Okay, so the first week has come and gone and I must say that it´s been... eventful. On the first day of school it was the usual orientation and also a placement test that I fretted over the night before doing last minute craming. I was sincerely worried that I was screwed, that I would do so badly that I would be set back and not in the place to recieve the necessary credits, but thankful that wasn´t true.
Well, not really, I placed what I thought at first was below my level, which is kinda true, if I was in a normal class in the US, but I´m not. The material that I use for class is a photocopy packet of questions, but no learning material, like a book to learn new material or explanations, it´s all review in spanish only. It´s pretty half ass on the part of the program, but the teacher speak only in spanish so I guess it´s really the point to listen. The class starts about 9:30 then ends about 1pm with an extra hour of class time for choice, I picked conversation so I can try to talk with the teacher more often. But the last day on friday we just went outside and they gave us a sheet of like 4 songs that we sang along with a guitar, kinda like summer camp, but with only 4 songs and an hour class time we sang the same 4 songs like 3 times each, really fucking lame.
I don´t know, the University is dead, it seems the only people on the small campus are Americans, there are a few spanish students, but you oonly see like 20 at any given moment. Lame. I´m trying to make the most of it, but I feel that the program is just focusing on the immersion of being in Spain becuase the school itself is kinda coasting along with what they could provide in other things. I mean for the thousands of dollars that we spent for this they could have given us a real book that helped explain the spainish language, but not really. All I can say that though this is a unique opportunity and have fun with my fellow students, I don´t have any respect for the current school system, it´s an ineffective, wasteful cash cow.
After the super awesome sing along (NOT) on firday a few fellow students and I hopped on a Bus to Pompalona for the runnign of the Bulls. The ride was about 7 hours long. The ride there didn´t seem so long, I slept, which on a bus, like a plane, isn´t really sleeping, it´s like resting to kill time. Pompalona is a lot more developed than I thought, to be honest I thought it was gonna be a backwards town, which it isn´t except for the bus station. It´s a really nice town, but damn was it crowded, it was opening night for the festival and there was carnival and families and groups were out and filled the streets, about 90 percent of peopel weere only dressed in the traditinal clothes of white shirt and pants with a red sash and scarf.
After Orientating ourselves, my fellow students and I just partied in the streets with eh rest of the crazies. We made our way the section to wehre the runnign was to commence in the morning, everyone was out and getting drunk.At first we tried the bars, but they wanted 8 euros for a glass of jack and coke, which is the cost of a bottle, was too expensive for me, hell for anyone really. But thankfully we found a small store that was selling a booze and we got a bottle of whiskey for 16 Euros. I was in the mood to get drunk and I drank at least a quarter of that bootle, so by around 3 am I was on the floor so fucked up that I got sick. Knowing that I would be fucked beyond recognition if I just tried to let the alcohol run through me I had my friend lead me to the corner of a street where, once I saw do this, I stuck my finger in my throat and forced myself to vomit. Awesome.
By the time of around 5 am the trucks were out and forcing people to leave so they could set up for the running of the bulls, my group and I then went to park and slept for 2 hours. You think that was bad, sleeping in the park? Sorry no such thing, everyone was doing it, so many people were in the city that there just wasn´t hotels to fit that many people, even the parks were crowded. We awoke about 7am and got into position into the street corridors to run. Now I´m not going to get into this too much, but I was with 2 other friends of mine, they got in front of me and i was just slightly behind them, we were moving forward, when out ofthe blue the pompalona cops did a L shaped sweep, and they block off a chunk of the crowd in the street and took out hteir sticks and puched us out into the side street out of the street to run with the Bulls. Yes, my friends barely got past the cops, while I was shouved out, making my whole experience shit becuase I coulnd´t even see the run becuase the cops pushed us out so far. So fuck that, my 60 Euro and 14 hour total bus ride was fucked becuase of these mother fucking cops. I´m fucking done. I don´t even want to even fucking speak about it no more. I missed the first and probably best excursion with ym Study abroad program to go to Pompalona and get fucked over by cops.
Well, not really, I placed what I thought at first was below my level, which is kinda true, if I was in a normal class in the US, but I´m not. The material that I use for class is a photocopy packet of questions, but no learning material, like a book to learn new material or explanations, it´s all review in spanish only. It´s pretty half ass on the part of the program, but the teacher speak only in spanish so I guess it´s really the point to listen. The class starts about 9:30 then ends about 1pm with an extra hour of class time for choice, I picked conversation so I can try to talk with the teacher more often. But the last day on friday we just went outside and they gave us a sheet of like 4 songs that we sang along with a guitar, kinda like summer camp, but with only 4 songs and an hour class time we sang the same 4 songs like 3 times each, really fucking lame.
I don´t know, the University is dead, it seems the only people on the small campus are Americans, there are a few spanish students, but you oonly see like 20 at any given moment. Lame. I´m trying to make the most of it, but I feel that the program is just focusing on the immersion of being in Spain becuase the school itself is kinda coasting along with what they could provide in other things. I mean for the thousands of dollars that we spent for this they could have given us a real book that helped explain the spainish language, but not really. All I can say that though this is a unique opportunity and have fun with my fellow students, I don´t have any respect for the current school system, it´s an ineffective, wasteful cash cow.
After the super awesome sing along (NOT) on firday a few fellow students and I hopped on a Bus to Pompalona for the runnign of the Bulls. The ride was about 7 hours long. The ride there didn´t seem so long, I slept, which on a bus, like a plane, isn´t really sleeping, it´s like resting to kill time. Pompalona is a lot more developed than I thought, to be honest I thought it was gonna be a backwards town, which it isn´t except for the bus station. It´s a really nice town, but damn was it crowded, it was opening night for the festival and there was carnival and families and groups were out and filled the streets, about 90 percent of peopel weere only dressed in the traditinal clothes of white shirt and pants with a red sash and scarf.
After Orientating ourselves, my fellow students and I just partied in the streets with eh rest of the crazies. We made our way the section to wehre the runnign was to commence in the morning, everyone was out and getting drunk.At first we tried the bars, but they wanted 8 euros for a glass of jack and coke, which is the cost of a bottle, was too expensive for me, hell for anyone really. But thankfully we found a small store that was selling a booze and we got a bottle of whiskey for 16 Euros. I was in the mood to get drunk and I drank at least a quarter of that bootle, so by around 3 am I was on the floor so fucked up that I got sick. Knowing that I would be fucked beyond recognition if I just tried to let the alcohol run through me I had my friend lead me to the corner of a street where, once I saw do this, I stuck my finger in my throat and forced myself to vomit. Awesome.
By the time of around 5 am the trucks were out and forcing people to leave so they could set up for the running of the bulls, my group and I then went to park and slept for 2 hours. You think that was bad, sleeping in the park? Sorry no such thing, everyone was doing it, so many people were in the city that there just wasn´t hotels to fit that many people, even the parks were crowded. We awoke about 7am and got into position into the street corridors to run. Now I´m not going to get into this too much, but I was with 2 other friends of mine, they got in front of me and i was just slightly behind them, we were moving forward, when out ofthe blue the pompalona cops did a L shaped sweep, and they block off a chunk of the crowd in the street and took out hteir sticks and puched us out into the side street out of the street to run with the Bulls. Yes, my friends barely got past the cops, while I was shouved out, making my whole experience shit becuase I coulnd´t even see the run becuase the cops pushed us out so far. So fuck that, my 60 Euro and 14 hour total bus ride was fucked becuase of these mother fucking cops. I´m fucking done. I don´t even want to even fucking speak about it no more. I missed the first and probably best excursion with ym Study abroad program to go to Pompalona and get fucked over by cops.
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