placement tests, bartering and more tours

July 2, 2010

friends, spain has stolen my heart. in several ways. my mom said she was scared of sending me here because i may never come back. mom- that is a possibility. ;)
To quote Francisco de Asis de Icaza:
“... For there is nothing in life so cruel as to be blind in Granada."
i couldnt agree with this statement more. the more i see and learn, the more beautiful this country becomes.
anyways....
woke up again today before my alarm. ugh this is getting old. oh well, can't complain. im in spain :)
had another round of semi warm milk and 2 pieces of toast. but this time i stashed some bread in my purse along with the gushers (hahaha) mom got me to hold me over until lunch.
met up with the group again in front of the bank. dropped off something in the mail for my girls....(let me know if you get it, manettes ;) then headed to school for the daunting PLACEMENT TEST. ahhhhhhhh. i have been nervous for this test ever since i heard we had to take it. basically its one test that tests ALL the spanish you know within 1 hour. how can they really tell how much spanish we know by 1 test in 1 hour??? ugh i hate tests.
so we got there and i was put into this little spanish classroom. this guy sat by me and said hello. i said hi back. he seemed nice. turns out, after the test he told me that he was on my flight from madrid to granada and was here at school alone with no program. found a place on his own and is living in a random apartment with other spaniards. sheesh and i thought i was brave. his name was josh, from new mexico.
we took the test, first beginning with writing. i felt this was my strong point. if you give me some time and dont rush me, i am miraculous. but if you rush me and put me on the spot- i freeze. so the writing went well. then came the grammar. it started out at "level 1" then went to "level 8." eeeeek by level 8, i was running into some questions where i was like, "what?????" plus it didnt help that i knew i was running out of time. eeeeeeek (again). so i finished and she took my test and we all went back outside and waited for her to call us in individually for the oral part of the exam. eeeeeeeek (again!) so she comes out and says, "cat-lin." thats my name over here by the way. "cat-lin." apparently they dont know how to pronounce "kay" over here. its fine. i told one of the program directors that she could just call me "cat-ee" and she winked at me and said, "oooooo gracias" as if i had relieved her from pronouncing something she thought she could never pronounce. thanks for the very american name and weird spelling mom and dad ;)
so i go inside and i knew she would be asking me questions about myself and i KNEW she would be speaking fast to see how i could keep up. luckily it went ok. she asked me where i struggled most in my spanish and i told her i struggle most because they talk too fast. she laughed and i dont really know why because it is totally true ;)
she placed me at a level i am very comfortable with so i was relieved. nerve-wracking placement test: check.
we then went on our "practical tour" led by Danny. we walked up streets and down streets and around corners and through alleys. my how this city can turn me around like none other. if you know this about me, it takes a lot to turn me around. but i tell ya, this city gets me so confused sometimes.....plenty of times i havent even been able to find my way back to my room. haha (ok actually not that funny at the time).
as we were walking back down a hill, i was kind of close to the street and if you have been to europe before, one of their MAIN ways of transportation is the scooter. there are TONS everywhere. so im walking down the hill, and literally, almost got my toes choppped off by a scooter tire. eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!! i definately learned my lesson and hugged the walls as we walked back down the narrow street. its not easy for the drivers when there is a street made for only one car and there are no signs indicating "one way" or "two way." there is no need for those signs because they would ignore them anyway. so trying to walk down these streets while TWO cars pass by is quite the squeeze. i have definately had to breathe in a few times.
