La energía renovable

La energía renovable en España  es algo que está creciendo. El Resumen del Plan de Energías Renovables 2011-2020 dice que los objetivos son así: "...un 20% de mejora de la eficiencia energética, una contribución de las energías renovables del 20% y una reducción de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) del 20%."

Abengoa Solar es una compañía internacional que trabaja con las ideas de la energía solar. Me parece que la energía solar en España está bien porque durante el año hay mucho sol en muchos lugares del país, especialmente en el sur porque hace sol casi 80% del año. Esta compañía tiene un lugar para investigación en Colorado en los EEUU también. 

Acciona Energía también es una compañía internacional. Tiene centros en más de 30 países. Su meta principal es que puede reducir su huella climática. Esta compañía usa tipos de la energía renovable como la energía solar, la energía eólica, la energía hidráulica, y la energía biomasa. 

En los EEUU, hay un Departamento de Energía, y en octubre, ellos anunciaron que van a dar más que $53 millón para el desarrollo de la energía renovable en el país. Quiere que los investigadores investiguen las maneras más baratos para usar y incorporar la energía renovable en los EEUU.  

http://www.idae.es/uploads/documentos/documentos_Resumen_PER_2011-2020_15f3dad6.pdf

http://www.abengoasolar.com/web/es/innovacion/principales_proyectos_de_i_d_i/

http://www.acciona-energia.es/quienes_somos.aspx

http://www.acciona-energia.es/areas_actividad.aspx

http://energy.gov/articles/energy-department-announces-53-million-drive-innovation-cut-cost-solar-power

Personal Post #12: Getting Closer to the End (Sort of...)

Tomorrow is the first day of December! 

aka my second favorite month of all time!

This past week was Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving in Spain is a lot less eventful than Halloween was (obviously). No one really showed up to my classes. My translation class was missing a lot of people, so we just talked about a ton of random stuff that had nothing to do with translation, and then he let us go like 35 minutes early. On our attendance sheet, my professor had written, ¡Feliz "San Givin!" If you say that with a Spanish accent, "San Givin" sounds like "Thanksgiving" if a Spanish person who wasn't that great at English was trying to say it. I cracked up at it; I probably found it more funny than I should have. Anyway, my second class of the day was about the same, except he let us go like an hour early after someone convinced him to let us leave early since it was a really important holiday for us. I can't believe he bought that (well, it is important holiday, but seriously...he just doesn't seem like the person who would agree to that). At my internship, the same as the past two weeks or so, I taught more about Thanksgiving. I am seriously a Thanksgiving history expert now. Finally, I went to a pretty decent Thanksgiving dinner that JYS had, but it could really never replace a real Thanksgiving. They served salad, soup, and for those who eat meat, they had turkey and other normal stuff (I didn't really pay attention), and I had roasted vegetables and tofu (not trying to be hateful, but once again, a place that doesn't know how to make tofu), and for dessert everyone had little apple tarts, and I had some lemon sorbet stuff. Really, overall, it was pretty good. Also, I've only listened to Christmas music since Thanksgiving. I'm so ready for Christmas. 

So yeah...it's the last day in November. I've been here for 2 months and 27 days, which basically feels like no time at all. Things for this semester are starting to wind down, and while I'm sooo glad to get this semester over with and start my winter break, it's still so weird to think about that my first semester in Sevilla is almost over. Look at how things are starting to wind down: this is my last week of "real" classes. Next week (the week of the 8th) on Monday and Tuesday I have exam reviews in my classes, and then Wednesday and Thursday are just exams. The last day of school is on the 11th. Then I have a week more of my internship, and then the week after that I'm going to Belgium for Christmas! Classes won't start up again until the very beginning of February, so that's kinda crazy to think that I'll just have a ton of free time for almost two months. I'm definitely not complaining, though. 

However, I still have (approximately) 5 months and 11 days left until I go back to the States. So while things look like they're winding down, they're not really. I'm glad. I can't imagine having to leave Spain so soon!

