Escuela en Espana?? Es loco!

hola! Hoy esta el primer dia de escuela en Espana. Para quatro horas! El professor tiene un hija y no te gusta tener ver Disney para quatro horas, ella eres muy triste.

hello! Today was the first day of school in Spain. For four hours! The professor has a daughter and she did not like having to watch Disney for four hours, she was very sad.

Since our other professor is in the hospital (They think that she broke her ankle, but she has an infection so with teh complications she is staying overnight just in case) we had a double dose of Engineering Ethics today. In fact we may be having that all week if the other professor is not feeling well soon. It actually wasn't as bad as it sounds, the subject matter was interesting and we kept up with doing different things to keep it going. But I don't think that anyone was happy about being assigned three chapters of homework for tomorrow! Another neat view of the decorations left over from the Christians and Moors festival in April.

After class we had lunch at the cafeteria again (although today I split it with Betty since they give us SO SO much food!) and then headed back to our dorm for a little siesta time. It's a little annoying that after class it's siesta so no shops are open and all, but on the flip side if forces you to just chill out a bit, which I can't say is too terrible either!
I got some homework done and successfully wrote a email to Juan (some family in Alicante which is 45min south of Alcoy) which I was so extremely proud of completing I thought I'd share. :) Katheryn and I also both were able to successfully call home (hi Mr. Acord!!) which was also a huge plus.
After the siesta we went to the Refuge of Cervantes which was one of the underground refuges that the people of this city used to protect themselves of the air assault during the Spanish Civil War. It was interesting to talk to Rocio about this, she said that both of her paternal grandparents remember it and what it was like to stay in the refuge. And because of that her grandpa always insists on "clearing your plate" because he there was a lot of starvation during the war.
...this is a famous picture from the Spanish Civil War, just after he was shot. The reasons this photo is important according to Prof Schmid is following:
First of all, it's very graphic, and it is famous, as it was used in many newspapers and posters before World War II to show the horrors of war. The people of Alcoy know that the soldier was an Alcoy citizen. Alcoy was opposed to Franco, so they suffered a lot in the Spanish Civil War.

This is the "medical station" for the refuge which held up to 1000 people at a time

This is some of the war propaganda...from the Italian bombers

This is looking down the fall of the refuge...it was very echoing of the concentration camps in Germany.

After the refuge we walked around Alcoy a little bit exploring the city. Rocio and Pablo brought us to the Camp de Futbol "El Colleo" (Soccer Stadium) in Alcoy. This is from the outside:

And we ended up seeing some workers who let us go into the stadium and go right up to the grass. I thought this was a neat picture of what you get to see from the background of the stadium!

Ellen and Jenna:

Alcoy, like many cities is victim to a changing of times. The city is peppered with old buildings from the rich of previous generations, but are now falling to disarray. This is a church that we passed on the way back to the dorm. Apparently it is where Elena and Miguel were married :)

Long and short it was a good day since we got some HAMBURGERS for dinner!! :) Granted they were a little different, but overall a good day.

El segundo dia de Espana

Today we had orientation and officially are celebrities!

http://www.diarioinformacion.com/secciones/noticia.jsp?pRef=2009051900_15_888089__Alcoy-Alumnos-Notre-Dame-eligen-campus-Alcoy-como-sede-programa-verano

We started off the day with some "breakfast" aka combinations of chocolate pastries. But don't worry it was a "volcan de engergia!" (please forgive those who speak Spanish, I don't know how to do accentos on this) Then we headed over to see the University and got to see where various things are. (see below)

We were then offically greeted by the president of the University, and after a short break, went to town hall to be greeted by the mayor of the city! Inside of town hall:

and a painting depicting the killing of a mayor that the citizens decided they did not approve of:
We then wandered around the city a little and had lunch at the cafeteria de Universidad and headed back to the resident halls for a mini siesta (afternoon break). Most of us took a nice nap and I organized my things a bit. Then we met up around 5:00pm to go to a museum called "Explora", which gave us a short overview of the history of Alcoy. After a short visit at a church we went to a little restaurant and had our first Spanish beers (Alhambra Reserva because we're classy like that) and headed back over to the resident halls for dinner. :)

