Distraction... ;)

Dear all
As always, when I have to study, I start doing other things, and for once (again) you benefit from that. Actually, I should be working for university day and night - explanation in a second - but I'm just so not in the mood for reading books or writing papers...
well, let me tell you what has been happening since my last post - which again feels like ages ago although it's only been two weeks! By the way, I was mistaken, my stay here will be half way over at the end of next week (yes, still counting....)! :)
Right, so last time I mentioned this exam - which by the way was the most detailed class I ever had on Spanish grammar (and not just for foreigners, about half the class were Spanish people and the things we were tought were new to them, too - so you can imagine...) - which took place two weeks ago, after a few days of very intensive studying (it won't surprise you that I didn't even open my books while I was at home over Christmas). The exam went quite well I thought (and I got the confirmation for that yesterday - I passed the exam with one of the highest grades of the class, funny thing is that most Spanish people actually failed or had quite low grades!!!), but I didn't have any time to think about it once it was written because that same evening, my best friend from uni back home came to visit me. I was so excited to see him again; he is also doing Erasmus this year and he left for Amsterdam already in August, so I hadn't seen him in almost half a year (he wasn't home when I was in December)! Unfortunately, he could only stay for two days, but it was great! We did something like "how to see Valencia in one day" and definitely didn't sleep much - although it was crazy, all the bars/pubs were empty when we came: Valencia during exam period is a ghost city, all the people who don't work during term hide in the libraries for three weeks and no one goes out at night!!! Scary... anyway, it's not as we depended on other people to have fun, right? :) So we had lots of fun, together with my two best friends from here, Brad and Laura. When my swiss friend left, I just continued with that lifestyle of going out every evening, not sleeping much, eating a lot and spending a lot of money, this time with a sad reason: Brad and Laura both only stayed in Valencia for one semester and have left now, so I had to enjoy the last days with them!! So basically I'm left alone now... or, in other words, I can go back to square one and try to find new friends once term starts (which is next Monday)... could imagine nicer things to do! :(
And well, once they were gone, I realized how soon my next exam already is: this Thursday (which is....... the day after tomorrow.... aaaaaah!!!)! This time, it's about colonial literature and honestly, I'm scared to death about it! It's an exam with material, so we basically have to have a virtual index of everything in our brain so we can use and quote it during the exam - which by the way consists of four essays in three hours.... furthermore, seeing that "just an exam" is not enough for my home university, I have to write a ten page paper for the same professor about one of the topics of class - the problem is, that I have to hand in the paper the day of the exam, but she will only correct it if I pass the exam - otherwise, it goes straight to the bin!!! Can you imagine why I prefer writing here on my blog than continuing with my work?? But well, I guess I have to go back to Columbus and all his friends now... :)

Soon half time!

Dear all!
Sorry for not writing in such a long time - as you know, I went back to Switzerland for more than two weeks over Christmas and New Year and only got back to Valencia a week ago. And to be perfectly honest, this is the first week here that I felt went past quickly- thank goodness!! :)
before I left Valencia on the 23rd of December, I was feeling pretty low, I hated the weather here, and the cold, and the fact that we didn't have heating in the flat and I was constantly freezing, and the whole life here... my birthday was rather bad, too - most of my friends here already left for their home countries before so I was more or less alone on that day- not even my flatmates were here -so you can imagine :( But then I startet packing my suitcase and the idea of going home made me so happy, I don't think you can imagine if you've never been away from all the people you love for such a long time!
Well... and to cut a long story short, the two and a half weeks at home were just wonderful! I met a lot of my friends and family, ate way too much (that's what happens when it's a) Christmas and b) you're either invited to dinner by all the people you want to meet or go out for dinner with them....;) ), spent a lot of time with my boyfriend and thanks to all of that, I managed to reassure myself that the world wouldn't change completely until next summer and that all these people will still be there when I come back... Another thing that helped me come back to Valencia with a somewhat more positive outlook was a calender I made with my mum (she felt that I needed something to look forward to, and she's so right!) in which we marked with colours when something is happening, like exams or visits from people. So this calendar is already rather full and everytime I look at it, I see that time will be passing so fast because I already have so many plans, and I can always look forward to a visit from someone in the near future.
So all in all I guess that, after surviving this first and not always easy third, I will be able to survive the rest - and if I'm not mistaken, we reach half time in two weeks! ;) The first semester at university is already over and right now I'm studying for my first exam, which takes place on Tuesday... so wish me luck and I'll talk to you all soon!!!

back..

