This past weekend I went on my first solo European adventure to Geneva, Switzerland, home of clocks/watches, swiss army knives, and of course swiss chocolates. Switzerland is a place that I have always wanted to see so I'm really excited I finally had the opportunity to go. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great so I didn't have the best view of the Alps, but the lake was gorgeous and the city was really interesting.
Here's a quick play by play of my trip..
First, I arrived around 11pm Thursday night and contacted the person who was hosting me for that night. I decided to use CouchSurfers for this trip because I was traveling by myself. If you don't know what CS is, let me explain because it's totally freakin' awesome. CS is an organization that allows people willing to host travelers to communicate with said travelers to create international friendships and fun traveling experiences. I was really excited for this because CS would allow me to meet local people willing to show me around so I could enjoy a more authentic trip. Or they could kill me and offer me as a human sacrifice to their god.
Unfortunately for Genevovera, the imaginary god of Geneva, my hosts were the former. My first night I stayed with some awesome students who gave me great advice about what to do in the city as well as other fun places to travel in Europe. We shared a lot of stories and had a great time getting to know each other. I was sad to leave them but I was also excited to meet the family who lived on the border of France and Switzerland that had offered to host me for the next two days.
I left my first host's apartment around 10am but had a few difficulties with the public transportation system so I didn't arrive in the neighborhood of my next hosts until around 1pm. Geneva has a fairly good bus/tram system, but I don't speak a word of French so it was difficult to master it. Also, I could not figure out how to pay for the bus. So I didn't. Sshhhhhh, don't tell.
I sent a few texts to my next hosts and tried calling because I was having a lot of trouble. I had put money on my phone before I left Madrid but I completely underestimated how expensive it would be to communicate with people in France while I was still in Switzerland using a Spanish phone. So as I arrived in the their town, my phone ran out of money.
I found a post office and tried to communicate that I needed to call the family I was staying with. But as I've already said, I do not speak French. This was a really weird experience because I'm constantly doubting my Spanish abilities so I didn't think twice about going to yet another foreign country, but in Switzerland/France I kept thinking how much easier it would be if I could speak in Spanish. I may not speak fluently or without errors, but I am definitely able to communicate efficiently. Being in a foreign country where I actually don't speak the language is kind of terrifying. Luckily, I'm good at charades. The family was called and came to pick me up at the post office. The mother walked to the post office with her young son and daughter and welcomed me to their town. She told me it was good that I could walk home with them because I would learn the easiest way to get to their apartment.
Here is what was apparently the easiest way to get to their apartment:
We walked to the end of the street and turned left on another street. We walked on that street for a while and turned into a parking lot. At the end of the parking lot we walked across a dirt path through a park-like field. Then we walked between several rows of buildings that had tape across them with signs that looked like they said "No trespassing," but for all I know they said "Please duck under us so you can cut through other people's property and save time." Then we walked up a grass hill and cut through a playground. We headed straight for a huge hedge and then bent over to crawl under a hole in the hedge and squeeze by a large rock I can only assume was there to prevent people from ducking under the hedge. We continued through to another field, walked through another parking lot, and arrived at their apartment. By the way, I also had to do this at night when I was coming back from the city because this was the only way I knew how to go.
I had a fun time exploring Geneva, home of CERN, the UN, and other important buildings and monuments, but by far the most interesting part of my trip was this family. The mother was a stay-at-home mom and she believed in "unschooling" her children. She lets them do pretty much anything they want and teaches them when they want to learn something. I asked if it was like homeschooling, but she said "No, it's unschooling." The family is vegetarian and they eat many soy products but very few vegetables. Before dinner they like to sit around the piano and sing together. Cute, right? Also, the family all sleeps in one room. They have several bedrooms even after offering one to me, but they apparently like to all sleep together. Cute....right?
On Saturday night they baked a cake and then rolled some dice to see who's birthday they would pretend it was. Their son had chosen the lucky number so we sang to him and then ate the cake w/ some vanilla soy yogurt. It was a strange experience, but they were very nice and I was provided with a bedroom and meals.
