Wifi problems

I got back from Segovia on Saturday and I was starting to Skype with my mom. All of the sudden, the Internet went kaput! I tried to reset the wifi thingy but it still didn't work. I spent two hours with Pilar trying to get it to work again. I was really tired from my long day in Segovia that I said that I would deal with the problem in the morning. On Sunday, I remember that there was a way to check to see what was the status of your wifi signal. I saw that it was disabled. I told Pilar and she threw a big fit because she was upset because we just had this problem fixed. She didn't want to have to pay somebody every four days to come and fix the problem. Then yesterday evening, I saw that I was connected on my phone but that it wasn't quite connected correctly so I restarted the Internet and now everything is fine! I actually thought I fixed it but it turned out that Pilar had called earlier and fixed the problem. Yesterday also, I handed in my papers to be enrolled so now I have to go to the bank to pay one euro twelve for what I'm guessing is insurance. The bank will give us paper that we have to bring back to Office of International Relations and they then will give us our email and our password! I can't wait for that and we should be getting our ID cards pretty soon too!

Segovia!

I know I haven't written in awhile but I will tell you all about my trip to Segovia. This I got up at 7:20 because the bus was leaving from the Plaza Espana at either 8 or 8:30 a.m. I got there right about 8 so I figured the bus didn't leave until 8:30. I hung around until the bus came at 8:20 and I got the bus and was ready for my trip! The bus ride was about 2 and a half hours from Burgos to Segovia.  The scenery on the trip was beautiful. I got a lot of pictures of the mountains. I think it's the Pyrenees. Then we got to the Segovia. Man, is Segovia beautiful! The first sight we saw was the aqueduct. I can't believe that the people didn't use any mortar to hold the rocks in place! We also got to see a Synagogue  which could also be a Christian Church. The tour guide told us that at this moment the Claristas monks were using it. The tour guide, Ana, was really nice but she had a degree in art history and architecture that after awhile I got bored and wandered off for a little bit. We then got to see the beautiful Cathedral. That was also stunning. By the time we were done at the Cathedral, it was time for our break. We found a place close to where we entered that served kebaps and pizzas. Melanie and I shared a Margarita pizza. It was delicious! My other friend, Nicole, had kebap, which to me looks like a gyro. Then we took some more pictures of the aqueduct and then we went back to rejoin our group. After lunch, we went to the Alcazar, which was were Isabella of the Reyes Catolicos lived until she was proclaimed queen. I can't even describe the view. We did the mini tour of what inside the Alcazar. My favorite room was the room called the Salon de Embajadores. In this room, they had sculptures of pretty much all Spanish queens and kings. We were then able to climb all the steps to the tower. Those steps were a killer! They were spiral steps that seem to never end! It was so peaceful up there. After we went up there, that was pretty much the end of tour! I had so much fun today!

Ash Wednesday

Today was normal day at school. I had only one class and that was Latin. Then my friend, Nicole and I decided that we were going to Ash Wednesday service at the Cathedral. I noticed a few things. When they put the ashes on us, they didn't put ashes on our foreheads. They put it on our heads and it was dust not the mixture of ashes and oil. They also had two men dressed up with silver hammers, or something of that sort. They reminded me of courtiers. I'm not sure what they were. I hope you can tell me Papa! Oh the Bishop was a little boring because I couldn't pay attention during the sermon. Then when he did the final "The Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit", he did in "En el Nombre de Padre..................................................................................................., y el Hijo, y el Santo Espiritu. He took forever to say the Son. I was walking back from church and again I saw protest because they're protesting against laws that were made for the workers. I hear a sound that sounded to me like a gunshot and it seemed to be very close to me and it scared me half to death! So I can walked faster to get back to my house!

