Back From Spring Break!

Just got back from an amazing Spring Break with my Mom, Aunt Nicole, and Uncle Bob in Italy - It was a great time and was just nice to spend some time bonding with my mom and family again. I figured I'll just give a quick run down of each day just so I don't write forever ;) For the most part I think these events are on the right days...but they're already starting to blur together...

Friday March 22 - Flew into Rome and met up with my family in the airport baggage claim area. Mom cried and helped me get my obnoxiously colored bags :) We ended up taking a cab to our hotel and explored the city just walking around for the afternoon. Our hotel was pretty nice, although it was only 1 room it was divided very well and was comfortable for all of us to share.

Saturday March 23 - Visited the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Palatine. Got to learn more about each place and visited in-depth. Made friends with a family from Spain while in line to get tickets - the guy asked me what I knew about buying tickets (in English) and then relayed the info to his mom (in Spanish), so I just started talking back in Spanish while my mom captured the moment on film lol. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't get tickets to see the bottom and top levels of the Colosseum (buy your tickets ahead of time!!) but it was still nice to learn more from a guide. Went on a night bus tour with Mom, tour kinda sucked, but at least I got gellato lol

Sunday March 24 - Thought about going to the Vatican for Palm Sunday Mass, but there were way too many people there! So we ended up going to the Pantheon and getting Palms (which were olive tree branches) and then went with Mom to this simulator time machine tourist trap. Chased all over the city looking for a street vendor and finally found him thanks to a random kid I practically attacked walking down the road when I saw he had one of the vendor's works (thank god he was from the US...that would have been even more awkward).

Monday March 25 - Went to the Vatican with a tour group (Angel Tours) who after making us wait for a half hour in the pouring rain told us they actually didn't have tickets for us to get inside. We were pissed. So after walking back to the end of the normal entrance line we joined another tour group (Tickets4Fun) and did thankfully get to see the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica.

Tuesday March 26 - Took a bus from Rome to Florence. It rained, but I did find this amazing leather store. The workers were great and looked me up and down, pulled out a leather jacket and said "this will be the one" - turns out they were right, first one came home with me (I did try on lots of them), along with a lovely purse that will be perfect for professional use. Hotel was actually like an apartment - 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room with baby sized kitchen-type thing, but the wifi didn't work for crap so we were pretty out of communication with the world for a few days.

Wednesday March 27 - Took an amazing day trip through Tuscany with WalkAbout Tours. They were great! We visited 3 cities: Siena, San Gimignano, and Pisa - went on walking tours, had a wine tasting, climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa, visited an amazing church, and overall just had a great time. Met 2 other girls studying in Spain and we all agreed on the things we hate (so glad it's not just me).

Thursday March 28 - Spent the day with Mom shopping (got another purse) and then just looked for some various souvenirs for people. Mom got lost - not good - but she eventually got home and decided she is very happy living in the US (I agreed). Then just relaxed for the night.

Friday March 29 - Took a train from Florence to Venice. Accidentally booked a hotel way outside of the city and took us a few hours to figure out everything before we could actually get out and explore. It was a best Western, which was super nice because we each got our own room and it was an actual American-style hotel! Got some lunch before it started to pour rain. It was miserably cold so we ended up bailing and headed back to the hotel - Sadly I did not get to go on a Gondola ride - but pouring rain and worrying about falling into the freezing river wasn't quite how I had always pictured it. Got some dinner and threw peanuts at my Uncle Bob walking home. Then just spent some time with Mom. After we went to bed our stupid hotel room decided the power would go out so the front desk called us and woke us up and made someone come up and cheek the power (I was pissed) - apparently you can't plug in a coffee pot or you will blow the fuse there...fail. But, at least the wifi there was good.

Saturday March 30 - Mom and Nicole and Bob all got up around 4am to head to the airport. It was sad and we cried :( I ended up checking out a little later and caught my own flight back here to Madrid. Sadly, they got back home to the US before I got back to Madrid (4 hour layovers suck). My taxi driver tried to convince me to go for drinks with him then didn't understand why I said no (you know you're in Spain when...). And of course, everyone and their brother was graciously waiting to greet me with a huge puff of smoke in the face (yay lung cancer).

