Andrew en España

Going to miss this place.

2006-05-29T18:35:00.000+02:00

I spent Friday afternoon at the Adsis house again. It was really good to spend time talking and laughing with them. I got to share a mother’s joy in watching her son start to walk. Alex has really come a long way in the months that I’ve been here, and though he’s still not sure about letting go of the coffee table, he’s started to take his first steps. After lunch Chelu and Pedro zonked out on the couch. It was pretty funny to see them side by side with their heads leaned over in the same direction just sleeping. It took them about 5 minutes.

Saturday afternoon I helped prepare vegetables for the gran Paella Solidaria. At my church, we were having a big fundraiser to send money to Medellin, Columbia. We were selling lunch (Paella). Their slogan was 1 plate here, 5 in Medellin. Anyway, I never chopped so many onions in my life, and oh did it burn. On Sunday, I saw the huge frying pan they had borrowed. It was about 7 feet in diameter and was made to serve about 600. It was pretty crazy. For those who don’t know Paella is a typical Spanish dish (of Valencia) that’s mostly fried rice (flavored with saffron which isn’t really saffron since saffron is expensive) with vegetables and meat (especially seafood). Also more squid than I’ve seen in one place before. Unfortunately it was unbearably hot and not many people ventured out from their homes, so I believe we ended up serving around 250 people. Washing the frying pan was an adventure to say the least. In the end and after expenses I think we will be able to send about 1000€ to Columbia.

Today I helped Martin carry his bags to the bus station. He’s off to Prague. It was kind of sad to see him go. We even got him to go out to a Tapas Bar with us last night. He kept thinking I was saying Topless Bar (he speaks English too), so at first I was having hard time convincing him to go. Anyway it was the first and last time that he went out while here in Spain as far as Lucian and I know. We already have someone to replace him though. Somehow Lucian has connections, but anyway, a French girl that has an internship at the University this summer has already started moving in. Her Spanish is better than mine was when I got here and she knows some English. However, though she’s been told multiple times that I don’t speak a word of French, she continues to talk to me in French. If there’s something that she can’t seem to remember in Spanish she goes to French and looks at me expectantly. She came only yesterday and I think already it’s been clearly demonstrated that I don’t understand her when she speaks French. Also asked me if I thought she could where a thong to work (she meant sandals). Ahh well, the joys of international living situations. Lucian and I are both here only another 2 to 3 weeks, so she’ll be on her own then.

Other than that study study study. Hope everyone is enjoying their summers back home in the States or Uganda if you’re Simon.

Still have off days...

2006-05-29T18:33:00.000+02:00

This is from a while ago, but I figured I'd put it up. Still remember that cursed day...

Argh

So yesterday was an off day. Couldn’t believe how many mistakes I was making and how little I was understanding. I can’t even remember some of the stupid things I said. For just a sampling…

I got up out of a chair and all of my joints cracked. Sonia thought I was dying, but I said not to worry, my knees and my screws always do that. Should have been ankles (tornilla, tobillo). I knew that Oscar had founded the adsis house in Chile. We were talking about that and I asked him when he melted the house (fundir, fundar). Later when working with their computers, I tried to say something about how XP worked with externals, I something completely unintelligible came out that was neither English nor Spanish. I have no idea… It went on from there. This, of course, is in addition to the habitual grammatical errors, using el when I should use la, or incorrectly conjugating my verbs. Sometimes I’m just back to square one. :)

London

2006-05-25T11:52:00.000+02:00

This will mostly be throwing some pictures up for the family since I haven´t blogged in forever. Someone in the comp. lab is listening to Pearl Jam. I like it, but others don´t seem to appreciate it so much. It´s 22 degrees and sunny and I´m happy to be here despite the fact that I have loads of work to be doing. I hung out my laundry this morning and am going to miss the ability to do that. When I go home from the lab, I´ll stop on the way and get a loaf of bread for 42 cents. This evening I´ll be running with Jochen again. It´ll be one of the last times since he doesn´t have to take exams (only a certificate of attendance) and will be going home soon. Tomorrow I´m going to check out Zamora with Sonia. It´s not too far and the University of Salamanca has a campus there that she attends. So that´s life in a nutshell. Some days I´m lazy, but today I´m ready to live, read, learn Spanish and run.

So it was great to visit London and see Pearl and David. This was about a month ago now...I think. Though there wasn´t much sun, the weather was nice and didn´t really rain on us ever. I was actually rather unimpressed with Buckingham Palace though the flowers out front were pretty. The gardens in general were impressive and the flowers were in full bloom, so it was gorgeous.

This was the gate to the Palace. I thought the crest was kind of neat. This was probably the most impressive part of the palace, from the outside anyway.
So this is a view of Parliament and Big Ben and the River Thames (pronounced Tems apparently). Pearl and I actually waited and were able to go in and watch some of a meeting of the House of Commons. It was actually a few committees about the government in Northern Ireland. It was interesting and fun to watch how they went back and forth.
Taken from the bridge and looking in the opposite direction I can see the London Eye and the Aquarium. Yes the London Eye is a giant bicycle wheel and it costs 13 pounds to ride it. Kind of neat though.
Also in Westminster (other than the palace) is of course Westminster Abbey. I liked it. This where Kings and Queens, etc. are coronated by the Archbishop of Canterbury whom I believe is otherwise unconnected with this church.
This is just a view of the skyline complete with Pearl´s egg, her landmark for getting home. Apparently, they actually call it the gerkin, but it doesn´t look like a pickle, it looks like an egg.
Most of my time spent in the UK was spent wandering around. I enjoyed it. I now understand the Mind the Gap t-shirts which I´d not even heard of before. I was introduced to authentic British culture such as Pret sandwiches and Fish and Chips. I don´t have pictures of it, but the National Library was impressive. They have an amazingly complete collection of stamps. I also saw the original Alice in Wonderland among other books, and Pearl and I saw Magna Carta. It was strange to be there seeing that. Not your everyday type of activity. Well, I should probably head off and do some work. I think I´ll probably skip bloggin about Cáceres and Plasencia, but that´s alright. They´re in Extremadura, the autonomy south of where I am. They were pretty and I´m glad to have visited them, but there was nothing too amazing. I´ll try and write something about graduation in the near future. I won´t have digested all of that for quite some time. And here´s a picture of the Great White Pelicans in the park in front of Buckingham Palace.

Sierra de Béjar

2006-05-09T10:56:00.000+02:00

So it's been a few weeks now since I went to Sierra de Béjar. Pearl came to visit from London, and we went with Sonia. It's about an hour south of Salamanca (the city), and just barely within the province of Salamanca. It was really good for me to escape the city for a day. The gardens and green spaces here in Salamanca are gorgeous right now as they're colorful and filled with flowers, but it's not the same, and there's just not open space. So we went hiking on a route that took us past Peña de la Cruz and Peña Negra (Cross Peak and Black Peak, respectively). It seemed like a fairly long hike up, and was steeper at the end. Peña de la Cruz was first. It´s a giant cross built from granite. The mountains are just covered with huge, round, granite rocks.

