The Final Attempt to Catch Up

Okay, I've decided I'm tired of being a week behind on my blog because it's much more useful for you guys to know what's happening now and not what I did last Thursday, so I'm going to briefly give you a run-down of what's happened the past week and three days. Brace yourselves!

Day 5: Friday, 13/2/09

This day was set aside for orientation for all of the new international students at U. of Navarra this semester. We had to be on campus in the Edificio Central at 10 a.m. so Stacy and I got up, went down to the hostel office to drop off our suitcases so that they could have our room empty, met the rest of the girls outside Pizza Hut, and we all wandered down to campus. We had actually been to campus before this - on Thursday night, or Wednesday? - to attend the award ceremony where Mizzou recieved the Premio Brajnovic from the University of Navarra for excellent journalism. Our professors Brian Brooks and Fritz Cropp were there, and we were pointed out and made to take lots of pictures with them, but in the end there was a reception and we got to have wine with our professors from both Mizzou and Navarra, so that was entertaining. Anywho, so we had actually been in the building where orientation was being held once before, and were able to find it pretty easily. We waited in line, got packets, and sat in a room where we met student staff members who are also international students that have been there longer, and faculty members who told us about plenty of activities and helped with general information about school. After that, we had a break, snacks, and took a group picture, where we were also able to meet with people about purchasing cell phones and setting up student banking accounts. Most of us from Mizzou had cell phones already, so Stacy, Kate and I set up bank accounts, and we all said we'd go in on Monday to get it all finished and deposit money, so that was good. Then we got to meet with advisors about actual classes, which was useful - afterwards we realized that this part only pointed out to us everything we didn't know, which was better than being completely unaware, I suppose.

We had lunch after the academic meeting, in the cafe in the library building, which we walked to with Penelope and Ana, the two women who were our advisors. The lunch was really good, but the portions were massive - I suppose lunch is the big meal in Spain, versus how we have large dinners in America. After lunch, Stacy and I walked back to the hostel office and retrieved our suitcases, and we each called taxis and went off to our apartments! When I got there, Rocio was home, and she helped me get all my things out of the elevator, and told me I could put them in another girl's room for the night, because she would be out of town. I put them where she showed me, and we sat and talked for about an hour and a half. It was a very complicated conversation - I established with her that it would be okay for me to sleep on the couch here until Francesca, the Italian girl who was moving out, left, and then pointed out that I had no keys, so we would have to coordinate when I needed to home. She told me she was going out that night, and wouldn't be back until really really early the next morning (6 a.m.!) and then at one in the afternoon the next day she would be going back to her home town to spend the weekend with her family. So, after a lot of not understanding one another, we established that it would better for me to stay with a friend Friday night, and then come back Saturday night and pick up Rocio's keys, which she would leave for me, and then when she got home Sunday, I would get Francesca's keys and she would get hers back from me. Then we tried to talk about television, and I attempted to explain 'Dancing with the Stars' because she was watching some dance t.v. show, and it just got very...interesting. It was fun, though : ) she's very nice, and patient.

After the break, I went back to campus, and met up with the international students for a scheduled tour. I was in the yellow group with Stacy, and we met a nice girl from Wisconsin in our group. The student staff took us on a tour of campus, and we saw all the classroom buildings, and the gym (very...small), and then we went on a brief tour of Pamplona, up a major street and then into the old part of town. Stacy and I ended up walking with Marta, a very nice girl who pointed out all of the best places to go out to at night, as well as a lot of the historical parts of town. We went past the Ciudadela, which is the old fort/stronghold where everybody would go if the city was at war, etc. It was really interesting, I plan on going back on a nice day to take some pictures. At the end of the tour, all of the groups met up at a bar to get pinchos, which is what tapas are called here, and it was very chaotic but fun.

We tried a few new things, had a glass of wine, and discovered the sheer amount of smoking that's allowed in places here. By the time nine or ten came around, the bar was packed, and everybody was smoking, and when they were done, they put their cigarette butts out on the floor. It was kind of gross, but we were there so long we sort of got used to it. After awhile, Marta appeared out of nowhere, and dragged me over to meet this guy named Pedro. She said he was really nice, and asked me again what I was studying. I told her communications, and realized she was taking me to meet him because she thought I was studying economics and he would be in my classes. She said something equivalent to 'oh, well' and introduced me anyways. Via Pedro, who is actually very nice, I met Santiago and Raul as well. I talked with them for a really long time, and after awhile Kate came over and talked with us. Santiago is studying history, so he and I had a nice chat about all kinds of things and how history repeats itself - it was great nerdy fun!

