The Youtube video will probably be another our or so before it uploads so check back here for the blog update tomorrow or monday. It's almost midnight and I can't stay up to write the blog after it's done uploading, because I have to wake up early tomorrow.
Check back tomorrow:)
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
9 days
What's up, guys? I haven't blogged it up in 9 days....I know that means I'm off schedule but the past few days the internetz has been super duper slow but I'm determined to not fall behind schedule like this ever again!
GUESS WHO HAS A 4 DAY WEEKEND THIS FRIDAY?!:)
Expect a nice video Saturday and probably another blog post!
ANYWHO, some new videos on the Youtube channel so check that out if you haven't already. I've got another uploading as I speak!
This week and last week was filled with exams. I took an English exam today. (It will be a 10/10 no doubt). On my CMCO exam (modern sciences) I got an 8, and that class is in CATALAN! (Just an FYI, everything here 5 and over out of 10 is passing) I also got a 5.5/10 on my physics exam! I am waiting to hear back about my grades on my Catalan and Chemistry exams (the chemistry one will not be good...) And I have a Technology one to take tomorrow. That class is seriously the toughest thing ever.
I've almost been here for a month now, and if this first month is any indication of how well my language will continue to improve, then by Christmas I'll hardly be speaking any English. You reach a certain point where you can't quite speak it well, but you understand it, for the most part, and that's where I'm at. Spanish, that is. Catalan right now is looking pretty dang hopeless. It's a very very tough language.
This weekend is a 4 day weekend! I'm going tot he amusement park on Sunday so I'll be sure to write about that, and I am going to the disco again on Monday. It should be a nice relaxing yet fun 4 day weekend.
The weather here has changed so drastically in the last 3 days. It's been raining non stop and apparently in some parts of Catalunya it's been raining for the past week. Plenty of places, even places in Spain, are getting flooded like crazy! Some fo the worst flooding I've seen in a long time.
Anyways, Saturday's video will be about the differences living life here than in America, it will probably be a long video, so expect a long blog post to go along with it. The blog post may or may not be related tot he actual video though. Anyways, that's just a little bit to hold you all over until Saturday! I hope you all have a nice Friday, and enjoy your weekend! (I know I will)
GUESS WHO HAS A 4 DAY WEEKEND THIS FRIDAY?!:)
Expect a nice video Saturday and probably another blog post!
ANYWHO, some new videos on the Youtube channel so check that out if you haven't already. I've got another uploading as I speak!
This week and last week was filled with exams. I took an English exam today. (It will be a 10/10 no doubt). On my CMCO exam (modern sciences) I got an 8, and that class is in CATALAN! (Just an FYI, everything here 5 and over out of 10 is passing) I also got a 5.5/10 on my physics exam! I am waiting to hear back about my grades on my Catalan and Chemistry exams (the chemistry one will not be good...) And I have a Technology one to take tomorrow. That class is seriously the toughest thing ever.
I've almost been here for a month now, and if this first month is any indication of how well my language will continue to improve, then by Christmas I'll hardly be speaking any English. You reach a certain point where you can't quite speak it well, but you understand it, for the most part, and that's where I'm at. Spanish, that is. Catalan right now is looking pretty dang hopeless. It's a very very tough language.
This weekend is a 4 day weekend! I'm going tot he amusement park on Sunday so I'll be sure to write about that, and I am going to the disco again on Monday. It should be a nice relaxing yet fun 4 day weekend.
The weather here has changed so drastically in the last 3 days. It's been raining non stop and apparently in some parts of Catalunya it's been raining for the past week. Plenty of places, even places in Spain, are getting flooded like crazy! Some fo the worst flooding I've seen in a long time.
Anyways, Saturday's video will be about the differences living life here than in America, it will probably be a long video, so expect a long blog post to go along with it. The blog post may or may not be related tot he actual video though. Anyways, that's just a little bit to hold you all over until Saturday! I hope you all have a nice Friday, and enjoy your weekend! (I know I will)
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
2+ weeks!
2+ weeks and still goin strong! I am such a hauss. Man these two weeks have been rrrreeaaaallllyyyyy long and rly short at the same time.
It's safe to say that school is the most challenging thing I've ever done in my entire life. I think even if I understood the Catalonian language I would still struggle in school. I'm pretty confident they're ahead of the U.S. in academics. They take a very mathematical approach to everything. Nearly every class involved equations, formulas, power, work, energy, etc. It's ridiculous! My calculator is gonna die by the end of the first trimester! (haha sounded like pregnancy but whatevs) Yes, you heard me right. Trimester. School here is on a trimester schedule and you have exams at the end of each one, and some classes have exams in the middle of each one too. Do not fret, these exams are not lie the ones you're used to. (The 150 question ones, I mean.) Apparently these ones are fairly long, but are only about 10 questions or so. They just involve a lot of writing. My first exam is tomorrow, in CMCO (or modern science) and then Thursday and Friday I have one exam each day. I don't think I'm going to do very well considering how much of the total information I wasn't here to learn, but I've been studying my ass off and at this point I think any MORE studying would do more harm than good.
