Saturday, July 25, 2015

Logrono Week 1 - Recap

How time flies!  At the time of typing this... its already the middle of week 3 of the 4 week Language and Culture program.  Luckily, I wrote down some notes and journal entries.  Lets get to it, here is how things went down for week 1.

Logrono is the capital city of La Rioja province.  Its located southwest of Navarra; where I lived and studied for a month the year before.  The climate is similar except we are in the middle of a heat wave.  It still reaches high 35+ during the afternoon into the evening.  Week 1 was brutal... 40+ during the day and 34+ at night.  The only saving grace was it was very windy.  So we were able to sleep with the windows fully open.

The Spanish language and culture classes this time around are more focused on teaching the A1 level students day to day phrases and conversational skills.  I found them to be very useful and easy to pick up; perhaps  because I was taught the basic verb and grammar the year before.  Even after one week, we noted clear improvements in verbal communication.  We were able to order food and pay for day to day items such as groceries and clothing without much trouble. 

The local people are kind and are willing to help as soon as I apologize for my poor Spanish and I am studying it at the University of La Rioja.  Many times, I find myself having simple conversations with shop keepers or people walking their dogs at night.  It is a friendly city, although quite different than Pamplona as it is not officially in the Basque country.  For instance... during tapas in the old town, I was about to walk away with a glass of wine... like I was accustomed to in Pamplona but was told by my professora that's not accepted here.  If you buy a drink from a bar, you must finish it in the vicinity before moving onto the next bar.  Other than that, lifestyle is very similar to Pamplona.

For class, we have Ricardo for the professor.  He is very energetic and passionate about his job as a Spanish language teacher.  He often uses outlandish body language and hand gestures to explain an word or phrase.  Reminds me of the CALC English teacher I had back in 2012: Jack.  But that is another story.  To keep things shortish... Ricardo is awesome, he will spent extra time after class to answer any questions I have about the lesion or question about where to find things.  I am very happy to have him as our teacher.

At the end of the week, 5 of us made shotgun plans to visit San Sebastian and Bilbao.  Our first hic up was at the bus station buying tickets.  When we bought the wrong set of tickets and needed to refund them, the girl at the ticket counter threw a tantrum and accused us of playing a joke on her.  In reality... we made a mistake and required her help for a refund.  She was not only rude, but took the opportunity to rip us off when one of us returned the wrong ticket and was not able to get a full refund... that was the first bad experience I ever had in Spain. 

However, we did not let that spoil our weekend to the beach and Guggenheim!  San Sebastian was just as lovely as I remember from a year ago.  I saw two local women picking up garbage from the beach as they walked.  Very inspiring to see citizens taking care and pride in their city and helping to keep it clean.  At the beach, we rented two stand up paddle boards and tried to stay balance.  We had little success at first, but eventually I figured it out... its very similar to surfing... the board must be perpendicular to the waves... otherwise you will get knocked over with every inbound wave. 

After the beach, we explored old town and browsed the shops and visited the churches before settling down at an restaurant for dinner.  Team NYC came to join us and we all shared our daily adventures of paellas and wine.  A great day spent with great people in a great city.  At 8, team Canada bid farewell to team NYC for we had a bus to Bilbao to catch.  We planned to spend the night in Bilbao to save some $$ on overnight lodging. 

We arrived in Bilbao approximately 2230.  Jamie's contacts were hurting her so we hopped a taxi and gave them the address to the hotel (University Residence).  However, the max # of people per taxi cab was 4 and we were a party of 5.  So I proposed that they go ahead and I will walk it.  It was not a far walk, I just made sure to make myself a map.

On my walk through Bilbao at night, it reminded me of Barcelona.  There were areas of vast opulence on the main streets while there are run down, gritty neightbourhoods hidden a block or two behind the major attractions and tourist areas.  I stumbled upon a Fruteria operated by an Indian family.  As I inquired the prices in my broken Spanish on grapes and mango juice, the little girl at the cash register commanded me to place the grapes on the scale.  It was so cute and reminded me of kids in China that worked in their family shops. 

