somehow, i stored up enough karma points to be rewarded by the universe this weekend. Not only did i go to Ireland, i went to Ireland for Arthur Guinness's 250th birthday. You can imagine how much of a party that was. So much of a party, that some irish man pulled out some of his belly hair, and tried to give it to me. oh yeah. And then! on top of that, the next night was "culture night" where everything was open late and free! So Kirstie, Jessica and I went to the Guiness brewery and had free pints of Guiness (definitely very cultural), and then we went to Christ's Church to look at the cat and rat that got mummified in the pipe organ a long time ago, and then we went to the Viking museum(!) and took lots of campy pictures with all the recreations. beause that's how we role. We definitely lucked out, because we didn't know about this before hand, so we got to save a lot of money while we were in Dublin.

On Saturday, we woke up early to take the bus to Galway, and we hung out in Galway a bit, and had crepes for dinner. Then on Sunday, we took a bus tour to the Cliffs of Mohar, and to fairy rings, and castles and prehistoric portal tombs. awesome.

Now I'm back in spain, ready to speak some more spanish. woo spanish!!!!

My next trip will probably be to Italy, around October 8th. because that week I have thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, monday, and tuesday free. Yes, you read that correctly. I have a 6 day weekend in October.

Guys, I am so ready (estoy tan lista) for classes to start here. We've literally had a whole week to sit around in our houses with our madres and watch american shows and made for tv movies (the simpsons, two and a half men, the secret life of the american teenager, etc) that are dubbed over in spanish. And walk around Cordoba. And have a few meetings here and there. And be formally welcomed by the alcade (mayor) of Cordoba (and by mayor, I actually mean the representative of the mayor) for approximately 4 hours of my life that I will never get back. It may sound like alot, but trust me, I've had more thatn enough tiempo libre. I am ready to do something productive.

So I guess I am experiencing a bit of culture shock, in that we (Nina y yo) fuimos a our Madre's piso in Malaga, on the coast of spain, for the weekend. and for all of Saturday, from 10 am to 1 am, we walked from cafe to cafe, and ate and sat, and then sat and ate, and then ate, and then walked maybe a block, and then sat and ate, and talked with relatives and omg by the end of it I was about ready to die of bordom. And it doesn't help that Malaga, being on the coast, is big into mariscos (seafood) and I am not really and aficionada of whole fried squid, or whole raw anchovies, or mussels. I'm not really a fan of wilted lettace covered in mayonaise either. Or whole fried baby birds, which my Madre ordered for lunch today. So fun times.

Yay clases start manana!!!

o, and I'm going to Ireland with Kirstie and Jessica this weekend. nbd. (yayayayayay!!!!!)

if you'd like to see my photos from the 10 day tour around spain, you can browse through the over 200 (organized by city) pictures here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024464&id=1041870089&l=2a21902498

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024760&id=1041870089&l=90fb0a9601

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024913&id=1041870089&l=f200982576

i found it! If you want to send me mail or something (and it would be really cool if you did) you can send it here:

Sara Hollar
Preshco office
Universidad de Córdoba
Plaza Cardenal Salazar, 3
14003 Córdoba, España

buenas noticias!

no estoy la estudiante peor at spanish!
I'm not the worst ever at spanish. I mean, i don't entirely understand the professors all the time, but who does, really? also, i've been doing pretty well at talking in spanish vientecuatro horas del dia, so i am certain it will only mejorarse. also, im really good at present tense, "ir a hacer" type sentances, and the "have done" sort of thing. for ejemplo: he hablado en espanol por todo el dia.
I have spoken in spanish all day.

y no he tomado mi siesta ya.
I have not taken my siesta yet.

Time to fix that!
hasta luego
-Sara

pues, entonces.

funny story.
So yesterday, while exhausted, and a bit overwelmed with the amount of spanish there is in the world, our host mother starts talking about the rest of the preshquitos and where they all live. We tell here that lisa lives very close and jackie lives far, all in pretty basic sentance structure. We tell her that we are a group of 35, but there's only one boy (somos trienta y cinco, y solo hay un chico) and she says, that she knows because one of her friends is kyle's host mom, and they were talking on the phone while we were sleeping. She also says kyle and one of the girls in the group were going out. That was news to Nina and I, so we filed it away to investigate. It seemed a bit early for a relationship, but maybe they were being subtle about it, we thought.

Then, anoche (last night) Nina and I were wandering around the commercial part of Cordoba and we ran into some more Preshquitos, including Kyle. And Kyle said that one of the first things his host mom had asked him was who his girlfriend was. And he was confused, because he does not have a novia, least of all un chica de prescho. It turns out Maribel, the lady that works for prescho and sets up the houses and stuff had been telling mentiras, chistes, etc to all the host moms. So now Kyle has to find Maribel and ask her exactly who it is he's going out with, because its news to him.

