Helloooo world. Yes I have been a slight recluse recently, but luckily my sanity has decided to join me once more (better late than never).
This week has passed in a flurry of everyone being absolutely pooped. On Tuesday the teacher of our 9am was like 'it's only Tuesday. And we're all tired. What are we going to be like by Friday?' Sadly, she never found out, as I slept straight through my alarm and didn't make it to Friday's lecture, which I NEVER normally do. But here I have very little motivation to get up for lectures I don't enjoy and should never have had to take in the first place. But I did have a lovely phone call from the Superwoman of Lancaster, who is Olga, on Friday. I answered the phone with 'hola' and she replied with her wonderful 'hola hola'! When she'd told me who she was I was like 'ohhh hi!' and then I got 'hello hello!'. I've never been more grateful for a phone call!
Anyhow, we had a great chat, and it feels good to know that someone in the department still cares whether we're all alive or dead. I don't even say that in a melodramatic sense, because once the department are done with our year they'll need to go for a lie down in a darkened room with a couple of asprin. In fact, they should probably bulk-buy the stuff for our final year, because all the 333 courses (these are new courses they're trying to introduce that will be compulsory in our final year) are going to be met with a certain degree of confusion. Watch this space. It doesn't help that we're all pretty confused people to start with, and when something's never been done before there's no one to tell us we'll be ok!
Yesterday I went to San Sebastian, all aloney on my owney, which was a wee bit scary but ultimately very much worth it. It was a lovely day, although every time a Spanish person said anything to me I suddenly didn't understand. It was incredible. And it just proves that foreign languages are not supposed to be spoken on a Saturday. I took 176 pictures or something crazy - 165 of which have made it onto facebook. I've no clue where the missing 11 are, but seriously guys, if 165 aren't enough for you, you need help (or something to do). The annoying thing was that the bay faces the wrong way to see a decent sunset in San Seb... Ironically my father got better sunset pics over Clifton (that part of York with the highest crime rate - I found PROOF so now everyone can stop telling me it's lovely) than I did in San Seb. Still, I got lots of lovely pics nonetheless.
And tomorrow commences the healthy eating and manic exercise regime with Suzy. I've completely given up on eating proper food it seems, so tomorrow all shall change! We're also going to go for some nice power walks by the river and hopefully get them to coincide with the sunset, to spur us on! The one thing I can say about Bilbao, is it's gorgeous in the evening and night. It's quite nice in the day if you wander round with your eyes closed, or only look at the Guggenheim (that thing on most of my pics that looks like a Blue Peter ship).
So, hasta luego blogueros! Much love, and thank you for reading my bloggio - I do appreciate it :) xxxx
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Friday, 11 November 2011
Today's a new day... and Erin's in town!
Hola blogueros.
So yesterday was a bad day. Crazy Grammar Woman (CGW) handed us our tests back, which about 6 of us had passed. Then she spent the rest of the lesson yelling at the ones of us that HAD passed, because we were apparently useless and we know nothing, and we never study. So she had a tizz-attack, which would normally have just been hilarious, but we weren't in the mood. Especially when she told Anila she'd throw chalk at her. (I'm sure I've already mentioned that the white board hasn't quite made it to Spain yet... technology eh!) Then she stood there and said 'so, you can have a test tomorrow. On everything'. So my resolution of not drinking coffee anymore due to lack of night-time sleeping managed to last less than 2 hours, due to severe stress levels. My dedication to that resolution was impressive.
But then things were ok, I went to Steph's lovely piso for tea and biccies, and the sunset was pretty gorgeous (see facebook for the pics). But. Still Lucy-Lou was not all that happy, therefore a late-night skype conversation happened (which is never a good idea - life always looks rubbish when it's dark outside), and my poor long-suffering father was faced with 'Dad I want to come hoooome!'
Still, having had said grammar test this morning (epic fail on every side. But somehow it doesn't feel like a fail when no one else has done well either!) and gone for a coffee with Fitzy (a lovely person I met at Church like the first week I was here), and Erin having arrived in Bilbao... this weekend is looking goooooood :) Now, time for a burger, a nap, teaching English, rubbish TV and happy times at Suzy's this evening with the lovely Erin who's come to make us all feel better! Toda la vida es sueño? No, but it never is. Here's the anthem of my life for the present time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8SPwT3nQZ8 - give it a watch if you get chance!
