The Lapse in blogging

Sorry to all about the lapse in time since my last blog post! It's hard to compare my recent times to the trip to Interlaken, Switzerland haha. However, today was a really cool day. ISA (my program) sent an email out asking if any students wanted to do an intercambio (language conversation exchange) with some of the students at the University of Barcelona. I of course was super excited to do this as my first intercambio flaked out on me. So I made the trek over to the metro stop to meet up with everyone else who had signed up. Everyone else who had signed up being one other guy who barely speaks any Spanish. I then learned that the class of 20 that we were meeting with was going to be doing an English presentation for us about Barcelona and the areas around it. Afterwards, we were to do a similar presentation in Spanish for them about where we live and things that we like to do. No sweat right?

I had a blast. It was so great to be in a class of all Spanish speakers. I definitely feel like I am conversationally competent with the language and that I can always figure out what people are talking about even when I do not know a certain word. Also, Al (the other American guy) and I are going to get Mexican food with two of the people in the Spanish class. I am really excited...and I am not sure if it is more for the Mexican food or the Spanish people haha. I am starting to worry abo

ut the limited time that I have here and how when I get home, I am not going to be able to have constant Spanish all around me! I don't want this awesome skill to fizzle in the dark. Me encanta hablar el espanol mas que ingles y es dificil para mi comprender como me voy a vivir sin el idioma cada dia. Pues, espero vivir en IHouse cuando regreso a UCSD para que yo pueda seguir hablando!

Happy Halloween! In Spain, it is not celebrated

like in the United States, but all of the clubs are having Halloween parties. El dia de todos los santos que es el uno de noviembre is what is celebrated here instead. In Catalonia, everyone eats Panhelletes which are these little sugar balls covered with different toppings...the best one is covered with Pine Nuts! o soooo good. And there are these really crappy pumpkins here that are really small and cost 5 euros...what to do without my Halloween!

The Little Mermaid

Today I did absolutely nothing productive except for watching this youtube video. It was glorious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8okYhcRwrgY

Mermaids really do exist. Yes I am bored right now haha

Miss everyone back home right now

Dan

European Integration and Economic and International Law

So today I had my first midterm...which was kind of intense but I think I did pretty well. The questions were very specific...for example. "What year was the NATO treaty signed. There were 4 choices. 1947,1948,1949, or 1950." These were hard to remember because I was thinking about the dates when they started talking about forming the organizations and what not...and to top it off the whole test was 20% of my grade and only 20 multiple choice questions. Did I mention it was SAT style-if you get one wrong that is -1/3 of a point! We shall see what happens.

However, I absolutely love my teacher in the class. He has a few funny perks.

1. Whenever referring to George Bush Senior or George W. Bush he calls them Bush Father or Bush son

2. He calls people out like no other- I was wearing a Lamda Chi Alpha shirt the other day and he called me Mr. AXA and made me speak for the "American Delegation"

3. Today during the test, he went off about how all Spanish people cheat. He said, "In Spain we have many good things, but all of the students are cheaters! You will see in 5 minutes when the test starts!"

4. He has this one expression that he says that does not translate at all...sneaky cheaky...I have no idea what it means

Chili Schleire

When I signed up for Canyoning, I was legitimately nervous. Outdoor, Interlaken described the canyon that we wanted to do-which was the highest level one- for athletic people who do not have any fears of heights. As many of you know, I would not describe myself as the most athletically inclined person, but in the end I managed just fine. Canyoning is a must for any person that can muster the courage to do it. it is the most beautiful, thrilling, and eye opening experience that you can take advantage of in your life. The day started with a short hike out to the canyon. The very first thing they had us do was jump off of a 40 foot waterfall. That was what they called the point of no return. If we could not make that jump, we had to walk out...but if we did make that jump, it was impossible to walk out.

After plummeting, we went through a series of slides, jumps, and rappelled

off of some cliffs and waterfalls. Slides, are not always the traditional slides you imagine. While some of them were like rock water slides fueled by the river, others were nearly vertical drops that we would jump to and "slide down." The waterfalls we jumped off of had landing areas. Before each jump, our guide would tell

us where to jump and then would say..."if you jump too far to the left you will land on rocks, so don't do that eh?" The rappelling off of waterfalls was like normal rappelling except that if we lost our grip we could fall into a giant river haha. In one rappel we were lowered off of a cliff through a waterfall that was 100 feet high. That was crazy.

