Se Acaba la Aventura/The Adventure Ends

One week from today I leave for the United States. After 3 months and 3 weeks, I finally will be returning home. It has been a wonderful ride, and now that I have reached the point where it is about to end, I'll admit that I will miss it here. I came to the realization that, after Portland and Boston, Spain is my next home. I have spent more time here than I have in any other place in the US. The rest of this post will be my attempt to cover all the aspects of Spain that I will miss when I go back home.

I will miss the food here. Some of my fellow preshquitos probably won't agree with me, but I have really enjoyed the food I've had with my host family. The Spanish diet consists mainly of meat and bread. That's what I always imagined my banquet in heaven would have. I think when we first arrived here the PRESHCO program directors purposely served us really scary things so that when we got to our host family's house we would be more open to the slightly different foods they have. My favorite food here is tortilla de patata aka tortilla española. It's a kind of tort thing that is made up of potatoes and eggs and a little bit of onion. I am going to try to make it when I get home. My second thing I've had here is this chicken with onion sauce that my host mother makes. Yum. I will also miss having a huge pig leg just sitting in the kitchen. Some nights I would walk into the kitchen and see my host father Rafa just slicing pieces of ham off for us to have with whatever was our main dish. We'd always have a side plate filled with ham and cheese. I would eat so much of that.

The best nutella crepe ever

The desserts here are to die for. I recently found out that our hotel in Madrid the night before we leave won't be anywhere near the heart of the city, where both my napolitana and crepe stores are located. So it would seem that I will not get my final nutella crepe, and chocolate napolitana. My heart is broken. I will just have to try to make myself a nutella crepe when I get home. I love how there are lots of nutella desserts here. Ice cream toppings that taste like nutella, candy bars that taste like nutella, etc. The US needs to get on that, seriously. Sigh. I am going to miss the dulces.

I will be sorry to leave my host family. I have enjoyed talking with them during lunches and dinners. My host father Rafa is funny, and they are both always really great about answering any questions I may have about anything. I don't have a photo of my host father still. Hopefully I remember to take one before leaving. That'd be really sad if I didn't remember to do that. Everyone in the family is so nice. My host mother and father, my host sisters Mery and Ara, their husbands Niklas and Joaquin, and all the kids, Belen, Nesta, And Zoila. It's just been so great. And Ara's little baby, Joaquinillo is too cute for words. I got to hold him one time, and it was awesome. I love holding babies. Until they cry. Then I can give them back to their parents. I'm so grateful to have had this wonderful family, because after hearing some of the horror stories my fellow preshquitos have told, I know that it could have been very different.

I am going to miss how life in Spain is much more relaxed than in the US. Both with regard to education and just normal day to day business. In stores the workers aren't frantically running around, snapping at you for your order. You can sit in a cafe for hours, and they will only come up to you asking if you want anything once, right after you sit down. They won't keep pestering you, and they won't ever ask you to leave. They don't have places to get coffee to go, because nobody is ever in such a hurry that they don't have time to sit down. Nobody will ever knock you over in the street because they're in such a rush to get to wherever it is they are going. My classes have not been demanding, even the course where I'm directly enrolled in the University. Going back to Wellesley is going to be a bit of a shock, where the work is actually demanding.

My Sevillanas dance class has been probably my favorite activity here in Spain. I don't know why, but I love it so much. This coming Friday we have our final performance. Hopefully I don't forget it all. I need to remember to ask one of my friends to record me and my partner dancing. I just hope we don't mess up during the final performance. My mom is going to throw a Spanish themed New Year's party, and she wants me to teach everyone how to dance the Sevillana. That should be a lot of fun. I finally figured out how to make my hands look good while I dance. Usually I can get the feet to look right, but my hands always look out of place. This time though, I think I've got it.

Finally, I will miss having to speak Spanish a lot. I asked my host parents last night at dinner if my Spanish has improved, and they said yes, so I was really thrilled to hear that. Maybe my choice to go to Spain over the UK was the right decision. I love speaking in Spanish. I didn't get to do it as much as I would have liked, but every meal with my host parents was completely in Spanish. I hope that when I go back to the US that I find enough opportunities to keep speaking the language. I'm not fluent, and I probably never will be, but I can make my way around without a translator, so that's not bad.

My favorite at Cafe y Te, a Bora Bora

So marks the end of a wonderful 4 month adventure. I will have to try to find a way to return. The optimistic person in me insists that I will end up coming back some day. Querido España, aunque no soy de aquí, todavía me aceptaste como tu propia hija, y por eso estoy agradecida. Te extrañaré con toda la fuerza de mi corazón, pero no te preocupes. Yo te encontraré otra vez. And with that, there is nothing left to say except: ¡Viva España!

The Things You Miss

Me and my Soul Roommate

Today is December 1st, so my semester abroad in Spain is officially drawing to a close. I figure I will dedicate my last few posts to reflecting on my time here. Today I'm going to talk about the things you find yourself missing the most when you spend time in another country: both expected and unexpected. The obvious ones are my friends and family, my dog, my home state, my sport, my university, and just the feeling of belonging. No matter how well I blend in because of the fact that I can for the most part pass as being Spanish, there will always be moments when you feel utterly American, and you know that others know it. Examples usually involving talking to people in stores. My Spanish is pretty good, but it is clear within a few sentences that I am not fluent. What I hate the most is when they start speaking to you in English. When they start doing that I stubbornly refuse to respond to them in English. If it is a waiter, they may spend the rest of my time there speaking to me in English, and I will continue to speak in Spanish.