Here´s Pearl and Sonia accompanied by the large pieces of granite. View of the other part of the mountain range on the way up. It had snow, so we decided to save that for next time. After much more hiking, we found ourselves at the top of Peña Negra. We're currently on a shorter little range of mountain, and you can see the other one over yonder. In between lies a valley. Driving into Béjar you can see up the valley and see just the dam from below. It was neat to hike up over it and see the lake from the top.And looking off in the opposite direction...The clouds were actually surprisingly close and eye level. It really played with our perception. It's hard to focus on a cloud. Mmm...so pretty.

Cheating

2006-05-03T10:43:00.000+02:00

It's been forever since I've blogged, so I felt like I should take a moment to write something. Since Easter break I've made trips to Sierra de Béjar, Cáceres, Plasencia, and London. Photos and more details are forthcoming. For me time is moving at Mach 5. Could be mach 4, but after it reaches mach speed I can't really tell the difference. I've finally grown accostumed to living here and all too soon I'll have to go. I've really bumped up the working. This month is now crunch time. It's not like crunch time at Olin where you've been working and stressed all semester and now you have to do more. No, I've got it pretty easy. It's more like I've had the same work to do for the entire semester, have only done a small fraction of it, and now I have the remainder sitting in front of me. It shouldn't be undoable though.

My professor for Social Movements in Contemporary Spain took time to explain the final exam yesterday. I'll have the choice of doing a historical commentary on some article pertinent to the history studied in the class or I can expound upon one of the chapters I've read in the book. We have to read and report on 5 chapters. It seems that his motivation for giving a final is another way to make sure that the students know the material (of course). However, what he means by that is that they've actually read the book and that their reports and summaries aren't simply plagiarized and if they are, that at least they've memorized them. He said flat out that he'll be looking for plagiarism and that he expects it. Not only that, he said that he knows that he has to be more careful with the Spanish students and European students in general than with the Americans who usually seem to do their own work. Such a different world here. Talking to my Erasmus friends and my roommates, the general philosophy seems to be that if you can cheat or in some way take advantage (be it in school or in other sectors of life), and do it without getting caught, then you deserve respect. More power to you, you've cheated the system. I don't know where this mindset comes from. It's not everyone, but it's prevalent nonetheless and I don't like it.

In other news I was accepted and will be working as a LeadAmerica Team Leader this summer. I'm excited. It's not a high-powered engineering internship, but my coming back late ruled out those options. It's only three sessions, but it will be a good opportunity for me. I really enjoy working with people, organizing events, tutoring, etc. I might even be chipper. We'll see.

I'll be going back to Olin for commencement. I decided I couldn't miss it and bought my overpriced fly from europe ticket. For random Olin people reading this, I'll need a place to sleep Thursday through Sunday nights. :) Thanks!

Processions

2006-04-22T19:56:00.000+02:00

Here in Salamanca and throughout much of Spain all of last week was quite the spectacle. Starting the Friday before Good Friday, there are religious processions everyday. Different ‘cofrades’ each have their own specific manner of dress and doing the processions. Some of them start during the night at 9pm. Others are during the day, and few are early in the morning starting at 5 or 7am. Each procession has one or more ‘pasos’ which is kind of like a float. It’s decorated with flowers and candles and usually has a statue of Jesus or of Mary. They’re carried by people all during the procession, and some of them had over 100 people carrying them. Many of the processions remember the walk that Jesus took bearing the cross, and a few do a Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross) as they go. Even the people here know that the cofrades look like KKK uniforms, but are quick to point out that they’ve been doing this much longer than that, and they had these uniforms before the US even existed.
Others are more normal in dress. This was my favorite procession which passed over the Roman Bridge.On Easter Sunday, many of the cofrades march in a a procession together. One paso with Jesus and one with the Virgin meet in the Plaza Mayor and ‘dance.’ It was something to see. There were also people in traditional Salmatine dress that danced. The plaza was packed and there were a number of TV stations there as well. My favorites were the processions that left early in the morning because they were less of a tourist spectacle. No one gets up at 7am here. It’s still dark at 7, it’s getting light at 8, and sunrise has got to be somewhere around there. Crazy

Spain

. :)

Tortilla...how you taunt me so

2006-04-11T20:40:00.000+02:00

Now that I've settled in for the most part, I've been trying to cook a few 'Spanish' dishes. I'm starting easy, and there are a few things I can do that don't really count as cooking that do count as Spanish. This includes beans and chorizo, bread at every meal, nesquik for breakfast, and flan....mmm...flan. Tortilla should be simple. It's potatoes, eggs, onion, and salt. Here was my first attempt.
There was definitely room for improvement, but it tasted right. Unfortunately the second time turned out much worse. Third time's a charm? So I'm not much of a cook. It's probably good though, because we haven't much of a kitchen, nor cooking utensils.

Also wanted to post the picture of the birds that live on my clothes line for Dad. It's not a great shot. I like them. It's kinda nice to just have them there in the midst of the city. It's not the same as the birds on the feeder with the woods back home, but it's better than nothing.

Rome

2006-04-04T21:10:00.000+02:00

Sorry, this is going to be a long one. Bear with me…

I was blessed to have the opportunity to spend last week in Rome. I went there with a group of ‘jovenes’ (young people) from my church, San Juan de Mata. It’s run by the Trinitarians (a religious order) who also have a house in Rome, so we were fortunate enough to stay there for the week. During the week, we moved very slowly as a group, often having to stop and wait for one or two people (out of twelve) to shop or look at something. By the end of the week I found this infuriating, especially since Thursday morning we were going to see the catacombs, but were too late. Then we were going to go back when they were open in the afternoon, but were too late, and then were going to go Friday morning, but guess what? Too late. Argh…me hacían loco. So now that that is out of my system, I’ll try to do no more complaining this entry.

On the flight there I got my first view of the Mediterranean. Hopefully some day I’ll see it when I’m not in a plane…maybe a boat or from the beach. We flew over 3 islands on the way there (Minora, Majorca, and Corsica?). Landing in Italy was the same as landing in Spain at first. It was kind of surreal for me to think that here I was in Italy. It was a pleasant change from Spain though. It was very green and there were farms all around, and except for some mountains in the background, it actually reminded me very much of home.

Sunday we went straight to the Vatican Museums which have free admission the last Sunday of every month. This meant the line was huge and we waited for about 2 hours, but you can’t beat free I suppose. The main motivation for going to the museums is the Sistine Chapel. We didn’t spend nearly enough time in the chapel (5min?), but it was still amazing to see. Just as amazing was running into Heidi there. Heidi is a Wellesley student whom I know through Bible Talk at Olin. She’s been studying in France since September and was visiting Rome that day with two Wellesley friends studying in Cordoba. It was terrific to see a familiar face. Even though I’d seen Madge and Jo not too long ago, it definitely made my day. :) How crazy is that? Randomly run into someone you know while in Rome…crazy…still getting over that one. Of course there’s the famous panel with God and Adam. There’s also one two panels down that I guess is semi-famous. It depicts a wrathful God on the right and God turned and flying away? on the left. As Heidi pointed out, we got to see God’s butt. Hah.

