I regret to inform you, the few remaining faithful readers of this blog, that I have decided to suspend writing on here. I am far too busy, and so many things have happened, I don't think I could possibly catch up without writing a book. So I apologize. If you would like to hear about anything, please don't hesitate to email me. I am much better at that.
Tommy
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Granada, Cordoba, and Calpe. simply amazing
Hey everyone,
Here is the post that you all have anxiously waiting for the last couple weeks. So as I mentioned in the last post, we went to Granada and Cordoba for our second excursion. Both were simply amazing in their own ways, though I would be hard pressed to say I enjoyed them more than Barcelona. Anyways here we go. I will try to keep it short.
After a lengthy bus ride, we arrived in Granada. Our accomodations were much better, because we were actually in the center of town. This added benefit will come into play later on in my story. We saw the catedral of Granada, which you can see here.
At this point of the trip, all the catedrales are starting to blend together. It is really cool when you walk in there and see the grandeur, but I suppose that I won't really remember those experiences in 3 three years. We did get to see a flamenco dance the same day. It felt a bit risque, almost what I imagine being at a strip club would feel like. However, it was fun to see the gypsies dance, sing, and play the guitar. Which reminds me, there are alot of gypsies in Granada, always trying to sell you something you clearly don't want. They will hound you....seriously.
We met some argentinian girls at our hotel, and they took us out for a night on the town. Beyond spending time with attractive foreigners, it was a good way to practice spanish with native speakers. They have a very beautiful accent, but also hard for us to understand. I am sure there were multitudes of misunderstandings that were fairly humorous to them. Here we are at the Hotel in Granada.
We then went to Cordoba on Friday for some fun in the ancient Moorish capital. We saw alot of history, obviously. My favorite was undoubtedly the Mezquita/Catedral de Cordoba. There is a christian catedral built inside of an Islamic Mosque. Very rare and fairly interesting. Normally, the Christians in Spain liked to make war and destroy all opposing culture. Our tour guide, a christian, always tells us that the Christians in Spain during the middle ages only knew how to make war, not culture, art etc... But for some reason, the Christians decided to leave this alone and convert it into a Catedral. It was simpy amazing. Look.
We also saw a moped run into the back of a car. Sweet justice. No I am not that cruel and callous, he wasn't injured. However, they are the craziest drivers and nearly swipe me when I am walking to school. I do have some inner angst about them.
The rest of Granada was cool, but not necessary to talk about here for the sake of brevity. This past weekend a couple friends and I went to climb this rock in a city called Calpe. Remember Montgo, the mountain were I injured my hand? Yeah, this was way better. Much easier climb, better view, and didn't take all day. If Allison, Brock and my dad are lucky, I will take them here so they can see this amazing view. If not I suppose I could just show them this blog too. Here you go.
This first one is from top of the mountain. I swear I wasn't posing for this.
And this what we actually climbed.
One word of caution if you ever attempt to climb this. Its like seagull heaven, which I can understand. If I was a seagull I would love to hang out here too. I think it will sufice to say that my hands, feet, and pants saw alot of bird caka.
Thats all for now. Espero que hayais disfrutado unos momentos de mi vida aqui en Espana ( I hope that you all have enjoyed several moments of my life here in Spain ). Hasta luego.
Tommy
Here is the post that you all have anxiously waiting for the last couple weeks. So as I mentioned in the last post, we went to Granada and Cordoba for our second excursion. Both were simply amazing in their own ways, though I would be hard pressed to say I enjoyed them more than Barcelona. Anyways here we go. I will try to keep it short.
After a lengthy bus ride, we arrived in Granada. Our accomodations were much better, because we were actually in the center of town. This added benefit will come into play later on in my story. We saw the catedral of Granada, which you can see here.
At this point of the trip, all the catedrales are starting to blend together. It is really cool when you walk in there and see the grandeur, but I suppose that I won't really remember those experiences in 3 three years. We did get to see a flamenco dance the same day. It felt a bit risque, almost what I imagine being at a strip club would feel like. However, it was fun to see the gypsies dance, sing, and play the guitar. Which reminds me, there are alot of gypsies in Granada, always trying to sell you something you clearly don't want. They will hound you....seriously.