Leyendas Sevillanas

1. La leyenda del hombre de piedra

Enlace aquí

En el barrio de San Lorenzo, hay un hombre de piedra en la pared al lado de la calle. Es algo raro, y la historia es así: 

En siglo XV, había un hombre en un bar bebiendo con sus amigos. De repente, el hombre se oyó el tintineo de una campanilla y unas voces que estuvieron murmurando y rezando. El hombre y sus amigos miraron de la puerta, y vieron unas personas caminaban con el cura párroco con velas y faroles. También, el cura llevaba algo para la última comunión de un enfermo. Los hombres no eran muy religiosos, pero tenían respecto...excepto uno, Mateo el Rubio. Este hombre dijo cosas muy groseros a las personas en la calle. Él dijo, "Ea, hatajo de gallinas, que os arrodilláis como mujeres. Ahora veréis un hombre tener... . Y no me arrodillaré, sino que me quedaré de pie para siempre." Después, hubo un trueno y un rayo que le transformaron en un hombre de piedra, quedándose allí para siempre. 

Encontré mi información aquí

2. La leyenda de María Coronel y el Rey Pedro I, "el cruel"

Enlace aquí

Enlace aquí

María Coronel estaba casada con un hombre llamada Don Juan de la Cerda. Sin embargo, fue decapitado porque fue acusado de ser un parte de una conspiración contra el Rey Pedro I. María, ahora una viuda, vivía una vida buena, y con tiempo, conoció el Rey Pedro I, quien fue enamorado con ella. El Rey Pedro I persiguió a ella, pero no obstante, ella huía de él cada vez, finalmente iba a vivir con sus padres para escapar de él. El Rey se encontró ella en la casa de sus padres, y por eso ella escapó de una ventana trasera. Ella fui a una iglesia, el Convento de Santa Clara. Ella escondió en una zanja cubierta con maderas y tierra. El Rey buscaba a ella, pero ella era escondida todavía. Pasó tiempo, y Don Pedro I fue al convento otra vez y le encontró. Doña María corrió a la cocina y sin pensarlo, tomó una sartén de aceite hirviendo y se vertió en la cara así que el Rey no le gustaría. El Rey tuvo miedo y sintió pena, y por eso dijo que ella puede pedir para cualquier cosa que tuviese. Ella le pidió al Rey que le devolviese la tierra de su marido y para construir un Convento allí. El Rey dijo sí, y construyó el Convento de Santa Inés. Después, cuando Doña María se murió, fue enterrada en el Convento en el coro. Ella tiene una urna que puedes verse. 


 Encontré mi información aquí

Personal Post #11: It's November? There's only 3 weeks of classes left? Winter break is coming?

It's November 22nd. How? How is it almost Thanksgiving? Time feels almost nonexistent here. It just feels like there's no way it can be November, for several reasons. 

Reason number 1: The Weather. Do you know what the temperature was yesterday? You probably don't, so let's take a look.

Thanks, Google.

Do you see this?? It was 75º yesterday (that's 23º Celsius). What was the temperature back at Sweet Briar yesterday?

Also from Google

39º (or 3º in Celsius) is what I'm used to feeling around this time of year. Now, if we recall the basic math skills I learned back in 2nd grade, the alligator (aka the < or > symbol) eats the bigger number: 75º > 39º (or 23º > 3º).

Why else doesn't it feel like November? There's not an overwhelming plethora of Christmas items everywhere. The city has hung Christmas lights in the streets, but according to my host mom, they don't get turned on until December 8th, which is annoying because I'm used to having Christmas stuff around since right after Halloween basically. Also, I have yet to hear any Christmas songs played in any stores. Actually, I have yet to hear any Christmas songs anywhere except for that little market thing going on outside the Cathedral. And lastly, I've only seen one store (pretty sure it's a chino, never bothered to pay that much attention) with a couple of mini-Christmas trees in the window, but that's it. That's literally it. Measly Christmas lights that aren't even turned on, one Christmas song, and a couple of small fake trees. As obnoxious as an American Christmas can be, I miss it the overwhelming Christmassy stuff all over the place!

