Carnaval y Paris...bonjour!

Hola y bonjour!

It has been a loooooong time since I posted last, so be prepared for a super long post right here.  I’m on the bus back from Madrid right now, to Sevilla, and it’s about 19,30, so let’s see what I can get done before getting motion sickness starts!

Valentine’s Day with the girls was a lot of fun.  It ended up being Adi, Aimee, Emily, Naomi, and Miriam and I eating a our favorite restaurant in Sevilla, Los Coloniales.  We got a bottle of wine, some of us exchanged tiny gifts for fun, and then enjoyed the night!

My internship so far has a been wonderful!  The work isn’t the most exciting at all, but I really enjoy interacting with my co-workers.  Marga (receptionist) and I share and I share an office (the front office).  Marga is so much fun!  She is in her mid-thirties and married with a two-year old girl and we enjoy talking to each other a lot.  She is super caring, and has helped me in some of my online purchases in Sevilla, along with helping me out when I’ve had issues with flights and bus tickets.  José Manuel and Alejandro are the bosses.  My first interaction with Fina81 was at the interview with José, and I got a really strong, positive vibe from him.  The two of them have been best friends since childhood, and were both born in 1981, hence the 81 in the company name.  Finca is a shorter way of saying finances, in case you were curious, too.  Beatriz (we just call her Bea) is the abogada, the lawyer, and Javier (Javi) is….well, not sure exactly.  But he works from out of them office.  There also is Manchu (not sure how to spell her name) who is getting married to Alejandro next weekend, but I’m also not sure what her role is.  Lastly, there is Valentín, who I have yet to meet, but he is the accountant who comes in once a week on Mondays and then works from home.  After having worked there for some time now, I can confidently explain what we do….we are community/building managers.  We manage about 70 different buildings throughout España, with a total of about 4.500 clients.  Each building has a contact person – the president of the building – who we meet with.  We manage all aspects outside of the individual apartments – meaning we are not landlords.  We manage the cleaning, maintenance, and up-keeping of hallways, gardens, pools, garages, elevators, trash, etc.  My job there, thus far, is to keep updating their database, which fortunately enough is on MS Access, which I have a lot of familiarity with.  I search through the individual community folders for information that is missing from the database and add it.  Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s really hard to dig in and find the information.  I need to complete 100 hours by the end of the semester.  And to this day, I am at 20 hours.  I’m going to start going in earlier to eat breakfast with them all so I can get to know them better.  They come in at nine and go down to the café on the ground floor to eat around 9,30 or so.  I really look forward to getting to know my great and fun co-workers.

Carnaval de Cadiz….oh boy.  Don’t even know how to describe what happened besides mass chaos.  We took a five o’clock train down (well, about a dozen or so of us) and everyone on the train was dressed up for Carnaval.  It’s their version of Halloween essentially, except the girls don’t dress slutty or anything.  The costumes are all funny – some highlights of the night include the following: dildos, Cruzcampo guy, and cross-dressers.  The last one was a toughy….before I left work for Carnaval, Marga forewarned me that not all people in skirts are girls, and she wasn’t kidding.  I would say a good 20% or so of people were guys dressed as girls, or vice-a-versa.  OK, so we get there around seven, and follow the crowd of costumes to the downtown area, where people are drinking in front of the biggest church in Cadiz, or a botellon (public drinking).  All Carnaval was was a city-wide, giant botellon.  It is illegal to botellon but we still do it in Sevilla, but nowhere near to the illegal size of a huge mass of people, generally just a few people.  We wandered around a couple of different plazas, met a lot of interesting people, including students from Poland, Egypt, Italy, and Germany, along with Spain, too, of course.  By the end of the night, which for us was the 07,00 train back to Sevilla, the city was a mess.  If you could walk through the main plazas without stepping on trash, mostly empty bottles of alcohol and cups and lots and lots of glass, you were lucky.  Everyone pissed in the streets too, girls included.  One of the times I did there were five other guys lined up on a wall on the same block…no one cared, except for the homeowners.  I heard a few stories about people pissing on a wall and someone opens the door to see that person in the action!  I left with just Sara Voor and Reyna Hollaway and we got back around 08,45, and was in bed by 09,30.  Yes, if you are unsure, that is AM.  Finally stayed up until sunrise like the Spaniards do, and not doing it again…so tough.  I got out of bed around four in the afternoon and went to bed by two or so in the morning I think.  There is no one word to describe Carnaval – drunk, dressed up people from all over, eating, drinking, pissing, hooking up, and have an overall great time in the streets.  I would absolutely do it again, but would just not stay for as long…was way too tired at the end.

