So, I’ve had no luck finding a job after applying at multiple places! I’ve come to realize that I will not be making any extra money this summer and that this coming year I will only be able to travel during my two small vacations and no more than that. I’m expecting to spend a huge part of what I have saved when I first arrive as I heard we don’t get paid for while after arriving in Spain. Somewhere around the end of November, maybe even December. I only have around 550€ in my French bank account so I really will need to depend on my parents to help me with buy some necessities before going.

With not having a job, I’ve been EXTREMELY lazy and tired. I haven’t felt like doing anything and that is exactly what I’ve been doing, nothing. This past weekend, though, my sister and brother-in-law got me hooked on this Facebook flash game called “Farm Town”. I’ve basically been playing it non-stop this whole week. Yesterday I started getting bored with it and today I’ve hardly played at all. The concept of the game is you are given a little bit of land and some money and you are suppose to try to grow and expand your farm by planting crops. Each crop takes a certain amount of time, anywhere between 2 hrs (for raspberries) and 4 days for pumpkins. Each crop is bought for a certain price and can be directly sold for a price, harvested by you and stored for a higher price, and even better, once you are at a higher level you can hire others to harvest it for you, store it, and it is sold for an even BETTER price! You obviously earn money when selling your crop and lose it when plowing and planting crops. You can also spend money by buying things for you farm like, fencing, paths, houses. Much of the things that can be purchased can only be purchased at a certain level. To move up a level, one must earn experience points and you do this buy planting, plowing, harvesting, and buying things at the store. The higher level you are the more money you can make and the better you can expand and build your farm. The game is overly addictive and I’m not one to become addicted to things very easily! Anyway, if you have a bit of time you may want to check the game out and see what it is all about.

I’ve decided that I can’t waste anymore time and that I need to prepare the things I’ve been saying I’ve been needing to do for the past few months. I’m going to begin my grad school applications and study Catalan and Spanish. I also scheduled my GRE exam date for the 26th of August so I’m going to devote 4 hours of study to that a day. I really need to be busy for my life to function correctly. When I’m not busy I become lazy and useless and I can’t reach my goals. I sleep to much and don’t go to bed when I can. I’m happiest when I’m studying at school and I miss school so much and can’t wait to get this year in Spain over with so I can go back and start saving languages. I’m currently reading “Language Death” by David Crystal and a thought came to my mind. If 25% of the world’s dying languages are found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, I should start learning Tok Pisin and Bahasa Indonesia, don’t you think?

Anyway, until the next time I get the urge to blog!

This post is stored in the category of Made in USA, Personal Post, Written in English and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: Bahasa Indonesia, Catalan, Facebook, Farm Town, GRE, Jobs, Language Death, Made in Spain, Money, Spanish, Tok Pisin

1 Comment »

So I’ve been home in the US for about two and a half weeks now. So far I’ve visited with my grandma and my niece and nephew a lot, gone to Chicago to apply for my visa, and had a family reunion.

I had originally planned on going to Chicago by Mega Bus last Sunday night. I would have arrived in the early morning, applied for my visa and then headed home late morning. The only problem was that I was so tired from traveling home from Europe I just couldn’t fathom spending hours upon hours on an overnight bus. I can’t sleep on buses. I decided I would drive as my parents are renting me a car for the two months I’m home and I have unlimited miles on it. I ended up asking a friend I made in France, Allison Walton, who is working Chicago currently if she had a place I could crash at. She ended up being able to offer me a guest bedroom which is ten times better than a bus seat or any couch or floor. I made my way up to Chicago last Sunday afternoon and arrived at Allison’s in the early evening. We talked a bit and I finished reading “The Kite Runner” and finally went to sleep. I woke up and drove to downtown Chicago and ended up being an hour early for my 9:00am appointment. Lucky me I was let in early and the whole ordeal took only about 15 minutes. They ended up not needing my French background check and a lot of the documents I had brought with me. After the appointment I made my way home.

I’ve been applying for jobs locally and some not so local. I haven’t had any luck finding any jobs as Ohio is one of the most unemployed states in the US at the moment. I’ve been extremely lazy and not felt motivated to do anything. I really need to get my butt into gear and start practicing my Spanish and Catalan. I need to write to my schools and find out where the heck I’m going to be living. I also need to study for my GRE and sign up to take the test really soon! I promise that tomorrow I will post a daily schedule that I’m going to make myself stick to for the rest of the summer or at least until I find a job (if I do find a job)!