As for my adventures in Geneva, I continued to use the buses and trams without paying and I was able to see the whole city. The lake was gorgeous, I went to a couple different street markets, and of course the chocolate was amazing. I even brought some home for my Spanish family. They had chocolate stores everywhere and I was able to go into each one and ask for samples. They also had about a billion watch stores. Every street had multiple watch stores. No one in this city has any excuse to ever be late for anything.
Overall it was a good weekend and I'm glad I went, although I definitely wish the weather had been better. And I didn't have to sell any limbs while I was there even though I was told Geneva is the most expensive city in the world. But when you CouchSurf, hop on and off buses without paying, and pretend to be interested in paying for chocolate to score free food, it's really not an expensive trip at all.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
"IDK, My BFF Jill"
A couple nights ago the school hosted an event where Spanish students came to our school for a kind of meet-and-greet so everyone could make international friends. The event itself was not done very efficiently, as some individual Americans ended up sitting with a whole group of Spaniards, whereas at another circle, a whole group of Americans was sitting with only one or two Spaniards. After the ice-breaker (which by the way was no more fun in Spanish than it would have been in English), we were corralled into a different room with snacks and drinks. The problem with this was that it was so crowded, you could barely hear what the person next to you was saying. Everyone's voices rose to be heard about the others. The language barrier combined with the insane noise level made it incredibly difficult to get to know anyone.
After about an hour of screaming "¿QUE ESTUDIAS?" and "¿DONDE ESTA LA MEJOR FIESTA?" people started to go their own ways, but a group of us decided to go to a nearby bar. It was much easier to hear people speak there, and I ended up meeting some really nice Spanish students. They wanted to practice their English and I wanted to practice my Spanish, so we stood there talking to one another in our less-than-mastered languages. But it was actually a lot of fun.
I exchanged numbers with a couple of them and we said we'd see each other soon. Today I went to text one of them to see if she wanted to do anything today. I wasn't sure what language I should text in, but I decided to go with Spanish. I spelled out every word correctly to avoid any possible miscommunications. However, the message I received back looked like it was written in a language I had never before seen. It took me a moment to realize that was I was reading was "Spanish Text Language" (henceforth referred to as STL). Similar to "English Text Language," words were replaced by numbers, syllables were replaced by individual letters to shorten the length of the word, and phrases were replaced by acronyms. I was completely unprepared for this, as my Spanish classes have always focused on proper grammar and vocabulary, with the occasional outdated colloquialism thrown in.
It took me a minute to decipher the code, but eventually I was able to understand what the message said. Unfortunately, the person was not available this weekend but suggested another time we could meet up. I knew I was unavailable for that time so I wrote back. We texted each other back and forth for a while, and I found that STL was not so difficult to read. I was even starting to substitute my own proper spelling for the trendy mistake-ridden language of the "hip" (something I rarely do in English). This is something that is never taught in Spanish classes, but is nonetheless a very important part of becoming fluent. Therefore, I propose that Syracuse University offer a class in STL for students who actually want to master the language. The homework assignments should be to read and translate tweets in Spanish, and the exams should be to text the professor what you did the night before.
Would anyone else like to take this class?
After about an hour of screaming "¿QUE ESTUDIAS?" and "¿DONDE ESTA LA MEJOR FIESTA?" people started to go their own ways, but a group of us decided to go to a nearby bar. It was much easier to hear people speak there, and I ended up meeting some really nice Spanish students. They wanted to practice their English and I wanted to practice my Spanish, so we stood there talking to one another in our less-than-mastered languages. But it was actually a lot of fun.
I exchanged numbers with a couple of them and we said we'd see each other soon. Today I went to text one of them to see if she wanted to do anything today. I wasn't sure what language I should text in, but I decided to go with Spanish. I spelled out every word correctly to avoid any possible miscommunications. However, the message I received back looked like it was written in a language I had never before seen. It took me a moment to realize that was I was reading was "Spanish Text Language" (henceforth referred to as STL). Similar to "English Text Language," words were replaced by numbers, syllables were replaced by individual letters to shorten the length of the word, and phrases were replaced by acronyms. I was completely unprepared for this, as my Spanish classes have always focused on proper grammar and vocabulary, with the occasional outdated colloquialism thrown in.