The next big thing on my calendar was Paris!  Before we even left I was stressed out of my mind.  On Tuesday night while planning out how our small group of five would get from the bus station in Madrid to the airport, I noticed I bought the wrong ticket.  My friends were leaving at 09,30 and me at 07,10.  Wonderful.  0 – 2 so far in buying plane tickets so far out here.  I called easyJet in the morning to find out the cost and it was about 117€, so that was a no.  Our bus was planned to leave Sevilla at 23,30 on Thursday night and get into Madrid around 06,30, which would leave me no time really to get to the airport and in line for my flight.  So, I went to the bus station in Sevilla on Wednesday to inquire about an earlier ticket, and the earliest they had was a 15,00 bus that would stop at the airport.  I crashed Wednesday night from stress and was lucky enough to be able to meet up with a friend who was coincidently nearby to help de-stress me.  Thursday morning, I brought my suitcase to work and went to the bus station and bought the new ticket, which they only charged 5€ to change luckily, while everyone was at breakfast.  I left work around 14,00 and got to the bus station early and had my lunch.

On the bus ride, I sat next to a cute Spanish girl, and was trying to look for a way to start talking to her.  About an hour and a half into the six-hour ride, I got a bad taste in my mouth so I popped a piece of gum and offered her one, and we just hit it off from there.  Her name is María and she is 20 and from Sevilla and lots of fun.  She was leaving for Ibiza at 07,00 in the morning, and her gate happened to be one away from mine, so we hung out the whole trip there.  She thought I was from a different area of Spain based on my accent, and when I told her I was from Chicago, she realized it made sense.  But nonetheless, I’m appearing to be more Spanish!  YES!  I had a paper to write that I hadn’t started due to too much other homework and stress, so I started it at 02,00 in the Madrid airport while María slept.  I fell asleep at 03,00, but didn’t sleep more than an hour in total between a two hour or so timespan.  So, the past three days, I have slept a combined total of 13 hours – that’s healthy, right?  Let’s find out later….So as time moved on, we headed to our gates and guess who showed up?  My friends, who were on the flight after me; that stunk….I could’ve made it!  But I’m glad I didn’t try – I would have been too stressed out and am glad I met María and made a Spanish friend.  It was María’s first flight ever, so I gave her some simple tips and helped her to relax a little.

I landed in Paris Charles deGaulle, after a thirty-minute delay on the tarmac in Madrid, around 10,00 and got a sandwich and continued to work on my paper.  Once the gang arrived, we headed out!  We took a few different trains to get to our area, and as we walked up the stairs to leave the Metro (did you know it was short of “Metropolitan”?  I didn’t….), we were welcomed with a beautiful view of the Plaza St. Michel, the river, and just around the corner, the famous Notre Dame church.  It was like I was the Disney movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  It was so beautiful out!  We maneuvered our way to our apartment that we were renting and met up with a few others and settled in.  Our apartment was in the heart of the Latin Quarter, which I believe was in the 14^th district of Paris – amazing location.  A five minute walk from the river and Notre Dame and the metro station, but over an hour walk from the Eiffel Tower and about thirty minutes from the Louvre.  Adi and I got crepes – we both got banana and nutella from a creperie near our apartment, and had a nice conversation with the chef, Louie or Luis or something like that.  We brought him a lot of business throughout our time there because he was so nice, and it was so fricking delicious.  We sat by the river while we ate and I finished my paper, which was a pain in the butt, but finally got it done!  One of the girls in our group, Naomi, had a friend in France from her camp, so we went to her synagogue for services (which she was leading, along with another friend of hers who played guitar).  I’ve now celebrated Shabbat in five different countries!  USA, Israel, Poland, France, and Spain.  Cool, huh?  I’m not religious or anything, but still think it’s cool to see different cultures.  My birthday was the closest so they made me say the blessings of the challah, which was fine.  Afterwards we went to nearby restaurant and it was delicious!  I got roast salmon with sautéed vegetables, which was plated very beautifully.  Adi got steak tartar…so weird to me.  Why would someone want to eat raw steak?  He said it was amazing, and he didn’t get sick, sooo….good for him I guess.  I called it a night early while some people went out…wasn’t feeling too hot.

