Más vale tarde que nunca

One of the bays in Baiona

Outdoor gym in Baiona

Estimados Lectores,

Been really busy last week so haven't had a chance to update for a while, so will keep this short and sweet. :)

Firstly, the other Sunday we went to a little fishing town called Baiona, which is about 45 mins away from Vigo. To get there we had to take the bus, but - being a Sunday - the information desk at the bus station was closed, so we were a bit confused what to do. This cleaning lady came up to us and asked us what was wrong so we explained we wanted to go to Baiona and she told us when the bus was, which was more than a bit useful. Right...I don't know if this a European thing or bus drivers just like to rip me off but the bus driver told me that it's only possible to get a 1 way ticket (Una Ida) and that returns aren't possible. The bus driver when I was in Lourdes also told me this, so I dunno if they think I've got dos dedos al frente (am a bit thick) or if they're genuinely telling the truth, but they always get two one ways out of me. Hmmm. Anyway Baiona is only a small place, with a lot of bays around the coast and one promenade. There's also a lovely fort, which I didn't go in but did a walk around it and it gave fantastic views of Vigo and of las Islas Cíes. So after the walk around the fort there wasn't much to do, so we chilled on the beach for a while, standard, and had some dinner. For something like 6EUR we had a main course, bread, wine and pudding. Ridiculously cheap and really nice too. But the waiter, qué maleducado! He asked us what we wanted and we were like well we don't really know what's on offer and he was like "chunter chunter chunter menus." Always helpful when you want to order food... And I saw him moaning at some woman who gave him a load of change. Bit unusual really because everyone else seems really helpful and nice, like when I need to a
sk directions or something but he deffo got up con el pie izquierdo (on the wrong side of the bed). Still Baiona, as you can see in the pictures is really really nice. We also found this outdoor gym, such fun!

I started the new module of Legal/Administrative Translation, which seemed interesting until our teacher (who reminds me so much of my old Business Studies teacher) started getting us to work out how properly to tax our clients if we were self-employed. Seems a bit odd, but it is a fourth year module so I suppose they're thinking more about their careers now. I feel sorry for the girl I was sat by cus I had to keep stopping her and being like "is this right?" But she didn't seem to know either so all good! Felt pretty clever when he asked me for an answer and I was like, well he should be taxed 21% but as a Portuguese company I believe he is tax exempt. Check me out Mr Spanish Tax Advisor. haha. The lectures are becoming easier and easier to understand, still quite challenging but enjoying them. My Spanish for foreigners course started this week, I was put in the B2 class, which is higher than I thought I was to be honest, but I think it's alright. It's really interesting because in the grammar section we've been discussing uses for tenses I didn't know existed, so it'll hopefully make me speak more idiomatically. And then in the conversation bit we talk about Spain and things, like this week we talked about stereotypes and some expressions (hence the two used earlier), which I really like.

I learnt a few Spanish customs from that class that I hadn't realised/known before. For example, Spanish people don't take their shoes off at home, and if they do always wear slippers. I hadn't realised but it's true. Apparently as well Spanish people don't take compliments, and if someone compliments you have to tell them that it's not true. Which I didn't know before: apparently they'll think you're big headed. So I feel bad now cus the same morning Roberto (the night watchman) said I had a lot of vocab, and I said thanks! :/ But then when someone said my computer was nice I remembered to say how old and slow it was. And when someone said my Spanish has improved I said oh well, I don't think it has. Pocito a poco I'm learning how to act like them. We also discussed how often the Spanish touch other people which is true, but used to all the kisses in France so am not as overwhelmed as I was in France at first. But with kisses you only kiss when you meet here, so it's a bit less full on that France but then they touch your arm or whatever all the time.

Last Thursday was a bit of an experience...we went for drinks by the port as normal and then went to our normal club...but Miguel is only 17 so he couldn't get in. (So are Natalia and Aída, but girls getting in clubs and boys not seems a common feature of all clubs.) But me and Miguel were miles away from the group and Miguel didn't have his phone so they'd all already gone in, so we decided to go someone else, but you have to be twenty to go there and so eventually we went to somewhere else. But it took us ages to go to Loft, the last place, because Miguel was telling everyone how unfair it was he didn't get in, to everyone he met in the street haha. But we got there eventually. Not as tired this time, think I'm getting used to Spanish night outs now. Also the Spanish cheese if growing on me; I've had this song in my head for two weeks now:

Feel sorry for anyone I give a lift to over Christmas ;)

Cathedral

Last Sunday we caught the train to Santiago de Compostela, which is the end of the pilgrimage route St James' Way. It was raining all day so it wasn't like we could chill in the park or anything so I might have a biased view on it, but I didn't think there was much to do to be honest. The Cathedral is really nice, but personally I think it needs cleaning up a bit and it'd look really really nice. The inside is magnificent and we saw St James' body, which was surprising small, it was in a silver box about the size of my laptop, so I dunno if it's just his relics, if not St James was a midget. Apart from that we had another ridiculously cheap lunch, this time with good service. I bought an umbrella which lasted 3 hours, that sums the weather up. But still, I'm glad I went to see it, even though there wasn't much there. It's a lot more classy than Lourdes, as there weren't all the religious tat shops that Lourdes has.