Me playing Squash for Wellesley

Anyways, I digress. Another expected thing you find yourself missing is the food. What I found for me was, it wasn't so much home cooked meals that I missed. I eat excellent home cooked meals every day with my host family. What I have missed most are all my favorite restaurants/fast food places: Papa Johns, Thai food, Sushi, Vietnamese pho, the Indian place at the mall back home, and last but certainly not least, Chipotle/Qdoba. Everyone laughs at that, but if you surveyed all the PRESHCO students, the fast food joint that everyone misses the most is Chipotle. My mouth waters just thinking about it.

Gingerbread houses with the Girls

Now the things you find yourself missing that you never would have expected. Starbucks. They are everywhere in the US, you can't walk more than two blocks without seeing one. We complain about how many there are, but then you go to Spain and there might be one in only the bigger cities. There is no Starbucks in Cordoba. Every chance I got I made sure to buy myself a chai tea latte from Starbucks. I have had 3 total in my semester here. Every time I could it was amazing. Just something that is so familiar, so much like home. The concept of getting hot drinks to go is not really embraced here in Spain. I tried to explain it to my host parents, and they concluded that we Americans are just in much more of a hurry than they are.

Me with my parents

Another thing I find myself missing is efficiency. Just in general. It's horrible to stereotype, but even the Spaniards admit that they aren't the greatest about such things as timeliness. A phrase that is used all the time here is "No pasa nada," which means "Nothing's going on" or more commonly "It's all good." So you could be trying to get somewhere, and the bus is really really late, and the people in charge of the bus will be like, "No pasa nada." Being late doesn't really bother them, which is something that drives me nuts. Also, most stores take FOREVER to do anything. There could be 15 people standing in line, and there will only be one cash register open. And they won't call anybody else over to help get the line moving faster. I was at a Starbucks once, and there were three people working, but one of them just stood off to the side chatting with her co-workers, and the other two just kind of moseyed along. In these moments, I miss the frenzied atmosphere of the US. At least stuff is getting done.

Me and my sister representing our home state Oregon

All in all, there are a lot of things I can't wait to experience again when I get back to the US. I'm excited to see all the Christmas decorations everywhere, which don't seem to be quite as popular here. I have loved being in Spain, and in a later post I will talk about all the things I will miss after I'm gone. I will end this post with a picture of the thing that always lets me know that I'm home after I land in the Portland Airport.

PRESHCO Thanksgiving

So this year was my first Thanksgiving without any of my family members. PRESHCO organized a big dinner at this restaurant called Casa Rubio, which is this nicer restaurant right near the Facultad. I was definitely looking forward to the dinner because even though it wouldn't be the same without my family, at least it would be a big dinner with all my Preshquitos. As I expected, I had a lovely time. When we arrived, on each of our plates was a flower wrapped in a piece of paper, which turned out to be the menu for the evening.

The first thing they brought out was fried shrimp, or as my friend Will kept saying, popcorn shrimp. He kept joking that they got them from a bucket from some fast food place. The second dish that arrived was fried eggplant with honey. Now THAT was tasty. Oh, and I forgot to mention that there was a basket of bread that I believe they refilled twice. And this bread was like hard rolls where you break it open and it's soft inside. My friends Pedro and Will seemed to make it there responsibility to keep passing me the bread when it would arrive to the table. It's important to have good friends with you at big meals :) After the eggplant they brought out a plate of vegetables, which was fine, but at that point we were all ready for the turkey.

The turkey dish then came out, served with sweet potatoes, nuts, and some sort of dried fruit all covered in gravy. It was very good. Not the same of course, but I'm grateful that we even got a Thanksgiving meal, considering we're in Spain.

This is my plate after I've eaten everything. Naturally I was so excited for the food that I forgot to take a photo BEFORE eating it. I've never been known for my patience when it comes to food. My host parents joke about it because at every single meal I burn my tongue because I never wait for it to cool.

After the turkey they brought in this pumpkin tort thing. It looked pretty cool. Unfortunately it didn't taste like pumpkin pie at all. I don't think it was sweet enough, but I appreciated the effort. If nothing else, it was very pretty to look at.

After the dessert, they surprised us with a singing group I believe from the Universidad de Cordoba's agronomy school, or something like that. Anyways they were dressed in the typical Spanish attire, and played various famous Spanish songs. I REALLY wish I knew the words to the songs so that I could look them up later. Especially since now I can recognize the songs, I just can't usually catch too many of the words. They also do this hilarious toast that I only caught a few of the words. I would really love to know the whole things. One guy would lead the toast and all the rest of the group would chime in at different parts. I think one line went something like this: "We drink so that-" "WE SLEEP" "And we sleep so that-" "WE DON'T SIN" "And we don't sin-" "SO WE GO TO HEAVEN" "And so to go to heaven-" "WE DRINK MORE" I personally got a kick out of that. I wish I knew all of it.

