Hi everybody!
I have been feeling a bit down lately. I've been here a month and I still don't feel very settled, and little things like taking out the rubbish can be such a chore when you don't have a clue how to go about it. I am learning though, and the fact that chocolate is one euro for two largeish bars doesn't hurt either!
Anyway, I have found another course to take at uni, in addition to the spanish and the history ones. It's a translating one, english to spanish, and it's great because when we work together in class me and the two other english speakers will get the meaning, and the spaniards know how to say it in spanish, and it's awesome!! I'm very happy with it.
We are going to Lisbon this weekend!!! It's been a bit of a nightmare to organise, with dates getting confused and having to pay a lot more than anticipated to change a name and my name being noted as Katie instead of Katrina and anyway, it's sorted out now, and we're leaving on thursday night to get a plane first thing friday morning! I am very excited. I just hope I'll be able to keep the spending under control...although the 10kg bag limit should help :S
We went to see Benjamin Button last night. I enjoyed it mostly, especially as I was able to understand quite a bit of the spanish. It did seem a bit like Forrest Gump rehashed though.
And today I went for a walk and it was warm enough to leave my jacket at home, and I took my jersey off too so I was out in well, I guess it's the end of winter, but still, in August in NZ it is DEFINITELY not warm enough to wear a singlet.
Today is a party day here, sorta. Some faculties (but not all!) of the uni are closed and there's a big party in a town about 3km away. It's called Carnaval and is some kind of costume thing. I'd kinda like to go but I don't have transport yet, and we're going away this weekend. So we'll see.
I have spanish class soon so I'd better go. I'd like to hear what's happening in NZ, feel free to comment on the blog! Really! I don't mind!
Lol....
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Sun!
This week so far has been sunny in more ways than one. Last week was pretty miserable, weatherwise as well as being-sick-wise, so it was nice in the weekend when I was feeling better to be able to enjoy the sun. It made an appearance on thursday, and apparently it's usually like this and the past few weeks have been something of an abnormality! The christchurch winters are grey for months on end. I am so jealous..so anyway I have been enjoying the sun.
Friday afternoon I went for a wander and visited the cemetery (pretty, peaceful, kinda sad, and FULL of flowers), and Sunday I went for a walk to the outskirts of a different edge of Ciudad Real. I think I found the slums, it looked like slums and as I was walking along the street there were several loud explosions. I don't know what they were blowing up but it gave me one hell of a fright the first time.
Also, the girl I've been helping with her english showed me the piano they keep today! It lives in the industrial engineering building, but it works, and I can't wait to play it some more! They've offered to let me play it regularly, I think I'll have to play them a few tunes but that's no problem. It was so nice to play a piano, I've hardly ever gone more than a week or two without ready access to one and I've been getting withdrawal symptoms. Music is so central to my life..I asked at the ORI today if there is a brass band in the city here and they're gonna investigate and get back to me. I hope there is!
We have booked tickets to Lisbon! The last weekend in March we're gonna spend four days there. 'We' being me and Amanda and Feli (all from NZ) and lots of italians. I'll come back fluent in italian. They all speak italian whenever they can! In Cordoba Giulia was surprised that Amanda and I spoke spanish to each other. We don't tend to talk quite so much anyway though...and I thought I was naturally 'quiet'! In Italy they'd probably send me to a speech therapist so find out why I never open my mouth. I guess it's all relative...
Anyway, it's bedtime for me. Have a good day everybody :)
Friday afternoon I went for a wander and visited the cemetery (pretty, peaceful, kinda sad, and FULL of flowers), and Sunday I went for a walk to the outskirts of a different edge of Ciudad Real. I think I found the slums, it looked like slums and as I was walking along the street there were several loud explosions. I don't know what they were blowing up but it gave me one hell of a fright the first time.
Also, the girl I've been helping with her english showed me the piano they keep today! It lives in the industrial engineering building, but it works, and I can't wait to play it some more! They've offered to let me play it regularly, I think I'll have to play them a few tunes but that's no problem. It was so nice to play a piano, I've hardly ever gone more than a week or two without ready access to one and I've been getting withdrawal symptoms. Music is so central to my life..I asked at the ORI today if there is a brass band in the city here and they're gonna investigate and get back to me. I hope there is!
