“What do you mean you’re my daughter, I thought you were my mother!!”

Hey people,

Long time no blog. This is probably due to the fact that nothing of interest has happened, or nothing interesting enough to inspire a post.

But then something amazing happened. I was stuck in bed with a horrible stomach-thing, so I decided to watch the ever infamous Spanish telenovela. I have heard of people watching them even if they speak no Spanish, although, why you would want to do that I have no idea. Anyway, the one particular one that I decided to watch is called “mar de amor”, or, “sea of love”, and is actually not one of the worst that I have seen. If you care to look it up, believe me, there is an awful lot worse invading people’s TV screens.

Anyway, I’m moving off the point. Now, I do quite enjoy this series. It’s Mexican, so at times the Spanish is a bit different to what I’ve learnt, and I don’t really like the accents, but it’s interesting to watch, if only for the absurd story lines, the acting, the camera shots, the music, the makeup, the wardrobe....oh the list just never ends. The great thing about one of these series is that, even if you have missed the first 1000 episodes, you can pretty much catch up after one half an hour sitting. Which is good for someone like me, because very often I have to pretend to be busy and can’t sit in bed watching telenovelas all day. (I tell a lie, it’s all I do- but, it’s good for learning Spanish, right?)

I’ll begin the absurdity by talking about the storyline of this particular series (if you would like to watch it yourself, then please do not read this paragraph.) I figure the series is coming to the end, and the two protagonists (a girl who is referred to lovingly by her enemies as “la pescadora/the fisherwoman”) and the old man (sorry, older man) who has two children and has decided to shack up with the fisher woman have to deal with the old man’s nut-job of an ex-wife, who is suffering some kind of brain disorder where she can’t move one of her arms and legs, but still manages to walk to the circus to trap the clown who she has hired to kill her ex-husband in the lion pit where the clown meant for just the ex-husband to get eaten. *breathe* Did you get any of that?
And that’s only one storyline. There are others which include, baby-knapping, an unsolved murder, and a group of young women sitting in their flat talking about something (I still haven’t quite worked out what, but they do about ten minutes of talking per thirty minute episode, so it must be important.)

Something which makes me laugh is the music. In a film, or even just in a television series, the music can be the make or break of the mood, the scenery, the atmosphere. It can change something from good, to magical. And then you have the use of music in a Mexican telenovela. Now, I’m going to add this comment here first so that what I shall say later will make sense. Once, I was watching Hollyoaks with my friend (which is an English TV-series if you did not know) and my friend, poor girl, wasn’t a regular viewer. I think I do this in general, but I made comments whenever something happened. So, for example, if someone said something that I didn’t agree with, I would say “oh no she didn’t!” or make a disgusted noise. My friend made jokes about this, but as she told me, it was very useful for her to work out what exactly the storyline was and what the significance was of what was happening.

Believe me, with a Mexican telenovela, you wouldn’t need a commentator like me to let you know what was happening. Even if you speak no Spanish, or had only been watching for two minutes, the music lets you know how you should feel about what you are watching. But this is no ordinary music. If someone turns up at the door, someone who shouldn’t be there, we have a long camera shot of about 1 minute directly at their face, and a very deep, “boom boom boooooooom”, but a very cheesy boom boom boom. If you understand what I am trying to convey to you. Or, if there is a joyous scene, there is the sound of what seems like 20 trumpets all declaring that you should be happy at this moment in time. When I watched one with my mum, she couldn’t quite get over the music either. But, I must say, it does add to the whole atmosphere.

I mentioned the camera shots earlier. I’m not quite sure whether they hire professionals to do the shooting, or whether they just drag anyone in off the street so they have more money to pay for the mountains of makeup they use on the cast (more about that later). They zoom into actors' faces, and then pan out, in the space of thirty seconds, they move the camera around, they continuously go back and forth to one character’s face during a conversation between two other characters. This happened the first time I watched this series, and I found it quite bizarre- this character was not talking, but it seemed to be essential that they showed her reaction (which, by the way, never changed) to the conversation between her parents who were talking at the time? Again, bizarre.