After we sat and listened to them a bit, everyone started getting up and dancing. Now I must say, at this point in the evening, the waiters had been filling up everyone's wine glasses for about 3 hours now. I myself don't like wine unless it's tinto de verano (which means it's about half filled up with soda), so I just got to enjoy everyone else clearly being intoxicated out of their minds. My 21st birthday is going to be boring to say the least. Not to say that I didn't get up and dance with everyone else. It was a lot of fun, definitely. This is something I will miss about Spain. Among many other things, but I'm saving that for one of my last blog posts.

After the Thanksgiving dinner was over I went out with a group of friends to a bar called Templarios. It was this medieval themed bar, which is SO up my alley. Medieval Studies major + Medieval themed bar = Unimaginable happiness. Of course, I still didn't drink anything there, but I just absorbed the awesome decorations that surrounded me. I hope I can find that place again. I'll just go sit there and allow myself to be amazed.

Pretty sweet right?!! I mean, this bar did not skimp on the decorations. When my friend first told me about it I thought it was going to be some lame effortless attempt at medieval decor, but no, this was legit!

 Now, I had the flash on for all of these photos, so you don't get to really experience the mood of the place. It was dark with green overhead lights. So it was eery too!! There was a downstairs area that was lit with green and red overhead lights, and the downstairs was decorated in a sort of forest theme, with a little fake creek, and all the columns were decorated as trees, with leaves covering the walls. It was SO COOL.

Well, now that Thanksgiving is over, it means that I can officially break out the Christmas music!!! Guess who has been listening to Josh Groban's Christmas songs all morning?! That's right, me. I love his Christmas album. His voice makes me want to cry sometimes. And now I only have 3 weeks and 3 days until I leave Spain. I am definitely ready to be home, but I will miss it here too.

Culture Clash over Economics

Now don't worry, I know the title of this post sounds ominous, but nothing bad occurred in this "culture clash." Not even a debate. This entry is merely going to be my reflection over an interesting exchange that happened between my History of Photography professor and one of my fellow Preshquitos. We were discussing themes for our final photo project, when my classmate presented her idea of doing her project about her fear of being poor. This idea didn't strike me as strange in the least. We all have our fears. Personally I fear death, flying, and Gollum from Lord of the Rings. What has prompted me to post now, a day after the incident, was our professor's response. He immediately responded with,
        "Well that's an irrational fear."
All of us (there were about 6/7 of us in this tutoring session) just sat there in awkward silence. I mean, my fear of Gollum could definitely be called irrational. He's a fictional character for heaven's sake. And my mother has called my fear of flying irrational, although I beg to differ on that point. However, never would I have described the fear of poverty as being irrational. Hard times can come on anyone. He eventually followed that up with, "You'll have a degree from a good university, there's no way you will end up on the streets." Now, I'm guessing he hasn't heard/disregards the common phrase describing liberal arts majors living in a box. However, ignoring all the people we currently know who can't find jobs after graduating, his point isn't completely out there. None of the jobless college graduates that I've heard of are living on the streets. What struck me most was the next thing he said. He said, "What's the unemployment rate in the US? 7%? 8%? Well here it is 30%." We all just sat there kind of stunned. I wonder if he thinks we're all spoiled Americans, complaining about unemployment in our country when Spain is struggling so much more. It was definitely a wake up call to me. Here in our country people are ragging on Obama and talking about how bad our economy is, and people are struggling, I know. But in Spain almost a third of the population is unemployed. More than 3 times the percentage of our country that is unemployed.


     I guess one benefit of spending this semester in Spain is learning the skill of keeping things in perspective. Sometimes I think a lot of us in the US become so focused on our own problems that we forget that other countries have it off worse. Or even that some country's are doing things better than we are. I am guilty of this myself. I didn't even know the basics of Spain's political system, whereas my host family knew all about our election, the situation in the House of Representatives, and many of the details of past elections. They don't know the intricacies of our system, but they still knew way more than I did. That's definitely something I should work to improve when I get back home. Got to try and be more aware.

US Election 2012

Last night I stayed up till close to 7am with a group of us PRESHCO students to watch the presidential election. It was the first election I was eligible to vote in, and I sent in my absentee ballot as soon as I received it in the mail. My beloved home state of Oregon delivered for the democratic candidate, once again. Might as well call her old faithful. I was looking back at Oregon's voting history and what I love is we've been voting Democrat for 30 or so years, and the last time we voted Republican was back when the Republican party was more aligned with the modern day Democratic party.

Even though we were in Spain, and missed out on being in the US for all the celebration, I had a wonderful election party with my Preshquitos. Lots of food and talk and waiting with baited breath for the next projection to appear on CNN. It's kind of been nice being in Spain since we haven't had to deal with the constant barrage of advertisements insulting both candidates. I was on such an adrenaline high throughout the night that the hours seemed to fly by, and sleep remained the furthest thing from my mind. I contributed to the re election of President Barack Obama.

