Soberbia

We've found a nice little place called "Soberbia" (play on words with "sober" and suburbia??) where they have some great sangrias. We just hang out there until we decide to split to head out to dance or to catch the metro home!

Pictures

I just realized that i can put up pictures! Sorry Sally , I don't have any pictures of the bull ring yet, but soon! These are of a cathedral and area in Toledo. So old! How did people ever build things so perfect and so strong back then?? In one of the pictures you can sort of see the last supper scene sculpted into the church. Toledo (at least the old part) is built on a hill/mountain.. surrounded on three side by a moat.. because it's built on a hill.. the city looks like it's built on a half sphere.. like on top of a turtle's shell or something, it's really cool.. and since there's a moat, they could only expand the city so far before building outside of the moat. It would have been such a climb to get into the city, that they built an escalator into one side! it's not indoors or anything, just is under an overhang. So you just take the escalator up and check out the view as you go!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE!!!

21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21!!

happy birthday :)

wish i was there with you to celebrate!

circuses and bull rings

Yesterday I didn't have any plans.. nothing to do, really.. Jacque went with a couple people to Salamanca-a nearby town.. and I don't have homework yet, and I can't do anything with the Peru application yet, so I went to the school, used the internet, then Courtney and Erin told me I should just spend my day wandering around, finding new things.. so i did! :)

I found two circuses, haha.. i'm not sure if it's a special time, why they're having it now, but it cost to get in, so i didn't, it was fun watching all the little kids get all excited about going in, with their whirly-gig toys making weird sounds and playing "Fur-Elise".. why that song, i don't know.

I saw a group of guys my age playing soccer.. just a pick-up game, and I'd been walking for about an hour, so i stopped and watched. Then I went to the neighborhood where I'll be living and checked the area out. It'd gotten dark and a little chilly by that time, but it was ok. (and when i say dark and chilly, don't think that means not crowded, there are always tons of people). I live beside a bullring!! Like a big, huge, old, colosseum-type bull ring. Pretty cool.. though I couldn't get too close, because the circus was set up outside of it.

I walked a little longer, then headed home for supper: meatballs and ramen-noodles.. haha, my people are 25 years old. No, usually we have really awesome meals. There's this thing they just call tortilla.. but it's like.. a potato-omlette. REALLY good!! I'll have to figure out how to make it.

I have a little mailbox at the university in the WIP (wisconsin-indiana-purdue) office.. this is where I can recieve boxes of cookies..love letters...notes of admiration... snippits of paper saying how much you miss me... just some examples :)

Abby Schmiesing
Programa de Indiana, Purdue y Wisconsin
Facultad de Geografia e Historia
Edificio B
Ciudad Universitaria
Madrid 28040 Tel 91 544 76 68
SPAIN

I miss you guys, thanks for the comments and emails, they make me feel like I'm still connected!

YESSSSSSSSS!!! now i'm happy :)

:D I'm SO set! :) for now..

I found an apartment! HURRAH! I went and saw some places that made me cry.. i saw some that made me wince, and then i saw that one on Tuesday that i was considering.. It was with 9 other people, with 3 bathrooms.. (would remind me of home?? haha) but that didn't work out, as I already wrote.

Oh man.. i was bummed. really annoyed. THEN, Wednesday I found it. I was 30 minutes late for the appointment by mistake, the lady almost left, but i got there barely in time. and it's perfect! It's sunny and bright and clean and a good price, a good area, and with two other female students! They're foreign, also, one from Germany, one from Belgium.. but i haven't met them yet, i'm just hoping they're gonna be great. I'm taking the room of a French girl and she seemed really cool.. so if she had a good experience, maybe that means i will, too. :) AND they just told me today (i just signed the contract) that they're putting in wireless internet.. so i'll have internet there! hurrah.

Right now, i'm online at the school because the connection at my house isn't working any more. :/ bummer. only a couple more weeks, though! I don't have anything to do today. Sooo.. it's about 5:30 and, as suggested by Courtney and Erin, I'm going to go exploring until supper (9:30, remember).. maybe I'll just start at the center of the city? or should I go somewhere I haven't been? the latter... for sure.

Ok, I'll let you know what i find!

Bust

...............aaaaagh.. send me your sympathies!! I thought i found a place today.. but i was still a little bit unsure about it, so i left, was going to wait until i saw another couple, then decide. Well, i decided, about 2-3 hours after I left the apartment, that I would call them back, thell them I wanted it and would bring the money tomorrow (after i saw the other two apartments) .. but when I called, keep in mind only 2-3 hours later, it'd already been given to someone else!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHH

This is awful. I'm sooo nervous/scared/worried/freaking out. I don't want to end up in a trashy place, i'd like good apartment-mates, i'd like a good neighborhood, and i'd like an ok price. Is that too much to ask!?!

pfft, it seems like everything after this is going to be a breeze. ... but where I live could also determine that. oh geesh.