We met some argentinian girls at our hotel, and they took us out for a night on the town. Beyond spending time with attractive foreigners, it was a good way to practice spanish with native speakers. They have a very beautiful accent, but also hard for us to understand. I am sure there were multitudes of misunderstandings that were fairly humorous to them. Here we are at the Hotel in Granada.
We then went to Cordoba on Friday for some fun in the ancient Moorish capital. We saw alot of history, obviously. My favorite was undoubtedly the Mezquita/Catedral de Cordoba. There is a christian catedral built inside of an Islamic Mosque. Very rare and fairly interesting. Normally, the Christians in Spain liked to make war and destroy all opposing culture. Our tour guide, a christian, always tells us that the Christians in Spain during the middle ages only knew how to make war, not culture, art etc... But for some reason, the Christians decided to leave this alone and convert it into a Catedral. It was simpy amazing. Look.
We also saw a moped run into the back of a car. Sweet justice. No I am not that cruel and callous, he wasn't injured. However, they are the craziest drivers and nearly swipe me when I am walking to school. I do have some inner angst about them.
The rest of Granada was cool, but not necessary to talk about here for the sake of brevity. This past weekend a couple friends and I went to climb this rock in a city called Calpe. Remember Montgo, the mountain were I injured my hand? Yeah, this was way better. Much easier climb, better view, and didn't take all day. If Allison, Brock and my dad are lucky, I will take them here so they can see this amazing view. If not I suppose I could just show them this blog too. Here you go.
This first one is from top of the mountain. I swear I wasn't posing for this.
And this what we actually climbed.
One word of caution if you ever attempt to climb this. Its like seagull heaven, which I can understand. If I was a seagull I would love to hang out here too. I think it will sufice to say that my hands, feet, and pants saw alot of bird caka.Thats all for now. Espero que hayais disfrutado unos momentos de mi vida aqui en Espana ( I hope that you all have enjoyed several moments of my life here in Spain ). Hasta luego.
Tommy
Monday, February 25, 2008
In the meantime
Hello friends and family,
To be rather honest with all of you, nothing really exciting has happened the last two weeks since my last post. That is partly because I have been swamped with homework, exams, papers, and scholarship applications. However for the other part, I am settling into life in spain, and new things don't really seem so new anymore. I am sure they would be strange and wierd for you, but after spending more than a month and a half here, most of it just seems to come with the territory. For example, the elections are coming up March 9 here in Spain. Denia has become littered with political ads, posters, and what not. In fact, I was woken up to a car with a huge loud speaker talking trash about Zapatero (the current president, and candidate for the upcoming elections, he's rather liberal). I have never seen that in the States, but I wasn't surprised after seeing how rabid Spaniards can get about elections.
Another example, I ate entire fish the other day, including their heads, tails, skin, and bones. It was delicious, and my padre always tells me that the flavor is in the skin, so I am forced to eat it. I tend to agree with him. I can't picture myself liking that in the States, but if you put enough olive oil on anything, it tastes great.
We are heading to Andalucia this Thursday to see what Granada and Cordoba have to offer. I need to remember to put batteries in my camera before we leave, for your sake if not my own. It should be very different than the trip to Barcelona, I think we have better living arrangements this time or at least we better, or else I am staging a protest with pickets and the like. If you know anything about the history of this region of Spain, the art and culture show very strong connections with its Muslim past.
I am glad to hear you all enjoyed my article the previous week. I think I want to write another, but I can't think of an enfoque (focus). Any ideas?
Tommy
To be rather honest with all of you, nothing really exciting has happened the last two weeks since my last post. That is partly because I have been swamped with homework, exams, papers, and scholarship applications. However for the other part, I am settling into life in spain, and new things don't really seem so new anymore. I am sure they would be strange and wierd for you, but after spending more than a month and a half here, most of it just seems to come with the territory. For example, the elections are coming up March 9 here in Spain. Denia has become littered with political ads, posters, and what not. In fact, I was woken up to a car with a huge loud speaker talking trash about Zapatero (the current president, and candidate for the upcoming elections, he's rather liberal). I have never seen that in the States, but I wasn't surprised after seeing how rabid Spaniards can get about elections.
