Wednesday, October 28, 2009

2 months and counting

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

That’s right. I’ve been gone 2 months! Miss me yet? Haha. And, WHEW, I'm finally caught up with my blogging. I wonder how long this will last...

I keep forgetting to write about all the different people I keep meeting here. Tooooo many other things going on! Well, for starters there are all of the kids in my classes. Obviously most of them speak English as their first language, but there is this one kid from Japan who has also played soccer with some of the guys. He’s in my Culture and Civilization class, and today the teacher asked him what the most famous dish in his city was and he started the sentence, “En mi ciudad, Osaka…” Osaka?! If I’m not mistaken, that’s one of the small towns we visited in 2003! Oh, and speaking of Japan, there’s another guy, Estreno, in the residence who just moved in to the Jardines apartments for a year who had been living in Japan. He’s 31 and got his masters there in Japan and everything, but is now studying Physics at the University of Granada. He’s originally from Brazil (are you following this?), so I figured out that he speaks 4 languages fluently—Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese and English. We had a nice conversation about my eating of McDonalds while I was in Japan. He thought that was hilarious. It was really funny when Estreno was talking to Florian, trying to explain something. They both were speaking English, but trying to explain a Spanish concept. I had no idea why they didn’t just speak Spanish, but it was funny to watch! BUT, my new favorite Spaniard here is this guy named Victor. He is super easy to talk to, and if you can’t figure out how to explain something in Spanish, he’s always up for trying out his English. Basically, life here at Jardines is one big intercambio (which is good, considering I don’t have much time to GO plan one!). Some of the Spaniards ignore us Americans, but others jump at the opportunity to sit with us at dinner, or help us with projects and papers. Right now, Will and I are getting help on a project about the Canary Islands from Florian and Victor. Victor gave us photos to use and also offered to answer questions that we have! Also, last night I guess one of the girls here, Marta, went over to Mirella and Breana’s room at around midnight and asked them to correct some English papers they had. One was a book review and the other was just some random ACT essay question. It’s nice that we can all help each other out!

Today we had our first intramural soccer game. I hadn’t been feeling very good (still…) but I didn’t want to take my medicine because I didn’t want to take it on an open stomach. Unfortunately I have almost gone through all of the food Mom sent me in my care package…time for another one! J On top of that, I was nervous because I really haven’t played soccer or even RUN for quite a long time. I was sure I would just trip over my feet and not be able to get any shots of with any sort of “umph” behind them. Regardless, I went along just to see how I felt. We were playing this “Iowa” team, but they had 2 foreign kids that I’m pretty sure weren’t from Iowa. One guy was this huge German who was actually kinda gross, haha. We were winning only by one (3-2) when Armand made me sub in for Will. Surprisingly, I was able to move. I ended up scoring with an outside-of-the-foot shot (props to Daniel for inspiring that), and then had another left shot that I sorta impressed myself with. Yeah, yeah, go ahead and think I’m bragging, haha—but I honestly am just happy to know that at least some of my soccer skills survived! We ended up winning 5-2 and moving onto the next round. The other AIFS team has already lost, so they’re out—it’s all up to us, says Paula! Next Wednesday is our next game. All I am worried about is getting my soccer shorts back from the laundry before then!

Well, we head out for Nerja on Friday (“we” as in Merete, Chryssi, Will and I…and maybe Breana, Mirella and Daryl). I’m super pumped to go to the donkey sanctuary and the cooking school! Come find me when I get home and I‘ll cook you a tortilla Espanola! Or a jamon y queso bocadillo.

I’m off to do more homework so I don’t have as much this weekend…stressing about homework is the LAST thing I want to do on the beach (or while walking a donkey).

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