Tomorrow I'm going the zoo, so will tell you all about that and another week in Spain soon!

Santiago de Compostela

LAS Fotos

Just some pictures from Thursday night of me with people from the residence.

Me and Miguel

Me and Natalia

Everyone

¡Mear!

The best beach in the world?

¡Buenas!

So two weeks in Spain already! Plenty more to talk about this time...starting with last Sunday, because I thought the last blog was too long for you all! Right well last Sunday me and Owen went to what I call the Islas Cíes, which are a group of islands/natural park just off the coast of Vigo. They're only open in the Summer so we thought we should go asap, before the boats stop running and we lose our chance to go. Because, if you need a reason to go, the Guardian reckons they have the best beach IN THE WORLD. Swear down: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/feb/16/beach.top10. Now, I dunno if Gavin McOwen has a little soft spot for Spain or what, but I wouldn't really say it's the best beach in the world. Like it's proper nice and all, really nice golden sand and rocky areas and it's peaceful enough, but my perfect beach would be like, next to a sea in which you can walk without dying. Remember, Galicia shares the same sea with the Titanic victims, many of whom died because it's so cold...seriously walk about 2 metres in and you'll understand how Jack from Titanic died from it. So yeah it's a lovely beach, but the sea should be warmer if it wants to be the best. The islands themselves really made me think of Lord of the Flies island, like it had the beach and then a little mountain rising up, pretty nerdy but that's the first thing I thought of when I saw them. I can't really describe how nice they are, so I'll put up some pictures so you can see. But it was a really nice relaxing day on these islands where like no one lives and it's all protected and stuff.

And then on Monday it was back to uni. Now in my last blog I told you what I was studying. Scrap that. The French-Spanish was more of a translation theory module so that's been changed to a different French-Spanish translation. The teacher's a bit mental in that she doesn't pause for breath and keeps flicking between Spanish and French. When she found out I was from England she made me summarise a French text in Spanish so that she could work out if my levels were high enough...and they were! So I'm allowed on that module now. :) Something really weird happened though...we were in class and doing a translation, then she wanted them in and I pushed a button and it all disappeared! ¡Joder! So I went up to her to explain and in my mind I was gonna explain in Spanish and then somehow French came out... odd. But she understood and said it was okay and to send it her later.

I also thought that doing a Legal/Administrative English - Spanish translation would be more useful/easy than the Audiovisual French-Spanish so I changed to that but that starts tomorrow. After that I'm happy with all my modules and can finally register and access the uni network..because at the moment people have to keep logging on for me so the sooner that's done the better. I signed up to do a Spanish course for foreigners and had to go to do a test for that on Wednesday, it was alright...I think, a bit like the grammar tests we have to do at Durham. So now I have to wait for the results to be put into a class at an appropriate level. And then I'll have more classes! But I only have 10 a week at the moment so can't really complain.

I also found a gym the other day and joined it. Really good to be back using weights machines as I've not really done any since like April! Walked out the gym really proud because it dawned on me that just 2 years ago I would not have been able to go in to a gym, understand the price structure, persuade her to let me pay in cash not with a bank account standing order and understand how to use the machines. Just felt really good. :)

Thursday night we went out again, but this time I went out with the people from the residence. I'll upload the pictures once Natalia uploads them to Tuenti. I can't get my head around the fact that we STARTED going out at half past midnight! We went down to the port where they do the outdoor prelash thing and it was really fun. A few of them suddenly felt confident in English and tried to try out their English which, as they were drunk, was hilarious. I also met a few new people, which is always great too! I learnt a new word, mear, which is a vulgar way of saying to have a wee. Because there's no toilets by the port...and if the police catch you in the act then there's apparently a 200 euro fine! So you have to vigilant when breaking the seal. Then we went to a club where they played typical euro-cheese, seriously is there anywhere that plays decent stuff?! I don't think so. And we called it an early night when we came back at 5ish because a few of them were a little bit too drunk.

