My Month: By the Numbers

Hokay. I realize on some level that it has been a month since I last posted a blog. But I can’t really wrap my mind around that concept. It has been an amazing month of adventures I’m sure not to repeat, and I have been a fairly busy Salmantina. In the interest of writing efficiently (something I apparently need lessons in), I’m not going to detail every experience I’ve had. Instead, I’ll provide a numerical account of the month. I think perhaps you’ll understand why I haven’t written more….

15 is the number of days I’ve spent outside Spain, and 15 is the number I’ve spent in my home away from home.
5 is the number of new countries I’ve visited: Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, and Portugal. 6 if you include a bus ride through Slovakia!
0 is the number of passport stamps received for such journeys. Oh, the European Union. Suppose I’ll have to remember the countries myself.
2 is the number of visits I’ve made to Portugal, our beautiful neighbor here in Spain. The first time, I went with a bus full of Spaniards, including my intercambio, on the “Route of the Castles.” We visited 5 small Portuguese towns, each with their corresponding castle. Very fun! I just arrived back from Portugal edition 2 with my IES program. We visited 6 different cities, including the capital of Lisbon, 2 monasteries, the beach at the most western point in all of Europe, and Sintra, which might just be my new favorite place.
18 is the number of hours we spent in the bus during the last three days. 90 is the percent of the time I felt sick, due to our bus driver’s need to brake suddenly, and the fact that he drives a bus with a stick shift!
9 is the number of beds I have slept in during the past month, including 5 hostels, Whitney’s bed in her Austrian apartment, a night train couchette, and a nice hotel bed in Lisbon.
609 is the number of pictures I’ve taken. For real I’m not kidding, which I find hard to believe.
3 is the number of essays I have written in Spanish for my IES classes, totaling 20 pages.
6 is the number of Spanish Environmental Science professors with whom I ate dinner one night, invited by an intercambio. 4 is the number of words I spoke during the 3 hour dinner, because I don’t have much to contribute to a nuclear energy debate, even if it were in my native tongue. 3 is the number of courses I consumed. The number of calories taken in through cocktails, appetizers, wine, bread, steak, desert and coffee shall never be calculated.
8 is the number of hours I spent “out” one night, from 10 pm until 6 am. This feat will not be repeated any time soon. :)
26 is the number of Spanish 6 and 7 year olds to whom I taught art. For 60 minutes. By myself. 30 is the number of minutes it went smoothly, and 30 is the number of minutes it was chaos. But who knew I was a suitable substitute for when my teacher can’t come?
3 is the number of successful lessons I’ve had alone with the fifth graders, doing art, science, and English. Success!
3 is also the number of Tulsa friends who I spent a large part of my Easter holiday with.
4 is the number of different types of Eastern European beers sampled by me and my friends. This shatters my previous total beer intake. Dad would be proud.
425 is the number of Czech crowns we spent on audio guides at the castle in Prague, trying to be responsible tourists and learn a thing or two. 25 is the number of minutes we stuck with the boring droning of the man before we returned them.
30-50 is the number of jokes we made on the sketchy night train from Prague to Poland, trying to make ourselves feel better about potential safety issues.
1,100,000 is the number of people who died at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. 7 is the number of hours that my friends and I were silent as we toured the camp and took the bus ride to and from Krakow, contemplating the site of great human evil.
60 is the number of minutes my friends and I arrived early to the cathedral in Krakow (where Pope John Paul II used to hang out!) for Easter mass. 2 (God and Jesus) is the number of words I understood in the Polish Latin mass, and 3 is the number of times we were caught completely off guard by kneeling vs. standing, etc.
1 is the number of bagels I consumed in Poland. I love bagels!
4 is the number of times I was scared to death by friends in an under-castle labyrinth in Budapest. We spent a lot of time discussing how it would be a great site for a horror film.
2 is the number of delicious dinners which we cooked and ate in Whitney’s apartment.
2 is also the number of hotdogs I ate in Austria.
0 seems to be the number of days I can resist Spanish pastries when I’m here.
2.5 is the number of days I have class this week.
6.5 is the number of days I have class before the semester ends.
Less than 30 is the number of days I have left in Salamanca.
Less than 25 is the number of days before my parents arrive!