And on that note - my host family is gone until the morning, so I am going to enjoy the little silence I have left. It's Easter and I made myself an omelet - there was no food in my house. I Skyped Keith and my family, got to join in the family party fun, even if it was through Skype. Tomorrow is homework day and then back to school on Tuesday :p Bleh.

43 days left!!

La Semana Cultural

This week at the school where I teach has been so exciting! Every year there is one week where the students get to learn about something "special" instead of "normal" school lessons. This year the theme was "Cinema".

So all week the students and teachers have been preparing (actually the teachers have been making things for a good 3 weeks now). Friday was the last day, and we finally got to show off everything that we've been working on.

The kids started the week learning about different kinds of films: black and white, animation, silent, you get the picture.

Next, we began filming the kids in their daily lives and compiled all of the footage into 3 videos (one for each age group) to show on the final day.

The kid's parents were invited to come to school Monday and they made "money" and popcorn bags. The money was made out of plastilina - it's like playdough but 10x better.

Tuesday we watched some Disney movies and learned some songs (note: the words are not the same in English and Spanish lol)

Thursday we had "Olympics Day" - all the kids got to compete in games like relay races, basket ball shooting, musical chairs, and Pasa-me-si (it's a Spanish game kinda like London Bridge).

Finally Friday everything came together!

The halls were all decorated, movie posters covered the windows, and we saw a shadow puppet show (My favorite little girl told me that shadows are "Our friends that follow us when were outside, but they don't like the rain so when it's rainy they stay home" - my heart melted!!). When the kids came back from lunch we set up a "movie theater" in the classrooms and all of the kids lined up outside of the building. When they entered they each had to "pay" for their tickets (that they had made earlier in the week), then they could go to the popcorn stand and "buy" a popcorn, then they came into the "theater" and we showed the video of all the kids that we had filmed over the last few weeks.


It was so great! I was totally impressed with everything the kids and school did and I had a great time! It was the perfect end to a not-so perfect week in my own school life.

Rule Number One

Do not do study abroad in college if your grades depend on it. Just don't do it. It's like your entire support system is taken away and people try to make your life hell. First you get in trouble for not asking for help, then you get in trouble for asking for help. Sigh.

What's The Deal With School?

Ok, so in regards to my little crisis of last weekend -

I have chosen (after talking with my advisors) to make a few changes in my plans.

1. I will be flying home early from Madrid. (4 days to be exact) And to do this I have to take my final exams early. Had to get permission from my program director here, and have certified letters sent that I do need to be home early. So, my new date to be home is May 12th.
2. I had to change my summer classes (hence the flying home early). I'm now signed up for Physics I+II and their labs, Sociology, Reading Fiction, and Statistics. That's 19 credit hours. So I'm flying home early to be in class on the first day. There's no way I would have been able to miss the first week like I had originally planned with my online classes.
3. I am going to opt to take a 4th undergrad year. I have all the credits I need to graduate, but I'd rather play it safe with my GPA - plus this will give me more time to focus on getting a good basis for the sciences I'll nee in med school. So, I'm now going to have 3 degrees - Spanish, Chemistry, and Biology.

After much thinking it just seems like this will be for the better. I'll have time to focus on things more with less stress. My niece/nephew will be here when I get home so I'll have time to be an aunt. I've been asked to be the Maid of Honor in my cousin's wedding. And I've got some random goals of my own - Walt Disney World Half Marathon anyone?? 

That last one is a long shot.

Rain Rain Go Away

As much as it rains in Ohio, the rain here in Madrid is way worse. I'm not sure if it's just because I don't like the city, but it gets so depressing here when it rains. There isn't the option to "run quick to the car" - only the "walk briskly the mile to the metro station" - and somehow I always manage to forget (or just never think to grab) my umbrella until it's pouring and I'm looking like my wet dog. (However I do smell better - Dama just becomes horribly gross smelling when she gets wet)

So yes, after a week of straight rain, the sun is finally out today. Thank god. And Keith comes back from spring break today. Thank god.

It's been a rough week for us - I think we've talked maybe 45 minutes all week and we've both been stressed, which has not made for good times between us. But, we'll get that fixed now. Sigh. I don't like being upset with each other.