Now to the makeup. Every character wears so much. Even the men. It reminds me a bit of "The only way is Essex" although, thankfully, these people are slightly less orange. But, they are always made up to the nines. Their makeup is always perfect (unless they’re meant to be a tramp, and then they just have an awful lot of black on their face), and their hair is always “just so”. The one thing that always gets me: the crazy ex-wife that I mentioned earlier, who cannot use one of her arms as it has gone numb (every episode she has to demonstrate this by constantly hitting hit, shouting at it, saying “WHY CAN’T I MOVE MY ARM!” and holding it constantly) always has perfect makeup. I know, I know, these programmes aren’t supposed to be real. But every time I see her I just think, how does she get her makeup that perfect if she can only use one hand? How is her hair always so perfectly curled like that? I’m silly I know. But give her props- every time she’s on screen I watch her to make sure she doesn’t move that arm. Lo and behold, she hasn’t moved it yet. She may just be an Oscar winner.

Well, I feel I’ve done that series justice enough. Seriously, if you can speak any Spanish, I would tell you to give it a look, because, although I’ve been quite critical, it is one of the best Mexican telenovelas I’ve seen. I watched quite a few when I was in Barcelona last year, and compared to them, this is pure gold.
I will, of course, continue to watch it. I want to see if the crazy ex-wife finally gets her revenge.

:D

"Oh good! I espeak English tooo!"

Hey people,

This is something that I’ve been thinking about pretty much the whole time that I’ve been out here, and it is- English in Spain. Does it really exist? How do Spaniards cope with English? As an English girl living in Spain, I have the advantage of not looking very English, and I am also very good at producing a Spanish accent, and so, at first glance, I probably don’t look out of place (apart from my mistakes, but that’s only if you listen properly). However, if I’m speaking English to my friend? Oh dear. The reaction is quite.....interesting/scary/very strange. During the day, people will turn around if they hear English, they will try to listen to your conversation, or they will watch you because, who on Earth are those people speaking English!?

During the night, it's worse. The nicer people will either shout something at you while you’re walking past, something along the lines of “Hello!!! HELLO! I espeak English toooooo!” Or, random words in English. The ones who are more in your face, will grab you, shout in your face, “You....are....English?? I espeak English! I have been in England too, where are you from? You must meet my friends!” All of this without actually pausing to let me answer. Sometimes they will try to bring a friend into the conversation, “translate this for me!” They get a bit annoyed with me when I tell them, thank you very much but I don’t need any translation, I can speak Spanish. “NO! We must speak English.” *Sigh*So, I do my best to speak English with them. But, to be honest, it is very grating hearing someone speaking one word every minute, and some of the terminology they use? Beyond me. I’m not exaggerating, this is worse than any English person in Spanish I have every heard. One guy dragged me into the club while I was waiting in line with my friends, and pushed me onto his mates. I’m not sure who was more embarrassed. They were very nice, and spoke to me for a while (mostly in Spanish, after they realised that I did indeed speak good Spanish) but then I felt bad so I excused myself and found my friends.

I find the mentality here towards very strange. I think, although I may be wrong about this, that most young people here get some sort of education in English (be it extremely basic or not) so when you talk to them and say, “I’m from England”, they will normally respond, “Oh English! My English is not very good.” But then something strange happens. Those that do profess to speak slightly better English, suddenly presume they know everything, from vocabulary, to pronunciation. Now, the pronunciation is the thing that kills me, and I have two very good examples of the Spanish mentality towards English.

The first; there are two very nice Spanish guys that I have met since being here (and bless them for providing me with this example, but as their English isn’t actually that good, luckily I doubt they will be able to read this), and after a night out, they walked me and my flatmate home as it is on the way to where they live. I live near a church, so for some reason we got onto the subject of priests. In Spanish, priest is “cura”. So as we were talking, they said to me,
“You know, cura, in English is pri-est.” What? I know what “cura” means, but I had not understood exactly what they were saying to me.
“Pri-est?” I said. “What’s that?”
“You know, pri-est! Cura!” Ahhhh.
“No, it’s priest, it’s spelt “pri-est”, but its pronounced priest.” Utter confusion ensued.
“NO! It isn’t priest, it’s pri-est! We studied English!!”
I can’t remember what I did, but I think I gave up. I just say, mate, I’ve been speaking English for 20 years now. And then I give up.

Another fabulous example happened in a nightclub. It’s hard at the best of times to hear in a nightclub, and my hearing isn’t amazing anyway, so when a guy I’d met earlier on in the night tried to talk to me in English, at first I just assumed that these were the reasons that he wasn't making any sense.
“What mayor are you doing?” This COMPLETELY stumped me. I kept asking him to repeat, and he kept saying the same thing.
“Mayor.” In my head, I was thinking, mayor? As in, mayor of London? Then I asked him to say it in Spanish, which he did begrudgingly “What do you study?”
AH. He wanted to know my “major”. Well, aside from the fact that that is something you do in America, and not in England, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“Oh, you mean major?”
“No, I mean mayor. Mayor. MAYOR.” Like I was stupid. Right. I just said, “I study law” in English and walked off.