I do have to add that I am impressed with how well informed all the Spaniards are about the political process and current events of the US. My host parents knew the names of both candidates, their political parties, and they understood the current problem we're having in the House of Representatives where the Republicans are shooting down all the changes Obama tries to make. I could not have answered even the most basic question about Spain's political system. Guess I'm perpetuating that stereotype about Americans being more focused on what happens in their own country than anything else....I was ashamed. But even this can't bring me down from my high. I am proud to be a member of a country lead by Barack Obama. All I have to say now is....Clinton 2016 :)

Valencia

All Saint's day (aka November 1st) is a national holiday in Spain, so this weekend was a 4 day weekend for everyone here. To celebrate this, I went to Valencia with two of my friends from the PRESHCO group. I don't know what I was expecting from the city, but overall I enjoyed my time there. It was surprising how quiet everything was. You'd be walking around right at the lunch hour, and there would be very few people on the streets. My Frommer's guide book made a point about Valencia being overshadowed by the other cities in Spain, which I can completely understand. It has a cathedral, but not as grand as all the others. It has an "old city" but not as old as various parts of Cordoba. It was a nice place to relax for a few days, but I can understand why it doesn't even have its own section in the Rick Steve's guidebook.

I have to say, I love big markets. We found one in Valencia, and I think it may have been my favorite part of the trip. Even though they had pig heads and rabbit bodies just sitting in the cases...:( And a guy was killing the eels in front of everyone. People seem to be made of sterner stuff here in Spain. It made me kind of sad. But I loved looking at all the seafood, meat, and vegetables. I don't know why. I guess I enjoy the energy in the atmosphere of a food market.

I've returned to Cordoba now, and so ends probably the only trip I will take during my time here in Spain. I can't honestly say that I'm disappointed about that. Traveling causes enormous amounts of stress for me, and I like being at my home base. Someday I'll get myself to the UK. Just not now it would seem.

Siguiendo adelante

Sorry to everyone for not posting in a very long time! Like I've said before, not much has been happening lately, so I don't feel like I can write a good blog entry. Yesterday I got to skype my grandparents for the first time since coming to Spain, which was really nice. Last weekend the PRESHCO people took us to the beach in Huelva to make up for the fact that they canceled the trip to Morocco that was supposed to happen last weekend. Next weekend I will be going to Valencia with my two guy friends here, so that should be interesting. It probably will be the only time I end up traveling while here in Spain, if I'm being honest with myself. I know I should plan a trip to the UK since I so desperately wanted to study abroad there. However, when I think about it, we don't have that many more weeks left here in Spain. Over half way till I come home for Christmas. I guess I'll just have to make myself go to the UK another time.

Gloomy Sara now. I've really despaired of ever becoming fluent in Spanish. I now accept it as the unattainable dream that it is. I would have to live in Spain for years with no contact to any English speakers, and that is not realistically going to happen. There are times when I wish that I had just been a Classical Civ/Med Ren double major, since now it seems like my Spanish major is worth nothing. I can speak and understand pretty well, but I would be absolutely destroyed if I came into contact with a native speaker. My Spanish is definitely not good enough to be used in any sort of official capacity, such as any career path that I might end up taking. And this makes me sad because the only thing I've ever known for sure is that I want to be fluent in Spanish. I foolishly thought that a semester in Spain would get me there, but that is in no way true. Oh well. I'm so close to getting my major that it isn't really worth it to stop now.

Visit from Mom

I haven't posted for a while since my Mom arrived last Thursday, and we've been doing lots of traveling the past 10 days. Immediately upon her arrival in Spain we headed to Sevilla together. The photo above is of me in the flamenco dress I bought myself. I tried on 4 different ones before deciding to go with the first one I tried on. The decision ended up being between this dress and a a white dress with flowers all over it, no sleeves, and blue ruffles at the bottom. I ended up going with this one because it is more "flamenco" and I just love red and the sleeves. Proof that I, as a very curvy woman, can totally pull of a tight fitting dress :) In Sevilla we saw the palace and the Cathedral, which has a large tower with a spectacular view of the city at the top. Apparently a "tapa" of Columbus is buried in the Cathedral, since his body has been moved around so much. I love that they call it a tapa of Columbus. I think it was something like 30 bones/13% of his body is in the Cathedral. The palace was pretty cool because it is divided into three sections. One third is the Palace of Isabel and Ferdinand, another is Pedro Tercero, and the last is I think for one of the kings Alfonso. Though I'm a little shaky on the details since it has been a while. What's great is that each of the different palaces has a different style to it. Isabel and Ferdinand's third was a bit more plain, whereas Pedro Tercero's had a distinctly Moorish style to it, and Alfonso's had a lot of yellow tile and various tapestries on display.
Plus, Mom and I found this restaurant that served pasta with saffron and shrimp in it. It was incredible. We went back two nights in a row to order the same thing. Mom usually never allows us to do that because she always wants to try new things, however, she made an exception with this place because that pasta was just so amazing.