It took me a minute to decipher the code, but eventually I was able to understand what the message said. Unfortunately, the person was not available this weekend but suggested another time we could meet up. I knew I was unavailable for that time so I wrote back. We texted each other back and forth for a while, and I found that STL was not so difficult to read. I was even starting to substitute my own proper spelling for the trendy mistake-ridden language of the "hip" (something I rarely do in English). This is something that is never taught in Spanish classes, but is nonetheless a very important part of becoming fluent. Therefore, I propose that Syracuse University offer a class in STL for students who actually want to master the language. The homework assignments should be to read and translate tweets in Spanish, and the exams should be to text the professor what you did the night before.
Would anyone else like to take this class?
Monday, January 31, 2011
Two Positives and a Negative
I've been having a difficult time with my host family for two main reasons. The first is obviously the language barrier, but I feel myself improving everyday so hopefully this won't be an issue much longer. I'm getting better at conversational Spanish so I try to engage more in...you know...conversations.
The second issue is that I'm not entirely comfortable living with another family. I know I said this was my home for the next four months, but I feel like a guest. I'm constantly afraid I'll overstay my welcome if I don't act like the perfect guest. And being the perfect guest means never complaining.
At orientation last week they told us that we need to communicate with our families when there is something we don't like. They told us not to be afraid of being rude because being honest here is never considered rude. I'd never thought of Americans as being overly polite but every time I say "please" or "thank you" at the dinner table I get laughed at, something that certainly doesn't happen back home. Our director gave us the following formula to negotiate change with our señoras:
Say two positive things that you like and then one thing you'd like to change.
I haven't been able to do this yet but I thought I would practice here.
Those are pretty much all my complaints, so that's not bad at all. At least the ones that can be dealt with. Other things, like having pits in the olives and the rain that didn't stop this weekend are things I just need to get over.
Hasta luego
The second issue is that I'm not entirely comfortable living with another family. I know I said this was my home for the next four months, but I feel like a guest. I'm constantly afraid I'll overstay my welcome if I don't act like the perfect guest. And being the perfect guest means never complaining.
At orientation last week they told us that we need to communicate with our families when there is something we don't like. They told us not to be afraid of being rude because being honest here is never considered rude. I'd never thought of Americans as being overly polite but every time I say "please" or "thank you" at the dinner table I get laughed at, something that certainly doesn't happen back home. Our director gave us the following formula to negotiate change with our señoras:
Say two positive things that you like and then one thing you'd like to change.
I haven't been able to do this yet but I thought I would practice here.
- Your house is lovely.
- I love the smell of the soap in the bathroom.
- You told me I would have my own bathroom completely to myself but your son uses it in the middle of the night and doesn't flush the toilet.
- The food you've been cooking is delicious.
- Thank you for putting my breakfast out for me to eat when I'm ready.
- Please don't prepare me a bowl of milk for my cereal when you wake up because when I sit down to eat it's at room temperature and I can't eat it.
- My bed is very comfortable (this is an exaggeration but it should still count)
- My desk and dresser are very spacious (more exaggerations...)
- I'd like a second pillow for my bed. I can't sleep well with only one pillow so I've been folding up my sweatshirts to put under the pillow for extra height so my neck doesn't hurt when I wake up.
- The internet works very well (this is a bold-faced lie! I'll explain in another post)
- Thank you for doing my laundry.
- Where are my clothes? I know you washed them this weekend but I haven't gotten them back yet...
Those are pretty much all my complaints, so that's not bad at all. At least the ones that can be dealt with. Other things, like having pits in the olives and the rain that didn't stop this weekend are things I just need to get over.
Hasta luego
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The Awkwardness of Not Being Awkward
While I might be able to manage my way around Spain with my current Spanish level, forming a relationship with my host family is very difficult. Everything I want to say must be translated from English to Spanish in my mind. The stories I tell, the questions I ask, and the discussions I engage in all have to go through a language filter in my brain. This means one thing: I have to think before I speak.
Aside from the occasional grain of intelligence in my feminist rantings, most of what I say is completely unfiltered. But since I don't know how to talk about challenging heteronormativity through the radical reformation of confining systems in Spanish, that topic is off the table. The rest of what I normally say is pure word vomit. I constantly babble with no particular point or tell stories with no structured beginning, middle, or end. I'm all over the place in conversations and rarely ever stop to think about the idiocy pouring out of me.
