I'm cold. The heater is on and it's not really cold at all in the piso (except in the hallway), but my feet are freezing. At home I have this thing that I warm up in the microwave and I can put on my feet and it feels amazing. I've been asking myself for a week why I didn't pack it. It's totally coming back with me in January.
Speaking of going home, I've been thinking about all the things I'm going to eat when I get back to America.
From the airport I'm going to go through the drive thru at Wendy's and get a Spicy Chicken Sandwhich. That is number one on the list right now.
At some point during my month home I also want to eat at Krystal, Quiznos, Waffle House, The BBQ Place, Katy's, and Chili's.
I also plan to go to Cracker Barrel one Sunday for the Sunday special, two big chunks of fried chicken, with corn and okra of course. And corn bread......ummmmmmmm.
I've been doing fine with the food in Spain. It's just like I'm a poor college student still only I don't have meals on my ID for the Dining Hall. I haven't even been eating that many french fries! I mainly eat bread and chorizo. hahaha. I have discovered a love for fried zuchinni, though.
Coke here tastes better. I think it's because it's made with sugar and not high frutose corn syrup. I've also discovered a love for hot tea. I'm looking forward to a cup of freshly brewed black coffee, though. I've grown accustomed to the cup of milk with a drop of coffee they have here, but I miss drinking pure coffee. Maybe I can get a cup of joe at Krispy Kreme and enjoy a freshly baked doughnut that isn't the cake kind with it. (yeah, I'll settle for crappy coffee at Krispy Kreme to have a doughnut.)
I'm also going to drive as much as I can while I'm home. I haven't driven since September 9th and I'm hoping I will still remember how to drive.
Not looking forward to the 1am bus ride to Madrid to catch my flight though. Eh, sacrifices.
-jeremy
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
What I'm Looking For
This isn’t what I was looking for
When I walked away from you
This isn’t life the way
I imagine when I close my eyes
I wanna look at the stars
And see your face
I wanna love my neighbor
As much as I love myself
I didn’t know I could be so selfish
But it’s easy when I’m alone
I didn’t know life was so easy
But empty without love
I wanna hold onto creation
Feel the warmth of another
I wanna remember what I believe in
That string that holds us all together
This isn’t what I was looking for
When I told you we have it all wrong
I never meant to live the life
That doesn’t seek truth
My thoughts have scattered
But I’m still thinking about you
I’ve just been tryin’ to survive
Trying to figure out who I am
Secrets found their way into the light
But your voice didn’t change its tone
Structure turned into chaos
But consistent chaos feels like structure
Change always finds a way
To change everything that’s comfortable
I wasn’t sure what to expect
But I have to say I’m okay with how it all turned out
This, this isn’t life
That, that wasn’t either
What next, what next?
Time just keeps coming.
When I walked away from you
This isn’t life the way
I imagine when I close my eyes
I wanna look at the stars
And see your face
I wanna love my neighbor
As much as I love myself
I didn’t know I could be so selfish
But it’s easy when I’m alone
I didn’t know life was so easy
But empty without love
I wanna hold onto creation
Feel the warmth of another
I wanna remember what I believe in
That string that holds us all together
This isn’t what I was looking for
When I told you we have it all wrong
I never meant to live the life
That doesn’t seek truth
My thoughts have scattered
But I’m still thinking about you
I’ve just been tryin’ to survive
Trying to figure out who I am
Secrets found their way into the light
But your voice didn’t change its tone
Structure turned into chaos
But consistent chaos feels like structure
Change always finds a way
To change everything that’s comfortable
I wasn’t sure what to expect
But I have to say I’m okay with how it all turned out
This, this isn’t life
That, that wasn’t either
What next, what next?
Time just keeps coming.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
French in Spanish
So I'm taking French classes here in Ponferrada at La Escuela Oficial de Idiomas. Reason number one for taking the class was to take up time. I get bored easily if I'm not constantly doing something so I figured four hours of French class a week was a productive way to waste time. Reason number two was to learn a new language. I would like to be multi-lingual, plus I enjoy languages and I've been missing sitting in class (yeah, it's weird but I miss college!).