Danny took us through the city more and we rounded a corner and BOOM. all the sudden, without any warning, there was a HUGE church in front of us. WHAT?! where do these places come from?! i am still amazed. europe has quite the way of using every square inch available for some type of extraordinary masterpiece. Danny explained to me that granada houses the most churches in all of spain. it was beautiful.
we headed through the shopping area. (ugh i hate shopping, yes, even in spain). and i was trying to have a good attitude about it as the other girls ooooood and aweeeeed over the amazing sales that are going on now (spain usually never has sales. unlike the U.S., nothing is ever on sale except for 2 different times during the year. one of them being right now. this means more people and more of the girls wanting to shop. lovely). since spain is still in the running to be the world cup champions, (YEAH!!!!!!!) i wanted to buy a jersey of one of the players because we are all going out to a bar later to watch their next match. so i tell one of the girls that i am going to try and buy a shirt and she tells me to go for it but that i should try and barter it down for less. ahhhhh i hate bartering. always have. i feel like i am ripping them off. i hate it! so i go and tell him i am inerested and i see the jersey with the name "xavi #8" on the back. i remembered reading about him in a magazine on the plane from JFK to Madrid. he was quite an attractive fella ;) and he seemed like a team leader with a great attitude, so i wanted to get his jersey. i asked the man how much it was and he told me 25 euro. i literally only had about 19 euro with me at the time so i said "sorry, i dont have enough." then he said "ok 20 euro." i still didnt have enough so again i said, "sorry, dont have enough." then he came over and looked in my purse and i showed him i only had 19 euro with some change. he looked at me and then the other girls and said "vale. esta bien. dies y nueve euro" (ok. thats fine. 19 euro). YES!!!!!! I BARTERED AND I DIDNT EVEN REALLY MEAN TO!!! so i got the jersey and the other girls were proud of me. barter with a man who speaks another language: check.
after the girls saw this happen to me, they found my "strategy" so successful that they all took money OUT of their wallets and claimed that all they had was about 20 euro. each one of them then went on to get what they wanted. i was so proud ;)
shortly after this, it began to rain. yes, rain. first thought: "are you kidding me???? i came here thinking i was escaping this!!!" but i will admit, it was refreshing and so amazing to be in rain that felt like warm bath water. definately not like that in ol' seattle.
it was FINALLY time for lunch and we went out with the group and the program paid. we went into this awesome modern restaurant but right when i stepped in i got a huge whoof of smoke. ewwwwwwww. i HATE the smell of smoke. i feel it permeate my lungs and i literally feel i will get lung cancer even if im surrounded by the smell for a short while.
note: one "up" that the U.S. has on europe- smoking bans in public places. THANK YOU U.S. FOR LOOKING OUT FOR OUR LUNGS AND HEALTH! i feel bad for the europeans- they dont know what they have coming for them. we left the restaurant and i smelled my arms- smoke. hair- smoke. shirt- smoke. yuck. changed right when i got home and sprayed hair spray in my hair. dear europe, stop killing yourselves with this nasty habit! -katie.
we then met up a little later with Danny again for our sightseeing bus tour. ever seen or been on a double decker red bus like in london?? yup, this was it. we all hoped on and sat on the upper deck as the day was cooling down and the sun was becoming more comfortable rather than miserable. we began our tour and laughed at the fact that we looked like major tourists as we held the little phones to our ears listening to the man speak and taking pictures and pointing out at things. hahaha oh well.
i realized how much bigger this city is than i really thought. its actually huge!!!! probably about the same size as Seattle in regards to space used and buildings.... just not as much people. but there is definately a lot to see here. as we went on, i wasnt paying attention because i was checking my camera battery and POOOOOOF! got hit in the head by a hanging branch. ouch. that was embarrassing. hahaha. luckily i dont think anyone saw because we were all in our own little worlds trying to soak it up. but man.... if you ever go on a double decker bus tour- watch out for those branches. they dont seem to care about you! ;)
we came back to our place, hung out a bit and then went to eat dinner. yummy again! i am getting used to this chocolate pudding with whipped cream on top. uh oh.
came back to the room early, got this blog going and read a little. called it a night as there was another early morning ahead.
went to bed, was close to finally falling asleep, then, "MSDKBHIKMIHMYHNUB"- the dump truck decides to arrive right outside our window to do their garbage pickup run. check the clock- 1:45 a.m.
only in europe.