Castello, Spain - April 10, 2004
Just arrived on campus. Its Saturday and still the Holiday weekend. Fortunately tomorrow is Easter and then everything should get back to normal. The campus is completely empty right now. Its like a ghost town. I´ve yet to explore around either. Seems like I´ll have to try to get off-campus first, and then figure out whwere to go from there. Seems like a good chance that everything near the university will be closed as well. At least I arrived.
My room is really nice! I can´t believe its a dormitory room! Actually I´m a bit concerned I´m paying top price for it. I´ll have to ask on Monday or Tuesday when the people from my department come back from their vacation. I know some basic Spanish, but definetely nowhere near that level to communicate anything like that. I was just glad to be able to get here alright!!
But my room is a single with lots of desk space, a bathroom, air conditioner, heater, single bed with sheet and pillows, hot shower, the works. The last couple days in hostals I didn´t have either heating or my own bathroom, so its quite a shock. For some reason I thought this would be similar. That perhaps I´d have to walk down the hall to shower or something like that. I also had an impression I´d be sharing a common room with 3-4 other students and each of us would have our bedrooms off to the side. Apparently that isn´t true either. I´d prefer that if I could though. At least I´d always have company around and get to know people from my program.
On the plus side, there seems to be 4 computers with internet access down on the ground floor. I´m sure they are very busy and always used during the school year. But apparently right now they are free. Its a good thing too! I was feeling it might be a must to spend money on some computer and internet service just to connect with the outside world while I wait around for the next 10 days for classes to begin. Even better is these computers are free!! We´ll see how busy they are during the schoolyear however. But at least I have something to keep me busy a little bit in the meantime.
Oh, last night I spent in Valencia. Its so strange, there and Madrid, the same thing happened. During the daytime hours it was a little quiet. Then suddenly around 10pm it just comes to life with tons of bars, cafes, and restaurants opening everywhere. All kinds of people generally couples walking around and enjoying the night. Very different lifestyle. I like it.
Another observation about Spain. People are a bit more expressive. Much more kissing happening everywhere in public. No one seems to even notice. I notice a lot because its the exact opposite in Korea. Anyone who expresses any kind of outward emotion towards a girlfriend or wife or whoever else is looked at kind of funny in Korea. Its just inappropriate behavior. Definetely not like that here.
The other big observation is it seems absolutely everyone smokes and seriously enjoys doing it. On my train rides, in the train stations, walking down the street, absolutely everywhere. Exact opposite of the United States where you´d be shunned for smoking in public places. Here they seem to almost have a glow on their face as they smoke. Its as if they are on TV and being caught on film. Anyhow, just an observation.
Well, being that I just got here.. its probably about time to do some exploring around. Its kind of empty and quiet everywhere. But fortunately I was able to find this computer relatively quickly, which is a good thing. However I am seriously hunger and haven´t eaten anything yet today. So I´ll begin the exploring around Castellon now.
Oh, one last thing to mention. There certainly are a lot of orange trees all over the place!! Everywhere along the coast on my train journey this morning, it was filled with oranges. Orange grove central here.
Next Journal Entry in Spain:
April 11, 2004
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com