However, to make things seem more normal, there is a "Thanksgiving Dinner" that JYS is having on Thursday, so we'll see how that is! It's not going to be the same as a regular Thanksgiving, but it's something. :)

But anyway, it basically still feels like September except I have the panic setting in that finals are coming up soon. The last day of class is only about 3 weeks away! I need to start reviewing if I plan on improving from my midterms. And since there's only 3 weeks of classes left, that means that I am thinking about what I'm going to do over my winter break...soooo:

I don't really know what I plan on doing for the majority of my Christmas break. Maybe just trying to explore Sevilla more, go to some of the museums I've ignored, explore the parts I haven't really had a chance to go to, etc. Maybe some day trips to some random cities around here. But, I do have some bigger plans:

This week, my good friends Isis and Genisis and I booked two flights. The first flight we booked was to...Dublin, Ireland! I've wanted to go to Ireland for such a long time! I remember flying over it on my first flight ever when I was going to London and thinking, "I'm going to be down there one day..." well that one day is coming in January! :D

My next flight I booked was for Christmas! I am spending Christmas in Brussels, Belgium! I've never even thought of wanting to go to Belgium (I kind of honestly forgot it even existed...), but when searching for cheap(ish) and fun travel plans for Christmas, I came upon a cheap(ish) flight to Brussels...so why not? I'm so excited! It seems like such a beautiful place. They have a really awesome looking Christmas market that I'm so excited to see! Here's a picture I found on Google:

Link here -- I can't wait to be here in person!

I don't think I've ever been so excited for Christmas break in my life!

Oh, and a random side note before I post this:

Last Saturday and today, I went to the vegan bakery, and I just want to say how amazing that place is. Last week, I got a donut and café con leche de soja (coffee with soymilk). This week, I got a chocolate-filled croissant, half a donut, and another café con leche de soja. I either need to learn how to become an epic vegan baker, or I need to pick up this place, tie it to my plane back to the USA, and "replant" it near Sweet Briar. Here are photos (yes, I am that person who takes photos of her food):

My (first) donut (in over a year since most donuts are not vegan) from last weekend

Isis' muffin, and the donut we split today (which was almost tear-worthy) 

The (amazing) chocolate filled croissant I had today

Cervantes y Rinconete y Cortadillo

Cervantes vivió en Sevilla dos veces porque tuvo trabajos aquí. Sin embargo, la segunda vez en Sevilla (1594), su trabajo fue ser un cobrador de impuestos impagados y atrasados. Colectó dinero, y después, puso en un banco en Sevilla. Desafortunadamente, el banco en quiebra, y por eso Cervantes no pudo sacar su dinero. Por eso, fue encarcelado en Sevilla en 1597. Convivió con personas malas...delincuentes. Estes delincuentes inspiraron a Cervantes poner unos caracteres en sus obras, como Rinconete y Cortadillo. (También, en esta cárcel, se dice que Cervantes empezó su obra, El Quijote.) 

Encontré mi información en mi clase de Cervantes y Quijote. 

Personal Post #10: Second Chances and Good Teachers

Second chances.

Third chances.

Fourth chances?

I have to admit, I'm not a fan of second/third/fourth/etc chances. I usually say, "If you're going to do something, do it right the first time." However, PSA: that's definitely not the best thing to say. It's actually ridiculous to expect that (something I still struggle with accepting). Anyway, this week showed me how important second chances really are, and this is why:

So, on Tuesday, I got my exam grade back for my Cervantes & Quijote class. It was less than good -- aka definitely failed. Luckily, as much as I always say I strongly dislike my professor, I can't say that any more because he totally let me redo part of my exam so I could improve my grade enough to pass the exam. Turns out I bombed the exam because I actually didn't have one of the documents...well, not only did I just not have it, I didn't know it existed. Good ol' misunderstandings. Let me explain. Before the exam, he asked everyone if we had Cervantes' biography, and I was like, "Yep, I definitely have it." Well, I thought he meant Cervantes' autobiography (autorretrato). That's not what he meant.