My school scheduling is very different from what I'm used to. It's a mix between the schedule of Moeller and MND (A day B day) and Ursuline's and X's ("block scheduling"). It was hard to get used to, but I've almost got it down now. The school is small in size so it's not hard to navigate. Also, everyone has a certain "itinerary" so when you choose your schedule you pretty much have every class with the same people (give or take 3 or 4 kids)
I find it difficult to NOT be busy while here. I want to have time to relax and maybe take a nap or just go outside and shoot some basketball, but it's hard to say no when my host parents or host brother or friends ask me to come with them somewhere because.....well I'm on an exchange and I want to do and see as many different kinds of things as possible! Eventually, though I'm definitely going to take a day to do nothing and just sleep all day. That will be the day!:)
The language is very, very, very difficult. I haven't really bothered to learn any Catalan yet, I just learn the words that stick with me when I learn it in Spanish. For example, I ask what something is called, and my friends tell me the name in spanish and then in Catalan. I will remember the spanish no matter what, but I will only remember the Catalan word if it's similar or easy. Most Catalan words are just shorter sounding versions of all the Spanish words, but others are VERY different. The spelling and pronunciations are oh so different as well!
To be honest, I think the toughest thing on this exchange so far has been a tie between two things. NUMBER ONE, saying the word "no" and NUMBER TWO keeping up with Youtube. Hahahaha not even kidding.
(and for you people thinking "well i thought he said the language was tough?" WELL DUHHHHH IT'S A NEW FREAKIN LANGUAGE. Rosetta Stone ain't got squat on actually living in a culture surrounded by people speaking gibberish! Of course it's tough as balls. I thought that was easily understood!)
If many of you don't know, I've got the most insane addiction for the youtube, and I love to watch videos, make videos, and critique videos, too! I now have 2 Youtube accounts:
RichExchange67 and Dreadlord67
The latter which I have had for the longest time, and I put every video I record on it. Although...it's hard to come up with new video ideas while over here in Catalonia...but I've been doing some brain storming and I've interested some of my friends here to do a video or two with me. So hopefully more videos will be around soon!
The first one, Richexchange67, as most of you know, is the account I made for this trip. I upload videos there pretty often, and it's a good way to hear or see something a little extra you won't get the chance for on the blog. If you didn't know about the youtube channel before, you do now. Go subscribe to the exchange channel for an e-mail with each new upload:)
Thank you all for reading so much! I hope I talk to you all soon! (It's fun to see what happens in America, and especially Badin, while I'm not there:D ) I've got some cool video ideas planned for the exchange youtube, so keep your eyes peeled!!! Adios!!
TL;DR...school is tough as balls. language is tough as balls. youtube is the bee's knees. check out my channel. Mushy love crap.
It's safe to say that school is the most challenging thing I've ever done in my entire life. I think even if I understood the Catalonian language I would still struggle in school. I'm pretty confident they're ahead of the U.S. in academics. They take a very mathematical approach to everything. Nearly every class involved equations, formulas, power, work, energy, etc. It's ridiculous! My calculator is gonna die by the end of the first trimester! (haha sounded like pregnancy but whatevs) Yes, you heard me right. Trimester. School here is on a trimester schedule and you have exams at the end of each one, and some classes have exams in the middle of each one too. Do not fret, these exams are not lie the ones you're used to. (The 150 question ones, I mean.) Apparently these ones are fairly long, but are only about 10 questions or so. They just involve a lot of writing. My first exam is tomorrow, in CMCO (or modern science) and then Thursday and Friday I have one exam each day. I don't think I'm going to do very well considering how much of the total information I wasn't here to learn, but I've been studying my ass off and at this point I think any MORE studying would do more harm than good.
My school scheduling is very different from what I'm used to. It's a mix between the schedule of Moeller and MND (A day B day) and Ursuline's and X's ("block scheduling"). It was hard to get used to, but I've almost got it down now. The school is small in size so it's not hard to navigate. Also, everyone has a certain "itinerary" so when you choose your schedule you pretty much have every class with the same people (give or take 3 or 4 kids)
I find it difficult to NOT be busy while here. I want to have time to relax and maybe take a nap or just go outside and shoot some basketball, but it's hard to say no when my host parents or host brother or friends ask me to come with them somewhere because.....well I'm on an exchange and I want to do and see as many different kinds of things as possible! Eventually, though I'm definitely going to take a day to do nothing and just sleep all day. That will be the day!:)
The language is very, very, very difficult. I haven't really bothered to learn any Catalan yet, I just learn the words that stick with me when I learn it in Spanish. For example, I ask what something is called, and my friends tell me the name in spanish and then in Catalan. I will remember the spanish no matter what, but I will only remember the Catalan word if it's similar or easy. Most Catalan words are just shorter sounding versions of all the Spanish words, but others are VERY different. The spelling and pronunciations are oh so different as well!