After that bar got super crowded, Pedro and his friends asked us if we wanted to go dancing, and we said sure. Stacy had gone home sick, and Leslie was tired and went home, so we got Lindsay and Pedro and Santiago got Jane, Garland, and Rachel - three other American girls from North Carolina - and we all walked to a different bar, where you salsa! So, we were there, Santiago tried to teach me how to salsa - atleast better than I already knew - and Raul danced with Rachel, Jane, Kate, and I. It was a lot of fun, but eventually they asked if we wanted to go somewhere else, so we wandered and finally found this completely empty bar called Opium, and we danced there and had the place practically to ourselves. It was a really good time! The guys walked us home after that, and I stayed with Kate in the extra room in her apartment that night.

Day 6: Saturday, 14/2/09 -- Valentine's Day

This day was the international student group trip to San Sebastian, which was great fun! We were supposed to meet at campus at some horrible hour, like nine or so - I don't recall. What ended up happening, is Kate and I ran a bit late leaving, and didn't meet up with the girls to walk there, and when we were walking we got distracted by our conversation and walked all the way to my apartment, and then got lost trying to get on campus. We ended up having to call a taxi to get us, while recieving phone calls from Felicita, one of the girls in Kate's tour group from the day before, about how they were waiting for us, but we would be left if we didn't get there soon. So, we were stressed, the taxi arrived, and we got there probably fifteen minutes late. Once on the bus, John Rueda, the faculty member in charge of us, said he was glad we made it but announced that if people were late to the bus on the way home, they would be left in San Sebastian. It was good natured, so I wasn't upset, and we had a nice bus ride down there, Kate and I just talked most of the way, and I think I fell asleep the last twenty or thirty minutes.

We got there and ended up in a group of us five from Missouri - Kate, Stacy, Leslie, Linsday, and I - Felicita, (other) Stacy, and Magdelin (spelling is questionable). Felicita and Stacy are from the states, and Magdelin is from Holland. We had a good day! We saw a beautiful cathedral, walked along the coast, wandered through the old part of town and found ourselves on the set of Vantage Point (!!!!) - which, I was the first person to figure out where we were, something incredible since I have a horrible knowledge bank of movie trivia - and then we took a train up the mountain on the full opposite side of town to see a view of the whole city. I'm pretty sure we walked atleast a few miles just going back and forth all over that place, but it was gorgeous. Along the beach, in the early afternoon, there were youth soccer league games being held, and it was really cool to see such good soccer being played. We saw dogs everywhere, we got gelato at this cute little shop, and after the train ride up the mountain, we wandered through the city and found La Vaca (the cow), a restaurant where we had lunch. I had this amazing sandwhich concoction, and the other girls got hamburgers, haha. Finally, we wandered back to the bus (on time) and rode home. I sat next to Felicita this time, and she and I talked about all sorts of things in an attempt to stay awake the whole ride home, so we wouldn't be too tired to go out that night. I think I again slept for like 15 minutes at the end, but it was alright.

Once we got back to Pamplona, the bus dropped us off in the perfect place for us to walk to Carrefour - the equivalent of Wal-Mart here. They have everything! That night we were really just getting essentials so that we could last through the weekend, so we got hair dryers/curling irons etc., and enough food for a few days. We walked back, and I went with Kate to her apartment to get my things, and then I finally went back to my own apartment. Eefja (pronounced Evia) let me in, who was the roommate I dind't meet when I came to see the place. She's from Holland, 20 years old, and she's so nice. I set down my things, and she and I talked for awhile. My suitcases had been moved out of her room because she got back that day, so I set them in the corner of the living room, and she showed me where blankets were for later, in case she wasn't up or home when I was going to bed. I made pasta for dinner, and got dressed and curled my hair, and met up with the girls at Felicita's apartment before we went out. When we did go, we went to a bar called Singular, which was great fun. All of the music everywhere we've been out has been American music. Some have been converted to electronica versions, but most of it is just the same, so we know a lot of the music which is fun.

Felicita and Stacy left Singular early, and the rest of us were going to go to Merengo, a discoteque (for dancing), with Pedro, Santiago, and a few of their other friends - Alejandro, Miguel, and Jaime. We walked to Merengo, and the line was out the door, so we decided to go somewhere else, where the line was also ridiculous, so finally Pedro asked us what we wanted to do, and I suggested we go to a playground! Playgrounds are prime entertainment, no matter how old you are or in what country. Regardless, he looked at me like I was crazy and said he'd never been to a playground at 4 a.m. (***Note: hours to go out in Spain are usually 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., so this time is not unusual for them, and the idea is that at some point us Americans will get used to it) but he took us to one anyways. It was a lot of fun! We legitimately played for probably half an hour, and then this is what ended up happening: Four American girls, and five Spanish guys, sitting on a playground at 4:30 a.m. in Pamplona, Spain carried on a political discussion about Barack Obama in Spanish. It was kind of awesome. Hahah, either way, after awhile we got really cold, so we walked back to where Pedro had his car, and he dropped us all off at our apartments.