Catch you soon bloggy people who have nothing better to do than listen to me moan! (Just kidding, without you sad people there'd be no need for me to blog, haha)
So yesterday was a bad day. Crazy Grammar Woman (CGW) handed us our tests back, which about 6 of us had passed. Then she spent the rest of the lesson yelling at the ones of us that HAD passed, because we were apparently useless and we know nothing, and we never study. So she had a tizz-attack, which would normally have just been hilarious, but we weren't in the mood. Especially when she told Anila she'd throw chalk at her. (I'm sure I've already mentioned that the white board hasn't quite made it to Spain yet... technology eh!) Then she stood there and said 'so, you can have a test tomorrow. On everything'. So my resolution of not drinking coffee anymore due to lack of night-time sleeping managed to last less than 2 hours, due to severe stress levels. My dedication to that resolution was impressive.
But then things were ok, I went to Steph's lovely piso for tea and biccies, and the sunset was pretty gorgeous (see facebook for the pics). But. Still Lucy-Lou was not all that happy, therefore a late-night skype conversation happened (which is never a good idea - life always looks rubbish when it's dark outside), and my poor long-suffering father was faced with 'Dad I want to come hoooome!'
Still, having had said grammar test this morning (epic fail on every side. But somehow it doesn't feel like a fail when no one else has done well either!) and gone for a coffee with Fitzy (a lovely person I met at Church like the first week I was here), and Erin having arrived in Bilbao... this weekend is looking goooooood :) Now, time for a burger, a nap, teaching English, rubbish TV and happy times at Suzy's this evening with the lovely Erin who's come to make us all feel better! Toda la vida es sueño? No, but it never is. Here's the anthem of my life for the present time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8SPwT3nQZ8 - give it a watch if you get chance!
Catch you soon bloggy people who have nothing better to do than listen to me moan! (Just kidding, without you sad people there'd be no need for me to blog, haha)
Friday, 4 November 2011
How can I not look English?
Buenos días blogueros. How are we all? Well this week has been a week with two glorious days off (Monday and Tuesday) in which I slept and drank copious amounts of tea. Mum set me the challenge of using all 240 tea bags she brought with her before I leave (let's face it, not to do so would be a waste!) and I think this 4-day weekend may have made a slight dent in that number.
I have discovered that there is nothing quite like a Spanish supermarket. On the face of it, it looks like an English one, although it does tend to smell slightly more of fish and meat, due to the thousand dead carcasses they have at the back of the shop for adventurous people who don't want their chicken pre-packaged. It's when you get to the checkout that things get exciting. Who says the Spanish don't know how to queue? There is ALWAYS a queue. And none of the 'there are ten people waiting, maybe we should open another till'. Ho no. So you wait. And wait. And wait. You finally get your shopping on the belt, then you have to wait again because the person in front of you didn't realise they had to weigh and print off a label for their half a watermelon. Then the cashier has no sooner given them their change that they start scanning your stuff with a grumpy 'hola', which would be great if the person before you had packed their stuff into bags and gone, but this is an unknown concept in Spain. So you sort of have to shove them (or at the very least, their stuff) out off the way to get to your shopping, put it in a bag the British way, and if you're lucky you occasionally get the previous customer saying 'is that yours or mine?' And I think, well if you'd packed when you were supposed to, you'd know.
Anyhow. You get all your stuff in bags, you pay, you leave. And then you pop into another shop to have a nosey, some seemingly nice woman is there looking at the same thing as you and she says 'aren't these lovely' and you say 'indeed they are', which gives away the fact you're not Spanish. She says 'oh, you're Russian!' You reply 'oh no, I'm English'. Then she turns her nose up in the most literal manner known to man, and she says 'well your skin's the wrong colour to be English'.
