Even though I'm in Spain and "living the life".....I'm still a student lol. I thought it would be nice to give an update on my daily life here in España when I'm not traveling. I'll admit I underestimated the level of difficulty of my classes before I got here. I thought this would be an academic vacation. Ha! Yea right. My classes are pretty challenging and the fact that they aren't structured doesn't help the situation either. For example, my marketing professor thought it was cool to assign us a presentation due the very next day of class. He sent no email, didn't put it in the announcements on blackboard (btw, he's my only teacher who uses blackboard), and he didn't mention it in our last class. You think I did it? Sure didn't. He wasn't even clear in what he wanted in our presentation and where was this assignment listed in the syllabus?? I can't deal. The only good thing about taking classes abroad (at least in Valencia) is that the classroom sizes are smaller so you have more one on one time with the professor. My professors actually know my name, that's a first. They call me Cash lol. My relationship with some of my professors is so weird to point one of them helped me order a drink at a bar once lol...shhhhhh.
I'm doing pretty decent in all of my classes except... Elementary Spanish :-/. I only took this class because a good friend of mine told me it was super super easy in Spain blah blah blah & I thought it would be easy to get a local to do my hw. So not the case. I'm going to fail Spanish in Spain and that's sad! If I could skip this class I would lol but I can't. The attendance policy here is so strict it's ridic. If you miss ONE class your grade drops from an A to an A-. If you miss another class period it then drops from an A- to a B+ o_0. Think I'll just sit my butt in class and suck it up. We did join the Spanish Club lol. They gave us, all who wanted to work on their Spanish, little identification bracelets. When the bracelet is on you can only speak Spanish and be spoken to in Spanish.
I took my bracelet off after the 2nd day lol..threw in the towel early.
Now history is more my speed. I knew I always liked history but before my Spanish Culture and Civilization class I was really only interested in American history lol. How American of me haha. For the most part this is my only structured class. What's funny is that this blog started out as something I wanted to do for fun, but because of this class and the 8 page paper I have due at the end of the semester I now blog because this is going to be my paper :) We spend 90% of our time outside of the class and I love it! He takes us out in "the field" and so far we've seen:
La Catedral (my fav Cathedral in Valencia) This served as the cathedral after the founding of the Christian Kingdom of Valencia by Jaime I the Conquer in 1238. That tower still gives me nightmares.
Iglesia San Juan del Hospital...pretty chill cathedral. San Juan Del Hospital was started by the knights of the Military Order. This place was neglected so bad to the point that it was at risk for possible demolishment. According to some this was the first church built in Valencia after the Cathedral and it also served as a place for wounded knights to get treated.
Museo de Bellas Artes also known as the Museum of Fine Arts which houses a collection of important paintings and sculptures.
The blue dome looks really cool from the inside.
Those were just a small portion of the sites we've seen. I can always look forward to an adventure w/ Dr. Norland. Random fact: Dr. Norland is my history professor and he also works for the US Embassy in Spain. He's pretty legit.
Marketing has its days. Some days I'm interested and I give my 2 cents, and other days I just stare lol. My teacher's accent is a little difficult to understand at times. I don't know if he's speaking Spanish, Italian, or English lol...and that's when I just stare. We watched a movie called Pirates of Silicon Valley which documents the rise of Apple and Microsoft. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were pretty cool nerds in college. I wish were friends lol....no, I take that back. That Steve Jobs is crazy and abusive! Watch it for yourselves it's really interesting.
The really doofy one in the back is Bill Gates lol...he was smooth tho.
Business Communications is a relaxed class. Our teacher is the program director so we do a lot of talking about how he can better the program and the study center lol. I'm definitely looking forward to my A in this class. This is my only class not located in the FSU Study Center. We have class down the street in the Catholic University. Supposedly some Spanish students were going to join our class, but nobody has signed up yet lol. Womp. Womp.