Dear all
It's been a while, I know, and I was actually not going to post anything anymore, did not feel like it, but here I am again ;) I know of at least one person who reads and even likes this blog, so this is for you!! :)
a lot of things have been going on here, I might not have time to write about them all, but just so you get an impression: short after my last post, my boyfriend came visiting me again, which of course was another great highlight of my time here so far: it was his birthday, so I had prepared stuff for him, we went to eat in a nice restaurant right next to the beach to have the most typical paella we could find - and we enjoyed the wonderful weather we had: we could actually go for a walk on the beach barefoot!! It was so warm and so beautiful, still late-summer-like temperatures, a light wind, simply just perfect. He also met some more of the people I spend time with here in Valencia, which to me seems very important; that way he knows who I refer to when I tell him what I'm doing here, and he was also convinced that I haven't changed much, seeing that these people, according to him (and I agree completely), are people I would also have wanted to meet at home - and not just party buddies like most "erasmus friendships" here seem to be.
I've been thinking about the whole idea of Erasmus a lot, lately. I don't really know how to explain this, but I always had the image of it being a priviledge, something not everybody can do, and something that is a valuable experience for your life, your studies, your professional life -and that will look good on your CV :). However, I've met so many exchange students and have heard of so many more that I am beginning to believe that almost everyone goes abroad at some point, and that to the majority of the people, it doesn't matter where they go, as long as there are good parties... and indeed, most of the Erasmus people here hardly ever go to class, they will definitely not show up for the exams and all they do is sleep the whole day in order to start into new nocturnal adventures every evening. And I'm not just using the word "adventures" to refer to parties, I really mean all the implications of this word... Sometimes I seriously wonder if I am so strange or exceptional just because I am trying to take my studies seriously, because my goal for this year is improving my Spanish, getting to know the Spanish culture and also continue my studies like before! And I also begin to feel that saying "I was an exchange student in Spain for a year" will not get me reactions like "oh, so you're a highly qualified person", but instead something like "oh, so you were one of millions of idiots who just enjoyed the beach, the heat, the cheap alcohol and the parties during a year"...
But well, I don't want to go into this too much, it can be quite frustrating at times... :)
A more positive story is that I had another visitor until yesterday: we had another Puente (literally "bridge" = weekend, combined with some religious holiday, giving us 4 days off school) and a friend of mine came to visit me from Madrid. She is French and was my flatmate in Salamanca, and she's been living in Madrid for two years now. It was great to see her again (I had only seen her once again since Salamanca) and it gave me an excuse for not doing any work for 4 days and instead show her Valencia, go to all the nice spots with her and just having a great time. Moreover, both my flatmates were gone for the long weekend, so I would've been alone at home all the time, but now it was perfect because we could do what we wanted, we had the kitchen to ourselves to cook -just great!! :)
Well, and today I had to go back to classes, felt strange almost -but now I see that I have to get some studying done, seeing that I am going HOME already in two weeks and I don't want to spend my Christmas holidays studying for the exams in January...
So I'll talk to you all later... :)

... middle of week 9

I have deleted the last post since it caused some bad responses... so just for those who want to know how the cliffhanger was resolved: yes, my shutters are fixed now, the technician had to come twice, though, because the first time he missed something - has to happen to me, right? ;)
anyway, I won't go into the details of this story... just one thing, directed at the person who left that anonymous comment last time: if you feel like insulting or criticising me, maybe next time you have the courage to leave your name, thanks.

So, just very shortly: my last weekend was good, we went to a friend's birthday party on Friday night and it was very nice- lots of delicious Italian food, interesting conversations, funny situations, lots of laughs... Saturday we took it easy, went to the cinema (we saw an Argentinian movie which was very intense and quite unsettling in a way - "El secreto de sus ojos"), then for dinner and at last to my flat for dessert, seeing that I had the flat to myself. Sunday I had a study afternoon with another friend - she came over, we ate lots of cookies and discussed about different literary periods, their historical contexts and everything - it was extremely interesting and she's a really nice girl, so I'm looking forward to studying some more with her!
Yesterday, I went to the cinema again, watched another Spanish movie, but this time it was just soo strange, almost pornographic... so if you don't like seeing the explicitly physical side of a "menage a trois", don't go watch "Castillos de Carton" ;)