This is what bugs me about the Spanish. They are what is called “cabezón”, or pig-headed. They have absolutely NO qualms about pushing their pronunciation onto others when we get it wrong, which we inevitably do I understand. And when I pronounce something wrong, and I get corrected, I correct myself, so I know better for next time. A Spanish person in English? I have never heard them correct themselves. They insist their pronunciation is right, even though when I say the word it obviously sounds very different. Now, if you can’t even have a proper conversation with someone in a language, how can you profess to know it so intimately? It’s funny how people go from “my English is no good” to “no, I know how it is pronounced.”

Of course, it could be that I’ve just met those few people who are like this. But when one of the people I’ve met out here (evidently not Spanish) said to me that the Spanish attitude towards languages is even worse than the English attitude towards language, sadly, I couldn’t disagree. However, I’m hoping that soon I will meet that person that will prove me wrong.

:D

"It's a bit late to be going out isn't it?" "Mate, this is Spain, it's never late..."

Hey people :)

I thought i would do a post on how exactly people go out here. To say it is different to England is a bit of an understatement. I’m not quite sure which I enjoy more yet, but I’m starting to get more accustomed to the differences.
I’m going to start with the difference in times and what we actually do when we go out. In England, it’s customary, if you are a student, to go round to someone’s house to pre-drink, and then go to the club at 10/11. That’s what happens in general. People who are not students, do still pre-drink in someone’s house, but it is general to go to a pub first, and then onto the club.

Here in Spain? COMPLETELY different. Here, you don’t even think about going out before 12. And when you do go out, it’s generally firstly to what is called a “botellon”, which is technically not allowed any more, but everyone still does it anyway. It’s basically where you go to a place where lots of young people hang out, and you all drink, outside. It’s a lot cheaper to do it this way, because alcohol is a lot cheaper in the shops than the bars (and a lot cheaper than in England!) The weather here is generally good enough to be outside for that long, although, coming up to more winter times it’s not really that smart. Once you’ve consumed sufficient beverages, you move onto the club, which doesn’t really happen until, at the earliest 3, although I’ve gone into a club at 5. A lot Spaniards tell me that they don’t get in until 8 o clock, but that to me, as an English bird, is too much. I’m used to the clubs closing at 2!

The one thing that shocked me when i came here (and this was when I was 17, so I’ve known about it for a while) is the fact that no one checks how old you are. In England, I’m id’ed everywhere I go. Literally. I’ve been id’ed at the door, and then id’ed at the bar. It’s just what happens. You HAVE to had identification to get in anywhere, let alone drink anything. But here? Nothing. I don’t even go out with my id anymore. I have never been asked for it here. Now that’s all well and good, but how do they know that they are not selling alcohol to a minor? I know, some people look like their age, and so maybe they wouldn’t get served. But I’ve never seen anyone get refused. And I don’t look exactly old, and in England I’m always questioned, but here? Never.

An interesting story was something that my mother witnessed (so sorry mother but I’m taking your story and using it :P) We went into McDonald’s for a post-dinner McFlurry (I had a peanut M&M one, and it was amazing). Anyway, it was a Saturday, and it was getting to about 11/half past. She went to use the toilet, and what she saw shocked her. Inside, was about 30 young girls, all plastering makeup onto their faces, makeup that was at that point covering the whole surface of the sink. There was a girl at every inch of the mirror. Obviously their parents wouldn’t let them out of the house like that, and they want to appear older/more attractive, whatever it may be, and go out. And yet, I have never read an article/heard anything about underage drinking being a problem in Spain. The botellon, certainly, is a controversial topic which affects everyone, from the people that participate in them, to the neighbours who have to listen to all the noises, and of course, to the police. But underage drinking? It’s strange.

Something else that I have noticed and someone that bugs me is the amount of people they pack into the clubs here. In England, there are limits to the amount of people you can have in a place, and I have been refused from a couple of clubs because there are too many people. Here, the policy seems to be, shove as many people in as you possibly can, and deal with the consequences later. It’s so full of people that you can’t dance, you can’t drink because people knock your drink out of your hand, you can’t walk anywhere; you can’t even just stand because someone will be walking behind you/in front of you to get to somewhere else. I can’t enjoy myself like that. Surely that’s also a fire-hazard?