As I bid good buy to the shop keeper and his family, I noted the neighbourhood our hotel was located in was very diverse.  There were Chinese, Brown, Black, and Arabic people with their family and kids all hanging out and chatting.  It had a lively community atmosphere.  When I walked into the hotel, our group was still in the process of checking in.  I lucked out to be able to explore the city at night while they were busy on their cellphones uploading selfies and pictures.

We spent the night and were ready to roll out to explore Bilbao for the day.  Kema decide to do a late check out and sleep in and offered to keep our bags in her room while we went out.  We started the day hungry and were desperate for food!  After walking around for 20 minutes, we came across a kebob place opposite the main train terminal and decided that BBQ chicken was going to be brunch.  After ordering with our collective broken Spanglish, we were sitting down and having a great meal and conversation about the previous day in San Seb and how awesome the chicken was!

After lunch, we naturally gravitated towards the Guggenheim.  Many pictures were taking collectively between the party of four.  Went entered using our student cards for 7.5euros... way cheaper than the ROM!  There were three floors of galleries.  The two artists that I spent most of my time with was Jeff Koon and Jean Michael Basquet.  Koon excels at using metal and turning into day to day items like children's toys and challenging the culture of consumerism with his displays of ordinary discarded items. 

JMB was something else... I know of him from the documentary on YouTube that chronical his quick rise to fame and untimely death.  The galleries contained his earlier work and his collaboration with Andy Warhol.  They were full of subliminal message of inequity and inequality of American society in the 1980s.  It was interesting to see the art from the documentary in person and hear JMB's lyrics and raps.  There were a few short films present at the gallery displays that were not on the documentary.  That alone revealed another layer in JMB's story.  My favorite part was a portrait gallery of all of his party guests taken by JMB and his polaroid camera.  A day well spent. 

At 6, we returned to the hotel to pick up Kema and headed out for dinner.  We browsed through a few streets in own town Bilbao and picked one with paella on the menu.  We all wanted to try and compare it to the one we had in San Seb.  The waitress recommended we get the gambas (shrimp) platter to share and boy... was it AMAZING!  The shrimp were so fresh and sweet, I regret not ordering a second plate.  The paellas were made with a tomato sauce and were well liked by all those who ordered it.  A great end to our first weekend.  We caught the bus home at 2100 the same way we arrived.  The party of 4 grabbed a taxi cab while I, now armed with an actual map from the hotel, found my way to the bus station.  I arrived 10 minutes ahead of the scheduled departure time and thought about checking out the Plaza de Toros in Bilbao... but my gut said... better be safe than sorry.  And sure enough, we spent a good 8 minute searching for the correct bus to take us home to Logrono.

Week one was awesome, looking forward to week two... and weekend #2... La Fiesta de San Fermin in Pamplona!

Sunday, June 21, 2015

One week till Espana Part Dos

Excited to return to continue off where I left off a year ago.

What a rare opportunity to return to Northern Spain to complete what I promised myself to do: celebrate san fermin in Pamplona (PARRRRTY!!), learn more Spanish (si si, muy bueno!) and the cherry on the cake: do a route of the Camino de Santiago.

John asked if I plan to do the running of the bulls.. he warned that a few foreigners always get injured or killed because they simply don't know how to navigate the course like the locals.  My reply?  Hell yes I will.  You only get to live once!  I survived cliff diving into the Atlantic last summer, I can handle a crowd and some angry bulls.  Just don't fall or be the last one!

Unlike last summer, the University de La Rioja will assess our Spanish language proficiency in person instead of an online portal.  Time to brush up on common phrases and common greetings while on the flight.  Dos cervazas por fovor will only get me so far...  I look forward to improving my listening and conversational Spanish.  I feel I can read it well enough as it is similar to English on paper, just the grammar is backwards.  Excited and nervous to take the test, tests are always unnerving!

