Portrait from Vitoria

Lea took this of me when we were in Vitoria. I like it. :D

Meeting up with Jorge

I bet we made a funny sight, a Mexican and an American walking together through the streets of Pamplona. And it wasn't even what you'd think, it's weirder. But I'm used to that sort of thing by now.

Bajau Sea Nomads

It sounds like something out of a fantasy book - maybe not even a very good one. I can't believe I've never heard anything else about these people - the whole thing seems so strange and understated that I'm almost wondering if there's now a half April fools day in the fall.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2010/sep/20/bajau-sea-nomads#/?picture=366866816&index=8

http://scubascoop-kirkscubagear.blogspot.com/

They're the Bajau, an ethnic group in Malaysia. According to the guardian article I've linked to, some of them have spent almost their entire lives on tiny boats, leaving only very briefly to trade on land. They're excellent divers - pictures show them tackling octopi and other sea creatures to carry home and eat. They make their own goggles out of wood. They intentionally rupture their eardrums while young - leading to a week of pain and bleeding from the nose and ears - but afterward, they can dive pain-free.



"While few young children are now born on boats, the ocean is still very much their playground – as demonstrated by Enal, photographed playing with his pet shark in Wangi Wangi, Indonesia"

According to Wikipedia, they're also known for being expert horsemen. Don't ask me how that's supposed to work out.

Ode on a Grecian Urn - Animated XD

The professor wanted us to hear the poem in English, so he went on Youtube. The first video was done in a Microsoft Sam voice that pushed right through the language barrier and made everyone giggle. The second one was, unbelievably, worse. It was so hard not to giggle.

Multiaventura Weekend

I got back from Club de Montana's Multiaventura just last night. It was an intense weekend, to say the least. The first day was great but almost had hints of summer camp, as we drove across Spain to settle into a sort of sports hostel, went on a little canyon hike, practiced rock climbing on the indoor walls, ate a quite decent but ultimately forgettable dinner in the hostel, and had to do a scavenger hunt until past our advisable bedtimes ( >:( ). (Mandatory staying up late (OR) getting up early is one thing, having both on the same trip pisses me off, people have different sleep needs and they should be free to try to get 8 or even 9 hours if they want.)

That said, the canyon hike was really cool, and the town we were staying in - Alquezar - was amazing! During our few hours of flexible time, a group of us explored the town, mostly the beautiful church up on the hill, where there was a wedding going on! We felt a bit like wedding crashers, but had been assured that the church was still open to tourists, so Carlos (new friend) and I went in, followed one woman up a tower staircase, and ended up making it all the way to the bell tower! We got out just barely in front of the bride, (the tell-tale music began as we stepped out the doorway! o.O) and got to watch her walk out and be showered with confetti and cheers by all the guests. Then someone started a series of loud, ground-laying fireworks that had been set all around us - excitement was in the air. Throughout the night, as we followed our scavenger hunt through the small town, the feeling of almost being part of the wedding continued. At one point we passed the bride and the wedding photographer disappearing down one of the dark alleys - minutes later, music started and fireworks were set off not far away, in the direction she had been headed. We speculated that she was the mayor's daughter. :) But who knows, really. Anyway, it was cool - the whole thing really made the town come alive.

The next morning we went canyoning. I'd heard about this briefly in Scotland and just thought, 'ow'. The guy there had explained it as 'kayaking through a canyon... without the kayak." Fun? Well, yes, actually, but also very nearly as painful as you might guess. We had wetsuits, tight and legit, which provided a lot of extra warmth and padding, but they didn't exactly make it a comfy exercize, just within the realm of possible. Which I guess is the point. :)

The place we went was basically like Johnson Shut In's on crack - bigger, better, much longer. The first part took us through lots of natural slides and smaller jumps, had us swim through steep sided narrow gorge's where the sun didn't reach and the water, while deep blue and beautiful, was freezing cold! This part was fun I guess, but also the least pleasant half by far, and I'm glad it was first. We were bruised, battered, and were all shivering somewhat violently by the time we emerged for the last jump and saw, just ahead, a very normal looking stretch of river, surrounded by green trees and sunlight. I felt that I'd come through the valley of danger and death and allowed myself to half hope that it was over, cool as it had been. When the guide said that the day was only HALF over, I despaired a little bit. I wasn't sure if I could do as much again...

