Studying / Night of San Juan

Hello everyone!

As always I've been super busy since my last post!

Tuesday I had my last "intercambio." I supposed I should probably explain what exactly that is now that I have a little bit of time to write. An intercambio is basically a session where I talk to a person in Spanish for an hour, and then we switch and talk in English for an hour--thus helping both of us learn the language and improve fluidity with speaking. My partner that I was assigned was a 30-something year old woman named Merche who is learning English so she can travel with her boyfriend. She is very nice and laughs a lot once she gets past her timidness. She told me that I had helped her a lot with her exam from the previous week so that was nice to hear. I felt bad that I couldn't continue to help her in the weeks to come as I will be too busy with my internship and research project, but I gave her my contact info in case she has any questions or needs any help in the future. I also proposed the idea that we could talk via Skype to help her continue improving her speaking. Overall I think the intercambio was a good experience, but it definitely took up a lot of time. I think it probably helped her more than me too because I can speak Spanish with everyone here, whereas she would have a difficult time finding native English speakers.

Wednesday morning we got up early to visit our hotels and meet our bosses. It is the first time that anyone is working in my hotel, so it is not as relaxed as the other one. My boss wants to make sure that we do everything by the books, and I don't blame him--its much more common for spontaneous inspections in Spain. Originally I was told that I would be working as a receptionist at the front desk but that changed when they opted to allow another student to work in the same hotel. They moved me to what I think will be a better position--entertainment. I will be working with a really nice lady named Julia putting on events and helping with their facilitation. Only time will tell what I will have to do, but I think its mostly stuff outside like games and activities (pool, ping pong, beach, archery). I'm really excited, I don't think I could have gotten a better job. I start on Saturday (tomorrow) and I have to be there at 10am. I will be living in the hotel and sharing a room with the guy that is in charge of entertainment for the hotel. I have yet to meet him.

Wednesday I spent the entire day after class in the public library working on my paper. I only got half of it done but I finished it on Thursday after another long day at the library. I got a sweet library card as a souvenir too! I don't have to turn in my paper until Monday now because they changed the date from today so I have a little bit of extra time to look it over and make sure its as good as it can be before I turn it in. I think its pretty good though and hopefully my professor will think the same. Also on Thursday I had to give a 20-30 minute powerpoint presentation about my paper. I worked on the presentation Wednesday night after going to La Noche de San Juan (I'll talk about this in the next paragraph) until pretty late in the morning. I also got up early on Thursday morning to practice it to make sure I met the time limit. Unfortunately I didn't meet it. I wasn't too worried though because our two professors told us different time limits. One of them had been telling us 20-30 minutes since the beginning, and the other one told us we only had to do a maximum of 10minutes. I talked to my classmates about this and we weren't sure how long to make them but we figured we'd just shoot for 20 minutes and hope for the best. After watching my three of my classmates give their presentations (all of them were well within the time limit) I was pretty nervous about my short presentation. I warned them during our break in the hallway that mine was going to be short and not to laugh. We went back in and I braced myself for the worst, but I ended up doing really well! I surprised myself how much of my research I remembered as I threw out a ton of statistics. I was also surprised how I much I talked about without using the power-point slides (the slides were written in Spanish so it was hard to use them as a reference while speaking). Also Aaron, my classmate and an amazingly nice guy helped out by asking a question as did Susan. I ended my presentation about 21 minutes after starting. Perfecto. My professor told me I did a good job.

Wednesday night we had an excursion as a group to the Night of San Juan. Our guardian angels took us there by some weird route that took forever. I lead the pack as we headed home a more efficient way at the end of the night. Vivo en Espana. I'm not sure who San Juan was, but he couldn't have been much of a saint. The night is known for its fire and demons. The festival kicked off with some weird drum banging music and groping on stage. I took a video but I think its too long to post on here (~4minutes) but I'll try to put it (and a few others I've taken here) on YouTube sometime. The drumming/groping concert definitely wasn't a place for youngings. After the concert, a bunch of people dressed up as diablos y demones ran through the crowd spraying everyone with sparks. It was actually decently painful to catch these sparks too! Unfortunately I now have holes in the shirt I was wearing and one even melted the face of my watch! After one burned my back I yelled and caught one in my mouth; later in the night one went in my ear as well. This type of celebration definitely could never happen in the US! Now I understand why there were people wearing full-face helmets and safety goggles. I was really careful to not catch any in my eyes, but it was hard as they snuck up behind you. The demons played were true to their characters as they also sexually assaulted the females in my group. That was about enough partying for them so I helped them out of the crowd and off to the side where the older people from the crowd had gathered. Aside from that though we all had a great time. Unfortunately I didn't get too many pics as the videos I took ate up my batter pretty quick, but I posted a few of them that turned out below.

Thursday as I said I had my presentation. After that we had a going-away dinner for Nick; the only person who is not staying for session 2. We went to a restaurant that has been open since 1700 for some postres and helado. Everyone in our group as well as our professors and guardian angels came so it was nice to chat with everyone in a more relaxed setting and see the other people in my group that I don't have class with. Nick is a great guy and he will be missed. He's going back to Texas to work for about a month with Spanish speakers who are trying to become citizens before he heads back to Columbia in New York to start training for wrestling. I warned him of a possible visit sometime next year and he said I would be welcomed and to come when he's out of season. After ice cream I was really tired from staying up late / getting up early so I went home and took a ciesta. I slept for about 2 hours and then got up to study for my final exam.

Friday (today) I had my final exam. I think it went well but who knows. The oral portion of it went really well though as my teacher told me I spoke really well and with great fluidity. That was reassuring. I enjoyed her class even though it was 5 days a week in the summer. She was very nice and I think she did a good job. After the test, Aaron, Andrew, and I grabbed some lunch in the cafeteria at school and then parted ways. I went home to pack my suitcase. I got everything to fit without a problem, and my madre told me that I could leave my dirty clothes for her to wash. She also told me that she would wash them while I live in the hotel if I need her to. Although tempting as her offer was, I felt too guilty to accept it. She told me to call her if I need anything though and to think of her as my own mother in Spain. How sweet of her :). Tonight Spain plays Chile in the Mundial so I am going to watch it with friends. After the game, my host family is taking me out to eat (this is the first time we've eaten outside of the house in the 3 weeks I've been here--a big change from home).

CONGRATS! You survived all of that text! ^^^^ Here are some pictures now as a reward for your hard work reading!

At night I get visitors to my house. This little dragon was in my bathroom. They're great to have around because they eat mosquitoes!

Here is possibly my favorite drink that I've been introduced to here. Its a mixture of fruit juice and milk! I know--it sounds gross but its actually really good!

Here is the start of the Night of San Juan. This is the drumming/groping concert I was talking about.

A meeting of the minds.

One of the Hellish vehicles they constructed. They had a bunch of weird carts strapped with fireworks that sprayed the crowd and completely destroyed my back.

More drumming and more humping.

One of the demon dancers.

Here are some of the demons with there firework sparkler things.

Crowds gather after the fireworks are lit and everyone jumps and dances underneath the hot sparks.

Although its not a very flattering picture of me, I snapped this underneath one of the fireworks.

On the way home from my test today I bought these flowers for my madre since its my last day here. She was very excited to be greeted by them when she got home from work!

As I said, I packed up my stuff today. Tomorrow morning I move into the hotel for my internship. Wish me luck!