Thursday mornings 7 am alarm was not well received since I didn't go to sleep until 12:30. As usual, I got my things ready and packed my books into my already heavy backpack. Before I left I ended up taking out most of my books and just took what I thought was essential because my back was hurting. I was excited to go to my Organizational Behavior class because of my presentation on motivation. Specifically though I was excited about the cognitive dissonance part because it's probably one of my favorite theories. After class, I have my usual 2 hour break before Spanish and decided to catch up on my blogs and be productive. I was...kind of. Some of my friends were in the cafe that I hadn't seen in a while and decided to catch up with them. I checked my emailed and realized the housing officer asked if I had a chance to talk to my host mom about the food situation yesterday (since I had sent her a message that she didn't need to because I would). I mean I tried last night but I didn't know how to bring it up, much less say it. I decided to suck it up and went to her office to tell her I was too scared. I found her in the hallway on her way to class and she was nice enough to let me explain the situation there. She said she will call my host mom and talk to her tomorrow while were on our excursion to the South of France so it won't be awkward. Although, I know when I get back home it's going to be awkward anyway. Oh well, I did it. We'll see what happens. I went back to my usual day of classes. Except today I got to see my tandem partner again. We went to the mall to shop while we talked about our weekends. It was fun and she's really nice. She even offered to help with anything I needed. She is was Spaniards call Super Maja! She even lives in my neighborhood so we walked home together. When I got home, I had a snack, rested for a while watching half an episode of Gran Hotel and then headed back out to go shopping for coats with Matt. The weather was BEAUTIFUL yesterday. I was wearing a t-shirt and sandals at the end of October. WHAT IS MY LIFE?! We (and by we, I mean me) were a bit hungry and decided to stop by Las Fritas in Casco Viejo. Basically, a french fry stand. They give it to you in a cone and you can add different topping and sauces. It's totally greasy and you feel disgusting after you eat it. But I'm not going to say I didn't like it; I just completely regretted it afterward. Nonetheless, I found some great jackets that I love, one is gorgeous red jacket from Corte Ingles with some cute gloves and the other is a trench coat from Zara that I've been looking for ages. Unfortunately, by the time we got out of Corte Ingles Zara was closed. (I decided not to buy the trench coat first because I didn't want to carry it around while trying to shop for another jacket.) It's down the street from my house so I'll just get it tomorrow. I went home and was welcomed by a plate of sausages and a spinach salad on the side (with bread!) It was AWESOME! I watched more of Gran Hotel and then went on a long walk with Igancio and Willie (the dog) meeting Carlos on the way. It was nice to enjoy the weather on the walk. I got ready for bed to get enough rest for our last excursion with the program in the South of France.
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Yesterday was not a bad day. I procrastinated again not starting my second economics paper because I was watching Gran Hotel. While engrossed in the show, I noticed the outside of the Gran Hotel looked oddly familiar. I quickly ran to the kitchen to ask my host mom to confirm my speculation that the Gran Hotel was actually the palace I visited in Santander. She believed so but wasn't 100% sure. A quick google search let me to Wikipedia where I realized I was right. I was so excited and felt so cool. Too bad no one else would have known what I was talking about, except my dad who didn't answer my excited message. Oh well, you know now therefore I'm cool.