But the second part was much more better. Less scary spots, less bruising, less bobbing in freezing water. More sunlight, more high jumps into large safe landing zones, more stretches of walking in order to thaw out. One section had three pretty high jumps (7, 9, and 13 meters), that all landed in a nice deep hole. I went on the 9 meter jump and enjoyed it so much I went again, and then Marketa (new friend) and I saw that some people were tackling the 13 meter, which was harder to get to and causing a lot of people to get nervous at the top. Marketa asked me if I wanted to go, and I was like, "Do you think he'll let us?" (We only saw big guys up there so far, and the tour guides had been somewhat protective of me, for better or for worse). and, "But hell yeah."

We swam across the river towards the jump. Mr. Tour guide looked somewhat doubtfully at the two of us. "It's really high." he said, in Spanish. "You can't hesitate, if you are afraid you can't do it."

"Pero yo lo puedo," said Marketa - But I can do it.

"Tienes miedo?" - Are you afraid?

"Yo lo puedo." - I can do it. He made a movement to let her pass.

"Yo no tengo miedo!" I shouted. I would be pissed if he let Marketa and not me.

People laughed, but he said, "Pues, adelante, si no tienes miedo que puedo decir yo." (Well, go on then, if you're not afraid what can I tell you."

We scrambled up to the top. The tricky element of the jump was immediately apparent - they wanted us to jump (from standing) and clear about three feet worth of horizontal rock before we'd reach the canyon. I was doubtful, but the guide was very clear that I should push off only from my left leg. (and that I must enter the water very straight and very strong). I went for it because it seemed like the only option, but once in the air I doubted if I could clear the edge, and the rock was pretty solid beneath me, so I put out one of my feet again for a second step, which connected very solidly and gave me a lot more propulsion. Once in the air it was actually much easier than some of the jumps because I had plenty of time to straighten my legs and fold my arms before entering the water. But still, the impact ripped my too-large gloves right off my hands! It was great, but they helped Marketa to inch down a bit lower than I had jumped from, because apparently the way I had done it wasn't as safe. As for myself, I certainly felt more uncertain about some of the smaller jumps from the first section, since there were more rocks and faster moving water, that you had to aim for a small zone and position yourself a certain way (legs up, cannonball, etc). Anyway, that jump was great.

From there there was a long long walk to the final jump - most of it through shallow water that just slowed you down. But the final jump was worth it - 11 meters off a waterfall. Since Marketa and I were two of only about four girls who had done the 13 meter in the end, the jump looked really really high to the others, and some were getting nervous and backing down. The first two girls who tried to jump, decided to go together, but on the /third/ count of three, one of them went and the other sat back down. The one who went, slipped on the edge and went off pretty clumsily. :S In the end, everyone jumped, but it was harder for some than others. My jump was quite fine, I found good footing and just went for it.

Once we all got to the bottom everyone swam around happier, whether because of sun, adrenaline, hypothermia, or relief, no one was cold anymore. We took a bunch of group pictures, played underneath one of the other waterfalls, and then took off our helmets and used them to great effect in a massive splash fight!

It was a great time. I got some awesome pictures, made some great friends, and wouldn't trade it for anything. But man, am I sore this morning. XD

A New Normal

This morning I woke up and felt so normal, I thought - I can't be in Spain, I can't still be travelling. It was just like an ordinary morning when you get to sleep in and wake up natural, not sore from climbing mountains or anything like that... just good, normal-like. I've been in Spain for four weeks now. A month. It's a new record.

Elements of Pamplona

Since I've been here at Pamplona, my experience has sort of splintered into five areas, based on my interests and situation. These are basically the five 'lives' I want to lead during my semester in Spain, the things I want to explore. Of course, I won't be fully in any of them if I split up my time, but life is short and I want to taste as many things as possible. :) These are not exactly equal to each other - they vary in terms of my motivation, the time and energy I will put into them, etc, but they're all things I look forward to experiencing this semester.