Also had my first view of the Piazza di San Pietro (Plaza of Saint Peter) and the Basilica of Saint Peter. It was incredible to walk into the plaza through the pillars and just to think that I was actually standing there.

Monday we went to the Colosseum. This was another one of those crazy moments just because it’s so famous. It’s something you see so much of, but it’s always in a different world and suddenly you’re in that world. It’s fairly imposing even as worn as it is. It’s impressive to think what it must’ve been like when it was new and viewed without the modern buildings around it. Right next to the Colosseum, we saw the Foro Romano and Palatino. They are the ruins of the Roman Forum. They don’t look like much now, but from the hill it’s quite the view. Also saw the Altar della Patria, a monument to the first King of a unified Italy. It’s ginormous for a monument. It’s so much bigger than anything around it, that it’s easily viewed from any vantage points in the city. I don’t know why exactly, but I found it fascinating. There are also two guards and lit flames in the front. They guard the tomb of the unknown soldier, just like we have in Arlington.

Tuesday we were privileged to see the Vatican Gardens. The Trinitarians there had made reservations to us. We were told that they only admit 100 people a day, but I have to think it’s 100 people at a time. Either way, it worked out nicely that you can wander and see the gardens without it being swamped with tourists as is the rest of the city. (Granted this is Vatican City and not actually Rome.) The Gardens were pretty and had a good view of the Basilica from the back. The church in the cemetery of Vatican city also had this interesting statue in it. Not your typical Catholic church adorning material, but interesting at the very least. In the evening we visited the Trinitarians main house and met the leaders of the order. One was an Indian man who studied in Baltimore for many years. We enjoyed speaking English for a while.

Wednesday we had our audience with the Pope. It wasn’t a private audience inside the Basilica, as this is all but impossible, but the Trinitarians had managed to get us tickets to the audience Wednesday morning in the Plaza. The plaza was gated off with guards and getting in was like going through airport security. The readings and his message were given in 5 or 6 languages…can’t quite remember (Italian, English, German, Spanish, something that sounded like Russian to me, but I wouldn’t know, and maybe something else). In Spanish, the Pope gave a special welcome to the Young People from San Juan de Mata in Salamanca Spain. Had our group on the list I suppose. It was kind of exciting, but more like a huge pep rally than anything else. The one thing I hate about large groups is how it always works that we’re sitting and everyone can see decently well, then some people stand and then everyone has to stand. Next people are standing on chairs and then everyone is on the chairs…excellent. We all had a better view when we were sitting…. Anyway, yes the red speck is Benedict XVI.

Thursday had an Italian meal. Panzerotti Ricotti e Spinaci con Condimenti de Gargonzola e noci. Ricotta and Spinach filled ravioli in a gorgonzola cheese and walnut sauce. OMG….still drooling and now I’m hungry. Also got to see the Basilica of Saint Paul. It has a gigantic statue of Saint Paul in the front wielding a sword and looking (as Fran pointed out) much like Gandalf. Anyway, David told me the sword represents both the word of God and also the fact that Paul fought for Christianity (though it wasn’t called that yet) in the diaspora. The inside was done in a much different style than any of the cathedrals I’ve been in. It’s extremely ornate and there’s lots of gold everywhere. It also has a portrait of every single pope ever up near the ceiling. It’s quite impressive really. Also here's the Castille Sant'Angelo and the River Tiber.

This guy's now on the crest of Rome. It's the wolf feeding Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome. Kinda weird if you ask me, but they seem to like it.

Then Friday after our failed attempt to see the catacombs I finally decided to keep walking the next time they stopped to shop. It paid off. We were all planning to climb the cupola (dome) of Saint Peter’s. We were more than a mile but less than two from it, and we were going to take a bus. Anyway, over so short a distance, I got there 1.5 hours ahead them. They were (guess what?) to late to see climb the cupola as the line was too long. Andrew got to see it though, and it was an amazing view of the city. The Americans behind me were tripping out as we went up and couldn’t figure out why the walls started to slant and curve sideways as we were trying to climb up the stairs. Yes, it did crazy things to my perspective and was hard to balance, but kind of made sense. We were after all climbing up a dome, no? Between the interior and exterior walls, I expect there wasn’t a whole lot of extra space for stairwells. The Plaza of Saint Peter from the top of the cupola was precious.

Saturday I came back home and was exhausted. Though at many points annoyed during the trip, retrospect makes things better, and I really had a fantastic time. I can still hardly believe I was there. Still have to go back someday to see the catacombs. I hear they’re great.

Madrid

2006-04-02T21:25:00.000+02:00

So two weeks ago I made a weekend trip to Madrid to see Madge and Jo. Madge had come to Spain to visit, well Spain and me (Thanks Madge!), and Jo had come with the Wellesley choir. On Friday Madge and I saw the Palacio Real, the Cathedral and the Plaza Mayor. Though Jo later told us the inside was really impressive, we only saw the Palace from the outside. It was still fairly impressive from the outside. The cathedral was nice, but Madge noted the very modern looking stained glass windows. My friend Miguel later told me that the Cathedral in Madrid is very new. It was started only about 200 years about, but never really made any progress. When they finally decided to get to it, the entire thing was basically constructed in 30 years and was then finished at the end of this only about 15 years ago. The one thing it does have was an amazingly impressive Spanish organ complete with they horizontal pipes called trumpetería that were added around 1650 (Huzzah for connections with my history of Spanish music class!). As far as the Plaza Mayor goes, I definitely like mine in Salamanca better. It may have something to do with living here, but the painted walls just weren’t doing it for me. Madge is pretty though.

Saturday we visited El Prado and el Museo Nacional de Reina Sofia. Prado is the premier art museum in Spain. Madge and I weren’t terribly impressed. It contains lots of works by Goya, Velazquez, and Spanish artists in general. It’s mostly baroque art featuring religious themes and overly rotund, nude babies. Also has a lot of portraits of dukes, kings, queens, and the like. It was amazing for me to see Bosch’s (Flemish artist) “Garden of Delights.” Also really enjoyed Goya’s Third of May and black paintings. It was so strange, because they are pictures I remember Mr. Luedke teaching me in AP Euro as he strived to cover art as well. I loved that class. It was surreal to see them in person. Velazquez’s “Las Meninas” was also fun. Susie informed me that she’d actually just studied that in class, and her professor had mentioned how the reflection was impossible at that angle unless the king and queen were sitting below the floor. Hah.

