Zaragoza Pilar Fiestas!

Some of the most popular events in Spain occur in October. It is the Zaragoza Pilar Fiestas. It includes a wide variety of activities all of the family. People fill the streets with entertainment for a week or even more. Such events that occur are theatre performances, concerts, shows, bullfights, music, and many more!
This sounds like a lot of fun. Almost sounds like Mardi Gras except the whole country celebrates it. That would be a crazy mess if all of America celebrated Mardi Gras!

So this week in Spanish so far I've learned that I am horrible at memorizing. I had studied really hard for the test Tuesday and when I went in for the oral part of the exam I looked at the paper and saw possessive adjectives and my mind went blank. I forgot what they were. So when we were finished we asked and felt like crap that we hadn't used any of them. :/ boo. 

Mis tios son alto.

(Not gonna forget anymore!)

Abortion Bill Passed

In Madrid, the Spanish Parliament approved a controversial bill to make it easier to get an abortion in Spain, and sent it to the Senate. Since 1985 abortion has been decriminalized in Spain, but only in matters of rape, or when the health of the child or mother is at risk. The main controversy over this is that it will open the door to even more abortions. There are many strong opinions on the matter on both sides. I find this very interesting. This is a topic that people have strong feelings about so either way people are going to be mad. This is a difficult topic. I am not sure really what I think about it. There are good reasonings for both sides. 


At the end of this week in Spanish we learned a little bit of new stuff and then review the last two chapters. There is a ton of information and a lot of stuff to memorize. The rules to conjugating I think is the hardest. I guess it is basically just memorizing, but that is a lot to remember. Praying I do good on the test Tuesday! 


Nosotros salimos la universidad en la noche. 

Controversy over Census

This year there is controversy over the 2010 Census form. Question number eight asks, "Are you of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?" Many people are finding themselves unable to answer the question because they are of many different origins. At this point in America it is hard to identify what one ethnicity you are. Also, people are wondering why there aren't other national origins on there. I wonder why this is a question on the U.S. Census form. Some people think it has to do with just numbers. The only other country that has a higher percentage of Hispanics than America is Mexico. I guess the main question people are wondering is why do we have to identify exactly who or what we are. We are Americans.

This week in Spanish we learned about stem changing verbs. There are many different rules for this which makes is very difficult to remember. Words with an e change to an ie for the conjugated form and words with an o change to a ue for the conjugated form.

Me gusto mucho duermo. 

Smashing Building for Stress Relief

More than 40 stressed-out workers in Madrid were given the opportunity to hammer a hotel before it is renovated. More than 1000 volunteers had written to NH hotels describing the stressfulness of their lives. 100 finalists were chosen and then each of them had to perform a psychological test. Once they were allowed in the hotel to destroy it they were elated and began running from room to room smashing doors, walls, and t.v. sets. Many of the workers admitted after that it was a very good stress-relief therapy. 
I was looking up current events in spanish countries and scanned across this and was like yeah this is the one! This sounds like a GREAT idea! I have a lot of built up stress and I think that would make me and probably a lot of other people feel a lot better if we were given that same opportunity. I wonder how that works with people getting hurt while doing it though. I'm not sure they would let us do this in America without at least signing some legal document. Bummer.

This week in Spanish we learned how to say that we are doing activities, sports, and going to certain places. This is a lot of different words to memorize but I feel like this part in the class is going to be most useful. If you wanted to have a casual conversation with someone you would want to be able to tell them about what you do or what you are going to do. 

Yo tengo un padre trabajador.

Do you bite your nails?

Spain is opening the world's first center for treating compulsive nail biters. The basic treatment of patients who like to bite their nails just takes a few hours. The director of this institute claims that after repeating the procedure for four weeks the patient will be entirely cured. The treatment had a 98% success rate. They use a unique device that fits on the hand while still allowing you to preform normal activities but at the same time it prevents nail biting. 
I was tired of finding more political events so I tried to find something random and this is what I found! It is interesting, but also kind of funny. I didn't know that nail biting was actually a real addiction. I wonder what the devise exactly does to make you stop biting your nails. 