1.) The Spanish Experience

Well, I don't think I could get out of this one if I wanted to - it's basically my default experience here. And it's awesome. I'm taking all but one of my classes in Spanish, living with a Spanish woman, and making a few Spanish friends too, so I'm hoping to improve my knowledge of the language and the culture (both with a capital and a lowercase c). I love my province, Navarra, but I'm also very interested in exploring as much as I can of the rest of Spain - I've already been to Barcelona, Valencia, and Bilbao, and am going at a bare minimum to Madrid before I leave. Galicia is also on my almost certainly list. I'm also definitely eating as much Spanish food as I can!

Example: Every minute, every day.



2.) The Basque Experience

Yes, Pamplona is most certainly in Spain. But it's also in Euskal Herria, or, the (greater) Basque Country. Fully half of the people I've met who have grown up here speak the language, Euskera, and the political situation is a constantly changing, dynamic thing reflected by graffiti, posters, and protests on the street here. I'm also close enough to Euskadi, or, the (autonomous region of the) Basque Country, that I'm able to explore it as well as I explore Navarra. So far, I've visited the three capitals - Bilbao, San Sebastian, and Vittoria - and loved them. With any luck, I'll rent a car with some friends to head back and see some of the smaller towns. And anyone with a drop of linguistic leaning blood can't help but be fascinated by Euskera itself.

Example: I signed up for a weekly Euskera course - I couldn't resist!



3.) The Academic Experience

Yes, it sort of hit me by surprise, too. I may be studying abroad, but I'm still going to need to study - as much or more as I do back home. My classes aren't just Spanish language, either - I'm studying visual culture, literature and its impact on the modern world, film and literature, linguistics, and the aforementioned Euskera, all in Spanish, with Spanish students. Of course, I can't claim to love every second of this experience, but it's a valuable one and fascinating if I let it be. So much of art history, for example, is the same as back home (imagine that) that differences really stand out and shine.

Example: Sitting in a huge classroom and trying to understand abstract lectures about Romanticism, while being unsure whether the processor just said concession, connection, or conception.



4.) The Pyrenean Experience

I love mountains - both for their scenic qualities and the possibilities for fun and exciting activities. Pamplona itself is surrounded by low mountains, and the Pyrenees themselves are just a short trip away. It´s very exciting for a little Missouri girl, and I want to make the most of it!

Example: I plan to go on many of the Club de Montaña excursions, mostly hiking, but this weekend an intense two days of canyon exploration, repelling, etc!



5.) The Erasmus Experience

This one is somewhat controversial among people studying abroad. Some love it and embrace it as a full half of their exchange experience - others feel that mixing too much with the Erasmus students from all over the world will take away from their immersion in the native culture. To be honest, I have mixed feelings about it myself, as I've already experienced the craziness and wonder of an international community at Mizzou. I also know that spending time with the Erasmus students means more speaking in English and less practice with my Spanish. But ultimately, I think its an exercise in futility and self-isolation to try to avoid it on principle. Besides, the Erasmus students are my friends, they keep me sane, they're fun, and, since we're all (let's face it) just tourists on speed anyway, its nice to have traveling companions. :)

Example: Last night a group of us (from Germany, Portugal, Lithuania, Peru, Austria, Finland, Spain, and Taiwan) had a pancake party together. Not exactly traditionally Spanish... but part of the experience, just the same.

I have a tan.

I have a tan.

Not because I laid out in the sun for hours, but because I spent the summer out of doors. The first weeks in Florida probably didn't help, and then there was the drive across the American West, hikes over the prairie and horseback rides through the Rocky Mountains. Then Scotland, where I walked for weeks and sometimes, somehow, there was even sun. And then I came to Spain.

It's just accumulated, long term exposure. I've never really burned. I've been good about my sunscreen. But its weird to be dark. I look better in white. I kind of like it. Don't tell anyone. Ever.