But isn't that a part of who I am? Someone who can't maintain a normal conversation without spazzing out and turning one conversation into eight? Having to think before I speak has stripped me of my entire personality. Without my apparently insightful idiocy, how will this family get to know me? Hopefully my Spanish will improve throughout the semester and I won't have to think so much before I speak. Until then, this family thinks I'm quiet, unopinionated, and unoriginal. Three words I would not use to describe myself.
Aside from the occasional grain of intelligence in my feminist rantings, most of what I say is completely unfiltered. But since I don't know how to talk about challenging heteronormativity through the radical reformation of confining systems in Spanish, that topic is off the table. The rest of what I normally say is pure word vomit. I constantly babble with no particular point or tell stories with no structured beginning, middle, or end. I'm all over the place in conversations and rarely ever stop to think about the idiocy pouring out of me.
But isn't that a part of who I am? Someone who can't maintain a normal conversation without spazzing out and turning one conversation into eight? Having to think before I speak has stripped me of my entire personality. Without my apparently insightful idiocy, how will this family get to know me? Hopefully my Spanish will improve throughout the semester and I won't have to think so much before I speak. Until then, this family thinks I'm quiet, unopinionated, and unoriginal. Three words I would not use to describe myself.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Home is Where the Internet Is
I met my host family earlier today and moved into their apartment. Everyone is really nice and the apartment is very comfortable. I unpacked my things in my new bedroom and bathroom and proceeded to set up my computer. My new brother helped me access their wifi connection and I started importing all the pictures I took during the seminar. As I opened a browser to test the internet, a familiar but generally ignored message popped up. The computer wanted to know what I wanted to call this new internet connection. It suggested home, work, or public location. As I read these options the realization finally dawned on me that I was living in Spain. During the seminar we moved from hotel to hotel, but I will be living with this family in Madrid for the next four months. As my mouse moved toward the "home" option, I teared up. This place, this foreign country, with a family I don't know, a language I haven't mastered, and a bedroom I've never slept in is now my home.
Two thoughts have taken over my mind in the past few minutes:
1) Will I truly feel at home here?
2) How do I change google.es from Spanish to English?
Two thoughts have taken over my mind in the past few minutes:
1) Will I truly feel at home here?
2) How do I change google.es from Spanish to English?
Como se dice "tampon" en español?
Okay so this is one of those great foreign country stories that I'll probably tell for years to come. This is the tale of my first period in Europe.
For the past 11 days I've been on a traveling seminar. I packed one suitcase for the seminar and the rest of my stuff stayed in Madrid. I was very careful in packing only the necessities for the seminar, but a few mistakes were made. I wasn't expecting to get my period until the seminar was over and I was officially living in Madrid, so I didn't bother packing many of that particular type of necessity. I brought two tampons and one pad, believing if my period started early I could just buy more. Probably because of all the walking and stair climbing, my period arrived early. I did mention the stairs, no?
Anyways, the group was in Valencia and I had seen a couple of pharmacies not too far from the hotel. We were enjoying one of our brief moments of free time so I headed out by myself to a pharmacy. I kept seeing the stores, but all of them were closed. This was at around 5pm, and many small stores close around 2pm. But I kept walking because I hoped to find an open store. After about 40 minutes of wandering around Valencia it became clear that I needed help.
I did some people watching to choose people who looked safe to talk to. I saw two middle-aged women walking together and decided they probably wouldn't attempt to rob or kill me. I approached them and started to ask where I could buy some tampons but then I realized I didn't know how to say "tampon" in Spanish. Here is our conversation:
Note: The following has been translated from its original format in Spanish.
Me: Excuse me. Can you help me?
Woman: Yes?
Me: I'm looking for a store that sells....I don't know the word in Spanish...but things that girls need during three or four days each month?
Woman: (laughs) Yes. You can go to a pharmacy.
Me: All of the pharmacies I've seen are closed. Do you know of a store that is open?
Woman: El Corte Ingles is open late.
Me: Great! Where is El Corte Ingles?
Woman: Keep walking on this street and you'll see it on your right.
