Finally back in Cyberspace
Wow - don't really know where to start, it's been so long since I last posted anything here that I'm totally out of practice, plus, I'm on holiday, so my English could be a bit rusty... ;)
But I'll try my very best to briefly sum up everything that's happened since my Salamanca adventure (might take more than one post though...)
so first of all, my departure from Salamanca was quite funny: I had agreed with Paulo (the Brasilian guy) to take the bus to Madrid together with him since he was going home on the same day. As usual he was late, but this time it did matter - and, I confess, I was already back into my habit of thinking in timetables - and he was really late. In the end the taxi driver who took us to the bus station with all our luggage had to drive like a maniac so we could just jump into the bus a few seconds before it left. The first near-nervous-breakdown of the day was over... Then everything went fine and in Madrid, we soon had to say goodbye because Paulo's flight was 2h before mine. It was hard to say goodbye, and even harder for me because I stood there all alone in this airport which was half closed due to renovation works with all my luggage and there was nowhere to go. It was too early to check-in, the counters were all still closed and believe it or not, there was not a single seat or bench to sit on. So I ended up sitting on top of my luggage in front of the counter, reading a book and waiting for them to open- great! But to make a long story short, finally they opened the check-in, everything went fine with the flight and I was back to reality, back to Switzerland, back to strict timetibles, back to my family and friends..
The first week home was another adventure - and quite a challenge: together with my friend Flurina, I accompanied a primary school teacher to a school camp with her 11-year-old pupils. We went to the house we'd stay in (which, funnily enough, was the one I had stayed in for a week in my primary school camp 10 years ago!!) by bike, which almost killed me, as I had not done any sports during my time in Salamanca. Then, we first had to get to know all the kids and immediately had full responsibility. Can you imagine what a shock that was for me: from Spain/40 degrees/ lazy summer / party / always around people between 20 and 30 to Switzerland / rather cold / sports and responsibilty / having to be a rolemodel for kids???? I had to adapt very quickly, change my sleeping rhythm, my language, get rid of my "let's just have fun and do something silly"-Spain-attitude... but we ended up having a great time! the kids were amazing, very creative, fun to be around - and not that hard to keep under control (apart from one evening when we had to send them to bed without any evening program, because they were all so tired and just doing bullsh***). It was also a highly interesting experience for me personally because I'd never had anything to do with kids in that way - and it showed me that I - in contrast to Flurina, who's actually becoming a primary school teacher - am so not the person for that job! I need older kids / teenagers in my class to teach..
During that week, the class began working on a play they were going to perform in late autumn, and we were all together writing dialogues and scenes, creating costumes, thinking about ways to bring some or another idea onto stage. And to say that already now, we've seen the play live about a month ago and I was deeply impressed. I would never have thought that they would actually manage to make the whole thing so cool! :)
After the camp, I had another 6 days to go before university started again and from then on, everything I've gone through has been sheer madness in terms of workload. This third semester was hell on earth and I'm not exaggerating. I read an average of 3 to 4 novels a week, wrote essays and papers and summaries and exams without interruption - but I think I've managed to get the required 30 credit points (well, a friend of mine is calling me a "credit hunter", or, in very informal Swiss German "pünktli-geil", saying that I'd rather kill myself than earning less credits than possible - but hey, I don't want to stay at university forever!!!) and, what's far more important, I still enjoy my studies and am especially proud that I'm getting on quite well also with Spanish which I just started this semester. Salamanca was useful after all! :)
Well, yes, that's a broad outline of my life till December and ever since, it's basically been partying, enjoying life, meeting friends, having fun... but I'll write about some of the highlights in the next post! Right now I'm going to sit on the balcony because the sun is finally shining again after some weeks of typical Zürich winter weather (cold, not necessarily wet, but all grey, boring..) !!! :)
But I'll try my very best to briefly sum up everything that's happened since my Salamanca adventure (might take more than one post though...)
so first of all, my departure from Salamanca was quite funny: I had agreed with Paulo (the Brasilian guy) to take the bus to Madrid together with him since he was going home on the same day. As usual he was late, but this time it did matter - and, I confess, I was already back into my habit of thinking in timetables - and he was really late. In the end the taxi driver who took us to the bus station with all our luggage had to drive like a maniac so we could just jump into the bus a few seconds before it left. The first near-nervous-breakdown of the day was over... Then everything went fine and in Madrid, we soon had to say goodbye because Paulo's flight was 2h before mine. It was hard to say goodbye, and even harder for me because I stood there all alone in this airport which was half closed due to renovation works with all my luggage and there was nowhere to go. It was too early to check-in, the counters were all still closed and believe it or not, there was not a single seat or bench to sit on. So I ended up sitting on top of my luggage in front of the counter, reading a book and waiting for them to open- great! But to make a long story short, finally they opened the check-in, everything went fine with the flight and I was back to reality, back to Switzerland, back to strict timetibles, back to my family and friends..
The first week home was another adventure - and quite a challenge: together with my friend Flurina, I accompanied a primary school teacher to a school camp with her 11-year-old pupils. We went to the house we'd stay in (which, funnily enough, was the one I had stayed in for a week in my primary school camp 10 years ago!!) by bike, which almost killed me, as I had not done any sports during my time in Salamanca. Then, we first had to get to know all the kids and immediately had full responsibility. Can you imagine what a shock that was for me: from Spain/40 degrees/ lazy summer / party / always around people between 20 and 30 to Switzerland / rather cold / sports and responsibilty / having to be a rolemodel for kids???? I had to adapt very quickly, change my sleeping rhythm, my language, get rid of my "let's just have fun and do something silly"-Spain-attitude... but we ended up having a great time! the kids were amazing, very creative, fun to be around - and not that hard to keep under control (apart from one evening when we had to send them to bed without any evening program, because they were all so tired and just doing bullsh***). It was also a highly interesting experience for me personally because I'd never had anything to do with kids in that way - and it showed me that I - in contrast to Flurina, who's actually becoming a primary school teacher - am so not the person for that job! I need older kids / teenagers in my class to teach..
During that week, the class began working on a play they were going to perform in late autumn, and we were all together writing dialogues and scenes, creating costumes, thinking about ways to bring some or another idea onto stage. And to say that already now, we've seen the play live about a month ago and I was deeply impressed. I would never have thought that they would actually manage to make the whole thing so cool! :)
After the camp, I had another 6 days to go before university started again and from then on, everything I've gone through has been sheer madness in terms of workload. This third semester was hell on earth and I'm not exaggerating. I read an average of 3 to 4 novels a week, wrote essays and papers and summaries and exams without interruption - but I think I've managed to get the required 30 credit points (well, a friend of mine is calling me a "credit hunter", or, in very informal Swiss German "pünktli-geil", saying that I'd rather kill myself than earning less credits than possible - but hey, I don't want to stay at university forever!!!) and, what's far more important, I still enjoy my studies and am especially proud that I'm getting on quite well also with Spanish which I just started this semester. Salamanca was useful after all! :)
Well, yes, that's a broad outline of my life till December and ever since, it's basically been partying, enjoying life, meeting friends, having fun... but I'll write about some of the highlights in the next post! Right now I'm going to sit on the balcony because the sun is finally shining again after some weeks of typical Zürich winter weather (cold, not necessarily wet, but all grey, boring..) !!! :)
posted by Sabin at 3:09 PM
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