Blog #2...dun, dun, duh

¡Hola todos! I am good here in Spain, but, how are you guys? What´s up in Indiana? I honestly don´t ahve much to write now, so, this is going to be a short blog. Cordoba and Granada, in my opinion, were better than Toledo. I loved the arabic architecture and the geometrical patterns. I have a lot of photos, but its difficult to upload them to facebook, I can only put 5-7 now. If you guys have any questions, I'd love to answer them. The only new thing I can think of to write now is that I have a collection of owls here, one from each city, but it was the most fun searching for one in Granada. ....I´m going to try and write more next Sunday, July 4th!, and I hope to have more to say.

I love you all and will see you in 5 weeks.
Kahle

¡ Finalmente, Hola todos!

I hope that all of you are good and are having a great summer. This is my first blog from Spain, and I am so excited. I have so much to write and only a small amount of time.

First, yes, I am alive and my family has killed me...yet. Friday I went to Toledo, and I am still without words to describe how amazing it is. The cathedral....how amazing! but, I couldn´t take pictures, so if you want to see it, you´ll have to check on the internet. I loved the mixture of Arabic, Judaism, and Catholicism in the architecture. This was my first excursion, next week is Granada and Cordoba. Alright, now what else?

¿My journey by plane?
So, my journey was very long. I was suppossed to leave from Indy at 10:30 and ended up leaving at 4, because of rain in Chicago. Then, I had to run to my plane for Madrid....not fun. But, I met people from my group on the plane, so it was good...and I watched Alice in Wonderland in Spanish.

Here in Spain is so different from the US, but at times the same. Here are some differences:

• They hardly ever use their lights, even at night, and never during the day.
• They shower for 5 to 8 minutes and they don´t use water the entire time...and yes, its very cold water
• They don´t really eat fast food like McDonald´s or Burger King. In fact, I only know of one Burger King in my town, and its on the outskirts. And there is one McDonalds in the center of Toledo.
• They eat so much...and its true, I can´t eat this much, but my mother here is always : "eat more!"
• They walk everywhere. Or they use the bus. and their cars are tiny.
• They live for "No pasa nada" and "Vale" or "it doesn´t matter" and "ok"
• Their houses are so tiny and many live in apartments. (Although, those who live in Miguelturra live in mansions)
• Their icecream has "drugs"....its addictive
• Bread is always fresh and with every meal
• There is more, but they are for another time.

Speaking in spanish the first day was impossible. I only wanted to sleep. Each day gets better. My only problem is that almost all of their music is in English. So I try to think in spanish, but want to sing in English.

OK! My family here is very nice and I like them a lot. My mother is very talkative, and I don´t know my father or brother very well because they are always working.

I love my school and the people in it. Yes, there are always bad eggs, but for now, I think most if not all have good intentions. I have two very good friends, one who lives very close to my apartment. I also have two other neighbors from my school. Now, school is easy...eventually, no...

For now, I think this is all. I´ll write again next Sunday,

With love from Spain,
Kahle

PS This is for Christian, my first words in Spain were "Es ist mir kalt" You´re welcome :)

Goodbye America!

So, I'm leaving from Indianapolis Airport at 10:30 tomorrow for Chicago. From Chicago I leave at 4:40 for Madrid. Its about a 7 hour flight to Madrid. Then in Madrid I take a bus with my group to Ciudad Real, which will take about 4 or 5 hours.


*****UPDATE*****
As of my last blog, I have received a new host family. They are a husband, wife, and son. The father of the family works in the hotel business and that is all I know as of this point.

Good bye family and friends, I will be updating from Spain soon enough. I hope you all have wonderful summers and that you enjoy reading this blog.

I love you all,

Adios!

Kahle

2 Weeks to Go

I thought I would update everyone on the state of my trip so far and any details I've yet to cover about it in this blog. So, I guess you can think of this as a summary of what I know thus far. I will be leaving on June 12 and coming home the 27th of July. While in Spain I will be taking classes in Spanish over culture, conversation, grammar, literature, and the like. I will be living with a host family, a single mother who's daughter is 12. I am going to try to get out some individual communications to my friends and family while in Spain, but I'm not sure how that will work out yet. I have a long list of people to contact while I'm in Spain, and only seven hours the entire seven week trip to do it in. While in Spain I will be visiting several historical sites, which, if you can imagine, I am extremely excited about. I will be attempting to place pictures on my blog, but I can't make any promises since I'm not 100% certain of how often I will be able to use a computer while in Spain.