We have booked tickets to Lisbon! The last weekend in March we're gonna spend four days there. 'We' being me and Amanda and Feli (all from NZ) and lots of italians. I'll come back fluent in italian. They all speak italian whenever they can! In Cordoba Giulia was surprised that Amanda and I spoke spanish to each other. We don't tend to talk quite so much anyway though...and I thought I was naturally 'quiet'! In Italy they'd probably send me to a speech therapist so find out why I never open my mouth. I guess it's all relative...
Anyway, it's bedtime for me. Have a good day everybody :)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Uuurgh...
I have fallen sick. I guess it was bound to happen. Actually, I'm sorta surprised it took this long. I was dehydrated (all the central heating) and then I had a burning face and neck and freezing hands and feet, but that actually was ok because when I wanted to sleep I stuck my hands round the back of my neck, and I wouldn't say comfortable, but it was workable. Now I have a headache, a real one, and no voice, and am sitting at home eating fake-nutella on these bread-like cake things (yum) and feeling sorta miserable, but thankful that I don't have to move. I also caught up with some news from stuff.co.nz and man those aussie bushfires look terrible. It made me cry. Deliberately lit? What bastards...
Anyway I am going to curl up with a book and retreat until I feel better. Have an awesome day :)
Anyway I am going to curl up with a book and retreat until I feel better. Have an awesome day :)
Monday, February 9, 2009
Cordoba!
I'm back!! Awesome. I suppose you'll want to hear all about Cordoba. So I'm gonna make you wait :P. Aren't I cruel? Haha...
Last week was a lot of fun. At the Italian Dinner, we were told about 9 or 9:30 (I have already mentioned this penchant for eating late) so we turned up at 10, just because that's what you do here. So at ten we were sitting round drinking red wine on an empty stomach, waiting for (I thought) my other flatmate and her boyfriend to turn up. Then these two italian guys came along and we had five italians, so that was cool, then this other guy turned up, turned out he was italian too, so we had six, then two more turned up, before (finally!) Emilie and Alberto (my flatmate/her boyfriend). One thing I discovered that night was how much italians LOVE to talk. And sing! But talk... oh my god. They spoke italian to each other for the whole night, and I didn't really mind because it's such a beautiful language but far out they talk fast and loudly! Then they pulled up some italian songs on youtube and sang along. It was entertaining. And the food! Aaaahhhhh....I am SO going to Italy. We had spaghetti bolognaise, except it was like nothing I've ever had before, then a fish course (served about midnight) with the best sauce and mushrooms. Yum.
Then we went out to a nightclub.
Ok, Cordoba. Amanda and I had class at 9:30 on friday morning so after that we went home to pack, eat, and turned up at the train station about 2 to buy tickets, only to be told that there was no room on the trains til 10pm, unless we wanted to go first class in which case we could go at 6:30. Gutted...we had looked at the website and there were two trains every hour to Cordoba and we thought that in winter, combined with the spanish laissez-faire attitude (or whatever the equivalent is) we'd be fine. But no. So we ended up paying about 20 euro more for first class tickets as we didn't want to turn up at 11 and find no busses and that it was too late to check into out hostal; we had a very comfortable journey. It was like an aeroplane, they even gave us food.
Once we got there we took a bus to the hostal (thankyou mum and dad for the travel guide, which perchance mentioned the street and bus route of it!) and wow it was so cool. Old architecture and made for summer so very airy, I'll chuck some photos up on facebook when we get around to sharing them. It was dark when we got there so Amanda and I went for a short walk, then to bed as we were tired from the night before and we wanted to see a lot the next day. We had breakfast at a cafe-like place, there's no real equivalent in NZ, met Giulia at the train station (we walked this time), stopped at some shops, dumped her bags at the room, and went and tried the best egg-potato thing in town. It was very nice, but the ice-cream after it was my favourite. We were at the cafes by the Mosque-Cathedral, an eighth-century mosque with a sixteenth-century cathedral suck in the middle of it. It's the place with all the red-and-white striped arches. It was well worth the 8 euro entrance fee, just gorgeous, there was even a place where you could see some of the original mosaic floor from the visigothic cathedral that was there before the mosque. Incredible.