I had a gigantic lunch of pasta, croquettas, and steak. It was good but I was missing my veggies. After my very filling lunch, I finished watching the episode of Gran Hotel and then started my economics paper. I almost finished writing the first draft but then realized I had to run to class. Sunday we change the clock back 1 hour, which means that the sun rises earlier than 8:30 am (like 7 am). However, that also means the sun sets at 6pm. By the time I got out of class at 7:20pm, it was pitch black. Though, the lights are beautiful around the city and think that makes my walk home 100,00 times prettier. Instead of going out I decided to stay in and relax. During dinner my host brother Ignacio expressed his concern about whether he should take an internship in India or not. We spent the rest of the night talking about the same issue talking about the same issue everyone has in their life at one point. What should I do or what do I want to do with my life? Also, dinner was awesome! I had a salad with chicken breast! I asked my host brother if I could eat salad everyday and he said not every day but we'll have it more often. Before I knew it bed time came around. Day 53 - Monday started off as usual with my Organizational Behavior class. After, Kelly and I spent a few hours planning out the logistics for our December trip to the South of Spain. I'm so excited! Other than that, I spent the majority of my day freaking out about finalizing and perfecting my economics paper that was due at 5:30pm. Alas, right before class (4:45pm) everyone was done working on the paper and I emailed it. Mind you, I was also trying to cram for my international business midterm on Tuesday hence why there was no blog update. I had a pretty depressing dinner, I think the worst I've had since I've been here. My host mom bought a frozen precooked hamburger, which was supposed to be my dinner Sunday but since I wasn't hungry she wrapped them up and put them in the fridge for my dinner on Monday. I microwaved it, as she instructed me to do but after I took a couple bites I couldn't continue. The top bun was so hard I tried to smash it with all the force in my hand and I couldn't. I wanted to throw it out but they were standing in the kitchen and wanted to avoid the awkward situation. When they finally left, I rummaged in the fridge for something edible and found green beans and peppers. I warmed up enough to have something to eat but left behind enough so they wouldn't know I ate it. Luckily, dinner is not supposed to be the heaviest meal so I was fine for the night. But that doesn't mean I was upset, I finally had the courage to email the housing officer, explain the situation, and ask for help before I went to bed. Day 54 - I woke up early to study for my exam and received an reply back to my email. Basically, she offered to talk to my host mom but I had to tell her exactly what I wanted. I asked if I could meet with her before my class and went to school early. Two unfortunately things happened. First, it was POURING all morning and when I saw pouring I mean monsooning! I strapped on my hiking boots (which I cleverly figured out could substitute well for rain boots), took my umbrella and headed to school. Too bad less than halfway through my 20 min walk my hiking boots started letting water in and needless to say by the time I arrived at school I was soaking wet. Sock, boots, pants, everything. Also, Tuesdays are one of my longest school days and I wouldn't be able to go back home until 4:30pm. Walking around with wet socks and pants all day was not fun. Also, when I got to school, the housing officer wasn't there so I showed up early for nothing. Oh well, at least I could study for my exam. When my exam time came, I was super anxious because of the SAT-like grading system he has. Essentially, you get penalized for getting the wrong answer. Instead of getting -1, you get -1.33 but if you get an answer right you only get 1 point. So, it is possible to get a negative grade on the test. But don't worry because he said if I get a negative grade he'll change it so it's a 0. It's not like it's 30% of my grade or anything...ANYWAY, I prayed so hopefully I did well. I ended up getting out of marketing class early and as soon as I got home I changed out of my wet clothes. Later that night, Matt and I went for a walk for no reason. I stopped at Starbucks for the Apple Cider Chai Tea, because it was a little chilly out. We ended up wandering around Corte Ingles and stopping at a bar for pinchos. It was fun but I wanted to make sure I was on time for dinner. I was welcomed home by an empty house and a store bought tortilla de patata on the table. Blah. I only ate a little and went to my room to do homework. I wanted to talk to them about the food but I just couldn't find the right time and I was too nervous. Other than the fact that I have racked up about 30 hours of sleep for the entire weekend, I feel pretty accomplished. I managed to finish most of my homework on Friday but started studying and finalizing my economics essay today. BLAH. I woke up this morning and decided to talk to my brother and our friends for a while until they all went to sleep. Besides the fact that studying sucks, I was pretty hungry and couldn't wait until lunch. My oldest host brother Javier and his American girlfriend Courtney were joining us so we ended up eating at 3 pm; much later than my stomach was used to. Because I was so hungry, I ate soooooooooooooooooooo much food (yes, all of those o's were necessary). When I got back to my room I was so stuffed that I started to fall asleep while studying. "Ah, I'll just take a quick siesta to get energized and then I can study better," or so I thought. TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER....I woke up to my pitch black room, fumbling for my phone to check the time. It read 7:30pm. Nice one Patricia! My stomach felt less full but I still wasn't feeling 100 percent. A quick call to my brother for a favor and 10 mins later I was set up to do some Zumba with my mom. Back home, we always used to work out together but obviously we can't anymore and I miss it a lot. Let's put aside the fact that I NEED to start exercising because this Spanish diet of bread with a side of bread and a deep fried bacon bread sandwich does not sit well with the scale. It was a little hard to be completely engaged in the workout because the spacing in my room is awkward and the camera on Bobby's laptop didn't pick up the colors on the TV perfectly but nonetheless it was worth it. Side note: at around 8:15pm, aka in the middle of La Vida es un Carnival dance, my host mom knocked on my door to let me know dinner was ready. I managed to politely decline because I was still stuffed from lunch. After our workout, we chatted about different things before my dad joined in the conversation. I indulged in the hilarity of showing google + effects to my parents, my mom being the victim. The result? A masterpiece! Even though my mom decided to ditch us to make empanadas, my dad and I continued to chat until midnight. Despite the fact that I was constantly working on my economics paper, I still haven't finished. I mean, who can blame me? I really only talk to my parents once in a while because of work schedules and the time difference. Seeing them and talking was a great reminder of home and made me even more motivated to enjoy my time here in these last 2 months.