We both enjoyed the Reina Sofia much more. It’s Spain’s Modern Art museum. One temporary exhibit featured burnt plastic bags on canvas, but after that it improved. One huge exhibit by Adolfo Schlosser displayed many geometric and organic shapes and designs all made with natural materials and lots of wood. It was neat, but as Madge said often appealed more to my engineering side than my artistic one. The Reina Sofia also houses many works by Salvador Dali and Picasso. The rooms devoted to Dali were…interesting. Suffice to say that he must have been taking some strong hallucinogenic and he was a dirty, dirty man. The works were very impressive, however. Picasso’s Guernica is housed there. It’s a huge canvas and something I’d seen in text books. I’d never thought much of it before, but standing in front of it was powerful. Part of it was simply its notoriety, but also seeing the original work and understanding the brutal history (fire bombing during the Spanish Civil War) that inspired it made it moving for me. Unfortunately the Reina Sofia didn't allow pictures.

Seeing both Madge and Jo was really a great blessing. We saw the Park of Buen Retiro (Madrid’s largest park) and wandered the city a little. Just speaking English, being understood, and understanding without thinking was a really nice surprise. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Talking with them really made me miss Olin, my friends, and family. It was hard to say goodbye. Like Madge said, at least we’ll be enthusiastic to move back to Olin in the fall and live with our good friends.

Apartment Dwelling

2006-04-02T21:20:00.000+02:00

So I’ve successfully moved into my new apartment. I’m not far from where I used to live, but I’ve a feeling that my life will be significantly different. I’d been living with an older married couple where I paid for room and food and was entirely taken care of. Unfortunately, this also meant entirely dependent which was starting to get to me. I now live in an apartment with two Erasmus students. One’s from Romania, Lucian, and the other from Slovakia, Martin. Martin was actually born in the Czech Republic and then lived in DC for 10 years. They’re both very nice guys, easy to get along with, and helpful in terms of many things excepting cleaning. The apartment was a dump. My room is under control and last week I swept and mopped all the floors but their bedrooms. This stuff I don’t mind so much since it shouldn’t have to be done often and I realize no one person is specifically responsible for it. Tonight I’m going to talk to them about dishes, however. You eat, make dishes, and then wash dishes. Seems like a simple enough system, but apparently not. So far I refuse to wash their dishes, cause I really don’t want to start that habit, but this is the third day for most of the stuff in the sink. It’s in my way, it smells bad, and I need those dishes. So we’re going to have a chat tonight.

I hate being the annoying new guy who makes them change their ways, but I’m trying to start slow. After all, if I’m cleaning public spaces, I can expect them to do their own dishes right? I’ve also started such novel concepts as recycling and shower curtain that closes. I don’t understand how recycling can be so much harder when either way we have to take trash or recycling out to the street and place it in the bin. The recycling bins are about 50m further.

So that’s my complaining, but actually all in all things are good. I enjoy doing real grocery shopping and though it looks like most dishes consist of pasta, beans, or rice plus chicken or pork, I’m not starving yet and things are going well. I also shower, sleep, and eat on my own schedule which is a nice change of pace.

Cleaning did however bring me one nasty surprise. The light fixture on the left side of our mirror in the bathroom…well…it electrocutes you. I kinda brushed it and thought I was crazy at first, but did it again and it definitely electrocutes you. Even with the lights off. I know, what kind of idiot tries it a third time? Reminds me of our fluid taser back in freshmen year (woot Chris and Madge). Going to need to get some caution tape for that...

Life Here

2006-03-24T20:55:00.000+01:00

I want to take a chance to reflect a little about what I do with my life here. Most of my blog entries are about a specific event or trip, but this will be more about the bigger picture. I’ve been blessed, I’ve had good luck, however you want to say it. I found a group of people here that immediately accepted me as family and it’s made my life here so much richer. Madge had a chance to see it when she visited me this past weekend. I had borrowed a sleeping bag from my friend, Sonia for us to use. Sunday night we had to go pick it up from the house. They invited us in and talked to us for quite sometime. They didn’t let us leave without having something to eat, and definitely wanted to give us more than we desired. They offered beds there as they didn’t know what Sonia was lending me the sleeping bag for, and they wanted me to explain to Madge that this was my home and my friends are always welcome. Musci (hope I’m spelling that right, it’s a Basque name) is definitely my surrogate mother. Piero (a Italian friend who was in a similar situation and who has now returned home to Naples) called her “la mama española.” Today Sonia and I went to see a free modern art museum here in Salamanca. I didn’t know it existed. Da2 (dados). After that we went and saw the Adsis Foundation in San Juan which I hadn’t yet visited. From there we went back to her house and I ate there with the “other” family. The group is divided into two houses both of which constitute my home here in Spain. I’m always amazed by their capacity to love. I wouldn’t say they love me as we normally use the word love, because they likely don’t know me that well yet. Still, they definitely show me that agape love that we always hear about. They always want to know how I’m doing, how’s my family, are my studies okay, how am I feeling with the Spanish, etc. After lunch (Oscar, one of the priests, prepared a baked salmon topped with chopped onions in orange juice. Ricisimo…) we take coffee in the living room. It was a tranquil day. Just being with them I absorb so much about Spanish culture and also I start to learn the expressions. For me, these are the days of note, when I’m not in classes and I’m not going out. I hope that by the end of my time here I’ll be able to give back to them some of what they’ve given me.

Macro Botellón

2006-03-23T17:58:00.000+01:00

So part of the student culture here involves “ir de botellón,” which is intimately related to “ir de fiesta.” The latter means literally going out to party, and generally means going to bars and or discotecas(dance clubs). The former, however, just means going out and drinking. It means not in the bars, but rather buying liters of your favorite alcohol for consumption at home with friends or possibly even in a park or somewhere public. This brings us to the Macro Botellón which means exactly that…huge groups of people with copious amounts of alcohol. They don’t know how it started or who organized it, but through email and text messaging, many cities across Spain had a Macro Botellón last Friday the 17^th. In Granada it ended up being consented by the Government and 20,000 people showed up and partied without major incidents. Salamanca was a different story. The police heard of the plans to meet in two major sites and blocked off entry ways refusing entry of those with alcohol. Plans foiled all was quiet until about 2:30 when I guess the police found out that there were about 500 drunk people on the Roman Bridge. When they tried to break it up they had glass bottles thrown at them. Then they found another 1500 people in the Plaza de San Justo where the same thing happened. Throughout the city miniature riots had started. 11 of the cities trash and recycling bins were destroyed by exploding bottles of alcohol. Injuries and other costs are estimated to be about 24,000 euros for Salamanca. 16 people were arrested. In Barcelona it was worse and 68 people were injured and 54 arrested. I’m just lucky I guess. Friday morning I had left for Madrid to meet Madge. If there was a Macro Botellon in Madrid, we didn’t notice since we went to bed at 10:30 (yes on St. Patrick’s Day). However, it would explain the amazing number of sirens going all night long helping to keep me awake in the hostal.

