Talking to Strangers

utterly irrelevant to the rest of the post but LOOK

People who know me well would laugh in the face of anyone who called me shy. People who know me really well know better. I am actually a bit terrified of making friends. You can imagine how much I've enjoyed the enormous amount of socialising Erasmus involves (If I hadn't come here with people from my own university I have a strong suspicion that I would still not have opened my mouth to speak). Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like people (I like some of them) but if I'm sitting in a room with people I don't know talking around me the idea of getting involved is like standing in front of a cliff and being told "Climb that". A consequence of this is that when I do manage to turn to someone and ask what last night's homework was and in the process find out their name and where they're from I do a mental victory dance. That's a small advantage of being the kind of person who worries about small stuff; when things go wrong it's a disaster but if it works out I get excited about things that no normal person would.

Recently I've been trying to talk to more people on my own. Now at this point I'm realising that this post makes me sound an utter freak but here, this is a problem for some people. I hope. Last week, after succeeding in making small talk for 5 minutes (pats self on back) I agreed to go to an Intercambio or Language Exchange in order to improve my spoken Spanish with a girl from one of my classes. Well, I tried. The idea of going to a pub where I kind of knew someone and didn't know anyone else nearly didn't let me out the door, but I made it. Then I tried to tell myself I couldn't go because I didn't have cash. But I kept going. Then the ATM was broken. But I kept going. I could buy something on my card. I would go in and talk. It'd be great. I turned the corner.

And the bar was shut.

Now it turned out later that the intercambio was just half an hour later than I had been told but you cannot IMAGINE the dejection this caused. Walking back home I resolved never to try anything ever again. Not really, I did see that this was funny considering how much I psyched myself up for it. This week I made it back (with a friend) and managed an hour and a half of small talk in English and Spanish and apart from feeling like it'll be of benefit I had fun. So there you are. One fear conquered.

Highlight of the evening was talking to a middle aged Spanish man named Pedro about the economic downturn and how "during the boom times we went crazy, there was no need at all to build so many houses and apartments, they're all empty and useless now, it's stupid". There was a lull in the conversation, so I asked him what he did. He was an architect. What was my sympathetic reply?

"Not a good time to be you then."

No wonder I'm so good at making friends.

Besos chicos x

Carnaval de Cádiz

Hola chic@s, hope you had a nice weekend. On Saturday night a group of us joined a We Love Spain (an events company here) trip down to Cádiz for the last night of Carnaval. Before this year I thought this week long festival to mark the beginning of Lent was something they only did in Germany because we learned about it in school but it seems it is a very big deal here as well. Remember at Halloween when I was confused about the lack of effort over costumes? It seems that Carnaval is pretty much the rest of Europe's answer to Halloween, in October you just wear scary costumes but you save your cute/funny/topical ones for springtime. It's a fun tradition which I kind of wish Ireland had (I love dressing up) but I'm not sure how well it would work for us.

We got into the town at about 10 and were left to our own devices until we were picked up at 5am the next morning. For a while it seemed like the night would drag on, at 12 it was already a bit cold and we were a bit bored, but we made our way back to the centre and just embraced how everyone else was doing things. Carnaval is very much a street/outdoors festival, as in, you stand in the street and drink. There didn't seem to be much else going on, no music or entertainment. This is why I'm not sure how well it would work in Ireland, vastly differing drink cultures had me imagining how much more aggressive and out of control people there might be at a similar celebration in Dublin, given the lack of security or distraction. In fact I don't think I saw a single (real) police officer all night, and only one ambulance. Fair play Spain. That's not to say there weren't people who 'couldn't hack the sesh', as it were, but all in all it was a fun atmosphere and nothing unsafe about it. Lovely.

Some sort of huge Weirdo Club meeting.

The costumes were great, everyone seemed to make an effort (no swathes of girls in cat ears and guys wearing "nudist on strike" signs here). We saw clowns, soldiers (lots of them), nuns, popes, pirates, matadors, burritos, firemen, babies and the entire cast of Toy Story. The lack of indoor places to sit down and have a rest, a drink, or something to eat meant that if you weren't wearing warm enough clothes you could easily get cold sitting still. The guys wearing onesies had the right idea.

still not sure what he was meant to be

All in all it was a great night, and Cádiz looks like it's a very pretty place. I'm looking forward to going back during the day when there isn't rubbish everywhere and the streets don't smell of wee.

Besos x

I Am Terrible At Being A Blog

Hello dear ones, very sorry I seem to have forgotten about you lately. I'm going through my customary post-exam wind down (I assault my body with so much sugar and caffeine and so little sleep during exams that I usually take some time to recover), but the fact that my classes resumed a total of one and a half days after my exams finished has meant that I am currently meandering zombie-like through a haze of sometimes going to college, eating the easiest and often least nutritious food I can get my oafish paws on, and watching (but not really seeing) episodes of That Mitchell and Webb Look on Youtube as I stare open-mouthed at my laptop screen.

I cooked this. It was the highlight of the last 3 weeks. 

None of which is particularly noteworthy nor which makes for a good blog post. But here I am trying anyway. I don't have an awful lot to say but I thought it was about time I checked in. The exams went well enough, so far I've passed 2/4, I am hopeful about one of the two remaining and very unhopeful (not a word) about the other. Messing up an oral exam does mean I have to repeat the same Spanish course I've just finished but as far as I'm concerned that just means I never have to go to class shhhh. I am hoping that if I did fail that other exam (Why didn't I study the Russian occupation of Afghanistan in more depth, as the old saying goes) I'll be allowed to do compensation work rather than go through the rigmarole of repeating an exam in September or taking up another subject this term, which wouldn't be ideal given that a) I get tired enough already and b) I would not go back to the office where you register for courses and go through the stress I went through in October if you put a gun to my head.

Given that I haven't done much of interest in the month and a bit I've been back in Spain I'm determined to at least have something new and fun to talk about every week. And we can intersperse that with boring and inane posts. Like this one. On Saturday night we're heading down to Cádiz for the last night of Carnaval, the fun part before Lent, so that will probably be the next thing I talk about, provided I come back alive and with my camera.

Hasta pronto x

P.S the Bin People came back, apparently they got a 3% wage increase which is only 1% after tax, but it is about the principle of the thing and the whole experience has certainly taught me that without them this place would be Hell on earth. Kudos to you, Bin People.

That's a Bit Worrying

Ayuntamiento de Sevilla*, I have some questions. 

1. Where are the bin people?

2. Are the bin people on strike?

3. Are the bin people going to come back?

4. When are the bin people coming back?

That is all.

It's been about a week since the bins were collected  We assume they are on strike because it's Spain and someone has to be at any given time. I am mostly worried about rats. Fortunately it's not too hot so the whole city doesn't smell like a landfill.


Yet.


*city council