Mirielle's Blog Week 3

Lunes 16 de julio
Durante la fin de la semana, mis tías y yo fuimos a Gijón para ir a la playa. Era una aventura del primero minuto. Cuando llegamos sábado, buscamos un hotel o hostal, pero eran completos. Todos completos... los pensiones y los albergues también. Entonces, fuimos a la playa, un poco frustradas. Decididas a divertirnos, fuimos a restaurantes y bares toda la noche. Dormimos poco y fuimos a la playa en la mañana, pero empezó a llover. ¡Que vacaciones!
Wow, I don’t even know how to describe this outrageous weekend. We should have known it was doomed from the beginning when that ridiculous woman at the bus station couldn’t even issue 4 tickets on the same bus. I really wish that I knew what her name was (and also that I spoke better Spanish) so I could write a complaint that would make people realize how incredibly incompetent she is. Maybe she wouldn’t even care, who knows? I wonder what might have happened if we had gone to Santander as planned, or even if we had gotten on the earlier bus. Perhaps we would have found rooms in hostel, or perhaps we would have had an even stranger time there. All I know is that despite a poor turn of events, we handled ourselves well and made the best of a bad situation.
Unfortunately, just when we thought the worst was over and we would be out of the rain, cozily tucked into our bus seats, ready to snooze, we thought wrong. Evil bus woman strikes again, this time worse than the last… an incorrect bus ticket. There are ten minutes before our bus home is supposed to leave and the bus driver tells us one of us has a ticket for Tuesday. Tuesday!?!?! How hard is it to type the same date onto the same four tickets?!? I hate that woman, and I don’t even know her. To our screaming and pleading, the bus driver flatly replies “tiene que mirar.” Really? Is it really necessary to closely inspect every bus ticket I receive, and just assume that the person who issued the ticket, whose job is solely to issue tickets, would accidentally enter the wrong date on one of four virtually identical tickets?! Long story short, two of us went home on that bus, and the other two, after more adventures that you can read about in their blogs I’m sure, made it home safely and we all made it to class this morning, a little wearier but wiser than Friday.

Martes 17 de julio
Ayer fui a ver los catedrales de Salamanca como una turista. Uno de los profesores de la Universidad era nuestro guía turístico para ver El Catedral Viejo y El Catedral Nuevo. Vi muchos estilos de arquitectura, como Neo-clásico, Barroco, Gótico y Plateresco. El tour duró dos horas, pero normalmente son solamente una hora. Estaba muy interesante, pero mucho tiempo. Eso tarde, vamos a ver los Palacios de Salamanca. Ojalá que el tour hoy dure una hora porque tengo mucha tarea (desafortunadamente).
Classes are staying about the same... my first class of the day rather difficult and the others, relatively easy to follow. I’m starting to feel really tired out by the 5 ½ hours of class each day. Now I remember why I had such a hard time my last year of high school. It seems like every day the professors ask the class if we’re tired, and every day we reply “si!”. It’s a lot different on the other side of the desk. When you’re teaching, you’re talking about things that interest you, while constantly walking and talking and moving, as opposed to sitting in a desk, listening politely. Even on days when I have had plenty of sleep, I still have a hard time keeping focused and/or awake for such a long period of time. There is also a small group of high school students in a couple of my classes, who are really starting to grate on my nerves. It shocks me daily how immature, impolite and patronizing they can be, especially to the teachers. I’m trying to keep myself from acting like Teacher Mirielle and giving them simple directives. It’s getting harder by the day.
I realized today that there are only ten full days left of our trip. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone by. I’m glad I got to see the north of Spain over the weekend, even though the trip was a catastrophe. We did prove how travel-savvy and quick on our feet we can be when necessary, if nothing else. I haven’t really explored Salamanca as much I would have liked, so I think this weekend I might rent a bike and tour around town. I also want to take a day-trip somewhere if I can, like Madrid or Avila. I’m sure I’ll be back here sometime in the future, because I decided I haven’t seen nearly enough of Spain. It’s much too beautiful a country to not explore in detail.

Miercoles 18 de julio
Me gusta mucho mi clase de cultura. Esta semana, estamos aprendiendo la historia de España. Hablamos de Hispania Romana, la conquista de la Península Ibérica y mucho más. Miramos muchos fotos y videos cortos para ver el arquitectura, arte, ciudades y muchas más cosas de España. Mi profesora es muy interesante, graciosa, y informada sobre España. Creo que tenemos suerte (yo, Angela, Anne-Marie, Jalal y Nick) porque escuché de otras estudiantes que no le gustan sus profesores mucho. Venga, supongo que es igual porque mi clase de oral no es muy interesante.
Today was a very difficult day for a lot of people, it seemed. The teachers seemed frustrated by their students, the students by their teachers, and the students with one another as well. Maybe it was all in my head, but today seemed longer than most. I think it was a horrible combination of the teachers speaking more quickly than usual, and us comprehending less than usual, resulting in a lot of frustration. In addition, I had a hard time waking up this morning, despite the fact that I didn´t go out. I actually fell asleep early while doing my homework like a nerd, and got a solid 7.5 hours of sleep. I swear I feel more awake in the morning when I go out for a drink the night before!
I’m getting a little anxious about the exams next week. Having three exams on Tuesday is going to be difficult, I think. At least some of the information that we learn in those classes is similar, so studying should be that much easier. The last time I had to study for multiple exams at once was four years ago, and I wasn’t so good at it then either. I really hate studying. I don’t know what it is, but my sister shares the same affliction. Throughout high school and college, I rarely sat down and studied quietly for a subject. I always tried to learn along the way so I wouldn’t have to cram later. I’m really going to have to force myself to sit down and review, review, review. Buena suerte, Mirielle.

Viernes 20 de julio

Anoche fuimos a bailar salsa en un bar a Gran Vía. Era muy, muy divertido. Sé que salsa no es de Salamanca, es más del sur de España, pero me gusta mucho. Me gusta bailar en general... salsa, ballet, samba, todo. Hace dos noches fuimos a ver un concierto do Flamenco también. Las bailerinas son muy pasionantes y energeticas. Cuando regreso a los EE UU, voy a buscar un escuela que ensena flamenco o/y salsa porque quiero continuar a bailar. ¿Porqué no?
The Flamenco dancing was really beautiful. At one point, the main dancer changed her costume into this amazing dress that was black, very frilly of course, and had bright red embroidery, as well as a red underlay in the train of the dress. Absolutely gorgeous. I’m glad I went because I missed the Flamenco performance in the Fonseca that took place a couple of weeks ago, and I hadn’t gone to see any performances yet. Salsa dancing was a lot of fun as well, because as much as I like seeing a dance performance, going out and actually dancing is much more fun. I took ballet classes for 13 years, as well as modern, jazz and all sorts of others, so I feel like dancing is in my blood. It was so much fun, I’m definitely going back next week.
I’m pretty happy that I decided to spend the weekend in Salamanca instead of going on another weekend trip. Sleeping in late tomorrow is going to be so nice. I just want to relax, explore a little and get some studying done. I’m curious to see what the market by the river that takes place on Sunday looks like as well. I’m not worried about not seeing enough of Spain, because I’m sure I will be back in the near future. Traveling, for me, is like an addiction; one of my few vices, if you would consider it a vice. I’d like to come back to see Madrid and Toledo and all the other small towns that I wanted to see this time around. It’s certainly not a bad thing to leave part of country unexplored… it’s just more of a reason to come back.