Beautiful Fall Night

The campus was beautiful when I came out of the library at night. It was dark, mostly, with a bit of blue left in the sky. There was a lovely, bright crescent moon shining through thin, fast moving clouds - the lanterns were golden orbs reflected on the concrete, wet from the mist of sprinklers that emerged as the last students went on their way. It smelled like fall time.

I realized why the fall time here makes me sad - it's because fall and spring are about transition, and winter and summer are static. Because I've really only traveled during summer and winter before, and haven't felt like I was missing anything. The fall looks and smells and feels the same here as in Missouri, somehow, and it reminds me that I'm not in another dimension, that the year keeps rolling on, time keeps ticking past, there's a world I've left behind that is continuing without me. And I love the fall. It's hard to be away.

Learning to Cook

I feel that travelling is really improving my culinary abilities. I mean, its one thing to cook in the kitchen you're used to, with the ingredients you're used to, and quite another to improvise when the brands are totally different and you're working with crappy student pots and pans instead of your nice set of non-stick cookware.

I have just made red curry for the second time in Spain. In the U.K., for whatever reason, it was much easier. All of the ingredients were conveniently canned and grouped together in even relatively small supermarkets, and the recipe required very minor alterations. Here, it's been different.

It took me about a week to find all of the ingredients. I snagged a jar of curry paste in Valencia, and coconut milk was easy to find. I found Jasmine rice, albeit a small and overpriced package, at Pamplona's high end grocery store. I never planned on finding palm sugar, as the ordinary stuff works very nearly as well.

I actually thought bamboo shoots and nam pla (fish sauce) would be pretty easy to find. Surprise! No one had even heard of bamboo shoots, even after I found the Spanish translation of the name. Fish sauce was perhaps more maddening because I felt so CLOSE to finding it - the high end grocery store had three different kinds of sushi rice vinegar, but no fish sauce (!?), while one of the little asian run shops in town had, I kid you not, more than six kinds of soy sauce, but no fish sauce. On a trip to San Sebastian, I continued popping into these little asian markets, until in one of them I finally found what I sought - an enormous bottle of nam pla! I was so excited - so excited I ran up the stairs when I got home, tripped, fell, and smashed the bottle against the stairs. That was lovely. Great smell, fun to clean up, not embarrassing at all.

After this incident, however, Ana asked her daughter where I should go to find the stuff in Pamplona, and I asked Jorge. Amazingly, both of them came up with the same answer - and it was only about three blocks from my flat! I went there, and, sure enough, they had big bottles of nam pla, and enormous cans of bamboo shoots. They also had red curry paste (for when/if I run out), and big bags of jasmine rice. Basically, I was all set.

When I started cooking, however, I ran into a few surprises. The coconut milk was extremely seperated - all thick and caked up at the top of the can, and basically water on the bottom. The bamboo shoots looked like no bamboo shoots I'd ever seen, lovingly sliced in American cans. I also realized I didn't really know how to cook rice, sans-rice cooker.

The end result was okay, but definitely not the best. I very nearly burned everything on the non-non-stick pans and on the excessively hot stove-tops, the curry was a bit too watery and spicy, the rice wasn't exactly perfect, and while we did an okay job cutting up the bamboo shoots, some of the pieces were a bit big, tough, or oddly shaped.

Today I gave myself the afternoon to try again.

I started with the rice. I rinsed it like they say you should but I ordinarily don't bother to. I measured the water carefully and didn't put too much, since jasmine rice is supposed to be sort of dry and steamed rather than boiled. I added a tiny sliver of butter, just because it can only help when you're uncertain. I heated the pot to a boil, then lowered the temperature and covered. I didn't even peek (much) - after about 20 minutes I opened it quickly and tasted to see if it was cooked - it was close, so I turned off the heat and let it sit covered and warm until I finished the curry. I don't know which steps made the difference, but the end-result is awesome, some of the best rice I've ever made.

I didn't burn the curry this time (much). It helped that I had non-stick pans here in my apartment, but the stove still got hotter on 1 than mine does at 8, so I spent a lot of the cooking process removing the pan from the heat to let it cool down before I could even take off the lid to stir (coconut milk likes to jump and splatter, messy and painful). The chicken I bought this time was processed into 8 lovely, thin fillets without any nasty fatty gristly bits (and it still wasn't much more expensive than back home). I gave myself more time with the bamboo shoots and found a way to cut them that was both more efficient and worked better in the recipe.

