Get ready for the full monty

Well, it’s a lazy Sunday here in Spain and I figured I would talk a little bit about my experiences here coupled with things I have noticed. As a disclaimer, yes I know there is no right or wrong as far as culture goes. Every country has a different way of doing things and blah blah blah, but I still can’t help but compare it to the United States and think some of what they do is odd.

1. I think what I picked up on quickly is clothing. Spanish people dress nicer than a lot of Americans. During the day, when it is 90 degrees out, Spaniards don’t wear shorts or flip flops. They are always wearing dress pants and dress shoes with nice shirts, everyone, it’s crazy. When I walk around with my 6 or 7 year old pair of blue jean shorts and my flip flops, I stick out.

2. I’m sure it’s not shocking nor very surprising to anyone, but things in Spain come in much smaller sizes than in the U.S. The food comes in smaller portions, the drinks are smaller. Everything here is Coke, I have yet to see Pepsi floating around in restaurants although some convenience stores carry it. The apartment I live in is sort of small, the elevators are small, the streets are small, the cars, everything.

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So this entry is more of an update of my person life mixed with a moderate amount of societal criticism. Over the last week I really have been pissed about having to get up for my field experience. For those of you who don’t have the pleasure of knowing my personal life in depth, let me expound upon what I’m talking about. My current major and intentions are to graduate Penn State with a Bachelor’s Degree in World Languages Education with a certification to teach grades K-12 and my language will be Spanish. So in a nutshell I want to be a Spanish teacher, mainly shooting for high school work. I was going to eventually take courses slowly for my master’s degree as I worked.

Here’s the deal with my major, it all started with working with children age 3-6 teaching them Spanish. That was not so bad but this semester I have started to realize all that is involved. This semester we are teaching elementary students on Saturday mornings from 8:30 - 11:30. We are in college, this is only going to happen once, and they take away our Friday nights for half of a semester. There are many things due including lesson plans and materials for instruction before we teach. You’d think we would be able to get some of this done during our 4 ours of class a week but it’s mostly useless lecture and misinformation as Mariana, Marisel, Ty, and Dr. Espinosa (my professors) all say different things if you ask them the same question.

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Penn State Main Campus has roughly 42,000 students enrolled. The campus is one of the largest in the country, complete with a football stadium able to hold 108,000 spectators, a daycare center, housing for 14,000 people, and a nuclear reactor. There are many a bus stop and bus lines going all over State College. It was after class that I was standing in the hot sun rocking out to my iPod in my own little world. Within minutes out of the corner of my eye I spy a Palestinian. Not just any Palestinian, it was my old roommate Jalal. The grease in his hair reflecting the sun so intensely that the polarity of my sunglasses was rendered ineffective. Wearing a stupid bright blue shirt with the same clueless look on his face that I remember all too clearly.

“Of all the fucking places on campus, of all the possible times and bus stops he must be at this one at this moment with me.” But there is a lot of space at the bus stop, so I just had my head fixed toward the opposite way waiting for the Blue Loop to come by and whisk me off to the stadium parking lot. Sure enough, to my delight, the bus comes a few minutes later. I am fairly sure that he now lives in the apartment complex directly beside Nittany Crossing, he Jalal would be looking for a V or NV express to take, not a Blue Loop. I confidently stepped onto the bus making sure not to look to my right. I made my way to the back, there were no seats available so I grabbed hold of the handle and turned around to see a blue shirt directly in front of me. Not only did Jalal get on the same bus but he had to get on just behind me when 20 other people were getting on. In my continuing attempt to avoid contact with him I made sure to look out the window of the bus the whole time, keeping my iPod and sunglasses on. Every little braking of the bus caused him to slide back and hit my arm with his huge fucking bookbag no doubt crammed with organic chemistry books and gay porn.

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As I was writing a myspace comment a few minutes ago, I heard stomping coming up the cold, concrete stairs outside my window. It was a distinct stomping, the kind that is sort of unnecessary when going up some steps. I knew this stomp, I knew it well, for I have listened to it for months now every Sunday night at midnight. The stomping was coming from none other than one of my roommates, Jalal. Jalal is an interesting fellow, you see. He’s going into pre-med, but a month ago asked me if he should put his broken iPod in the pre-packaged and paid box that was sent from Apple days after receiving a complaint. Now, I’m not one to complain about people with a lack of common sense, I’m well known for being a complete retard in the area of common sense. The difference here is I’m going into Spanish, Jalal is going into medicine. Do you want a guy to operate on your heart that doesn’t realize when you complain about a product and then get a fucking prepaid box to ship the product back in, it is for shipping the product back in.

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Well, this is my first official post on my site. Although I’m going to refer to this as my site, Mr. Steve Kudelko made this all possible for a man who could not possibly set up this blog himself. As payment, I get to be a vassal and have all of Steve’s websites linked on the sidebar. So if in the future you are wondering why I like Steve so much as to link his websites, it is because I wouldn’t have this site of it wasn’t for him.

Kudos aside, I don’t have a subject or issue to talk about on my sweet blog yet. This is mainly so I have something posted instead of only having the default greeting post, which is gay.

As a side note, thanks to Ricky for his superb editing skills with my picture. That awkward picture will probably remain on the site for years because I don’t know how to edit and post a new one. Oopz.

I hope to have a lot of fun with this. So concludes the first official post of blogmaster George.

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