Moving

2006-03-14T11:16:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note. I'm not entirely sure which people have my address here. Anyway, it will be changing. I'm in the process of moving into an apartment with two other students. Please don't send things to the address I've given you. If you've sent a letter or something recently, thanks, I love surprises, but please also let me know. TTFN.

Toledo

2006-03-10T12:19:00.000+01:00

So I finally made it to Toledo this last weekend. At first the roads were snowy, and two hours out we stopped and almost turned around because bus traffic was prohibited in Madrid. Things worked out in the end though and we finally made it. It´s another fairly small city, rich in history. What I loved the most was just the landscape surrounding the city. It´s surrounded on three sides by the Rio Tajo. It´s known as the city of three cultures for having housed Christian, Jewish, and Islamic peoples simultaneously. This mixture is noticed throughout the city in the Mudejar style architecture. Of the 9 synagogues that once existed, only 2 are left. Anyway, it was an awesome day and much warmer than Segovia. Here´s a shot of the city from a lookout point.

Of course, Toledo has a Cathedral as well. This one happens to be the 2nd largest in Spain, and the 5th largest in the world. (Take that Pearl.) On the inside it has two stunningly huge organs.

And what city would be complete without a castle. Also referred to as Alcázar, this one was closed for renovation, so this is the best view I got. It´s situated on top of the hill.And then my favorite part. This is the Rio Tajo (River Targus). On the hill on the left is an old school/training house for infantry.
And proof I was there.

Milk

2006-03-09T19:41:00.000+01:00

Yes, this blog entry is devoted to the second great love of my life after peanut butter. Now I won’t say I’m a milk expert. I can't tell you where the cow was raised or what it's eating just by tasting its milk. Let’s just say I’m an ‘aficionado.’ I am, in fact, from the Dairy State. I’ve grown up surrounded by dairy farms, and even used to visit them for breakfast on the farm on my birthdays. My mom even has a strange fascination with the bovine creatures (dumb as rocks they are). Anyway, I’ve loved milk ever since I was little. At school where I finance an overpriced meal plan (the staff is amazing, I love them, but the food is expensive), I try to help make up for it by drinking at least two glasses of milk at each meal, three meals a day, 7 days a week.

Here in Spain I’ve very rarely had the occasion to drink milk. This hasn’t been terrible. I usually just have water. It’s easier to get wine here than it is to get milk. Sometimes, though, I do get it hot for breakfast with ColaCao (a chocolate powder like Nesquik). Not ideal, but better than nothing? I’m not sure. The milk here breaks two basic premises that I hold to be true. 1) Milk does not come in box. 2) Milk is not kept at room temperature. Yes, the milk at school comes in a box, but it’s at least in a bag in that box. I’m talking more like juice box, box. And room temperature? It’s kept on the shelves in the pantry. Today I was served it room temperature. No, this was an outrage. Milk should be cold; at the very least chilled and only occasionally hot. Also for all you skim milk drinkers out there (you know who you are), don’t even bother. The milk here is whole milk. The reason? In Spain the only reason to have milk is to mix with your coffee! Café con leche or Calimocho as the national drink of Spain? Maybe it should be put to a vote…ARGH!

Peluqueria

2006-03-04T11:53:00.000+01:00

Finally decided to go to a Peluqueria and get my hair cut. There’s one just around the corner from my house that’s for Cabelleros(guys) and it’s a one man show. He’s pretty young and tells me he almost went to America to perform Flamenco. He plays the Cahon (percussive instrument of Flamenco style music). So we’re talking about that and he puts on a Flamenco music CD. Thus I end up having my haircut to a flamenco beat as my hairdresser clacks the scissors to the rhythm. It was interesting.

Going to try and go to Toledo again tomorrow. Luckily it’s supposed to be raining in all of Spain until Monday. It just started about an hour ago. Fantastic. :)

Segovia

2006-03-01T20:07:00.000+01:00

Since our trip to Toledo was postponed until this coming Sunday, my friend Ann-Alexia of Greece asked me to come with her to Segovia. In my same province, it's about a 3 hour bus ride east and north. It's a fairly small city and has three main points of interest for us. (As a side note the city itself is a UNESCO world heritage site.) What she failed to tell me was that it would be -9 C in Segovia. Excellent...

It has a Roman Aqueduct, a Cathedral, and Alcázar. The Roman Aqueduct dates back to the end of the 1st century AD or perhaps the beginning of the 2nd. It's built from unmortared granit blocks and to me, is pretty amazing.Here's the Cathedral. To me it's very similar to the one we have in Salamanca. I read the informational packet which I forget at the moment, so I'll spare you the details.
Finally, Alcázar is a castle on the western edge of the city. Because of a fire in the 1800's, the building I saw yesterday has very little to do with the actual castle first built in the 11th century. It was the site of the marriage of Queen Isabella of Castille to King Ferdinand II of Aragon. Apparently the castle in Walt Disney theme parks was inspired by Alcázar.This is the entrance. The castle is surrounded by a deep trench which, unfortunately, no longer houses water nor alligators.
This is from the top of the keep seen in the first picture.
And finally one picture from inside Alcázar. There were also a number of suits of armor. This picture isn´t great. It was dark... Pretty, though.

Alba de Tormes

2006-02-27T21:55:00.000+01:00

Well as it turns out my trip to Toledo was cancelled. It was snowing all Saturday and Sunday. It was the second time since being here that Salamanca has gotten more than its yearly dose of snow. I'm afraid that I brought it with me. Here are the Cathedrals in the snow. The picture doesn't do it justice. The city is absolutely gorgeous in the snow.
It's also gorgeous at night. I need to find a stand so I can take better pictures. I manage to blur them all with the longer exposure times.
Here you see the northern lights of Spain...or I was breathing and taking pictures at the same time...oops. Below is the Calle Compañia.
Anyway, I should get to go to Toledo next Sunday. Tomorrow I'm traveling with a friend (Alexia from Greece) to visit Segovia. Yay Roman Aqueduct!

Today I visited Alba de Tormes with a few friends. It's a small town not far from Salamanca (20 km). It was the final resting place of Santa Teresa de Jesus. The priest there told us a lot about the history, and they have a small museum. This museum includes on display Santa Teresa's left arm and heart (yes really) on display in some very ornate glass and gold cases. Kinda scary. The rest of her is in an ornate sepulcre. He said that the last nun to inspect her body and place it in it's current spot wrote in the documentation of how the body was entirely intact and preserved. Here's the view from the city. It's situated on a hill. The countryside is pretty.

Spanish Cuisine

2006-02-25T14:04:00.000+01:00

Well yesterday I got 3 pieces of mail. This was insane as I've not received mail up to this point. It was very happy. Thanks all!

So yesterday I had dinner with my Adsis people. Had some type of meat that was very rich. It was good. As I was half way through I asked what it was, and it turns out I was eating tongue. It's probably a good thing I didn't know that first. Also tried the Calimocho. It's the most popular drink here (not Sangria). It's just a cheap red wine mixed with Coke. Doesn't sound good. It's not terrible, but I still wouldn't suggest it.

