beginning to look a lot like christmas

i'm so thankful for xander. i really don't know what i'd do without him. it's a pain traveling with him and importing him to the countries i live in, but it's so so worth it. he is so snuggly, no matter what kind of day he's having. he's affectionate and loyal. he rarely barks (except when the doorbell rings or he hears something strange), he lets me move him around however i want, he always comes when i call him, he's very low maintenance, doesn't beg much, and is happy to sleep between my calves all night until i wake HIM up. he's just the best dog i could ever have asked for. he's my closest family/friend. my baby. *sigh*

xander asleep on my chest

in catalonia (the region of spain i live in), there is a christmas tradition involving this little log. it's called "caga tio" or "poo log" and it makes its appearance on december 8 every year. children put a hat on the one in their house and cover it with a blanket. they tend to it until christmas eve, making sure it's "fed" and happy. then on christmas eve they beat it with sticks and it poops out some little christmas presents. 

 

its back legs are usually shorter than its front legs so the presents can fall out easier. 

 there are huge ones (like this) or smaller ones that can fit on end tables.

what a strange and fun tradition!

i'm not usually one to decorate much for christmas, especially since i've been living alone for a few years, but this year i decided to deck the halls a bit. i got some little christmas trees and decorations to spruce up the living room and kitchen. with  an apple cinnamon candle burning, cookies out, and christmas music playing i can almost convince myself i'm at home here. :)

 i could only find a sign in spanish but my neighbors have a "merry christmas" sign on their door... 

they'd be up for a trade, right?

liz is coming in three-ish days! i can't wait, i can't wait! it'll be nice to have someone to talk to who a) knows me! b) has english as their mother tongue c) doesn't want to take me to museums d) who brings me presents from america e) loves me and i love her! really, i'm very excited to chill out with her and explore the city (and maybe other cities) with my favorite, least annoying, most care-free travel partner, my been. <3 p="">

best things so far

i realize i've been complaining on here since i've been in spain, so here are some things i've liked. 

both in nyiregyhaza and songjiang i had taxi drivers who saved my sanity on regular bases. following suit, i very luckily scored an excellent taxi driver to take me from the airport to a hotel when i arrived in BCN. he gave me his card because he was also trying to rent me an apartment. little did i know, i'd spend the entire day with this guy, Paulo, a few days later when he took me to get xander. this particular taxi driver is handy because he speaks spanish, catalan, and english annnnnnd he's not spanish (he's brazilian), which means, according to him, he's much more patient than his spanish counterparts. at any rate, we're in each other's phones now and i know i'll call on him if i'm in a bind. 

the metro system here is impressive. it's logical, clean, and convenient. there are stairs and escalators at every exit and the escalators all go up (logical!). there are also elevators for old people, moms with strollers, and handicapped people. nice!

the insides are modern and clean. more amazing to me is how crowded they are NOT! :) this girl hated the metros in china because of the wall to wall, door to door, seat to seat, ceiling to floor, handrail to handrail people! here the trains come and go so quickly and frequently that i've never had to elbow my way anywhere or fear for my safety yet. 

there are ticket machines at every stop. they are available in a variety of languages. they're user-friendly and modern. i bought a 10 day pass with no incident on my first day.

the people here so far (minus one teacher) have been so nice, helpful, and easy on the eyes. perhaps i was used to ignoring men in general, as hungarian men never tickeled my fancy, nor did chinese men. these spanish men, however, are so beautiful! wow. i mean, there are some average, and below average spaniards, i'm sure, but i'm noticing many many more pretty guys than not. there are also a lot of tourists here, so who's to say who's who, but on the whole i'm impressed with the beauty. the women, also pretty, are not the extremes i found in hungary and china. there's just an overall beauty to everyone, it seems. maybe it's in the eye of the beholder, but i like what i see in barcelona.

the people i've encountered either speak english well or are patient enough to tolerate a conversation in spanglish until the point is clear. (i've asked a non-english-speaking lady on the street where she got dog poop collection bags and she was able to tell me where to get them without either of us being annoyed or frustrated.) 

i was able to order a domino's pizza on the phone in english yesterday, so that's already head and shoulders above china and hungary (in this respect).

there is a chinese shop just around the corner from my apartment. i've gone in there a couple of times and spoken chinese with the proprietors. they have a mishmash of cheap stuff, so far i've gotten a pillow, scissors, and dog food/water bowls. one guy who works there chased me down the street to give me back 40 euros that fell out of my wallet when i was paying. this isn't what i'd consider typical chinese, but i was so grateful and appreciative. i'll go there more, i'm sure. 

 

spanish tv isn't like hungarian or chinese tv to me. there are a TON of shows in english (even without subtitles). there are more commercials than i've ever seen on tv in any country ... like there were 18 ads between segments of the big bang theory the other day. 18 commercials in a row on tnt!! omg, i'm glad i watch tv on the computer. i do keep the tv on in the background of using the computer (like now) so i am exposed to some spanish every day. maybe i'll learn it subconsciously.

the weather is fantastic. i've walked around, to school, shopping, with xander, and used public transportation all without dying of heatstroke (what, texas?!). the windows and sliding doors in the apartment have been open since i got here. there's a nice chill at night, cool breezes during the day, and it hasn't rained yet. weather: win.

the last thing, not yet pictured, is my apartment. i'll do a post about the place soon, mmk? 

why didn't i take spanish in high school???

so far, i'm not impressed with UPF. this could be because my expectations were too high, i admit. i chose this MLTA program for several reasons:

1. it was cheap (the whole program is about $5000)
2. it was one year (rare and not actually ideal for a master's program, but enticing)
3. it was in barcelona (the #1 tourist destination in europe at the moment, great weather, etc.)
4. the acclaimed linguistics department (in fact, pompeu fabra, UPF's namesake, was a linguist)
5. the website was impressive, informative, and kept up to date
6. the whole master's program is guaranteed in english

