He nailed it.
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
 |
| Photo Credited to Jacob |
One of the best blog posts I´ve ever read in my life.
Enjoy,
-mb
Thursday, March 22, 2012
the return...otra vez.
The following is a link to an article written by Jacob Spetzler, who spent his year in the Basque Country. In this he writes about his feelings upon returning to the states, followed by some afterthoughts months later.
He nailed it.
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
One of the best blog posts I´ve ever read in my life.
Enjoy,
-mb
He nailed it.
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
One of the best blog posts I´ve ever read in my life.
Enjoy,
-mb
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
You Know You´re an AFSer When...
(Confessions of an AFSer...host sibling, returnee, & volunteer)
1. You have more AFS events planned on your calendar than any other type of social activity.
2. You talk to someone from a different country atleast three times a day.
3. More than 40% of your friends on Facebook aren´t from your home country.
4. Your family has hosted on multiple occasions.
5. (When talking to people from your home country) You forget that the person to whom you are talking to can understand what you are saying, and that there is no need to speak slowly or use simple vocabulary.
6. You know that having an address book would never work because half of your friend´s addresses wouldn´t even fit on the page. And ¨Bangkok¨ is really just the short version.
7. You know how to laugh in several languages online....5555555555555...jajajaja
8. Any given day you check the international news, you call your friend living there to see is the media is legit.
9. Knowing the current time in New Zealand is as easy as knowing the color shirt you are wearing.
10. You find it difficult to talk to people who have never traveled.
11. You are offended by questions such as, ¨What language do they speak in Iceland?¨ because you know very well, that your friend in Iceland speaks Icelandic.
12. You can say a few phrases in languages such as Turkish, Finnish, Icelandic, German, and Swedish... even if most of them are insults.
13. When meeting people from other countries, your first few words to them go something like...¨Hey! My name is so and so, where are you from in X country? I have a friend who lives in X city...¨
14. You speak a second language and hate how people give you weird looks when you do so on your cell phone.
15. You know what TOEFL is and have even helped people prepare for it.
16. You know how difficult it is for foreign students to get a visa to ¨just come back to the states for college¨.
17. You know where someone is from based on their accent, and if they don´t have an accent, they´re from Scandinavia.
18. You know the drinking age in virtually every country that exists.
19. You can explain, in depth, atleast five foreign school systems other than your own.
20. You cringe when people tell you they are going on vacation to some big tourist trap.
21. You travel to see your friends, not the Eiffel Tower.
22. In your spare time, you never read a book in your own language.
23. Upon returning to your home country, your day is made by laughing con Shrek y burro en español.
24. You know you have a home in different houses all over the world.
25. It´s harder to name a country where you don´t know someone, than where you do.
26. The most recent computer you used did not have an English keyboard.
27. You consider Skype your main telephone.
28. The person at the post office recognizes you and is no longer surprised that you´ll send mail to Seattle, Boston, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and Colombia on the same day.
29. About 45% of the music you listen to is in a different language or from a different country.
30. You know the ¨typical dance¨ of another country.
31. In a normal conversation you have to clarify which family you are talking about...home vs. host.
32. The ¨there are no kangaroos in Austria¨ joke is old school.
33. You know random things such as ¨Angry Birds¨ is a Finnish game, or that ¨Phillips¨ is a Dutch brand and consider it as common sense.
