Just got back from the north of Spain and I loved it. Los pinxos son tan buenos! The people are so nice too (not to mention the area is beautiful!)
I've really realized that Spain is a whole lot like California in the sense of the land. We have a lot of the same vegetation just mild variations.
We went to Donostia (San Sebastian), Bilbao, Vigo and a little bit of Santiago de Compostela.
To sum it up: I would say that San Sebastian was quite the looker. Bilbao has the sweetest people. Vigo is a hidden secret we need to return to. Santiago de Compostela makes you want to do the Camino.
Si quieras estudiar en un lugar, es importante ir para un ano. Si no, no vas a aprender.
Casi todos los días, pienso en que no puedo vivir aquí para siempre. Me gusta la tierra de mi casa, o mi corazón, pero al mismo tiempo me encanta donde estoy demasiado. Tengo miedo que cuando regreso a California, no voy a estar contenta.
Mi terraza a mi piso es la puta madre. Es la mejor lugar en mi piso, psh en Graná! No puedo esperar para el sol venir entonces podemos sentir allí todo el tiempo.
Mis compañeros de piso son mas que yo he esperado por. En serio, tengo Hillary. Ella es loca y todos de nuestros amigos les gusta solo mirando que ella hace (y quien no?) Hillybilly es como la hermana que no nunca tuve y por eso, me encanta vivir con ella. También, tengo Amanda; la puta ("sííí, puta!") madre de las chicas que yo sé. Esa chica le encanta España, todas las cosas. Tiene una alma libre y es el tipo de persona que siempre he disfrutado. Después, tengo Dave, el hombre que tiene muchas habilidades. Puede cocinar casi todo que tu corazón quiere y lo hizo. Y finalmente, tengo Francisco quien es tan loco como Hillybilly pero un chico (perdóname, un hombre porque ahora, tiene 20 anos) Puedo hablar sobre estas personas por anos, pero hablaré por el resto de mi vida.
La cosa es que, me encanta mi vida.
I don't know what I am going to do next year.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
It is starting to get weird now.
I cannot even process it or try anymore. I live here now.
Everyday I have this horrid thought about how I have to leave. STOP IT! Corynn, just stop!
And the thing is, I couldn't tell you what it is about Granada that I love so much; it is nothing you can see.
It is getting to be a struggle to keep in touch with the homeland. The time difference frustrates us all and causes us to somewhat give up. It is really hard for me because I really hate to grow apart from people who have meant something to me before. I am working on getting used to that though, because there is no reason to dwell on a lost friendship.
And yet, while I am here I am completely losing track of, well, any goals I had. I think that I just stopped having goals. No, that's wrong. I just stopped stressing out about things that don't go right. I really have been trying to figure out what makes me happy and I through this, I have been realizing more and more that that is the only thing I should focus on everyday. It really doesn't matter when I finish school or if I get a real swell job or if I will ever get married, as long as I am content with my life at all times, then I am successful.
One of my roommates (she is so radtown) and I have this crazy problem where we go to cafes to study and end up not studying and drinking too much coffee and talking about all the stuff that we should be doing and just giggling about it, because we know it is not going to happen at that moment because we are too busy enjoying it, with pastry in hand (or I guess stomach.)
I do need to work on one thing while I am here and that is my Spanish. I, as well as many of us here, have slipped into this funk where we have complete survivor skills but to have a lovely and comfortable conversation is still difficult. I didn't realize how much I would have to work at it. I am going to learn as much Spanish as I make myself. I am not coming home until I feel comfortable and if that means boycotting English, so be it.
La cosa es que, tengo que ir a los intercambios. Pero, como siempre, tengo miedo or something like that.
Pues, quizás será mejor si yo "blog" solamente en español.
Vale. He decidido. Voy a escribir la mayoría de mis blogs en español. Porque vivo en España.
Ya está.
For now.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
So this is an example of emails that I have been receiving quite frequently while abroad.
"
"The Higher Education Fiscal Crisis Protects the Wealthy"
By Peter Phillips
Police are arresting and attacking student protesters on University of California (UC) campuses again. “Why did he beat me I wasn’t doing anything,” screamed a young Cal Berkeley women student over KPFA radio on Friday evening November 20. Students are protesting the 32% increase in tuition imposed by the UC regents in a time of severe state deficits. The Board of Regents claims that they have no choice. Students will now have to pay over $10,000 in tuition annually for a public university education that was free only a few decades ago.
The corporate media spins the tuition protests as if we are all suffering during the recession. For example, the San Diego Union Tribune November 20 writes, “These students need a course in Reality 101. And the reality is that there is virtually no segment of American society that is not straining with the economic recession. With UC facing a $535 million budget gap due to state cuts, the regents have to confront reality and make tough choices. So should students.”
Yet, the reality is something quite different. Our current budget crisis in California and the rest of the country has been artificially created by cutting taxes on the wealthiest people and corporations. The corporate elites in the US, the top 1% who own close to half the wealth, are the beneficiaries of massive tax cuts over the past few decades. While at the same time working people are paying more through increased sales and use taxes and higher public college tuition.
The wealthy hide their money abroad. Rachel Keeler with Dollars & Sense reports that over the years, trillions of dollars in both corporate profits and personal wealth have migrated offshore in search of rock-bottom tax rates and the comfort of no questions asked. Offshore banks now harbor an estimated $11.5 trillion in individual wealth alone, and were a significant contributing factor to the international economic downturn in 2008.
According to the California Budget Project, tax cuts enacted in California, since 1993, cost the state $11.3 billion dollars annually. Had the state continued taxing corporations and the wealthy at rates equal to those fifteen years ago there would not be a budget crisis in California. Even though a budget deficit was evident last year, California income tax laws were changed in February of 2009 to provide corporations with even greater tax savings—equal to over $2 billion per year. California is similar to the rest of the country where the wealthy and corporate elites enjoy economic protection through increased costs to working people.
Higher education has been cut in twenty-eight states in the 2009-10 school year and further, even more drastic cuts, are likely in the years ahead. California State University (CSU) system is planning to reduce enrollments by 40,000 students in the fall of 2010. The CSU Trustees have imposed steep tuition hikes and forced faculty and staff to take non-paid furlough days equal to 10% of salaries.
The students who are protesting tuition increases know they are being ripped off. They know that we are bailing out the rich with hundreds of billions dollars for Wall Street and massive budget cuts for the rest of us. The corporate media doesn’t explain to over-taxed working families how they are paying more while the rich sock it away.
The current economic crisis is a shock and awe process designed to undermine low-cost higher education, force labor concessions from working people and protect the wealthy. We need higher taxes on the corporations and the top 1%, combined with free public college education and tax breaks for working families. And, we must have a media that tells us the truth about inequality and wealth. A true economic stimulus increases spending from the bottom up not the top down.
Peter Phillips is a professor of sociology at Sonoma State University, President of Media Freedom Foundation, and recent past director of Project Censored."
This scares me and really doesn't encourage me to go back to California. While I have been here there have been a lot of times when people ask me where I am from and if it is a shop owner, they might put the price up.
I have a friend that is interested is going on a trip with her husband for a week and told the travel agent that she had a budget of around $1,000. The travel agent was showing her a few choices and then asked my friend where she was from and she replied, "California." All of a sudden, she began to show my friend trips for $5000 per week.
It is a little ridiculous, but the stereotype is there for a reason.
I find myself being extremely cheap these days. It is only when people come to visit me that I remember how much less I am paying for things.
We went to Donostia (San Sebastian), Bilbao, Vigo and a little bit of Santiago de Compostela.