This brings me on to what I wanted to say about time. The time difference between England and Spain is 1 hour...but nothing functions the same. Dinner is a 2, Tea is, at the earliest at 9. Buses seem to turn up whenever, you just have to go to the bus stop and wait for it to appear. Banks only open in the morning every day of the week. Coming in at 5 from a night out is seen as early...there's loads of examples I could go on and on. Lectures seem to end when the teacher has enough and nearly always start late...some lectures last 90 mins and others last 60 meaning clashes are optimised. Basically it's ignore what time the clock says and go with what time you feel it is. So when I'm late - which is NEVER the case ;) - when I come home I'm going to say I'm living on Spanish time, which is do-what-you-want-when-you-want-and-don't-let-some-clock-tell-you-what-to-do time. ¡A mi me encanta!

So there you go, my second week in Spain. The weather is still lovely, hopefully will last until October, which'd be really nice! Understanding more and more the Spanish people and feeling more and more confident with my Spanish every day! ¡Ciao, chicos!

Sunset over Las Islas Cíes

¡Qué guay!

¡Hola chicos!

So...the next step of MLAC on Tour 2k12-13 for me is a 4 month uni placement in Vigo, Galicia, Spain. I've been here a week so I now have plenty of things to tell you all about! I was at home for a few days, which was really nice. Was nice to see people, but mainly to actually sleep in a sleepable temperature for once, so I was actually nice and relaxed for Spain. It was a bit strange being home, like I didn't find it weird to speaking English all the time again, because obviously I kept in touch with people in France, but it's strange how embedded a language becomes in your head when you use it everyday. For example I had to stop myself saying "bonjour" to the lady behind the bar, because I dunno, my brain had sort of programmed itself to say that rather than "orate duck." But stopped myself in enough time for her to not think I was one of them foreign lot. So Spain... I flew out at like 9 something in the morning from Stansted Airport, which I've never been to before and quite liked; it's small and not confusing at all. To be honest I slept most of the way there in the car and then once I was on the plane and in the air I tried to read my kindle and read about a page before falling asleep...for about 3 minutes before the Ryanair stewardess made an announcement selling something or other. After she had finished the announcement in English and Spanish I fell back asleep, for about three minutes before the Ryanair stewardess made an announcement selling something or other. After she had finished the announcement in English and Spanish I fell back asleep, for about three minutes before the Ryanair stewardess made an announcement selling something or other. After she had finished the announcement in English and Spanish I fe...you get the idea of how annoyingly repetitive this was.

Santiago Train Station

I actually flew to Santiago de Compestela, which is another town in Galicia. A man I met in Toulouse had explained that there was a shuttlebus into town where I could catch a train or a bus to Vigo. But to be honest I was a bit tired and still quite unsure how to actually get to Vigo. But as I was walking to the airport terminal someone asked me if I were doing an Erasmus, I think she'd seen my learning agreement which was in my Important Documents plastic wallet (how organised!) and explained she was doing one in Santiago itself and was going to the city centre, so together we worked it out. I then bought a train ticket to Vigo (first time spoken Spanish in Spain to a Spaniard and I was understood ;)) and waited at the station. Despite Spain's relaxed reputation the train arrived bang on time, proper nice inside as well, or was I just comparing with the Holocaust train with wings I'd just flown there on? Anyway the train took about two hours to get to Vigo even though it's not that far away. It just stopped everywhere. And this time I managed to read my kindle/stare at the Galician countryside a bit. What shocked me was just how green it was! Like when people say Spain you think like scorched browny deserty colour - well I do - but no, Galicia is almost like home for its greenery, it's really nice. Being a Sunday, the information desk at the station in Vigo was closed, but that wasn't really much of a shock, I have lived in France for the past two months! So I still didn't really know where I was, but I had no map or anything. My housemates in Durham will know how much I prefer walking to wasting money in taxis, but I had no other option because a. I didn't know where I actually was and b. I had a dead old fashioned suitcase you can't wheel about because it was lighter than the one I took to Toulouse and every kilo counts on Ryanair! So I whacked out the address of where I'm staying and got in a taxi. The residence I'm staying in is in a pedestrianised zone, so at first the driver told me that he can't take me exactly there so I was like yeah okay fine. Then he decided he would actually take me all the way there and just kept saying pedestrians, police and slapping his hand. I just shrugged (too much time in France) cus tbh if he had have got into trouble I didn't actually ask him to break the law.

My room, hello Old Bear!