Me: Thank you so much!
Woman: (laughs again)
I managed to find El Corte Ingles (my new favorite store by the way because they have absolutely everything and it's like a mall all in one store) and I completed my mission and returned to the hotel. Despite my embarrassment at the awkwardness of the situation, I was beaming with pride. My Spanish may not be perfect, but this was the first real test of if I knew enough to truly get by. And I did! I was so excited that I ran to my room to look up the word tampon. I knew I would remember this word for the rest of my life because of this experience. I grabbed my Spanish/English dictionary eager to add a new word to my vocabulary.
So to answer the question, ¿como se dice -tampon- en español?
el tampón
For the past 11 days I've been on a traveling seminar. I packed one suitcase for the seminar and the rest of my stuff stayed in Madrid. I was very careful in packing only the necessities for the seminar, but a few mistakes were made. I wasn't expecting to get my period until the seminar was over and I was officially living in Madrid, so I didn't bother packing many of that particular type of necessity. I brought two tampons and one pad, believing if my period started early I could just buy more. Probably because of all the walking and stair climbing, my period arrived early. I did mention the stairs, no?
Anyways, the group was in Valencia and I had seen a couple of pharmacies not too far from the hotel. We were enjoying one of our brief moments of free time so I headed out by myself to a pharmacy. I kept seeing the stores, but all of them were closed. This was at around 5pm, and many small stores close around 2pm. But I kept walking because I hoped to find an open store. After about 40 minutes of wandering around Valencia it became clear that I needed help.
I did some people watching to choose people who looked safe to talk to. I saw two middle-aged women walking together and decided they probably wouldn't attempt to rob or kill me. I approached them and started to ask where I could buy some tampons but then I realized I didn't know how to say "tampon" in Spanish. Here is our conversation:
Note: The following has been translated from its original format in Spanish.
Me: Excuse me. Can you help me?
Woman: Yes?
Me: I'm looking for a store that sells....I don't know the word in Spanish...but things that girls need during three or four days each month?
Woman: (laughs) Yes. You can go to a pharmacy.
Me: All of the pharmacies I've seen are closed. Do you know of a store that is open?
Woman: El Corte Ingles is open late.
Me: Great! Where is El Corte Ingles?
Woman: Keep walking on this street and you'll see it on your right.
Me: Thank you so much!
Woman: (laughs again)
I managed to find El Corte Ingles (my new favorite store by the way because they have absolutely everything and it's like a mall all in one store) and I completed my mission and returned to the hotel. Despite my embarrassment at the awkwardness of the situation, I was beaming with pride. My Spanish may not be perfect, but this was the first real test of if I knew enough to truly get by. And I did! I was so excited that I ran to my room to look up the word tampon. I knew I would remember this word for the rest of my life because of this experience. I grabbed my Spanish/English dictionary eager to add a new word to my vocabulary.
So to answer the question, ¿como se dice -tampon- en español?
el tampón
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Top Reasons Why I Miss Having a Cell phone
I´ve been in Spain for a week now and I don´t have a phone because they aren´t renting the international phones to us until the end of orientation when everyone is back in Madrid. A few people have blackberrys so they can contact each other for free but the rest of us have no phones or ways to communicate except for the hotel computers because most of us left our laptops to Madrid. This is inconvenient in 7 ways.
1) Communication. We´re a group of 21 people and in our free time we like to go out together. This becomes really difficult without phones because there is no way to efficiently get the plan out to everyone. We end up leaving some behind who aren´t available at the moment we knock on their doors or we separate into smaller groups to avoid leaving anyone out but we can´t reunite without communication. In the mornings our conversations are like this:
Person A-What happened to you last night?
Person B-Oh my god we ended up at this club and it was totally crazy! You should have been there!
Person A-I thought we were meeting at that restaurant! I waited for you. What club? Can we go again tonight?
Person B-Absolutely! Let´s go at 11!
Person A-Okay I´m grabbing dinner around 10 but I´ll meet you there at 11.
The next morning...
Person B - What happened to you? I thought we were meeting at that club at 11.
