Charles and Alli- The Proposal

Many of you may have heard of V-Logs or just Vlogs (pronounced as one word). Basically, it’s just a blog but instead of writing posts, you upload videos. There are many sites out there now who host V-Logs, and they are becoming almost as popular as regular blogs. V-Logs are extremely useful when traveling abroad and there are many interesting V-Logs out there. The other day I was searching the V-Logs for people traveling through Spain, (you guys know how much I love Spain) and happened upon the V-Log of Charles and Alli. Charles and Alli are a couple who are traveling the country (and the world, obviously) and documenting their journey. They have committed to posting 1 video per day for a year to keep friends, family, and interested fans up-to-date. The videos are really interesting because not only do they allow you to see some interesting places, but watching the chemistry between the two has been equally as entertaining. Just the other day, they posted this video showing Charles proposing to Alli in Spain. Really cool stuff.

Landmark Decision

Most of you know, either by talking with me directly or by reading the “Who is WrldTrvlr?” section of my blog, that I am majoring in Foreign Language and Literatures with a concentration in Spanish. What you may not know, however, is that at some point in my academic career, I must study abroad. You see, that is the one thing that distinguished students pursuing the Spanish major at The University of South Alabama from those pursuing it at other universities. As per the Foreign Language and Liteatures Department (where I currently work), The University of South Alabama not only encourages foregin language students to study abroad, they require it for majors. Granted that majors do recieve a grant to help pay for the experience, it still costs on average a whopping $4000 after the grant has been applied to the program fee. WOW. I am seriously concerned about that amount of money, and my origional plan to study in Madrid in the summer of 2010 relfects that concern.

However, after getting advised this last week by the advisor in the department, I have decided to go ahead with the trip this summer. Basically, I have taken all of the Spanish classes required to study abroad, and I cannot take the ones meant to take after you study abroad because the prerequisites for those courses are the courses you take in studying abroad. Confused? I was. Now, though, I see the practicality my advisor was trying to convey to me. The financial aspect has me a little leery, but I am looking into special study abroad loans that will pay for the program. The only requirement that I have is that payments be deferred until after I graduate. I know this probably isn’t the smartest idea in the world, but if I am going to study abroad, I’m going to have to accept it. Who else is going to pay for it?

Enough worrying. The program is going to be awesome. I will stay with a host family that lives in Madrid from May 21, 2010 through June 26, 2010 and attend the university in Madrid. Not only will I get to take a class with Dr. Perez-Pineda, my Spanish advisor here at USA, but I will also get to take 2 other courses of my choosing COMPLETELY in Spanish for a total of 9 semester hours to apply toward my double major! Now tell me that isn’t awesome. Maybe I am the only one that gets excited about Spanish. My family gets excited about deer season, I get excited about culture. Go figure.

Oh yeah, ya saben ustedes cuánto me gusta hablar en español. Por lo tanto, de vez en cuando voy a escribir en español para decirles cómo me va la vida.