So I enrolled in the school of languages for a measly tuition of 70 euros (for a whole year of language class that is pretty cheap). I've been going for two weeks now and so far I can say the alphabet (kind of), say "Hello, I'm Jeremy," "I'm a student," "I live in the United States," "I don't know," and "I don't understand."
The problem is that my pronunciation is terrible. I don't know why, but my mouth just won't spit it out pretty. Granted, I've only been in the class for 2 weeks and hopefully I will improve but it's just frustrating me right now. I have the most trouble with, "J'habite aux Etats-Uni." "I live in the United States." Because United States is plural you have to do this crazy thing where the "zzzzz" from the end of "aux" combines with the "E" from "Etats" and the "zzzz" from the end of "Etats" combines with "Uni." Jabeet o Zetat Zuni. Is what it's supposed to sound like I guess. That's the closest way I can write it using English sounds. Of course I'm the only one in the class from the U.S. so everyone else gets to say the easy "J'habite a Espagne."
But I suppose I am enjoying the class. I like to learn and I like to study language. I just wish we could skip all this boring phrases stuff and start learning vocabulary words and conjugating verbs. That's the language dork in me. But the language teacher in me knows that without a proper foundation within the language the later (less boring) stuff wouldn't make as much sense and I wouldn't be able to communicate right away as I can now. (Hey, if I'm lost in France any time soon at least I can tell them my name, that I'm a student, and that I live in the US.)
I think the coolest thing about the class is that 85% of it is in Spanish. The teacher explains the concepts in Spanish, answers questions in Spanish, and translates French words into Spanish. So at the same time that I am learning French, I get to practice Spanish. So far my brain hasn't gotten confused translating between 3 languages and I'm pretty amazed at my brain's ability to think in Spanish and translate French into Spanish without having to use English. The teacher did ask me to say something in English during the second class (it was something to do with the English vowels being complicated). It took me a second to be able to say something in English, lol. I just said "My name is Jeremy." The class made a kind of "uwwwww, English sounds difficult" sound.
I guess I think being multi-lingual will make me cool. People who speak multiple languages are definitely cool in my book. The experience is also confirming my ambition to continue to grad school. Five more years of schools sounds kinda nice right now (haha, we'll see what I'm saying when I'm having to write more BS papers).
Anywho, all this thinking has made me discover why Spaniards can't say my name right. Jeremy involves two different sounds of the vowel "e." The first being "eh" and the second "e" sounding "uh." Jehruhmee. The "r" kinda slides into both "e's" in the correct pronunciation. In Spanish, each vowel only makes one sound, and that's the only sound it will ever make. It makes life much simpler. "E" is always "eh." I'll have to research it more someday, but I don't think the Spanish "r" slides as much as the English one. So in Spanish my name is pronounced, Jeh-reh-mee. With and emphasis placed on the first syllable.
Like English, French has multiple vowel sounds. Luckily, in English I just automatically know which sound the vowel makes. In French, I'm having to learn all the rules, like if a vowel is before a single nasal (n or m) the air only comes out the mouth. Or if "e" is accented like "é" it sounds "eh" but if it's "è" it sounds "uewh" or some weird crap like that, and your lips have to poke out.
It's going to be an adventure, but learning French in Spanish will be very rewarding, I think.
jeremy
So I enrolled in the school of languages for a measly tuition of 70 euros (for a whole year of language class that is pretty cheap). I've been going for two weeks now and so far I can say the alphabet (kind of), say "Hello, I'm Jeremy," "I'm a student," "I live in the United States," "I don't know," and "I don't understand."
The problem is that my pronunciation is terrible. I don't know why, but my mouth just won't spit it out pretty. Granted, I've only been in the class for 2 weeks and hopefully I will improve but it's just frustrating me right now. I have the most trouble with, "J'habite aux Etats-Uni." "I live in the United States." Because United States is plural you have to do this crazy thing where the "zzzzz" from the end of "aux" combines with the "E" from "Etats" and the "zzzz" from the end of "Etats" combines with "Uni." Jabeet o Zetat Zuni. Is what it's supposed to sound like I guess. That's the closest way I can write it using English sounds. Of course I'm the only one in the class from the U.S. so everyone else gets to say the easy "J'habite a Espagne."