Another example, I ate entire fish the other day, including their heads, tails, skin, and bones. It was delicious, and my padre always tells me that the flavor is in the skin, so I am forced to eat it. I tend to agree with him. I can't picture myself liking that in the States, but if you put enough olive oil on anything, it tastes great.
We are heading to Andalucia this Thursday to see what Granada and Cordoba have to offer. I need to remember to put batteries in my camera before we leave, for your sake if not my own. It should be very different than the trip to Barcelona, I think we have better living arrangements this time or at least we better, or else I am staging a protest with pickets and the like. If you know anything about the history of this region of Spain, the art and culture show very strong connections with its Muslim past.
I am glad to hear you all enjoyed my article the previous week. I think I want to write another, but I can't think of an enfoque (focus). Any ideas?
Tommy
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Sorry for the Wait
Dear Family and Friends,
Its been a long time since I last graced this hallowed blog. So for that I'm sorry. However, you do have one thing to be thankful for, this post won't be near as long as the previous one. YAY. Also I did snap a picture of me and the family, which you can see right about here...
I look like a giant in that photo, and its not just tricky camera work. I really am alot bigger then my spanish family. My moms name is Mari, great cook, and my dad's is, Jose. On that couch right there is usually where Jose sit and talk after lunch or dinner. He is insanely pro Spain, so we usually talk about how good Spanish art, science, food, and wine is. I am quietly becoming more patriotic to Spain then I am to America. Shhhhh, don't tell my political science professors
Speaking on that note, I am currently writing an article for chimes that will be appearing in the upcoming issue, 2/15/08. It will be called Vale la Pena (worth the pain) and have a similar theme as I mentioned above. But i am not going to say anymore, you will need to read it, you can find the current issue online here http://clubs.calvin.edu/chimes/ and just search for my article by either my name or the name of the article
I am going to talk about the last two weekends here, but as I promised you a short post, I won't go into much depth.Please comment if you want to hear more
Last weekend there was quite the party in Spain. Its called carnaval, and that really translates to "farewell to meat." As Spain is traditionally a Catholic country, they practice lent just as many people do in the states. Carnaval is the day before lent, where everyone indulges in sweets, alcohol, and whatever else before the 40 days of lent. So in a sense, it is exactly the same as Mardis Gras and fat tuesday. Our group, rented a bus and went to a neighboring town to celebrate with 30,000 other spaniards. It was a night of shoulder to shoulder dancing, loud loud music, and excesses (as I am sure you can imagine). To give you a better picture of how crazy it was, I am going to provide you with two things. First, we left at 630 in the morning and the party was still raging. Second, here is a friend of mine and "your humble narrator" in our costumes.
This most recent weekend, a group of decided to climb a mountain that towers over denia. We met at 11, which was pretty hard for some of us, including me as we went to bed only 5 hours before that. We estimated that we walked nearly 13-14 miles to the very top of the mountain (2300ft). It was very rocky and steep, unlike any other mountain I have climbed before. I cut my hand trying to take a shortcut as you can see here.
Its a beautiful view from up there, take a peek, it was cloudy up there, as you will be able to see
Thats really about it for now, I hope everything is going well for everyone on the other side of the pond
So long, Tommy Heyboer
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Barcelona
Hola mis amistades,
Before I get rolling on this post, you all need to understand one thing: If you are ever in Europe you must visit Barcelona. It was one of the most interesting, beautiful, and liveliest cities I have ever been too, and I think you will know why when I finish.
The entire group, 42 of us, including an eccentric but very funny tour guide named Enrique, spent 3 days in Barcelona and 1 day in Terragona. First Terragona. Terragona is about an hour south of Barcelona on the Eastern Coast of Spain on the Mediterrean Sea. However, the real importance of the city is not its proximity to Barcelona, rather, it lies in its historical significance. Within Terragona, there is an ancient roman city, still largely intact. Many of the towers, walls, and ruins date back nearly 2000 years. We walked on a sidewalk that Romans walked on. For many of you that may not mean much, and it didn't mean much to me either until I learned about the history and architecture of the Romans. However, I won't go into detail here, as it may bore of some you. But as I have said before, I would love to describe anything to any of you if you want more of the details.