Tomorrow I travel to Toledo with a student group of extranjeros from the University. I'm excited. Will put up pictures when I get back.

Peanut Butter

2006-02-22T22:10:00.000+01:00

So I finally found Peanut Butter. I had to take a bus outside of Salamanca and walk 20 minutes to this L. Eclerc. It's the Walmart of Spain apparently and big even by American standards.
Even so they have available only one little jar of peanut butter. Not even a full size jar, and absolutely no selection (Captain Mani imported from the US), although it has many different brands of chocolate spread. (Ingredients you ask? sugar...and then pig fat...mmmm...good)

Also, convinced my Erasmus friends to go Bowling. I found an alley here, and was surprised. It has 6 lanes, and the balls, silly screen animations, and everything is definitely imported from the US. It was a good time. Jochen had bowled a little before, but the other two hadn't. It was hilarious. Trying to explain to them that the balls are marked based on pounds which are roughly half a kilogram was nearly impossible....silly history students. :)

Bah!

2006-02-21T13:18:00.000+01:00

Well, as I'd learned a few weeks ago, many of the college workers on a form of a strike. This usually means that I can't use the computer labs or library 2 days a week. This week it's 3 days. I also learned that the professors without tenure are also on strike, so no class for me today or thursday. So in summation, no internet, no library, no teachers, no class. That's all.

On the up side, found a new intenet cafe that's much much closer, a little cheaper, let's me use my laptop, and doesn't have smoking. Except that I'm still paying, it's almost a Godsend.

So that this is not an entirely wasted post, I will leave you with this slightly amusing tidbit. I happened to be bored a few days ago. After looking at my reflection in our sugar bowl, I wondered if I could distort a picture similarly in photoshop. Well, not exactly....

Here's me:and here's Tal...I mean me...distorted...

Santa Marta

2006-02-19T20:15:00.000+01:00

Friday was amazing. Absolutely fantastic. I have been truly blessed. Friday throughout all of Salamanca is a huge fundraiser for Manos Unidas (Hands United). Ingredients and labor are donated to make thousands and thousands of bocadillos (sandwiches) which are then sold. The money goes to provide potable water to people in Burundi. A friend from Adsis invited me to come join them for bocadillos in the afternoon. This is in Santa Marta, a small town (pueblicito) just outside of Salamanca. It was good to be in the community and actually talking to people. Just seeing children at play was very rejuvenating. I got a picture of them playing with a paracaídas (literally stop-falls or in English, a parachute). Later in the afternoon, we took the leftover sandwiches to some nearby gitanos (gypsies). They live in shanties built of seemingly whatever they could find to use, plywood, aluminum, cardboard, you name it. The ones I met were very friendly. They invited us in and asked us to have coffee or to eat with them, even when we were coming to bring them sandwiches. They pleaded also with the priest to bring them clothes and some blankets for the cold. We talked with one about finding a job also. Of course it was poverty on a level more rarely seen in the US, but what struck me most about the people were their eyes. They have the most amazing, variegated eyes. Once we left there, we found our way back to the Adsis house where 10 people, including 2 priests, live in community. Most of them I’d met earlier at the Centro Serranos where I’ve started volunteering. Still, I was touched by their way of welcoming me. Talking to them really has helped my Spanish, and I’m understanding conversation much better. I probably spoke more Spanish that day than in the past 3 weeks combined.

As I found out, there’s more to Salamanca’s tradition of selling sandwiches for Burundi. For the adolescents it’s tradition to buy the sandwiches, along with a liter (of beer, wine or whatever) and go to park. The park is huge, and they go in mass. The age here for buying alcohol is 16, and it makes for a scene very different from that found in the US. A few of us went just to see the scene. We did a decent amount of walking, and unfortunately it happened to be the windiest day yet.

After this we went to another house, this one actually in Salamanca. It’s the same community of people, just one more house. Here I met also a student from Italy who is finishing up his semester here. He, like I, came here to study and just ended up becoming part of the group. I really enjoyed talking with him, and he lives not far away. We were invited, or rather, forced into having dinner with all of them. Listening and talking with them over dinner, was definitely the most enjoyable time I’ve spent thus far in Spain. It was also good to be with ‘real’ people. At school there are students, and at church there are elderly people. Here there was a spectrum and children. Sometimes I miss seeing children. They also asked me a lot of questions about my home and the US. It felt good to talk about my home, and sharing it with someone made me not miss it so much. I’ll have to try to catch up on some reading tomorrow, but it was undeniably a day well spent.

Cemetery

2006-02-16T18:08:00.000+01:00

Things here in Salamanca continue to go. Wow so many words to learn. It’s crazy…getting better, but still crazy. It’s been about 3 weeks. I should have it down by now right? Ah well. I visited the cemetery which is crazy huge. (Today’s blog brought to you by the word ‘crazy’) The only other time I’ve seen so many graves was at Arlington National, but this was impressive in a different way, as they are all above the ground. There’s a wall around the cemetery, and even the walls serve as graves. Strangely, all of the tombstones are relatively recent. The oldest ones I could find are from the 1940’s. My Trinitarian friend, Yamir, suggested that the city isn’t actually that old. Yes, downtown and the cathedral and such have been there forever. However, my side of town and the giant cemetery; not so much. He said that their home/complex was built 30 years ago, and at that time they had no neighbors whatsoever. Now it’s apartment buildings as far as the eye can see.

Anyway, here's the entrance to the cemetary.
Well I’ve started volunteering. Thus far I don’t do a whole lot, but once a week I’m helping a Moroccan girl with her English. She came here a few years ago not knowing Spanish, and hence, couldn’t take part in the Spanish education system. Now she’s working on completing equivalency tests, so she can continue to study if not at a university, then at least at a trade school or the like. Needless to say, this helps me equally much with my Spanish, so it hardly counts as volunteering.

Mostly I’ve just been going to class, and exploring the city. My house is a 15 minute walk from the school, and I make that trip 2-3 times a day. I probably average 7-8 miles a day. Some are less when I need to take care of classes and work, and some are much, much more. I think my body is getting used to it. My calves are in a constant state of rock hardness, and the skin on my feet is thick like none other. Lovely, I know. Guess that’s all for now. Hopefully my life will be filled with exciting things to write about in the near future.

I miss...

2006-02-10T12:52:00.000+01:00

I miss peanut butter. Breakfast, suitees, English, free internet, and Manfred.