The next day we did a tour of Paris on foot, through a free tour company.  They work off of tips only and the guides “buy” each tourist from the company for 2,50€ and hopes to make money based off their tips.  I only gave the guy 5€ because I’m trying not to spend a lot, but he was a great guide.  We started at St. Michel and ended near the Eiffel Tower.  I was feeling so sick all day.  At the end of the tour, I found a pharmacy and got some medicine to help out.  I guess those 13 hours of sleep didn’t bode too well with me.  My ears never un-popped from the flight (and they still aren’t right now) and my throat has been hurting a lot.  I thought I had an ear infection, and maybe I do still, but not going to the doctor (so expensive) unless I really need to.  I know the French pharmacies so well….better than the Spanish one’s almost!  That night, Adi, Brennan and Kacey (friends we made who are studying in Scotland) and I went to the Eiffel Tower to see it.  Wow…just wow.  You know, it’s one of those things that you see in pictures all the time, but never imagine seeing her in person…just so beautiful, especially when she started sparkling at midnight.  Absolutely amazing.  We missed the last metro unfortunately, so we had to walk home…about 75 minutes.  That stunk.

The next few days we all split up for the most part and went our own ways.  Adi, Brennan, Kacey and I went to, touring around together, and the others went their own way.  The Louvre was amazing to see, too.  Everyone was telling me that the Mona Lisa is smaller than expected and to be prepared for disappointment, but it wasn’t that small.  People just think it is huge because it is so famous, but it’s really not.  We only spent about an hour or so there because we were so exhausted and we got in for free.  If we paid we would’ve spent more time, but walking for hours is exhausting, so we walked back, bought crepes, and took a nap!  Rough life, eh?

Paris was amazing.  If you ever get the opportunity to go, GO!  It’s so beautiful and amazing to see.  There are so many famous places that it’s weird to see them in person actually, but so cool at the same time.  From the many book stores and creperie’s on the streets to the famous paintings and buildings, Paris is an amazing city.

This weekend to come our program is taking us to Grenada for two days and a night, but got to get through this busy week, even though it’s only a few days!  Talk to you all later!

Jews, Cadiz, Family

¡Buenas tardes!

The flamenco show last Thursday was really good!   I found it to be the same as past shows I’ve seen here, but one of the pieces was more modern I felt.  I congratulated the musicians and dancers after the show, and one of them approached a few minutes later to ask me a question, and I started talking to him and his buddy for a while.  It turns out his girlfriend is one of the dancers, and she is from San Francisco.  Christina, the dancer, moved here 11 years ago to learn flamenco and has been here ever since.  We asked her if she would be interested in teaching a small group of people how to dance flamenco, very basic level, and she said she would be more than happy to.  That worked out well!  After that, the girls and Adi and I went to another bar, that was quiet, luckily, and we just relaxed there until they closed at one.

Friday was a great day – I met with Finca81 to get a brief orientation of the office and what I would be doing for them.  My work for them is going to be very independent – the projects I do are all based on what I think should be done.  I asked José, my supervisor, to brainstorm with his co-workers things the knows he would like to get done, but besides that, I have access to all their data and such, and once I decide what I want to do with (besides re-organizing their unorganized data base) it, I’m going to tell José.  Luckily for me, they use Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel, and I know those two programs very well.  Finca81, for those who are wondering, is a real estate company who owns about 70 apartment complexes, with an estimated 4,500 clients.  I’m really looking forward to starting my work there and getting the ball rolling!

The next exciting thing that happened on Friday was the Shabbat service at CIEE.  They organized a small service and Kiddush for those wished to attend, so I went with the girls and Adi, and other students were there, too.  Spaniards came from all of Andalucia – Sevilla, Cadiz, Cordoba, and more.  It was so nice to meet Jews in the area and to make connections.  It was a very casual service, maybe twenty-five minutes, with a haftorah reading in Spanish, too.  When it came time for Kiddush, me and another girl got volunteered, and because we didn’t have kosher wine, a different prayer was needed.  We ended using wine for the kaddish, actually, which was much different!  Afterwards, we all got to know each other and exchanged numbers and e-mail addresses.  We already got invited to a Purim party and a Passover seder, too.  We also met an Australian there, Gabrielle, who is on a teaching program in Cordoba this semester, and she learned about the service and came over to Sevilla for the weekend.  It seemed to me that we made her week…sounded like she was having a hard time making friends, and her and our group instantly clicked!  Another great part about Friday night was that somebody made hummus…finally!  I’ve been craving it!