The flavour was still a bit off - same problem, too watery, too spicy. I wondered if it could have something to do with the paste I was using, but after a minute I think I figured it out. The coconut milk comes super seperated, and I've been frying the curry paste in the top part, meaning there is precious little coconut cream being added to the sauteed meat and vegetables during part II of the cooking process. I figure there are a few possible solutions to this problem, such as buying just coconut cream (a bit fatty, possibly harder to find), using half the cream during part I, and half during part II (more labor intensive, will make it harder to separate oils), or using one entire can of coconut milk, and only taking the cream from the second can (a bit wasteful, but not much since what's left is basically just water). Anyway, I'm pretty happy that I may have solved the riddle, and I'll be experimenting to try and do even better next time. Meanwhile, I added a bit of yoghurt, since that's what I had on hand. It helped. It also added a certain something funky, since yoghurt isn't supposed to be anywhere near Thai food, but hey, it did in a pinch.

Following Clues and Context

By necessity, I’m becoming a master at following clues and context. When your understanding of the language and the systems is imperfect, you have to catch what you can and put it all together. Someone will say a hundred different things, and point, and maybe you only understood a few words, but you nod and thank them and walk in that direction, and either you’ll see something that fits what you did understand, or you’ll find someone else and ask them, put a few new words into the mix, keep going, keep trying. You’ll get there eventually, and then it will all make sense, seem so simple, so easy.

You can’t do it all in one day. I’ve spent a week and a half learning how things work and I’m probably not even half way. People keep talking about this online system called Aldi and I have no idea how to start with that – I haven’t set up my university email yet – I don’t actually understand what we’re supposed to do when we get sick, although they droned about it for a little while at orientation.

But I have gotten an I.D. card, learned how they worked, how you need to scan them to enter buildings… figured out where to find class schedules, both online and on campus, and how to follow them… realized that the Communications Building and the Social Science Building are one and the same… figured out the overly complicated way to use the WIFI on campus… realized that instead of recieving print-outs in class, you have to go see if any are listed on a bulletin board by the copy machine, by the school store, buy a copy card, and ask and pay for your numbers… found out that there are two technically seperate libraries sharing one building, that undergrads are not allowed direct access to most of the books, learned how to use the computer system to search for and request such material…

Sometimes ordinary tasks are extraordinarily daunting in a new place, in a new language. You have to be brave. You have to be persistent. You have to be resourceful.

——————-

One day, I had to go to Lea’s house to pick up some dishes. I hadn’t been to her place before, and she gave me some directions that I generally don’t fault, though she might have mentioned that her building was the one under construction. I followed her instructions to a plaza, where I saw buildings 5, 6, 8, 9, 10… but not 7, which was what I was looking for. The only door I saw that looked residential, but was unnumbered, was under construction… such that it didn’t really look inhabited. But after wandering around the plaza, I concluded that 7 could be nowhere else… and there was laundry and plants hanging from some of the balconies above.

I went in. I might mention that I didn’t have my phone, to call or double check anything, and I was a bit nervous about knocking on the wrong door. There were mailboxes in the foyer, some of them overflowing. One letter had fallen on the ground, so I picked it up and checked the address. Number 7. So far, so good.

I didn’t know if the elevators were usable or not, so I started climbing stairs. The walls were bare, stripped for construction of all signs or indications. I don’t trust my own counting on the best of days, and here floors are numbered differently… so when I ran into a construction worker I asked which floor we were on. “El Quinto!” he said – “The Fifth!” I thanked him and climbed on, got to the right floor, went to the right letter, knocked, and hoped.

And Lea answered the door.

Tomato Delight

Yesterday I ate the best tomato of my life. Gianfranco got it from a coworker, who got it out of his garden. It was lying on a plate of good olive oil and maybe something else too. I put a few slices on krisprolls, over a layer of camembert, and the result blew my mind. It was more than salty, more than tangy... it defied such two dimensional words even as it fulfilled them. Likewise I can't tell you what it was 'like'. It was 'like' nothing else, it was a tomato, but better than any other tomato I've ever eaten.