And speaking about fire, it’s still legal to smoke in bars/clubs here, although, “apparently”, a law to change that will come into force in January. No one believes that will happen though. In England, I am so used to going out and coming home NOT smelling of smoke. As a non-smoker, I don’t really want to be walking about in other people’s fumes. But here, whatever clothes I wear out, I have to wash the next day, and my hair always stinks of smoke. It’s horrible. One of the reasons I don’t smoke because I don’t want that smell sticking to me. It’s also quite irritating to the eyes when you have smoke everywhere. Another problem? Combining the problem above of packed clubs, and people smoking, you get people getting cigarette burns. Which I got last night. Repeatedly. Lovely. My arm look like I’ve attacked it with a large red marker pen at the moment. I might just go out tomorrow and get a matching set on the other arm.

But, all in all, I do enjoy the nightlife here. As a smaller city, of course it’s not going to be as exciting as Madrid, or indeed London, but you don’t come to a small city to expect it to be fiesta central.

xD

"Your pen almost dropping was the most interesting thing that happened this lesson....”

Hey people,

I thought I’d actually write something that is related to being a student. Not about doing work, just being a student. Although, the thing that I’m going to talk about, could be one the biggest reasons why I so fear I’m going to fail this next set of exams. FML.

Anyways, this is it- you go to class, you sit down, you can’t find a seat anywhere near the front. It’s ok, you think, I’ll still be able to hear the teacher, I’ll still be able to make notes, there’s nothing to stress about.

WRONG.

I have never experienced such rudeness in a classroom as I have here. And believe me, I’ve had some very lovely people in my classes in England. What I mean by rude is, people that talk incessantly, even while the teacher is talking. They talk so loud, that if you are anywhere beyond the first four rows of chairs, you don’t have a hope in hell of hearing anything.

Is this normal?

I admit, I talked a few times (understatement of the century) in my lectures in England. But there is a difference- in lectures, they always use microphones, everyone is spread out, so you're not really likely to disturb anyone. And if you do? Oh don’t worry, they will let you know. I’ve witnessed lecturers calling students out for talking, and asking them to come down to the front and explain what is so interesting. But in class? The only time i talk is to contribute to the class discussion.

Here, on the other hand, it seems that you can just talk whenever you want. Now, it doesn’t help that one of my teachers, in particular, has got the QUIETEST voice on the planet. When she talks it’s as if she’s having a private conversation with the people in the front row. Admittedly, that doesn’t help my plight. However, the talking is a problem in all of my classes.

People just chatter, they turn around to look at their mates (who are normally sitting in the row behind you, so you have these people staring at you every five minutes), they walk out of lesson early, they come in stinking of fag smoke.
The thing is, as a foreign student, I need to concentrate a bit harder than most to fully understand everything that is said. If I can hear everything, I am normally successful. But when I have what might as well be the buzzing of a mosquito in my ear constantly, the low rumbling of male voices, I often ask myself why I even turn up.

It’s getting quite depressing. I feel like I’m back at school, but a poorly-run one, where the teachers are afraid to say anything bad to the students.

Enough of my ranting, I’m off to find my Spanish dictionary to find the rudest insult I can.....

:D

The only way is to get away from Essex....why do you think I'm in Spain!?

Hey people,

The other day, I was sitting in my room, not doing anything, just watching facebook update itself (a standard evening in). All over my newsfeed was people talking about what seemed to be a new television programme, “the only way is Essex.” Everyone was saying how ridiculous it was. After a bit of research, I found out it seemed to be an English, Essex, version of the popular US-reality/drama The Hills. I am a self-confessed viewer of The Hills, and I am from Essex, so I wanted to see exactly what all the fuss was about. Yesterday, I found it, and watched it.

I actually wish I’d never bothered.

Now, I am from Essex. Of course, I get the “Ohhhhh you’re an Essex girl, I’ve heard ALL about them!”, and although I don’t like it, I’m pretty immune to it now. But this programme made me to want to rip my eyes and eyes out, and to go to elecution lessons.

As far as I could tell, this programme is set in Brentwood and the surrounding area, which is literally just up the road from me. But it actually felt like it was set in an entirely different world. I grew up in an Essex school, and went to college in Essex, but I have NEVER seen so much makeup, fake hair and fake eyelashes in my life. How much money did they actually spend on all that makeup? Part of the reason I could tell how much they were wearing because of the very helpful/weird close-ups and pan-outs from several of the girls’ eye-makeup. Very bizarre. Just in case we weren’t wearing our glasses and missed how much trouble they’d all gone to, to make themselves look like they’d been punched in the face, maybe?