After Sevilla we moved onto Granada. Both Mom and I felt that Granada was kind of ugly in comparison. The photo is of me and my mom in the Alhambra, in front of the cool lion fountain. The Alhambra is spectacular, of course. The detail work is incredible. The amount of time it must have taken to chisel out the decorations on all the columns and walls. Not a single wall was left bare it seemed like. And lots of fountains and running water. We walked so much, my feet were killing me. At the end of that day we had dinner in a bar where they were playing the Real Madrid vs. Barca game. The bar was almost evenly divided between Madrid and Barca fans, and the game ended up being an exhibition for the stars of the two teams (Ronaldo for Madrid, Messi for Barca) with both the players scoring all the goals for their team, with the game ending in a 2-2 draw.

We then spent 3 nights in my home, Cordoba, where Mom did all the touristy things while I was in class, which was nice. We got back Monday, and my host mother took us that afternoon to a town called Priego, which is this gorgeous, historic little pueblo about an hour outside of Cordoba. The photo is of me, my host mom Araceli, my host sister Mery, and Mery's study abroad student Kasumi from Japan. All the buildings in the town are stark white, and it just was so cute. My host family has told me that of the students they've had that have no background in Spanish, I speak the best Spanish. These kind of things make me happy. Also, while my mom was here, as long as I spoke, nobody asked me if I wanted an English menu or anything. However, as soon as my mom spoke they would start speaking in English. I'm making my way up in the world of speaking Spanish.

Then this weekend we headed off to Madrid, with a day trip to Toledo on Friday. I have to say, Toledo is probably my favorite city in Spain. It is just so medieval, and they are known for their swords. Any city that is known for swords is my kind of place. I got a shield with two swords crossed behind it that I can hang on my wall. I love it. The shield is the shield of Spain. Something to have with me always. I have no pictures of it, but it is awesome.

Since my mom can bring home things in her suitcase, I have gotten 80% of my Christmas shopping done. I'm so stoked about that. The week I have home before Christmas can be spent relaxing instead of rushing around trying to buy everyone's gifts.

Madrid to me, is the city of desserts. And I have successfully hit all of my favorite dessert places here. Crepes two nights in a row, churros con chocolate this morning, and a napolitana this afternoon. Unfortunately, when my mom leaves I will have to go back to my dessert once a week rule. And I should start running more regularly. I'm going to die when I get back on campus and have to start playing squash for hours every day. The first week isn't going to be pretty. Lots of dry heaving on court I'm sure. Mom did drag me to El Prado, the art museum here. There were two paintings of men riding horses that I loved, one of St. George slaying the dragon, and the other of a Duke of Lerma. However, my dislike of art museums has not faded at all since I was 6 going to art museums on our first Europe trip. So many religious paintings. All of Jesus either on the cross or bleeding from the crown of thorns. I wish there was more variety amongst old paintings. But anything is better than the current trend of modern "art" we have nowadays. Ick.

Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything important. Monstrous sized post I know, but I had a lot of stuff happen this past week.

In a Rhythm

Well, I've been in Spain a little over a month now, and I'm finally starting to get into a rhythm. This of course means that I don't post as frequently because nothing new happens to me. I go to class and hang out with my friends. Today I had a Spanish couple ask me for directions to the Mezquita, and I think I was pretty successful. I've had people ask me for help three different times now. I think this last time I may not have sounded my best, because I had to think of the best way to direct them before I could say anything. I really hate it when I sound like I'm just visiting. I've had a few people tell me after speaking with them that I could pass for Spanish, since I don't have much of an accent. Except when I struggle with what I want to say....Grrr.

The photo above is of me in the Plaza de Tendillas. I go there a lot. It's the main meeting point for all my friends when we want to hang together. It's pretty central. Sometimes if I just feel like going for a walk, I'll make a loop that includes the Plaza and the Roman Bridge. Today I went to the only bookstore I've found in Spain. The tragedy was that all the books there were extremely expensive. The cheapest book I found probably had no more than 100 pages and it cost 7.90 euros. Most of the books cost 20 euros or more....And they were all PAPERBACKS too. I think I spent 20 dollars on the last Harry Potter book, but that was in hard cover, and it was Harry Potter. I may still end up buying a book because the program here allows you to use reembolsos on cultural purchases. I just will have to only pick one book, and make sure I pick wisely.

The photo above is of the Plaza at night. Quite something. I love how they light up different parts of the city after dark. Makes it just as beautiful to look at. I took this photo, because for once I actually took the time to really look at the Plaza. I walk there nearly every day, and I just hadn't taken the time to see where I was. It is nice to be surprised with the beauty of your surroundings every now and again.

My mother comes to Spain the day after tomorrow. It will be nice to have her with me for 10 days. We're going to go to Sevilla and Granada this weekend, and then next weekend we're going to be in Toledo and Madrid. I have to show her all the awesome desserts I've found in Spain :)

Short note

Tonight we met with our compañeros de conversación. It's a way the program helps us to interact more with people outside of PRESHCO. The compañeros are comprised of either current UCO students or recent graduates. I had a great time. I'm actually starting to believe that my spoken Spanish is pretty good. I got a lot of compliments from the various people I talked to. Maybe my goal of one day becoming fluent in Spanish isn't out of my reach. I hope I end up hanging with some of the people again. They all seemed pretty cool.
I love my Sevillana dance class. It is so much fun. The class will probably be one of the things I miss most about Spain when I have to leave in December. It's surprisingly hard. I always leave class sweating. 50% of my sweat is probably caused by the fact that there is no AC in the dance room and it's always sweltering, but the rest is totally from all the dancing. Hopefully I don't lose everything I've learned immediately after getting back to the US.