Burger King in Spain.. good eatin

I just had supper at Burger King. I feel kinda bad .. haha, in Spain and eating at Burger King :)

I went apartment hunting today. It was a total failure. I saw two places and they were both just .. really quiet, really dismal. I only saw one of the other people that lived in one of the places.. and she was.. a little scary? just rough-looking.. i really hope i have better luck next time.

I'm going to look again tomorrow morning, so wish me luck!!

Weather

Oh, I keep getting asked how the weather is here.. it's pretty nice, actually. It has been a bit rainy the past few days.. so that made it pretty chilly.. like 38degrees or something, I'd say. Today, though, and over the weekend, it's supposed to be pretty sunny and comfortable with a light jacket.. like 55degrees, maybe? Just guessing.. but I think that's about right.

Even when it's cold though, the sun here just seems to be.. brighter? Maybe that's just my imagination, though, because I can't imagine why that would be. :) I love hearing from you guys, keep me updated on what's going on over there!

:D

I went to a discoooo! :) No, not like "Saterday Night Fever" disco.. just a club place disco. This placed called "Joy" just moved into a new building, so they were handing out flyers for a big party last night. So after we had lunch with the ENTIRE wip (wisconsin-indiana-purdue) group, the all-year students and this semester-students, most everyone went out to Joy. We got in for free+one drink... so that was nice, but I saw the prices, and drinks are 15euros at cheapest!! that's $22.50! Whew. It was a lot of fun, though. We didn't stay super late, and luckily we caught the very last metro on its last run, but we were definitely there long enough to dance like crazy! It was really fun to see all the students go crazy, because i only ever see them as nervous Americans trying to figure out Spain stuff.

I was supposed to go with a couple people this morning on the C-bus route, which does a big circle around the city, so that we could check out a lot of neighborhoods for our apartment search... but yeah, that didn't happen. :) The good thing about coming home late is that I get to talk to friends that are online (albeit my internet cuts out-sorry :( The bad thing is that then i can't get up in the morning!

We're taking a trip to Toledo tomorrow.. just a day trip, and i have no idea what we're doing, they're supposed to explain that to us today so.. ciao!

A little scared

Ok, yeah, things are new and great and all "spain-ish" but WOW i'm nervous. within the next week i have to have chosen what courses i'm going to take for the rest of the semester.. which means i have to look through this HUGE packet of possible courses at the Univ. of Madrid.. find which ones apply towards what i'm doing.. cut out the majority to find which are offered this semester.. look through this packet of IU course equivalencies to see which of the few remaining will definitely count for credit at IU, then.. if all's well there.. i'll maybe end up with ONE class that i can take.. THEN i have to find alternatives.. because there are a TON of foreigners here at Madrid.. and the rule is that only 5 foreigners can be in a class.. makes sense, but it's annoying..

SO although there may only be one class that is good for me, there is absolutely no guarentee that'll I'll get it, so then i have to find a course, find the description, and try to find something similar so that when i'm back at IU i can PETITION and fight to have that class accepted as equal to what i need. .

THEN after doing that with all 5 classes : i have to find MORE because i obviously can't have the times interfere.
and am i going to be able to survive in a class where I will be in no way up to par with the rest of the students? is this going to kill my gradepoint average??? i definitely won't be able to read as fast as others in the literature class that i have to take.. i can't write as well as those in my composition class.. and and and and there's more! errrr. i hope this is worth it!

OK

at the same time.. i need to buy newspapers for about $2 every day.. find ads for apartments that are:
not in bad neigborhoods, won't hang up on me because i'm foreign, have a good price (350euros=$525.. the average for rent.. but the exchange rate is getting even worse) , are close to where i need to be, and have good tenants. I'm worried about just being able to communicate! let alone figure out if the heating is butane or gas, if the water bill is included, if i can get in the apartment in February and out in July.... oh man, there's so much to do.

I also have a little class from now until all the other classes start.. so i'm in the school, unable to do any of this stuff from 2 until 8:30..

Other than that, though, i'm doing well! :) i just found an adaptor today.. my 3rd day of looking. The group went out for dinner with the year-long students then to a club afterwards (but we had to leave early to catch the metro before it stopped running).. but I did have a great time while I was there, and hopefully it's a glimpse of what's to come: good times with friends, and a lot of Spanish. :)

2 in one day!

WOOOT!! I just found a wireless connection in my room!

Today, I woke up at 8.. hit snooze, and then wake up to my roommate, Jackie, knocking and calling my name at 10:00. haha. syndrome of jet-lag?? probably, because it's 1am here, and i'm super awake.. also due to being so excited about having internet access in my room, i'm sure.

Jackie and I went out this morning and found a shopping center where I was able to buy necessities such as shampoo, towels, and an adaptor. . but it turns out that the adaptor doesn't work for anything i have! my battery charger: the prongs aren't long enough to go into the adaptor because it (the adaptor) has a big rim around it my laptop: the adaptor doesn't have a third hole for the third prong on the laptop plug my straightener: the adaptor doesn't have one small hole and one longer hole.. probably because of the voltage difference.

