Weeeellll, It's Sunday!

I've know that it was Sunday all day, but it's only just occurred to me that it means I have to write a blog post. 

During the week I went with three friends to another friends house so that we could cook tortilla and crema catalana.  The night was a big success and we had some lovely food and it was lovely company and we generally just talked about everything that came into our minds. It had the desired effect of making me feel a lot more at home here, because I had been having some trouble with things. 

Chris saves what would have been a good goal

Friday morning was a lot of fun because it meant that we had to go and watch some of the lads play football on the uni courts. We got a lot of funny photo's and watched as the lads scored goals, played with no shoes on and got bloody after they fell on the ground. I won't lie when I say that the best bit about the football was getting the blue towel afterwards =P

I then proceeded to have a good day; because I bought a phone (little red Samsung flip phone - Lol), fully equipped with a Spanish number and then I went to buy a Kettle, rather spontaneously because I decided I should definitely have one for the year :).

We love the rain really!

Yesterday, was the fiesta de la Mercé in Barcelona, so we got up ridiculously early to get the train from Girona to Barcelona so we could see people climb on top of other people and see some concerts and have some general fun in the sun. The day, however, didn't really go according to plan. We realised on the train that we were going to get quite wet but we didn't let it put us off and got off the train an hour and a half later raring to go. 30 seconds into the rain and we were quite wet and took shelter under an outcrop of a building.

Until next week!

Ciao x

Thinking Ahead To Flights Back Home

Hello!

The week just gone wasn't too eventful so I'll fill you in on what's happening tomorrow and my thoughts at the moment. 

This next week promises to be a very interesting one. Tomorrow we will enroll for our classes and find out timetables and when we can leave and such information; but more importantly for me - we will receive a mug with Universitat de Girona on it. It doesn't really bother me what it has on it, just that it will be a nice size to drink tea from because at the moment I'm using a really tiny cup and feel a little too posh using it because I have to stick my little finger out; just because it's really the only way to hold the cup without spilling the tea. 

I'm also looking forward to finding out my timetable so that I know when I can fit people in for tutoring and hopefully have a job to go to also. Then there's the fact that I will be able to book my flight home for Christmas; to spend time with my cousins in London and then eventually meander up to the North-West to spend time with my Dad and then on over to Bangor for New Year and various appointments. Knowing that I have this plan makes me incredibly excited for the next few months because then I also have something more to look forward to. 

I have various friends that are going on their year abroad too but having been here two weeks already I feel like I've been here forever and I'm just waiting for them to be on the same time zone as me. Other friends have also been abroad for about the same time as me and it's nice to know we're having the same quirky issues with kettles and such!

My Best Friends from Bangor were moving into halls today and having the exciting experiences of meeting new people in their building; so I'm excited for them and it makes me feel a bit better that I'm not the only one having new experiences and dealing with new things. 

At the moment by biggest challenge, such as it is, is to find the cheapest way to get to Barcelona airport to be able to go home for Christmas. I've mastered the washing of my clothes in the Spanish washers and driers. It's not just a case of putting money into the machine like back home; you have to give the money in at reception €3 total for the use of the washer and the drier and then you are given two coins - one with a hole and one full coin. I wonder which one you think goes in the washer? Leave me an answer in the comments and I'll give you a shout-out if you're right :)

Tonight I'm mostly writing letters to people and learning a bit of Catalan before the big day tomorrow.

Ciao x

Week 1

Hello again!

After some careful thought  (and unintentional input from friends) about this blogging channel, I decided that whilst I want to update you all about what it going on; I don't want to pressure you into having to read it everyday because that can be a bore for everybody. You can therefore expect to see a blog every Sunday, without fail. This way; I won't tire myself with having to update every day and think of quirky things that have happened, when really, nothing has!

I don't really have any funny stories to share; or at least not as many as if I were back home in Bangor, but I will do my best to entertain you over here :)

This week has been like any other week in a new place in that we've been exploring the city and Barcelona too, and just getting used to meeting new people and speaking the right language. I've had a few slip ups with the language when I've either tried to speak in Spanish and come out with French, or tried to speak in Catalan and come out with Spanish. The other day I went to buy stamps; and for me the worst word to remember in any language is in fact stamps because you always need to know that word and I always forget it. However, this time much to my surprise I remembered the word but forgot completely how to ask how much the stamps were...so I had to stand there like an idiot with my Spanish dictionary, probably looking as though I knew nothing about the language! Learning curves all around.

Today was the national day of Catalonia so they celebrated their independence and I have been told that the festival was amazing. I had planned to go to the festival and get video footage for you to see but I haven't been well today, so we'll all have to go without on that. 

Barcelona is a huge city and I think it's a really beautiful place but I'm really glad that I'm not staying there. It's so big that I feel I would get lost all of the time there and that the beauty of it would fade with time for me. We're planning to go back when the weather has calmed slightly and the tourists have gone so that we can get a good look round at things that we missed or didn't have enough time to take in. 