Settling in

I have officially been in Spain for three weeks now. So far it has been pretty nice. A lot of interesting tings are normal here but never happen back home. The majority of dogs I've seen walking with their owners have no leash on them. They follow along very obediently and don't run off into traffic or anything. Clearly people do something magical to make their dogs super well behaved. I need to find out what they do and get them to teach me their ways so I can become a dog whisperer. People are definitely more open here. I was walking down the street with two of my friends one day, and we came across a vending machine filled with condoms and other sexual products. Just sitting there in a vending machine. Originally I didn't notice because I just assumed that, like all vending machines, it was filled with Twix bars. That's just mind boggling to me. Along the same vein, the husband of one of my host mother's daughters told a penis joke at the dinner table. In front of all the kids and everything. I can't really imagine that happening in the US. Maybe just in the most liberal of houses.

Today at lunch, I was eating with my host mother and her daughter, Mery. We somehow got on the topic of food and the differences between eating here and in the US. In Spain people cook everything with olive oil. EVERYTHING. However, they hardly ever use butter. Complete opposite of us in the states. Also, being a vegetarian has got to be close to impossible here. Every meal usually has ham in it. And if not ham there's another kind of meet, you can count on that. My host mother told me the program has never sent her a vegetarian. At the end of the discussion she said that when you're here, you should eat meat, then you can go back to being vegetarian when you return home. I can understand where she's coming from. Their meals are predominantly made up of protein, and it would be difficult to have to completely change your cooking style for a student. Meat and bread at every meal. I think i may have died and gone to heaven.

Another thing that's hard to get used to is how late everyone stays up here. The streets are usually filled with people even at 1am. One night I came back a little before 2am and both my host mother and father were still awake. The next day my host father commented on how "early" I came home the previous night.....???!! My host parents don't normally stay up that late, though it isn't uncommon for them to be awake until midnight or even 1am.

It still remains difficult to get myself completely immersed in the Spanish language. I'll try to only speak Spanish with the PRESHCO students, but lately I've started to give up on that. Most of the time they will respond in English so it isn't really worth it. I'm afraid my Spanish won't improve at all. I can finally accept that my Spanish is at a level where I can get around without too much trouble. But I came here to get closer to being fluent, not remain in a state of perpetual adequacy.

There are definitely days when I wish I had picked the UK as my study abroad destination. For one thing, the weather here is so hot. I miss fall, rain, overcast skies. Where are they?!! And while my classes here do seem interesting, I think I would have preferred some of the classes I saw offered in the UK schools. The classes I'm taking here are going to be really easy. Two of my classes just have one 3 page paper due at the end, and one has two written exams. And I know I should be glad that they're going to be easy, which I am, but at the same time, it means I'm not really working at my Spanish much for my classes either. I will say though, my Sevillana dance class is fun. Hard work. We'll see how good I get by the end of it all.

If I'm being completely honest, I could leave Spain tomorrow and be satisfied with the trip. I don't think I'll end up being one of those people who dread returning to the states, and who say that studying abroad changed their life. I'm very glad I have this opportunity, but at the same time, it's very lonely here. All of my friends and family are very far away. Except the friends I've made in PRESHCO, who are all very wonderful and lovely. I'm not big on traveling. I'm always ready to go home at the end of a trip. And after three weeks, I'm ready to go home. Gotta wait another three months though.

First Impressions

That's the first picture I took of me in Cordoba. I think I have a total of two photos here that have me in them. I'm so bad at asking people to take my photo. Eventually I'll get better at that I'm sure. Anyways, today was our first day of classes. I enjoyed both my Romans in Spain class and my Spanish Medieval Art class. I feel bad because I don't like it when professors or tour guides speak so......slow.....for an hour. However, I need to step away from obnoxious Sara and embrace that it is really thoughtful of them to do that. Though short anecdote, the last tour we went on there was this tour guide who translated all the cognates like "obstaculo" and "cisterna." That just gets me. If it sounds exactly the same in the other language, I'm pretty sure it doesn't need to be translated. But enough ranting about that.

Life with my host family has been going pretty well. I find I'm not in the house all that often. When I am in the house I'm usually so tired that I just want to take a nap. Wellesley women are women who will take naps. That banner was made for me. I don't have too many problems understanding my host family when they speak to me. Obviously there are moments when the words they use fly straight over my head. And if they are speaking to each other then I don't have a snow ball's chance in hell of understanding.

On our last tour (aka the tour that never ended and killed our feet) we got to see the Mezquita. It was quite beautiful, and I loved the arches. It's really cool how the oldest part of the church is from either the 8th or 9th century. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about :) But hilarious fact: we saw a person walking their pig in the courtyard of La Mezquita. That's right. Walking their pig.

That's all for now. Hopefully it continues to go well.