And well, right now I'm getting kind of nervous, my boyfriend is coming to Valencia tomorrow, and I'm so looking forward to it, I can't focus on anything anymore!!! :) which is why I won't write any more now... ;)

Already beginning of week 9 - Part I

Dear all
Sorry for not keeping in touch for such a long time... somehow, time is going by faster and faster, without me doing anything! :P I really need to start making a studying schedule, otherwise I'll keep wasting time on facebook or playing computer games or reading stupid women's magazines instead of spanish literature classics... ;)
The past week was quite nice all in all. That night when we met at 10 to go for dinner, we finally started eating at 11.30, and I got home after 4 - just to find my boyfriend still online on skype ;) this is becoming some very strange kind of custom: meeting in the middle of the night and talking in whispers over skype as not to wake up my flatmates... it's kinda fun - like when you read with a torch under your bed cover as a kid ;)
Last sunday we went to see an art exhibition in the city centre. It was a collection called "Visions of Spain" by the Valencian painter Sorolla, who is a real genius! I hadn't known his work before, but I was really impressed - and I've even hung a poster of one of his paintings (which they gave us for free at the entrance ;)) in my room, because it fascinates me so much! :)
Then on Monday, two friends showed me something that takes place every Monday and is really cool for students: there's a small restaurant that sells cheap drinks (Sangria and similar stuff for only 2 euros a glass) with a free plate of Paella! Of course lots of people know about it, so you have to go there really early and shouldn't bother queueing for a looong time to get your plate, but it was worth it :) might go there again! Good food and good for the wallet :P (I'm not implying that Spain is expensive in general - it totally isn't!!)
During the whole week I had another two problems to deal with: my mobile phone - or rather Vodafone again - started charging me twice the normal price for messages and I wondered why I was running out of money, so I went to the store AGAIN, and they've opened another case for me and told me that it would be solved - of course, until today, nothing has changed and I keep losing a whole lot of money that way... it's just SO annoying!!! But well, we'll see when I have time to go there again... And the other problem was even more interesting: my window shutters somehow broke down - one morning, when I wanted to open them again they just stayed down.... apparently, the straps were torn :P So I told my flatmate, because I had no idea whatsoever how to react or whom to call or whatever. She told me that this is a serious problem, seeing that the owner of the house lives in Madrid and usually, he only comes to Valencia every 3 months or so. And unless he comes to the flat with a technician, nothing will happen. If we call someone ourselves, we will have to pay the bill ourselves as well... great, isn't it?? So we sent the owner an e-mail, saying what happened and asking how we should proceed. That was Monday afternoon, and my flatmate told me that I should not expect any answer soon...
And now, this is the ultimate cliffhanger, seeing that I need to stop writing now and go to class (my favourite time for lectures: 6 to 8 pm... :P)! I'll continue afterwards! :)

End of week 7

Dear all
Week 7 is over, and with it the first half of the first semester, if I'm not mistaken...
Time is beginning to go by fast, and I don't complain - in a way, a part of me is doing a constant countdown till my return to Switzerland... I know this is not how I should be feeling, with everybody always telling you that an Erasmus exchange should be the best year of your life and everything... it's just that so far it has proven to be rather difficult to really arrive here and leave everything behind that is my real life - I can't and don't want to do this! But well... I don't want to bore you with my sad reflections ;)
there are many more positive things to tell: first of all, last weekend: my short trip to Switzerland was just great! It went by sooooo quickly, but I enjoyed it so much to see a lot of my friends, spend time with my boyfriend, sleep in my own bed, eat my mum's food - and I realized that it's these little details that I miss most! I mean, it was clear that I would miss all the people, but I wasn't aware that little things like being able to drink water from the tap, looking at Zurich by night or sitting on the train that goes to my boyfriend's home would make me want to cry once I have them again and know that I have to go away again...
The change of cultures was quite a shock, initially I wasn't aware of all the slight but decisive differences there are! And also the change in temperature was quite extreme: when I left Valencia on Friday it was 28 degrees, we landed in Zurich with 8 degrees, and when I went back to Valencia on Monday it was still 25 degrees- but I soon noticed that here, autumn is (finally!!) coming, too: the sun is still extremely strong and still gives us these amazing temperatures during the day, but as soon as the sun is gone, it's quite fresh, and we have a lot of wind.
Well, not only the change in weather was strange on Monday, it was a crazy day anyway: imagine waking up in your boyfriend's house, having breakfast with him, kissing him goodbye, going to the airport, meeting another friend for coffee, flying two hours, unpacking your suitcase in your strange alternative home and going back to class as if nothing had happened....!!! It's insane, isn't it? It felt like about 2 weeks in just one day! And now, after only 5 days back here, I am well back in my routine and enjoying another weekend in Spain!
Today, I sat on the balcony reading and almost cought a sunburn!! And now I'm waiting for another few hours to go by before I go out for the night (we meet at 10 for dinner, can you imagine? I'm already hungry now and it's only 6.30...!)...