Person A - Oh my god after dinner we went to this bar and it was the best night ever! I told Person C to text Person D because Person D has Person E´s number and I knew you were with Person E but I guess you didn´t get the message. Sorry! We´ll go again tonight...meet at 11?
2) Visualizing my schedule. I do this thing where I need my phone calendar or alarm to visualize my day or week. If I´m planning something a few days ahead I need to move my calendar to that day. Or if I´m planning something later in the night I need to count the hours with my phone alarm so I can visualize it in my head. Without my phone I have no idea what day it is, time it is, or when I need to be anywhere. My watch just doesn´t give me an accurate impression of time windows.
3) Not feeling awkward. Okay I know I´m not alone in this but when there is a conversation around me that I´m not really included in I play with my phone. I check old texts and sometimes send new ones. It´s a way of saying "I choose to not be involved in this conversation because I am busy, but not too busy that I can´t give you some of my attention if you so desire." Without my phone I just fidget uncomfortably, play with my hair, or pretend to look for something in my purse. It´s awkward.
4) Simple math. I´m not talking about converting euros to dollars, because I consider that complicated. But I need my phone to do basic addition and subtraction. Like if my meal costs 11 euros and my drink costs 4.
5) Doo-Doo-Doo-Duh. I miss my Kimmunicator ringtone. I keep playing it over and over in my head. When I get my new phone I´m going to try and get it again.
6) Worrying about having lost the phone. Normally I keep my cell phone and my pocket and I´ve always been in a habit of checking to see if it´s there whenever I stand up or move locations. I´m still doing this and I keep freaking out for a second that I lost it. But then I remember it´s not with me.
7) Popularity. I miss that special feeling when I get a call or text. Like someone is trying to communicate with me and eagerly waiting for me to communicate back.
1) Communication. We´re a group of 21 people and in our free time we like to go out together. This becomes really difficult without phones because there is no way to efficiently get the plan out to everyone. We end up leaving some behind who aren´t available at the moment we knock on their doors or we separate into smaller groups to avoid leaving anyone out but we can´t reunite without communication. In the mornings our conversations are like this:
Person A-What happened to you last night?
Person B-Oh my god we ended up at this club and it was totally crazy! You should have been there!
Person A-I thought we were meeting at that restaurant! I waited for you. What club? Can we go again tonight?
Person B-Absolutely! Let´s go at 11!
Person A-Okay I´m grabbing dinner around 10 but I´ll meet you there at 11.
The next morning...
Person B - What happened to you? I thought we were meeting at that club at 11.
Person A - Oh my god after dinner we went to this bar and it was the best night ever! I told Person C to text Person D because Person D has Person E´s number and I knew you were with Person E but I guess you didn´t get the message. Sorry! We´ll go again tonight...meet at 11?
2) Visualizing my schedule. I do this thing where I need my phone calendar or alarm to visualize my day or week. If I´m planning something a few days ahead I need to move my calendar to that day. Or if I´m planning something later in the night I need to count the hours with my phone alarm so I can visualize it in my head. Without my phone I have no idea what day it is, time it is, or when I need to be anywhere. My watch just doesn´t give me an accurate impression of time windows.
3) Not feeling awkward. Okay I know I´m not alone in this but when there is a conversation around me that I´m not really included in I play with my phone. I check old texts and sometimes send new ones. It´s a way of saying "I choose to not be involved in this conversation because I am busy, but not too busy that I can´t give you some of my attention if you so desire." Without my phone I just fidget uncomfortably, play with my hair, or pretend to look for something in my purse. It´s awkward.
4) Simple math. I´m not talking about converting euros to dollars, because I consider that complicated. But I need my phone to do basic addition and subtraction. Like if my meal costs 11 euros and my drink costs 4.
5) Doo-Doo-Doo-Duh. I miss my Kimmunicator ringtone. I keep playing it over and over in my head. When I get my new phone I´m going to try and get it again.
6) Worrying about having lost the phone. Normally I keep my cell phone and my pocket and I´ve always been in a habit of checking to see if it´s there whenever I stand up or move locations. I´m still doing this and I keep freaking out for a second that I lost it. But then I remember it´s not with me.
7) Popularity. I miss that special feeling when I get a call or text. Like someone is trying to communicate with me and eagerly waiting for me to communicate back.
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