When I got the exam with questions on it with stuff I literally had never even seen before, I was like, "Welp. There goes my GPA." I have never BS'd an answer so much in my life. It's really hard to BS history, by the way. And by really hard, I mean impossible. I got half a point on that question, and that was probably only because I wrote something about him living in Sevilla at one point. Also, there were only three questions on the exam. The other two questions were, of course, on the most confusing poem I have ever read in my life, so my analysis of it wasn't the greatest, and then the other question was about a theatre piece Cervantes wrote, which I totally didn't understand. It doesn't help that the hardest stuff we had to learn was during the beginning of the semester when #1. I couldn't understand the professor because I wasn't used to the Sevillian accent and #2. I couldn't even understand what we were reading because my vocab skills were quite horrible (still aren't the best) to be reading such old writings from the 1500s in Spanish (so nothing means what you'd think it means anyway!), especially with no previous Spanish literature experience. Ugh...

After class on Tuesday, I stayed after to see if there was anyway to raise my grade, and when he saw me, the first thing he said was, "Kari, ¿qué te pasó? (Kari, what happened to you?). Yeah, my grade was that bad. After class when I was trying to explain to my professor that I didn't even know what an "arcabucero" nor did I remember even learning about that (which I now know that's the word for the type of soldier Cervantes was at one point), he was like "Did you even study?" and I was like "Yeah, but this definitely wasn't in the autorretrato...this wasn't anywhere!" I was so frustrated, and he could tell. After an awkward silence, he rummaged through a pile of papers, pulled out the actual biography pages, handed them to me, and said, "Don't you have this?" and I skimmed it and I said, "No, when did we get this?" Apparently we got it like the first day of class. I don't know why I didn't get it, but I think it might be because he didn't make enough copies those first few days of class and I probably ended up sharing with someone and never got my own copy. Or maybe I was trying out another class? Who knows. I'm just glad that conversation ended with him giving me those pages and telling me to study them for Thursday, and he would let me redo that question. Thank goodness for professors that are willing to give second chances.

Thursday came around, and after class, I went with him to his office, and he basically just had me recite as much as I could remember from the biography, and then he asked me some more specific questions. He told me it was obvious that I had studied the biography, so he gave me the minimum passing grade on the exam. He said if I could memorize as much stuff as I did in those short two days, he thinks I'll probably be able to even get an 8 or 9 on the final exam. It's so nice knowing that your professor believes in you like that. It definitely a confidence booster.

I wish more teachers/professors would make it known to their students that they believe in them. It was so encouraging to hear that from my professor. Earlier this week, someone was telling me that she had a bad experience with one of her professors recently, and I think when it's clear that your professor isn't really confident in your abilities in the classroom, you lose respect for the teacher, and it discourages you from learning the content. If your own teacher, whose job it is to teach you the information, doesn't even think your classroom performance is good enough or that you're not going to succeed, then why bother? I think some teachers forget, or just don't know(?), that teaching isn't just about literally teaching (providing information to the students); teaching is so much more than that. Teaching (and learning) is a process; you can't just throw the information at the students and expect them to learn it all on their own without any complications. It's not that easy. Each and every student is a completely different human being with different life experiences that are going to affect their learning styles, which are going to affect their classroom performance. And I know there are some teachers who think that being "hard" is the best for their students, but I have to disagree. There is definitely a happy medium. You can still be "hard" and want the best for your students by giving difficult work while making an effort to be there for them by letting them know that you believe each and every one of them can succeed by being by their side through the class to make it possible. Knowing that my teachers believe in me helps me believe in myself, and that's one of the most important keys to success.