The cathedral there is absolutely amazing but won't be finished until about 2025 if the workers carry on at their current pace. Even though it's not been finished it's such a breathtaking sight to see it. 

All that remains for me to say in this blog I think is that I may have a job soon. I'm going for an interview tomorrow to see about teaching English in a school while I'm here in Girona, and I hope that it all works out because that's what I really wanted to do here instead of the university studies. Now, hopefully I can do both and get double the experience out of being here. 

That's all for now, but remember you can hop over to my YouTube channel (StephenFrySaidSo) every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to see what else I have been up to whilst on my Year Abroad.

Thanks for reading!

Ciao x

If You Don't Know What To Talk About, Talk Shit

Hello! 

I realised that I should probably start these blogs with some sort of a greeting, since not all of you will have followed this blog from the start. I think that the best thing we learned today had to be the cultural aspect that when the Catalans don't know what to say, they talk about shit. Literally. When it comes around to Christmas time here, the children are given logs in school, which they paint and give a face to. They then take these logs home to "feed" them oranges. After a while, these logs are getting fatter and the night before Christmas, Christmas eve, the logs are covered with cloths and the children gather round their log to sing a song and hit it with something...then they uncover the log and they receive presents. This log is called Cago Téo in Catalan and the English translation is a "shitting log", which was quite funny for us to learn today. There are some strange traditions here in Catalonia. 

Apart from this, I'm ashamed to say that Conny, Tom and I didn't make the most of this lesson because it was so hot and boring in that big room. I think that we probably still came away with some good information, but productive things like this, happened instead. 

We learned quite a lot of Catalan today in the four hour lesson, still covering the basics ranging from months to time. Time is a difficult concept in Catalan because like the Germans they prefer to look ahead to the next hour when talking about time. So it would be as if we were to say it's a quarter of one, and that would be quarter past 12 and so on. Very interesting but a little difficult to grasp really. 

We went for another really long walk today after lessons, but this time to the other side of Girona, past the old town and even venturing into the next area. And also realised when we got to our destination that the shop didn't really have what we were looking for. We had seen a Carrefour on the way there though, and since I know that in France they have practically everything in them, I suggested we go in to see if there were any bikes, and it turns out there were. Hoorah for Carrefour! 

Tomorrow we have more Catalan classes and hopefully less walking to do!

Ciao :) x

Fans That Throw Away Old Air...

I have to be honest with you right now; I'm absolutely the most tired that I could possibly be and I haven't even looked over the work that we did in class today. 

Let's rewind to the start of the day, which started a lot better than yesterday and I only had to walk down the hill to the Campus Montilivi, thankfully because I didn't fancy a trek over to the Barri Vell campus. Today we started our intensive Catalan course, which consists of 60 hours overall. Since it's the intensive course we began with four hours today, and we will continue to do four hours tomorrow, Thursday and everyday next week. Luckily on Friday we get to go on a trip to Barcelona. Maybe I can take my towel? Haha!

The Catalan class this morning went quite well and I think we covered the basics well, after we'd spent almost an hour of calling people's names out. After our lessons, the four of us; Conny, Tom, Chris and myself decided to go on a quest to find the Decathlon because it sells bikes, and Chris was wanting to find one since Tom had brought his from Scotland. Turned out after a very long walk there that the bikes in there are too expensive; the cheapest being being €119. Needless to say, we did not buy any bikes there and went over to Bauhaus to have a look in there but came out with fans instead. This is good because the weather is so hot here in Girona and all you want after a day of being out in the sun is to be nice and cool. Showers and fans achieve this. 

After we'd bought the fans we took the opportunity to have McDonalds while we were next to it and not likely to be wanting to walk that way again. It's not cheap over here in Spain! But they do give you instructions on how to drink from the cup...

We didn't go to the beach today but we may on Thursday or at the weekend. Instead we trekked around Girona, with fans, to talk to the people in the youth place about camping, where to find cheap second hand bikes, the best mobile company to go with and the best beaches to go to and how to get there. It was a successful trip so now we can probably investigate the shop that sells the cheap bikes and buy some. 

 

Of course, Jake thinks he can just steal people's bikes. 

That's really all that happened today. Can't sum up my day better than with 4 hours of class and 5 hours of walking. 

Fins demà (Till tomorrow)

Ciao! x

The Gottish Guy Brings Us Breakfast.