Side note: I have changed the settings for this blog so that anyone can post a comment without having to get a user name or sign in. Hooray.
Now the part you have all been anxiously waiting for. Barcelona. As I mentioned earlier, one of the coolest cities I have ever been to. Heres why.
Imaginad conmigo (imagine with me).
A dense city of 5 million people with large avenues and apartments above every store. You are merely ambling throughout the city and you can see a priceless sculpture on every corner. Like our friend Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus). Funny store about this sculpture, many people assume he is pointing towards America. INCORRECT. He is pointing towards Italy, for a reason I have not figured out yet.
You walk down las ramblas (the busiest and most famous street in Barcelona) and you have street performers trying to make a buck with music, magic acts, gymnastics, and the most interesting to me, people who dressed up in crazy costumes such as trees, aliens, or tin men . If you are fortunate to walk down there at night, you have the amazing privilege of having Packs (slang) trying to sell you beer every 10 steps.
You make it down to the oldest part of town the gothic neighborhood, where you can view this cathedral complete with gargoyles just like in the movies.
Perhaps you want to go view some of the works of Antoni Gaudi, a famous spanish Architect. When looking at these pictures, it is important to remember two things. These buildings were revolutionary at the time and Gaudi was fascinated with the interplay between nature and architecture as you can see.
Casa Mila an apartment building built for the priviledged.
Parque Guell now a public park, was meant to be developed for housing. We had lunch here, and since it is a tourist attraction there are many street vendors there. Watch out, they will try to cheat as they tried to cheat a girl in the group.
La Sagrada Familia a church started in the late 19th century and is obvioulsy still under construction. Without a doubt, the most awe-inspiring building I have ever witnessed. The maginitude and grandiose of this building cannot be put into words. I like how it looks like there is a large mouth in the center.
Now you have heard that the people of Barcelona are known for their nightlife. Rumors of bars and clubs that stay open till sunrise with 50 euro entrance fees swirling around in your head. Well let me set the record straight. POR SUPUESTO (of course). I am just going to state a fact. Spaniards dance way better then Americans. However, as amazing the nightlife is, the cab driving is not. Monday night, we were on our way back from a discotecca (basically a club, but a lot more dancing and of course, American Music), and were dropped off a good mile away from our lodging. In a foreign country, lost, and 4:30 in the morning, you can imagine there was a bit of fear running through us. Luckily, we walked for a while and got lucky enough to recognize some landmarks, 45 minutes after we were dropped off.
Lastly, a friend has told you about the wine of Spain. The best in the world according to him or her. You may want to explore a vineyard and winery to see for yourself. Try the winery Cordoniu. Lucky for Allison, Brock, and my loving father, they are going to get to try the finest cava (spanish champagne), straight from the winery itself, in the world when they come to visit.
This concludes the trip. It is my sincerest hope that you enjoyed the ride and will take a week out of your busy schedules to experience these wonders in person.
Hasta Luego
Tommy
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Am I still a tourist? I think so
Friends, Michiganders, Countrymen(women too)
Lend me your ears.
Two points to whomever can name where that comes from. I will give you a hint, the author is English. Anyways, a lot has happened since my last post. I am still getting used to editing and using this blog so bear with me. The photos I posted the other day didn't format like I wanted them too, but oh well.
Now some general information.
Life in Denia has been great. Spain works at a much different pace then the states does. For instance, everyone walks very slow and I am constantly wondering why I am flying by them on the sidewalk. Also, the pace of meal times is much slower. More emphasis is placed on the social gathering and talking of a meal then the actual food. However the food here is really good. I haven't had a bad meal since I have been here. They use alot of olive oil and almost everything is fried or cooked. For instance in this past week, I have had fresh fish, rice with vegetables, a morrocan dish with cous cous and rabbit, paella and ham straight from the leg of a pig. It is quite common for families to purchase a leg of a pig and eat from it for a while. I don't like ham in the states, but this ham is so good for one reason or another.
