Monday, September 25, 2006
Saturday, September 23, 2006
A stressful, humorous week
September 22, 2006
Dear family and friends,
Did you hear about the tropical storm that hit Vigo yesterday (Thursday the 21)? Matt and I went on a walk to a park which overlooks the port late Wednesday evening. We enjoyed the colors of the sunset sparkling on the waters of the Ria and barely noticed the menacing clouds on the horizon. A man sat next to us smoking, but he gave no sign of acknowledgment to the two students speaking English and filming the sunset, which always surprises us how most everyone seems to be unaware of our presence. In a moment of braveness and with the desire to speak a little Spanish, I asked the man where the Cielos Islas are, and he pointed them out to me. But that started a conversation, and he certainly wasn’t reluctant to chat about politics, immigrants, and the unstable Basque region between France and Spain. As we left for the night, the man cautioned us about a hurricane which was swirling in the Atlantic near the coast. He told us to stay in our home, because the hurricane was about to turn into an inland tropical storm in Vigo.
Matt and I were appropriately impressed. Wow! A tropical storm! I had weathered a two day typhoon in Taiwan and found the winds and rain to be pretty cool. We hurried home and shut the windows before going to bed for good measure. In the middle of the night, the windows began to shake with the wind, but it didn’t appear to be raining. So Matt and I slept the whole night through, hoping to wake up in the morning to a terrific sight; honestly, who doesn’t enjoy a good storm?! Morning came, and perhaps we were a bit disappointed, but this is what it looked like. The wind was blowing fiercely, at least enough to turn up Matt’s umbrella. The rain was not coming down in torrents; rather, it blew in long horizontal sheets of thick, cold fog. It was dark and chilly most all day long, but for a tropical storm, nothing to be concerned about. At the very least, we enjoyed our coffee more than usual at the Italian Cafe.
Matt and I are happy to tell you we began class this week - kind of. We had a meeting on Tuesday to learn about which classes we may want to go to this semester. The University’s system is quite a bit different from our own. Vigo students may go to any classes they wish, and registration for the first semester is in December. It is not necessary to buy books or really even to go to class every time it meets. The students who register take an exam which determines the class grade. Matt and I chuckled about this system and then wondered what in the world we are going to do. We determined which classes we will attend, classes such as modern literature, history, and grammar. We will register at our leisure, I suppose, since the hurry is not until December. Our learning will be based off of class lecture and our corresponding class notes.
Our first class was the history of Spain’s joining the European Union. All four of us USD students went and sat in a row together. The professor walked into class about 4 minutes after it was scheduled to begin and looked at us all sitting there and said, “Where are you from?” When we all answered, “The United States” at the same time, he responded, “I supposed so.” Ironically, the class is not even taught in Spanish, but instead in the region’s Gallego. Gallego is quite similar to Spanish, though the language uses different words and sometimes different pronunciations. Thankfully, the professor talked quite slow in a manner similar to dictation as we joined the others in dutifully taking notes. Our “notes” however, are scratches of sentences and words we recognized patched together to make a bit of sense; I admit my notes do not make any!
On October 4th, however, we begin class titled “Spanish for Foreigners” and the class will be geared at our level of understanding. It should be fun and extremely valuable in our learning the language. Next week, we will attempt a few more classes with the hope that every day we will improve our understanding just a bit more!
We spent a few days without electricity this week. At first, we were concerned it was our fault, because our bedroom is full of converters, adaptors, and outlets for the computer and other things. Perhaps we had blown a fuse? But no, after making a painful trip to our landlord’s office to explain “The electricity doesn’t work and we don’t know why” we discovered the mistake was with the landlord and the utility company. Even more difficult was the discussion about our residence. Matt and I were shown apartment K and we moved into that apartment that evening. However, on all of the subsequent paperwork on our lease agreement and with the utility company, it is noted we live in apartment E. Our mailbox says K with E below it, but our mail key doesn’t open any mailbox. This situation is rather complicated, but matters are so much more so when attempting to communicate in a second language!
