“Universitas,-atis”

Just in case you were not able to figure it out last time…

Solution exercise # 1:

‘Little Yoda’ outside the ‘shovel’ = Done!

Solution exercise # 2:

Connecting all the dots with 4 lines without ‘lifting the pen away from the paper’ = Done!

But today I have a different kind of question for you dear readers:

When you live in a house with eight other exchange students (the number has now increased + 1 since I last wrote); ‘who’ is every day in the kitchen waiting to greet you “good morning”?

[Now you are supposed to click on the video below… You know, to make it more “exciting”!] -

And the answer is…

And the answer is…

And the answer is…

And the answer… (Yes, yes; I’ll stop it with this!)

The answer is: “Mr. José Cuervo”.

…For some reason this tequila bottle has remained standing as it is, in the same exact spot for about a week. Nobody moves it! It is right there, every morning when I wake up (not the nicest smell to wake up to, I should say). But then again, at least this has an explanation. What I really have absolutely no clue about is: What is a ‘mysterious’ bra doing ‘decorating’ a plant right in the entrance of the house? Really… no idea!

Weird house, huh? But do not get the wrong impression dear readers, because in reality this is how ‘parties’ are celebrated in our house:

With “Mr. Winnie the Pooh” and “Mr. Tigger (Too)”… Never judge a book by its cover.

OK, but enough with bizarre houses and amusing characters. LETS GET STARTED TODAY!

“WELCOME TO JOURNALISM. The career with most cases of abductions, divorces, murders and suicides. You will study this degree for a period of four years and when you graduate there are big chances that you will not get a job.”

Oh, I can still remember my first day of university, when I had first arrived to Spain for studying a degree in journalism some years ago! What you just read above was the introduction from one of our teachers. It was pretty “moving” and “inspiring”, as you may see!

Fortunately, this second time of studying at a Spanish university has not been as ‘not moving’ and ‘not inspiring’ as that one of the first experience. I am actually surprised to see that so far it has been exactly the opposite. 

So, how does the minor abroad work?

As an exchange student at the Universidad de Sevilla you are basically free to select 3 subjects from ‘departments’/'schools’ other than your own. Meaning that, in this case, as a marketing student from Fontys I would have been able to pick subjects from architecture, engineering, philology, medicine, etc. Whatever you please! The other two courses (to complete a 30 credit semester) do have to be chosen from the department you belong to. In this particular situation, the Economics & Business School.   

Now I find myself taking a few courses in two different schools, the Economics & Business School and the School of Communication; from the Audiovisual Communication, Advertising & Public Relations and Marketing degrees. Namely: Merchandising, Brands and new products management, advertising research, artistic direction & design and creative writing. And honestly I have been enjoying very much a few of the lectures, specially the last two mentioned! They are quite interesting.

I will actually (very abruptly) stop writing right this moment, because I have class in 30 minutes and it takes me 20 to arrive there. Got to go, got to go. It was a short post, sorry about that, but ‘till next time dear readers!

Have a nice day.

PEACE OUT
Your writer,
Maria 

“Return of the Jed… writer” (oh, how dissapointing!)

Lets see how ‘smart’ you woke up today dear readers?

Exercise # 1 -

Leave the ‘little Yoda’ outside of the ‘square’ by moving just two of the “sticks” (lines) and still keeping the same “shovel” shape shown in the picture.

(Usually it is not a ‘little Yoda’, but a dot (or if you’re doing it “in person”, a little paper ball in between toothpicks), the little Yoda was just used to honor the very nonsensical title of this post). 

Exercise # 2 -

Connect all the dots that make up the square by using only four lines and ‘without lifting the pen away from the paper'.

Yes, yes, yes -

“Think outside the BOX”

HELLO WORLD, it has been a long time again. One month...

But here’s the deal…

Here’s what happened:

I was having some trouble with coming to Spain via ‘Up In The Air’ (with an airplane), so…

I borrowed a donkey to go from Guatemala to Belize. From Belize, there was a family about to leave to República Dominicana with a canoe, so they gave me a ‘lift’. In República Dominicana a merchant ship was about to depart on a 2 week journey to the Western Sahara, and fortunately they agreed to accept an extra member of the crew (ME!). Once in the Western Sahara, I took a bus that took me to Casablanca in Morocco and in Casablanca I was forced to buy a camel for 4,000 Dirhams and rode him all the way to Tangier. From Tangier, I swam to Gibraltar for approximately 25 minutes and, after that, arrived to Sevilla in a matter of five hours by train.

Long and tough trip, huh?

-

Of course that is not what happened. Reality was a bit less adventurous and intrepid; but in case you were not able to figure out the exercises mentioned above, you at least ended up learning a bit about geography… Oh, what a mean writer you’ve got!

Whatever. We are in Spain and that is no fictitious-story, so: Bienvenidos a España dear readers!

Because of reasons ‘too boring’ to comment here in the blog I arrived late, but it has already been two weeks and some days of living in the city of the orange tree - Sevilla.

I know that the story of how I got here was not true at all, but if I was to write about what has been going on in the past few weeks, I could come up with a 200 page novel. No kidding!

One thing you can learn with being placed in a ‘situation like this’ for 17 days, is to: Never, ever.. NEVER underestimate the amount of things that can happen in a short period of time when you live in a house with 7 other exchange students in Spain!

It gets confusing.

You need ‘superhuman powers’ to survive the number of parties, or dinners (..which subsequently lead to parties), that are held in this place and/or a good pair of earplugs in case you ‘decide’ to sleep at night. Though you’d probably would not even need those, because you would probably find yourself in a state of excessive exhaustion (…a helicopter could be taking off right next to you and you wouldn’t even notice).

Yes. Many things have happened while in this stay at Sevilla, but “you know what Hadrian said about Rome: Brick by brick my citizens. Brick by brick”. So, as for today, I will start by giving you a ‘virtual tour’ through Sevilla’s number one student-party house; which is quite nice by the way (and so are its ‘inhabitants’, of course!).

You enter through the front door and immediately forget you are actually in Spain; because, as far as your ears and/or sight are concerned, you could find yourself in either The Netherlands, The UK, France, Italy or… Guatemala!

So, this is it - for now, “Home sweet (…sometimes ‘bittersweet’) home”:

Have a nice day dear readers + ‘till next time.

Your writer,
Maria