One question....now, I know a little bit about makeup, I can do my own pretty ok, I watch videos and I read articles on the internet about how to apply makeup. But not once have I seen a tutorial on how to get an orange face ALL OVER. I know about foundation. I know about bronzer. But how did they get the effect of bronzer smoothly across every part of their face? I feel like I’ve missed something. Do they buy a foundation that is a lot darker than they are? Or do they use fake tan as foundation? I don’t really understand. I feel like a bad Essex girl for not knowing these tricks.

Should I too be orange?

Something else that came to my attention, was a blonde girl called Sam. When I first watched it, I thought Sam was about 24, an age I kind of plucked out of the air because I knew that one of the other girls, Lauren, was 24. Sam to me looked a lot older than 24, but I thought, hey, she must be 24, she just looks older because of all the makeup. Then I read an article about the show. Apparently she’s 19!? She’s a year younger than me. And I get id’d EVEYWHERE because people think I’m under 18.

I’m thinking of investing in a shovel to put my makeup on with too!

Please don’t even get me started on the accents. I think my head would explode.

:D

“You’re a Erasmus student? Ooooooh, I see.....”

To begin this post, I am going to say that this is in COMPLETE procrastination from the law work I am supposed to be doing. :)

I thought I might write a little bit about this so-called “Erasmus” life that I and my fellow Erasmus students have got going on here. What I am going to talk about may not be generic to all the groups of Erasmus students across the world, but I do think that there will be some elements of it that will be present, purely because a lot of what I’m going to talk about is down to a “group” mentality, as opposed to a purely “cultural” one.

Now, the whole point of a Erasmus year/6 months is that you get to meet people not only from the country of your target language, but also people from all over the world. Here I have met a lot of Italians, Brazilians, French, Polish, Sloviakans, Germans, Irish, and many people. Surprisingly, not many English people ( :( ). But that’s ok. I came to speak Spanish anyway ;)

One thing that becomes glaringly obvious is how different people feel about their country. Italians, for example, on the whole seem to love being from Italy, and think it is the best country in the world, so much so that they seem to think that everyone else should know everything about Italy too. To highlight this, there was a delightful drunken moment when an Italian gentleman that I hadn’t met before brought out his wallet. This wallet as he said “is a map of Italy!” and proceeded to ask everyone around him, “Where is Rome/Naples/Venice?” with the expectation that everyone would know where that is. Delightful. Others haven’t been quite so into their country.

Us English, for example, we’re more likely to say how rubbish (I’m putting it politely) England is than to say that “It’s amazing and you should SO live there!”. That is all well and good, and I love to be self-deprecating as much as the next person, but it doesn’t half give you a shock to hear someone to so openly brag about their country. Which kind of makes me not.....like.....them? Does that make me a bad person?
Anyway, getting back to the Erasmus life. I think the only people that actually doa lot of work here are the Erasmus law students- we actually have to take more than 2 classes. I go to the University of Kent. They make us get quite a substantial amount of credits to make this year actually count for us. The other universities....not quite so much. Which means that as law students we have a lot more work to do. Now, that is not to say that no one else here does any work here. Of course they do. Just not as much. Which means that people get the impression that Erasmus students never do any work. And just go out all the time. I tell you. I wish that were true!

But most people here, yes, they do go out all the time. And that’s partly where all the gossip happens. I go to one of the most gossip-y universities in all of England (or so it appears to me). But even I have never quite come across this level of gossip. Part of this I think comes from the “popular” mentality that a lot of people have here. I think this partly lies down to the fact that many of these people have never actually lived away from mummy and daddy before- it’s like a holiday, where they just go wild. And that’s perfectly fine. But to be honest, I’ve done the whole, “Omg I’m free!” thing. I would like to think (emphasis on the “like to”) that I’m a bit beyond that stage now. If people like me-great, if not- I have friends anyway. But people seem to want to make a name for themselves, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether that name is a good one, or a less-than-flattering one.

I have heard people talking, “Omg did you hear what so-and-so did/said last night!?” and that’s just the guys. But, I have been quite behind on the gossip stakes. Something that I’m actually quite proud of.

I know of people here that have lovely boyfriends and girlfriends back home. But you would never think that from the way they act. They seem to come here, and think that their actions don’t actually have any effect. I’ve heard of people getting hurt because of what they’ve been doing. Oh dear, it kind of reminds me of Freshers’ year....which for me was 2 years ago.