After the four week course at UR, I plan on following the Northern route (800km) along the North coast of Spain for the camino.  However, the option exists to simply do the French route since I will be based in Logorno.  The final decision will be left up in the air for now, however I will prepare for the 800km journey because I love the ocean and the quiet sea side towns and hamlets that dot the Spanish north coast.  Perhaps I will try surfing again in Zarrutz!

This is going to be another life changing summer!  Thank you Centennial GEO office!  I will represent our college and not do anything I wouldn't do at home.  Go Canada in the Pam Am games!

JY

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Hamlet in me.

Faced with difficult choices?  Not really, in a sense.  But still, it's something I want.  Should I go for it or let it play out on it's own?  If anything, past experience has taught me to let it go it's natural ways.  Yet the "carpe diem" in me says gogogo.  Ahhh, the heck.  Atleast I'm not stressed about it haha, lets just keep calm and relax.  School first, everything else is second.

Now, to practice some Spanish phrases.

Hoy est Sabado.  I think?  Time to review the days of the week >.<

Playing "My Spanish Coach" has taught me some words but they're usless if I don't practice and use them daily! 

Like today, it's mucho hot!.. fresco is cold... what's hot?  I don't remember the Spanish word for hot... aiya.  Currently sweating buckets at work... the heat is turned on and it's 21+ outside. 

Mama mia!  As Melissa would say.  Ah, Toastmasters, they're such a wonderful group of people.  I look forward to every Wednesday night to attend my TM club meetings.  I've been asked to run for VP of Public Relations.  That sounds like fun and would train some social media skills simply by neccessity.  Perhaps it's time to use my twitter account that I've never used ever. 

That means no softball this season with the guys.  Sam has chosen Wednesday nights again to accomodate everyone... except me, oh well.  I will go cheer them on if their games go past 9:30pm!  or start before 6pm.

School, now it's math, English is finished and I ended up with a 80% grade.  I know I could of gotten higher, but I slacked off too much at the start and got burned by a few Hamlet quizes and tests.  My fault.  Lesson learned... will it be repeated for Math?  I swear by my change jar... no.  Although that did get stolen by the asshats that broke into my house.

House, alarm system operational.  That's returned life to somewhat of normal.  I don't know what everyone else's normal life is.  But my dysfunctional family is functioning again at it's own dysfunctional way :). 

Applied to Centenniel for the fall.  Three (3) courses, all with co-op during the summer.  All deal with electronics and energey matters.  It's a start, taking Tracy's advice, go for the money first, chase your dream on your own time.  My dream is still to make video games, but with EA laying off it's staff yesterday, there's just that many more competitors.  I wno't let that stop me, but will nurture my ideas and write my own world on my spare time. 

Spare time, it's plentiful yet not.  Good thing this math teacher talks and talks and talks and simply repeats the examples of the book.  I end up finishing all the homework questions in class.  Still should study to solidify the knowledge and formulas.  Going to do that on Monday.  There's a quiz and test this up coming week.  Will be diciplined and study!!

Next random thought... damn it's hot atm... mucho mucho not fresco!  It looks like it will rain... which is ahh, forgot the Spanish word for rain also... Tiempo is weather.  Time to review that section of "My Spanish Coach".  Awesome program, glad I dug up my Nintendo DS.  Also glad the asshats didn't take my DS. 

Carpe Diem, going to get a tatto of that on my wrist, going to see it everyday and it'll remind me to live everyday to the fullest!  Life is short as some say.  But being around all these retirees at work.  Life is too long, just now, two elderly men were just sitting here in the lobby.  Not even chatting with me as most of them do.  Which I enjoy, as they shared much of their wisdom with me.  Oh well, they'll warm up to me eventually... Who doesn't?  I'm awexome with an X!

Time to do some studying on formulas, ciao for now my brain.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Petty Theft hurts!