But I can say this: This was the tomato that they talk about. This was the tomato that inspired Neruda's Oda al Tomate.

"Debemos, por desgracia,
asesinarlo:
se hunde
el cuchillo
en su pulpa viviente,
es una roja
víscera,
un sol
fresco,
profundo,
inagotable...

...y sobre
la mesa, en la cintura
del verano,
el tomate,
astro de tierra,
estrella
repetida
y fecunda,
nos muestra
sus circunvoluciones,
sus canales,
la insigne plenitud
y la abundancia
sin hueso,
sin coraza,
sin escamas ni espinas,
nos entrega
el regalo
de su color fogoso
y la totalidad de su frescura."

Graduation Plan

So, it's time for me to do the ritual I do every semester, once my schedule is finalized and I'm thinking about registering for the next one. I always have this panic when I think of how much I need to do to graduate... but after wrestling with it for about an average, I always get there.

It's tight. I'm not going to lie. And my failure to take a Spanish class here, and maybe even to take one of my Journalism electives (I'll find out soon), has not exactly improved the situation. (In the chart below, I'm operating on the assumption that I'm going to get credit. If I don't, I'll probably take another elective during the fall when I return. I only have 12 credits listed there now, and even with reporting, I won't be working, so I'm pretty sure I can bump it to 15 with something like photojournalism and be fine). It's tight, but doable, and I have two areas of flexibility that I can and will utilize in order to graduate on time, these being:

1.) I can drop the anthropology minor... this will save me a few credits.
2.) I can stay home instead of studying in Norway... if everything goes according to plan, it won't slow me down to go... but if much more goes wrong, I'm going to need to stay home to get Journalism credits.

So, here we go:

Colour Key:

Red – For Magazine Journalism Major
Orange – For Spanish Major
Blue – For German Minor
Purple – For Anthropology Minor
Green – For General Education, Electives, and International Studies Major

------------------
PAST
------------------

Transfer Credit: (37)
Spanish I
Spanish II
Intermediate Spanish I
Intermediate Spanish II
German I
Introduction to Western Art I
Comparative Political Systems
English Exposition and Argumentation
English Literature

Fall 2008: (16)
General Anthropology
Advanced Spanish Conversation
Regions and Nations of the World I
International Relations
Introduction to Psychology
Exploring Study Abroad *

Spring 2009: (16)
Advanced Spanish Composition
Career Exploration in Journalism *
Principles of American Journalism
Intermediate German II - Language and Culture
Introduction to Statistics
American Government

Fall 2009: (16)
Cross Cultural Journalism
Biological Anthropology
Micro and Macroeconomics
Twentieth Century American History

Spring 2010: (16)
Journalism 2100 - News
Anthropological Theories of Religion
Introduction to Hispanic Literature I
Modern German Culture
Catalan Language and Culture
Special Problems in Geology


------------------
FUTURE
------------------

Fall 2010 @ Pamplona: (12)
Cultura Visual
Literatura y Cine
Fundamentos Culturales de la Communicacion III
Introduction to Linguistics

Spring 2011 @ Bonn: (9 +)
German Language @ Bonn
German Culture/History/??? @ Bonn
Spanish Language/Civilization

Fall 2011 @ MU – (12)
Introduction to Hispanic Literature II
News Reporting @ MU
Communications Law @ MU
Intermediate Writing @ MU

Spring 2012 @ Bergen (12 +)
Spanish Language/Civilization
Anthropology
Anthropology
Norwegian Language

Fall 2012 @ MU (15)
Spanish Peninsular Literature
Spanish American Literature
Journalism Solving Practical Problems @ MU
Magazine Editing @ MU
Magazine Design @ MU

Spring 2012 @ MU (12)
Spanish Capstone @ MU
Advanced Writing Capstone @ MU
German Culture/History/??? @ MU
Journalism Elective

Gradution!! (:D :D :D!! …….. O.O)

End of a Long Summer

It was a long summer. So long it seems that it was several lifetimes ago that I finished closing, packed up my things, and drove away from Mizzou. I couldn't stay still to watch it begin, peak, and fade away, so now it takes me by surprise - I got used to a world of eternal summer, I suppose, I ran away from reality for such a long time. It vanished into the Florida heat, into the turquoise waters of Iona, into the thin air on the Highway to the Sky... it was washed away by Scottish rain, sank into the sandy soil of the Badlands, was overwhelmed by the crush of tomatoes and human bodies at Tomatina.