Demotion from World Traveler to Euro Traveler

After seeing Jack's graduation in the morning in ND, mom and I drove to O'Hare for me to catch my flight and meet up with the other students going to Spain. Ran into some traffic, but uneventful. Thanks mom!
Total travel time thus far: 3 hours

We flew in last night/this morning to London which was mostly uneventful. I ended up sleeping most of the flight and missed out on dinner and other such details, although the lady I was sitting next to was nice enough to grab me a breakfast pastry in the morning.
Total travel time to date: 10 hours

Fortunately I had packed gummy bears. We hung out in the vastly confusing mouse-maze of shops in London until our flight gate was assigned and then flew into Madrid. Again I successfully went the whole flight only being awake for maybe a total of twenty minutes. I also got to see the aerobus when we drove past! (Well at least I thought it was cool...)
Total travel time thus far: 2.5 hr in airport + 2 hr flight = 14.5 hours

At Madrid we were met by our RA's, the Professor from ND and a Professor from Universidad de Valencia and packed onto the bus. The plus to this was that I was the only one awake for the bus ride from Madrid to Alcoy. I went through all Muzzy DVD's that were borrowed from mom. I may not be a pro yet, but you better believe that I can dominate my numbers and colors again! :)
The drive was very pretty, we basically drove through the plains of Spain (according the RA's this is where the seasonal flooding and storms come through). There were tons of wind turbines which was interesting to see. Once we got closer to Alcoy there was a lot of driving through the mountains which was absolutely gorgeous. There were some areas that looked like there were some ruins etc so I'm excited to do some hiking in the area. I believe they said we may be doing some of that next week. After an uneventful (highly confusing) orientation of the dorm we had so erm-gormet dining hall dinner ;) and everyone retreated to their rooms to unpack and SLEEP!
Total travel time thus far: 4.5 hours of driving + .5hr mandatory break = 19.5 hours

Below are some pictures from the drive:

just some mountains on the way to Alcoy from Madrid


castle? Ruins? This was just outside Alcoy by maybe 15 minutes

Windmills!

Spain!

Soooo...this was my old blog from my super-sweet FYC class freshman year, but oh well.
I will try to be updating this as much as possible this summer as long as I have internet acces :) but for now, here is where I will be going to school:

http://www.alcoi.upv.es/index2.php?lang=en

And this is where I will be:

New Ramblings!

So this blog was originally set up for my FYC class last year, but I think I'm actually going to start putting up some more thoughts up here like my brother does to make it easier to see what is up in my life!

SO, just spent a few days in Chicago, I stayed with Karl. Jimmy picked me up from the airport and we spent the next few days exploring the additions on the high school, falling in the lake and other such things :)


Christmas shopping with Karl.



Right before we fell into the lake...



back to the old window in senior hall...





Some new pictures of the additions on the high school.

I got into Colorado last night, mostly just a day of travel...caught an early flight out of O'Hare, grabbed colorado mountain express and crashed for a bit. We went to dinner since it was my Mom's bday, but a pretty quiet night.

Research Topics

Ethanol Efficiency:
There are many claims that say that ethanol is both an improvement over traditional fuels and those who say it actually has a bigger impact on the environment. It would be nice to know what is the truth behind all the hype, and, if it is inefficient, why politicians continue to support/subsidize it. There is a lot of talk about global warming and how Americans need to reduce carbon emissions, but it seems very little action being taken. The future of transportation and the economy could be at stake for if there were fuel shortages like there have been in the past, the American economy would severely suffer.

Stem Cell Research:
There are many who both strongly support and oppose stem cell research and particularly where the stem cells originate from. Stem cells can be found in various places in the body as well as in embryos that have been developed in a laboratory. People also have a wide variety of reasons that the oppose or support such research. Everything from curiosity and hope for large leaps in the area of society to religious opposition, it would seem that almost everyone has some sort of an opinion on whether or not stem cell research is moral and/or whether it should proceed.

Euthanasia:
Euthanasia is a fiercely debated topic for many people both religiously and in principle. Some people refuse medical care on religious grounds stating that it is in God's hands. But does God allow other people to assist? Are available doctors a form of God's helping hand or are they people interfering in what naturally should occur? Euthanasia is at the brink of this debate bringing personal judgment, religious views and political opportunity all on the line.