In other news, my school thing is more-so figured out, so that little crisis part of my life has a "kind-of" plan. I'll probably just make another post about that.

I'm reading the book "Gone Girl" - it's really good. If you haven't read it, I highly suggest it. I'm only about half way through it, but I can't put it down. I don't have much homework to do this weekend, so I'm thinking I'm just gonna relax and enjoy some time for me - aka finishing this book.

And Then Life Changes

So this last week I was in Andalucía for a class trip. It's a 4 day trip and you get credit for it - pretty awesome and a great way to see cool things. The trip went great, except for the part where we went to Sevilla (the city where I wanted to study but couldn't because my school didn't have a program there) and absolutely fell in love. I literally cried during our tour because I was so upset I didn't get to go there.  I think mainly it was a population thing - Madrid has around 3,000,000 people and Sevilla has just over 700,000 people. That's a huge difference. (Says the girl with a hometown of 30,000 people...)

I had a great time and didn't want to leave. It just sucks knowing that all this time I've been here I haven't truly enjoyed it as much as I know I could have there. There's just something different about the people - they were all nicer and life was slower. There were real trees and water and parks. The streets were busy yet quiet and secluded at the same time.

One day, I'll go back and spend some time there.

So anyways, then I got back - and life went absolutely crazy. I had a missed call from my med school advisor - apparently they'd been trying to find me all week (no wifi at our stupid hotel). My advisor told me they were concerned about my GPA (thanks stupid bio class freshman year that I got completely screwed over on) (Note- if you ever want to drop a class and your advisor won't let you, don't settle. You're paying for your education, you call the shots, not him) Yeah, anyway... I have to keep a minimum of a 3.5 GPA and right now I'm sitting at 3.477. The problem is I have to decide if I'm going to try and matriculate into the med school in fall of 2014 or 2015 - and with whatever I choose there is no going back. That's to say, if I choose 2014 and if after spring semester next year my GPA is not at least 3.5, that's it, I'm done, no med school spot for me. However, I could also choose to take an extra year of undergrad classes and raise my GPA to ensure it will be high enough to enter in 2015.

Sounds like an easy decision right? Well, yes - except for the fact that I only one more year of credits to graduate. So should I do that 4th year and take easy classes just to get the GPA, or should I challenge myself and work towards a 3rd degree and help better prepare myself for medical school, but at the same time still risking that something could go wrong and I might not get the best GPA (putting me right back in the same place I am now). Not to mention my friends will all be going on to the med school.

It's just a hard thing to choose :/ I feel like I can do it, and like I can get the good grades to keep the GPA I need, but at the same time if something goes wrong and I get dropped from the med school program I will die. Because let's be honest, I've got a Spanish and Chemistry degree - I'm not prepared to take the MCAT, I probably wouldn't get in. That would kill me.

So, I've spent all weekend making different plans and thinking about ideas of what I could do. I've got a meeting with my advisor tomorrow at 8pm to discuss my options. My goal is to ask to postpone my decision until the end of summer - when I will know both my grades from this semester here in Spain and my grades from my summer classes - and hopefully I'll have a better idea on where I stand instead of guessing.

In the end, if there's any doubt in my mind, I will take the 4th year - I just don't know when to draw the line between "this is doable" and "play it safe".

My plan is to talk to my program director here in Spain tomorrow and find out if I can take my final exams early and fly home 4 days early so I can take the summer classes I really need to take. My problem right now is if I miss the first week I'm pretty screwed for passing the class, so I'd have to take some different classes online and take the harder classes during the actual school year.

There's just a lot of unknown right now, and it's driving me nuts. I'm stressed and can't focus. There's a lot of pressure to do well this semester, even though I feel like I'm putting forward all the energy I possibly can already. I have to try harder. I have to do this.

This is the problem with being a perfectionist type-A personality person.

So for now, I'm stuck waiting - at least for the next 24 hours. I'll know better tomorrow night and I'll be able to think through things a little better when I know where I stand. For now, my family has all lit their prayer candles. For now I have to trust that everything will work out and that I will make the right decision.