Maybe not that funny, but interesting none the less. It's good to know that the host mothers and prescho office people are all huge, well-intentioned, well-connected gossips.

I

today, llegamos en Cordoba, on an overnight train. being on the train with the compact bathroom and the pulldown beds was kind of romantic feeling, like being in another era of travel. It was also pretty much impossible to sleep. whatevesies. The worst part of the train was that a mosquito got into our cabin somehow, and now i have 6 bites on my hands and neck, since those were basically the only exposed parts mientras i was sleeping.

Then we met our familia. Nina, my companera de casa, and I are living with Josefa Elias, or, "Mama Pepi." Mama Pepi is really nice and obviously wants us to feel welcome. she said that this is our house (our meaning hers, nina's and mine) and that we are a family of three now. She showed us how to turn on the gas water heater, and how to flush the toliet (the tank is in the ceiling, and you have to pull a cord) and she took our dirty clothes to wash. Mama Pepi also has an active social life. Her gentleman friend was here this morning to help carry nuestra maletas, and tonight despues de la cena, she went out with some of her amigas. apparently today is some sort of saint's day here. I'm convinced Nina and I have the best familia, because we live really really close to the faculdad de filosophia y letras, where we'll be taking classes, and really close to the mesquita (famous great mosque of cordoba) we live on Calle Doctor Fleming, 6-2-4. you can google earth it if you want, and see how close we are to the mosque

I'm doing okay with understanding her, even though she talks really fast. i get the general gist most of the time, but i know im missing a lot of individual words.

after mama pepi left for her fiesta, Nina and i roamed the streets of old cordoba and ran into some more preshquitas (students that are doing the Prescho program with me) and we hung out and talked about how mentally exhausted we were from speaking spanish, and assured ourselves it will get better. and ahora, esta en casa, and im going to sleep for at least 9 hours.

well, first i'll give you my contact information if you need it:
address of my casa en espana
c/ Doctor Fleming
6-2-4
14004 Cordoba

email:
saretonin@hotmail.com

telefono en espana:
649-020-998 (if you're calling from the US, you'll have to put Spain's country code in front, which i think is 34)

telefono solo para emergancias:
610-70-00-35

tomorrow, ill put up the address where it would be better to send mail (directly to the prescho office) but i don't have that address with me right now and I'm to lazy to find it :)

hasta luego!

reminder:
if you're going to go out of the country, call your bank first.

also, if you're going to a country where the exchange rate is terrible, and los bancos charge a ridiculous fee to take out euros from an atm, ask them to raise the daily limit to something higher than 200 euros. this trip is muy caro.

okay, so.
vale, pues.

I LOVE BARCELONA.

i love gaudi, i love the parque guaii (sp?)
i love the beach, and the venders, and the octagonal shaped blocks, and the people with good posture riding vespas and the super wide streets. i love the climate, i love the mountains, i love the olympic stadium. i like the air conditioned metro and the buses that run every five minutes
It might be el mejor cuidad del todo el mundo.
except, like everything in spain, its very very expensive. and, like all tourist spots in spain, there are carreteras (sp?) (pickpockets)
I definitely want to return here during some part of the semester. and when im rich, i want to vacation here, like the rest of the girls in my program vacation on cape cod or the hamptons. or, at least i want to come here when im a grown up and have tons of money and time.

in spain

today, i've been in spain for a week already. i've been to avila, salamanca, el escorial, segovia madrid, toledo, zaragova y hoy llegamos en barcelona (or, as they say phonetically en espanol, barthelona) ive seen a lot of cathedrals, castles, monestaries and cobblestone streets. manana voy a visitar la buildings moderno de gaudi
i feel like i've known these girls (and the only guy in the program, kyle) for a lot longer than that ya, which is really nice.
The spanish have the second highest life expectancy in the world, smoke like chimneys, get almost the least amount of sleep of any country, with the average being about 6 hours a night, and dress impecabbly all the time. They also have great posture, even when riding vespas.
I am averaging about 5 hours a night, have terrible back pain, my clothes all smell like smoke, and didn't have my luggage for 2 days in salamonca, but i am still having a fantastic time.
everyday, i say im going to go to bed at midnight, but then dinner isn't usually until 9, and then we go out, even if we only stay out for an hour, its 11 ya, and then we have to talk about our days and what spanish words or customs we learned, and then its 3 suddenly. and then some days, we stay out to 5, so then its 6 when we go to sleep.
today, i am definitely getting to bed. ahora misma. mas o menos.