After a few more unsettling experiences, Matt and I feel like we could write a book titled, What to Expect When Moving to a Foreign Country (When Not Proficient in the Language) or Crazy Spanish Living for Americans (How to Adapt to Crazy Spanish People). We are indeed learning though, and we try to not take these stressful days to seriously. We think of you all often and wish we could share these experiences with you. We love hearing from you, and hope to talk to you soon!
Love,
Matt and Heather
Dear family and friends,
Did you hear about the tropical storm that hit Vigo yesterday (Thursday the 21)? Matt and I went on a walk to a park which overlooks the port late Wednesday evening. We enjoyed the colors of the sunset sparkling on the waters of the Ria and barely noticed the menacing clouds on the horizon. A man sat next to us smoking, but he gave no sign of acknowledgment to the two students speaking English and filming the sunset, which always surprises us how most everyone seems to be unaware of our presence. In a moment of braveness and with the desire to speak a little Spanish, I asked the man where the Cielos Islas are, and he pointed them out to me. But that started a conversation, and he certainly wasn’t reluctant to chat about politics, immigrants, and the unstable Basque region between France and Spain. As we left for the night, the man cautioned us about a hurricane which was swirling in the Atlantic near the coast. He told us to stay in our home, because the hurricane was about to turn into an inland tropical storm in Vigo.
Matt and I were appropriately impressed. Wow! A tropical storm! I had weathered a two day typhoon in Taiwan and found the winds and rain to be pretty cool. We hurried home and shut the windows before going to bed for good measure. In the middle of the night, the windows began to shake with the wind, but it didn’t appear to be raining. So Matt and I slept the whole night through, hoping to wake up in the morning to a terrific sight; honestly, who doesn’t enjoy a good storm?! Morning came, and perhaps we were a bit disappointed, but this is what it looked like. The wind was blowing fiercely, at least enough to turn up Matt’s umbrella. The rain was not coming down in torrents; rather, it blew in long horizontal sheets of thick, cold fog. It was dark and chilly most all day long, but for a tropical storm, nothing to be concerned about. At the very least, we enjoyed our coffee more than usual at the Italian Cafe.
Matt and I are happy to tell you we began class this week - kind of. We had a meeting on Tuesday to learn about which classes we may want to go to this semester. The University’s system is quite a bit different from our own. Vigo students may go to any classes they wish, and registration for the first semester is in December. It is not necessary to buy books or really even to go to class every time it meets. The students who register take an exam which determines the class grade. Matt and I chuckled about this system and then wondered what in the world we are going to do. We determined which classes we will attend, classes such as modern literature, history, and grammar. We will register at our leisure, I suppose, since the hurry is not until December. Our learning will be based off of class lecture and our corresponding class notes.
Our first class was the history of Spain’s joining the European Union. All four of us USD students went and sat in a row together. The professor walked into class about 4 minutes after it was scheduled to begin and looked at us all sitting there and said, “Where are you from?” When we all answered, “The United States” at the same time, he responded, “I supposed so.” Ironically, the class is not even taught in Spanish, but instead in the region’s Gallego. Gallego is quite similar to Spanish, though the language uses different words and sometimes different pronunciations. Thankfully, the professor talked quite slow in a manner similar to dictation as we joined the others in dutifully taking notes. Our “notes” however, are scratches of sentences and words we recognized patched together to make a bit of sense; I admit my notes do not make any!
On October 4th, however, we begin class titled “Spanish for Foreigners” and the class will be geared at our level of understanding. It should be fun and extremely valuable in our learning the language. Next week, we will attempt a few more classes with the hope that every day we will improve our understanding just a bit more!
We spent a few days without electricity this week. At first, we were concerned it was our fault, because our bedroom is full of converters, adaptors, and outlets for the computer and other things. Perhaps we had blown a fuse? But no, after making a painful trip to our landlord’s office to explain “The electricity doesn’t work and we don’t know why” we discovered the mistake was with the landlord and the utility company. Even more difficult was the discussion about our residence. Matt and I were shown apartment K and we moved into that apartment that evening. However, on all of the subsequent paperwork on our lease agreement and with the utility company, it is noted we live in apartment E. Our mailbox says K with E below it, but our mail key doesn’t open any mailbox. This situation is rather complicated, but matters are so much more so when attempting to communicate in a second language!
