La educación no consiste en llenar un cántaro sino en encender un fuego

So since coming to Málaga, I have been tutoring! When I first started taking the Spanish courses back in February, I saw a lot of advertisements from Spanish students looking for native English-speakers for tutoring. I found it quite interesting considering that for a native English-speaker, tutoring is just simply speaking and practicing English. Anyway, most of the adds said things such as "Looking for English speaker. Will trade my Spanish for your English", but I never pursued them because I was not looking to take Spanish classes.

A week later or so, the lady that picked me up from the airport called me to see how I was doing and adapting to life here in Málaga. Then she asked me if I would be willing to help her with her English. She had enrolled in an English program to get certified to be a teacher. The course tests on four areas: listening, speaking, reading, & writing. Since that moment, I have been tutoring her every other friday. She comes to pick me up after class on Fridays at 12:15 and we go to get coffee and speak English. I answer any questions she may have or any sort of doubts she may have when it comes to English, and I get a free coffee and pastry. It is very nice, because I use that opportunity to get to know her and help her improve.

She works as an independent contractor for a pharmaceutical company and has been out of work since January so she is looking to acquire this teaching certification so that she will be able to teach English. She is 34 years old, and I find it admirable of her to make an effort to learn a second language at this moment in her life. I do not charge her because speaking English is not that difficult for me, and I am not really doing anything except dedicating my time. She was tested and passed two of the sections already. Now she is concentrating on the other two and her next exam is in June. At first it was hard for her to understand me, because here in Spain they learn British English and it was difficult for her to understand my accent. I DIDN´T REALIZE I HAD AN ACCENT! lol. But I told her it was good for her to get exposed to American English because then she would not have trouble understanding it in the future.

One thing that I find very interesting is the fact that very few Spaniards speak English. I find that rather strange since my roommates and the rest of the Spaniards that live at the residency say that they start learning English from the age of 8 or 9 until the age of 18. That is 10 years of learning! However, very few know how to speak or understand the language. I started asking around to understand why they don´t speak it if they have been learning it since such an early age. I found out that the educational system does not emphasize practice. They learn vocab, sentence structuring, etc. but the entire class is taught in Spanish. I guess that is pretty insane since it is evident that without practice, there is no way to improve. Spaniards (at least the ones that I have been exposed to) also believe that British English is the best English to learn, because it is the most pure, which is why their ears are not used to understanding American English.

Anyway, it seems as though Europe in general is changing its entire educational system because they are looking to implant which they refer to "Bolognia". I am still trying to figure out what this new system will mean for Spain, but I am hoping to find out and write about it soon. Next week is our break for Semana Santa........it is off to BARCELONA & MALLORCA!

De músico, poeta, y loco, todos tenemos un poco.

Well, like many other major cities in the world, Málaga has an awesome night life. It does not really matter the type of person you are, because there is something to fulfill all different types of tastes. The last couple of weekends, I have gone out to explore what the city has to offer. As I mentioned in my previous blog, there are a ton of ERASMUS students studying here at UMA, and we all naturally gravitate towards one another since we share a common bond. To be quite honest, it is very nice to be able to share this experience with people who are going through the same feelings and emotions as I am. I definitely feel as though I have made some lasting friendships here at UMA.

A couple weekends ago, my friend from Great Britain, Natasha, invited Kelley and I to her "piso" (apartment) for a small get together. Afterward, we would go to one of the pubs and meet up with some other ERASMUS students. It was actually quite nice! Her piso is in the downtown Málaga area, and she has access to the night life and historical monuments all the time. (Idk if I could handle all the distraction!) When we got to her piso, we met up with several other girls that we had never met before. I met a girl from Canada, France, Denmark....it was like a mini-United Nations gathering! lol.