Today when I got out of my evening class and Ida and I walked back towards Iturrama, the sky was cloudy and there was a fall breeze blowing. It was infinitely lovely and pleasant, but threatening, too, so like the air before a thunderstorm back home. You can't run forever.

Groceries, ILCE, and Credits Back Home

I went to the store this morning for groceries - I needed something for breakfast, as I didn't think of it on Friday, on Saturday I took a trip, and on Sunday everything was closed. I could have eaten Nutella on Maria Cookies, but I like to do a little better than that. I was hoping for yoghurt, but the grocery store didn't look like it was going to open until 9, when I had to be in class, so I hopped across the street to the Bonbon shop/bakery and bought a little loaf of bread for 0.55€, came home, cut it in half, filled half of it with wildberry jam and nutella, and started off towards campus for the language test.

It was delicious. The breakfast roll, I mean, not the test. The test was the typical sort of language test, I guess, and I didn't give it my best effort because frankly I didn't care. The chances it will be any good to me are pretty low. There were a lot of questions that wanted the subjunctive out of me, as I expected, but it was actually harder than I expected... I don't know if whoever wrote the test did a sloppy job, whether it was more colloquial language than I had learned, or whether there are dialectal differences at play here, but a lot of times I thought they were leaving words out... it was weird. But, like I said, I didn't care too much.

I went and talked to the secretary later and it turns out that the basic classes, like Espanol 1 (which has 6 different levels, according to ability, which makes perfect sense, you know), are pretty cheap - 150-200€. Its the classes I'm interested in, like literature, that are insanely expensive. Oh well, I'll see what level I test into and whether Mizzou will take any of the basic credits, but I'm not enthusiastic. I'm pretty much okay at this point with only taking my 12 credit minimum, and having 9 of them count for Journalism and 3 as sort of general electives. At least I'll have some free time, and I might even need the extra time just to pass the courses that I'm in, what with looking at hundreds of pages of textbook reading in Spanish, and it seems like yes, people do do the readings here.

My semesters at home will probably be a hair tighter than I would have wanted if I do it this way, but I'll talk to my advisers and if I can't do it, I can't do it - I won't go to Norway. But we'll see, my current plan had me taking 16 credits a semester while at home and 12 while abroad, so this really barely sets me back, and not at all if I can get a Spanish credit or two in Germany or Norway (which actually may be easier than getting one here, stupid as it sounds). And I'm pretty sure I could bump my 16 average up to 19 and barely feel it, and up to like 21 in a pinch, even with harder classes, especially if I wasn't working. It would totally be worth it to buckle down and have a difficult senior year if it meant I could study abroad now.

Doesn't mean I'm not a little pissed about the situation here. At least I'm getting the journalism credits, those are the less flexible ones.

Sueño, Miedo, y Hambre

Today Jaime bought a guitar, I cooked vegetables (garlic, mushrooms, chickpeas, and ordinary peas in a fried tomato sauce), and Gianfranco made some more perfect Italian pasta and sang along as Jaime played a song called Wonderwall. Soon our noise drew Ana out of her living room and into the kitchen with queso fresco y quince paste. Some chatting and some laughs later, we made fun of Gianfranco for always being so sleepy and of me for always being so hungry. In Spanish, you say someone is sleepy by saying he “tiene sueño – has dream,” and that someone is hungry by saying she “tiene hambre – has hunger.”

“Pues, si Gianfranco siempre tiene sueño, y Miranda siempre tiene hambre, que siempre tiene Jaime?”

