July 26, 2010

Having amassed a large number of email in need of answers, I hung around the lobby of the hostel taking care of that.  I also got a little side tracked check for tickets to "Phantom: Love Never Dies" and checking what else was on in London that I have not seen yet, or is worth seeing again.  Then it was off to breakfast, which believe it or not, had "No Hablamos Americano" playing on the radio.

Next it was off to Imperial College to get my bearings for tomorrow.  The college is really close to the tube station and very modern with lots of glass walls.  After finding the bio-med building, I made a quick stop to the campus store, to get some pens, which is not really blog worthy, but next to the normal pens were scented pens, including bubble gum, donuts, etc.  Since I still had no real plans for the day I thought I would see what the science museum was about, but quickly changed my mind when I saw a line.  The line was pretty long, which baffled me since the museum is free.  Maybe the adults only nights are easier to get into.  In the interest of adventure, I decided to should walk in random directions and see what I could find.  This turned out to well, I stumbled across Her Majesty's Theater and a Planet Hollywood.  Although since I had my Hard Rock shirt on, I got some dirty look when I walked by, one guy even jokingly hissed at me.  I ended up walking all the way from Piccadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square and hang out there for a bit taking in the scenery.  The monument for Lord Nelson was uncovered this time, and looks like a .... monument.  I also came across a fair trade store called Uganda House, and sold goods from, you guessed it, Uganda.  Still in the mood for walking, I made my way down to Buckingham Palace, but not procession this time, but still a large enough crowd despite.

By this point some food was in order, and given my unintended close proximity to HRC, I had to stop by and take advantage of my All Access card.  Talking with the seater guy, found out he was a traveler of well and really knew a lot about HRC locations.  He also recommended coming for one of their concert, which I just might have to do one of these days.  As I was leaving I noticed someone with a blueish backpack, and sure enough it was from EF, they are everywhere.

After lunch I had some time to kill before meeting Natasha for a briefing on what to expect tomorrow. So I went back to the hostel to relax for awhile.  I found out the professor I am suppose to meet tomorrow likes gadgets, some of which have a practical use in 3rd world countries, which sounds perfect for me.    During the course of the conversation she recommended seeing the Proms, a classical music concert, at Albert Hall, which you can also listen to online at bbc.co.uk/radio3.  I had to wait for intermission to be seated, after running up three flights of steps, since I was couple minutes late getting my ticket, but it was well worth it.  The lobby did offer a tv, seats, and speakers to listen to the show while waiting. The music was fantastic, but the ushers telling people not to take photos of the stunning theater before the show was a little annoying.  The rest of the evening was surprising quite.

June 29, 2010: Waka Waka

Left the casa around 10am for some chocolate donuts, after misunderstanding where I was actually suppose to have breakfast.  Who could really complain about donuts for breakfast though.  Class began at 11:50, but after my exceptional breakfast I wandered to the school to utilize the internet, since there were not any signals within range of the casa to use.  My second thought after finding out the school had wifi was who maintained it, and do they need anyone else.

When class finally started around 11:50, it was like being thrown into Linear Algebra II or Partial Differential Equations after Algebra I.  The class was entirely in Spanish, and sink or swim.  On top of that the subject for the day was descriptive vocabulary for people, and of course  the people ranged from Brad Pitt and Jessica Alba, to Angela Merkil and Dracula. Just for good measure Home Simpson was thrown in as well.  So far one other american speaks solo English, and everyone else speaks two or three other languages.

Then on to my second class, which was a lot of fun.  Much more english, but only when we did not understand.  This was a huge help, I think the beginner class should be like this so we can test our skills in the area around the school.  After class I signed up for dinner tomorrow and the Alcazaba, castle tour friday, and Seville Saturday, and Snorkeling Sunday.  Oh, and I still needed to sign up for Morocco next weekend.  Then I made my way to the beach to meet Sandra to get a snack and more shopping, food shopping for me this time.  Afterward we headed back to the school to meet up with Flo, and drop off spoils of the day before  dinner and watching the Spain vs. Portugal world cup match.  The sword fish was great, definitely have to come back here. During dinner Florence was kind enough to help Sandra and I with our Spanish.  We also talked more culture and book, while watching the locals get excited over everything during the match, so funny and total madness.  A goal attempt missed by 20 feet incited a cheer so loud, you would have though it was the winning goal.  The excitement for the game was so intense even our waiter watching, and only came back around after the game was over.  Finally Spain scored, and I can only describe the scene as a step short of histaria, everyone was singing and dancing.  It was such a positive atmosphere we receive free shoots, which I did not partake of, but the experience was still a memorable moment. 