Last Night of Carnival

My friends and I decided to get together late last night. We all decided we want to see the burial of the sardine. I'm not sure why they picked a sardine but that's besides the point. We got together and we saw them moving the sardine because they were going to do a whole big loop and it will last an hour. So we hung out over by where Mel lives which is where they were going to burn the fish! Then it came back to where we were and then they doused the fish in gasoline. We also were wondering how much of the fish would they burn. They doused the whole fish in gasoline and then they lit it on fire! It was fine for a while because we thought they were setting off fireworks but it turned out that it turned into an explosion! We were behind a gate but we were still too close so we all ran back to were it was safer and watched the rest of the fire burn out. It was pretty cool! I filmed most of it but then I didn't film the rest because I got scared that my camera would melt or something. I tried posting it on this blog but it's not working. If you want the video, let me know and I can email it to

This explains what what was going on with the burning of the fish! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burial_of_the_Sardine

Last Day of Carnival

My host family, Akilah, Laura, Pilar, and Ivan

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile but anyway, Sunday, I went to church at the Cathedral. Everytime I go in I see something I hadn't seen before. Then as I left church, I saw a protest. I think they were protesting against the new labor laws or something about when a person retires. Oh and I tried rabbit. Pilar told me it tastes just like chicken but I still didn't eat very much of it. Then, yesterday, a guy from the internet provider came to fix our wifi. It turns out that we always had wifi we just didn't know the password. So now I'm writing to you from my very own computer! Later on yesterday, my friends and I met up and went to the Castle to take pictures. I felt like I was in China again because there were so many steps to go up! We took lots of pictures it was fun! Then we went back to decide what to do next. We ended up deciding to go to my friend's house and played a game called King's Cup. It's a drinking game and most of us played with alcohol. This game was fun too! Then finally we played B.S. I like that game and I guess I'm not a good liar! Oh well, then I came back to my house and I watched T.V. with my host mom. We watched Grande Hermano (Big Brother), and Quien Quiere Casarse Con Mi Hijo? (Who wants to marry my son?) Both are reality T.V. until I was able to chat with my family through Skype! These past few days have been productive. Oh, and I think I'm going to take Latin, History of Spanish Language, and History of the Americas for my classes!

Big Parade of Carnaval!

My red mask!

The sign for Carnaval

My red dyed face!

We decided we were get meet back on up to see the Big Parade of Carnaval. I got the message that we were going to meet at 4 at the Arco. So I left and went over there and since nobody showed up, I texted my friend to see if we switched the time. There was we weren´t going to meet until 4:45 but I didn´t want to go back back to my house. I stuck around and got chocolate con churros which was delicious while I read the newspaper. I then met up with everyone else. We walked around and went window shopping because Becca wanted shoes. We stopped in what seems to be the equivalent of a dollar store and bought a few masks. Mine cost €1.50 which is cheap. I put it on and by then it was time to go see the Carnaval. It was wonderful! There were a lot of floats and one of them was a candle light vigle for MegaUpload! Another one was dedicated to the Lion King and another one with pirates. It was awesome! We saw where the parade started at the Arco and then we saw where it ended at the Plaza Mayor. After the parade was over, we went to the same place where I got the chocolate with churros and this time I ordered cafe con leche. All the places we packed and we were lucky that we were able to get a table. I took off my mask and I had three red spots where you could tell I had worn a mask. After I took it off, I think I might have had an allergic reaction and so I went and took some Benadryl because my cheeks were burning but it was fun!
P.S. I figured out how to post pictures from Facebook!

Carnival!

Yesterday was amazing! I don´t have classes on Friday and so I got to sleep in. Pilar got really upset at her children for not trying to help her fix the computer and the wifi. She called the internet provider and said that she would switch providers to help her figure out what the problem is. The company ended up giving her a technician for free. Then in the evening Mel, Nicole, Heather, Becca, and I went out to an "American" restaurant which was really good. I got a milkshake for dessert because I didn´t have my first day of school milkshake. I somehow ended up getting whipped cream in my hair! I´m not really sure how that happened. I think I was so excited to try the whipped cream it fell off my spoon and into my hair. It was Carnival so lots of people were dressed up in costumes!  Afterward, we were trying to decide where we wanted to go. Heather´s host brother was deejaying at bar called Marshmellow. It sounds fluffy and yummy! We didn´t get that far. We ended up getting serenaded by a band of drunk older men. It was kinda of funny! Then we stumbled upon a band, they were dressed up as a cow, turtle, and a bull, and some other costumes too! Following them was a group of dancing penguins! We followed them until they went into a bar. Then we wandered for a bit and ended up at a place called Pecadillos which was 1€ tapas. Then since Heather´s house was the closest we ended up going over to her house. Heather had problems opening the door until we left and then she was able to get the door open! We just sat and watched T.V.! It was very low key and then tonight we were are going to find the big parade at 7 p.m. that goes through the Arco de Santa Maria. I hope I can see it. I hear that there is going to be a Chinese Dragon!