Now the specifics.
Alright enough on that. I had a very interesting and action packed weekend. On thursday, I went out with my spanish brother and his friends. Lucky for me, one of his friends is from Wisconsin and could speak fluent english. He helped me out alot with my Spanish and understanding the finer nuances of the culture. For instance saying "entiendes" which translates to "do you understand me" has some other more sinister meanings depending on the context. Needless to say, I will be using "comprendes" from now on which translates to the same thing without the dangers of the other one.
Friday night, 20 of us from the group went over to a Spaniards house for a fiesta before we went out. Now it will be hard for you to understand just how rare and incredible this actually is for spanish culture. Spaniards don't normally have alot of people over, normally people meet at the bar to hang out. Whats even more inconceivable is that she is a 60 year old Spanish women entertaining 20 Americans who may or may not have played a version of ping pong on her roof.
Saturday night, I went to Valencia (the third largest city in Spain) with my Sister and some of her friends. They spoke too fast for me and I mentally checked out of Spanish land by about 10pm. However Valencia is much bigger and more metropolitan. I almost rather we studied there instead of Denia.
Finally, this morning I was awoken by my sister at 11 pm. Apparently I had told them I might wake up around 11. I thought time was flexible here in Spain???? But I am actually glad I woke up, because they promptly took me and the dogs to the town square for the festival of San Antonio. San Antonio is the patron saint of animals. So the entire town takes their animals to the town square to have the priest flick holy water on them. However, its more of tradition then religious now. I saw ferrets, horses, ponies, rabbits, and of course lots of dogs. It made me miss bailey a lot. However, she would not have been able to handle that many dogs as many of you can attest to.
That was my weekend, and now I need to buckle down for the rest of this week until saturday when we leave for Barcelona. If you have any questions or want me to explain anything in more detail please leave a comment (there will be a link right beneath this post) and I will respond to it. I was hoping this would allow more of a forum for conversation then would a mass email. So long mis amistades.
Tommy
Lend me your ears.
Two points to whomever can name where that comes from. I will give you a hint, the author is English. Anyways, a lot has happened since my last post. I am still getting used to editing and using this blog so bear with me. The photos I posted the other day didn't format like I wanted them too, but oh well.
Now some general information.
Life in Denia has been great. Spain works at a much different pace then the states does. For instance, everyone walks very slow and I am constantly wondering why I am flying by them on the sidewalk. Also, the pace of meal times is much slower. More emphasis is placed on the social gathering and talking of a meal then the actual food. However the food here is really good. I haven't had a bad meal since I have been here. They use alot of olive oil and almost everything is fried or cooked. For instance in this past week, I have had fresh fish, rice with vegetables, a morrocan dish with cous cous and rabbit, paella and ham straight from the leg of a pig. It is quite common for families to purchase a leg of a pig and eat from it for a while. I don't like ham in the states, but this ham is so good for one reason or another.
Now the specifics.
Alright enough on that. I had a very interesting and action packed weekend. On thursday, I went out with my spanish brother and his friends. Lucky for me, one of his friends is from Wisconsin and could speak fluent english. He helped me out alot with my Spanish and understanding the finer nuances of the culture. For instance saying "entiendes" which translates to "do you understand me" has some other more sinister meanings depending on the context. Needless to say, I will be using "comprendes" from now on which translates to the same thing without the dangers of the other one.
Friday night, 20 of us from the group went over to a Spaniards house for a fiesta before we went out. Now it will be hard for you to understand just how rare and incredible this actually is for spanish culture. Spaniards don't normally have alot of people over, normally people meet at the bar to hang out. Whats even more inconceivable is that she is a 60 year old Spanish women entertaining 20 Americans who may or may not have played a version of ping pong on her roof.
Saturday night, I went to Valencia (the third largest city in Spain) with my Sister and some of her friends. They spoke too fast for me and I mentally checked out of Spanish land by about 10pm. However Valencia is much bigger and more metropolitan. I almost rather we studied there instead of Denia.