34. You speak to foreign students so often, you begin to speak like them, making the same grammatical mistakes.
35. You feel advanced in sociology class because the information you cover is the same in AFS Orientations.
36. Your closet contains a collection of clothing styles from all over the world.
37. You have a love-hate relationship for airports, as this place will lead you to or take you from you best friends.
38. Not being able to sing along to a foreign song doesn´t bother you.
39. You get excited when someone understands ¨Danza Kuduro¨.
40. You consider AFS to be your second nationality, especially when you're on exchange.
41. You have full conversations with yourself in your home country, in your host language.
42. Your Facebook statuses, as well as your friends´, are often written in two different languages.
43. You have friends who have never met each other, but go skiing at the same place year after year.
44. Your friend travels from the USA to Austria and meets someone who knows you...and you´ve never been to Austria.
45. A typical birthday gift from a friend is a CD with only Finnish music, or a Thai scarf.
46. Your real family cooks something from a foreign country on a daily basis.
47. You know that real cheese, bread, beer, or wine is not found in the USA.
48. You know the truth about drugs in Amsterdam, and how the Dutch government keeps them away from tourists.
49. You have to manually enter which language you are typing in when writing in Microsoft Word.
50. When traveling, the hardest decision for you to make is deciding who to visit first.
51. You speak to other Americans, in English, and they don´t understand anything you say. Because in reality, you speak AFS.
'ta pronto
-mb
 |
| Belgium-France-Finland-USA |
1. You have more AFS events planned on your calendar than any other type of social activity.
2. You talk to someone from a different country atleast three times a day.
3. More than 40% of your friends on Facebook aren´t from your home country.
4. Your family has hosted on multiple occasions.
 |
| USA-Holland |
6. You know that having an address book would never work because half of your friend´s addresses wouldn´t even fit on the page. And ¨Bangkok¨ is really just the short version.
7. You know how to laugh in several languages online....5555555555555...jajajaja
8. Any given day you check the international news, you call your friend living there to see is the media is legit.
 |
| Madrid to Zürich |
10. You find it difficult to talk to people who have never traveled.
11. You are offended by questions such as, ¨What language do they speak in Iceland?¨ because you know very well, that your friend in Iceland speaks Icelandic.
13. When meeting people from other countries, your first few words to them go something like...¨Hey! My name is so and so, where are you from in X country? I have a friend who lives in X city...¨
14. You speak a second language and hate how people give you weird looks when you do so on your cell phone.
15. You know what TOEFL is and have even helped people prepare for it.
16. You know how difficult it is for foreign students to get a visa to ¨just come back to the states for college¨.
17. You know where someone is from based on their accent, and if they don´t have an accent, they´re from Scandinavia.
18. You know the drinking age in virtually every country that exists.
19. You can explain, in depth, atleast five foreign school systems other than your own.
20. You cringe when people tell you they are going on vacation to some big tourist trap.
21. You travel to see your friends, not the Eiffel Tower.
22. In your spare time, you never read a book in your own language.
23. Upon returning to your home country, your day is made by laughing con Shrek y burro en español.
 |
| End of stay orientation- AFS SPAIN 2010-11 |
25. It´s harder to name a country where you don´t know someone, than where you do.
26. The most recent computer you used did not have an English keyboard.
27. You consider Skype your main telephone.
28. The person at the post office recognizes you and is no longer surprised that you´ll send mail to Seattle, Boston, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and Colombia on the same day.
29. About 45% of the music you listen to is in a different language or from a different country.
31. In a normal conversation you have to clarify which family you are talking about...home vs. host.
32. The ¨there are no kangaroos in Austria¨ joke is old school.
33. You know random things such as ¨Angry Birds¨ is a Finnish game, or that ¨Phillips¨ is a Dutch brand and consider it as common sense.
34. You speak to foreign students so often, you begin to speak like them, making the same grammatical mistakes.
35. You feel advanced in sociology class because the information you cover is the same in AFS Orientations.
36. Your closet contains a collection of clothing styles from all over the world.
37. You have a love-hate relationship for airports, as this place will lead you to or take you from you best friends.
 |
| Homebound- Barajas Airport, Madrid |
38. Not being able to sing along to a foreign song doesn´t bother you.
39. You get excited when someone understands ¨Danza Kuduro¨.
40. You consider AFS to be your second nationality, especially when you're on exchange.
41. You have full conversations with yourself in your home country, in your host language.
42. Your Facebook statuses, as well as your friends´, are often written in two different languages.
43. You have friends who have never met each other, but go skiing at the same place year after year.
45. A typical birthday gift from a friend is a CD with only Finnish music, or a Thai scarf.
46. Your real family cooks something from a foreign country on a daily basis.
47. You know that real cheese, bread, beer, or wine is not found in the USA.
48. You know the truth about drugs in Amsterdam, and how the Dutch government keeps them away from tourists.
49. You have to manually enter which language you are typing in when writing in Microsoft Word.
50. When traveling, the hardest decision for you to make is deciding who to visit first.
51. You speak to other Americans, in English, and they don´t understand anything you say. Because in reality, you speak AFS.