Last day of class of the first week of school

Today was a long day! I woke up and went to my first class which is Bases which is an interesting class but I heard horror stories about the professor, but today the professor gave us an overview of the Odyssey and the Iliad. Then I went to the History of the Lengua Española which is good but the professor never showed up! We waited around for 45 minutes before people started leaving. Then we went back home and we met back up for our Historia de las Americas which was at 6:30 to 8 which I had the times mixed up before. This was good class but there were a lot people and everyone kept talking over the teacher. I was sitting in the back so maybe next time I´ll sit toward the front. Tonight, there is a party for the International students at a bar called El Peregrino. I´m going to have fun tonight and maybe I´ll find a place where I can go and dance!

Classes and bank

This morning, I set my alarm wrong. I had planned to wake up at 9:20 and meet my friends at 10:15 at the Arco de Santa Maria. However, I set my alarm wrong, I set it for 10:20. I woke up in such a panic but I was able to meet my friends at the Arco a couple of minutes late. We walked to Latin which was the only class we had today. It was great! The professor was giving a background about how Latin arrived and disappeared. I think this class will be fine because at the end of class we asked if there was some notes we needed to know about this and the professor said no. That if we get confused there is a book that we can look at that is English to Latin and vice versa. We tried to find other classes but I don´t like the fact that we missed a few days, but if there is an interesting one then maybe I will. Oh we will have a long weekend because Monday and Tuesday of next week is Carnival. That´s going to be interesting. I got the bank thing straighten out. I have a bank account with Santander. The girl at the bank said that our debit cards will come in the mail in three days. So then I can make a deposit and I sent the rest of the information to my family! I´m still thinking of what classes I should go to tomorrow.

Second Day of School

So today, I got up early and went to catch the bus because today was the first day of Bases del mundo occidental which basically Greeks, Roman, and Early Christianity, which was like the class we took yesterday. I really liked it and then we went to Morphology which was really hard. So we left the class early, and decided to walk home. Oh, I opened an account with Santander but it will take two days until I can officially open it up. I came home and had lunch, took a siesta. I met back up with my friends and we walked to school for our History of Americas class. I think I could do that class but there just seemed to be a lot of work that we had to do. Oh I forgot to mention the professor said something about a field trip. I don´t know. After that class, I was really confused and frustrated because you would think it would be easier to figure out what classes to take. I went back home and looked up some more classes but it just seemed so complicated. Tomorrow, I have Latin. I´m going to give this class one more day and hope that the professor doesn´t bore me!
Update on the Internet: Well Laura´s friend came and he deleted everything from the computer but the wifi is still not working. I am not too sure when he will be back but I´ll let you know!

First Day of School!

Wow today was a busy day! I woke up this morning at 7 a.m. so that I could meet with my friends by the Arco de Santa Maria and we could take the bus together. I didn´t sleep to well the night before anxiety!  I had only planned on taking the Cultura Clasica that was from 9 until 11. This class was interesting, the profesor was nice. The only problem was that there was some readings we had to do. Most of which I had read but my friends aren´t sure they want to take these classes.  Then my friends convinced me take some other classes such as La historia de la lengua española which is the history of Spanish language and this class meets Mondays and Thursdays from 11 to 1. This class was really interesting and there were a lot of foreign exchange students there. I think this will be a good class. Then we went to the Latin I which was a little boring because the guy was explain the roots of the different languages and he was speaking with a monotone voice, but I think that once we get into the grammar it might be more interesting. We´ll see. This class meets Mondays and Wednesdays. On Mondays from 1 to 3 and then on Wednesdays from 11 to 1. Then we took a break and came home for lunch. Pilar told me that tomorrow at 11 a.m. a friend of Laura´s was going to come and fixed the internet so that tomorrow I will probably be writing to you from my own computer! Then in the evening we went Historia de las Americas, which was boring because the professor kept reading us snipets from different works. I was sure how that related to History. I´ll give it to the end of the week to see how this class goes. Tomorrow I have two classes the Morfology one and the Bases one. Then afterward I will see if I want to take three or four classes, or if I can even handle four classes.

