Another summer of procrastination

Should I start blogging again? It seems like a good time, seeing as how I have a 40-page paper in Spanish to write. So far my distractions include 90210 reruns, but those are getting kind of old. Facebook is a fantastic distraction. I actually have to turn off my computer to get any sort of work done. But blogging might be the answer. What do you think? I know that Devon would read it. Leslie might enjoy it too. Would she be this excited?

NYE

Words cannot express how awful NYE was. I think I can safely say that it was the worst thing I've ever done. Not the worst thing I've ever done on NYE, but the worst think I've ever done in my life. I don't even know where to begin. We don't have any pictures, and words cannot really express what we experienced at this tango studio. I think I need to sum up the evening briefly at this point, because I'm just too depressed thinking about writing the details. Instead, I will ask Nikolai, Devon and Patrick to sum up their worst and best moments of NYE 2009.

Best moment of the evening:
Nikolai: When we had poured our first drinks (it was a BYOB and we brought a cooler on wheels) and nothing had gone wrong yet.
Devon: The elevator.
Patrick: When Devon leaned over and said to me, through a smile, "I hate this."

Worst moment of the evening:
Nikolai: Approaching the food table and realizing how bad the buffet was.
Devon: When Beth Dance asked us if we were having fun and asked us to not put our beer bottles in the garbage.
Patrick: Patrick's worst moment happened much earlier in the day, when he found out that the event was being held at a dance studio. He thought we were going to a restaurant.

For some reason, we didn't get out of there soon enough, and we welcomed 2009 at our small table, surrounded by 20 people all over the age of 60. Beth Dance counted down with six seconds until midnight and nobody joined in. There were no party favors, champagne, nor a TV to watch the ball drop. At 12:05 Devon and I threw our boots into her bag, we zipped up our cooler and got the hell out of there. We walked to my and Nikolai's place and busted out the Trivial Pursuit. At 2 a.m. we ordered pizza. D & P slept over and we made a huge breakfast Thursday morning. Things definitely started looking up when we popped open a bottle of champagne and took our first bites of the yummy Serbian pancakes.

Milestones

It's my second-to-last night in Salamanca and I can't believe that I'm actually a little sad. How is this possible? After enduring two summers of no air-conditioning, people treating me like I'm an idiot (speaking to me in English as if I became enrolled in this program by pure magic), and spending 48 hours/week in class, I thought I would only be more than happy to hop on the bus on Saturday morning. I am extremely happy to go home, of course. First and foremost to see my new husband and begin my adventure of living with a guy for the first time in my life. Second, to taste the sweetness of normal beet sugar rather than cane sugar (it's not sweet!). To not eat rabbit at lunch. To feel cold air blowing on me in the house and in the car. To not pass hookers on my afternoon walk.

Despite all the things I have missed and can't wait to have back, I can't help but feel sad. I've spent the last three summers in Spain, not to mention a year here when I was younger. This country feels like a home to me more than ever place ever will besides, of course, HOME. I will miss getting up before sunrise and running, feeling as though I'm in the movie Vanilla Sky where the world has ended and Tom Cruise is the ONLY person in the street. I actually was in Madrid for the premiere of Vanilla Sky, which comes from the Spanish movie "Abre los ojos". (It is totally dead around here at 6:15 a.m. Unbelievable. And dark at that. Until quarter to seven. How is that possible in the summertime?) I will miss the rigorous schedule and constant studying. (I know, I am sick.) After I started packing tonight I felt a little strange having only one exam to study for. I certainly am not stressed out enough. I actually went to the bar in the dorm after dinner. I can just about count on one hand the number of drinks I have had since the end of June - that is how much work there has been to do.

I cannot wait to take a break next summer and finally experience the relaxing summer than I have not yet had since I started teaching. Triathlon training, cooking, basking in the glory of my recently completed thesis... It just feels strange, and a little sad, that this is the end of my Spain days. On the other hand, I finished my Master's in Spanish. Hell yeah.

Wedding photos

Our wedding photos are online! To view them click here. You will need to create an account. The access code is: christineandnikolaijankovich

Eggs and ham...I mean, pigs

I got an e-mail from my mom today letting me know that another wedding gift arrived at her house. I am *super* excited that Leslie and Jamie sent us the egg poacher! One of the hundreds of wedding e-mails I received during the planning process was from Williams-Sonoma, featuring this new item. I immediately forwarded the e-mail to Nikolai to tell him how much I loved it and that I wanted to add it to our registry. Yaaaay Jamie and Leslie! Thank you so much! I can't wait to come home and use all my new gadgets!

