Travels of a Histrionic peripatetic

Hi everyone! So the days are numbered now.....I leave in less than a week- Thursday morning to be exact. In other words, it's crunch time! Now is all about finishing assignments, packing, making sure I have everything people asked me to get, and well everything else. I can't make this too long since I still have some work to do, my host mom is making lunch for ten people because it's one of her daughter's Saint Day (Día de su santo..not sure how to translate that), and we have our last walk in Retiro Park as a way to close our trip since it was the way we began it. However, I did want to let you know that yesterday two good friends and me decided to take a class on....CHOCOLATE! Yep, chocolate. And it was wonderful. When I was younger, I enjoyed waking up early; now not so much. This class was at 10A on a Saturday, and I admit it was worth waking up early. All I had for breakfast was a cup of coffee because I was running just a little late. I am glad that it was all I a

Hello once again! Now I will talk about the week after my birthday, which was last week. Well, this week was all about getting my work done for midterms...which wasn't so much about exams rather turning in a compilation of the work we had been doing. This meant that I had to turn in the diary that we were supposed to have kept......As many of you may know, I'm not much of a writer. I love going out, meeting people, and talking about everything- not so much writing. At least, I do not like to write if I know that I HAVE to do it; I like writing if I know it is optional, and it is then that I write my best work (in my opinion of course). For the first four days of the week, Mon-Thursday all I was doing was writing endlessly. Some of the activities were pretty amusing but I guess that I am just the kind of person who likes to do it, think about it, and talk about it, not so much write about it. But it got done eventually, and I have to say, my diary looks pretty "Isabel"

Hi everyone!!! First of all- I am so sorry I have been unable to keep up with you all. It's actually quite harder to maintain than I first suspected. However, knowing that this term is almost over, I doubt I am going to be able to say much in these next two weeks. As a matter of fact, I have less than two weeks now before I return home... time flies by and I am glad that I am enjoying every moment of it. Yesterday the entire group got back from our trip to Cordoba and Sevilla, and like always, of course I have stories to tell. I have to say, they have some beautiful men in those cities! I know I am silly, but might as well look and indulge while I can. Like I said, I doubt I will have much time to be able to recount all of my stories in a timely manner, therefore, I decided that I will continue writing about my experience when I return home. Besides, I am going to have a little more than a month before I leave for Africa. Until then, I have an essay, two presentations, and two di

Hello once again! As I promised, I am going to write about my past weeks (in which I have miserably failed to post). For this post, we shall talk about my birthday week. To start off, Monday we did not have any classes because the professor decided to let us rest since we had just gotten back from our trip on Sunday. Therefore, Monday was completely dedicated to doing homework for the next day. All I did was go to a coffee shop with a friend; we tried to do homework but the music was getting to soft and was making us want to sleep, so we left to our own homes and continued to do homework. Tuesday we had class. I love classes with Prof. Huergo. He just has such a different manner of teaching. He uses more gestures and goes off into rants that, if you were to walk in would make no sense, but if you were paying attention all (or most) of the time, then you could follow him perfectly. Afterwards, Heather, Alyssa and I go to the Cafeteria/Restaurant downstairs. Remember earlier I had mentio

That's how you say hello in three different languages- English (of course), Spanish, and Galician. As you can tell, I am back from those fours days of fantastic travel. Galicia is absolutely wonderful; it is nothing like the Spain that we all imagine. Imagine New York and then compare it to, say one of the greenest places in the US (it was hard for me to figure out what was even comparable to what I saw). It is more of a spiritual area. It is the home to the end of "the Road to Santiago." As some of you may know, every year hundreds of people travel the road for a spiritual rebirth so to speak. ....So to tell you the truth, I started to write this the day I got back- October 4th. Unfortunately, since then so much more work has piled up that I have been unable to write as often I would have wished. Keeping that in mind, within these past two weeks SO MUCH MORE has happened! So what I will do is recount those stories in a series of posts. I still remember everything prett

Sitting down you see some of the most interesting people. I think the most interesting that I have seen is that of children of about 5 or 6 years sitting in a baby carriage- their parents pushing them around. How crazy and abnormal is that??? Definitely not used to that- then again I’m used to children running around, screaming at the top of their lungs. Although I have not been coming in as much, it is nice to know that those who work here still remember you. They actually talk with you and ask you about, for example, your weekend. Once that friendship is really established, then they ask you why you have not called them in order to go out that weekend (I should know; it happened only a couple of moments ago). Oh the differences in cultures around the world- how lovely! Again..I will finish later as I have little time. Until next time.