I believe that's it for now. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

Final English Blog

1) Through this blog I have discovered that I have an ethical mind. This stems from the fact that I have a strong desire to understand society and its innate goals. I want to better understand different cultures and how they interact with each other based upon their intricate belief systems.

2) I exhibit curiosity by doing research and trying to find as much information as I can about what I am interested in. I am not afraid to try something new if I think it will help me to better understand a culture. I also exhibit curiosity by asking myself rhetorical questions and examining the different answers they could create. I generate hypotheses by developing ideas of how one change in a culture could result in a betterment for the whole of the group. For example, I discussed being immeresed in a culture to better one's learning experience. I also see other points of view. In learning about and joining in a new culture I have to be able to coexhist and understand other points of view, even if they are not akin to my own. By studying their society's habits, I show that I can see and acknowledge other points of view.

3) I learned through this blog that I have a deep attatchment to learning about the Spanish culture and history that flows through Spain. With my trip I believe this attatchment will only grow stronger. I have also learned that I have found a new way to write poetry and that it is calming to me. The ability to write bilingually may eventually help me in the future, and I find it also brings me great joy. This blog has helped me to better see myself as just one of many persons in the world, trying to manuvuer in an ever changing society. The continued updating of this blog may help me to further grow in this understanding and knowledge.

Ancient Architecture in Spain

So one of the reasons I decided to try to enter IU Honors was because of my love of ancient history. I've loved history for as long as I can remember, but the Mediterranean has always been one of my main facets of interest. This year, as I mentioned in a previous blog, we studied Spanish culture in my class. This also consisted of Spanish history, which was an area of Mediterranean History that I had yet to study. I was enthralled with the combination of cultures that influenced the Spanish language and society over the century. Learning about the Muslim and Roman influences were some of the most fascinating aspects of Spanish history. During this time, my teacher presented us with pictures of many of the main architectural features of Spain, and I knew that I needed to go. When I first began to study Roman culture around 6th grade, I had dreams of going to Rome. Upon realizing that I could find Roman architecture as well as a mixing of several other historical buildings in Spain, while becoming bilingual, I knew that I needed to go on this trip. As of now, I know that we will be making several trips around Spain and I know that this alone will be one among many fascinating aspects of the culture. I'm not sure which architectural monuments I will bet to see, but I have many hopes. Among the many sites I would like to see are these: http://gospain.about.com/od/spanisharchitectur1/Pictures_of_Spanish_Architecture.htm

This website provides pictures and names of several of the most famous sites.

Hopefully this experience will enable me to further my Archaeological and Anthropological studies. The insights which I might find in Spain may help me to find my path in life, and promise to create some of the most indelible memories of my life.

More on Spanish Music

Over the past 2 weeks in my Spanish class, we have been creating music videos, somewhat like karaokes, to Spanish music. The lyrics are translated over into English, with the song in the background as Spanish. During the time we have been working on this project, I have noticed a dramatic change in my class. Ok, it may not seem like a lot to some people, I concede, but from what I have observed, it seems very important. For one of the first times in my class, people are using Spanish more frequently. They have begun listening to Spanish music, and some of them are beginning to sing in Spanish as well. To me, this is exciting. It gives me hope that my trip in Spain will trully allow me to become bilingual. As the students in my class are surrounded by the stimulus that is hearing only Spanish, they begin to better comprehend pronunciation, as well as learn words at a more frequent pace. Thus, being immersed in a foreign culture should have similar and more rapid effects. I have begun to ponder the possibility that if all of our foreign language programs provided more listening and immersive activities, language would develop more quickly. Through my Psychology class I learned that we are more adept to learning language at a younger age, during a certain critical period. This does not mean that it is impossible to learn after this period in time, but it is more difficult. This being the case, I believe it would be more effective to provide students with opportunities to participate in the culture and immerse themselves in the language than it is to spend 4 years in a classroom. For example, if a teacher guides a class while only speaking the foriegn language after the 1st year or 2 of the language, then students would progress towards bilingualism more quickly. It is my hope that in the next couple of years this will become more obvious in schools throughout the United States so that enthusiastic students can meet their full potentials.