So my family home got broken into while everyone was at work... brick through the window and a whole big mess for really chump change.. literally... They stole change from a jar... who fking does that?  Stupid senseless destruction and disrespect for other people's time and property.  Things are settling down now, time to get an alarm system as my parents don't like dogs.  My friends and I both agree on a dog though but I don't want to bring home a pet if it's not going to be loved by everyone inside the house.

Been staying home all week and canceling evening plans to stay home with my mother, she's pretty shocked by the whole incident and doesn't feel safe yet.  I just changed the front door lock to give her piece of mind... she somehow thinks whoever broke in had time and the plan to wax copy our house key...  Which to me is absurd.  But just in case.

On happier notes, school is blazing by and it's a lot of fun.  We're finishing off Hamlet now and will move onto a book club assignment for March break.  I choose a book called "The Book of Negroes" as my first choice, no guarantees that I will get it though, but I'm hoping.  The other two choices are very interesting also; "What We All Long For" and "Three Days River"?  Not sure about the last title, but I do remember the author's names here.  Dionne Brand and Joseph Bryan(?)  Okay, not both, but it's for sure Joseph! :)

J

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Family Day Long Weekend

Amazing weekend so far with great friends.  Taught Ting, Ken and Leslie how to snowboard, they did really well for their first time.  Ting mastered her heel edge.  Leslie was able to tackle the greens with ease by midday.  Ken became the master of the toe edge.  I almost got him onto his heel for a bit but he was simply too tired.  John who was the most experienced out of all the beginners decided to go for it and nailed his transitions between heel and toe turns.  He and Leslie did their own runs while Sammy and I did a quick black at the end of the day.  Great progress for everyone, cannot wait for everyone improve to make a big skiing/snowboarding train down the slopes!  Chau decided not to snowboard this year and hiked her way around the resort, he must of walked over 15k today!!

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Spanish phrases ... yay! Correct me if I'm wrong!

Phrases from Google translate, is this correct grammar???

I want to improve my Spanish - Quiero mejorar mi español.

I am feeling under the weather - Me siento bajo el clima.

It is snowing a lot - Está nevando mucho


The FLU is attacking!! *DEFEND*

Well well, after shoveling snow for 3 nights and walking in the storm for 3 days, I've finally succumbed to a sore throat and extreme watering nose; which means the full blown head ache and fever is not far behind.  Hopefully it will be a short bout with lots of water and restful sleep!  Before I become a flu zombie, lets review my thoughts for the past weeks and note down memories worth saving.

Jan 30th - I delivered my 2nd speech for Toastmasters speaking on the topic of the word "Free".  I feel I still didn't prepare enough this time around and need to get better than that for my 3rd.  Practice makes perfect and I need to practice out loud on my own before delivering in front of my peers.  For once again, I've improvised the majority of the speech while touching on my main points.  I've learned that what reads well on paper does not sound natural come speaking it out loud.  Must revise and perfect a speech the way I would speak.  As my English teacher has taught me, writing a good sentence is hard work, and writing a good speech full of sentences is even harder!  My 3rd speech I am challenging myself to do just that, make it smooth and flow naturally as I would speaking improv.

Feb 5th, First day of class : Grade 12th ENG.  Back to highschool again but this time in a room full of mature students like myself.  It's an good environment, one I think I will enjoy especially paired with my Toastmasters experience.  My hopes for this class is to improve my writing style and organization of my thoughts.  As with my speech writing, it took me a long time (editing my 2nd speech on the bus) to really focus on what the manual assignment was and narrowing down the points that would fit the objectives of that project.  I feel this class was a great idea as the afternoon math class was unavailable this quad.  We're doing Oscar Wilde, time to pick up his works and read ahead.

Feb 9th, Today, snow snow snow is melting... yay... I am feeling a little sick.  Need to stay ahead and just drink water like crazy.  My nose is making Niagra Falls look like a small leak.  Can't let this beat me!  Water Water Water@!

Jack