Wild Goose Chase

2006-02-07T11:28:00.000+01:00

Ahhhhhhhhh!...*grumble*

So the libraries. I´m looking for one book, Nacimiento del Cristianismo (birth of christianity). First, I need a student card. The day after I arrive, I go to my office and ask for a card. It´ll take 3 business days and won´t be ready till next Tuesday. So that was last week, I get my card. Yay! Find out the next day, that I still can´t check out books, now I need a bar code on my card. It´s too late to go to the library services office now, so I go the next day, last Thursday. I trek across town, and they tell me it´ll take another 3 business days; come back Tuesday. Today, I go back this morning. They haven´t done anything with my card, but they tell me to wait and it takes 3 minutes to get me a bar code. 3 minutes! I waited 5 days for that. Okay good, so they told me my book was in the Filosophía library, and I go there. Turns out it´s in the Filología library. Filolo...whatever. What is Filología anyway? No one seems to know. And of course, this building is on the other side of town...20 minutes later I arrive at the Facultad de Filología. I find out there are actually 2 buildings for this discipline, and of course, I´m at the wrong one...10 minutes later. This time I´m at the right building, but the library is actually just down the street...3 minutes later. Librarian checks, and the book is not checked out and shows me on a map of the library where to find it. Huzzah...I go there...I look...it´s not there. Why would it be there? What was I thinking? Of course it´s not there. 2 copies of the book, missing. So I now have a useable library card, I know where the correct library is, and this information is utterly useless to me.
*Angry*

Volunteering

2006-02-05T17:50:00.000+01:00

Well, I’ve started some textbook, and at first it was taking my 30 minutes a page. Excellent…I know I just need practice at reading just like listening and speaking, but I find it harder to make myself sit down and read.

Yesterday I went to a meeting of people working with and volunteering for the Adsis Foundation. It’s a group I found here in Salamanca. The organization itself is much larger (www.fundacionadsis.org sorry, it’s in Spanish). It’s basically a NGO that work on various social justice problems. The group in Salamanca has 4 programs. They work with disadvantaged youth by providing afterschool programs and tutoring. They also work with children with learning disabilities and finally with older youth who for whatever reason didn’t complete the required schooling. They have tutoring and classes to help them take and pass the equivalent of our GED. They also have a group of volunteers that run some programs in the prisons, taking time mostly just to visit and talk to the inmates. I forget the 3^rd, but the 4^th is Comercio Justo. This is program where they get products produced in the third world under humane conditions and for better pay, and they sell them here at prices that are higher, but better reflect the real cost of things when people aren’t exploited. The people I met were very friendly, and Miguel reminded me so much of John Lehnerz (whom only my family will know. Suffice to say, good man.)

After Mass today I went to talk to one of the Trinitarians about the mass schedule. We ended up talking about much more. He’s from Columbia and has been studying here at the Universidad Pontificia for two years. He showed me the house for the 14 Trinitarians here in Salamanca. I don’t know what you’d call it. I think he said Monestary, but they’re not cloistered. Meh… He also let me borrow a Bible in Castellano. As I’ve been informed by multiple people here, they do not speak Spanish here. They speak Castellano, or Castillian in English. The Castillian region is where the pure Spanish language comes from, and Salamanca is the center of it. There are 3-4 different dialects here in Spain, all of them Spanish, but none of them referred to as such. That’s all for now. I hope to understand more as I start the 2^nd week of classes. Hopefully I haven’t missed any assignments yet. Vamos a ver. (We’ll see.)

Crazy Stairs

2006-02-05T17:18:00.000+01:00

So I know I'm a dork, but I'd never seen anything like this before. Coolest thing ever.
Stairs when viewed from the bottom.
A ramp when viewed from the top.

It's a ramp and a staircase in one! So awesome. No really, this made my day. You have no idea. :)

Pictures

2006-02-02T19:38:00.000+01:00

Just looking down a city street on my way to school. Thought it was pretty.
This is in the courtyard of the historic entrance to my school, and if I were to turn around, I would see said entrance...

This is the public library. There's something about the conch shells covering it, but I can't think of it now and will have to find out later.

Erasmus

2006-02-02T19:35:00.000+01:00

Today I went to my remaining two classes. If it’s possible, these two professors spoke even faster than the first two. I can tell that I am already understanding more. It comes and goes. By the end of the day I was understanding more words, but sentences and the meaning of the sentences still confuse me. One student told me that it was difficult to follow the professor’s train of thought anyway, so I didn’t feel so bad. I just need to figure out what I need to do for my classes. It is clear to me what is expected in only 1 of my 4. Argh…

Today I met many Erasmus students. They were speaking English since none of them are great at Spanish and they don’t speak each other’s languages. To me this is strange. I think it’s amazing that they can all speak 4-5 languages moderately well and 2 or 3 fluently. Ann Marie is the only American I know that studies languages so extensively. I think if I get through Spanish, I’ll be happy with myself. I don’t know if it’s just because our pronunciation is closer the Spanish or what, but I don’t have nearly the accent or problems that the German and French students have. Many of the Germans are speaking Spanish words, but to me it sounds like German. One French student has been here a semester and I wouldn’t have guessed he was un extranjero (foreigner) and another French student I couldn’t understand at all. As far as I can tell, foreign students make up maybe 1/3 of the student population. I have no idea really, but it’s crazy. It seems the majority of Spanish students look on us with disdain, or it could just be that it’s annoying not to understand all the people walking around speaking English. I need to try to find a native Spanish speaker to befriend. I also need a break from concentrating on every word. Hopefully it will come. Poco a poco, no?

For Pearl

2006-01-31T10:43:00.000+01:00

More about my host family...

I live with a married couple in an apartment on the 4th floor which is called the 3º, because the ground floor is la planta baja, and nobody lives there. Angeles and Fernando. Fernando works one day a week at a nearby hospital. He worked 5-6 days a week for I think 43 years, and now he gets the same salary as he did then. The hospital pays his check for one day a week, and the government picks up the other 4. Angeles does all the cooking and cleaning. She makes my bed everday despite my telling her that wasn´t necessary. She also opens the windows to air out the house. It´s -2 C today... Most days she visits her mother who is 84 and lives one street down. Angeles´ brother and sister also live nearby and help take care of her.

Angeles and Fernando had three daughters all of whom are married now. One still lives in Salamanca and her husband is the number 2 guy at a Bimbo factory, which is a major foodstuff company. The other two live in pueblos (small towns) outside the city. However, when they tell me outside the city, it means 5 kilometers from our house for one daughter and 7 for the other. Angeles es una abuela (she´s a grandmother.) Her youngest has a daughter now as well. So we have all remaining members of 4 generations living within a 7 kilometer radius.

Both my host parents are very nice. Fernando is much easier for me to understand and we talk much better. Angeles doesn´t think I understand anything (this is based in truth), so she repeats everything and always seems to shout at me. Ah well. Yesterday I had paella for one of my lunch courses. It´s the traditional dish of Spain that you´ll read about in all the tourist books. I like the saffron rice, but it took much self-control to eat and ´enjoy´ the mussels, kalamari, and random bits of mushy, fleshy stuff.

