevilla and all it's eccentricities are starting to grow on me. I even have picked up a little of the accent I love to make fun of (no one here pronounces the "s" in words). I'll do my best to post more this half of the semester :)
Lisboa, Portugal
I know it's been a while since I posted on here. In Lisboa I had a pretty crazy experience so I'm posting what I wrote about for my English class.
Wipe Out
Having ridden every metro line in Lisbon, Portugal, my friends and I finally reached our destination; the Lisbon Oceanarium. The world famous aquarium stands in a modern area of the city dominated by glass and steel high rises. Alli, Carly, Colten and I proceeded to the entrance feeling accomplished to have navigated our way across a foreign city. Walking towards the front of the building we came across a wave maker, upon which Colten said in a matter of fact way, “I’m going to jump across this thing.” Naturally, the girls thought it was a stupid idea and said that they would laugh when he didn’t make it across. I decided that I would record the jump on my camera.
Aided by a good running start and long stride, Colten easily made it to the other side. With the typical egotism imbued in all of us with the “Y” chromosome I took it upon myself to jump across the wave maker and to do it better. Once again, the girls told us that were idiots and probably just going to kill ourselves. At least 6 feet across, I wanted to make sure that I would be able to jump the appropriate distance to cross the water. Thinking that I had made a wise choice I headed over to one of the wooden walkways the divide different sections of the wave maker.
My intent was to jump across the bridge to determine whether or not I could make the distance for the real macaw. Ready for my test run I told everyone, “Move out of the way, I’m about to jump!” I moved back about twenty feet to run and build up speed before making the jump. The series of events that played out next could have only happened to me. Right as I was about the jump, Alli yelled out, “Alex, be careful!” Not 2 seconds later I had slipped on a wet spot, slid halfway into the water and smashed my right knee on the other side. “Alex, you’re a dumbass!” Carly said as I lay on the ground with one leg in the water. Colten doubled over in laughter with Carly and Alli promptly took several pictures of me pretending to writhe in agony.
After having a good laugh I wanted to go sit on one of the many nearby benches before going into to oceanarium. I am quite accustomed to wiping out in public and thought that after a few minutes I would be ready to continue my afternoon in Lisbon. Using my friends as human crutches I finally made it to one of the benches hopping on the left leg the entire way. Murphy’s Law describes my life perfectly. I rolled up my jeans to survey the damage; my knee had swollen to about three times its normal size. All the poking and prodding that ensued caused a sharp pain to shoot up my leg leading me to black out and fall forwards with my head in my lap. When I regained my consciousness two minutes later I had no idea where I was and couldn’t see a thing. Carly lovingly slapped me around a few times to wake me up. As things started coming back into focus (although everything was in sepia tones) I remembered that I was in Lisbon.
By this point I figured that I probably wouldn’t be going to the aquarium. While we were trying to decide what to do a couple of policemen started walking towards us. The police didn’t speak English and I was the only person who spoke Spanish so I did my best to explain my situation and hope they understood me. When one of the officers asked me, “Você tem uma licença?” I started to get nervous thinking that I was going to get a ticket for being a public nuisance. Luckily for me they were getting my information to call the paramedics.
Running on Iberian time, the paramedics arrived about ten minutes after we thought they would, although luckily they spoke English fluently. Explaining how I had injured myself for a second time I was a little bit embarrassed that I perfectly fit the mold of the idiot American tourist. After overzealously applying gauze to a small scrape on my leg the medics looked at my knee briefly and said, “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” That was easier said than done since I was unable to walk or even put a minimal amount of pressure on my right leg. Before leaving the paramedics called a cab to take us back to the hotel. I felt bad for ruining everyone’s afternoon at the aquarium and because I only got to use half of the metro pass that I paid for. My hopping over to the taxi on one foot was quite a sight to behold; getting in also proved to be quite a chore. First I had sit down a slide across the seat before picking up my bum leg and dragging it into the taxi with me. Colten took the front seat while Alli and Carly crammed into the back with me holding my injured leg across their laps.