I've had a really strange day today, because it all started with my alarm clock telling me that it was 3:47pm and that meant I'd completely missed both introductions to the course and the beginning of the afternoon session, not to mention letting people down because I said I would meet them at half 9. I'd really annoyed myself, so naturally went to tell Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/kallyblueeyes), only to find that my alarm clock had been lying to me and it was only 8:50am. I double checked with my watch and surely enough I had 10 minutes to get ready and leave the flat so that I wasn't rushing to meet the guys. It turned out that I had enough time to buy a drink or two, and buy myself a pad from a shop local to their house. Of course I'd only had enough time to grab a nectarine on the way out of the flat so I was still a little hungry, but decided it wouldn't do me any harm. I turned onto Conny and Chris' street just as they walked out of their building. A job well done considering the panic of the morning. 

We waited a few minutes for Tom to join us and then set off for the Campus Barri Vell; which we learned means Campus of the old neighbourhood. After less than 10 minutes, Tom announces that he's hungry and we should stop at a bench for some breakfast that he had brought. Lovely fresh bread stick with cheese and ham. Breakfast on the Gottish guy. :) (Tom is from Germany but studies in Scotland, hence the new nickname!) We were soon on our way feeling full and ready to take on the Spanish introduction; which was brave of the guys since they know very little Spanish. Having taken on the Spanish introduction and ridiculed Tom for not having a health insurance card, we stayed on for the English introduction. We noticed that the English introduction was less thought out and things were mentioned several times, but the general gist was put across to the room. 

After this, the guys abandoned us to who knows where so Conny and I decided to see if we could register for the Catalan Course and get our temporary Student Cards in order to connect to the Tinterwebz. Quite cool that our pictures were taken with a webcam. We took our cards and our UdG folders (they're blue!) and went to sit in Conny's flat for a bit since we had about an hour to waste. We glammed her flat up a bit with Flags. Makes me wish I had a bigger Welsh flag here though. Maybe I'll get one for France. 

One thing to know about Girona, is that it's really hilly. Streets go up, streets go down. Steps go up, steps go down. It seems we go up and down with them; several times. If it;s not been on the way to the campus then it's been because of the tour, and then there's the walking we choose to do of our own accord! We may well walk ourselves thin :). 

The tour of Girona was really quite interesting but even though it was in English, I didn't quite get all of it because my feet were sore. The parts I did get were that it took over 400 years to build the cathedral in Girona, and it boasts being the only Gothic construction to have no columns inside, with a width of 23 metres. The Jewish quarter of Girona, which isn't far from the Cathedral is currently the best preserved Jewish quarter in the whole of Spain. It was the second largest Jewish quarter in Catalonia and the most powerful too. Girona is also referred to as the mother of Israel by some people because of the part that it played in the past.

Enough of the history lesson anyhow. If you would like to know the plan for tomorrow and the towel that I managed to buy, feel free to go and watch my vlog. If not, that's okay...but you'll never know what the towel is! 

Ciao x

Don't Stand Under A Hole; It Could Be A Toilet!

Today was an amazing day because I got to have a lie in; probably the last that I will have in a while, so I leisurely got up this morning. I spent some time watching My Family and eating breakfast before getting dressed to roam around Girona. I wasn't entirely sure that I knew the directions to get to la Guardía Civil but I took my map with me and in an almost Joey like fashion stepped into the map. (Joey from Friends for those who don't know.)

I managed to get the map facing the right way and me in the right place on the map and set off for the Campus Montilivi, where I knew there was the closest roundabout on the map. From there it was pretty much a straight line down la Avinguida Monitilivi and to another roundabout where I found the right road that I was meant to be on. 

I hadn't been nervous on my way down to la Guardía Civil because the girl I was meeting, Conny; I had been talking to her for about a month or more on Facebook so I felt that she was the person I was least worried to meet. Thankfully I didn't have to do much in the way of an approach either because she came bouncing up to me, and thinks went well straight from the start.
 

We'd decided to meet up so that we could both know where to be for tomorrow and how long it would take. Before we went on that trip though, we met up with the guy she's sharing a flat with and his friend from uni. We had ice cream, which was really nice...but not as good as the other place, according to Conny. I shall test it tomorrow no doubt! After some deliberation we went on our trip up to the wall of Girona, which involved a lot of steps and a lot of wall. For most of us it was easy, not so much for Tom with his bike! We had fun nonetheless and made jokes about it. 

The views from the wall are absolutely stunning and I feel so lucky to be here. I'm not worried about the coming months because I know that the people are going to be lovely and that I'm going to have an amazing time in this beautiful city. 

We stopped on the wall to take photo's. Some on our camera's, some on our blackberry's and some on our iPhone's. And some of us could only stick to calling and texting on our phones! :) One thing to note would be, "The Spanish are so laid back, that they don't even realise it's Sunday." Amazing quote from Tom there. 

Today, I learned that you shouldn't stand under a hole, because that hole could be a toilet! We discovered this on the wall when we were coming back after having been up the tower to see the views from a higher vantage point. I for one definitely wouldn't have liked to be standing under that hole! 