At last, Cordoba

Finally arrived in Cordoba. I'm so glad to finally be here. I've met my host family, and there are tons of people, and tons of dogs, but they're all very lovely. The photo is of my room, which I will live in until December. I can't believe it. And I'm so ready to get into a routine. Everyone from our program was exhausted on the train ride because nobody went to bed before 3am if I had to hazard a guess. Spanish cities never sleep, it seems. Not much of note happened today, but I was so good and unpacked everything in an organized manner. I'm so proud of myself. Tomorrow we get together with all the PRESHCO people for a pool adventure. That'll be nice.

Sorry for the short entry. Hopefully more to come.

Barcelona

So I tried to upload a photo to this post and it didn't really work, so unfortunately there won't be a photo accompanied with this post. Today is our first whole day in Barcelona. We woke up this morning and went on a bus tour of the city. The only place we really stopped to explore was the public park that was designed by Gaudi. The park was really cool, and I really like Gaudi's designs, probably because he tries to make his structures reflect nature. The problem with going on a bus tour is there are very few opportunities to take pictures while riding around. And I think more than half of us fell asleep during the tour. It's hard, the bus is nice and warm, and we've been traveling around so much that the exhaustion just takes over.
An observation I must make is that Barcelona is hotter than Madrid. This makes no sense to me because Barcelona is further north than Madrid. Thankfully, the landscape around Barcelona is much greener than in the south of Spain, which I expected. It was kind of sad on the bus because we finally reached a place that wasn't just arid desert, and that reminded me of all the green space in Boston and Portland, my two homes in the US. I know I'm so lucky to have this opportunity, but I don't think I'll be one of those people who doesn't want to leave Spain at the end of the semester. I am a homebody, and proud.
On Saturday we leave for Cordoba. I have to say, I can't wait. I'm ready to settle down into a routine of classes, and finally be able to unpack. I want to meet my host family. I want to start using my Spanish the majority of the time. I think that will help with the homesickness.

Holy Toledo!

I just have to say that I love Toledo. It's a really old medieval city that is known for its swords. That has Balzo written all over it! We went on a guided tour of the Cathedral, the Synagogue, and we saw the painting of the burial of this guy de Orgaz done by el Greco. The Cathedral is spectacular. Apparently it's the second largest in Spain. It took 200 years to build, so it combines Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque elements. This city used to be the capitol until one of the kings of the Austrian dynasty decided to move it to Madrid in the 16th century I believe. Anyways, now it only has around 80,000 inhabitants. The streets are very narrow and I still don't understand how cars can drive on the streets of Spain. All of their cars are about 1/6 the size of the cars in America though so that definitely helps.

I've tried really hard not to buy anything besides food while we've been in Spain, but I saw these little tiny swords and I just couldn't help myself. I stood by the stand for probably five minutes or more trying to force myself to walk away, but something came over me. I tried to find the sword for Richard the Lionheart but it was too hard to search. Thankfully though I found this one that says Charlemagne on it. After all, last fall I did take a class called Barbarian Kingdoms where we discussed Charlemagne and the other Carolingians.
Anyways, that's about it for Toledo. We get the day off tomorrow in Madrid. I'm so excited. Sleep all day. And all night.

El oso y los madroños

Today we took a tour of Madrid, first on foot, then by bus. I have to say, all these scheduled events are making me tired. Thankfully, after we got done at 14:30, we were given the rest of the day off until tomorrow morning. A much needed siesta was taken by many of us, since everyone was out and about in Madrid last night till the wee hours of the morning.
Anyways, during the tour we got to see the three different zones of Madrid. The area of the Hapsburgs (Las Austrias), the area of the Bourbons (Los Borbónes), and modern Madrid. Most of the city seems to be a shrine to Carlos Tercero, of the Bourbon dynasty. He seems to have had the greatest impact on the city of Madrid. Anyways we walked through the city and then took a tour of El Palacio Real. It's really cool that the royal family still uses some of the palace for various ceremonies. Apparently the Spanish World Cup winning team was received by King Juan Carlos, and Queen Sofia in El Palacio Real. What I don't understand is why NONE of the Queen's quarters of the past are open to the public. We only get to see where the various kings lived.

Me in front of El Palacio Real. And now I'll explain the title of my blog. On the flag of Madrid, there is a picture of a bear reaching up and grabbing food from a tree. This symbolizes an agreement that happened between the State and the Church that happened around the 13th century, I think. The two factions were arguing over who had the right to the land, and what the land produced. A compromise was eventually reached, and it was agreed that the Church had the right to the land, but what the land produced belonged to the state. The flag is a symbol of this agreement. A pretty cool story in my opinion
Tomorrow we head off to Toledo, though we will return to Madrid for the evening. More adventures.

Segovia

I'm going to start this blog off with a shout out to Jill Migliore. Hello. :) I'm glad to hear you like my blog. I'll try to make it detailed enough to paint a picture of what we're all getting up to in Spain. This morning we left Salamanca and began our journey to Madrid, stopping for several hours in Segovia. The photo above was the first view we got of El Alcázar. We went on a guided tour of this castle, which was pretty cool. There were a bunch of rooms filled with armor, which always make me happy. And various types of medieval weapons. Awesome. It is a pretty cool building because all the kings and queens of Spain would stay there, not on a permanent basis I don't think, but if they visited Segovia this is where they were at. There were some paintings and sculpture like things of Isabel and Fernando, probably the only Spanish royalty that I know anything about. There is a huge Roman aquaduct in Segovia, which is good for me since I'm also obsessed with classical things.