So after all the small talk and such we decided to go to this pub Shamrock, which is considered to be the place for all of the ERASMUS students. I thought that was funny. So the moment I walk into the pub, I see all these familiar faces from my Spanish classes and from my classes at UMA. I also saw a whole set of new faces! I loved it! As I stood there chit chatting with all of these ERASMUS students, I chuckled in my mind, because everyone was from a different country!!!! The pub seemed to be a place away from home for a lot of these students, because it played all types of popular music. I found it quite interesting the fact that the students here are all very different. For example, I consider myself to be a calm, cool, and collective kind of person when it comes to going out. I can be reserved for the most part, but once I get out of my shell there is no way of shutting me up! lol. One thing is for sure, I cannot be out all night.

The buses stop running at around 11 pm here, and the bus, which costs 1,10 euros, is the cheapest way of getting around. A taxi from downtown to campus/ where the residencies are located costs 10 euros, so what students tend to do when they go out is just stay out until 7 am when the busses start running again so they don't spend the extra cash. Well, I cannot do that! Around 3 am I was starting to get tired. Plus, I like to sleep in my own bed, and the idea of wasting a day to sleep didn't seem to sit well with me. So around 3:3o in the morning Kelley and I split a taxi back to the residency.

Another time, my roommate Azu, who is a Spaniard from Córdoba, had invited me to go out with her and her friends. I really was not feeling up for the idea because of the situation with my classes and such. But Azu is such an awesome person and I didn't want to turn down her invitation. Plus, I had spent a good amount of time with the ERASMUS students and was curious to see how the Spaniards got down in their hometown. lol. So She and I met up with her friends downtown around 11 pm and went to a local bar to chit chat. Well little did I know that I was going to be the topic of discussion! Everyone was asking me about the United States and what it is like to live there. The mere fact that I was American and could speak English was thrilling to these people, which made me feel so awkward!

So when we finished, I looked at the clock and it was 2 am. The time had gone by so quickly! The invited to go to this discoteca called WHITE. Let me tell you, I had never seen so many Europeans in my life! The were playing american pop music and everyone was dancing around. From there they took me to the party ship. The party ship? YES! It's a ship that has been converted into a club, and it's divided into two sections--Latin music & hip hop. It was pretty fun! After about an hour though, I could not take it anymore. I heard my bed communicating with me telepathically! My roommate told me to wait a couple of hours and then I wouldn't have to spend the money for a taxi, and I told her my mind was made up! So I took a taxi and left my roommate and her friends behind for my date with my comfy bed!

I think I would be the first to admit that I can be a bit crazy at times, but I don't know if I could ever convert into a true Malagueña and stay out until the buses start running in the morning! All I can say is, GOTTA LOVE SPAIN. lol.....

Lo que en los libros no está, la vida te enseñará

Bueno, parece que algunos de ustedes quieren saber cómo es el campus de la UMA y cómo son las clases, asi que hoy hablaré de mis experiencias en las clases (it looks ike some of you would like to know what UMA´s campus looks like and what the classes are like, so today I will address some of those experience).

Well, it has been four weeks since classes started, and in the last month, a lot has happened. At GSU, I am registered for four classes--linguistics, Spanish for international business, Spanish culture and civilization, and translation. As you may well imagine, it is very difficult to match classes from two distinct universities. So the best way is by taking something as similar as possible.

The linguistics class was pretty easy to find, because UMA offers a general linguistics course and linguistics is linguistics whether it is in Spanish, French, English, Chinese, etc. Linguistics in general is a very difficult topic. No me dí cuenta de ésto hasta que empezó la clase (I did not realize this until I started class). The class is basically about languages and how languages develop and under what situations and how humans consider a language to be a language. I mean really deep and interesting theories! The professor for that class is a woman, and she started the first day of class with a story about an experience she had in London. She was basically saying that she did not understand why Spanish people did not act in the same way English speakers do, such as demand a translator when they do not know a language or refuse to learn a language before going abroad or expect everyone in the world to know English and not have to learn another language. Anyway, so she tells us that she went to London and did the same thing (even though she knew how to speak English). She was in a hotel and demanded a translator, and the hotel staff told her there was none available. So my professor said that she demanded a translator and told them that she would wait until one was available and for nothing, because in the end she ended up having to give up and speak their language. So I thought that was interesting that she refused to give up her native language to prove that the English speaker thinks that they are better than everyone else.