Goodnight everyone! I woke up this morning at 9:20 am, checked the messages on my phone and realized my friends were planning to go to Santander at 10 am. I rushed to meet up with them and made it exactly at 9:59 am. I have no idea how I did it but I did. We tried to buy tickets for the 10:30am bus but it was sold out and instead waited for the 11:30 am bus. This was actually a blessing in disguise because we found a bakery where I bought some much needed breakfast. It was fabulous. The bus ride to Santander took a lot longer than I thought it would and we arrived at around 1:30 pm. Since I didn't really research what was in Santander before we left, I just decided to go with the flow. We walked along the beach with really no destination in mind. At around 2 pm the gang decided they were hungry and wanted to find a restaurant for lunch. By the time we found a place I still wasn't hungry (because I ate breakfast so late). When the waitress came around to take our orders I told her I wasn't eating and only ordered a coke. She was a little shocked and I guess felt bad that all my friends were eating and I wasn't so she brought me a plate of chips for free. It was so sweet! I'm actually glad I didn't order anything because the food didn't look like it was worth the price. After lunch, we walked around the beach some more and found a beautiful park where my future wedding will be. (Maybe not... but it's definitely an option!) We stayed there quite a while before we walked for an hour all the way to the palace. On the way up the hill there were manatees! They were so cute! Also, we found replicas of Christopher Colmbus' ships. I wanted to take a picture with them but my friends couldn't help themselves. When we got to the palace I thought we could go inside so I went to the doors and pushed. There was some resistance so I tried to pull and the door gave way a little so I thought I had to pull harder. Well, when I pulled harder I noticed the lock in between the doors as they opened with a loud click. I think I broke the door...so I ran! Luckily, no one was there so it's fine. The palace from the outside was beautiful. I can only imagine how amazing it must have looked on the inside. The views of the ocean were spectacular and when we saw the front of the palace we were all amazed. It's now my life goal to live in a palace. We stayed there for a while before we walked all the way back to the bus station (another hour walk). We got there with plenty of time to spare and arrived in Bilbao an hour earlier than I expected. Matt, Joe and I decided to grab some Chinese food (because at this point I was starving). The Chinese food can't compare to the Chinese food back home but it's good enough. After sleeping for about 10 hours, I was fully rested to finish all of my homework for the weekend and start some of my final projects. I was actually pretty productive and finished everything except for my economics paper and studying for my International Business exam on Tuesday. I decided to give myself a break and go out for a walk around since I hadn't done much movement all day. (To give you an idea of how little I moved my Fitbit said I only had 626 steps when I walked out my door.) I went to Corte Ingles to see if I could find a heavier jacket for when I go to Poland in November and also see if I could find some baking ingredients. I couldn't find any powdered sugar even though multiple people said I would be able to. I even went around the entire store to see what else they had. I found an aisle that slightly resembled an international food aisle but it only had Japanese and Mexican foods. (I don't think one bottle of Harissa is enough to include Moroccan too.) I also happened to find a pretty dark red colored jacket but wanted to look around more before I bought it. I stopped by the other part of Corte Ingles to look at the available cook books. While there, I noticed that the Starbucks was packed and when I say packed, I mean it! This picture doesn't even include the other side of the store! I noticed on my walk that there were an unusual amount of people on the streets and I passed up some guys setting up a concert stage on Gran Via. When I got back to my house I watched another intense episode of Gran Hotel. I definintely suggest watching it. Ten minutes before the episode was over Ignacio called me into the kitchen. I thought he was calling me for dinner because I heard him cooking but also it was around dinner time. We talked for a little bit about how our days were and he explained that he wasn't actually cooking dinner because he and his friends were going to climb a mountain and eat up there. I thought it was a little weird but I figured they were going up the mountain that has the funicular where you can see all of Bilbao. He even invited me to go with him and I agreed. Then he said, "Well go get ready then." I was a little confused but I went with it. When we were leaving I noticed he wasn't carrying a bag or anything with him, which I thought was weird but again, didn't question it. We ended up walking towards Indautxu (the neighborhood next to mine) and met a couple of his friends at a bar. We ended up just sitting there and talking for a couple hours. It was nice but also a little awkward because they were talking about serious issues with their jobs and health. At one point, they were full on arguing with each other while I was just sitting there.
