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Taryn Hawkins

34 Blog Entries
1 Trip
46 Photos

Trips:

Granada

Shorthand link:

http://www.blogabond.com/TarynHawkins24




really spain?

Granada, Spain

I have had intercambios galore lately and im loving it. Today the intercambio that I do with Erica, took us to a teteria in the Arabic part of town. His name is perry and he is my favorite intercambio. Hes something along the lines of erica’s host sister’s fiancé…or some weird connection like that. But hes studying to be a professor and in order to do that, he needs to pass an English exam. Usually with my intercambios I like it better when we are speaking Spanish because I learn so much, but with perry I like speaking English better. The first time we met with him he knew nearly zero English, it was so hard to understand him. We’ve been meeting at least twice a week since then and it is SO COOL to see how much he has improved. It’s a great feeling to hear him use words that we have taught him. He picks up on the language so quickly its crazy. Every once in a while ill hear him speak three straight sentences perfectly and if I passed him on the street and heard him speak those three sentences I would think he’s fluent. LOVE intercambios and I will be hunting for them in the states when I get back.
Fun fact: perry told us today that when you are with a group of people and then there is what we would call ‘an awkward silence’, in spain, they say an angel passed through the group of people. Que chulo, one of the reasons spain is so cool. Ha
I also learned today in class from my lit prof that English is the language with the most words. We have words that derive from just about every language, therefore our vocabulary is never ending…one of the hardest parts of learning Spanish for me is learning the vocabulary…no wonder English is so hard to learn…
Okay, dear spain, you are out of control, love taryn…
so yesterday was my first day out of the apartment in over a week due to my gripe a…because of this I missed a few exams, one being my culture exam. So I show up to class and we have a substitute who is SUPER guay (cool) and then all of a sudden he starts talking about the exam, so I told him I haven’t taken it yet..and he said oh really? And I said nope..and he said okay. And hands me the exam to take…he proceeds to go ahead and teach class. Full on discussion happening between 25 other students, while im sitting amongst them taking my exam. Our grade is based on the grades of two exams. It was no problem whatsoever for me to take my exam in the middle of class with him walking in and out of the class doing whatever he was doing. This would never happen in the states, ever. So weird to me. really spain??

off to AFRICA for the weekend! i really enjoy traveling...

permalink written by  Taryn Hawkins on November 19 from Granada, Spain
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so.much.stuff.

Granada, Spain

so im sitting in my bed at 3 in the afternoon because there is nothing else to do on sundays...still sick... so i decided to make a list of all the things i want to get before i leave. bad idea. theres quite a bit...it is going to be a miracle if i get everything home...ive already made a pile of the things that i brought here, that i plan on not bringing back. they have those big boxes on almost every street where you can put clothes and shoes in that are free for people to take, i think i might be making a few trips to some of those boxes...im avoiding buying another bag because that would be quite a hassle..i think id rather have heavy bags than too many bags...oh man what to do what to do...

permalink written by  Taryn Hawkins on November 15 from Granada, Spain
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gripe a, siempre en mi vida

Granada, Spain

i thought that after the whole argentina ordeal, i would be done dealing with gripe 1, aka swine flu..but turns out thats not the case. i got really sick the day before danny and mike got here, then today i had to go to the doctor and they told me i cant leave the apartment until monday. i was so bummed! out of the two days danny and mike were here i got to hang out with them for about two hours :( it was still very nice to see them though! my senora loved having them over, and she also loved that danny speaks spanish! good thing for me too because my sick brain could not think in spanish.

some weird things that dont seem to be so weird anymore..
street signs..there arent any. some of them are on the buildings, but they're hard to find. its been like that everywhere we've traveled so far. its been confusing, but now i just expect to be confused.

the mean granadiño...the people in granada strive to be mean..its not a joke. and its only in granada. the people at the stores wont smile or say hi, its something they literally try to accomplish. we learned this in one of our classes..theres a word for it, but i dont really remember it. same thing with people on the streets, they bump into and they dont apologize...it was very weird at the beginning, but now im just so appreciateive when people do apologize...which are usually tourists.

my señora moving my stuff..it was very bothersome at the beginning of the semester, but ive really gotten used to it. i come back looking for my slippers and i just have to check three different spots everytime. im not really sure why she moves them every time, but she does...oh well.

profs swearing in class...i was taken aback by this the first few times it happened, but now im realizing that the profs here are just really layed back...two of my proffessors know english, only one of them is almost fluent..but he'll randomly start speaking english in the middle of a sentence then go right back to spanish. its pretty funny though because usually the only words he says in english are swear words, not sure why. he says them in spanish too..just different, i dont think any of my profs in the US have ever swore in class..

terrible internet...when im at the internet cafe my internet cuts out whenever someone else signs on, when im at the apartment it cuts out when the phone rings and when someone rings the doorbell. its still irritating, but now i just expect it. if the phone is ringing i just have to stop what im doing and wait until my señora hangs up the phone to continue

thats all for now, im sure there is more, but again, my sick brain is foggy..

