September 29, 2015

My post is coming a bit later than usual this week for many reasons. It has been an interesting week to say the least..

I'm enjoying my stay here a lot. The fact that I will be here until January is finally starting to set in and getting to me a bit. I miss my family and friends quite a lot, especially mexican food. What I wouldn't give for some Andele's enchiladas or some Sadie's Hot Salsa! Things are going ok over here though and I'm beginning to settle into the lifestyle.

This last weekend I went on a trip to a nearby beach town called Cadiz. I always love the beach and a good time with my friends so that was all an amazing experience. I ended up taking about 10 euros in cash because an ATM in Sevilla wouldn't let me take out any cash. Turns out the card was deactivated and I ran out of money while I was over there. Thankfully some of my friends supplemented my trip back to Sevilla in order to figure things out. I have a new card on the way that should be here in a couple of days. Until then I don't have money but it's all good, I've got meals and a place to stay while I'm here so I just continue on.

Although I would post pictures from my wonderful weekend in Cadiz, my phone was stolen yesterday so I lost all of my pictures. Thankfully I have been posting a lot of them so I didn't lose all of them. Through my last two phones getting stolen I have lost 80 voice recordings of bits and pieces of songs that I have written. It sucks but I write every day so new music will come I guess.

I also got a lot of grades back in my Organic Chemistry class yesterday and they were not good at all. I was worried that I may need to drop the class but after talking with my professor it seems that I will be ok. For those of you that don't know, my grades do not transfer back to my overall GPA, only the credits do. Classes are counted as a pass or fail over here so it is ok, but the only thing is that they calculate your grades from the semester to see if you maintained your scholarship requirements. I've had a slow start to school but I have a fire driving me to kick ass for the remainder of the semester. As a Lopez, I have an obligation to put my best foot forward and use all of my passion and dedication in my blood to achieve whatever needs to get done.

Overall, things are alright over here. Of course I still love it, I've just had a rough week and am missing home a bit. There is not really a support system over here and it's tough contacting everyone back at home, but if anyone ever wants to get a hold of me please reach out, I would love to hear from you. Although if you are going to, message me on Facebook since I don't have a phone until my replacement comes in. Anyways, hope everyone has a good week!!!

-Ryan

Hey Everyone,

This is my first blog and it's kind of a test. I have created this blog in order to keep my family and friends involved in my experiences that I am having this semester while I am in Spain. So here goes nothing...

My Adventure So Far

I arrived in Spain on September 1st and had orientation for my home stay the next night. It was brief but we were assigned our host families the following day. I am here with 8 other NMSU students but our program is fairly disorganized and we chose to stick together as a group of friends. My host family is amazing and I have been living with them for almost 3 weeks. They do not speak ANY english so this is a great opportunity for me to force myself to learn spanish. Through the program and my host family, I get breakfast, lunch, and dinner made here at the house every day. It is amazing that way because I am getting so many different Spanish dishes. Unlike in America, the dishes over here are incredibly diverse and they generally incorporate bread and vegetables with every meal. I have been a picky eater my whole life but that changed quickly once I got over here. Another thing to mention about their meals is that they eat at odd times. In Spain, they eat lunch at around 3:30pm and dinner at around 10pm. It was hard at first to adjust to but just like the jetlag that time change passed quickly.

I started classes about 2 weeks ago so I had about a week to get to know the city as well as get accustomed and settled in with my host family. I know the city of Sevilla pretty well now and mostly walk everywhere. Their streets here are incredibly narrow as well as disorganized. It is like trying to navigate through a spider's web, but you get the hang of it after awhile.

Classes are pretty good so far but some of them are really boring. I have a Spanish language intensive course every day, Spanish Culture, Sports Psychology, and Organic Chemistry. The only crappy part about my schedule is the lack of engineering courses. The university that I transferred to does not offer Engineering courses so I have elected to take the remainder of my general education credits including a substitution for General Chemistry 2 for Organic Chemistry. I hate chemistry, but being that it is the only science class that I am taking here, I grew to love it a lot.

Not much else to say. I haven't travelled yet but I am going to a nearby beach town for the weekend called Cadiz. Should be fun, I will update you all after the trip and let you know how it went!!!

Thanks for reading and please message me anytime because I would love to hear from each and every one of my friends and family before I get back... Love you all!

- Ryan