60 degrees on December 13th, I can dig that :)
One final exam down, one to go, plus one presentation and one already completed paper to be turned in.
lunes, 13 de diciembre de 2010
jueves, 9 de diciembre de 2010
T minus 6 days and approximately 21 hours
Well, well, it's been a while now, hasn't it? Where to start...
Not much happened during the rest of November. (How is it December already??) Our MA coordinator arranged a "study break/end of the semester dinner/alternative Thanksgiving dinner/anything else you want to call it" dinner on Thanksgiving at a nice restaurant near school. The food was not Thanksgiving-style, but it was incredibly good.
However, to resolve this lack-of-turkey feeling, one of my friends and I arranged a real Thanksgiving dinner (slash pre-Christmas party since none of us will have time for that between finals and going home for break) for us and our group of friends. Problem is that my friend doesn't have an oven...so I made a chicken (my senora's oven is tiny and I'm pretty sure a turkey - if I was willing to buy and attempt cooking one - would never fit in there), stuffing, sweet potatoes, and apple and pumpkin pies. Everyone else pitched in the other dishes and beverages. I learned later that apparently you can buy pre-made pie crust here (according to my senora, but I don't know exactly what this crust is like), but since I didn't know that I made pie crust from scratch, which actually isn't that difficult. Anyway, the food was good and it was a fun time.
Next up, last week - get ready, you're not going to believe this - it SNOWED. Granted, not a single flake stuck to the ground, and there were no snowmen to be built. However, it flurried for most of the day, and this is a rarity for Madrid. We beat you, Boston!
Now, if all this Thanksgiving and snow fun weren't enough, we just had a six-day long weekend. I know what you're thinking, but come on, we had class on Thanksgiving. We deserved extra days off. Anyway, this past Monday and today (Wednesday) were Spanish holidays (Constitution Day and some other religious but not really celebrated holiday having to do with the Virgen, as most Spanish holidays do), and it didn't make sense to squeeze class in on Tuesday. However, it's finals time, so I spent most of this past "weekend" working on two papers and studying for one of two final exams that I have. Fun, right?
Originally my senora was going to be gone this long weekend, she was going to Belgium with a friend. However, the air traffic controllers at Madrid's airport, Barajas, decided to go on strike last Friday and didn't return to work until Saturday afternoon. Flights were cancelled and delayed and all that chaos that you might expect ensued. Long story short, my poor senora wasn't able to go to Belgium, but she did wind up taking a day trip to Valladolid instead (I still felt really bad for her, but she didn't seem horribly disappointed). I'm still not exactly sure what the air traffic controllers were on strike for, because I read and heard on the news that some of them make an absurd amount of money. The government got all involved and threatened to arrest them if they didn't get back to work, which evidently worked. I can't imagine being that unhappy with a job that you would purposefully screw over you entire country by ruining so many people's holiday travel plans (this long weekend is a very popular vacation time). Anyway, if you're interested in reading more, here are some articles:
CNN
Telegraph
Some news source I've never heard of before
Daily Mail
Two of those articles are from British papers...the British were pretty angry about this situation because they too love to vacation in Spain.
Anyway, I think that's about it for now. At this point, I've got one paper to finish and two tests next week, and then I'm home free next Wednesday!
Not much happened during the rest of November. (How is it December already??) Our MA coordinator arranged a "study break/end of the semester dinner/alternative Thanksgiving dinner/anything else you want to call it" dinner on Thanksgiving at a nice restaurant near school. The food was not Thanksgiving-style, but it was incredibly good.
However, to resolve this lack-of-turkey feeling, one of my friends and I arranged a real Thanksgiving dinner (slash pre-Christmas party since none of us will have time for that between finals and going home for break) for us and our group of friends. Problem is that my friend doesn't have an oven...so I made a chicken (my senora's oven is tiny and I'm pretty sure a turkey - if I was willing to buy and attempt cooking one - would never fit in there), stuffing, sweet potatoes, and apple and pumpkin pies. Everyone else pitched in the other dishes and beverages. I learned later that apparently you can buy pre-made pie crust here (according to my senora, but I don't know exactly what this crust is like), but since I didn't know that I made pie crust from scratch, which actually isn't that difficult. Anyway, the food was good and it was a fun time.
Next up, last week - get ready, you're not going to believe this - it SNOWED. Granted, not a single flake stuck to the ground, and there were no snowmen to be built. However, it flurried for most of the day, and this is a rarity for Madrid. We beat you, Boston!
Now, if all this Thanksgiving and snow fun weren't enough, we just had a six-day long weekend. I know what you're thinking, but come on, we had class on Thanksgiving. We deserved extra days off. Anyway, this past Monday and today (Wednesday) were Spanish holidays (Constitution Day and some other religious but not really celebrated holiday having to do with the Virgen, as most Spanish holidays do), and it didn't make sense to squeeze class in on Tuesday. However, it's finals time, so I spent most of this past "weekend" working on two papers and studying for one of two final exams that I have. Fun, right?
Originally my senora was going to be gone this long weekend, she was going to Belgium with a friend. However, the air traffic controllers at Madrid's airport, Barajas, decided to go on strike last Friday and didn't return to work until Saturday afternoon. Flights were cancelled and delayed and all that chaos that you might expect ensued. Long story short, my poor senora wasn't able to go to Belgium, but she did wind up taking a day trip to Valladolid instead (I still felt really bad for her, but she didn't seem horribly disappointed). I'm still not exactly sure what the air traffic controllers were on strike for, because I read and heard on the news that some of them make an absurd amount of money. The government got all involved and threatened to arrest them if they didn't get back to work, which evidently worked. I can't imagine being that unhappy with a job that you would purposefully screw over you entire country by ruining so many people's holiday travel plans (this long weekend is a very popular vacation time). Anyway, if you're interested in reading more, here are some articles:
CNN
Telegraph
Some news source I've never heard of before
Daily Mail
Two of those articles are from British papers...the British were pretty angry about this situation because they too love to vacation in Spain.
Anyway, I think that's about it for now. At this point, I've got one paper to finish and two tests next week, and then I'm home free next Wednesday!
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