We went for a walk and ended up at the castle of the catholic kings, which was kinda cool and had beautiful gardens. It's had a bit of excitement too, with the reconquest of granada planned there (15th century) and the spanish inquisition headquarters for a few hundred years. I made friends with a resident cat and I can't think of a better home for one, I wish my cat could live in a place like that. It was just made for them!
From there we wandered around, visited one of only three synagogues left in spain which was nice but tiny, went back past some shops, I bought some pyjamas and boots as I'd forgotten pyjamas and wanted some boots, and went back to the hostal. Then we went out for dinner! I finally had Paella and Sangria! Oh it was good! There was a power cut in the middle of our meal, it was quite exciting. Then this morning we walked around, I bought a silver bracelet as Cordoba is known for it's silver jewellery, walked around some more, and went to the train station for our (cheaper) train home. Lots of walking! Cordoba is really nice, the modern parts are clean and beautifully lit, I had an awesome time. Photos are coming I promise!
I'm gonna go have dinner now, at breakfast Giulia had butter on toast for the first time and when we asked her what she normally puts butter on she said 'pasta'. Should've known :S. So I think I'll try that tonight. Hasta luego, miss you all!
One more thing. Walking back to the hostal on Sat night, we passed these guys in some kind of military uniform, and I didn't think much of it until I noticed they had cornets attached to their belts. I miss music! I might find out if there's a brass band here....
Last week was a lot of fun. At the Italian Dinner, we were told about 9 or 9:30 (I have already mentioned this penchant for eating late) so we turned up at 10, just because that's what you do here. So at ten we were sitting round drinking red wine on an empty stomach, waiting for (I thought) my other flatmate and her boyfriend to turn up. Then these two italian guys came along and we had five italians, so that was cool, then this other guy turned up, turned out he was italian too, so we had six, then two more turned up, before (finally!) Emilie and Alberto (my flatmate/her boyfriend). One thing I discovered that night was how much italians LOVE to talk. And sing! But talk... oh my god. They spoke italian to each other for the whole night, and I didn't really mind because it's such a beautiful language but far out they talk fast and loudly! Then they pulled up some italian songs on youtube and sang along. It was entertaining. And the food! Aaaahhhhh....I am SO going to Italy. We had spaghetti bolognaise, except it was like nothing I've ever had before, then a fish course (served about midnight) with the best sauce and mushrooms. Yum.
Then we went out to a nightclub.
Ok, Cordoba. Amanda and I had class at 9:30 on friday morning so after that we went home to pack, eat, and turned up at the train station about 2 to buy tickets, only to be told that there was no room on the trains til 10pm, unless we wanted to go first class in which case we could go at 6:30. Gutted...we had looked at the website and there were two trains every hour to Cordoba and we thought that in winter, combined with the spanish laissez-faire attitude (or whatever the equivalent is) we'd be fine. But no. So we ended up paying about 20 euro more for first class tickets as we didn't want to turn up at 11 and find no busses and that it was too late to check into out hostal; we had a very comfortable journey. It was like an aeroplane, they even gave us food.
Once we got there we took a bus to the hostal (thankyou mum and dad for the travel guide, which perchance mentioned the street and bus route of it!) and wow it was so cool. Old architecture and made for summer so very airy, I'll chuck some photos up on facebook when we get around to sharing them. It was dark when we got there so Amanda and I went for a short walk, then to bed as we were tired from the night before and we wanted to see a lot the next day. We had breakfast at a cafe-like place, there's no real equivalent in NZ, met Giulia at the train station (we walked this time), stopped at some shops, dumped her bags at the room, and went and tried the best egg-potato thing in town. It was very nice, but the ice-cream after it was my favourite. We were at the cafes by the Mosque-Cathedral, an eighth-century mosque with a sixteenth-century cathedral suck in the middle of it. It's the place with all the red-and-white striped arches. It was well worth the 8 euro entrance fee, just gorgeous, there was even a place where you could see some of the original mosaic floor from the visigothic cathedral that was there before the mosque. Incredible.