I'm staying in a Residencia Universitaria, which is like a private halls of residence kind of thing. I really like it because I'm surrounded by other Spanish students and also I get all of my meals included so I can eat Spanish things (like the other night we had a proper tortilla española) which I wouldn't necessarily elsewhere. There are two beds in my room but I'm on my own..for now. But I don't see anybody coming now that term has started, and we share a bathroom between 4 of us. It's nice, they're all very nice people and keep including me in things. The only little problem is that they ALL seem to go home at the weekend. Only 3 stayed this weekend, the only two who aren't from Galicia and one lad who didn't want to. So weekends are quiet. I've been made to join Tuenti, which is another social network, because the Spanish don't really use Facebook. The directora, Maria (what else?), is really nice and said if I need anything to go and ask her and she'll help me out, and she asked things like what to do if I'm ill and all sorts. I know she has commercial interests in mind really but it's nice know if I have a serious problem there's someone to listen to. Some of the residents saw me looking up some words in Spanish and, sincerely I think, said if I ever need any help academically then to just go and ask and they'll do there best, which I think is a really nice thing to say too.

So uni started last Monday with a talk for Erasmus students. I met up with Owen, who is also a Durham students also doing an Erasmus here, at the bus stop and we had a good catch up waiting for the bus. The stereotype of Erasmus students sticking together is very true, as so many people asked if we were English and then talking about uni because they heard us speaking in English to each other. We met three people from Bristol who all seem nice and as confused as we are, which is kinda reassuring. We also met some lad from Manchester who was absolutely hilarious...I haven't seen him since. Some woman was taking photos at the introductory lecture and he shouted out dead loud, "why's she taking photos?" in his Manc/Yorkshire accent. Could not stop laughing. So after the lecture I went to the international office to try and get my Learning Agreement - needed for Erasmus money - signed but was turned away because too many people needed help for finding accomodation, so it was signed the day after, so I hope it will still be valid! We'll see.

Went to a few classes, one was called Expresión Escrita e Oral: Español, which seemed interesting until the woman gave us a sheet with apparently 26 "errors" on it, and I couldn't see a single one! But she did say that even for the Spaniards it was hard. I thought that'd be an interesting module but unfortunately I had to drop it today because I found out I actually signed up for Beginners German so had to change things and ended up with a clash. I am now studying: English-Spanish, French-Spanish and German-Spanish translation and also French Audiovisual-Spanish (fifth year!!!) translation and have signed up for a Spanish for Foreigners course, which starts next week. I think to be honest that they will be better for my Spanish and if they're too hard then us Palatinates don't have to do exams so it doesn't matter!

Aie aie aie, talked for ages already...should update this more often. I'll leave this weekend and talk about that another time. Will talk about Thursday night and then let you rest your eyes a bit. Well no, let's talk about Tuesday and Wednesday first. Tuesday night I went out with everyone from the residence to "tomar algo," go for a drink. We all ordered beer and the bar-lady bought out three portable draft pump things, never seen them before but they're really cool! Like there was a good 10 pints in this jar she attached to this red thing and then we pulled our own glasses! ¡Qué guay! Wednesday the internet broke! ¡Qué horror! We all just went into Natalia and Aída's room to chat for a while and then went to watch a film called "Spanish Movie" in Cristián's room. It's like the Scary Movies but a spoof of loads of Spanish films. It was the first Spanish film without subtitles I've watched, which is why I wanted to mention it because I was happy with how much I understood of it, although as someone pointed out, the humour was quite international, i.e. slapstick. Good though.

The view from my room

Thursday is Jueves Universitario in Vigo, which is just Vigo's student night. I went over to Owen's piso (flat) because his flatmate had a little get together with some friends. It was really good, had a great chat about Stoke City and Rory Delapp with a lad called Gonzo. We went down to the port, which is really close to my residence, did I mention I had a sea view?! and did something called botellón, which is just drinking in the streets basically, but there were hundreds of people in the one place doing it! Was such a good atmosphere, would be cool if in most places it weren't illegal in the UK! Finally at like 3am we went to a club and it was the cheesiest place I've ever been in, even cheesier than Ride Club in Vienna and we did the Macarina in there! Now, I'm quite an old man in my ways sometimes, especially regarding sleep...so by 5 I was literally a walking zombie and I bailed and asked Gonzo and Cris to take me home (as I didn't know where home was located from the club). Owen stayed with them and they went all morning! Hardcore or what! No, not for me, I need to a sleep and cuddle with Old Bear...I mean my Rugby ball!

Right lads, that's the start of Spain for you! Absolutely loving it and think I'll be very happy here! Not mentioned the weather in this one! It's sunny, but not too hot, which I like because I can sleep at night. Not enjoying the mosquitoes though but got some repellent so life's good! Tell you about first and probably second weekend next time! ¡Hasta prontísimo mis amigos!

One of the beaches in Vigo