We parted ways after being on the wall, and seeing the Cathedral, which is stunning from the outside, and we plan to meet tomorrow morning at half 9 to be in time for the Spanish introduction talk. Doesn't really matter whether we understand it or not, because there's an English one straight after it! 

Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings :).

Ciao for now! x

Spain Doesn't Do Kettles.

Well, the title says it all really. My flat in the residencia doesn't have a kettle, or a toaster or an oven. For anybody that knows me, they can understand how much of a blow this is to me. I love tea. My whole existence relies upon tea. I brought teabags in my suitcase from Wales. Tetley tea ftw. But now, not only do I have to weirdly try and cook myself some toast, but I also have to spend extra time trying to make a cup of tea. My time here is going to be even more difficult if I can't have the tea. 

Other things from today include our other flatmate being here; she's Turkish. I wish I liked coffee because I was just offered some Turkish coffee, and would have liked to have taken her up on the offer. Earlier on today, I discovered that there are rabbits outside the residencia and that one of them got into the ground floor under a board, because they've managed to dig a way in!  

Also today I went on a little walk nearby to the residencia and realised I've transported myself from Welsh hills to Spanish hills, and both are just as pretty as each other :). I really think that I am going to love it here. I've been searching for jobs and came across something that would be really helpful if I ever decided to move here completely. Not saying or thinking that I will, but there's a teaching option here should I want to. Even just for a year while England sorts itself out, it could be a viable option. 

Tomorrow, I get to go for another walk but explore in the other direction, and I'll get to skype some people. Hopefully catch up on Dr Who. Maybe I will also get round to making the video that I should have made in June. Eep.

Ciao for now :) x

0 Days To Go...I'm Here Already!

Hey guys, 

I arrived in Girona this morning after a stupidly early morning flight. Didn't get much sleep last night really on account of being wide awake and not knowing whether I would oversleep or not. In the end I decided to get some sleep or I would not be able to make the journey as well. Needless to say, I was searched at the airport...as I always am. The flight was alright, no major qualms with it apart from the size of the seats, but then that's what I got for flying with Ryan Air. Other than that, it was a nice flight and the captain was Irish, which is always a plus! Had a little laugh too when an older lady behind me said, "So, it's ten to ten in English money then?" Haha, bless. 

When I got to Girona, I was lucky in that I was the first one to get their suitcase, so I was off and talking to the information lady within minutes of landing. I decided that I should start speaking Spanish straight away or I'd just get even more worried about being here. The Information Lady appeared to be suitably impressed that I had asked in Spanish, and went on to jabber away at me in Spanish. I contented myself with the fact that I mostly understood her and got two maps out of her. 

The thing I loved the most about today was that to get from the airport in Girona to the town centre, we had to get a coach. Air conditioning, yes! Whilst I had been waiting for the coach to leave, I met two nice English people on their way to the coast for a bit of a holiday. Didn't have many photo opportunities on the coach, but I did snap a picture of a Giraffe for one of my Best Friend's. She's a slight Giraffe nut, you could say. Not entirely sure what the shop was for, I just noticed the Giraffe. I wonder if they invited it into their loft or not?




I made it in one piece from the coach to the second bus after some wandering around and asking several people how to get to where I wanted to be. Then, I ended up at the wrong halls, which was a little funny. The guy there didn't speak English so I couldn't get my point across to well for him, but we attempted French and Spanish and then spoke to his boss, and got to the right place in the end. He was nice. 

I got into the right Residencia after a fair walk up not so steep hill, but in 29 degrees and dragging a suitcase, not so ideal for me. When I arrived and sorted stuff, they showed me to my room in my flat. I'm sharing with two Italian girls, and another girl who I haven't seen yet. I shall update on that when I'm in the know. 

This is how I decided the unpacking should go. 

I've decided to stick to the thing I told Cazz. I'm not going to eat crisps while I'm here. If you know me at all, you will realise how much of a big thing that is for me. Punishing myself even more it seems. I'm trying to be really healthy while I'm here though, so I can be the way I want to be next year. 

So, we have no toaster here and no over. Just the microwave and the cooking rings. That being the case, and me not having known this before I went shopping for food...I had to improvise my toast idea, and attempted to make fried bread/toast with ham and cheese on. It didn't turn out too badly, I guess. 

What, with one thing and another today, I'm finding myself absolutely shattered. So it could be before 10 when I go to sleep. Tomorrow I can really explore then, and buy myself some towels! And then I'll have a chance to actually meet with people. 

While I was unpacking, I found a note from my other Best Friend and it made me smile, because I'd known she was writing it in a weird way. It was nice for me to find it when I needed it. On the subject of needing things, my Best Friend from home gave me lots of presents to bring with me, I was thankful that the one I know to be chocolate did not melt!


It's been a great day, and I'd love for it to have more greatness, but I'm too tired to move. Sleep is much needed, so until tomorrow, ciao! :) x