Greetings everybody! I know I have not written in a very long time, and I am sorry about that. As I had mentioned before, my computer has been misbehaving and well, I do not have the greatest internet access in my room. Also, I have been out a lot more. Although I have not explored as much as normally did the first week, I still have explored. I think, however, the idea of not exploring has to do with the fact that I have become more familiar with the places. As I had mentioned earlier, we have “monitors” who are Spanish and are around our same age. Well, since the last time that I wrote, I have become more familiar with my own “hired friend”- as our professor put it. She is a great person! She is a Poli-Sci student at one of the universities. The great thing about her is that, not only have we met her, but she has also invited many of her friends that are also now our own friends. And let me tell you, they sure know how to party in the city that never sleeps! Well, it’s not only that

Hello Everybody! I hope your weekend has started off as great as mine has. Friday, yesterday, was a great day. Lately it has been raining, so I have not really had a chance to take pictures (or take them as I wish), but this weekend is supposed to be nice and sunny. After living through  a Minnesotan winter, 50ºF and the like are not as cold as they used to be. Well, continuing with my Friday, we have an assignment for Professor Huergo's class, and that is that we have to keep a diary. Not one where we write how we feel or how much we may miss something, but it is more about writing observations. We have a number of specific entries to include. For example, drawing maps of Madrid as we are getting to explore it more; it is our duty to get lost and familiarize ourselves so that each map becomes more intricate. I have already started my first one, and amazingly enough, I have explored quite a bit! Another series of entries have to be about how the employees attitudes change once you

So in state of my computer behaving in such an awful manner, I decided that I WILL post all of my pictures online. Thankfully, Facebook has it to where we can have a public link to an album- which is great because now I will not have to create another profile elsewhere. In light of that, here is that link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020126&id=1507890190&l=2dc2124897 But, just to repeat some of my favorite pictures, this first one is of the non-typical study session that I have at my favorite Cafeteria: And here is an example of the types of desserts I have available during lunch:   And here, a friend and I are just acting silly: And now, I promise I'm off to bed!

Another day in the city of Madrid and let me tell you, so much can happen in the course of, well, less than a week. First of all, I have not been able to update you on a daily basis (because believe I have time!) due to the incompetence of my computer at the moment. Unfortunately, I have been having problems when I start it, as there are times when the screen fails to show; it’s pitch black- no signs of it working whatsoever! This was getting so bothersome (as it has been acting like this for more than a day now) that I restarted my computer so that it was in the same condition it was when I initially got it. However, that also means that I have lost of my pictures- from the time I was in Mexico up until the ones I had taken a few days ago. The only ones that have been saved are those on CDs, those online, and those that I managed to not erase in my camera. The same goes for my music- all gone! No worries though. I will take more here; I have an opportunity to create more memories and

This picture here is just a brief look into my room. It is quite nice and spacious. I have so much closet space- the ones you see there are not the only ones. I also have a walk in closet. The bed also pulls out of the wall, so if I wanted more room, I could just put it against the wall.  In this next picture, you can see my own bathroom! I was lucky enough to have one to myself. It´s great because it's like a minitub/shower.Oh, and the washing machine is in there as well.    Here is where i will be having some of my classes. The first is with my Carleton professor (he will be teaching us about Urban Life) and the other will be with a professor here in Spain, Prof. Teresa Delgado, and she will be teaching us about the history of Spain. The other class we are having will be held in various art museums. Our first, however, is in El Museo del Prado . So these are just some examples of the places where I am. I am thinking of setting up a different site where I just put up all kinds

Yesterday was my first day in Madrid. When I first arrived, however, it was a complete mess! First our plane was about half and hour to 45 minutes late. I already had someone waiting for me, and yet I had no way of communicating to them that I had just landed or anything. Then we had to go through the Passport/Visa check and customs. That in itself was another 30-45 minute wait. Can you imagine how late I came out of there? We were supposed to have arrived at about 10A; I actually did not get out of there until almost noon. Then came another hurdle- finding that old family friend whose appearance I had forgotten almost completely. I was coming out of baggage claim into a crowd of unfamiliar people- who was I looking for? My classmate found her host quite easily, as she had told her what she was going to be wearing. I should have done that as well; it would have made this process much easier! Also, I had not changed currency yet- and I still have not. I have to wait until tomorrow becau

In a few hours, I will have to leave the commodity of my home in order to begin my adventures abroad. I cannot wait. After forcing myself to bed last night and forcing myself to wake up at a decent hour, I am getting to excited to want to sit still. Even now, however, I still have a number of things to do. One, for example, being that of buying a gift for my host mother. I'm debating on buying something from Starbuks, as I used to work there and they have a nice little mug with the Memphis skyline on it. I am unsure yet... Other than that, I still have to say my "See you later's" to some friends, and as time is counting down, I have to make them quick!" (the above was written almost 3 hours before I had to be at the airport) At the airport, on my way to Spain: The first airport I had to go through was my own Memphis International. Although a fairly nice airport, it is always awful traveling to and from here. Unless you are going to Amsterdam, you are going

So today is the first day I decided to write about the experiences that await me in foreign countries. First of all, I would like to let you know of the many places I will be able to visit as a result of my education. During the fall term of my sophomore year, I will be in Madrid, Spain. In other words, that is where everything is going to begin. After only ten weeks of studying there, I will return to the winter in Memphis, although I have to admit I will no mind since the cold is not as extreme as it is in Minnesota. I will stay home for about 5 weeks- a rather long winter break, but again I won't mind. Then, only days before New Year's, I will take off to western Africa- Mali to be exact. There I will experience a different sort of learning opportunity since it will be the first time that I am in a country where neither of my first languages are dominant; hello Francophone country and culture! Again, as we run by a trimester system, I will return home for about 3 weeks and o