Los bandoleros

El origen de los bandoleros empezó XVIII. Estas personas no estaban de acuerdo con las personas con el poder en el país, y por eso empezaron sus propios grupos. Los bandoleros se empezaron en pícaros. El paisaje del Ronda fue perfecta para el bandolerismo. La ciudad estaba rodeada de colinas, que fueron buenas para tener planes de robar y cosas así. Los bandoleros robaron dinero de la gente y pasaron tiempo contrabandeando. 

José María Hinojosa, "el Tempranillo," fue un bandolero famoso. Nació en Córdoba, y está enterrada en Malaga. Fue muy amable a los mujeres, pero también fue famoso para su estado entre los bandoleros. Tenía un estado muy alto. 



http://www.museobandolero.com/historia.htm

http://www.hotelbandolero.com/pages/bandoleros.html

Personal Post #9: Learning Spanish is such a Process

I don't usually wait until Sunday to post. Oops. It's because on Friday, my normal blog writing day, I got home later than usual from my internship because I stayed after to continue working on the (super American and súper chulo) English Corner bulletin board at my internship, then I walked home really slowly talking to Genisis, Isis, and their really cool host brother, which then made me eat lunch later, which made me take my "Friday afternoon siesta" way later than normal, meaning I woke up later than normal, and then I tried to write my blog, but I had super writer's block, and then I went out to eat and didn't get back home until like midnightish, so, point of this long run-on sentence: there was just no blog writing happening on Friday. 

Now that I've had a couple extra days to ponder what I should write about this week, I have decided to write about my efforts to get better at speaking Spanish. I had another idea yesterday while we were on the bus back from Ronda, but I don't remember what it was, so I guess it wasn't that good. 

So this week, while really normal and kinda boring (giving me nothing really interesting to write about), I actually put some decent effort into improving my Spanish. Like, more effort than normal. 

First, on Tuesday, I bought a book to read for fun (en español, obviamente). I haven't started it...I've been busy, okay? I have 13 hours of internship plus 20 hours of classes each week, plus homework, and we had a JYS excursion yesterday. But anyway, I plan on starting it tonight. I also plan on reading it out loud to practice my reading fluency, because let me tell you, when I read en voz alta in Spanish, I literally read like a 3rd grader. It's awful and makes me feel illiterate. You think I'm making that up? Nope. I was observing 3rd grade class the other day, and this girl was reading really slowly to sound out words, taking it one word at a time, and she even used her finger to guide her along the page. I felt like this when I realized I read just like her:

This has got to change. I took the first step to change yesterday on the way home from Ronda. On the bus, Isis and I read out loud in Spanish for a while from a book she had, and I think that was a good start. Her reading out loud skills are almost as bad as mine (she reads faster than me, but she likes to add in random letters that don't exist, while I read slowly and repeat a bunch of words like 3 times to get them right), so we are both riding the same boat of embarrassment. 

Another thing I've been working on this week is pronouncing the letters "d" and "r." According to my friend, Álvaro, I have been pronouncing them incorrectly...ugh. Luckily, he's like some kind of Spanish pronunciation genius (well...he is Spanish), but he made it so easy for me to learn how to say them the right way. Now, I just have to remember to change my habit of saying everything the wrong way, because that's a good 6 years of pronouncing things wrong to suddenly have to change everything up like that. 

So for the past like two days, I've basically been spending random free time just pronouncing different words with the letters "d" and "r" in them. Like, I'll be walking down the street whispering nonsense to myself in Spanish, and the nonsense goes something like this: Todos los días mis dedos tienen perros en carros y no puedo creer que hay ciudades en el mundo, which translates to: Everyday my fingers have dogs in carts and I can't believe that they are cities in the world. I try not to do this unless I'm not near anyone so random people don't think I'm insane. It really looks like I'm losing my mind when I whisper this nonsense to myself, but I'm really just trying to figure out this whole pronunciation thing and say a bunch of words with "r" and "d" in them. 