Something completely different: is anyone of you planning to come to Valencia? If so, please let me know at some point soon, seeing that I now have my exam schedules and know when I would have time to play tourist guide ;) For instance, if anyone wants to come end of January, that would be perfect for me, and it's still holiday time in Zurich, so...????

crazy past weekend and even crazier one ahead :)

Dear all
Week 6 is already half over and the first interruption of my stay is only 24 hours away!!!
but let me stick to chronological order... the last post is from last Saturday morning, right? Well... during the day I didn't do much, but was invited to Roberto's house for dinner. Laura (his former flatmate) met me at the station and we went to his new flat, which he shares with a girl from Zürich (!!!), an American girl and a Brazilian guy. Unfortunately, the girls weren't there, so I still haven't met my fellow swissie, but I'm sure there will be an opportunity soon. Roberto had prepared all different specialties from his home, Parma, so we started with finger food: Parmesan cheese, the special ham they have, olives.. and then went on to a huge bowl of pasta with bolognese sauce- it was delicious and above all, the whole evening was so much fun. Laura had brought along another Dutch girl who studies with her here, and this friend came with another friend (Dutch, too) who didn't speak a word of either English or Spanish. So it was funny because I tried to understand some of what she said (Dutch is not too different from Swiss German actually) and Laura and her friend were busy translating. With the guys, we spoke a mixture of English and Spanish, so it was a very multilingual conversation! We were sitting outside on the terrasse, as it was still very warm, and of course the six of us were making quite some noise laughing, speaking - but it was a Saturday night, and we're in Spain... so we were quite surprised (as not to say shocked) when suddenly, around 11.30 pm a neighbour shouted out the window that we should shut up and stop making so much noise... Come on?? it was before midnight, don't tell me any person in their right mind goes to bed so early in Spain??? So Laura was just too funny, she looked up at that woman, waved her hand and cried "Hola! Qué tal?" (Hi, how are you?)!!! we couldn't stop laughing.... and of course we stayed outside, and a bit later on, Marcus (the brazilian guy) started mixing cocktails and distributing them in little shot glasses... which of course did not make us more quiet... ;) And we just had a great time, until, around 1.30 (which still is not THAT late...) there suddenly was a *splash* and we heard something hitting the floor right behind our table: that woman had seriously thrown an egg at us (luckily missed!)!!!! Can you believe that? Well, I guess it's just another sample of an extreme Spanish temper... ;) In any case we did not want to risk being hit by eggs or whatever vegetable she might have found next, so we went inside and then decided to go to the city center and see what there was in the clubs/pubs... And weeeelll, to make a long story short, I came home at 5.30 in the morning, realized that it was the night of the change of time to winter time and was veeery glad that I could sleep one hour more! ;)

On Sunday I first needed to sleep a lot... and then did some work for university, and then was invited to dinner again: Evelyn cooked Fajitas at her house, and it was soooo delicious! It was just a lazy evening, all girls, eating, talking, listening to music -and I went home really early because I realized that otherwise it would be impossible to be in class on Monday at 9!

And now I'm preparing my suitcase, because.......: tomorrow, I'm going back to Zurich!!!! Well, just for the weekend, but still!!! Home sweet home, I'm coming! It feels strange though, to pack a suitcase just for 3 days knowing that the destination is home.... :S For those who don't yet know: the main reason for going home this weekend is that tomorrow night, there's a concert in Zurich which has been organized by our radio station, and one of the bands playing is my boyfriend's band, so I just need to see that! And, once I'm home, I'm going to a halloween party at a friend's house on Saturday night, will be visiting half my family (and my boyfriend's) during the day Saturday, will enjoy a lazy day only with my boyfriend on Sunday, then meet another friend on Monday morning at the airport for coffee before I leave again around lunchtime! So you see, if this weekend is not more crazy than the past one, I don't know... am looking forward to it - and to telling you all about it! :)

Take care and talk to you all soon! xxx :)