To be honest, I think the toughest thing on this exchange so far has been a tie between two things. NUMBER ONE, saying the word "no" and NUMBER TWO keeping up with Youtube. Hahahaha not even kidding.
(and for you people thinking "well i thought he said the language was tough?" WELL DUHHHHH IT'S A NEW FREAKIN LANGUAGE. Rosetta Stone ain't got squat on actually living in a culture surrounded by people speaking gibberish! Of course it's tough as balls. I thought that was easily understood!)
If many of you don't know, I've got the most insane addiction for the youtube, and I love to watch videos, make videos, and critique videos, too! I now have 2 Youtube accounts:
RichExchange67 and Dreadlord67
The latter which I have had for the longest time, and I put every video I record on it. Although...it's hard to come up with new video ideas while over here in Catalonia...but I've been doing some brain storming and I've interested some of my friends here to do a video or two with me. So hopefully more videos will be around soon!
The first one, Richexchange67, as most of you know, is the account I made for this trip. I upload videos there pretty often, and it's a good way to hear or see something a little extra you won't get the chance for on the blog. If you didn't know about the youtube channel before, you do now. Go subscribe to the exchange channel for an e-mail with each new upload:)
Thank you all for reading so much! I hope I talk to you all soon! (It's fun to see what happens in America, and especially Badin, while I'm not there:D ) I've got some cool video ideas planned for the exchange youtube, so keep your eyes peeled!!! Adios!!
TL;DR...school is tough as balls. language is tough as balls. youtube is the bee's knees. check out my channel. Mushy love crap.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Next Topics!
Okay well, I have some down time before dinner so I decided to make another short blog post. In my next video I REALLY want to talk about the people here in Catalonia, and the culture here.
(Oh, and my friends. THE XEIKS.)
To give you an idea of what I'm getting at, when I'm here in Vic I don't really feel like I'm in Spain (except when I watch the news). On the other hand, I don't feel like I am a part of France either. Catalonia has MANY French influences and it is most notable in the language, Catalan, but these influences can be seen through other mediums as well. The people here are not Spanish or French. They are Catalonian. They are proud of it, too.
I've done some research e.g. talking to friends, wiki, CNN reports, etc. and a few years back there was quite the clamor for Catalonia to become it's own separate entity. It's very interesting stuff.
I'll go more into detail when I have time to make a video, but I just wanted to give you all (4 or 5 of you who actually read this haha) an idea of what the next video will be like. Look for it to be up Wednesday because it is a holiday here and I do not have school. So, I might shoot the video early in the morning here.
-Noah
OH! By the way, I'd like to hear your ideas for traditional AMERICAN foods that I can try to cook for my family sometime soon! I know it's difficult because the U.S. has food influences from every major country known to man, but think hard. Thanks for reading!
(Oh, and my friends. THE XEIKS.)
To give you an idea of what I'm getting at, when I'm here in Vic I don't really feel like I'm in Spain (except when I watch the news). On the other hand, I don't feel like I am a part of France either. Catalonia has MANY French influences and it is most notable in the language, Catalan, but these influences can be seen through other mediums as well. The people here are not Spanish or French. They are Catalonian. They are proud of it, too.
I've done some research e.g. talking to friends, wiki, CNN reports, etc. and a few years back there was quite the clamor for Catalonia to become it's own separate entity. It's very interesting stuff.
I'll go more into detail when I have time to make a video, but I just wanted to give you all (4 or 5 of you who actually read this haha) an idea of what the next video will be like. Look for it to be up Wednesday because it is a holiday here and I do not have school. So, I might shoot the video early in the morning here.
-Noah
OH! By the way, I'd like to hear your ideas for traditional AMERICAN foods that I can try to cook for my family sometime soon! I know it's difficult because the U.S. has food influences from every major country known to man, but think hard. Thanks for reading!
Saturday, October 8, 2011
dhsdjsbsdbdjhasbd
Alright, every time I try to link a new video on to this blog it never works, so if you want to see the video that will go along with today's blog post, PLEASE, check out my Youtube channel "Richexchange67" and subscribe so you get an e-mail for each new upload, or check my facebook page "Noah Rich" (duh) every 3 days or so for any video updates! Every video I post to youtube from the exchange channel will automatically post on my Facebook wall.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Weekend!
The weekend is approaching! I will soon have been here for an entire week! It's hard to believe! Expect a nice video this weekend, and a good blog update. I've been very busy these first few days. And very tired! So much going on! It's tiring to hear multiple people at once speak to each other in a language you don't understand, because your mind works very hard to comprehend.
My Spanish is already improved exponentially, but it's not enough to carry on a full conversation with. And my Catalan is nonexistant hahaha, but Catalan will come 2nd. Spanish first, it's easier, and with fluent spanish I will understand half of the Catalan.
My Spanish is already improved exponentially, but it's not enough to carry on a full conversation with. And my Catalan is nonexistant hahaha, but Catalan will come 2nd. Spanish first, it's easier, and with fluent spanish I will understand half of the Catalan.
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