Journal Entries
I'm fine
Posted Jul 7, 2005
No, I wasn't anywhere near the bombs. Scary shit tho.
Hope I'll be able to make it up to newcastle tomorrow. Getting to Victoria bus station could be interesting. Also the banks closed early so I dont have any money. More quality planning by yours truly.
Love to all, take care 
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Latest reply: Jul 7, 2005
Hasta luego Alicante
Posted Jul 1, 2005
Tomorrow I´m leaving Alicante and flying up to Basel in Switzerland to meet Nic, who´s been studying in France for the past few months
I´ve really enjoyed the past 6 weeks here in Alicante, and hope to come back and study here again. Ive made some good friends, got a bit of a tan, drunk more than is really necessary and generally had a great time Oh, and I learned some spanish
Im not really sure how much - sometimes I feel quite confident and can join in a simple conversation, but other times Im just overwhelmed by the grammar... Especially since I´ve started learning different tenses (and moods I think), so in theory I can now say thinks like I will go, and I would like to do, you do this. But actually, I need my book of verb endings open all the time! I plan on buying a book and continuing to study when Im back in the UK, and I can write to people keep practising that way.
The last 2 weeks involved rather a lot of partying - the annual festival was last week, which was very entertaining. On the friday night they burn all the sculptures that have been put up in the preceding week. There are always fire fighters (bomberos - I like this word for some reason) in attendance, because most of these large highly flammable things are within metres of buildings. So they hose the buildings down beforehand (and the crowd), then make sure the whole thing goes out in the end. It was really interesting, altho a bit sad because they were quite beautiful pieces of art. I took quite a few photographs (some of which I will try and email or put on a website soon).
In the follow up, they have a fireworks competition for 5 nights, and most of the the population goes to the beach at midnight to watch. The standard was very high, and 3 of the nights were way better than the Australia Day ones Ive seen in Perth. They had heaps of cool multi stage ones, and also ones that landed in the sea, then exploded again from there - very cool I love fireworks (in case you hadnt already gathered) - theyre so sparkly and colourful and pretty!!
It has become clear that the spanish are not overly concerned about noise or air pollution - the volume, and the amount of smoke drifting about after the fogueras, and the fireworks was phenomenal...
(Yes, I am still a tree-hugging hippy at heart... and a nerd...)
Thats probably enough drivel for now Ooh - but first, a funny spanish character, before I change to different keyboards
Ñ ñ
the name of this letter is enye, and thats pretty much how you say it
Love to all, more soon
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Latest reply: Jul 1, 2005
Miscellaneous Happenings
Posted Jun 14, 2005
After last week´s rather random entry, I thought I´d write a blurb about what I´ve been up to...
Studying mostly, altho yesterday´s trip to the library to read Asterix (in spanish, so it counts as study...) ended up being more like 3 hours of re-reading the 4th Harry Potter book I actually started reading the 5th one initially, then realised I didn´t remember anything that had happened in the 4th. But I´ve finished that now, and have 2 and a half more weeks of access to this library to read the 5th one
The spanish is coming along OK - we had a class last week entitled ´Conversation in a Pub´ (my favourite place to study...) and I actually managed to have a conversation, mostly in spanish, with a local student from the school.
Also I acquired 2 new flatmates last week - a very chatty Russian girl, who studies in Copenhagen and speaks English, and a Swiss lady who also speaks english. They are at a different school which organises social events for them, so on Friday night I went out with them for tapas and then drinking and dancing in the port area. It was good fun, and I got home around 6am. This is quite normal by spanish standards... On saturday afternoon I went with my flatmates to the beach and town down the road - it´s rather nicer than the one in Alicante - less crowded and with proper waves, so we had a fairly lazy afternoon in the sun. On saturday night I met up with a bunch of people from my school and we sat outside and had some drinks and watched the fancy dress parade going past (between 11 and 12.30 at night). Alicante´s big fiesta is next week, but they love to party so much, they spend 2 weeks working up to the big day. Groups of people get together and make big cardboard (mostly, I think) things called fogueras, and then next friday have a big party and burn them all, and have fireworks and all kinds of craziness. There´s a museum all about it as well, so I might have to go and find out more...
Also on the weekend a new guy moved into the flat - he´s Chilean, and doesn´t speak a word of English! So we´re all getting some spanish practice talking to him
I have discovered that Sangria is definitely a good thing, and mean to have a go at making it sometime It seems to be a lot like the punch we used to make at college, but uses red wine rather than white. Also, I don´t think the spanish are so keen on the chateau cardboard (aka goon, cask wine, fruity lexia and co.) which is an essential ingredient, but I´m sure they have plenty of cheap and nasty stuff nonetheless And they sell it in supermarkets!
Right, I´ve actually got some homework to do before this afternoon´s clas, so I better get on with it!
Love to all
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Latest reply: Jun 14, 2005
A brief rant
Posted Jun 3, 2005
This started when I read that in Spanish, when you put 2 verbs together, you conjugate the first one and leave the second in its infinitive form. So for example ´I want´ ´to play´ football, is ´Quiero´ ´jugar´ futbol (´to want´ being ´querer´ and ´I play´ being ´juego´). Which somehow got me thinking about things I wanted (yeah, I´m procrastinating again) and eventually came up with the new heading for my personal space: Deseo entender. Which literally means ´I desire to understand´, but my translation means what I want it to in English, and has the connotation about travel which seems appropriate.
That got me thinking about the mottos of institutions I attended and realised that seeking was part of 2 of them: UWA ´Seek Wisdom´, and Bridgetown High School ´Seek the Best´. The others were B´town Primary School ´Responsibility´ (blah) and Manjimup High School ´Aim High´ (modified by students, as I recall, to Aim High, Get High, Stay High).
So there you go.
Now I should really do some work. Or maybe go to the library and read more of Asterix in Corsica
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Latest reply: Jun 3, 2005
Yo Muy Estupido
Posted Jun 1, 2005
{I am very stupid}
It´s one of those days... I was late for class this morning because I forgot my book and had to go back for it. Then I was late for the class this afternoon, cos I wrote down the wrong start time. But at least I´m having a fairly calm day, so I didn´t chuck a total hissy fit. Just came and wasted time on the computer til the class finishes and I can go ask for a copy of the exercise.
Also I over cooked the pasta I made for lunch, and the sauce didn´t turn out so well either. Still, it was edible and filling and cheap, and that´s about all I ask these days.
One of the happiness inducing things that staved off the hissy fit was the discovery that I can listen to triple j on the computers here at school So currently I´m tuned into the Aphex Twin mixtape, which is great - mostly ambient which is nice - I find stuff like Come to Daddy a little too intense.
The other nice thing I found today was the local library Amo los libros y las bibliotecas {I love books and libraries}. One of my classmates suggested reading children´s books in spanish, and today I found translations of classics like cinderella, snow white, hansel and gretel etc. as well as a version of Don Quixote for children (somebody? Emily? can you tell me the name of the ballet that is partially based on it please?). Also they have LOADS of Enid Blyton, and Asterix!! I plan to re-live my childhood in Spanish. When I´m really fluent (maybe in 5 years...) I can have a crack at reading Cryptonomicon in spanish! Cos I really understood every word of it in English... It´s a great book tho.
OK, I´ve got the exercise for the class I just missed, so I s´pose I should do it. Or get back to wrestling with prepositions. Or learn more about asking for directions. Or writing lists of regular and irregular verbs and conjugations.
Yay!
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Latest reply: Jun 1, 2005
CJ-Maranup
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