Sunday, February 12

This morning, I woke up to go to church in the beautful cathedral of Burgos. Mel and I had made plans to go together so we went to the 11 a.m. mass. Oh my goodness! The church was beautiful. The mass in itself was short because there wasn´t a lot of singing. I think that next week if we want to go to mass that has singing we will go to 12 o´clock one. I felt lost even though all the Catholic masses are the same no matter which country you are in, I decided that I will copy the prayers and the order of mass for next week. Tomorrow school starts and my first class is at 9 a.m. It´s called cultura clasica and it´s from 9 to 11. My next class is Historia de la Americas which is a class that ´s about the Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs. It´s from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The cultura clasica class is twice a week on Mondays and on Thursdays it´s at 1 to 3 p.m.. The Historia de la Americas is Monday, Tuesday , Thursday class. It meets at 6:30 to 8:30 on Thursdays On Tuesdays, besides the Historia class I will be taking Bases del mundo occidental which is class about Greeks and the Romans. This class meets at 9-11 Tuesdays and Thursdays. The one that I´m going to see if I will like is a morfology class that meets Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Tuesdays at 11 to 1 and Wednesdays at 9 to 11. If our schedule works out and in the end we don´t take the morfology class, we won´t have class Wednesdays or Fridays!!!! Wish me luck on my first week! Oh and also one of our friends was talking about this Spanish dance class that meets on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:15 to 10:15. I need to find out more information about this though! I would love to take it!

Maggie´s birthday February 11

I woke up late this morning, well relatively late, at 10:30. It was a low key kind of day. I was able to talk to my parents for an hour in a cyber cafe which is about 10 minutes from house. There was a closer one but it was small and I didn´t want to make a lot noise. I talked to my parents for an hour. Of course, I wished Maggie a happy birthday!  Then my friend and I went to the grocery store, called Alcampo. This store is a lot like a Carrefour and it´s up my street. Mel´s computer charger wasn´t working so we were trying to see if Alcampo would have a replacement. Well, we found one but we couldn´t ask anybody if it would work with her computer so we will wait until Monday to ask at a different place.

My first full week!

Maddie and I were realizing it has been week since we left home. We also felt that this week has been the longest ever because we don´t have a set schedule yet. I think that once we have a set schedule time will pass faster. I got up and went to the University because today was the day where the vice president of the school was  going to talk to us along with the director of student affairs and the director of International Relations. We also were able to take the official photograph of all the international students. Then we went to have brunch where we got to meet a lot of people. We met some of them last night and they invited us to go and eat Chinese food with them. Maddie and Heather, another girl from Millersville, invited us to also go with them to their youth group tonight. I would like to do both but I´m not sure if that will be possible but I´ll try. And for the youth group there is always next week. We ate Chinese food and watched 30 Minutes or Less! It was a very low key evening!

Bank

So today, Maddie, Mel and I decided we were going to go back to the University in order for us to get a paper so that we could open a bank account. I realized that I had a lot of time to kill when I got to my bus stop so I decided I was going to walk to Arco to Santa Maria and met up with Mel and catch the bus with her. We met around 11:30 and decided to look up more classes and figure out our schedule. We then went to get a paper so that we can open our account. We were walking back to bus stop when we realized we forgot to ask about the trip to Segovia that was talked about at orientation. We went back and were able to buy tickets. We couldn´t pay cash directly to them because University of Burgos is a public university. We either had to pay at the bank or pay with a card. We all paid with a card. The trip costs €10 and we will leave toward the end of February. We then got the bus back to the center of Burgos. I also bought a bus card for when it´s really cold but I think most of the time I will be walking there when it´s nice out. Then we stopped at BBVA which was a bank that a previous exchange student recommend to us. We tried to open an account but it turns out that while the guy was filling in the information, it wouldn´t let us complete it because they wanted to know where our passports were issued. Now, I´m not sure if it´s just this bank that we would have problems or all the other ones because I guess the bank changed its´ format. Now, I´m not sure what I will do. So now I´m frustrated. I need some suggestions what do I do?