We went for a walk and ended up at the castle of the catholic kings, which was kinda cool and had beautiful gardens. It's had a bit of excitement too, with the reconquest of granada planned there (15th century) and the spanish inquisition headquarters for a few hundred years. I made friends with a resident cat and I can't think of a better home for one, I wish my cat could live in a place like that. It was just made for them!
From there we wandered around, visited one of only three synagogues left in spain which was nice but tiny, went back past some shops, I bought some pyjamas and boots as I'd forgotten pyjamas and wanted some boots, and went back to the hostal. Then we went out for dinner! I finally had Paella and Sangria! Oh it was good! There was a power cut in the middle of our meal, it was quite exciting. Then this morning we walked around, I bought a silver bracelet as Cordoba is known for it's silver jewellery, walked around some more, and went to the train station for our (cheaper) train home. Lots of walking! Cordoba is really nice, the modern parts are clean and beautifully lit, I had an awesome time. Photos are coming I promise!
I'm gonna go have dinner now, at breakfast Giulia had butter on toast for the first time and when we asked her what she normally puts butter on she said 'pasta'. Should've known :S. So I think I'll try that tonight. Hasta luego, miss you all!
One more thing. Walking back to the hostal on Sat night, we passed these guys in some kind of military uniform, and I didn't think much of it until I noticed they had cornets attached to their belts. I miss music! I might find out if there's a brass band here....
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Food Glorious Food...
Hola a todos! I hope you're all basking in the heat of NZ because here today we had a freak hail storm. It was quite funny, I thought someone was knocking on our front door and then I opened the back door (whoch looks out over a well-like thing in the middle of the building) and it was hail. There were a couple of other people on their tiniest-balcony-evers and they were acting like they'd never seen hail before...
I am still adjusting to the way of life over here. The way that all the shops close from 2-5pm, and everyone comes out in the evening. Midnight is considered an early bedtime any night of the week, the siesta time is sacrosanct, and I'm told I'm eating early when I have dinner at 8. It is completely different and I'm hungry all the time, which actually isn't so bad I guess as there's lots of new foods to try. There is so much bread and chocolate! It's unbelieveable. And fruit is either prepackaged or you have to tell the people behind the counter what you want and they choose it for you, you're not allowed to touch it. I didn't know the first time I bought fruit and I got told off :(.
Anyway, this past weekend my italian flatmate Giulia and I hung out with some other international students a bit, there were a few italians, a german guy, a chezch (however it's spelt) guy, and a few greek girls, and we went to a couple of nightclubs. I love the music here! It's actually music! It's different. Also one night we ended up at this Teteria, which serves tea (really, actually tea) but it's all exotic, I had some yoghurt flavoured stuff which was quite nice, I know some people in NZ who'd love it. We also had tapas (finally!) which was beautiful, and the australian pub is nothing of the sort. It's boring. Oh, and we found this bar called "la escuela' which means school, and the barmen took a shine to us and gave us these badges that read "I want to go to school". Awesome!! And they have 2 euro mojitos on friday nights. I think I'll go back...
On saturday at lunchtime Giulia cooked Italian Pasta for Amanda and I (another girl from NZ) and it was gorgeous. I have also tried plain toast with olive oil and a little bit of salt (reccomended!) and I can't wait to try pizza! Anyway, Amanda has found a flat with some other italian girls so on Sunday we invited everyone over and cooked a NZ roast for them (chicken), with pavlova for dessert. It went down very well and on thursday we have been invited to Amanda's flat for an italian dinner, I have no idea what they're gonna cook but I can't wait!
Last night we went to see Australia, in spanish, which was interesting. It helped knowing a bit of the country's history already, but we could actually understand quite a bit! Not all but enough to put us in a good mood for the 30min walk home at 12:30am. On a Monday night! And when we got home Giulia cracked open some sangria! I went to bed.