Saturday morning we left for a day trip to Cadiz.  It’s a pretty little city, much like are historic district in Sevilla, but the whole city.  It’s a super tiny peninsula that was about an hour or so bus ride away from Sevilla.  Adi and I met someone from Cordoba the night before and were hoping to meet up with him, but he never answered his phone, so we just hung out with friends.  He and I, along with Diara, went climbing on the wave breakers, or whatever they are called…big rocks in front of the wall that goes up to the street.  Probably wasn’t the safest, or most legal thing to do, but it was really fun!  When we got back to Sevilla, us three and a few others met up with the girls and Gabrielle for a few hours to relax, followed me us going home and not going out…just relaxing at our respectful homestays.

Sunday morning I met up with Gabrielle and another friend to tour her around Plaza de España, and she met more Americans in Starbucks (where we met up) and they joined us, too.  We ended with lunch and then went home to relax, watch a movie, and do homework.  I got home to find Lola making paella, a very traditional Spanish dish.  It was my first time eating calamari, shrimp, oysters, and clams.  Ick.  Way too chewy for me.  I couldn’t swallow the oysters or clams, and the calamari was difficult to chew and get down.  I couldn’t taste the shrimp, but they looked like little grubs…so I didn’t eat them.  I just picked the pieces of chicken and ate that and rice.

Sunday night, just before midnight, I got to Skype with the entire family back home.  It made my day!  After talking about my amazing cousins and aunts/uncles and Bubbe and Zayde all the time to friends, I would always get homesick and miss family.  It was so nice to see everyone’s faces, and especially the kids.  My face just lit up with excitement at seeing everyone and talking to everyone.

Nothing special going on this week besides Carnaval on Saturday, and starting my internship, for real this time.  I’ll post next time there is exciting stuff to say!  Oh, and on Tuesday for Valentine’s Day, a small group of friends and I are going out to dinner, which will be fun.  Just bought a new pink button up that looks sharp!  Only 10€, too!

Abrazos y besos, hugs and kisses,

-Jeremy

Churros at 06:00? Sure, why not.

¡Hola!

Last Saturday night was so much fun!  Adi and I met up around 23:30 and met the girls in Triana at Naomi’s apartment (her señora was out of town for the weekend).  We pre-gamed with some rum and coke and hung out there for a while, and then walked about twenty minutes to Buddha, a discoteca.  We met up with some other friends while we were waiting in line for thirty minutes, at two in the morning.  After paying an eight euro cover, we got free access to all three floors, each with a different theme, bar, and DJ.  IT WAS SO COOL!  We danced, drank, and just had an overall amazing time.  We left around six am and got churros con chocolate, and then Adi and I split a taxi back home.  Was asleep by 07:30.  Successful evening!  Almost made it to sunrise…

This week we started classes, and here are my classes:

European Corporate Organization

Services Management   My favorite so far!  The teacher is so much fun.  It’s a very hands-on class, which I really like.  The first day he told us if we start to doze off in class, he will give us free coffee, and if that doesn’t work, he has this little earpiece with something similar to a gyroscope (from my guessing) that he will put on your ear, and if your head moves around a lot (if you are starting to sleep in class), it makes an obnoxious beeping noise.  So funny when he demonstrated it!  We also tell chistes verdes, or sexual jokes every day – he wants us to not only learn academically, but also cultural trends and fun things.  He plans to bring in Spaniards around our age for us to meet Spaniards, too, which is really nice.

Advanced Spanish Business Writing – this is the required Spanish course I have to take.  I was not looking forward to it at all, but it shouldn’t be hard conceptually, just a lot of work.  The teacher is so much fun too.  He also plans for us to meet with Spaniards.  Similar to my other teacher, he is teaching us funny trends and social cues and jokes and phrases too, which is so much fun.

Internship (Práctica) – Not only do we have to complete 100 hours of work with our companies, we have to take an hour and a half class once a week, all leading up to a 15 minutes presentation and a 10-page paper culminating our experiences working in Spain.  Shouldn’t be bad, just a pain.