Finally, this morning I was awoken by my sister at 11 pm. Apparently I had told them I might wake up around 11. I thought time was flexible here in Spain???? But I am actually glad I woke up, because they promptly took me and the dogs to the town square for the festival of San Antonio. San Antonio is the patron saint of animals. So the entire town takes their animals to the town square to have the priest flick holy water on them. However, its more of tradition then religious now. I saw ferrets, horses, ponies, rabbits, and of course lots of dogs. It made me miss bailey a lot. However, she would not have been able to handle that many dogs as many of you can attest to.
That was my weekend, and now I need to buckle down for the rest of this week until saturday when we leave for Barcelona. If you have any questions or want me to explain anything in more detail please leave a comment (there will be a link right beneath this post) and I will respond to it. I was hoping this would allow more of a forum for conversation then would a mass email. So long mis amistades.
Tommy
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Here are some pictures
I have taken a few (and by a few I mean not many) pictures that I think you all may enjoy. This first one is the view from my bedroom. I feel pretty lucky to wake up to see the mountains everday. That park you can see there is the same roundabout that the university is so you can see how close i live to the school.
This photo is of the tunnel that goes underneath the castle. I was leading the group to an irish pub and I took a wrong turn and we ended up on the wrong side of the castle. Our professor warned us never to take that tunnel especially at night, because of rumors of people getting acosted and raped in there. Ooops. We took it anyways, obviously. Hahah.
And here is a picture of my small room. It is comfy though. Its a little dirty, and my mom cleaned it today so it looks alot better then it does here. She must really like me.
Thats all for now, more to come.
Tommy
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Los fines de Semana
Hola los todos,
Wow. Spain has been one crazy ride and I have only been here since monday. It still feels kind of like a vacation and I will be returning home in a week. Lots of things have happened since my last post and I will try to clue you all into at least los puntos interesantes. As you may have already been able to tell, it is getting harder for me to write in English. I am continually wanting to translate things into Spanish, so if you read something that sounds funny in english that is the likely cause.
Ayer (yesterday) we had to watch a movie at 4, which is directly after the siesta i love to take. I woke up from my nap at 430 and was like mierda! ( I will let you look that one up if you so desire). So I turned over and went back to sleep haha. After a fabulous dinner cooked by my mom, all of us decided to go out and see what Denia nightlife has to offer. I won't fill you in on the details as it may worry some of you (well probably only my mom) but it is way different than American nightlife. We didn't get back to our houses till 5 am from the bars. THey don't close at 2 like the bars in the United States. But it is considered really taboo to se pone barracho (to get drunk).
I woke up at noon today to hear my mom telling me to "levantate" which means get up tommy. I must have not understood our conversation the previous today ha. They took me to their house by the sea, where we had lunch and i played guitar with my brother. He saw the shirt i was wearing (it had kalamazoo on it) and he was like "dios mio" and he ran to grab a guitar that was surprisingly made in kalamazoo michigan. It was a heritage guitar. It really is a small world.
Once again, I forgot to bring my camera with me to the internet cafe. I promise next time to upload some pictures. Until then
Hasta Luego
Tommy
Wow. Spain has been one crazy ride and I have only been here since monday. It still feels kind of like a vacation and I will be returning home in a week. Lots of things have happened since my last post and I will try to clue you all into at least los puntos interesantes. As you may have already been able to tell, it is getting harder for me to write in English. I am continually wanting to translate things into Spanish, so if you read something that sounds funny in english that is the likely cause.
Ayer (yesterday) we had to watch a movie at 4, which is directly after the siesta i love to take. I woke up from my nap at 430 and was like mierda! ( I will let you look that one up if you so desire). So I turned over and went back to sleep haha. After a fabulous dinner cooked by my mom, all of us decided to go out and see what Denia nightlife has to offer. I won't fill you in on the details as it may worry some of you (well probably only my mom) but it is way different than American nightlife. We didn't get back to our houses till 5 am from the bars. THey don't close at 2 like the bars in the United States. But it is considered really taboo to se pone barracho (to get drunk).