Even after the game was over the fiesta continued well into the wee hours of the morning.  We made our way back to the school though, I still needed to pick up my books and had a long walk back to the house.  Back at the house I talked with my host mom for a few minutes about food again, and actually understood a little more this time.  Once that was settled it was time for some late night studying. 

June 28, 2010: Shopping, Shopping Everywhere, and Not a Spot to Sit

Up by 8am for my first day of non-engineering classes many years.  After breakfast and trying to communicate about meals for the week again, it was off to school by 9.  Orientation did not start till 945 but it was a 20 minute walk to school and I wanted to test out the GPS, which worked great.  After our group of new students starting this week gathered at the school, we made our way to the beach and a little restaurant for lunch and the first part of orientation.  Which happened to be all in Spanish, a great idea for upper level students, but a little less useful for beginning students.  The pialla was pretty good though, nothing like fresh sea food.  After the normal rigmarole, we learned how to take the #11 bus downtown.  On the ride to the city center, one of the staff tried talking with me, first in Spanish, and when I could not respond, repeated in English, very helpful.  Of course the first stop in the center was the shopping area.  It was a little early for the big sales, but still plenty of window shopping going on, both upscale and regular.   I'm sure I'll end up at Desigual again at some point.  After some exhausting shopping, or waiting in my case, a few of us went to Cafe Natural Blend, which had made pretty good strawberry shake.

I made it back to the house about 7pm, but no one else was around yet.  My class schedule has caused a bit of a kerfuffle with meals at the house.  I can only make it back for lunch two days a week.  Not waiting to waste day light, I made my way back to the beach by 745.  Since it was still a little bit early to eat, I watch some of the beach activities for awhile, including a large row boat being rolled into the water.  First time I had actually seen that process done.  Eventually I walked back to the restaurants, and meet Flo and Sandra for dinner.  It was great talking Switzerland, Canada, books, and of course a bit of weather for good measure. 

Around 945pm we walked back to school for the fiesta that night, which happened to be almost next door to where we had just eaten.  It was a bit crowded and loud, but all in all a worth while experience getting to meet everyone, including some of the previous students even if it was hard to hold a conversation over the music.  It was also interesting to see the ratio of girls to guys from the new group: about 5:1.  After a great day, I made it back to the house about 11:45pm.

June 27, 2010

Landed in London right on time, and have 3 doors down stuck in my head, although their song could be a little more upbeat.  Other than a 5 minute delay for the automatic plane guide malfunction, so far so good.  After checking out the shopping area, with no idea how much I would be in for over the next couple weeks, I went over my class information again, since I have two different starting times listed.  Once I finally had a gate number to go to, I headed off and as luck would have it, discovered a Cadbury vending machine.  At the gate I checked the boarding time again, and to my astonishment, it was still on time.  It is almost as if "someone's" luck from India has finally worn off.  The flight to Malaga did have a technical issue, but it only set us back about 30 minutes.  It did take a bit to get the luggage, since international arrives were on a different belt than announced for everyone else.  After I picked up my luggage, that was actually still in one piece, I waited around for the other EF student, Sandra, sharing the transfer with me.  The drive to Malaga seemed short, and even had Shakira playing on the radio, good start.  Once I arrived at the host family, I got a brief introduction to some of the basics of the house, most of which I had to guess at the meaning.  I'll get the hang of things by the time I leave though, I hope.  The husband only spoke a couple words of English, but with the help of one of the girls on my floor, I got a quick tour of our floor, before heading to bed.  There were four rooms for students on my floor of the house.

June 26, 2010: The Journey Begins

Since I leave today, I think I should start packing.  Nothing like a little last minute packing before leaving for a five week adventure.  Once that was done and the appropriate emails sent out it was time to head out, and it's not even 4am.  Arriving at lambert at 430pm I made my way straight through security, amazingly there was no one in line.  I hope this turns out to be a good sign, unlike the India trip.  The flight to Chicago was a quick one, even landed 15 minute early.  The flight was pretty empty too, just a smal group of girls returning home from and EF trip.  Since I had so much time, I thought I would stop for a burrito at burrito hut, with a name like that how could I pass it up.  When I got to the gate, there was a 777 waiting, I was quite happy not to have one of the really little transatlantic pond hopper planes.  While waiting for boarding to start, I continued reading "Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life".  Once on the plane, I found my seat in the very back, which given my five hour layover in London, and the ability to recline without taking someones extremely limited space, I was happy to be in the back.  The movie selection was decent, but "When in Rome" cut out half way through.  Still enough to make me miss Rome though.  After the movie cut out, I opted for a little sleep since I still had a lot of travel ahead of me.