Four Stages of Living Abroad

Depending on which website you read, there are about 4 stages you go through when living abroad. One website I found called them:

1) honeymoon stage
2) frustration or rage stage
3) understanding stage
4) acclimation stage
source - http://twenty-somethingtravel.com/2010/10/stages-living/

It's possible I may be exiting the honeymoon stage, which I'm a little disappointed it has been so short. I do know I was in the honeymoon stage because I distinctly remember thinking my first night here, "Oh my God I could live here!!" and I meant it in that moment. So while I don't think I've plunged head first into rage stage, I've definitely been seeing the signs that point in its direction. It started Thursday, my second day of work. Nothing in particular really happened to frustrate me. I just think the combination of being tired and foreign started getting to me. I was really exhausted all day...so that never helps anything, but I also became impatient with myself and the language. I made a conscious effort to sit with Spanish speakers in the teacher lunch room. They were super nice and the conversation went fine. I didn't understand everything perfectly, but I got the gist. And yes, I know that's how it goes... blah blah blah... it takes practice and patience...yadah yadah yadah. My patience with myself was just running thin that day, and my brain just started to become so tired from speaking in Spanish. And I honestly felt like, at the end of the day, the only difference in my language ability was my English was worse. Also, to add a minor frustration to the day was the bus ride home. Two seconds after the bus left the school, a teacher realized she forgot something and we had to turn around. But right oustide the school we encountered this:



On the skinny road, there was a car parked on each side. The big charter bus could not go through without bumping into them and it could not reverse. So the bus driver just started honking, in hopes that one of the car's owners would come out of the nearby houses. This lasted about 10 minutes until finally, a parent came running out of the school and apologizing. We finally got home, and that night I finally got plenty of sleep...I am less frustrated now that I've had sleep (and am not on a bus with whining Spanish children). I'm just more self conscious of my speaking than I'd like to be.

I did learn a new word at school on Thursday... pis. (Pronounced "piece")...it means pee pee. It was in a story the children were reading. I heard them read the word and then they all giggled. I was like, "Pis? Did they just say 'piss' in Spanish?...surely nooo.. not in a school story." Went home and looked it up... yep. It means pee pee. Learning something new every day here.

Fridays I do not work. Part of the package deal with FSU's program is optional cultural activities on Fridays. This Friday was the Arts and Science Museum/Aquarium. The pictures speak for themselves--- this place was beautiful and very modern.



The designer - Santiago Calatrava - creates buildings to look organic.
This one below is made to look like an eye.


And this one looks like bones or ligaments



Dolphin Show (waiting for it to start)





I love you giant nutella.. and I loved the nutella crepe I got right after this photo




Giant Star Fish


Giant Spider Crab


Giant Beluga Whale--ok he's not giant..but he's a whale so he's giant by default.

What does a 300 pound canary sound like?... a beluga whale. No joke. They screech like birds.


Walrus butt


"Fish are friends...not food"


The only type of bird I like


Ok.. see that ball-shaped cage?...That's my worst nightmare.


It's a cage full of birds


and a few turtles....but lots o' birds.

Cool, neat, wonderful.... right?........


WRONG!!! (look away, Dad..you may gag)

Because birds do THIS....


And THIS...

and THAT...


Trapped in a cage full of pooping birds who are just waiting to peck your eyes out?
That is the definition of my personal hell.

Luckily this guy was not in the cage... he did have his own poop rock though.


And that's the gist of the Museum... well the aquarium. The Museum of Arts and Sciences had a bunch of cool, hands-on stuff...but not really much to photograph.