“Well, if Gianfranco always has dream, and Miranda always has hunger, what does Jaime always have?”

“Miedo,” said Ana, “Fear.”

Sueño, Miedo, y Hambre. So it is. What a handsome family, don’t you think?

Bad Feeling

Old feelings and fears are coming back. :( Why am I cold although it is warm, why are there no children playing outside today? I'm trying to concentrate on the lovely strawberry smell coming from my yoghurt.

Update: I'm already feeling a bit better, come the afternoon. I don't know why these things happen. :(

Matriculation

That's what they call class registration here, as if it wasn't scary enough. It's been basically a lot of fun, although I've been keeping close track of the nitty-gritty's on my Pamplona blog, so I won't go through it all again here. Still, I want to give a basic idea of what's going on... at this point I think I've figured out everything but my Spanish Literature classes. On one hand that's good, on the other hand that's the one I'd almost rather have figured out already, since I'm likely to get less help and understanding for it. Anyway, I'm more or less certain on the following classes:

Cultura Visual -Basically, art history with a journalism twist.
Fundamentos Culturales de la Comunicacion III - Basically, literature with a journalism twist.
Literatura y Cine - Basically, film lit with a journalism twist.
Language and Communication - My only English class, basically the interesting and relevant parts of linguistics.

If the first three seem to have something in common, it's because they do. Basically they're part of the gen ed for Journalism majors here, but they look like they'll transfer fine as Journalism Electives to Mizzou, so fair's fair. So far I've attended Cultura Visual and it seems very interesting, and Fundamentos Culturales should be similar. I think they're just at the right level for something for me to take in Spanish that will challenge me but not kill me, and at least Cultura Visual so far seems enhanced by the difference in cultural perspective. Literatura Cine is a tiny bit different as it is an elective here too, and it is on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we'll see how that goes, but I'm confident that it's a good choice.

Language and Communication will by far be my easiest class, as I know a lot about linguistics, and a full 1/5 of the class seems to be devoted to helping the students perfect their English. I wouldn't want all my classes to be like this, but I think to have one class like this will be a good thing - one course that won't stress me out, where I can feel confident and not an idiot. Plus, I finally get a chance to formally study linguistics and consolidate my knowledge about it. I even feel good about the teacher there, she is very nice and has so far advised me almost as much as my real adviser, when I was telling her about my literature class.

What's still up in the air, then, are my Spanish Lit classes. I wanted to take something like Contemporary Hispanic Literature or Latin American Literature or something, but it seems like almost all of those are only taught second semester (??), and the single exception conflicts with two of my Journalism courses, so it's a no go. I looked into the more specialized classes, but as interesting as they look, I think I'd have to kill myself to pass, as older literature means highly specialized vocabulary, etc.. and the classes are designed for third and fourth year, native speaker philology students. As much as I want an academic challenge here, I don't think it's going to be too easy just to take ordinary classes in Spanish, not sure I need to kill myself and all of my free time with trying to get through medieval Spanish texts, looking up every word.

So I'm basically down to two choices - Literatura Universal, which I would take with Spanish students... it won't be too easy, but I think it would be interesting, and doable... if I can get my school to accept it as a Spanish Lit or even Spanish Elec course, I think I'm going to go for it. About 1/3 of the readings are originally Spanish, and the rest are in translation. How fun will it be in a twisted, perverse way, to have read Crime and Punishment in Spanish? But then again, it's no less authentic than reading it in English.

If I can't get it to count for anything, and possibly even if I can (since Literatura Universal is fewer credits than the other Lit classes would have been), I'm going to look into ILCE, which is basically the selection of classes offered about Spanish to foreign students. I've been told the classes there are probably below my level, but looking at the course descriptions I think some of them will be far less than others. There are classes that I think I could get to transfer easily, like some literature and culture classes, and even an interesting one called Introduction to Translation. I'm waiting to see what Mizzou says about Literatura Universal, and whether I have to pay extra to take ILCE courses (they are insanely expensive, actually). Meanwhile I'm planning to take the placement test on Monday. Not too stressed about it.

Yep, always fun here. :D

Yeps. :P Always fun here...