Since I had effectively killed the day, I said “I’ll pay for this cab ride.” However, my one stroke of luck for the day was that Dr. Inglis paid the driver when we arrived at the hotel. Once again my human crutches helped me out of the taxi and up to my room. Finally I was able to change into shorts to free up my knee (though it took a while) and prop my knee up and get ice on it to reduce the swelling. Looking back on the situation it makes for a good story, though I would rather have gone to the aquarium instead.
Wipe Out
Having ridden every metro line in Lisbon, Portugal, my friends and I finally reached our destination; the Lisbon Oceanarium. The world famous aquarium stands in a modern area of the city dominated by glass and steel high rises. Alli, Carly, Colten and I proceeded to the entrance feeling accomplished to have navigated our way across a foreign city. Walking towards the front of the building we came across a wave maker, upon which Colten said in a matter of fact way, “I’m going to jump across this thing.” Naturally, the girls thought it was a stupid idea and said that they would laugh when he didn’t make it across. I decided that I would record the jump on my camera.
Aided by a good running start and long stride, Colten easily made it to the other side. With the typical egotism imbued in all of us with the “Y” chromosome I took it upon myself to jump across the wave maker and to do it better. Once again, the girls told us that were idiots and probably just going to kill ourselves. At least 6 feet across, I wanted to make sure that I would be able to jump the appropriate distance to cross the water. Thinking that I had made a wise choice I headed over to one of the wooden walkways the divide different sections of the wave maker.
My intent was to jump across the bridge to determine whether or not I could make the distance for the real macaw. Ready for my test run I told everyone, “Move out of the way, I’m about to jump!” I moved back about twenty feet to run and build up speed before making the jump. The series of events that played out next could have only happened to me. Right as I was about the jump, Alli yelled out, “Alex, be careful!” Not 2 seconds later I had slipped on a wet spot, slid halfway into the water and smashed my right knee on the other side. “Alex, you’re a dumbass!” Carly said as I lay on the ground with one leg in the water. Colten doubled over in laughter with Carly and Alli promptly took several pictures of me pretending to writhe in agony.
After having a good laugh I wanted to go sit on one of the many nearby benches before going into to oceanarium. I am quite accustomed to wiping out in public and thought that after a few minutes I would be ready to continue my afternoon in Lisbon. Using my friends as human crutches I finally made it to one of the benches hopping on the left leg the entire way. Murphy’s Law describes my life perfectly. I rolled up my jeans to survey the damage; my knee had swollen to about three times its normal size. All the poking and prodding that ensued caused a sharp pain to shoot up my leg leading me to black out and fall forwards with my head in my lap. When I regained my consciousness two minutes later I had no idea where I was and couldn’t see a thing. Carly lovingly slapped me around a few times to wake me up. As things started coming back into focus (although everything was in sepia tones) I remembered that I was in Lisbon.
By this point I figured that I probably wouldn’t be going to the aquarium. While we were trying to decide what to do a couple of policemen started walking towards us. The police didn’t speak English and I was the only person who spoke Spanish so I did my best to explain my situation and hope they understood me. When one of the officers asked me, “Você tem uma licença?” I started to get nervous thinking that I was going to get a ticket for being a public nuisance. Luckily for me they were getting my information to call the paramedics.
Running on Iberian time, the paramedics arrived about ten minutes after we thought they would, although luckily they spoke English fluently. Explaining how I had injured myself for a second time I was a little bit embarrassed that I perfectly fit the mold of the idiot American tourist. After overzealously applying gauze to a small scrape on my leg the medics looked at my knee briefly and said, “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” That was easier said than done since I was unable to walk or even put a minimal amount of pressure on my right leg. Before leaving the paramedics called a cab to take us back to the hotel. I felt bad for ruining everyone’s afternoon at the aquarium and because I only got to use half of the metro pass that I paid for. My hopping over to the taxi on one foot was quite a sight to behold; getting in also proved to be quite a chore. First I had sit down a slide across the seat before picking up my bum leg and dragging it into the taxi with me. Colten took the front seat while Alli and Carly crammed into the back with me holding my injured leg across their laps.
