Day Something

Sorry I haven't written for a couple days but, as promised, I'll catch you up. We had our first day of school on tuesday and, as I said before, we took a placement test. I didn't feel good about my entrevista, or interview. I don't know why, but I kinda blanked. Which is stupid, because I've spoken with a lot of different people in spanish and this shouldn't have been any more difficult. I was asked simple questions like, is this your first time in Europe, where did you go, how long, so forth. The last question was what my favorite color was. When I responded with "Amarillo" (yellow), she thought that was so strange and now I think I know why. We got an email later that day telling us that we'd been split into two groups, Amarillo and naranja (orange). And guess what? I'm in the Amarillo group (so you know that's the smart group). So now I understand why she thought it was strange that my favorite color was yellow.

Anyway, after the exam, we all went home and ate and siesta-ed. I think, I'm not sure, because the days are starting to run together, I had to go back to a certain plaza for another walking tour of the town. After that, three of us went shopping for essentials that we'd been living without but could no longer do so. There was a conveniently placed bar across the street, and one of the girls asked if I wanted to stop and get a beer. I said yes, simply for the novelty of being able to just "stop and get a beer."

The next day, yesterday, we met at the school before being taken on another tour of the campus by our Spanish mentor, Fernando. I think that's his name... Anyway, then we ate lunch and got on a bus to go see a bunch of stuff. After a really long and freezing cold boat ride, we were done for the day. Pictures can be seen on my facebook (soon, I promise).

After docking, a bunch of us wanted to go out for tapas, thanks to our sub-standard lunch. We finally found a place to eat, and then I went home to have a late siesta while a few others went to shop more.

So last night a handful of us Americanos went out to a bar down the street from my apartment because a lot of the international students were meeting there to watch the Spain v. Columbia game. Which brings me to today´s travel tip:

Travel Tip #3:
Don´t get into a debate with a European (or South American for that matter) about why football is better than fútbol.

Believe it or not, I haven´t been spending much time with a whole lot of Spaniards. Yes, I live with two of them, but when I´m not home, I´m usually with the international students. Which isn´t as disappointing as it might sound. At least I´m not spending all my time with Americans. That would just be boring. It´s really cool to see all the students from all the different countries, and also to see all of us perpetuate our respective stereotypes. For instance, I have just last night validated that Italians are hot, French people all think they are better than everyone else, and Americans are stupid.

This has actually been my favorite part about my adventures so far. I love talking to all the international students because they´re here for the very same reason, that being to learn Spanish. And I get to talk to a lot of different people from a lot of different places, like France, Germany, Austria, Protugal, Brazil, Australia, and probably more that I´m forgetting. I think Americans are very interested in other people´s impressions of us. I find that whenever this is brought up in conversation, it was by one of us Americans. And what I´ve gathered is that everyone thinks we drink a lot (true), weild guns mercilessly (pretty true), eat tons of fast food (really true), and have no interest in learning a new language (unfortunately extremely, shamefully true). It is now that I´d like to tell you all that I will not return to the United States in May. I´m going to stay and live in Europe as a European. No, I´m totally kidding, but wouldn´t that be cool? But seriously, I don´t want to feel ashamed to be an American. But a lot of the time, I find myself hesitant to reveal to other students that I´m from the States. Oh, and another thing: People who live in the states, you are NOT the only Americans out there. In the states, I got so used to saying that I´m an American, because I gave up on saying that, more specifically, that I´m from the United States. People in the states somehow forgot that Canadians, Brazillians, Chileans, and most especially Mexicans are, yes, it´s true, Americans. That was a bit of a shock when I told someone that I´m American, and then they continued to inquire where I was from specifically. After I said the states, the person told me that what we consider "Americans" are arrogant to monopolize the name. Alright, before this gets too passionate, I´m going to move on to something else...Actually I think that´s it. But I don´t want to end on such a bad note. I apologize, my United States loving friends, I don´t hate my country. I just want better from it. I wish we had higher standards for ourselves, you know? Most people here know their native language, and English and usually another language. This sounds so impressive where I´m from, but it´s the norm here in Europe. One girl I met was, I think, from Brazil. So, of course she spoke Portugeuse (hope I´m spelling that right), but also English, French, Spanish, and "a little bit of" Chinese. Holy. Crap. I just wish we wouldn´t use our distance to validate our laziness. The fact that we´re far away should just mean that we try that much harder to connect with the rest of the world. Alas, I am but one girl. Who am I to change the way a country communicates with the rest of the world?


"El mundo es un libro, y aquellos que no viajan leen solo una pagina."