I woke up at noon today to hear my mom telling me to "levantate" which means get up tommy. I must have not understood our conversation the previous today ha. They took me to their house by the sea, where we had lunch and i played guitar with my brother. He saw the shirt i was wearing (it had kalamazoo on it) and he was like "dios mio" and he ran to grab a guitar that was surprisingly made in kalamazoo michigan. It was a heritage guitar. It really is a small world.
Once again, I forgot to bring my camera with me to the internet cafe. I promise next time to upload some pictures. Until then
Hasta Luego
Tommy
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The first couple days
Hola los todos,
I have been in Spain for 3 days already. It seems like I just left yesterday. Denia, the city I am living is beautiful. I wake up to sunshine and an excellent view of the mountains surrounding Denia. I live on the same roundabout as the University and nearly get hit by a car every time (Spaniards are crazy drivers) I go to and from the school. I am beginning to get my bearings around the city. I am able to find the stores I need to find and make it home usually without any problems. Denia is not very big, but very dense. A walk from my piso (a flat, kind of like an apartment) to the mediterrean is only 10 minutes, but you pass by 100's of little stores all with apartments above them. Yesterday, we all took a tour of the city hitting the hot spots such as the castle, the catholic church on the water, a coffee shop with ruins from the moors, the port, and many others. At night, a couple of us managed to find our a way to an irish pub that played american music like the beatles, 50 cent, and the Doors. However, our waitress must of been speaking a different dialect of spanish then we were because we litterally had to show her what we wanted. Today, I got to meet my spanish brother, his name is Javi. He is a teacher and really enjoys music. At lunch we spoke about bands like radiohead and Rufus Rainright(I did not spell right). It was much easier to speak to him than my mom, so I hope he is around more often. Oh yeah, and se me rompio una taza esta manana (I broke a glass this morning). Its not easy explaining that and apologizing in spanish. Way to go Tommy.
As for the classes, they are pretty tiring. I spend all my energy trying to understand what the professor is saying in Spanish so it is hard to take notes and think deeper about the material. However, this should improve as my spanish improves (I have my fingers crossed).
I also purchased an international phone too. It was pretty cheap and will allow me to place calls to the united states for 15 cents a minute, and if i receive a call its free for me too. If you want more information about that just let me know
Thats for all now.I will put pictures up as soon as I take them ha. If you have any questions, shoot em on over.
Hasta Luego
Tommy
I have been in Spain for 3 days already. It seems like I just left yesterday. Denia, the city I am living is beautiful. I wake up to sunshine and an excellent view of the mountains surrounding Denia. I live on the same roundabout as the University and nearly get hit by a car every time (Spaniards are crazy drivers) I go to and from the school. I am beginning to get my bearings around the city. I am able to find the stores I need to find and make it home usually without any problems. Denia is not very big, but very dense. A walk from my piso (a flat, kind of like an apartment) to the mediterrean is only 10 minutes, but you pass by 100's of little stores all with apartments above them. Yesterday, we all took a tour of the city hitting the hot spots such as the castle, the catholic church on the water, a coffee shop with ruins from the moors, the port, and many others. At night, a couple of us managed to find our a way to an irish pub that played american music like the beatles, 50 cent, and the Doors. However, our waitress must of been speaking a different dialect of spanish then we were because we litterally had to show her what we wanted. Today, I got to meet my spanish brother, his name is Javi. He is a teacher and really enjoys music. At lunch we spoke about bands like radiohead and Rufus Rainright(I did not spell right). It was much easier to speak to him than my mom, so I hope he is around more often. Oh yeah, and se me rompio una taza esta manana (I broke a glass this morning). Its not easy explaining that and apologizing in spanish. Way to go Tommy.
As for the classes, they are pretty tiring. I spend all my energy trying to understand what the professor is saying in Spanish so it is hard to take notes and think deeper about the material. However, this should improve as my spanish improves (I have my fingers crossed).
I also purchased an international phone too. It was pretty cheap and will allow me to place calls to the united states for 15 cents a minute, and if i receive a call its free for me too. If you want more information about that just let me know
Thats for all now.I will put pictures up as soon as I take them ha. If you have any questions, shoot em on over.
Hasta Luego
Tommy
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