But I suppose I am enjoying the class. I like to learn and I like to study language. I just wish we could skip all this boring phrases stuff and start learning vocabulary words and conjugating verbs. That's the language dork in me. But the language teacher in me knows that without a proper foundation within the language the later (less boring) stuff wouldn't make as much sense and I wouldn't be able to communicate right away as I can now. (Hey, if I'm lost in France any time soon at least I can tell them my name, that I'm a student, and that I live in the US.)
I think the coolest thing about the class is that 85% of it is in Spanish. The teacher explains the concepts in Spanish, answers questions in Spanish, and translates French words into Spanish. So at the same time that I am learning French, I get to practice Spanish. So far my brain hasn't gotten confused translating between 3 languages and I'm pretty amazed at my brain's ability to think in Spanish and translate French into Spanish without having to use English. The teacher did ask me to say something in English during the second class (it was something to do with the English vowels being complicated). It took me a second to be able to say something in English, lol. I just said "My name is Jeremy." The class made a kind of "uwwwww, English sounds difficult" sound.
I guess I think being multi-lingual will make me cool. People who speak multiple languages are definitely cool in my book. The experience is also confirming my ambition to continue to grad school. Five more years of schools sounds kinda nice right now (haha, we'll see what I'm saying when I'm having to write more BS papers).
Anywho, all this thinking has made me discover why Spaniards can't say my name right. Jeremy involves two different sounds of the vowel "e." The first being "eh" and the second "e" sounding "uh." Jehruhmee. The "r" kinda slides into both "e's" in the correct pronunciation. In Spanish, each vowel only makes one sound, and that's the only sound it will ever make. It makes life much simpler. "E" is always "eh." I'll have to research it more someday, but I don't think the Spanish "r" slides as much as the English one. So in Spanish my name is pronounced, Jeh-reh-mee. With and emphasis placed on the first syllable.
Like English, French has multiple vowel sounds. Luckily, in English I just automatically know which sound the vowel makes. In French, I'm having to learn all the rules, like if a vowel is before a single nasal (n or m) the air only comes out the mouth. Or if "e" is accented like "é" it sounds "eh" but if it's "è" it sounds "uewh" or some weird crap like that, and your lips have to poke out.
It's going to be an adventure, but learning French in Spanish will be very rewarding, I think.
jeremy
Sunday, October 11, 2009
copy cat
I'm inspired to start blogging again. However, I'm entirely too secretive and boring to put anything interesting. This is recent attempt number 5 to make a blog. We'll see how it goes.
I am never sure what to name my blogs. It's a rather nerve-wrecking decision, once you enter it and click submit, it's yours...forever. So I start thinking about something creative and unique but it has to be cool at the same time, and also representative of me as a person; reflective of my personality or my thoughts. I sat for a good 5 minutes trying to think of something, anything before I became discouraged. Then I thought, this is just like picking out a tattoo...you want it to be meaningful and reflect something about who you are and it's there more or less forever. Tattoo...tattoo... that could be a cool blog name I thought. Then that gay song came to mind, "just like a tattoo, I'll always love you" and ruined my creativityiness. I've always like the word tattoo in Spanish though. Tatuaje. It's just fun to say, like trabajaba but not quite as silly. Okay, okay... I'm going to do it. I'm going to name my blog Tatuaje. I typed it in the blank...ewww...it just doesn't look cool... so I reconsidered for a moment before typing it in with all lower case letters... tatuaje... hmmmm.... for some reason it looks cooler in lower case.... okay... I've decided... and I look to the next blank... "Please choose a url..." shit...wait, wait, not a big deal... I'll just use tatuaje...cool... I type it in... "check availability...." NOOOOOOO!!! It's unavailable. Which is a good indication that somewhere out there in Internetopia there is someone who has already thought about tattoos and blog names being similar... and I didn't even get an edge in on them with the whole Spanish thing...errrrr...