After a few more unsettling experiences, Matt and I feel like we could write a book titled, What to Expect When Moving to a Foreign Country (When Not Proficient in the Language) or Crazy Spanish Living for Americans (How to Adapt to Crazy Spanish People). We are indeed learning though, and we try to not take these stressful days to seriously. We think of you all often and wish we could share these experiences with you. We love hearing from you, and hope to talk to you soon!
Love,
Matt and Heather
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
First Blog
Hey Everyone!
This is our first posting, and since it's just Matt writing, it's not gonna be too long - just testing this out.
We've just completed our first day of classes at the Universidade de Vigo in Vigo, Spain and we're pretty surprised/confused/happy/irritated! The system here is so different from anything we've seen previously and we're not exactly sure what to think or do.. The requirements for us, as told to us by those who matter to our grades, is that we learn the Spanish language and way of life. Classes are required and a serious attempt must be made, but most students here fail class, let alone students who barely can speak the language! Something like 60% of the students fail or at least get a D; usually only 1 student from every class earns an A! Heather is not happy, to say the least!
Aside from that confusion, we've landed ourselves in a nice apartment with a beautiful view of the Ria de Vigo and the cityscape. Our "flat" is higher than the rest until the river, so we always have a very beautiful view throughout the day. We are told that most days will be cloudy even though it has been beautiful to this point. We have been walking around the city daily - great exercise going up and down the hilly city streets, and have found the bus the most convenient way to get to campus, even though it's "schedule" is not something we are used to!
The way of life is very different, from the meal schedule being much more spread out to the late nights and constantly noisy streets (with no air conditioning our windows stay open), we're still adjusting. All in all though, things are great! We're learning the language, poco a poco (little by little I think), and loving the delicious fresh fruit and seafood surrounding us. We have decided on what classes to attempt first and will start attending them tomorrow. And we have met some other international students who speak English (nice to speak our native language at times) - hopefully we'll find some Spanish speakers to learn the language with while enjoying a nice cafe solo at the closest cafe. Life is fun, strange, and noisy, and we love it! Will write more when my wife can join me... Love you all and thank you for reading! -Matt
This is our first posting, and since it's just Matt writing, it's not gonna be too long - just testing this out.
We've just completed our first day of classes at the Universidade de Vigo in Vigo, Spain and we're pretty surprised/confused/happy/irritated! The system here is so different from anything we've seen previously and we're not exactly sure what to think or do.. The requirements for us, as told to us by those who matter to our grades, is that we learn the Spanish language and way of life. Classes are required and a serious attempt must be made, but most students here fail class, let alone students who barely can speak the language! Something like 60% of the students fail or at least get a D; usually only 1 student from every class earns an A! Heather is not happy, to say the least!
Aside from that confusion, we've landed ourselves in a nice apartment with a beautiful view of the Ria de Vigo and the cityscape. Our "flat" is higher than the rest until the river, so we always have a very beautiful view throughout the day. We are told that most days will be cloudy even though it has been beautiful to this point. We have been walking around the city daily - great exercise going up and down the hilly city streets, and have found the bus the most convenient way to get to campus, even though it's "schedule" is not something we are used to!
The way of life is very different, from the meal schedule being much more spread out to the late nights and constantly noisy streets (with no air conditioning our windows stay open), we're still adjusting. All in all though, things are great! We're learning the language, poco a poco (little by little I think), and loving the delicious fresh fruit and seafood surrounding us. We have decided on what classes to attempt first and will start attending them tomorrow. And we have met some other international students who speak English (nice to speak our native language at times) - hopefully we'll find some Spanish speakers to learn the language with while enjoying a nice cafe solo at the closest cafe. Life is fun, strange, and noisy, and we love it! Will write more when my wife can join me... Love you all and thank you for reading! -Matt
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