i did find a new way to get to class though a while ago, and its the best part of my day. i walk past a frutería, or fruit stand, and the owner has a huge husky...if you dont know this, huskies are my favorite dogs in the world. so every morning on my way to class and ever afternoon on my way back, i make sure i leave in enough time to stop and play with him for a while. :) i havent figured out his name yet, but i hope to before i have to leave!

permalink written by  Taryn Hawkins on November 11 from Granada, Spain
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so happy to be irish

Dublin, Ireland

Ireland might be my favorite place on earth...
the first night we were there we ate dinner at at a pub. we were a half an hour past the time they stop serving it, but they served us anyway. very nice people. i also learned that they dont really say 'your welcome' in ireland. they say 'cheers' instead :)
The first full day we were there we tried to go to Dunleighry..(im going to butcher the spelling of everything irish...) but we got on the train going the opposite way, oops. so we ended up in Howth (pronounced Hoat). it ended up being beautiful! it was right on the coast and there was a pier and a lighthouse...just everything i pictured ireland to be. it was actually raining and cold most of the time we were in ireland, but it was alright, thats my favorite kind of weather :)
then we went out for mexican food, that was delicious. later we went to a pub called 'whalen' which was definitely the pub that part of the move ps i love you was filmed in! so cool. :) suprisingly it was all locals there. we were told that they dont advertise it like that so no one really knows thats where it is. lucky for us :) we also went to a pub o'donahughs..that was also recommended to us by several people. it was very funny, we were the youngest by far. the next closest in age people to us were at least twice our age, but it was a lot of fun. everyone in dublin is so friendly! they even bought us a few beers :p
on halloween we actually did make it to dunleighry..but i like howth better :) the weather was nicer that day though. its kinda funny, we were told several times that halloween originated in ireland, and we could tell. it seemed a lot different from home. people were dressed up all day! and everyone was talking about it all weekend.
we also toured the guinness factory on halloween. that was a lot of fun. it was basically a self guided tour of a museum, but it was interesting to see how the beer is made! then we got a free glass at the end. theres a special way to pour it. at the pub the night before we were wondering why there were like ten glasses of half full beers on the bar, but learned why! that night we actually ended up staying in our hostel with some wine and playing games :) which was lots of fun.
the next day we decided to get a little extra sleep so instead of eating breakfast at the hostel, we went out for breakfast. SO delicious, finally a breakfast thats not toast! then we did TONS of shopping and took a look at the famine statues. they were very artistically done well, it was very cool, but at the same time errie. they're a memorial to all those affected by the potato famine, and also kind of a thanks to everyone who moved to the states and canada during it because it helped build the foundation they have now.
then a friend of mine who spend the summer in dublin recommended we go to a pub called porterhouse to get some strawberry beer. so we found it and they told us they had actually been out for three weeks and just got it back at 5 pm that day. what luck. and! a traditional irish rock band was performing that night too, which was SO SO SO cool! i loved it :) annnnd we went out to eat at fridays :) we ate tons of irish food while we were there though, which was a lot better than what i have heard.

the first couple of days we were just so excited to be in IRELAND..but after a while we started to realize what was happening around us. there was a homeless person on every corner. and it was very obvious that alcoholism is a very big problem in ireland. during the afternoons we saw far too many people stumbling around or passed out on the sidewalk. one night two guys who were at very oldest 15 years old came up to the group of us girls and were trying to talk to us. one of them had a beer in each pocket, a beer in one hand, and a cigarette in the other. he had just gotten kicked off the train for being to drunk. i loved so much about ireland, especially because i had the mix of such a wonderful experience and at the same time it was very eye opening...
i would love to go back

permalink written by  Taryn Hawkins on November 3 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Granada
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another cathedral

Cordoba, Spain

maybe it was because it was the end of our trip and everyone was tired and ready to sleep, but i didnt really like cordoba. it was pretty small and we just had a tour of the city and the cathedral...tours are nice sometimes, but we have toured SO MANY CATHEDRALS and they are all. the. same. and our tour guide didnt seem to thrilled to be doing his job either so im sure that played into it as well.
and we shamelessly ate burger king for lunch...

permalink written by  Taryn Hawkins on October 25 from Cordoba, Spain
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these boots were made for walkin

Sevilla, Spain

on saturday we went to Sevilla. i LOVED Sevilla. its about twice the size of granada and there are tons of people and buildings and traffic, and yet it was quiet and chill. it was perfect.
we did a tour for about two hours and then from there on out we were on our own. a group of 8 of us walked around all day, we did the math and figured we walked at very least 27 Miles on saturday. HA.
we also went on a paddle boat thing where you pedal on the gudavivir river which was so fun! we had very nice weather when we were there too. we had lunch at dominoes..ha we've kind of gotten into a pattern of eating american food whenever we're not in granada. then we just did some shopping and explored the city. a bunch of people went to the fubol game saturday night which it seems like they had fun, they tied 0-0. it would have been quite expensive for me to go slash the seats were in the boonies too. i feel like im forgetting a lot so if i remember later ill have to write again..