Spanish for international business was a little easy as well because all one needs to do is take a general business class, which would basically be Spanish for international business--I mean, how much more international can one get than being in Europe?! So, to fulfill that requirement, I am taking "Organization y administración de empresa" (Business organization and administration).

The business class is in a whole different campus than the rest of UMA. All the facultades except for the business and engineering facultades are all located in the same area, but it seems that these two are new to the campus so they are located abt 20-30 minutes away (walking distance) from the other facultades. So every morning I wake up and go for a nice little stroll. The business class is pretty much a combination of economics and organizational behavior. So, it is not that bad because it is almost like a refresher. Hopefully. lol. But it is awesome, because I am going to learn a lot of new business terms in Spanish.

I am taking Historia Contemporanea de Andalucia to fulfill my Spanish culture and civilization requirement. The professor was out the first two weeks of class because he was sick. This man is the most laid-back man I have even met, and his accent is super thick and he speaks very fast. There are a lot of international students in that class so it is very fun. We tried last class period to get the professor to post his notes onto the online classroom, and he basically told us that he did not have time because he has a wife and kids. He prefered to make copies for us. I thought that was hilarious.

Anyway...cómo ya pueden ver, ya pude arreglar la situación con mi clase de negocios (as you can see, I was able to fix my situation with my business class). However, I had another situation! GAH! My trip would not be half as exciting if I did not have all these mini little problems! Well, my translation class had been cancelled the since the beginning of the semester because the professor got sick. So the first two weeks I waited with hopes that the professor would be back the third week. The third week she was a no show so I went with a couple of ERASMUS students to the Secretaría del Departamento to find out what was going on.

The secretaría said that all she knew was that the professor was sick and did not know when she would be back. Other ERASMUS students who had been here since September told us that this was normal at UMA. The educational system here is still very much under a bureacracy. So anyway, I go to register and the people in the international office tell me that I cannot register for the class because there is a limit on the number of ERASMUS students that can enroll in the class. I was so upset. So I ask what can I do to fix the problem, and they tell me that I have to go back to the professor and ask them for permission to register in the class. BUT.......the professor is no where to be found! So they advise me to put in a complaint with the director of the department. So I go and try to find the director and he is out sick. OF COURSE HE IS!

So week four, I send an email to the professor to find out if she is on her death bed dying! I get an email back saying that she is no longer the professor of that course and that I need to go back to the Secretaría to find out who is the new professor. WOW. I go back to the Secretaría and TELL the woman what I found out from the professor. She picks up the phone and makes small talk with the person on the other end, and I am like.....please, do your job! The lady then tells me that the class is without a professor and that they are in the process of finding a professor for the class. I was like WHAT?! So I go to the advisor, and he tells me that I am pretty much at a loss for the class because the professors are not allowed to give approval with that limit in place. I started laughing/crying and tell the advisor how I feel about everything. I guess he felt really bad because then he gave me some other options and apologized abundantly for everything.

All this to say that I finally have a semi-translation class with a very nice professor! In the end, this experience has taught me that sometimes you have to buckle up and help yourself and get stuff done whether no one else is willing to help you. I am definitely learning to be more TRANQUILA and appreciate what I have at home!

Oh Málaga....how so UNBORING you are! lol.

Hasta luego!

Voy pa´ Ronda a ver lo que hay

Bueno...

¿Por dónde empiezo? (Where do I start?) Saturday, the 27 of February, I got the opportunity to go to a city that I had never heard of before--Ronda. It all started when Teljer, one of my friends from GSU, got a recommendation from Dr. Elena del Río Parra, one of our professors from GSU. Neither one of us had ever heard mention of Ronda before, so I mentioned to one of my roommates that we were going to see what all the fuss was about, and she said that Ronda was a beautiful city. Supposedly, she had heard that it was one of the older cities in Spain that had been pretty well preserved and that it sat on a cliff. After speaking with her, I figured it was worth it.