Today started off right by meeting my professor and two other classmates in my organizational behavior class at Starbucks for class. He all offered to take us out for coffee one day and kept his word! Since I don't like coffee I instead order a Chai Tea but the lady told me I should try the new apple flavor so I did. It was great, I'm 90% sure it was apple cider. He also offered to buy us pastries for breakfast if we wanted but I had brought mine with me; a bagel slathered with the organic chunky peanut butter that Tia Georgette gave me. I was in heaven. After our "class" was over, they walked to Deusto while I got to go home for the next few hours until my class at 12. I wrote my blog and chatted with Eli before I went to class. Since I only had 3 classes in a row, the day went by much faster and I felt like I got back home really quick. When I got home I decided to finish making housing arrangements for my trip to Paris and luckily found an Airbnb that covers the 4 nights for 100 euro each. I think I did pretty well! We're close to the center of the city and have access to a kitchen because the Lord knows that paying for food at restaurants for 5 days straight is not my cup of tea. While debating whether I should start my homework or not, I decided that today would be my off day and tomorrow I would do all of my homework for the weekend. I started thinking of things I could do to relax and right away thought of an idea. I had heard a rumor that Netflix had come to Spain and wanted to check for myself. I searched the website and bam! My account came up! I was so happy!!! But I told myself that if I am going to watch Netflix I'm only going to watch things in Spanish. To my luck they had some Spanish shows and I found a show called Gran Hotel. It's kind of like a mystery drama. After one episode I was hooked but decided not to binge watch. While watching the show though I realized that I understood almost everything they were saying. I also turned on Spanish subtitles to help me understand if the actors were speaking to fast. I'm so proud of myself! When it was time for dinner, my host mom and I watched the news while talking about more U.S. politics. After I finished, I went to my room and face timed with Dom (my bestest friend!) for the first time since I've been here. I didn't realize how much I missed him until i was walking home from school today and I randomly remembered all of the fun times in high school. We talked for a while, even after he said he had to go but it was as if we've never been apart. I also spoke with Tia Georgette, Tia Valerie and Robert because they are in Barcelona. As soon as I turned off the lights and closed my eyes to sleep, I got a face time call from Sitti (my grandma). I answered and we talked for a little before I went to sleep. Yesterday, after I wrote my blog I decided to stay up to watch the democratic presidential debate on youtube with Bobby and Eli. It was my first time watching an entire debate and actually listening to what the candidates were saying. Before I came to Spain I really didn't care for paying attention to the news or politics because I would have rather used my time for binge watching Netflix. (Always a good idea.) I especially had no interest in politics because I figured they're all corrupt anyway in some aspects and I didn't think that my vote would matter that much. Basically, the same idea that every other millennial has; my vote doesn't matter. So what made me change my mind? Well, first of all, this decision wasn't something I was actively thinking about when I first arrived in Spain; it developed over time. Every single day at every single meal my host family watched the news. Nothing else. I didn't really think much of it at first but most of our lunch or dinner conversations revolved around something more complicated than, "How are you?" and "How was school?" Nigh, we were talking about politics, government, corruption, which for the first few days was really difficult because my level of Spanish vocabulary when trying to explain U.S. government was slim to none. What was more interesting though was as I was trying to explain U.S. government and what's going on in our country, I found myself forgetting a lot and that they even knew more about my country than I did. I was a little ashamed. Sure, I had learned these things in grammar school and even high school but with every ending of the school year, I dumped what I deemed useless information to make space for subjects I was actually interested in. But now, I was sitting at my kitchen table trying to explain something I couldn't remember. To say the least, I was embarrassed. But my second reason to vote this upcoming election is because I can! And, I at least want to make an "educated" decision (aka find the politician that lies less than the others because you don't really know what a politician will do until they actually do it). After we watched the debate, I went to sleep and woke up a little late so I had to rush to get my things together for school. I still