Castello, Spain - April 11, 2004
Spent the first night in Castellon. After I logged off the computer, I went to walk around the city. Its about 2km away from the campus. A long walk!! I don´t know if I could just casually do that very often. I´ll have to either find a bus or stock up on foods for my apartment. I´m still amazed at the apartment! Its nice! Even a microwave. I think its just a little bit smaller than my apartment in Seoul, but a few more amenities to it.
The town of Castellon was quite busy last night. People walking everywhere. I found a few of the famous statues I´ve seen in pictures. There is one that looks like a tree but has hands coming out of it instead. Another that have like trolls or something with pipes.. some interesting art around here. I really like the city a lot!! I wish the campus was much closer to the downtown. If it were however, I´m sure I wouldn´t get everything I will need to get done for this grad program however.
I met a few of the students last night. There was one guy from Mongolia in the TV room who I spoke with. Later I met another guy from Nicaragua. He introduced me to a Brazilian and a Cuban as well. So talked to them in Spanish mostly. It was challenging. The Brazilian often mixed Portuguese and Spanish which made it more confusing. Its been a long time since I heard Portuguese! Its also been awhile since I used Spanish. A lot of came back to me, and I was able to understand some things when it was spoken slowly. I had a good time however. They played a lot of Latin music which reminded me of living in New York. I kept asking ´who is this?´ and ´where is he from?´ as I´d heard it so many times in the past. We were also talking and I was thinking that Latin Americans have a lot more zest and spirit in them compared to the Spaniards. Just a thought though. Everyone likes Spaniard people too thought! Its just an observation that they are much more European in mindset. More cafes and such. But they do go out a lot at night too.. so definetely Latin as well. I´ll have to think about that more.
They also showed me pictures of everyone in the program. Its kind of like a little United Nations or something. Should be a lot of fun. I´m in the computer room right now and just met three new people. Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya. I´m really looking forward to the schoolyear.
Next Journal Entry in Spain:
April 12, 2004
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