Okay, okay, let's look at blogger's suggestions: jeremy-tatuaje, tatuaje-jeremy... really? no. Okay... I could just put some numbers after it...but then that would distract from the word tatuaje and people would just wonder why I picked those numbers....hmmmm.... jladdtatuaje? too long....jtatuaje? makes the word look like it has a "jh" sound at the beginning... jltatuaje? still looks funny....jl-tatuaje? Okay... I can live with that... CREATE!
"Please pick a template...." errgh... I don't like any of these except the one Taren picked and I can't pick that one because she picked it...Ugh... I don't want to think about it, I just go with the plain white one.
Yay! Blog created. Now I just have to think about what to write about. Blogging makes life difficult. :) But it makes me think, and I like thinking. (Like write then I first typed "I like to think" and I thought, that sounds funny, so I backspaced and typed "thinking" and I thought that sounds better but why do I use the gerund form instead of the infinitive? My language skills are being affected by Spanish and all the bad English I hear. The other day I actually said "I have thirst." without meaning to. But it was because I was thinking in Spanish and then talking in English so it came out "I haveIam thirsty." ay...)
Anywho... that's a small glimpse into the way my mind works. It's confusingly complicated and sporadic... Welcome to my life.
-jeremy
(ugh... I just saw that the template make the blog title all caps... no, blogger.com, no! give me creative freedom!!!!)
I am never sure what to name my blogs. It's a rather nerve-wrecking decision, once you enter it and click submit, it's yours...forever. So I start thinking about something creative and unique but it has to be cool at the same time, and also representative of me as a person; reflective of my personality or my thoughts. I sat for a good 5 minutes trying to think of something, anything before I became discouraged. Then I thought, this is just like picking out a tattoo...you want it to be meaningful and reflect something about who you are and it's there more or less forever. Tattoo...tattoo... that could be a cool blog name I thought. Then that gay song came to mind, "just like a tattoo, I'll always love you" and ruined my creativityiness. I've always like the word tattoo in Spanish though. Tatuaje. It's just fun to say, like trabajaba but not quite as silly. Okay, okay... I'm going to do it. I'm going to name my blog Tatuaje. I typed it in the blank...ewww...it just doesn't look cool... so I reconsidered for a moment before typing it in with all lower case letters... tatuaje... hmmmm.... for some reason it looks cooler in lower case.... okay... I've decided... and I look to the next blank... "Please choose a url..." shit...wait, wait, not a big deal... I'll just use tatuaje...cool... I type it in... "check availability...." NOOOOOOO!!! It's unavailable. Which is a good indication that somewhere out there in Internetopia there is someone who has already thought about tattoos and blog names being similar... and I didn't even get an edge in on them with the whole Spanish thing...errrrr...
Okay, okay, let's look at blogger's suggestions: jeremy-tatuaje, tatuaje-jeremy... really? no. Okay... I could just put some numbers after it...but then that would distract from the word tatuaje and people would just wonder why I picked those numbers....hmmmm.... jladdtatuaje? too long....jtatuaje? makes the word look like it has a "jh" sound at the beginning... jltatuaje? still looks funny....jl-tatuaje? Okay... I can live with that... CREATE!
"Please pick a template...." errgh... I don't like any of these except the one Taren picked and I can't pick that one because she picked it...Ugh... I don't want to think about it, I just go with the plain white one.
Yay! Blog created. Now I just have to think about what to write about. Blogging makes life difficult. :) But it makes me think, and I like thinking. (Like write then I first typed "I like to think" and I thought, that sounds funny, so I backspaced and typed "thinking" and I thought that sounds better but why do I use the gerund form instead of the infinitive? My language skills are being affected by Spanish and all the bad English I hear. The other day I actually said "I have thirst." without meaning to. But it was because I was thinking in Spanish and then talking in English so it came out "I haveIam thirsty." ay...)
Anywho... that's a small glimpse into the way my mind works. It's confusingly complicated and sporadic... Welcome to my life.
-jeremy
(ugh... I just saw that the template make the blog title all caps... no, blogger.com, no! give me creative freedom!!!!)
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