Me in front of the aqueduct. Pretty cool looking. Still haven't really figured out how an aqueduct works but that is not important. We had about 3 hours of free time after the tour to twiddle around Segovia. It's a cute city. And then we got back on the bus and have arrived in Madrid. Going to go check out Madrid tonight after dinner. Dinner is so late. I'm always so hungry by the time we eat. Anyways, I'll check in with more news later.

Las Ranitas de Salamanca

   I just have to say that today has been a pretty good day. We went on a guided tour of Salamanca, which was really cool. There are a lot of very old buildings, most of which are from the 15th century. The top photo is me standing in the University of Salamanca, and the bottom photo is of the Plaza Mayor. There was a lot of wind which surprised all of us because we all brought clothes more suited to the blistering heat of Cordoba than the surprisingly cold temperatures of Salamanca. On the tour we saw walked by a monastery, toured the University, and walked around the Cathedral. The Cathedral has two parts to it, la vieja y la nueva. What's funny is the "new" part of the church is from the 1400s. The old part is from the 1100s I believe. Shows how awesome Europe is in comparison to the US. The oldest thing back home is from the 1700s. Lame. But back to the tour. There were two places where lots of marriages take place. One was in the University, which was this small room with spectacular religious pictures and red carpeting everywhere. I would totally get married there. Then there was the large hall in the old part of the Cathedral. And of course, that would be a pretty cool place to get married, but a bit imposing. The ceilings are HUGE.
  A cool little tidbit about Salamanca is it's lucky creature is a frog. Una rana. The directors of PRESHCO gave us key chains with a frog in a graduation cap and gown that says Salamanca. Pretty cute. Anyways after the tour me and three other PRESHCO students walked around, ate lunch, and then eventually paid a few euros to go to the top of the Cathedral. The view was amazing.  I'm sad to be leaving Salamanca. I almost wish I was just staying here. But onto Segovia and then Madrid tomorrow. Seguimos adelante!

We're not in Kansas anymore

Today I arrived in Spain. And I have to say, as we made our descent into Madrid, all I could think was how much it all looked like the suburbs of Las Vegas. This thought was only reinforced during our drive to Salamanca. I was descending into a deep pit of despair when Fate stepped in and I spotted a small, enclosed city, with tall, castle like walls surrounding it. Turns out the city is called Ávila, and we made a pit stop just outside the city. We stood at this monument called Los Cuatro Postes, which had a spectacular view of Ávila. I would have liked to walk around Avila, but we only stopped for maybe a half hour. Then we got back on the road, and the barren wasteland returned, with no real trees in sight. Now we are in Salamanca, and the city is pretty old and cool looking, which makes everything a lot better. Not a lot of Spanish is being spoken amongst the PRESHCO students, but I'm hoping that will change once I get to my host family in Córdoba and start taking classes. At least, I'm going to wait to start panicking until that point. I'm so exhausted though. Besides a 20 minute nap on the bus, I've been awake about 28 hours and counting. I can't wait to go to sleep. Everyone is talking about going out for drinks or visiting clubs. I'm fairly confident that as soon as dinner is over (which begins at 9pm.....????) I'm just going to flop on the bed and pass out.
Hopefully I will have more interesting things to discuss next time I post after we take our guided tour of Salamanca. After Salamanca we travel to Segovia, followed by various other cities. Wish me luck. I just want to start using my Spanish.

The deep breath before the plunge

Tomorrow will be my last day in the United States. It almost doesn't seem real to me. I will be away from my home, and everyone that I love for almost 4 months. No Wellesley, no Portland, nothing familiar. Even though I picked a school 3,000 miles away from my home state, I'm definitely a homebody. The idea of living with a new family, in a new country is just terrifying. I need to remember that this is something I need to do if I want to achieve my goal of being fluent in Spanish. However, knowing that I need to do it does not diminish the fear I feel. It's kind of funny since I bought a guide book for Great Britain a few days ago. I'm more excited about visiting my friends in the UK than I am for being in Spain. I'm hoping this will change once I arrive in Spain and I get to see how amazing it is there. The last time I was in Spain I was six years old. The only things I remember from that trip is the enormous dragon slide in Barcelona, the dragonflies, the huge pig carcasses hanging in the markets, and the paella. It's funny what memories will stick in the memory of a six year old.
The more I write here the more excited I get. I love speaking in Spanish. When I first came to Wellesley, I was so nervous throughout orientation. The only time I finally calmed down was when I went to the Spanish Language placement exam, and sat in the room for the people who placed out of the first two years of language courses, listening as the professors all spoke in Spanish. Immediately after that meeting, I called my mother and told her I wanted to be a Spanish major. She told me not to get too ahead of myself, but it turns out that I was right. Here I am, a Spanish and Medieval/Renaissance studies double major. And about to head off to España. Half of me is ready, half of me isn't. But it will be an awfully big adventure.