 |
| Midstay Orientation |
'ta pronto
-mb
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
(no asunto)
When I get bored, I frequently have conversations with myself in Spanish. Full conversations, too. Like a story. Multiple characters, the whole shabang. I´ve even dreamed in Spanish after being back, seven months later. When reading subtitles on the TV at the YMCA, I´ve even pronounced English words like Spanish words in my head. Or have mistaken it for Spanish when it´s really English.
But it´s nice to know I´m not the only one.
Even Facebook has gone crazy.
-mb
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Introduction Video
For my LIT170 class at the local college we had to do an introduction video of ourselves and put it onYouTube. I figured I could put it up on here as well considering many of the pictures were taken in Spain.
Where to next?
-mb
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Bored on a Saturday Afternoon
The following are pictures were taken on a typical Saturday in May. Little did I know a bit of boredom and creativity would lead to some of the prettiest pictures I've ever taken in my life. These pictures are of downtown Alicante, about two miles from my bungalow. The weather was average, neither too hot or too cold.
In less than two hours I saw a live television broadcast, five wedding couples, three of which were in a photo shoot, two or three non-related photo shoots, a group of tourists needing English to Spanish translation help, old fashioned cars, and the everyday normal things, such as Spaniards reading books by the dock, leaving from work, and more. The pictures were taken around 5-7PM and turned out to show the real beauty of Alicante. It's hard to believe such a small country has so much diversity.
Click on the pictures for a slideshow view.
Does anyone know a gadget to put on a blogger post? Loading all the pictures takes forever...
Again, one of the prettiest dresses I have ever seen.
A few more pictures...
In less than two hours I saw a live television broadcast, five wedding couples, three of which were in a photo shoot, two or three non-related photo shoots, a group of tourists needing English to Spanish translation help, old fashioned cars, and the everyday normal things, such as Spaniards reading books by the dock, leaving from work, and more. The pictures were taken around 5-7PM and turned out to show the real beauty of Alicante. It's hard to believe such a small country has so much diversity.
Click on the pictures for a slideshow view.
 |
| Downtown Plaza- notice the castle between the two buildings. |
 |
| Live TV Broadcast |
 |
| Wedding downtown. I think that's the prettiest dress I've seen in my life.. |
 |
| Town Hall Building (location of wedding) |
 |
| Typical Street in Spain. |
Explanada de España (below)
 |
| Palm trees on the Explanada de España |
 |
| Street Artist's Office |
 |
| Family by the dock |
 |
| La Marina Alicantina |
 |
| Photoshop wasn't used in any way for these.. |
Does anyone know a gadget to put on a blogger post? Loading all the pictures takes forever...
 |
| Santa Barbara Castle on the top right. |
 |
| My house behind the big square building in the center. |
 |
| Notice the girls' dresses, they are "damas" ('beauties') and are the Alicante representative...there are a lot of them. ...I love the photographer's dedication. |
So now, you have officially had a tour of Alicante, and have a sense of the culture on a Saturday afternoon. Alicante is a beautiful city, and I found that just a walk in the park can really show what the community is all about.
Happy New Year Everyone,
May 2012 bring you good health, new experiences, and opportunities.
-mb
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
AFS - Spain
"You won't realize the distance you've walked
until you take a look around and realize how far you've been." -unknown
Distance is only a number, the party hasn't stopped yet.