This week in Spanish we learned how to conjugate -er, -ir, and -ar verbs. I am not a fan of how they are all different. I'm not the best at memorizing stuff so I'm going to have to really think about how to change words that end in ir, er, and ar. Hope this next test doesn't have much of that on there! Although this test is going to be hard no matter what since it is over two chapters instead of one. :/

El perro come helado.

Sight-seeing dangerous?

Mexican federal police are searching for the body of a man who's wife says he was shot by pirates while sight seeing on a jet ski on a lake bordering the U.S. - Mexican border. The woman says her husband was shot after a chase on Falcon Lake by three men in speedboats. Falcon lake is a dammed section of the Rio Grande that has been plagued by pirates who rob boaters and fishermen who cross the border. 
This is a horrible tragedy. It is a sad thing that American's will be afraid to sight see around that area now. I don't understand the reasoning behind the pirates killing people who are near the border. It seems that now-a-days people will kill for no reason at all. The killing needs to stop. My prayers go out to this woman and her family. 

This week I really enjoyed guessing where the different pictures were taken. Although my group got most of the places wrong I still liked learning the different places in countries. I love this type of learning! Hands on and visual learning. Also, I would like to visit many of those places...maybe someday. 

Mi familia es alto.

Penguin Discovery!

Recently a major discovery was found in Peru. Paleontologists have unearthed the first extinct penguin with preserved evidence of scales and feathers. The 36-million-year-old fossil from Peru shows the new giant penguin's feathers were reddish brown and grey. Unlike the original black tuxedo look of living penguins. This discovery helped solve questions of why and when penguins became such strong swimmers. 
This is so cool and interesting to me! Besides dogs, penguins are my favorite animal. They are so funny and cute! It seems so weird to think of penguins being reddish brown and grey, but I guess this goes to show we learn something new everyday. I would like to learn more about this and about why they are only black and white now. Maybe I'm the only one who finds this interesting but that's okay! 

This week became particularly hard in Spanish. Now that we are putting more sentences together and asking questions I feel myself getting lost. It is interesting to hear all the words put together into a sentence, but Spanish is getting difficult! So I guess what I learned this week was that I'm not so good at making sentences or questions in Spanish. Better work harder! :/


Estoy dificil compredo el espanol. 

Costa Rica storms

A tropical storm called "Matthew" is forecast to bring intense rainfall to Costa Rica. The National Emergency Commission declared a yellow alert for the entire Pacific coast. Matthew is the 13th storm of this year's hurricane season. The CNE restocked emergency supplies at their operations center. Several homes have already been flooded due to heavy rains and high tides. 
The thing that comes to mind when I read about this was that it seems like other countries have a lot more trouble with flooding that the U.S. does. Is that just me not knowing what's going on in the world or is that maybe true? I know there was Katrina and a few other big hurricanes, but it seems like the U.S. is hit less than most countries.

This week in spanish I learned how to correctly address my relatives in spanish. I now know how to tell people about my family (kind of). I'm not good at spanish to begin with, but I feel like family words are a  lot harder in spanish than they are in english. It just seems so complicated. 

Mexico Mayor killed

A few weeks ago the mayor of Mexico City, Mexico, Alexander Lopez Garcia, was shot and killed in his office. Witnesses said that four armed and hooded men got out of a white truck in front of the city hall around 1:30 p.m. Two went inside to shoot the mayor while the other two waited outside. According to officials, no arrests have been made yet. Garcia was the third mayor killed in Mexico in less than a month! 


The violence in Mexico is way out of hand. The deaths of these politicians is suspected to be connected to drug issues except for this one. This mayor was killed over a land dispute. I wonder how long this will go on before serious action is taken. 

This past week I learned how to ask someone where a few basic things are located. As nervous as I was about the oral part of our second test, I think it went pretty well. It was good for me because it made me actually study how to ask where things are. Although I only know how to ask a few things I still feel accomplished!