Soooo that's it. }:( grrr. but the right adaptors have to exist because other students have used their laptops here.. so don't lose hope for me guys!! : ) oh, i'm on my laptop now because i'm borrowing my roommate's adaptor incase you were wondering.

Other than shopping, i had another meeting today at the school where they taught us about how we're going to sign up for classes... and some US embassy people came and scared us about all the danger around every corner.. psht. We tried to eat lunch at the school cafeteria, but they didn't have anything.. nonsweet! Well there was the ham, cheese and tomato sub, but the ham is WEIRD and really not yummy (like the ham at dani's, erin.. sorry dani) so for lunch, I had a piece of bread and water.. AWESOME... Supper made by my host parents (at 9:30... ) was great though!

Jackie (the other student in my house) and i tried to go out tonight, not to do anything crazy, just go sit at a place and have a drink... but the metros stop running at 1am.. so how would we get back? we think there're buses, but we don't know about them yet really.. and we could take a cab, but they're expensive.. .so we decided to just go and get back before one, but we didn't know where to go.. so we took a while to leave.. then we couldn't find a place that had more than like..3 old people in it. so we finally decided to go to this little one by our house in order to get back in time, but it was closed.. haha.. YAY MADRID! :) we didn't go to the center of the city because of the time limit, so i'm sure there will be much more alive, even on a tuesday night.

it doesn't feel like i'm really immersed in spain yet.. because although Jackie and i try to speak spanish to eachother throughout the day... our orientation meetings are all in english so they make sure we understand everything.. that we just end up reverting back to english saying, "just for the first couple days...". It will definitely change, though, so i'm not worried.

ok. i keep getting kicked off the internet.. bye!

I´M HERE!!

Alright!! so i´ve made it! I arrived in Madrid yesterday around 8am (2am indiana time), i found the other student that I´m living with, and took a 35euro taxi (about 40-some dollars), and got all settled into my little half-dormsize room. My host family is really nice and we´ve already had an orientation thing at the school. Classes don´t start until the 4th of February, but we have meetings everyday, and a ¨mini-class¨starting next week. This weekend the group is taking us to Toledo.. I´m not sure why, but let´s roll with it.

The first thing that really struck me as weird is that they eat supper at 9.30 pm!! How´s a girl supposed to not eat between 2pm and 9.30 pm!? haha, well, the other student, Jackie, and I definitely found a little food store really quickly. I live in an apartment in a strip of little stores.. it´s like.. a big gate inbetween a little grocery store and.. i don´t even know what´s on the other side actually.. some other little store. I´m using an internet cafe at the moment, but will be able to use my own computer in a few days, in which time, i´m going to skype anyone that has downloaded skype and is on!! so get it and get on!! my screen name on there is my first initial and last name.

umm.. I haven´t taken many pictures yet, but i´ll get on that. :) I´ve taken the subway, the bus, and walked a million miles (we missed our bus stop) but all´s well so far! I´m going to have to start my apartment hunt soon, so wish me luck and i´ll keep in touch!

love you guys

3 to Go

I called my host family yesterday. I stay with a host family for the first month and during that time, I have to find an apartment, where I'll be from February 14th until July 2nd. My host family is a 25 year old couple living just northwest of the city (about 20 minutes by subway, I'm told, to the university), I called the cell phone that I was given and spoke with the guy ( I still don't know their names!!) . He sounded really nice, very friendly and reassuring. And the best part... I didn't have hardly any trouble understanding him!! I think he understood what I was saying as well.. hopefully. :)

Only 5 days!!

I now have less than one week to finish preparing everything to live for .. uh.. jan, feb, march, april, may, june ... 6 months in a country where i'll barely be able to speak the language!!! yikes!

No worries.. I've been preparing, I guess you could call it, by listening to spanish songs, watching telenovelas (spanish soap operas), and reading a Spanish Goosebumps book given to me by my sister-in-law (thanks Britt!!). Haha, maybe they'll help a little bit, if only to make me feel better-like I've been doing something in preparation.

I went to Bloomington this past weekend to visit people, say goodbye, etc. On the way home I went to Chicago to pick up my visa and I was reminded that there are so many things that you can't take at face value. For example, the process of getting a visa to study for 6 months in Spain is $100. But let's break this down "Mastercard style":

Upfront cost for student visa: $100
Total days spent on the process: 2
Gasoline to and from Chicago to apply for visa: $75
Parking once in Chicago: $20
Gasoline to and from Chicago to pick up the visa: $75
Speeding ticket incurred on the way to Chicago: $120
However,
Feeling of being legally able to live in foreign country: PRICELESS!!

There's quite a bit more involved in studying abroad than simply losing your life's savings, :) .. I know it's going to be worth it, not only will I have the experience of being totally emerged in another culture, but I'm going to be getting such a step up for my future career! As I'll be (hopefully) teaching Spanish, what better than to acquire a little first-hand experience in, and feel for, the motherland of the language!