Yesterday was the kick off of Fallas :) There was a concert outside my window and I'm pretty sure I heard them singing Katy Perry lol. Everyday starting tomorrow there's going to be fireworks at 2pm. I think the fireworks are prettier here than they are in the States. The fireworks here have to be illegal there tho. They don't explode so far away in the sky so it makes it easier to reeeally see them. Not that they explode in your face but maybe 20 feet up in the air. Ok that may be wrong I'm not good at gaging distance......I still don't think Sam is that much taller than me and she's 6'2. My measuring is all screwed up because I'm 5'3 lol. I'm excited to see the fireworks that supposedly follow human vibrations, therefore, the trick is not to run. I definitely plan on buying some.
So Crockett & I are English teachers :). The kids are so cool omg. So on our first day we asked them if they had any questions about the US. The first question they ask is "do you smoke?" lmao. We're like "whaaaa ? Do we smoke?..... Like smoke?lol" and they're like "yes! Do you smoke weed??" lol we told them no we're not smokers & they looked at us weird. We asked did they smoke. Guess that was a dumb question because they looked at us like "duhhhh." They're realy cool kids though. The only thing they know about Miami is Will Smith........yea, I know.
They invited us to come to the annual MTV concert with them in a couple of weeks. Haven't listened to The Strokes yet but they may be possible performers. We talk to some of them outside of the classroom on Facebook, but most of them have Tuenti accounts.
Tuenti is like a Spanish Facebook except it's private and invitation only. Told yall they bougie lol.
We met some Spanish/African friends a couple of weeks ago & surprisingly they're hip. There's 3 that are from a country called Cameroon in Africa and speak really good English, and there's another from Valencia who only speaks Spanish. On Wednesday nights they play hip hop at this club called Fox Congo but it's usually decade old hip hop. For example, they went craaaaazy when some Exhibit song came on. Exhibit ? EXHIBIT?!! Craziness. They told us about this other hip hop club down by the beach called Nux. Our first time at Nux was sooo much fun! So much fun that we got home at 7:30am! We finally saw where all the black people had been hiding out at. You know the Africans was checkin for our weaves *my lips are sealed lol* The guys we met are club promoters and I swear they treat us like American Royalty. We told them we wanted to sit down but there was no seats. Immediately they went to the VIP section told whoever was sitting to get up and get out and then told us to come in and sit down. I really couldn't believe they made the people move like that but I wasn't complaining. We got so many free shots I'm lucky to still have my kidneys. After Nux we went to this other club called _________ I don't remember lol. They introduced us to the owner and he told us how his Great grandfather and Will Smith's (surprise surprise) grandfather are brothers lol. :-| mannnnn gtfoh. We went inside the club and he took us straight to the bar. Free shots on him :) I seriously can get used to this.
I have to give them their credit. The guys have swag and they know good music other than the old stuff they play in the clubs. I had a whole conversation with the guy who only speaks Spanish about Tupac vs. Biggie lol. He claims he's a Brooklyn boy lol so he's obsessed with Biggie. I think that's so funny. And he has tattoos in English that he can't even tell me the significance of them, in English.
He said he got it in English because he likes the way English looks. I think that's so funny because everybody I know always want their tattoos in Arabic or Japanese or something. Kinda cool of him.
They are obsessed with Pharrell and Billionaire Boys Club
....& Bob Esponga of course lol.
I almost forgot to mention the girl who bar-tends at Fox Congo and is guaranteed to sing Ciara's "Love and Sex and Magic" every single Wednesday!
She climb on bars, whip her hair and everything. I'm not gone lie..she sound good. Sometimes she just be doing the most, but it's cool lol.
I really miss Disney channel...like the real Disney channel. The Disney here is wack and I don't approve of it. Every night at 8pm there's this children Spanish soap opera that comes on & it's always a teenage boy and girl in the room together dancing. Why are they in the room together with the door closed?? They real grown and I don't like it. I can't remember the last time I've seen Phineas & Ferb :( it upsets me just thinking about it.
Btw, did you guys see Basketball Wives when they went to Madrid. I told yall the food here was nasty!
Randomness:
You know during the spring time they don't sleep with comforters here and they were planning to take our comforters away from us :-/. I don't care how hot it is I need my comforter to fall asleep. They trippin.
Well that's all for now.....I'm tired of my computer overheating and shutting down on me lol. I'll leave you guys with this video from a famous European rapper.