The second highlight of my day was finding an adorable pictures in my friend Elena's tabloid magazine. I swooned over the picture and asked if I could have it. I ignored the strange looks from my friends as I happy ripped the page out of the magazine. When I got back to my room I Googled "pig in green boots" and it was the first find. Aww! Check out the article too. This is adorable.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2105763/Meet-Cinderella,-Pig-in-Boots.html

I can't figure out how to post a link yet! It is not working.

Brain at Capacity

One day of exams down, one to go. Today was Art, Spanish Grammar and Linguistics. I am beyond mad at myself for making two idiotic mistakes. One on the grammar exam and another on the linguistics test. I cannot believe I put that the word for peanut comes from Arabic. I KNOW that it is "indoeuropeo" (throwing out a Spanish term just for you, Leslie). Dumb, dumb, dumb. I am sure that as you are reading, unless you are a utter perfectionist who thinks it is acceptable to have been studying for days on end to the point of a severe hand cramp, you are wondering, "Why does it matter? Who cares where peanut comes from?" The stress lies in the fact that our grade for each class comprises a miderm grade, a final exam grade and a very small participation grade. With the exception of the grammar exam (which had a mere 10 questions on it), each exam is 20 questions. This means that, essentially, my GPA for this Masters degree is based on these tests. Which is why I am killing myself to memorize every little detail. I'm taking a short break from studying Literature and Society/Politics. You should see the little sayings, songs and poems I'm coming up wiht to help me remember this material. For example, "MNHL" stands for "my new house lover" (I hate the word lover, but please bear with me), which represents the authors of the second phase of Modernism - Martinez, Nervo, Herrera and Lugones. Yes, this is what I am doing with my time. I'm drinking Coke Zero for inspiration and my breaks today have consisted of going to our evening class (cinema) and writing this blog. One it's all over, it's right back to it since I need to stay on top of the material each day so that come exam time it doesn't get worse than this. We receive an incredible amount of material and input each day. It is harder for the Americans because we need to pay attention every moment so we don't miss anything. There is no spacing out when it's not in your first language. The native speakers, I'm sure, wonder why we crazy Americans would put ourselves through this. All I have to say is HAH - at least we ROCK the grammar portion. They are all DYING, while my friends and I totally get it because we understand the rules behind everything.

Has anyone made it this far in reading???? On a much more positive note, Nikolai sent me a fun package of treats today! Applesauce, popcorn, tuna... All to help me when I am sick of the dining hall food.

thoughts & few pictures

The teachers I am in Salamanca with are very different from me. Granted, I have my small Salamanca "family" of a few close friends who I eat, study and sit with in class, and last night was an awakening as to why I hang out with the people I do. Last night made me realize that bigger differences exist between not only me and the many native speakers (there are only five non-native Spanish speakers in my class), but also between me and the "married" people on the program. Why does the work require quotation marks? Because apparently this program, rather than being an amazing educational experience, serves as a mere escape from reality for many people. There are quite a few married people on the program who do not wear their wedding ring and quite obviously try to hide the fact that they have a spouse and, in some cases, a famiy. Last night a birthday celebration turned into midnight in the plaza with a few classmates. I will spare the many details of a conversation I had with one of the girls, but share a very important event that resulted from the evening. I called it a night around 12:30, but everyone else went out. Well, the girl I'd been talking to all night, sharing stories about marriage and her and her husband's decision to start trying to have a baby when she returns from Salamanca,apparently had a visitor last night. My friends and I saw them leave our dorm together this morning. She made eye contact with one of my friends as she left the building, but she looked down and ignored my friend. I cannot stop thinking about this. It makes me sick that this is what people are doing on this program. I felt like I was the only person last night, other than one other man at the table, who had these wonderful, happy stories about my relationship and wedding. I'm keeping my distance now from certain people and using my remaining weeks to concentrate only on my classes, my yoga and running and the things that I want to do here (photos I want to take, etc.). It is strange to feel left out because you are doing the right thing!