Since I had effectively killed the day, I said “I’ll pay for this cab ride.” However, my one stroke of luck for the day was that Dr. Inglis paid the driver when we arrived at the hotel. Once again my human crutches helped me out of the taxi and up to my room. Finally I was able to change into shorts to free up my knee (though it took a while) and prop my knee up and get ice on it to reduce the swelling. Looking back on the situation it makes for a good story, though I would rather have gone to the aquarium instead.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Morocco!
Hola a todos,
This weekend I went on a trip with a bunch of people from Tech and some Europeans that we met along the way to Morocco. We left on friday afternoon and drove down the coast and took a 35 minute ferry across to Morocco. It was crazy to think that I can wake up in Europe in be in Africa before dinner! On Saturday we went to to Tetuan and took a tour of the old part of the city built before the north part of the country became a Spanish colony. The streets were tiny and lined with shops and vendors in the street (sometimes just an old woman selling vegetables on a mat). You could also buy live chickens to take home a cook up for dinner, that was a bit of a culture shock seeing people carry them off by their legs. We also went to a spice shop and tried out a few herbal remedies. I was a little sceptical but the one to clear your sinuses worked pretty well so I went ahead and splurged the 50 dirhams (5 euros) for it. Then we had lunch at a restaraunt that was really good but had a lot of dancers and to me that's just kind of awkward, maybe I'm just boring though. After lunch we drove to the coast and saw where the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea meet. The best part of the afternoon though was the camel ride on the beach. On Sunday we drove to a small town called Chefchaouen. It's famous for having lots of buildings painted blue and it's views of the coast. Unfortunately it poured the day we were there. However we did get to eat in a really good restaraunt so it wasn't entirely a lost cause. After that we had a pretty long drive back to the port. I got back to Sevilla at 11 and was in bed not long after.
This weekend I went on a trip with a bunch of people from Tech and some Europeans that we met along the way to Morocco. We left on friday afternoon and drove down the coast and took a 35 minute ferry across to Morocco. It was crazy to think that I can wake up in Europe in be in Africa before dinner! On Saturday we went to to Tetuan and took a tour of the old part of the city built before the north part of the country became a Spanish colony. The streets were tiny and lined with shops and vendors in the street (sometimes just an old woman selling vegetables on a mat). You could also buy live chickens to take home a cook up for dinner, that was a bit of a culture shock seeing people carry them off by their legs. We also went to a spice shop and tried out a few herbal remedies. I was a little sceptical but the one to clear your sinuses worked pretty well so I went ahead and splurged the 50 dirhams (5 euros) for it. Then we had lunch at a restaraunt that was really good but had a lot of dancers and to me that's just kind of awkward, maybe I'm just boring though. After lunch we drove to the coast and saw where the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea meet. The best part of the afternoon though was the camel ride on the beach. On Sunday we drove to a small town called Chefchaouen. It's famous for having lots of buildings painted blue and it's views of the coast. Unfortunately it poured the day we were there. However we did get to eat in a really good restaraunt so it wasn't entirely a lost cause. After that we had a pretty long drive back to the port. I got back to Sevilla at 11 and was in bed not long after.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Cultural Observations/Italica
It's okay to let your dog do it's business on the sidewalk.
People bundle up even when it's only in the 50s.
You always use an umberlla, even if it's sprinkling.
Shops are never open at the times you want visit them.
Anyone from Asia is a "chino."
Ham is everywhere but beef is nowhere to be found.
Seeing naked people at a nude beach on the news isn't all that uncommon.
I watched a game show and the "mystery picture" was an up close shot of a butt.
People here really like their dried meats, me not so much.