Some fun facts about the group-

We all had helmets with our name of the day. I was Starfish, and in the group we also had Precious, Peanut Butter, Wonder Woman, Skunk, Bambi, Single, Voodoo, Gumby, Cool, and Wild. Also, we went in at a really high water level. They measured some gauge at 4.5 cm. Usually they go when it is around 2 or 3...and the highest that the guide had ever been in, without a tour group, was 7. This made for all the more challenging experience. Here is a link to the promotional video for the canyon that we went in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMZC5esoiUw

The Rainy Hike and the Leap of Faith

Saturday morning we woke up to go canyoning. To our dismay, we found the guide waiting for us to tell us that it was too dangerous to go out because yesterday it had been raining all day and all night and that the river was going to be too high to safely go about the activities...we were all pretty upset, but he told us that we could go the next day, so we took that as consolation. In the morning, we were trying to decide what to do. A bunch of people wanted to go Canyon Jumping because Daniel Toolan had had so much fun doing it the day before. I decided that I would do it because I did not want to find out that we couldn't go canyoning the next day because of rain again. That was scheduled for 4 o clock in the afternoon.

In the meantime, we decided to take a train up to a small town and hike through an area with lots of waterfalls. Though we never actually found the trail that we were supposed to go on, we did get some spectacular views and we did get to see some waterfalls. Everything in this country is petrifyingly beautiful. I purchased a red swiss umbrella as I did not plan ahead and bring my own...I will call that my souvenir from Switzerland haha.

That afternoon was the canyon jump. I will let the video do it justice...sorry that it is sideways *cough Patrice couch*...I have said that I never want to go sky diving because it does not appeal to me- I am not sure what about this suddenly seemed appealing, but I definitely am very glad that I went for it. This trip has taught me more than anything that we really do only live once and need to take advantage of every minute!

After the jump, we headed back to the hostel,

watched Daniel Toolan attempt a local pizza eating challenge, and then headed off to the metro bar one more time. Gummy bears and vodka tonight. Yum! Canyoning tomorrow!

Due to my horrible Internet Connection, I was unable to upload the video on blogger...here is the link to it on facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=792090092974&ref=mf

Bike Riding, Balmer's Herberge and the Metro Bar

After arriving in Interlaken, we could not check into our hostel. Patrice, Rachel, and I decided that we were going to take a bike ride around Interlaken while Katie, Mona, and Kelsey went paragliding. I guess I can take this time to spout off about how beautiful Switzerland is. We were in a town that was surrounded by the Swiss Alps, with a river running through it and two lakes on the sides. In Switzerland, the water is teal...it almost looks fake because it is so clean. Our tour guides told us that there was some special mineral that comes from the mountains and fills the lake that makes it turn that color. It was absolutely beautiful. During our bike ride we of course got lost a few times, but rode along the river for a bit, went to the lake, and just soaked in nature. Right when we got back from the bike ride, a torrential downpour of rain started, but it was okay because we were able to check into our hostel right then.

Napping was the first thing on our mind since we had not slept

in quite some time. After our nap, we went and got pizza for dinner at the spot right next door. We came back to the hostel to get ready. Our hostel is THE best hostel in

Interlaken, Switzerland. It actually is ranked

very high on some website...but we had an 8 person dorm room for our group. There was a complimentary breakfast, free bus passes, and most importantly a club downstairs with two for one happy hour from 9-10. After a few plus three drinks, we decided that we should get some sleep for the CANYONING TRIP that we had planned the next day. Little did we know that the rainstorm brewing outside had different plans.

Direction- Interlaken Ost

Because it is going to be impossible for me to fit my trip to Switzerland in one blog post, I am splitting it into a few and not necessarily in the right order. Where do I begin...I know! The airlines. Swiss Air is officially my new favorite airline. Let's just put it this way. For a late night flight, I was graced with leg room, two Toblerone chocolate bars, a buttered pretzel, and a Heineken- all included in the ticket price. American airlines need to get their act together! Anyway, our flight arrived in Geneva, Switzerland at 11 o clock on Thursday night and our train didn't head out until the next morning at 7 or so, so our original plan was to sleep...did we sleep? No! We took the train into Geneva city center to explore with the knowledge that the next available train to the airport was at 5 in the morning.

We quickly realized that Geneva is not known for its night life so we started searching for "the place to be." After wandering through a Kebap restauraunt, two bars, a couple of conv

enience stores, and various streets, we got a tip about a local place that turned out to have a small club bar downstairs that was open until 5, and a cabaret show upstairs. Mona insisted that we go, and because we had happened across 100 francs earlier in the night, we went on in. We proceeded to watch a Cabaret show in French that we could not understand but could see very well. We watched Cinderella take it off to the PussyCat Dolls' "When I grow up" as well as the traditional "Hey Big Spender" number. Needless to say, it was hilariously awesome. On top of all that, we found out that one of the performers was from Kansas and

we talked to her about living abroad for a while. Afterwards, we went to the club

downstairs and danced away to the most strange mix of music I have ever heard. Everything from Madonna to Jewish Barmitzvuh (sp?) to Eminem. What a night haha. We went back to the airport and caught our train into Interlaken Ost where we arrived around 10 in the morning! Vilkommen!