This was the first night I spent in my apartment! I slept on the couch - happily, I was exhausted - until something like two in the afternoon the next day.

Day 7: Sunday, 15/2/09

So, I woke up at 2 or so, and showered, got dressed, and went to meet the girls at Stacy's apartment so that we could plan our course schedules for the next week. We worked on it for as long as we could before mass, and then we went to the English mass at the church on campus at 5 p.m. It was one of the activities listed on our international student orientation, but I'm fairly sure we were the only people there. However, Santiago was there and we talked to him after the service, which was very nice.

We walked back to Stacy's after the service and kept working on our classes, when I realized that the credits we were going by where the wrong ones. Here's how it works:

There are three systems of course credit, U. Navarra 'actual' credits, ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credits, and Mizzou credits. On a class' syllabus, there will be Navarra credits, and ECTS credits, and to figure out the Mizzou credits we were told to divide the ECTS credit by two.

For example: If a class has 8 Navarra credits, it might figure into 5.5 ECTS credits, and then 2.75 Mizzou credits. Which is useless to us, because we need atleast three credit hours for a class to add up to a full course at Mizzou. However, at Navarra, the amount of 'actual' credits reflects student work in the class, and typically ranges from 4 or 4.5 credits to 10, where 8 and 10 credit classes are the hardest and most demanding classes in the university. So we realized that even if we enrolled in 5 or 6 of the hardest classes Navarra offers - keep in mind that we'd be taking them in a foreign language - we would still not have enough credit for 12 hours at Mizzou. So we had a group meltdown, sent a few very stern emails to Mizzou, and then gave up and sat around stressing together for about another hour or so, before we all went home.

I finally got back to my apartment, and Rocio said I could put my things in my room now - that Francesca was gone. I was so excited!!! I found sheets with baby polar bears on them in my closet, and made my bed with them and a comforter they gave me, along with the blanket Miranda gave me (which actually matches the comforter!). I emptied my suitcases and put all my clothes in my closet, folded better than I would even for Talbot's, put my suitcases in the smaller closet, and set up my desk and put my thins on the shelves. I am still so excited - my room is adorable! After that, I fought with their internet for a bit, because they had an installation disk that only worked for Windows, and it took me a bit to figure that out, and then give up. So I ate, and then finally went to bed.

Days 8-14: Monday 16/2/09 - Sunday 22/2/09

This is a muddled overview, because that's how I remember it. The credit system, which I previously explained, routinely screwed all of us girls up over and over again this week. I have about three different versions of a feasible class schedule, that ended up with a ton of classes that wouldn't work out. At one point Kate, who is trying to graduate this coming December, broke down and cried in an advisor's office here at Navarra, and Stacy - on Skype with our study abroad coordinator, Fritz Cropp - almost did the same thing. I had my share of being frustrated, and finally decided that I was done with it, put together a schedule with as many classes as I knew would work, and made it perfect - highlighted and everything - as an act of stubbornness, I suppose, stating that I refused to change it again. I haven't had to yet, actually, because Mizzou finally pulled their heads out of the sand and figured out a much nicer way to interpret ECTS credits (still dividing by two, but then rounding up to the nearest whole number), so I think I may actually have it settled.

My courses (once I hear back that they officially will transfer) are:
Literatura Espanola Moderna y Contemporanea (Modern and Contemporary Spanish Lit)
Relaciones Internacionales (International Relations)
Lenguaje Publicitario (Language of Publicity/Advertising)
Estructura del Periodismo (Structure of Journalism)

My Lit class I think will be the hardest, but Stacy is in it with me, and we're going to split up the five novels we have to read, and work on it together, along with the six smaller books of poetry. International Relations should be fun, the professor is funny, and very nice. I told him I have a conflict with his class on Fridays, and he said it was alright - the first five weeks we'll only watch movies, and the rest of the Fridays he'll talk about the United States, because I know that. However, one day in class he was comparing empires throughout history to the United States, and called out our group - Leslie, Kate and I - to answer four questions for him. We understood everything he was saying except for probably one word in each question, which made it impossible to answer, and made us look retarded. He rephrased his questions enough - like, "What is the symbol of the U.S.?" to where we could answer, but who knows the word for 'eagle' in Spanish off the top of their head, so I had to say bird, and then realize that I knew the word (augila) right after he said it for me. So we still looked kind of silly. Either way, classes should be good - my lit teacher offered to sit down with Stacy and I next week to put together a plan for how we should study for this class, and Lenguaje Publicitad seems like it should be fun, and the teacher was super nice when we met her after class and said we were international students. All is well!