The thing is, I would have found this quite funny if I still had a sense of humour and if she didn't mean it in a racist manner. Which she did (I guess you had to be there). It's something we've noticed up here... if you're anything other than 'Spanish-looking' some people give you the widest berth known to man. I say some because some people don't mind talking to us and love our hilarious approximation of a Spanish accent, but Suzy had to tell her life story to the woman in the post office before she'd give her her package, all because she's got an Egyptian last name on her passport. I've been into some shops, not said a word AT ALL, and the shop assistant has imediately not spoken in Spanish. Usually they go into English, but occasionally you get some random language because they assume you're from somewhere because of how you look. The only reason I mention it, is because I now appreciate just how well England has done by comparison. Of course there's still a long way to go, but actually, our little island has done a better job than Bilbao so far.
I'd not be as bothered if this hadn't followed a bit of a stressful week (hard to believe with two days off). We have another 5 page essay to hand in on Monday, but as the tutor doesn't set a specific day and just says 'you have 15 days' it gets awfully confusing. I mean, do bank holidays count? Do weekends? What if you don't have class on day 15?
Anyway, I will try to find something more fun to talk about next time. Has to be said, I'm a bit sick of being here now and am just at that stage where I can't even take the mickey out of my experiences because I don't find them funny anymore. The little things wear you down after a while. Still, normal Lucy-Cakes blogging should resume soon. I should certainly have had a cup of tea before writing this, it would have turned out differently! In the meantime, if you find my sense of humour, please send it back.
I have discovered that there is nothing quite like a Spanish supermarket. On the face of it, it looks like an English one, although it does tend to smell slightly more of fish and meat, due to the thousand dead carcasses they have at the back of the shop for adventurous people who don't want their chicken pre-packaged. It's when you get to the checkout that things get exciting. Who says the Spanish don't know how to queue? There is ALWAYS a queue. And none of the 'there are ten people waiting, maybe we should open another till'. Ho no. So you wait. And wait. And wait. You finally get your shopping on the belt, then you have to wait again because the person in front of you didn't realise they had to weigh and print off a label for their half a watermelon. Then the cashier has no sooner given them their change that they start scanning your stuff with a grumpy 'hola', which would be great if the person before you had packed their stuff into bags and gone, but this is an unknown concept in Spain. So you sort of have to shove them (or at the very least, their stuff) out off the way to get to your shopping, put it in a bag the British way, and if you're lucky you occasionally get the previous customer saying 'is that yours or mine?' And I think, well if you'd packed when you were supposed to, you'd know.
Anyhow. You get all your stuff in bags, you pay, you leave. And then you pop into another shop to have a nosey, some seemingly nice woman is there looking at the same thing as you and she says 'aren't these lovely' and you say 'indeed they are', which gives away the fact you're not Spanish. She says 'oh, you're Russian!' You reply 'oh no, I'm English'. Then she turns her nose up in the most literal manner known to man, and she says 'well your skin's the wrong colour to be English'.
The thing is, I would have found this quite funny if I still had a sense of humour and if she didn't mean it in a racist manner. Which she did (I guess you had to be there). It's something we've noticed up here... if you're anything other than 'Spanish-looking' some people give you the widest berth known to man. I say some because some people don't mind talking to us and love our hilarious approximation of a Spanish accent, but Suzy had to tell her life story to the woman in the post office before she'd give her her package, all because she's got an Egyptian last name on her passport. I've been into some shops, not said a word AT ALL, and the shop assistant has imediately not spoken in Spanish. Usually they go into English, but occasionally you get some random language because they assume you're from somewhere because of how you look. The only reason I mention it, is because I now appreciate just how well England has done by comparison. Of course there's still a long way to go, but actually, our little island has done a better job than Bilbao so far.
I'd not be as bothered if this hadn't followed a bit of a stressful week (hard to believe with two days off). We have another 5 page essay to hand in on Monday, but as the tutor doesn't set a specific day and just says 'you have 15 days' it gets awfully confusing. I mean, do bank holidays count? Do weekends? What if you don't have class on day 15?
Anyway, I will try to find something more fun to talk about next time. Has to be said, I'm a bit sick of being here now and am just at that stage where I can't even take the mickey out of my experiences because I don't find them funny anymore. The little things wear you down after a while. Still, normal Lucy-Cakes blogging should resume soon. I should certainly have had a cup of tea before writing this, it would have turned out differently! In the meantime, if you find my sense of humour, please send it back.
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