On Saturday I went to Italica, Roman ruins in Santiponce outside of Sevilla. The first thing we saw there was the coloseum. It's a lot smaller than the one in Rome (which I really want to see!) but was impressive nonetheless. We got to walk around inside it so it was a little like being a gladiator. Then we walked around parts of the old city Italica. Only certain parts of it are left exposed because being covered up helps to preserve the ruins. The rooms in the home were really small but many of them had beautiful mosaics on the floor. Some of the mosaics are now in downtown Sevilla because over the centuries wealthy Sevillanos have have them removed from Italica and put in their homes (not illegal until the 1800s I think). We saw things like ovens, courtyards, fountains, and bathrooms. The Romans were much more advanced that their successors. Also, a section of lead pipe was shown uncovered. This was part of the well developed water system but also contributed to the very low life expectancy (20 for servants and slaves, 30 for upper class). On Friday we're going to Cordoba so I'll have more to tell soon.
People bundle up even when it's only in the 50s.
You always use an umberlla, even if it's sprinkling.
Shops are never open at the times you want visit them.
Anyone from Asia is a "chino."
Ham is everywhere but beef is nowhere to be found.
Seeing naked people at a nude beach on the news isn't all that uncommon.
I watched a game show and the "mystery picture" was an up close shot of a butt.
People here really like their dried meats, me not so much.
On Saturday I went to Italica, Roman ruins in Santiponce outside of Sevilla. The first thing we saw there was the coloseum. It's a lot smaller than the one in Rome (which I really want to see!) but was impressive nonetheless. We got to walk around inside it so it was a little like being a gladiator. Then we walked around parts of the old city Italica. Only certain parts of it are left exposed because being covered up helps to preserve the ruins. The rooms in the home were really small but many of them had beautiful mosaics on the floor. Some of the mosaics are now in downtown Sevilla because over the centuries wealthy Sevillanos have have them removed from Italica and put in their homes (not illegal until the 1800s I think). We saw things like ovens, courtyards, fountains, and bathrooms. The Romans were much more advanced that their successors. Also, a section of lead pipe was shown uncovered. This was part of the well developed water system but also contributed to the very low life expectancy (20 for servants and slaves, 30 for upper class). On Friday we're going to Cordoba so I'll have more to tell soon.
Monday, January 12, 2009
He llegado en Sevilla
Sevilla was pretty overwhelming the first couple days I was here. It still is at times, but once you realize that if you can find the main street all the tiny medieval ones don't seem so confusing. My host parents, Adela y Juan, are very nice and feed my roommate Scott and I A LOT of food, it's all really good though so we don't mind. Having lunch at 2 or 3 and dinner after 9 took some getting used but now I like. When you take a siesta you can stay out till 3 or 4 AM and be fine the next day. The other thing that's taking some getting used to is the massive amount of walking, at least going to Tech was good preparation for it. My course load is pretty light, only 2 classes most days. I love Sevilla but the best thing that's happened so far is that one of my suitcases came today!
I'll do my best to write about something a little more interesting soon!
I'll do my best to write about something a little more interesting soon!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Planes, Taxis, Tranes, and Lost Luggage
I've finally made it to Sevilla. My flight was alright, minus the guy eating food with curry next to me, not really something you want to smell all the way accross the Atlantic. Heathrow is mad house but nonetheless I still managed to make it to my flight to Madrid (the UK security check people are much nicer than the ones back home, you can leave your laptop in the bag!). When we got to Madrid we found out that no one's suitcases had made it out of Heathrow, so we had to work out getting them shipped to our hotel in Sevilla; hopefully they'll be here tomorrow because the only clothes I have I've been wearing for a day and a half! The AVE trail to Sevilla from Madrid (high-speed) felt like it took 3 years. We were all really relieved to finally reach our destination. After getting checked in we had our our first meal at the hotel (4 stars) that we're staying at. After our late dinner and Spanish wine I was ready to call it a night.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Taking the Plunge
I can hardly believe that tomorrow I'm going to be leaving for an entire semester! After months of waiting it's finally time to leave. I've pretty much taken care of everything (except packing of course!) but I still feel like I have so much to do. I'm a little nervous about going away, but mostly I'm excited!
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