This past Friday my brother-in-law had to work in Circleville so he brought Brady, my nephew, with him and dropped him off at my grandma’s. I went over around lunch time and we ended up meeting my mom at Pizza Hut. After, we dropped my grandma off at her house and I took Brady to go swimming at Dave and Bev’s. We had fun swimming with Dave and ended up going home and taking a long afternoon nap. This past weekend was the Borders’ family reunion. I will someday blog my family tree in great detail and you will be able to understand the mess that is my family (not that my family is a mess but there are a lot of us!). As has been the tradition for the past few years, the Borders’ family reunion is a one big camping weekend where one day we have one big potluck dinner. My sister and brother-in-law were not camping but my parents decided that we would take Brady with us to camp on Friday night. The location of this year’s reunion was at Thousand Trails park near Wilmington, Ohio. My parents had rented out a camper for two nights. We ended up going to Wendy’s for dinner and then getting to the park around 7:45. The camper was old but still quite nice. Not all of my family camps so not everyone was there on Friday night. The potluck dinner was held on Saturday evening. All 6 of my dad’s brothers and sisters were there even though not all of my cousins were there. Overall the weather was a lot cooler than last year and the weekend was great. It was a great time had by all and it was really great to see everyone even though a lot of them I don’t really see that much throughout the year anyway, even when I’m living in the US!

I don’t really have any more big plans for this summer except maybe going to Put-in-Bay on Thursday and there is a Rotary “Rebound” meeting in August sometime. We will see how it all pans out!

For now, this is your Midsummer Update from The Glossophile!

This post is stored in the category of Made in USA, Personal Post, Written in English and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: Allison Walton, Camping, Catalan, Chicago, Circleville, Family Reunion, GRE, Mega Bus, Put-in-Bay, Sanish, The Kite Runner, Thousand Trails, Wilmington Ohio

1 Comment »

So, tomorrow will mark one week since I’ve been home. I’ve actually accomplished a lot since being home. Sunday I have to drive to Chicago to get my visa on Monday. I was going to take the Megabus from Columbus to Chicago but I would have had to leave at 10:20pm on Sunday evening and I wouldn’t arrive in Chicago until about 6:30am. I just can’t imagine doing all the traveling so soon so I asked a friend I had met back in France who was an assistant who also lives in Chicago if I could crash on her couch Sunday evening. I’m still waiting to hear her official word on whether her roommates said it was ok or not. My appointment to get my visa is on Monday at 9:00am at the Consulate General of Spain at 108 N Michigan Ave. I plan on getting up early and going and turning in my application and then heading home right after.

This week, I’ve had to make the final preparations to apply for the visa. On Monday, I had to go to the doctor to get checked out to have a note saying that I could travel and teach in Spain for 8 months. Before I could do that I had to renew my driver’s license and my library card. I picked up a book on Romance Languages and also “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, which has been a pretty good read so far! On, Tuesday I went and applied for a background check. I met my best friends, Joan and Tommy up in Hilliard at Red Robin and then hung out with them on Tuesday night. I had been asked to give a presentation on foreign languages for a friend at her work at JCPenny on Wednesday, so I got up and did that and then came back to Circleville and hung out with my niece and nephew in the afternoon. Yesterday I picked up my police background check and pretty much worked on updating and recovering my external hard drive that had crashed. Today I went and applied for two jobs, one as a security guard at a company called Forward Air and the second at Verizon Wireless behind our house! I do hope I get a job soon as I’m quickly running out of money!

Tomorrow, I’m going with my parents to my cousins’ joint graduation party down in Cincinnati and next week we have a family reunion! I’ve made a goal to finish “The Kite Runner” and then read “The Simarillion” and “The History of Middle Earth” this summer before I leave for Spain. I also need to practice my Spanish and continue with my lessons in Catalan. I need to study for the GRE and take it mid August and work on getting my statement of purposes ready and e-mail some professors and ask if they would be willing to write recommendation letters for me for grad school!

This post is stored in the category of Made in USA, Personal Post, Written in English and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: Catalan, Chicago, Forward Air, Grad School, GRE, Joan Berning, Made in Spain, Megabus, Spanish, The History of Middle Earth, The Kite Runner, The Simarillion, Thomas Smiley, Verizon Wireless, Visa

1 Comment »

My plane from Chicago to Columbus ended up being delayed another three hours (two hours + one more after getting on the plan). I ended up arriving in Columbus at 12:40am. When I arrived my parents and my nephew, Brady, were there waiting for me. I was so gross and tired. We went and got my luggage and headed home. I told my nephew that if he didn’t fall asleep in the car on the way home I’d give him all the Euros that I had left over, which was €9.90. The reason I told him this was that he looked SO tired and I told him that he would definitely fall asleep on the way home and he told me that he wouldn’t…so I made him a bet.

