Well one interesting thing is that I´m now a university student again. I just signed up at the University of Zaragoza to take a month long class that studies the scripts of some classic movies. I think they are all from the same writer, but I don´t remember the name. One is the Midnight Cowboy, the Serpent.. and some others. Anyway, I´m pretty excited about it actually because I think it will be fun and good for my Spanish skills, and I will get to interact with the University students and activities there. Hopefully I´ll at least generally understand the material.. probably depends a lot on how fast the professor speaks.
To give a general update, I´m pretty happy with how things have been working out in Zaragoza. The city has not been a disappointment, as it is a good size, but very walkable, and there´s a suprising amount of historical buildings and monuments here. I guess its overlooked a lot because its not a coastal city in Spain, but it really is an interesting place for visitors. The nice thing is that because there´s so few tourists here, I feel special! But actually that just means that very few people speak English, but that´s what I wanted so I could learn faster. As proof there are few tourists, there are NO hostels here, which made it difficult for me when I arrived. I was forced to stay in an expensive hotel until I was saved by a couchsurfer named Maria. Maria has been a godsend. She allowed me to stay in her flat while she helped me look for other permanent places to stay here, such as renting a room with a couple other people in an apartment. As it turns out, after a few fruitless days of search, she offered that I could stay with her for the entire time! For rent of course, but still quite cheap. It´s really pretty amazing. She speaks English fluently and his helping me practice, although she insists on speaking Spanish at full speed and more often than not she loses me. I suppose its good for me, but sometimes I wonder. Anyway, after the last 3 weeks of trying to get things sorted out, finally I´ve got some things rolling.
After focusing on trying to find somewhere to stay the first week, since then I´ve been searching around the city for volunteer work, with the intent that it would force me to interact with people and speak Spanish. Well, this has not been as easy as I thought. I have been to numerous organizations, and it seems like many of them can´t occupy enough of my time, or they don´t think it would work out since I´m not fluent enough, or the one place that offered to take me on was for the terminally ill. A bit depressing, so I put that option on the backburner. I´m still looking, and the whole experience of looking has been good experience here in itself. Although I have to say it is a bit scary to approach people for work when your language skills are poor. Countless times I have to ask them to repeat what they said, and slow down. Its embarrassing when they finish explaining something at length and I´m staring blankly. And the worst is when people have called me on the cell phone. I had one lady hang up on me because I couldn´t make out what she was saying and I was stuttering and it was just a total disaster… uuugh. Well, that being said, I am making progress, especially in my vocabulary and ability to speak, but I am still dreadfully slow, and my listening comprehension is really poor. I think I can generally say that languages are not a strong point for me… I speak English pretty slow to begin with. Anyhow, I am still sticking with it and think that by the end of my stay I will be much more capable.
Another cool thing is that I am pretty much an expert on cultural events in the City of Zaragoza. I now have every brochure from every organization in the city. There are festivals, symphonies, piano concerts, cooking workshops, theatrical workshops, and of course the class I´m taking at the university.. right now I´m trying to get a sort of schedule together. Most of these things are either free by the way, or close too, offered by the university or city of Zaragoza. I´m also working out some weekend train trips to see some other places in Spain. Anyhow, I´m pretty pumped up about all the prospects, and I really just feel like Karma is going my way right now. The language is really difficult, and it drags me down a bit, but I´m getting more used to feeling like a complete retard. Some of the more embarrassing moments are when someone on the bus, or in the checkout stand asks you a question or tells you to do something, and having absolutely no clue what they are saying. Then everyone around you stares at you and they start talking to you like you have brain damage.. boy oh boy. Anyway, its all an experience. Thankfully I can come back for refuge in the apartment and read a book or something in English to take a break.
Its weird that I have actually started researching flights home.. wow can´t believe its almost been a complete year. That blows me away. Well, not there yet, and much more to do, so will get there when I get there. Thinking more about Portland though, and mostly positive thoughts. If you´d like to see some photos don´t forget to check out this link and look for Zaragoza at the bottom. Try to ignore the architectural shots since they are probably boring.. but gives me something more to do and its an interest. Well that’s bye for now, but thinking of you guys.. take care.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronray/collections/72157600190609970/