managed to get to my Spanish class on time! About 20 mins in, on of my missing classmates ran in out of breath. Naturally, we were all concerned and asked him what had happened. Long story short, apparently he had been on the metro and didn't have any money on his card. The police approached him asking him for money to pay but he didn't have any money either. He also tried to be a genius by telling them, "Yo no hablo Español." (Of course, in Spanish.) They proceeded to ask him for his identification, which of course he didn't have with him. Genius! Then, they asked, "Well, where are you from?" His reply? "Mexico." (Just so you know, he really is from the U.S.) So he clearly wasn't thinking logically because he had just told the police he was from a Spanish speaking country but didn't speak Spanish. Surprisingly, they didn't arrest him or even fine him! He said it was because he was acting so dramatic. A+ job! After Spanish class, I came back home to work on some of my homework before I went to have my last lunch with my family before they left. Lunch was great, as always and they even gave me a ton of food to take home. I happily received roasted veggies, cake, yellow rice, and PEANUT BUTTER! They brought peanut butter from back home!! I almost cried when I saw it. (For those of you that don't know, it's close to impossible to find peanut butter in Spain.)
Today I unintentionally woke up an extra 30 mins early because I thought my class started at 10 am not 11 am. Oh well, it ended up working out well because I was able to write my blog and charge my phone.
Also, I had one of the most stressful marketing classes since I've been here. We were doing group presentations in Pecha Kutxa style, 20 slides and 20 seconds each. It was insane! 20 seconds is not a lot of time! I was in charge of timing and changing the slides, even if presenters weren't finished yet. I was so focused on timing the slides that I didn't really get to learn anything from the presentations. I do not want to go through that again. Midterms are coming up next week and things are starting to get a little stressful. Of course, I really mean only a little because compared to UIC, this is nothing. Nonetheless, midterms are stressful but nothing I can't handle! After school I went out with my family for a relaxing night of pintxos and ice cream in Casco Viejo. Time flew by and it was 9:30 before I knew it. They walked me home and we made plans to meet tomorrow one last time for lunch. Today was a great day! After my morning class, I went home, worked on some homework and then headed to Tia Georgette's apartment for lunch. It was sooooooooooooo good!! They made chicken, vegetables, rice, and salad. For the first time in months I had a properly proportioned plate of food. AND NO BREAD! WOO! Side note: On the way home a lady asked me where a street was and I was able to help! Score for me! But the real kicker came later when I was walking to Tia Georgette's apartment. I walked past a group of people my age who were lost. I turned around and asked them if they needed help in English. I think they were a little bit thrown off that I spoke English but one of the girls desperately nodded her head. Once I figured out where they were trying to go, I lead the way. After a short walked we arrived at Plaza Nueva and I offered to give them my email if they needed anymore help while staying in Bilbao for the week. After a very delicious and filling lunch, I worked on my homework and at 4 pm we set off to walk all the way to my university. It took us about an hour but we took our time so they could see all the shops on Gran Via and I pointed out some things on the way. Of course, we also stopped to take multiple pictures on the bridge with my school in the background. After a quick tour of the school campus, I parted ways with my family and headed to class.
After class, I came home, worked on my homework and ate dinner. After some catching up with my student organization, Enactus, back home I decided to stay up late to attend their meeting. We were working through some issues and brainstorming new ideas. It kind of reminded me how precious my time in Spain is because although it is my life now, it won't be forever. When I go back to the states, I will have a different perspective on life for sure, but that doesn't mean that my entire life is going to change. I'm not going to travel every other weekend to a new place, my classes won't be as easy, my commute to school definitely won't be just a 20 min walk away, I will be 7329823083028 times more stressed; I could go on and on. But it also reminded me of how hard we've all worked to get as far as we did. Challenges develop into opportunities and although it seems like were not doing much at the time, we indeed are. Shout out to all my Enactus members because without your dedication and love for Enactus, we wouldn't be where we are today! Keep working hard and striving to make a difference in our community! Enactus is life! |
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