Today I woke up around noon to my nephew telling me that I had to get up and eat lunch! We had three-ways (a Greek style chili dish with spaghetti and cheddar cheese) with cheese coneys! It is one of my family’s favorite things to eat, we have it like once a week, usually. Since my nephew came to meet me at the airport we had to take him back home. After lunch we went and picked up my grandma and then drove the hour and a half to Christiansburg where I got to see my sister, brother-in-law, and my niece, Rylee. It was so fun to play with my niece and nephew all day. It was like nothing had changed and that I had not been gone for the past 9 months. We had dinner at Frisch’s and then we headed home back to Circleville. I went over to our family friends Bev and Dave’s to visit them and Nicole, their daughter.

I love being home and like the last time I left, nothing here has really changed and this time it was a lot easier to just come home and feel RIGHT at home!

This post is stored in the category of Made in USA, Personal Post, Written in English and was written by Derron Borders



1 Comment »

Hey! So, I’m now back on American soil! I’m sitting in Chicago O’Hare Airport at the moment. I decided that since I have a good two hours before I leave that I will update my blog now as I don’t know when I’ll find time to do it once I’m home back in Circleville. The day started out at 5:30 am (11:30 PM EST 7/3/09) in my hostel in Paris. I had reserved a taxi online to come and pick me up at my hostel and take me to Charles de Gualle Airport. The meter was already at 15€ when the dude arrived (this after two taxis passed me empty before my reserved one arrived). I should have ditched my taxi date and started with a fresh 0€ from a passing taxi!

Anyway, I arrived at CDG at 7:00am and went and found where I had to check in. I waited for a good hour and then got in line once check-in started. My bags ended up being 12 kilo overweight. I was flying with Aer Lingus who let’s you have two bags equaling up to 36 kilo together. They failed to tell me that if I had removed 2 kilo from my bags and put it in my carry-on that I would be charged 40€ less than the €80 that I ended up paying for 12 lousy kilos (really 40€ for TWO lousy kilos!)

Anyway, the check-in desk people were just really disorganized and I think one of the girls was new as it was taking up to 20 minutes per passenger at times. I boarded the plan and sat there for an hour an a half. Our flight ended up leaving and hour and a half late because the check-in was so badly done and people were being held up at customs. Luckily my connection flight in Dublin was three hours after my first flight was supposed to arrive.

So we finally departed from CDG, Paris and flew into Dublin where it was raining and chilly. I had to go through the US Customs there in Dublin as they have their own special “US territory” within in the airport. It was pretty nuts. I was unaware that they did this. It made it tons easier upon arriving in Chicago. I was seated in the VERY VERY back of the plane from Dublin to Chicago. I ended up moving a few rows up into an empty pair of seats. This was great as I had the two seats to myself the whole 8 hour and 20 minute flight! Aer Lingus is an exceptional airline and their in-flight accommodations and entertainment was amazing! They have these remote controls with game controls built into them so you can sit and play games. I played Sudoku, Battleship, Who wants to be a Millionaire? (although it was the British version and they kept asking British questions and I never made it to $32,000!)

Anyway, it was crazy when I arrived to O’Hare, it was a mad rush to get my bags and to check them into my next flight to Columubs. I’ll be arrive in Columbus around 10:23pm EST (4:30am France time). It has been a long day! My parents were going to surprise me by bringing Brady with them to the airport but I actually called them on skype and my mom goofed by talking to Brady and I could hear him in the background! I can’t wait to get home!

I can’t wait to see you all either! Hit me up on my phone! (tomorrow as the voicemail is still set!) The cell number is on Facebook!

P.S. NOTICE this post is categorized under “made in the USA” for the first time in 9 months!

This post is stored in the category of Made in USA, Personal Post, Written in English and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: Aer Lingus, Battleship, Brady, Charles de Gaulle, Chicago, Chicago O'Hare, Dublin, Facebook, Paris, Sudoku, Who wants to be a Millionaire?

1 Comment »

So last night was my last night to sleep in my bed here in Dax. Today I woke up unusually early and started to clean. After lunch I washed up all my dishes and scrubbed my kitchen. I gave back all the things I had borrowed (dishes, blankets, pillows, etc.) and then borrowed a vacuum cleaner and then swept my room. I finished packing my carry-on and any loose ends in my bigger suitcases. I mopped my floor and now I’m just waiting for my fridge to unthaw and for M. Martin to come and check me out. Today, compared to the past week was a lot cooler. It rained and today was cloudy so there was no sun to make it unbearably and miserably hot. It was still very humid and I sweat like a horse the whole time I was cleaning.