permalink written by  Taryn Hawkins on October 24 from Sevilla, Spain
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MONOS

Gibraltar, Gibraltar

so i still am not 100% sure what gibralter is..but we were there. i know its part of the UK, but thats it. slash..according to this website it is also a city...? we drove up to the border than crossed on foot. a lot of the hotels in gibralter are built in the water...it reminded me a little of venice, but not really
so everyone there spoke English and spanish, but they used the gibralter pound, which is different than the English pound...we could use euros there, but we got gibralter pounds back.
gibralter is 6 square Miles...very tiny. its kind of hard to explain.
theres what the call 'the rock' which ive been trying to get the picture on here but its not working. its basically a giant rock, and when we went to the top of it we got to go in these caves that were HUGE and so so so cool.
and the BEST PART of the whole weekend slash my whole love was this..

SO cool. i got to hang out with monkeys...spectacular.

monos

other than that we just toured the city..one of my friends got hit by a moto :( a group of a bout 5 of us were crossing the street and this girl on a moto swerved to miss a car and hit debbie instead. shes fine now but she had to go to the hospital in an ambulance and ah it was very scary...




permalink written by  Taryn Hawkins on October 23 from Gibraltar, Gibraltar
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first hostel experience

Lisbon, Portugal

when i decided to come to europe i had a few places in mind that i would have liked to go to. portugal was not one of them...a group of people were going and it was very inexpensive so i decided to go. it was amazing. lisbon is beautiful and very clean. our hostel was in a great location, right near the water. we took a ferry and saw the bellem tower and the cristo statue. the weather was great too.
so i had no idea what to expect from a hostel...but we lucked out. our hostel i would go as far as to say it was just as great as hotels ive stayed in. the people who worked there were very friendly and very intelligent, there was free wifi and computers to use, cable and flat screen tv, free internet, and free use of the blankets and sheets. ha, ive heard thats quite rare when it comes to hostels. there was also a kitchen so we cooked a wonderful meal one night. we had pasta with homemade tomato sauce. yum so delicious.
we spent a lot of time just walking around the city. there was so much to see..
i think the best part of my hostel experience was the people i met. the first day we were there we met two guys from australia. they have been traveling for a month and have quite a bit of traveling left to do. just for fun. but they were very friendly and we ended up hanging out with them the whole time we were there. they went out to lunch with us the day we left and it was so sad to say goodbye! in three days we felt like we've known them forever and yet we will never see them again...
we also met some people from spain, which was wonderful to be able to speak spanish! someone from Belgium, who says they dont really eat that many waffles in Belgium, but french fries originated there :p and some girls from france who were friendly as well. and someone from arizona who was just finishing up his world traveling adventure.
it was great they had a huge room where at night everyone just hung out and got to know each other. they also sold one euro beers..liz, morgan, and i made a toast to maddy on the she got out of the hospital :D i have a picture but well.. my camera is broken again.
ps-if you have facebook and were not friends you should find me..its much easier for me to put pictures on facebook than it is to put them on here... i will be buying a new camera before we leave for gibralter this weekend.

permalink written by  Taryn Hawkins on October 21 from Lisbon, Portugal
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day trip

Sintra, Portugal

this is mostly for the use of the map again, but one of the days in portugal we took a day trip to Sintra. we walked around and saw castles. we walked up this really windy road to get to a place with a great view of the city. there a guy who works at a store we went into told us about this great pastry place and the two pastries portugal is known for, which were delicious! and he also told us that Sintra is the most populated city in portugal. before we left we ate at pizza hut :)

permalink written by  Taryn Hawkins on October 21 from Sintra, Portugal
from the travel blog: Granada
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intercambio

Granada, Spain

so an intercambio is a person you pair up with that speaks the language you want to learn. so tonight we went for tapas with a group of intercambios that AIFS set up. i was kind of skeptical because most people tend to use the intercambio thing as like..a dating service.
in the CLM, the place i take my classes, anyone can go sign up for an intercambio. funny thing, you have to put your name, age, and picture in it. so there were a couple of girls who were telling me they went to sign up for an intercambio and they just looked for the guys within a certain age range and then of course had to make sure they looked good too.
so anyway we go to this intercambio, which is 7 american students, and well..4 spanish guys. HA.
it ended up going better than i thought it would. i was very nervous and didnt really get to talk too much until towards the end. we sat every other and the guy i was next to told me he was really good at English, but only really wanted to speak English. towards the end i was speaking spanish to someone else and he was speaking English. very strange at first, but it eventually worked out.

after three days of being miserably sick, i'm feeling a lot better, but still not fantastic. but we were told that at this exact time every semester the students start to get sick like this. when i left the office this morning my resident directer said, 3 down 47 to go, ha so that made me feel a little better...

permalink written by  Taryn Hawkins on October 13 from Granada, Spain
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