This weekend, I don’t have much work to do at all, which is nice.  Saturday we are taking a day trip to Cadiz, with our program.  I just bought a train ticket to go back the following weekend, for Carnaval.  We got an afternoon train on Saturday and a returning train at 07:55am on Sunday morning.  Carnaval in Cadiz is like Mardi Gras, so we will be up all night enjoying ourselves, so there’s no point in paying for a room that night.  Going to be a lot of fun!  I just need to find a costume now…

Speaking of traveling, I just bought a ticket to Paris with Miriam and Naomi (working on convincing Adi to come) and a bunch of Miriam’s girlfriends.  We are going for five days, four nights at the end of February.  Going to be a lot of fun!

Tonight I’m going to a flamenco show and hopefully will be able to learn a little bit!  I’m meeting with my company at noon tomorrow to get a tour of the office and get a better idea of what I will be doing there, so I don’t want to stay out too late tonight.

¡Adiós!

A few more things to add....

Hola otra vez!

I forgot to add a bunch of things, so here we go!

This past week, Adi and Jordan and I went shopping at the mall, and I got new shoes (they are nice!) and a fake leather jacket…so between my new shoes, jacket, and scarf, I can confidently say that I look quite European!  The shoes aren’t wide enough though, as always, so I’m stretching them by stuffing them with shorts, so hopefully that will work.

Last night (Friday), I went to a flamenco concert.  Miriam’s host mom sings flamenco and invited her and her friends to join, so a small group of us went.  It was absolutely beautiful.  It was a specific type of flamenco singing, but I can’t remember what it’s called.  Starts with an s though.  This type is much more emotional and you can tell the emotions the singers are trying to portray in their voices.  It was really nice throwing myself into a group of Spaniards like that, all Spanish, nothing else.  Which brings me to my next point…starting sometime next week, I’m signing a contract to only speak Spanish, with a only a few exceptions: when talking to family/friends from home, Thursdays from 8pm – bedtime, and under personal circumstances.  We also have to volunteer within the Sevilla community, which I wanted to do anyways.  I know that my Spanish has been improving already, but I’m here to mejorar mi español, to better my Spanish, so I’m making this promise.  Well, I’m going to try at least.  Last semester was the first time CIEE Business and Society (my program) tried this, and 10 people signed up, and only 1 person successfully finished.  What do I get out of it, might you ask?  Personal pride and a letter of recommendation from your program director.  DON’T WORRY THOUGH!  My blog posts will still be in English!

After the flamenco show, Adi and I walked home, ate dinner, and then met up again to go have a mini-bottelon (drinking in public outside, generally with music.  It’s illegal here, but you don’t get in trouble unless you are being rowdy, loud, and in a large group) with wine, followed by some bar-hopping.  It was fun, but just super cold out.  This weekend is hovering just below freezing, so it’s chilly walking around outside!  I got home around 02:30, and went right to bed.

Got up at 10:30 this morning and met Adi at 11:30 to go walking around for a little and then meet up with the girls again for a walking tour of their neighborhood and then ours.  He had to pick up a package at the post office, so we went to get it, but we were redirected to another post office, which was at least an hour away with our getting-lost shenanigans…but we made it five minutes before they closed!  We met up with the girls just on time, which was perfect.  We walked down the main downtown area of Triana, their barrio, into a huge market, really similar to an Israel shuk, and then walked to Nervion.  We took them by our school, and up and down the main road.  We say El Rey León, in 3D.  Yes, that was Lion King, in 3D!  I wanted to see a movie in Spanish, and seeing one I knew the storyline of would be helpful.  It was a fun experience, and the 3D was so cool!  Totally forgot how great of a movie that was.  After that, we hit up El Corte Inglés for a little bit, and then I walked the girls back to the main road they needed to get home, and I came home.

OK…those of you who are wondering how I’m doing with the whole being single and depressed about Marisa, here you go….everyday I think about her in some way, whether it’s something I see that reminds me of her, or someone asking me, or just thinking.  There have been a few days that I’ve crashed, and have been on her Facebook page or reading her blog or looking at old pictures of her and me.  No more.  Can’t take this depression and pain anymore.  I just unfriended her on Facebook, and sent her a message explaining myself.  I love her to death, but loving her still is what’s killing me now.  And I took her picture down from my wall.  Done.  No more depression I hope!

Going out with the girls and Adi again tonight.  It’s 22:30 here, and dinner still hasn’t been served….oh boy.  About an hour walk to meet the girls, too.  I can’t wait until my bike-pass gets here!

Talk to you guys soon!