Wish me luck!

I am heading off to Interlaken, Switzerland via Geneva tomorrow and will be Canyoning on Saturday. I am sure I will have one interesting if not very scary story to relay upon my arrival in Barcelona. I am a little angry right now because vueling rejected my debit card...which seems to be functioning just fine everywhere else in Europe...booking Rome will just have to wait.

Tonight was my second salsa lesson. Sooo much fun, especially when i had to dance with someone who was 4'11'' and I had to throw her hands over my head. We quickly realized that we were not going to be partners for much longer. I definitely want to join some kind of club or take classes when I get back to UCSD.

This is the Kebap. The European answer to the burrito...I will miss it dearly upon my return to Taco Tuesday however I would never let down my true and strong allegiance to Mexican food which surpasses all other late night cravings.

Peace out!

The Sketchy Park Incident

About one hour ago, I was sitting in a park watching ducks in a pond and it had just started to get dark. This kid rode by me on a bicycle through the park and off around the bend. I was waiting for Gavin, to come down on a run so we could walk back home together. After a while, that same kid on the bicycle rode by me again and it reminded me of how I used to ride my bike in continuous circles around my neighborhood when I was younger. Another kid, who looked a lot like the one on the bike, strangely enough, walked past me into the grassy area behind me and was hanging out by a tree. That was when I realized that something kind of strange might be going on. I wasn't really that worried because there was an older couple on the bench about ten feet away from me and it was a pretty public area. Then, that kid on the bike rolls up again, but this time he stops in front of me and says something in Spanish. I ignore him, but he continues to ask me for cigarettes or something. I wasn't really paying attention because I figured he would go away. After he asked me again, I stood up to leave rather than waiting. I notice that his friend who had been hanging out at the tree behind me had started walking towards me right before that. I gave him a sharp look straight at the face, pulled out my cell phone to make a phone call and walked off at a brisk pace. THEY DIDN't get me this time suckazzz haha.

Lesson learned- Do not sit in a park late at night watching ducks

Russians, Salsa, FC Barca and an electrical disaster

Hola amigos! This last week has been one of the first that I could consider somewhat normal and low key in my time here in Spain. I have been here for just over a month now and I think things might start to settle down a little bit. The closing of the festival of Merce was fascinating. It was held at the Montjuic fountains last Sunday night. It was the most packed venue I had seen in a long while...I was worried about terrorists! They combined the music of movies, with fireworks and the famous fountain which I previously wrote about. My highlight was when they played Pirates of the Carribean, Lord of the Rings, and then Batman...it was awesome. It was also the best fireworks show I have ever seen in my life which is saying a lot coming from Lake Tahoe on the 4th of July.

Anyway, this week, I started class and soon learned that one of my classes was with "international students" meaning students from Peru, Russia, Singapore, the US, Spain, and France. On the first day, the Russian girls already started speaking out against the United States saying that we would not share the leadership of the IMF with other countries. This class is going to be fun. The teacher walks around and calls people out...for instance, a kid was wearing a Georgetown shirt and the teacher would yell, "Georgetown, do you think that Obama will sign the new agreements that the United Nations are going to make in place of Kyoto?" You have to know your stuff here and that is for sure.

This week I started taking salsa lessons with Kelsey, a friend from UCSD. Brent recommended the lessons and tried to get met to take some hip hop class with him as well-not happening. Needless to say it was super fun. When we came in there was this giant picture of a lady dancing and I jokingly told Kelsey she was going to look like that when we finished dancing. Brent then proceeded to tell me that the 4 times life sized poster was our teacher who happened to have won many salsa competitions in Barcelona. All I can say is WATCH OUT CHRISTINA! I am gonna dominate you in salsa when I get back...probably not haha.

Also, this week, I went to the FC Barca game which was one heck of a rush. I will say that the Spanish fans aren't as die hard crazy as everyone makes them out to be. They don't even sell beer in Spanish stadiums. Irregardless, it was a lot of fun watching FC Barcelona take down Dynamo Kiev in the Champions match 2-0 and to sport an overpriced Jersey and headband...mine was neon haha. I sooo wish our school had any sport worth watching bleh!

As I write, all of the power outlets in my house are being moved as well as the light switches which means. It is quite hectic and my battery life is running out, so I am going to have to upload pictures to this post mas tarde.

Spanish word of the day: JODER!