Another thing I'm doing is trying to listen to more music in Spanish. I'm totally guilty of spending these past two months in Spain listening mainly to only music in English. I'm super picky with music, and I just don't know who even to start with when it comes to Spanish music...but my Spanish Spotify playlist is slowly growing, and I'm definitely going to try to listen to it a lot more. Here's a pretty good song I found yesterday. It's still not really like the music I listen to in English, but I guess I'll live:

Also, I am making a bigger effort to talk to Spaniards. If I go into a store, I'll ask someone a question about one of their products even if I don't care about it. I just want to try to understand them and talk to them. Usually they're pretty nice, so it's super easy to strike up a conversation with them. Plus, I'm trying to make a better effort to spend time with more Spaniards as well. And when I'm home, I have been trying to talk to my host mom a lot more, too. I definitely can tell our conversations are growing from where they were when I first got here. Last night we watching the news, and some story came on about these weird caskets that like played music and had animal print inside, and so we just talked about how ridiculous that was, and then we started talking about life insurance? What even...but I can't see myself having a conversation about life insurance two months ago. I definitely know a lot more vocabulary now, but not enough...at least it's always growing!

So yeah, I'm going to try to keep this stuff up. I guess I'm slowly taking these baby steps, and they'll get me somewhere eventually. We'll see. For now, I just have to keep trying!

El Día de Todos los Santos en España

En el Día de Todos los Santos en España, la gente visita las tumbas de su familia y otras queridas personas cada 1 de noviembre. Originalmente, en el siglo IV, eran muchas mártires por el poder romano, y por eso, la Iglesia decidió que hacer un día para recordar estas mártires. Finalmente en el S.VIII se fijó el día 1 de noviembre como el día oficial. 

Generalmente hoy en día, la gente compra muchas flores para las tumbas. A veces la gente visita las tumbas un poco antes el 1 de noviembre para limpiar y preparar para la fiesta. El propósito de esta fiesta es para recordar las personas muertas, pero también es para celebrar la vida. Usualmente hay comidas y postres típicos que se come en este día como buñuelos de viento (cuando comes un buñuelo, un alma es liberado de purgatorio), huesos de santo, y panellets (de Cataluña, hice con almendras, patatas, azúcar, y piñones). También, hay una obra de teatro se representa en estas fechas que es llamada Don Juan Tenorio, escrito por José Zorrilla. 

Encontré mi información aquí:

http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/society/holidays/dia-de-todos-los-santos

http://www.antena3.com/noticias/sociedad/sabes-que-todos-santos-celebra-noviembre-curiosidades-esta-fiesta_2014110100021.html

http://www.antena3.com/noticias/sociedad/sabes-que-todos-santos-celebra-noviembre-curiosidades-esta-fiesta_2014110100021.html

Personal Post #8: Halloween in Spain?

Halloween in Spain...what? They don't celebrate Halloween, right? I thought they celebrated Day of the Dead or something and painted sugar skulls and like...other Day of the Dead stuff, right?

Incorrect! That is Mexico. Mexico and Spain are *not* the same thing. Two completely different countries that speak the same language. Just like America and Australia. Or America and England. We are not the same as Australia or England, right? Okay...now that that rant is off my chest, let me start writing about my Halloween spent here in Sevilla.

Now, to my surprise, Halloween is bigger than I expected (considering I was literally expecting nothing and for it to just be another regular day). This whole week at my internship en el colegio (in the school), we have been talking about Halloween in almost all of my classes. They totally copied everything from us, which most of my teachers explained to their students before putting the spotlight on me to talk about the "real" Halloween. My host mom told me they've only been celebrating Halloween for like...8 years. Also, the chino stores were full of costumes and other random little Halloween goodies like pumpkin buckets, candy, and little knick knacks. There were a few carteles (posters) posted around town advertising Halloween parties and activities, but I didn't start noticing them until like...three days before Halloween. Typical Spaniards waiting until the last minute to do stuff! Or maybe I was just really oblivious. That's a total possibility. Hmm...