1-5 are still true, but that pesky #6 is proving hard to enforce. 


thursday i went to my second ever class (Cognició, comunicació i competència lingüística) with of bunch of other linguistic students. the professor began speaking in spanish. then she noticed some faces lacking the comprehension look and asked whether everyone spoke spanish. a girl from macau (who speaks chinese and english) and i raised our hands to signal that we don't speak spanish. she explained in english that it would be too hard for her to maintain english for the three hour class each week (well, for 5 weeks) so she was just going to speak in spanish. she said not to worry, though, because the powerpoints and handouts would all be in english. 

wtf. 

some girl next to me kindly interpreted a few important things the teacher said during the next couple of hours, but i was just sitting there seething and hardly cared what she said.

that night i went home and wrote an email to the teacher, citing the page of UPF's website that guarantees the possibility of taking the entire linguistics major in english. i told her how i (and the other girl must have) felt isolated, discouraged, frustrated, and angry. i asked for her suggestion about what i should do about this class, as i won't be sitting through spanish classes any more. 

friday i went to the registration office to pay and confirm my schedule. i asked the nice ladies up there (who speak english on a lower intermediate level) what could be done about this lady who speaks english but simply refused to, or if not about her, about my schedule, since hers was a mandatory class for my discipline. they said i should tell the department head. since i'd already written an email to the lady, i decided to wait for her reply before doing anything else. 

after registering and paying, i went to my only friday class, only to find that not only was the professor speaking in spanish, but all the materials and powerpoints would also be in spanish. i walked out of the classroom less than a minute after i walked in and headed back to the nice ladies in the registration office to tell them another class of mine needed to be changed (thankfully, this one was optional at least). while i was telling them, i started to tear up in frustration. they were so sweet and assured me they wanted to make me happy and comfortable at UPF. they said they'd talk to my adviser and get me out of the optional class. then they'll get the department head involved, who will talk to the first teacher, and if she won't switch, then they would help me change my discipline to get out of taking her class.

changing my discipline would mean my mandatory classes change and my classes would be better suited for a professional or research career than an academic career.

my expectations have been lowered a lot now, but so far i'm not impressed with UPF (except the admissions and registration ladies). 

Xander's first day in Spain

liz (and some lady named sandy) did everything to get xander to follow me to spain and today was the day to get him! 'get xander from the airport' sounds easy enough, but as with the other countries i've lived in (USA excluded) the bureaucracy is enough to drive you to drink.

i got some nice taxi driver to take me to the airport (35 min drive) but it was at 8am rush hour, so it took more like 1hr20mins. awesome. i'd put in the only address i had for the pick-up place in my GPS but it wasn't recognized. so i called the two phone numbers i had (and had the taxi driver talk to the people in spanish), and they told us to go to the cargo park (which we already knew, we just didn't know where exactly to go in the huge cargo park surrounded by cargo company offices). so we just asked someone at one of the cargo companies where the office was for the company we wanted. though it was close by, they'd never heard of it and weren't interested in helping. (red)

so we went to terminal 1 to the information desk (orange). they didn't know anything. so we went to the united airlines office upstairs and the lady there called around and found the cargo office we needed. yes!! (this was already 3 hours into our trip)

so we went to the cargo office (yellow) and got some paper which would permit us to get a series of other papers. they made a copy of my driver's license and i had to pay 162 euros to get that paper.

then we took that paper to the vet (green) where we waited while she called some people. i emailed her my flight itinerary to prove i wasn't going to sell xander (idk how that proves that). she made a copy of my driver's license. when she was ready she took us to the agricultural cargo park (light blue) (a giant warehouse filled with farmy stuff and boxes) where we wandered through ceiling high shelves to a heavy refrigerator-looking metal door which she opened with a swipe of a card. inside was my precious baby!!! he was all alone in a locked and pull-tied cage. he wanted out so badly and i wanted to hold him so badly but we didn't have any scissors or knives to cut him free! :( the vet asked a warehouse man who came back with a knife and we finally cut the ties holding his door closed.

blessed reunion!!! :D :D :D we were so happy, even the taxi driver grinned from ear to ear.

the vet checked xander out to make sure he was ok after traveling and had no signs of disease, then we had to put him back in the box and leave him there. neither of us were happy about that, but she assured us we'd have him in 30 minutes (lol). she took his paperwork from the crate, glossed over it (GLOSSED!! after all that work!!!!), and gave us a magic paper.

we walked back to the office (idk why that vet made us walk but since she did we were without our car) where the vet told us we'd get xander (medium blue). wrong. we needed that magic paper stamped first... before they'd even move xander.

(dark blue) we went to the stamp holder's building where they copied our IDs to give us visitor's badges. then into the stamp people's office where they wrote down our DL numbers. the stamper was on a coffee/lunch break. i ran into a cafeteria and got a sandwich and drink since it was 1pm by then. stamp lady came back and stamped the magic paper, but not before making a copy of my DL.

we went back to the office, this time with the stamped magic paper (purple)! we waited like 45 minutes for them to bring xander to the office (we would have gotten him ourselves if we could have).

forever reunion!!! :)

i gave xander some of the meat from my sandwich in the car - he was famished!! we were anxious as we went home, though it was much faster at this point. we walked up the million stairs to the apartment and xandy checked the whole place out. i emptied his crate, cleaned it, him, and all of his things, then we had a little cuddle for a while before i decided to attend class at 5:30 since i'd already missed one (big mistake).

when i came home xander was just where i'd left him: snuggled up on the couch. we went on a walk around the block and settled in for the night. roommate isn't here so it's just us.

just like it was always meant to be.