And this morning I had to get up earlier than I have been, because I have a sort-of-job helping a doctoral thesis student with her english. She's presenting part of her doctoral thesis in it and wants help with pronunciation and grammar. It's actually kind of fun, as I get to sit in her tutor's office for an hour, listen to them talk and correct them when necessary, and they have a few sweets left over from christmas so sometimes I get some of those as well! It gets kinda boring when they start talking math, because her thesis is in, you guessed it, civil engineering!! I come halfway round the world to study spanish and I end up with more engineers. Typical. Giulia is also studying engineering of some sort, although I'm not sure what.
So after almost falling asleep in class and being made fun of by the professor (I didn't really mind :P) I got some more passport-like photos taken, only smaller, and now I have a student card (with discounts on regional trains and buses) and a bank account. It doesn't have any money in it yet but it's free and I'm sure it'll come in handy.
Anyway, I am at the uni and my battery's running a wee bit low so I might finish here. Bye!!
I am still adjusting to the way of life over here. The way that all the shops close from 2-5pm, and everyone comes out in the evening. Midnight is considered an early bedtime any night of the week, the siesta time is sacrosanct, and I'm told I'm eating early when I have dinner at 8. It is completely different and I'm hungry all the time, which actually isn't so bad I guess as there's lots of new foods to try. There is so much bread and chocolate! It's unbelieveable. And fruit is either prepackaged or you have to tell the people behind the counter what you want and they choose it for you, you're not allowed to touch it. I didn't know the first time I bought fruit and I got told off :(.
Anyway, this past weekend my italian flatmate Giulia and I hung out with some other international students a bit, there were a few italians, a german guy, a chezch (however it's spelt) guy, and a few greek girls, and we went to a couple of nightclubs. I love the music here! It's actually music! It's different. Also one night we ended up at this Teteria, which serves tea (really, actually tea) but it's all exotic, I had some yoghurt flavoured stuff which was quite nice, I know some people in NZ who'd love it. We also had tapas (finally!) which was beautiful, and the australian pub is nothing of the sort. It's boring. Oh, and we found this bar called "la escuela' which means school, and the barmen took a shine to us and gave us these badges that read "I want to go to school". Awesome!! And they have 2 euro mojitos on friday nights. I think I'll go back...
On saturday at lunchtime Giulia cooked Italian Pasta for Amanda and I (another girl from NZ) and it was gorgeous. I have also tried plain toast with olive oil and a little bit of salt (reccomended!) and I can't wait to try pizza! Anyway, Amanda has found a flat with some other italian girls so on Sunday we invited everyone over and cooked a NZ roast for them (chicken), with pavlova for dessert. It went down very well and on thursday we have been invited to Amanda's flat for an italian dinner, I have no idea what they're gonna cook but I can't wait!
Last night we went to see Australia, in spanish, which was interesting. It helped knowing a bit of the country's history already, but we could actually understand quite a bit! Not all but enough to put us in a good mood for the 30min walk home at 12:30am. On a Monday night! And when we got home Giulia cracked open some sangria! I went to bed.
And this morning I had to get up earlier than I have been, because I have a sort-of-job helping a doctoral thesis student with her english. She's presenting part of her doctoral thesis in it and wants help with pronunciation and grammar. It's actually kind of fun, as I get to sit in her tutor's office for an hour, listen to them talk and correct them when necessary, and they have a few sweets left over from christmas so sometimes I get some of those as well! It gets kinda boring when they start talking math, because her thesis is in, you guessed it, civil engineering!! I come halfway round the world to study spanish and I end up with more engineers. Typical. Giulia is also studying engineering of some sort, although I'm not sure what.
So after almost falling asleep in class and being made fun of by the professor (I didn't really mind :P) I got some more passport-like photos taken, only smaller, and now I have a student card (with discounts on regional trains and buses) and a bank account. It doesn't have any money in it yet but it's free and I'm sure it'll come in handy.
Anyway, I am at the uni and my battery's running a wee bit low so I might finish here. Bye!!
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