I’d first like to apologize for the delay of this blog entry. I’ve had 2 oral exams and a final exam over the past 2 days, and haven’t had any spare time to type up my entries for the past few days. But now you can read all about them!
Mon. June 21st
Today in my Literature class, my professor told us that since the other U.S. program from Loyola University concluded last week, she doesn’t have to teach a class right after ours. So she asked us if we would like to change our class time from 8:45 – 10:45 AM to 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM. The answer was a resounding YES! Even though this is the last week of class and we only had 3 more classes at this point, I knew that I would definitely appreciate getting an extra hour of sleep each night.
After class, my friend Ashley and I wandered around the city. We went back to this cool underground mall place that we’ve been to once before and I went souvenir shopping for myself and my family. I bought some pretty cool things and I’m excited to give my family their gifts after I return. :) After we were done shopping, we went to this really cool museum that had an exhibit called “Women: Mirror of Cultures.” It was a museum dedicated solely to women that had artifacts and art work from 7 different cultures around the world. There was information about each of the universal themes share by women all around the world (ex. family, society, divinity) and I was able to comprehend all of the signs that were in Spanish. It was a really cool exhibit, but we weren’t allowed to take any pictures of it. So I only took mental pictures. ;)
For lunch that day, Loli made me my very first hot dog in Spain. It was really yummy! When I returned from my Spanish language class, I noticed a piece of paper on top of the mailboxes in the lobby and it said that Loli had received a package. I knew that it was the package my mom had sent Loli’s grandchildren, but I kept it a secret and didn’t say anything. Loli said she’d have to go to the post office the following day to pick it up and she had no idea who it was from.
After our Spanish language class, all 15 people in our program went over our friend Kaitlyn’s house for Taco Night! Kaitlyn went to the store and bought all the necessary things in order to have a taco buffet. It was really fun! Afterwards, all 15 of us went to the plaza behind my house to watch the fútbol game because España was playing. Spain won 2-0 and everyone was going crazy after the win. It was definitely worth it to experience the excitement of watching Spaniards watch fútbol.
That night was Fany’s last night with us. Her flight back home was at 7 AM the next morning and she had to wake up at 5:30 AM. We hung out and talked for a while and had fun. I’m really glad that I got to meet her and that it worked out that she was here in Palma for one of the four weeks that I’m here. And I also have her to thank for introducing me to the song “Pam Pam Americano”!
Tues. June 22nd
Today was our last normal Literature class before finals begin. Our professor went into more detail today about what our oral exam presentation had to include. We were paired up into 2 pairs (since there’s only 4 kids in my class), and were assigned 2 poems to read. We had to research the biography of the author, a bibliography of the author’s works, the literary characteristics, our interpretation of the poem, and the elements that both poems have in common. And oh yeah: this oral presentation was to last between 30 minutes to 1 hour! I actually really liked the poem I was assigned and was also a fan that it was rather short.
During our break between classes, I brought my lap top over to Ashley’s house so we could work on our oral exam project together. She introduced me to Google Documents which is really the coolest thing ever! It allows you to open a new Word Document, PowerPoint, Excel spreadsheet, etc. and then you can share that link with another person. Then both you and the other person can edit, make changes, and work on the document directly online and see the other person’s changes as you work. We decided to make a PowerPoint presentation. We worked on the elements in common and decided to do the rest of the project by ourselves later that night since it was due tomorrow. We went out to a café and shared a pasta dish for lunch, and then I returned back home.
When I got home, I casually asked Loli if she had gone to retrieve the package. She said that it wasn’t there when she sent and she’d have to wait another two days. Then, I went to my Spanish language class. I asked my professor (for the 2nd time), if she had corrected and emailed me back an essay that I had written over a week and a half ago and she answered “No…I wasn’t able to open it because I have a Mac computer. Can you send it to me again?” I told her I’d save it as a different file format but realized that if I hadn’t bugged her again about returning it to me, I probably never would have known that she wasn’t able to open it and would have received a 0 on it. You just got to love when teachers are like that.
I returned home from school and when I walked in the door; Loli turned to me and said, “You know something, don’t you?” I assured her that I didn’t know what she was talking about, and she led me into the kitchen and showed me a huge package sitting on the table. She said, “I checked the address and it’s your address so it must be from your parents!” I told her that it was and that I had kept this secret/surprise from her. Fortunately for us, Sira happened to be over the house that day and was there when we opened the package.
Loli cut the package open and she and Sira started to remove all of the presents. I ran to get my camera to take pictures because Sira’s face lit up like it was Christmas! My mom had sent her 6 Disney princesses books in English so that she can learn the language better and it came with a CD that reads the stories to you. There was also 2 Disney Classic Storybooks (1 for Sira and 1 for Jaime and Miguel). There was another Disney princess book that came with a little music player that plays songs without lyrics and you can listen to it without headphones. There were 2 racecars for the grandsons and a book from the Pixar movie Cars that came with crayons and paint to paint-by-number. There were some really cool necklaces from my brother’s Bar Mitzvah that have flashing lights and a cool reflective surface. But the gift Sira was most obsessed with was a rainbow Slinky. I showed her how to hold it and how you can make it go from side to side. I also taught her how to put it over her arm like a bracelet and then we went into the hallway to make it go down the stairs. The stairs were too far apart so Loli got out a step ladder and we made the Slinky go down the 4 steps on the back patio outside. Sira’s face was awesome and she totally loved it! Then Jaime came home and Loli showed him all of the goodies that had arrived all the way from “Pennsilvania”!
My mom had also written a note to Jaime and Loli in Spanish (with a little bit of help from me) that thanked them for their hospitality and for being awesome host parents. Loli told me to tell my parents Thank You x a million for all of the presents for their grandkids!
After dinner, it was time to get working on my oral exam PowerPoint. I had a really hard time getting the Wi-Fi to work and was getting nervous that I wouldn’t be able to connect to the Internet. Thankfully I finally got on and was able to finish up everything. I stayed up pretty late and would have to wake up early the next morning to handwrite my notes that I would say during the presentation.
Ok now you’re all caught up! Next blog entry will be posted later today. :)
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