-mb
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Life
During school last year I would frequently write in my notebook, in order to ¨save¨ those moments that I would forget by the time I got home. The other day I was going through my notebooks, looking for chemistry notes. You may not laugh (or cry) like I did after re-reading this, but I thought I should share it. Titled ¨Life¨, here is a glance at what happened on an average day. (Note my English...)
(Written Feb. 4th, 2011)
Life
Welcome to the world of being foreign. Today started out with math class, and the substitute teacher asked me if I needed something. Me, sitting in the back of the room still without a mathbook, continued by explaining how I´m an exchange student. She looked at me with that stupid look she gives me, and continued to try and explain something that was on the board. I looked at her again and said once again how I don´t have a book, and that math in Madrid was very different, that was from previous years. The next class was history, and our teacher didn´t come, so we all went to the library. I was pretty surprised how ¨good¨ everyone was considering that there was no teacher. It was there in the library that the other American asked me if I had a calculator for the economy test the next hour. Economy test? I had no idea there was going to be an economy test. We get to class and the teacher handed out the test to everyone. Including me. Let´s back up and refresh ourselves on the fact that this is my 5th day at this school, and my 4th day in this class. My 4th economy class in my entire life. She is fully aware of the fact I have never taken economy before, but continued to hand me the test anyways. She handed me the test in such a manner there it was obvious that I was ¨invisible¨ and wanted to advoid talking to me at all costs. I wrote my name, and continued to read the test. Staring at it in confusion, with all of the economy abbreviations and concepts, I was unable to answer a single question. I raised my hand, and continued to be ignored. The teacher helped everyone around me, minus myself. My hand continued to be raised. I waited. Finally, she couldn´t ignore me any longer when she took roll call. She came over and I asked her what she wanted me to do. She was irritated with me as I couldn´t finish the test. She continued to tell me that she doesn´t understand why I am in economy halfway through the year. She was also speaking to me in a very broken English. This can be rather insulting sometimes, when your level of language is higher than their level of yours. The teacher still confused and angry, took my test and told me to read a book. I guess I didn´t make it clear enough the first two times that I didn´t have one. So I wrote this blog post. Cool.
-mb
(Written Feb. 4th, 2011)
Life
Welcome to the world of being foreign. Today started out with math class, and the substitute teacher asked me if I needed something. Me, sitting in the back of the room still without a mathbook, continued by explaining how I´m an exchange student. She looked at me with that stupid look she gives me, and continued to try and explain something that was on the board. I looked at her again and said once again how I don´t have a book, and that math in Madrid was very different, that was from previous years. The next class was history, and our teacher didn´t come, so we all went to the library. I was pretty surprised how ¨good¨ everyone was considering that there was no teacher. It was there in the library that the other American asked me if I had a calculator for the economy test the next hour. Economy test? I had no idea there was going to be an economy test. We get to class and the teacher handed out the test to everyone. Including me. Let´s back up and refresh ourselves on the fact that this is my 5th day at this school, and my 4th day in this class. My 4th economy class in my entire life. She is fully aware of the fact I have never taken economy before, but continued to hand me the test anyways. She handed me the test in such a manner there it was obvious that I was ¨invisible¨ and wanted to advoid talking to me at all costs. I wrote my name, and continued to read the test. Staring at it in confusion, with all of the economy abbreviations and concepts, I was unable to answer a single question. I raised my hand, and continued to be ignored. The teacher helped everyone around me, minus myself. My hand continued to be raised. I waited. Finally, she couldn´t ignore me any longer when she took roll call. She came over and I asked her what she wanted me to do. She was irritated with me as I couldn´t finish the test. She continued to tell me that she doesn´t understand why I am in economy halfway through the year. She was also speaking to me in a very broken English. This can be rather insulting sometimes, when your level of language is higher than their level of yours. The teacher still confused and angry, took my test and told me to read a book. I guess I didn´t make it clear enough the first two times that I didn´t have one. So I wrote this blog post. Cool.
-mb
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)