In about 45 minutes M. Martin is going to come and check me out of my room. I’m going to go over to Georgia’s for the rest of the evening until a cab comes and picks me up to take me to the train station so I can catch my night train to Paris at 12:07am. I’ll arrive in Paris at 7:10am and take a cab to my hostel, check-in, drop of my bags, meet up with Alissa, as she is staying in the same hostel, and then spend the rest of the day with Alissa and her parents. I’m pretty excited to say goodbye to France and to Paris. My plan leaves on Saturday at 10:20am local time so around 4:20am Eastern Standard time. I arrive in Columbust at 10:23pm on Saturday night. That is 18 hrs of travel as I have two very long lay overs in Dublin and in Chicago.

I’m not sure when I’m going to be able to upate my blog again so you can go ahead and e-mail me, get at me on facebook, or comment this post if you need to contact me! I’ll see you all on the flip side!

This post is stored in the category of Made in France, Personal Post, Written in English and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: Alissa Morano, Chicago, Cleaning, Dax, Dublin, Georgia Irving, Travel

1 Comment »

So yesterday I finished packing everything up in my two large suitcases and my little carry-on except for my computer and some other electronic stuff, the clothes for today and tomorrow, and some toiletries. I wanted my room to be clutter free so that I could clean today. I’ve been busy wiping down shelves and and cleaning my bathroom. Tonight after dinner I’ll wash up all my dishes and pack them up and throw away all the food that will not get eaten and then clean out my fridge and wipe it out and clean my kitchen area. That way, tomorrow I can just do a final wipe down of everything and borrow the vacuum cleaner and mop and clean my room here in France for the one final time this year. I have to wash my mattress protector and my curtain (along with Alissa’s) and then around 5:30 I have to give M. Martin everything and turn in my key. I’m going to ask Georgia if I can hang out with her until I leave tomorrow night.

Yesterday I also sent an e-mail to Ricard Sanchez my contact in Palma, Majorca to ask him any advice on living in a tiny town without a car. Below is my e-mail to him and then his response!

Hello Señor Sanchez,

After some research I notice that Campos and S’Alqueria Blanca are very small towns and about 15 km away from each other. Was there an assistant assigned to this area last year? If so, where did they live and how did they go about getting to school? IES Damià Huguet is actually outside of Campos on a country road and S’Alqueria Blanca is a 20 minute bus ride from Campos. I was hoping to live in Palma as I really wanted to improve my Spanish (by taking classes) and learn Catalan at the same time. I could see it being possible to live in Palma if I only had the one school in Campos as I’m sure there is probably a teacher who lives in Palma who could drive me or I could take the bus. With having the school in S’Alqueria Blanca this makes it impossible and I will most likely have to live in Campos. How am I expected to get myself to school? I can’t afford to buy a car there. Also, how am I suppose to improve my Spanish in a tiny Mallorquí town that will most likely be strictly Mallorquí speaking? Could you tell me how the assistants prior to me faired living in the same situation or if you have their contact information I’d love to get into contact with them. Do you have information on how to buy a motor scooter and how I would go about getting insurance for that? Here in France I live in a small town and have been very isolated and have had to live by a very sporadic bus schedule. I don’t think I could do that again for another year. What are your suggestions?

Thank you so much!
-Derron

His response:

Dear Derron

I have been thinking a lot about your situation after reading your email. It is true that both the secindary school in campos and the tiny primary school in S’Alqueria are a bit away from Palma. I am attaching the timetable for the bus line connecting both villages with Palma, so you can get an idea of the schedule.

Your best option is to contact both school and will probably find a way round having to use this line a lot, as normally there are always teachers living in Palma and working in school aout of town. It is true that the primry school is very tiny and it is not very likely that with so few teachers many would live in Palma. Howeever as you only will have to go for two days a week to this school the bus is a good option. Anyway, please contact both schools and find out about travelling arrangements.

As school only work in the morning you’ll have plenty of time in the evening to attend either Spanish or Catalan lessons in Palma.

Please, don’t feel put up because I’m sure you’ll find a convenient arrangement to live in Palma and travel to both schools.

Here you are the email adress of the assistant who worked in S’Alqueria Blanca. He was an Australian man who used to ride his bike a lot. His name was Anthony Kneipp and his email address: (e-mail was removed)

Please, don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries

All the best
Ricardo Sánchez Lange
Assessor Tècnic Docent
Programes Internacionals
Conselleria d’Educació i Cultura

I wrote Anthony and I’ll keep you updated on what happens next!

This post is stored in the category of Made in France, Personal Post, Written in English and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: Alissa Morano, Campos, Cleaning, Georgia Irving, Majorca, Mallorca, Packing, Palma, S'Alqueria Blanca

2 Comments »