Something Funny

    So the director of my program speaks English fairly well but it's not perfect.  In particular, she could help herself by correcting two problems.  The first is that her hard "T" sounds like a "D".  The second is that she replaces to phrase "to be late" with "get late".  The reason she should correct these problems is because when she was explaining that it's understandable if we can't find our classroom on the first day she said, "It's okay, everybody gets late on the first day of classes."  If you do the math, you can imagine the fit of hoots and chuckles that my group broke into when she said that.

Mis Tres Primeros Dìas

Es mi tercera dìa en españa, y estes dìas han estado muy diferente de cualquier experiencia he tenido en mi vida.  En el aeropuerto de madrid, mi experiencia comenzò realmente cuando un chico dijo, “Hey there’s that guy!”  Me girè para ver este chico y dos chicas de mi aviòn de JFK.  “Hello,” dije.  Y que tal, tenìa mis primeros amigos en españa, Sam, Joelle, y Rachel.  Esto fue muy fortunado porque cuando llegamos en alicante, me ofrecò por el director de sus programa que quiera tener una paseo en el autobus gratis a mi hotel.  Y ese noche, tuve una cena gratis con sus programa tambien.  Shwing.

En mi segundo dìa, conocè los estudiantes de mi programa, y me gusta mucho.  Hay vente y quatro personas, y ya puedo determinar que seràn muy importante a mi tiempo en españa.  Comimos almuerzo en el hotel, y mas tarde comimos cena en un restaurante de tapas.  La sangria era delicioso.  Y ese noche, fui con seis compañeros a un bar se dice “Nuve Nuve” donde conocimos un chico y una chica ingleses y jovenes, entonces todos nosotros fuimos a la playa.  Nadè en el medeterràneo con la ropa puesta.

Esta mañana, sacamos somos primero viaje al campus y esta muy bonito.  Pues, despues de devolver al hotel, conocimos nuestras familias de viviendo.  Ahora, he fue en sus casa bonita por tres horas.  Aquì, hay un balcòn con una buena vista de los dos castillos de alicante.  Tambien, tienen un perro negro quien es muy adorable y amable.  Y por supuesto, mi familia es muy amable y generoso.  Aquì, estoy muy contento.

For the first time ever, I’m at least 95% confident with my Spanish grammar.  Some of the above might be awkwardly worded, but I know that it all makes sense.  Today, having spoken with mi familia for a solid hour and a half, I am twice the Spanish speaker I ever was before.  I had to make this post en español porque ahora es mas facil que todo mi tiempo en la clase de español and I’m on a roll right now.

For those of you who didn’t understand the above, here’s a quick run through:

I’ve been in Alicante for three days.  On my first day, in the Madrid airport, I met a few people who happened to be also headed to Alicante for the semester, though with a different program.  I hung out with them the first day/night and it granted me a free bus ride to my hotel and a free restaurant dinner.  On the second day, I met the students from my program, and found many of them to be great people.  We ate lunch and dinner as a group before I went with six companions to a bar called “Nuve Nuve”.  Fue muy bien.  There, we met two British Blokes who were relieved to hear some people speaking English.  They went to the beach with us at 2:30am and I swam in the Mediterranean with my clothes on.  This morning, I saw the University of Alicante campus, and it is beautiful.  Then I met my host family.  They are extremely gracious and friendly, and their apartment has a great view of Alicante’s two castles.  And to boot, they have the most adorable black lab.  I am content.

Ahora, tomo una siesta porque esta siesta, y es mi derecho que tomo una siesta durante siesta.  Gracias, y buenos noches.

Departure

Sitting in JFK terminal seven, I feel like I'm on the first ascent of a gigantic rollercoaster, waiting to be dropped into a crazy ride.  I've got that heavy feeling feeling in my stomach.  Nervousness?  No… anticipation.  Once this rollercoaster starts to drop, I might be taken aback by the gravity of it, but I know that I'll be thrilled.  And I'm definitely not going to look behind me.

ITHACA

Man, it's great to be back in Ithaca!  Too bad I'm already gone.  I'm sitting in the Binghamton Bus Terminal, making my way back to Summit one last time before I skip over to Spain.  But I had a great weekend.

Ithaca is a special place and I’ll miss it.  Visiting this weekend, just as everyone was digging in for junior year, I almost could have stayed.  I slept at 509 South Aurora, where I will be living during spring semester and I felt quite at home. The house has three floors and seven bedrooms, but the only room worth mentioning is the lounge on the second floor.  There are no posters in this room, only tapestries.  Ample seating is arranged around a coffee table, on which there is an ashtray, a scented candle, a supply of incense, and a piece of an overhead projector.  There is a mini-fridge, and a speaker system with the warmest, most premium sound.  There are often comedy programs or children’s cartoons playing on the TV.  It’s a great room for relaxing.  But greater than any one room or house is the South Hill community.  Friends living next door, across the street, and around the block from each other have thrown off the shackles of dorm life and welcomed the freedom of being off campus.  Everybody seems to be vigorously seizing and loving life, and it makes me eager to jump feet-first into my own experience abroad.

With Spain, I am anticipating the unknown, and I feel a bit like I did waiting for freshman year to start.  Over the weekend, I was given a unique opportunity to reflect on this comparison.  As it goes, I was walking with a few friends when we were asked by a group of juniors, “You guys freshman?”.  After answering ‘yes’ I found myself reverting to the mindset I had when I was walking back from my first night out at Ithaca.  The conversation I got into was about how I should be active in every way, how I should not be shy of grasping opportunities, and how I should party.  All I did was agree with him and state the plans I had two years ago - join the swim team, maybe play club frisbee, get involved with music, etc - and I told him how excited I was for all the experiences of college.  I never told him that I was a fellow junior.  At any rate, the point of this story is that I now have as many or more possibilities than I had as an incoming freshman, granted I will have less time to chart my course in Spain, though the unknown is much greater.  Then after I come back, I may get caught up in a conversation or a daydream where I see myself standing next to the man I was before studying abroad.  I’m going to become very worldly.
Anyway, I got a good fill of Ithaca.  Gorges were jumped in, shenanigans were had, and music was shared.  I couldn’t ask for more of anything but time.  But I’m off in a couple days, so peace out, Ithaca. Stay good for me.

My First Blog Entry

    Hello Everybody.  I'm creating a blog because I want people to read all the more or less profound things I have to say about the world.  Oh, and I'm going over seas for a semester in Alicante, Spain in t-minus one week.  I will be in Europe from September 1st to December 10th, no doubt relaxing on the beach during siesta, causing trouble (the good kind), and leaving on weekend excursions throughout the continent.  I do not know a single person in Alicante, save a friend of a friend named Emily, whom I spoke with on the phone.  She seems pretty cool.
        Oh and by the way, this is what the place looks like.

...it's gonna be rough.
    Anyway, I plan to keep Honold-blog up and running when I get back from Spain which is why I didn't title it Las Adventuras Internacionales Incredibles de Matt Honold.  That being said, es posible que partes de este blog seràn en español.  After all, voy a estar en españa.  Maybe I'll post a translation if I'm feeling sympathetic to my americanos.
    Really anything - the whole world - is up in the air.  So tune in now and again to discover my incredible international adventures on Honold-blog!