Anyway, on the actual day of Halloween, which was yesterday (Friday), I had to go to my internship from 8:00-14:10. I was really excited I got to spend the majority of my day at the colegio, because that meant I was going to be talking a lot about Halloween to my students. I wore orange and black, and I was definitely the only one up in that school that looked even slightly Halloween-y. I definitely remember when I was growing up, a lot of my teachers dressed up for Halloween (maybe not dress up dress up, but they wore Halloween colors and stuff like that). I guess teachers here haven't caught on to that aspect yet...and who knows if they ever will! This is still Spain, after all.

How I looked on Halloween vs. How I felt on Halloween

Nevertheless, I still spent a good majority of my day doing Halloween related things with my younger students. We played Halloween bingo, looked at Halloween pictures on Google, colored Halloween pictures, and I demonstrated trick-or-treating to them. I didn't spend much time talking about Halloween to my older students, though, because they have more of a strict agenda (my older students are currently reading short stories in English and really focusing on building new vocabulary to prepare themselves for their big test they have to take that will determine whether or not they can go to University). It was a really fun day, and I had a good time answering questions about Halloween and hearing my students' plans for Halloween.

One of the teachers I worked with drew all of the Halloween vocab words on the board while I explained how I celebrate Halloween in the USA! I can't believe she took the time to draw these cute cartoons! That's dedication.

After the colegio, I went home and ate lunch with my host mom, took a small nap, and then headed out to the University with Isis and Genisis to see a couple of scary movies shown by the Aula de Cultura (basically like a culture club?). We watched "El Proyecto de La Bruja de Blair" (The Blair Witch Project) and "La Matanza de Texas" (Texas Chainsaw Massacre).

But really, we were late to the first movie, so we saw the ending of El Proyecto de La Bruja de Blair, and Isis and Genisis watched half of La Matanza de Texas while I discreetly slept during it (I was tired, okay? It has been a long week of exams and little sleep! I could seriously only keep my eyes open for the first 5 minutes. Genisis and Isis said at first they just thought I was closing my eyes for the gross parts, but when I never opened them back up...they realized I was knocked out.) Then, we rolled out of there early to head out to Isla Mágica, a small theme park on the edge of Seville.

When we arrived, everyone was dressed up in a costume, and let me tell you, Spain does costumes RIGHT. Ladies? Forget about the typical sexy pirate/sexy cop/sexy whatever the crap you guys come up with, the women here in Spain GET SCARY. Way more creative, way better make-up skills, and way more fun. I saw so much fake blood, so many fake scars and peeling skin and burns, swords, knives, axes, fake chainsaws, all held by women. I think the US needs to catch on to this. So much more exciting and fun.

When I googled "halloween costumes women" I got stuff like this:

Halloween costumes in America for women

When I googled "disfraces de halloween para mujeres" I got stuff more like this:

Halloween costumes in Spain for women

Now, just add in make-up like this to the Spanish costumes, and you'll have a decent idea of what I saw last night:

It was a really fun night seeing everyone all dressed up. Even a lot of the kids looked terrifying. Some parents dressed up their little-little kids in fake blood, gave them a fake bloody knife, and let them run around the park looking super creepy.

At the park, I convinced Isis and Genisis to ride several "big" rides with me, including a ride which was the smaller equivalent to the Drop Zone at King's Dominion:

A photo I borrowed off of Google Images of the ride I'm talking about (click here for where the photo actually came from)

And also I successfully convinced/peer pressured them to ride El Jaguar with me, which is a fun roller coaster at Isla Mágica:

Found this photo of El Jaguar here

Now, let me give you a little background on my experience with roller coasters. I'm not afraid of any of them. I love roller coasters! Isis and Genisis on the other hand...are the opposite. I'm still not even sure how I managed to get them on that thing. I ended up riding next to Genisis, who as soon as we sat down and got strapped in, looked at me and said, "Is it too late to change my mind???" and of course, me being the jerk I am, said "HAHA NOPE, TOO LATE NOW SUCKA!" Then, as it started off, she began to curse in a strange Spanglish mix of English curse words, Spanish curse words, and prayers. I just sat there laughing because it was hilarious (yet awful at the same time.) Then, we went down the first major hill, and all I could hear was her screaming bloody murder. Then after a few seconds, she got quiet. At first I was like "okay maybe she got used to the ride," so I looked over at her, and I saw her head was down and she just looked straight up dead. I stopped having fun to have a mini anxiety attack because I was convinced that I just indirectly killed Genisis by convincing her to ride the roller coaster. So the rest of the roller coaster, while fun, was also extremely terrifying because I totally thought she had seriously passed out or died. I wasn't about to have to deal with that, so I was really hoping that she was just praying or practicing Buddhism and meditating to find her inner strength while on the roller coaster. Luckily, once the ride slowed down, I looked over at her again and she picked her head up, and while she looked pretty shaken, when I asked her if she was okay, her response was a shaky nod of the head yes. After we got off the roller coaster and hobbled down the ramps like drunks (we decided that walking down ramps after just getting off any type of amusement park ride make you look extremely drunk even though you haven't had a sip of alcohol), Genisis and Isis proceeded to tell me that they're glad they rode it, they had fun, and they'd probably do it again! Success! 

We rode a few more rides too, like that typical boat that goes back and forth, and some other thing that spun around and went back and forth. I'm really no good at describing rides, and I don't remember their names so you'll just have to deal with these vague descriptions. Sorry. 

All in all, it was a night full of fun and laughter, and it was probably one of the better Halloween's I've had in a while. I also found out that roasted chestnuts are literally the most disgusting snacks on the planet, and while they smell good, they're really just plain disgusting. I do not recommend them.

Also, a couple of side notes that have nothing to do with Halloween but I still want to include them, so I'm just tossing them here at the end:

1. On Nov. 4th, I'll have been here for 2 months! I can't believe I've been in Spain for almost two months. It feels like I've been here for much longer. I can see improvements in my Spanish, but at the same time, I still know I have such a long way to go, and that's why I've realized lately how glad I am for choosing to study abroad for the year. Hopefully, by May, I'll see a significant difference in my Spanish. It would be kind of embarrassing to come back from a school year in Spain and still not know what the heck I'm trying to say. The students who are only staying for the fall semester only have a little over a month and a half left in Spain, and while that still seems kind of like a lot, when you compare it to my 6 and a half months left...it's practically nothing. I wonder how they feel about that? I mean, I can hardly believe I "only" have about 6 and a half months left here. What the heck, where is time going? I definitely am starting to feel like that I don't want to return to the States, and it's only the beginning of November...I mean, yes, there's things I miss from the States, but I'm definitely starting to appreciate and get used to everything here a lot more, which feels really good to say.

2. Also, internship update. I feel like I always talk about it, but to me it's one of the most important things that I'm doing here. At first, I didn't really like it, and sometimes I still walk up in there like, "Okay, here we go again..." but I'm really starting to get used to it, and I really love it. It's especially great because lately, especially after a more difficult week at the school, I've come to realize that I pretty much have the world's best mentor teacher. I'm always throwing questions at her, and she answers them in a timely fashion with really detailed and helpful answers, and she always tells me how happy she is to answer my questions. I mean, my past mentor teachers were all really nice and truly, I learned a lot from each one, but none of them have ever been so willing to help me succeed in the classroom before. My mentor teacher here is happy to answer my questions and to work with me for every single one of my numerous requirements I have to complete for my internship. She literally told me, "I'm happy to help you with your questions, because in a way, they also make me think about the teaching process and all that stuff." I've never had a teacher who seemed like they were excited to maybe learn about the teaching process with me. It's always more like, "I am the teacher in this class, so I know what's best in this class. You can try your new-fangled models of teaching here, but I don't think they'll actually work that well." I can't wait to continue working with her and my other mentor teachers at el colegio this semester, and probably into next semester as well.