I was told before I came out here, “avoid the Erasmus parties”....Now I can kind of see why. That is not to say that everyone here is horrible. Far from it. I have met some really lovely, really normal, and down-to-earth people. I am glad to have met them. If only to keep me sane from the rest!

:D

Language education in England....what a joke.

Hey people :)
I thought I would post this now, because I mentioned it in the last post, and it's something that gets me heated up whenever I think about it (I know, I'm sad.)

Education in England/the UK in general....not that bad, no? It's certainly not the worst. I'm not going into debates about the private/public sector. I'm pretty sure my feelings regarding the language education is the same no matter whether or not you paid a lot of money to be educated.

As I mentioned before, I have been learning spanish for a very long time. About 9 years to be exact. I started in Year 7, and have carried it on through college, and into university. Now, for that space of time, you would think that I would be somewhere near fluent. But the fact is I'm not. And that may be partly my fault, in that I haven't always been as pro-active with it as I could have been.

But the main thing I have a problem with is this- the first 5 years, I learnt barely anything. When I left with a GCSE in Spanish, I could barely conjugate a verb. I had no idea how to say, "I go" let alone "I went" or "I had gone." These to me, are the basic stepping stones to learn a language. If you can't use different tenses, how are you meant to express anything beyond "I want a beer"? (which is something that I've been told many times by people is the only thing they remember from their GCSE years). How sad. It wasn't until I got to college was I taught how to do any kind of conjugation. Even though I was 16 at the time, this made me mad.

Now, being here, with many different people from various countries also on a Erasmus year, if I complain to them, they say "Well, you speak English, everyone should speak English, so why should you worry about learning another language?" This shocked me. I thought it was just the English that had the mentality of, "We speak the most useful/the best/the most wanted language in the world, so why should we bother?" But apparently not. There have been a couple of people here who have come up to me and said, "OMG you speak English! I HAVE to speak English with you! I came here to improve my English!" Wait.....what? You come to Spain to improve your English? I kid you not. These people have no interest whatsoever in speaking Spanish.

I'm not trying to be rude but.....I already know English. I am perfectly happy in my English abilities. I mean, I've been learning it for 20 years now. I think I am kind of fluent. I for one came here to speak Spanish. Don't get me wrong, at times my brain can't deal with Spanish, and I have to use English, or if I'm talking to familiy or friends who don't speak Spanish, then I use English. But to choose to speak English here over Spanish, to me it seems a little "tonto" (stupid).

But I've gone WAY off topic. My bug-bear is the English system. I know people here who have been learning Spanish for barely a couple of years, and yet they know a lot more than I did after two years. Most of them already know English as well as their mother-tongue. How do they do this? I put it down to their education. And not just that, but their attitude. They are so much more open to learning languages. And I think that's where we're going wrong.

To counter this argument, of course, there are people in every country that just aren't very good at languages. I for one don't think I'd be able to speak more than two. And there are people everywhere that only want their mother-tongue. But it just appears to me that there is a disproportionate amount of people in England that feel this way. Maybe it's a United Kingdom mentality, maybe it also extends to the States, I'm not sure. I can only speak from my experience.

And this is why I do NOT want to teach languages in England, even though people tell me it's a viable career for me. No thank you!

:D

First post :)

Hey people :)

Right, now I know that for a blog about my year in Spain....well I’m about a month or so late! But, I thought I’d start one now, better late than never right!?

I’m not really sure where to start, as the beginning was a very long time ago :)

Well, I guess I shall start off with who I am, and what is my current situation:

My name is Rachel (well, Racquel as they like to call me here), and I am 20 years old. I study English and Spanish law at the University of Kent, Canterbury. I am a third year, which means that I am doing my year abroad, in the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, Toledo. Now, as an Erasmus student, everyone expects that I never do any work. This for me, alas, is not the truth. I happen to go to one of the few universities that make you do work :(

But that's cool. Because as a law student I just LOVE work! :D

Now to the language side of things. I've been studying Spanish for a VERY long time, but due to the fact that I learnt in England I don't feel that I actually learnt that much (although that's a whole different rant!) Now, people tell me that my spanish is very good. The thing is, I think I can pretty much cover up that I don't know what I'm talking about by having a good accent :) I am never going to say, "OMDZ, my spanish is the BEST!" No. I can get by, and I can have drunken conversations. And that is all you need, no?

I think for an introductory post, this is sufficient :)

Besos!