We decided to make it a day trip since the city was only an hour and a half by bus from Málaga. So Saturday morning comes around, and sadly I was not feeling too well. I don´t know how, but I somehow got sick with a cold. When I woke up at 6 am, I was still half asleep because the night before I had not gotten any sleep because I was coughing so much. My alarm had gone off about 15 minutes earlier, and I did not hear it. In my head I was debating with myself--do I go or stay? I started thinking about it and right when I had almost convinced myself to stay, I started thinking about my day if I were to stay. I thought, if I stay, I will regret it so much and just sit around doing nothing thinking about what the other girls were doing in RONDA!

So I get up in a flash, shake off the sleep, and start to get ready. I get down stairs and pick up my bocadillo that the dorm prepared for me and headed to the bus station with Teljer. We end up meeting Michelle and mount the bus to Ronda at around 8 am.

The bus ride was not bad at all. I was so hungry on the bus that I ended up eating my bocadillo and everything else the dorm had prepared for breakfast. While I was eating, I was taking in the experience and was happy to be able to share it with my friends from GSU and with some of the other ERASMUS students we have met here in Spain. We stopped a couple times before getting to Ronda in some smaller towns, which made me want to find out about those too because they seemed interesting. However, I was half asleep on the bus so I did not really notice how long the bus ride was in actuality.

Anyway, we get to Ronda and start walking down to the tourist center of the city. After a couple minutes of walking, we run into this beautiful church. I cannnot get over the architecture in Spain. It is absolutely breathtaking. Then right next to the church is this very large but calm and well kept courtyard. The courtyard has benches and fountains, but in the middle it had a small garden. I thought it was pretty cute. But then when you look down the courtyard, you see a fence and the courtyard almost stops and beyond the fence is just the most beautiful scenery you have ever seen. So I make my way down the courtyard and realize that the couryard is actually on a cliff! I look out over the fence and see rolling hills and green pastures divided by a rushing river. It was awesome! The hills eventually become mountain ranges and it was something like in a fairytale.

As we kept walking, we ran into the oldest bull fighting ring in the country! It was pretty interesting because it is now a museum and the museum had information about everything--arms, knights and chivalry, attire (for both men and women), and of course bullfighting. While there, I thought to myself how awesome it was to be in a place where millions had watched and experienced a famous sport that still lives on today.

After the bullfighting ring, we walked a little and saw the new bridge linking old and new Ronda. This bridge is awesome! You see it and it overlooks the entire tapestry. It is so high up and everything that surrounds it is beautiful! Plus, at the time, the weather was gorgeous, which made everything just 10 times better. When you cross the bridge, you feel like you are in a small little town. It is very cute. Ronda, like many of the other cities in Southern Spain, is influenced a lot by the Arab architecture and design. We went to "La Casa del Rey Moro" which is pretty much a huge ancient home that overlooks the tapestry next to a garden. It also had a mine that led all the way down to the gorge. So we walked down a bunch of stairs to see the gorge, which was gorgeous. Then we had to walk up (talk about a workout!) and by that point the day had become overcast, and it was evident it was going to rain.

We saw the Ayuntamiento and had some delicious tapas--chicken and shrimp skewers! Since the day was started to turn overcast, we decided to check out the Vine Museum as a last hoorah in the fabulous city of Ronda. The wine museum was fairly interesting. We participated in a wine tasting and the rest of the museum explained the process of wine tasting, which I have always been interested in checking out.

Overall, I would recommend Ronda to anyone! It has to be the most beautiful city I have ever seen or at least amongst the most beautiful cities. Spain has so many hidden beauties to it, and I cannot wait to continue discovering more about it.

I am starting to miss my friends a little bit, but I know July will be here before I know it....

Los amo a todos