Orientation

So today was orientation. I woke up early so that I could catch the bus to the University of Burgos. The closest bus stop to the University was at Reyes Católicos which is nearby where I live. Well, it was a good thing I left early because I could not find where the stop was. I must have walked down that block a few times. I ask a couple of people and finally I found the stop. I hopped on the bus and paid €0.95 to go the University. I think that after awhile that will add up so one thing on my list is to figure out where to get a bus card. In the spring, I hope that I can walk to the University although it will take me 30 to 40 minutes to get there. Then I couldn´t find the library but the library is really nice and new. My orientation was for about 2 hours long. I was a little overwhelmed and I didn´t get my questions about scheduling answered. I guess we´re supposed to take many classes and figure out which ones we like and fit into my schedule. Most of the credits are  worth six credits which is worth 4 credits at Millersville. So we only need to take 3 classes in order to complete are 12 credits a semester. Finding the classes was really complicated and so now my head is pounding. Tomorrow we´re going to meet up in the University to get a letter that we are in Burgos to study so that we can open our bank account!

First full day in Burgos!

This morning, Maddie, Mel and I made plans that we would get together to get phones and open a bank account. I forgot that I was supposed to bring my passport to open things! Oops but we walked back and got my passport. Maddie´s host dad, Nicolas, helped us to open a bank account. I guess we needed a special paper or thing that says that we are studying and living here in order for us to open a bank account. We are hoping that tomorrow we can open one. I ended up buying an Orange phone with just the basics! Mel and I wandered around the city to see if we can figure it out. We saw the Catedral de Burgos. Oh my goodness!! It´s humongous! With lots of details! We also saw the Arco de Santa Maria. It was snowing today so Mel and I were freezing! Oh Maddie had to catch a ride back to where she lives. We came back and it was time for lunch. Mel stayed for lunch. It was delicious! It was noodles with sauce and chorizo. Oh I forgot to mention that when Pilar´s daughter, Laura, stays here she brings her two dogs, Sumi and Akilah. Then sometimes there is another dog that stays with us whose name is Pan. Akilah and Pan are the parents of Sumi. Tomorrow is my orientation. I hope it goes well and that all my questions are answered about scheduling!

Burgos!

Today, we woke up at 9:00 in order for us to get breakfast. The hostel included breakfast for free. So Maddie, Mel, and I wondered down to see what there was for breakfast. They had toast with Nutella, cereal, coffee, and tea. Maddie had toast with Nutella and water. Mel had toast with butter and tea and I had toast with Nutella and Peach jam.Then we had to gather our stuff together in order for us to go to Burgos. We got a taxi from our hostel to take us to the train station. We got there early and we bought our tickets for Burgos. The bus left at 1:00 p.m. and was arriving in Burogs at 3:45. The tickets cost €17. We left and then for some reason we stopped in the middle of nowhere for a few minutes. We arrived in Burgos and my host mom picked me up at the bus station. I got to meet the host families of both Mel and Maddie. We were planning on meeting the next day in order for us to go get our phones and open our bank accounts. We drove to where I would be staying for the next five months. The house has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and I guess I´m taking over Pilar´s son´s room. We came home and Pilar had made a tortilla de patatas. It was delicious! Then Pilar left for work and I finished unpacking and tried to connect to the internet. Boy was that a problem! I guess Pilar had previous host child that was from China. I guess he messed with the settings of the computer and changed everything into Chinese. Pilar´s son decided to fix the problem by deleting everything and reinstalling it again! Turns out that the wifi hasn´t been working since. So until they can solve this problem, I´m doing all my computer stuff on Pilar´s computer. I think I can make do. Pilar said that one of her friends might be able to fix this problem and so I can do stuff from my room. We´ll see.