So, good! Oh, what else? At the beginning of the week we attempted to set up our wireless on campus and had to work with Marta, who also works at a tech help desk, for like twenty minutes, setting up networks, and changing proxies, for it all to still not really work. Later that day I'm pretty sure I found a spot where skype would work, and not my internet browsers, and I left voicemails on skype but almost started crying because I didn't have internet at school or at home and hadn't talked to anybody for about four days. But -- later that week, Stacy and I realized we had the same internet providers in our apartments, and the same problem setting it up, so we looked up how to do it online using a computer lab at school, and finally got directions that worked! We set it up at her house first, and she talked to her sister for awhile, while I met and hung out with her roommates, and then we went to my apartment and set mine up! It was probably the greatest part of my school week, to be honest.

Also this week, I went back to Carrefour to buy towels, a mirror for my desk, and food for as long as I could make it last. I was by myself and ended up spending near to two hours there wandering through the aisles and looking at all the exciting food. I bought things I know how to cook though, so I came home with stuff for wraps, Nutella + bread, fruit, yogurt, and peach juice!!

Another day, Kate, Leslie and I were getting lunch at the cafe in the Fcom (communications) building, and the ladies at the counter called when your food was ready by asking and using your name. However, Leslie is a very uncommon name in Spain - everybody she meets has trouble with it - so we were sitting there waiting for our food, and we heard mine, and Kate's, and then maybe 15 seconds later "...SANDWEECH", which is what Leslie ordered. So now we call her sanweech. Apparently she's also heard Laslie, and Lady.

Thursday night is a big night to go out in Spain, apparently, so a bunch of us international kids went over to Jane, Garland and Rachel's apartment, where they actually had chips and dip, and we played card games before going out. We all went to Singular again, and they played Summer Night from Grease, which Jane, Rachel and I sang to our entire group of friends, and then they played Losing My Religion, so it was all in all a great time. After awhile, Stacy, Lindsay and I - who were planning to go to Merengo afterwards - opted to instead go home and got a taxi back to our apartments.

Friday night was bowling night for the international kids, and I was on a team with Robert from Boston, Stephanie from Montreal, Joel from Taiwan, and Linsday from Mizzou. It was good fun - first game I got 94, and the second I got 105!!! We took the bus there and back, which was also and adventure, and I found out that there is one thing close to my apartment - the bus stop! : )
I talked to this guy Johnathan, from Germany, about Bayern Munich and he said he's been to one of their games, and that I should definitely go, so I'm really excited about trying to make that happen now.

Saturday...OH! We went shopping! All of us girls from Mizzou wandered down to Casco Viejo - the old part of town - and found a bunch of streets full of shops. It was a lot of fun! I got so much on sale, it was crazy! I found a shirt for like, 5 euro, a coat for 19 euro, a sweater for 8 euro, etc. etc. I got black tights, some RED pants - which are super fun - and another cute top. We sat and actually participated in siesta like we should - at an outdoor cafe (it actually warmed up) eating and talking for a few hours. It was really nice. We went home in the evening, and then met up again to go out, and wandered back that way and ended up like this: Five American girls, in Spain, in an Irish pub, one of us which was drinking German beer, speaking English, surrounded by spaniards. It was really amusing. So we hung out there for a few hours, and ended up going home to get some sleep.

Last night I shut the crazy intense metal blinds on the outside of my window that block out all possible light, so I woke up today at 4 in the afternoon. Intense, but I think maybe I'll finally have caught up on my lost sleep now, and I'll be okay, ideally. We'll see tomorrow, no? : ) I spent most of the late afternoon at home, cleaning and getting my things together, and then finally I called Stacy and we wandered through my part of the neighborhood finding essential things like dumpsters, markets, and eventually this little asian store reminiscent of a dollar store at home, where we got super cheap school supplies! And I got a book of sudokus and word finds in Spanish so I'm excited :D

So yeah! That's everything! I'll put up another post of some pictures, and then I'm caught up! Excellent!

Hasta luego!
Alex