Book Addict's Blog

Months ago, chachic  asked me to post pictures of the Selexyz Domincanen Bookstore, which she read about in an article. I'm finally getting around to it! The article has much better pictures than I do, though, so make sure you check out that link as well!

( Cut for large pictures )

Here's the blog post I wrote on the train Wednesday afternoon (you'll have to wait until the next blog post to hear about today's adventures!):

I'm over halfway through my month of travel already! I can't believe how fast time is flying by. It's been pretty amazing traveling throughout Europe. Finals went well; nothing was too hard. The one setback was that I didn't finish my 12-page philosophy paper before I left. It wasn't due until two weeks after my last class, but I didn't want to have to do it while traveling, particularly since that meant I had to drag my laptop and books along. On the bright side, having my laptop has been kind of nice, and it's the reason I can write this blog post on my way to Tours, France!

( A really long post with lots of pictures! )

I'm in Europe! Maastricht, the Netherlands, to be exact, where I'll be studying for the next couple of months. I've also already spent a few days in England with my group. It's only been just over a week since I've arrived on this continent, and things have been a whirlwind so far! I'm loving it, though.

( Cut for ramblings and a photo... )

Well, I'm all registered for next semester's classes now!  Things can still change, but for now, I'm pretty content with what I've got. I'm taking the following 7 classes*:

• Computers in Society
• Introduction to Computer Systems
• BIC Capstone: The Once and Future King: David, Jesus, and King Arthur
• World Cultures V: Islamic Culture in the Middle East**
• The Early Republic, 1789-1860 (American History)**
• Introduction to Language and Linguistics
• Ballet I

The BIC*** capstone classes are usually only offered in the spring, but for some reason, they're offering one section of it in the fall. As the topic is the one I've been wanting to take, I went ahead and signed up for it. However, with that out of the way, I only needed one hour of computer science and I'd be done with all my major and minor requirements after next semester.  And then I got to thinking, Why don't I study abroad in the spring?  Originally, I'd been opposed to studying abroad my final semester, but the idea suddenly started to get attractive.  My mom was very supportive of the idea, and so I started to look at the various programs that my school approves.

( Read more... )

...but only for the next couple of days. 

Even though I'm at an American school, we don't get a Thanksgiving break here, which SUCKS.  I keep seeing Facebook status updates from people from my university back home, who will be going home for the weekend soon, while I have school on Thanksgiving day. Also, this'll be the first Thanksgiving that I don't spend with my family. My friends and I may do something for the holiday, but we haven't made plans yet, so I don't know if anything's going to happen.

</whining>

On the bright side, I'm going to Edinburgh this weekend. It'll be freezing, but I'm still really excited!  And I can let myself listen to Christmas music soon!

[Error: unknown template qotd]My parents have been bugging me about updates. I know I'm WAY behind, but I've been busy (ok, and lazy!). October was a crazy month for me schoolwise.  I'm working on uploading pictures to Facebook before updating here, though, since I'm even more behind on that. But I do want to mention that I went to Paris this weekend. I have a friend from high school who's studying abroad in the UK, and she and some other people on her trip had been planning on going to Paris on their free weekend for awhile. So I'd decided this summer that I'd try to join them. Anyway, I did, and had an absolute blast. I was there for 4 days, and it still wasn't enough time to do all that I wanted to do. I'll give more details as well as pictures (I took like 600 of them!) later, with the rest of my update.

Anyway, on to the election. It's election day, and my first time (maybe) voting for a president, so I feel like I have to say something.  As I'm in Spain, I requested an absentee ballot. I meant to mail it in, but it took me awhile to figure out who and what I was voting for. And then I lost my ballot for a week (of course, it ended up being in a place I put it so as NOT to lose it...), and found it right before I went to Paris. So anyway, since California lets you fax your vote in, I tried faxing it in today. I don't know if it went through, though, as the fax machine was a little confusing. So either they got like 2 copies of my ballot (I hope that's ok!), or they didn't get it at all, which is why I said I only "maybe" voted. Oh well, I tried, though I know I should have gotten on the ball and mailed it earlier.

This is a BIG election (as evidenced by the voter turnouts today), and it's interesting not being in the US for it.  Of course, the election is a big deal for the entire world, and so while the fuss is less here (and I'm not all that into politics anyway) I still can't help but hear things about it and talk about it some.  Actually, my teaching partner and I have talked about it in our ESL class, and it was interesting to see how every single person in that class supports Obama. Apparently, a huge percentage of Spaniards feel the same way.

At my school tonight, they're holding a party while they wait for the results to come in, from midnight until 8 in the morning. I thought about going, but I have WAY too much to do, and I need my sleep. I'll follow it a bit online while I'm working, though, and then check it in the morning when I wake up (or if I sleep in too late, as usual, I'm sure I'll hear all about it once I get to class tomorrow).

I'm having an absolutely AMAZING time in Spain! I've been here for less than a week, and I'm already bemoaning the fact that I can't stay longer than a semester. Of course, we'll see if that changes once classes start tomorrow.

( Cut for detail and a few photos... )

Well, after a week and a half, my family vacation is finally over.  On Friday the 15th, we flew to New York. We spent a couple of days there, then drove a rental car up to Boston, Montreal, and then finally back to New York. We then flew back home to California on Sunday the 24th, and celebrated my upcoming birthday that night with my aunts. Finally, we went to Disneyland today, since a couple of my mom's patients work there and gave us complimentary tickets. Then we went out to dinner with my dad (who couldn't go to Disneyland b/c of work), and sort of celebrated my birthday tonight, since I won't be home on my actual birthday.


And now, in just a few hours, I'm headed off to Spain for a semester abroad. I can't believe it's time to leave already! I'm a bit nervous. I've never traveled to a foreign country alone before, and despite 4 and a half years of Spanish classes, my Spanish is still not very good. Plus, it's been a year since I've really used it.  Also, I'm still far from being packed, and I leave in less than five hours! Thankfully, I'll be able to sleep on the plane, since I'll be up all night.  But even though I'm a little nervous and a bit stressed (though not too stressed to write this, apparently...), I'm still WAY excited to be going to Spain!