First Day of Classes

2006-01-30T19:40:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, I went to mass at a nearby church with my host parents. All I got out of it was that it was the children’s mass and also that the children are very off key (they led the songs). I found a guide to the mass in Spanish and have been working on memorizing a few prayers, so hopefully that will be better in the future.

Well first day of classes done. Aahhhh! I got out of my first class and all I could do was laugh and think ‘oh crap.' As it turns out, classes that start at 10 here actually start sometime after the professor shows up at around 10:15. Good to know. Musica de España. I was one of only 5 students and after our short break, 1 of 3. The others are 4^th year Spanish students. I understood maybe half of the words the professor was saying, so I got the gist of maybe 1/3 of the sentences. We skimmed over history of Spanish kings and such as a groundwork for understanding what we mean by music of Spain, since Spain didn’t exist at the time. I learned most of this in AP Euro, but I definitely need to brush up and learn how to say the names in Spanish. Additionally, I have a 1000 word written piece to do for class. It’s due at some point in time and is probably on a certain subject or topic as well. Umm…yeah. I guess I should ask again tomorrow. I made him repeat it once and still didn’t understand. Eeek.

My second class was much more promising. It has closer to 30 students…the majority of whom are American. It was kinda strange. I don’t know where they came from, but there they all were. Many of them know less Spanish then me, but also, this was their only course with Spanish students. Kind of ironic. Contemporary Social Movements did lift my spirits, as I understood most everything the professor told us. I also know what is expected of the class in terms of work and even the final exam.

Finally, I figured out, mostly, the library. It's the first time I'd been to a library that has a stacks and the Spanish made it more confusing. There's a reading room that has a number of books in each discipline, but the vast majority of the books are kept out of site in back rooms that you cannot enter. I had to fill out a card and request that a librarian fetch it for me. Not so bad once I figured it out, but the librarian was less than helpful and not forgiving of my non-fluency. Everyone understands if you use the word computadora here. It is a word, but they use ordenador more formally. She refused to understand what I was saying until I used the correct word. On the other hand, most everyone I've encountered has been very kind and patient with me. Especially if it's a business, they don't care what language you speak as long as you carry euros. :)

Had a little fun with photoshop. This is a stairwell in the cathedral.

Catedrals

2006-01-29T18:46:00.000+01:00

I took the time to visit the Cathedrals yesterday. It was a spectacular view of the city from the towers. Yay pictures! Sorry, in no particular order.A view of the old and new cathedrals from the other side of the roman bridge over the river Tormes.

Inside

Looking back towards the center.

Then in the evening it snowed. I feel right at home in the snow, so for me it was great. The rest of the city seemed to enjoy it too. Everyone was out throwing snowballs. What I learned this morning was that it’s extremely rare for it to snow the 1-2 inches or so that we got. On the news people are saying they can’t remember it ever snowing this much.

Last night I ran into Americans for the first time since arriving in Spain. It was a group of nearly 30 students from BC doing an away program in Madrid. It was good to speak English and talk about some of the things that are so different here. Things like the fact that our host families insist on opening the windows for the fresh air while they’re trying to heat the house and it’s 4 C outside. Also there’s an entire leg, hoof and all, of a pig in the kitchen just covered in a towel. Oh and the milk is in a box and it’s not refrigerated. This scares me a little. To be fair though, the food has been great. The only real meal of the day is lunch, and it’s two different dishes followed by dessert.

Today I need to go out and finish finding a few school supplies. I feel like I need to start taking classes so I have some direction, but it’s a pretty scary thought. It took me about 40 minutes to muddle through a newspaper article yesterday, and I still don’t understand all of it.

Classes

2006-01-28T17:46:00.000+01:00

Well, I start classes Monday. As it is right now, I have only 3 classes, because I can add classes, but cannot drop them. I’m planning on going to 4 for the first two weeks at which point I have to decide whether or not to add the fourth. Right now I have The Music of Spain in the 17^th and 18^th Centuries, Social Movements in Contemporary Spain, The Primitive Christianity (Study of history and spread of Christianity following the death of Christ), and Cultural Anthropology of Iberoamerica. I have classes all day Monday and Tuesday but none on Wednesday and Friday. I can’t complain. If I can afford to skip a Thursday class, I can take a 5 day weekend to travel.

On an unrelated note. There really are many more smokers here. I can’t say that everyone smokes, but there are so many and I figure you can’t be smoking all the time such that it’s got to be a considerable percentage. The only thing that outnumbers the many Tobacco stores is the banks. There are a bajillion banks. There’s a Caja Duero next to a Santander next to another Caja Duero near my school. There’s even a Banco Espiritu Santo which is Holy Spirit Bank. It makes me laugh anyway. Oh and now I have a picture of the Plaza Mayor at night. Enjoy!

First Day

2006-01-27T13:30:00.000+01:00

Today I mostly wandered around the city. I found my school, the Cursos Internacionales department, and the school of history where all of my classes will be. The historic entrance to the school is ornately carved stone, and while I don’t think it’s beautiful, it’s impressive. The cathedral is, of course, ginormous. I’ll have to see the inside later. The Plaza Mayor or el centro, is really fantastic. It’s a huge stone courtyard surrounded by one continuous building. It’s about a 10 minute walk from my house. I think I’m really going to like the city, especially if I start understanding Spanish.

First time outside the US

2006-01-27T13:25:00.000+01:00

So I arrived in Spain Wednesday afternoon. Flying in was gorgeous. Coming from London, when we hit the Spanish coastline, there are immediately the mountains. Circling and flying into Madrid was neat too. Madrid is huge. My guitar didn’t quite make the trip (it missed a transfer), but has since been delivered to me and all is well. The Metro is the subway in Madrid, and much nicer than the T. I made my first mistake trying to buy two tickets. I ended up buy two pieces of paper each worth 10 tickets, so if you come to visit, you can share some of my 19 available rides. Oh well. I’m now in Salamanca which is a nearly 3 hour bus ride west (and a little north) of Madrid. On the way I saw a mountain ridgeline covered in windmills. It was great. Also, I will need to see closer The Valley of the Fallen where a giant stone cross is erected and Avila where there’s actually a castle and the whole city is surrounded by large stone wall.

My host parents seem nice. I don’t quite understand everything they say, but I am hoping it will come in time. The only drawback so far is that for some reason, I can’t use their phone and need to walk outside to use my calling card at a payphone. Breakfast is around 10am, lunch at 2:30pm, and dinner at 9:30pm. Lunch is the main meal of the day and both breakfast and dinner are much smaller. Also, classes are much later. Nothing starts before 10am, and Mondays I have class until 9pm and Tuesdays until 8. It’s going to take a lot of getting used to.

Blogging from Spain

2006-01-15T02:27:00.000+01:00

I'm going to try to use this blog to keep everyone up to date while I have my (mis)adventures in Spain. I will be studying history at the University of Salamanca. I'll be in Spain from January 25 through June 13. It seems that my host family is a single woman, but she seems very nice, and Though I'm scared right now, I'm sure things will go well.