Second Day of Madrid

We fell asleep at 10 p.m. and then were up at 2 a.m. because of loud (possibly drunk people) and loud either tango or flamenco music. We couldn’t fall back asleep so Mel told us some bed time stories. We then fell back to sleep around 4 a.m. Stupid jetlag!! I had set my alarm for 9 a.m. so that we could get up and go on the free walking tour of Madrid which would have taken three hours. I thought I reset my alarm for 10 a.m. but I guess I didn’t and by the time we woke up again it was 11:30 a.m. We then got up and went to Peter Pan again for breakfast and continued our way to Puerta de Sol where there was a protest going on and we got pictures with SpongeBob Squarepants and Patrick. We then went to El Prado where we got in for free! We got in for free because we had used our ISIC cards which we had to buy for this trip. We saw many painters but we mostly saw Goya and Velasquez. We then left El Prado and went to El Retiro but it was getting dark so we headed back to the hostel. We relaxed for about an hour and then this time we actually made it into Quevedo, which was open. We saw a sign that said that it was closed all day on Saturday. We got some food. I ate un bocadillo de chorizo, which is like a ham sandwich. I didn’t really like the chorizo because it was like ham and not like the sausage that I normally eat at home. My friends got bocadillo de tortilla, which was egg and onion and potato on baguette. We then went to El Rincon which is a candy store which also sold empanadas and I got two one de pollo and one de carne. We had a long busy day and tomorrow we are heading for Burgos. We will take the bus from Avenida de Americas at 1:00. We will be in Burgos at around 4 p.m. My next post will be from there!

First Day cont.

So we went out for dinner. We tried to find a tapas restaurant because Madrid is famous for their tapas. The guy at the hostel recommend for us to go to one called Quevedo which was a short distance away from our hostel. The only bad thing about Quevedo was that it was closed. So we ended up heading back to our hostel and we stopped at place called Peter Pan. We had for dinner empanada pie with cheesecake and for a drink I had Fanta Limon and Maddie and Mel had Fanta Naraja which wasn't as orange as it is in the States. So then after dinner we headed back to our hostel, took showers, and went to bed.

Quevedo

Our first day

So we are now in Madrid!!! The flight took us about 7 and half hours and we arrive in Madrid at 8:05 a.m. We then had to find a taxi that would fit four suitcases and three people to take us to our hostel.Our hostel is called Way Hostel. It's pretty nice. We have a room with a bathroom but with no shower! I guess we have to go to the other bathroom in order for us to take a shower. The people at the hostel told us that our room wouldn't be ready until 3 p.m. so we left our stuff there and decided to wonder the streets. We went to the Plaza Mayor and continued to walk down the Calle Mayor. We ended up at the Palacio Real where the King and Queen of Spain used to spend time when they were in Madrid. It's not being used today but as a museum that lots of paintings and beautiful rooms.We took a Spanish tour that lasted about two hours. By this time, Maddie, Mel, and I had no sleep so we kept ourselves energized with  sugar and caffeine but the tour guide had showed us one too many paintings and by the end of the tour Mel would have killed her if she showed us one more painting! We left the Palacio and walked back to our hostel and by the time we got there our room was ready! I forgot to mention that Mel because she didn't have a reservation had to buy a room but we can easily fit three people into our bed and she is uncomfortable sleeping with strangers right off the bat. So she is going to stay in our room since our bed can fit three!We got back to our room and we ended up taking a two and half hour nap. I hope that this doesn't ruin us for later. Tomorrow I think we'll go to the Prado and then on Monday we leave for Burgos!

My first entry!

Hey guys!
So I'm trying to see if I can do a blog while I'm in Spain. I will try and keep up with it and I will put new things that I've learned  such as new words in Spanish that they use in Spain but we don't use in Latin America and South America.
All righty! So tomorrow I'll leave Philly at 6:25 p.m. for Madrid. It's a 7 and a half hour flight. We arrive in Madrid at 7:55 a.m.
I'll write to you tomorrow.