Lessons Learned

My journey through Europe is slowly starting to come to a close (sad news forever :( ). I sadly said goodbye to my familia on Saturday morning and boarded a bus to take me to the Madrid airport to get on a plane for Rome. It was very hard to say goodbye to Lidia, Felix, and Juan; just the uncertainty of when, and even if, I'd ever see them again was hard to take after being a part of their family for three months. I've been having a wonderful time here in Rome, seeing all the things I've read about in real life (The Colosseum! The Sistine Chapel! The Trevi Fountain!), but I'm going to save those stories for another post and sum up what I've learned this trip - life lessons, not really academic things this time. 

1) People everywhere are friendly and willing to help, just ask!

I've never been a big fan of talking to people I don't know, but when your somewhat lost in the Netherlands, the only way you're going to make it back to Amsterdam is to ask the friendly policeman why the train station is closed/how to get back now. Just as an example. Every person I've met, once you've gotten past the communication barrier (more on that next) was delighted to provide assistance. Which really makes sense, since I know I'm always pleased when someone asks me directions and I can be helpful. A good thing to take note of for any future travels. 

2) I'm very fortunate to have English as my first language. 

London was the only place I traveled that used English as it's native language, but pretty much everyone I talked to, especially in the service and travel industries, but with the exception of French people, spoke English very well as it is the language of travelers. People with different native languages always defaulted to English to communicate with each other. While they sometimes struggled with their second language, I could always easily get out what I wanted to say. It really is a testament to America's influence on the world that our language is the global one. It does however also make us lazy in regards to learning another language, since we can travel and get by fine without one, a principle I don't agree with, which is why I was in Spain this semester. 

3) Spoken word is only a small part of communication. 

There were time when some one addressed me in a language I didn't understand, or I tried to talk to somebody, and totally communicated effectively with just the gestures employed and tone of language. In fact my first month and a half of listening to Felix talk, I only caught about 30% of what he was saying, but the tone he was saying it in and the context allowed me to appropriately respond with a smile and a nod, or a laugh, or a concerned look even though I didn't totally get what was going on. Another time in France, someone asked me to keep an eye on their bag while they went to the bathroom, the only word I caught was suitcase (malette or sometime along those lines) but just from where he was pointing, I understood what he wanted. It really is interesting to note that, and in fact the majority of species on our planet depend almost entirely on body language to communicate! 

4) Your grammar doesn't have to be perfect!

At the start, I would plan out everything in my head in order for it to come out perfectly. This however doesn't work in real life situations where you are conversing. However just speaking usually ends up in incorrect grammar. News flash! This doesn't really matter as long as the point you are making gets across. That is the point of language - if one person understands what you were saying, objective achieved! 

5) You really do get comfortable just in time to leave. 

When I got back from Barcelona, with about three weeks left in my time in Spain, I finally relaxed into my Spanish family. I understood Felix, Lidia and I had good conversations, I understood what was said on the TV, etc. I had been warned that this would happen, but it is very true. Just when you mix into a culture, it's time to go back to your home country. 

6) I am just fine being on my own. 

I got a bit of a practice run this summer when not a lot of my friends were in town and I had to entertain myself a fair bit. This trip really tested that ability as I toured museums myself, ate in restaurants by myself (a little awkward the first time, but you get over it quickly), and just generally had fun. There were times it would have been nice to share a moment with someone, but overall I could appreciate what I was seeing by myself and enjoy it. This is definitely a good life skill to have in the future, as I'm not always going to be surrounded by a horde of people I love and that are down to do things together like I am at home and at school. 

7) I can do anything I want. 

Traveling by myself has been a huge confidence booster. Basically if I can make my way alone through a foreign country with no issues, nothing else will be too hard to do. When you have no one to rely on but yourself, you have to be on top of everything. You have to find your hostel, you have to make your trains/buses/planes on time, you have to know where you are on your map, everything. Getting off the train in Amsterdam alone for the first time was nerve wracking. But I was fine, everything worked out great. On my way to Italy, almost four months later, by myself, I didn't even blink, I know I'm capable of doing it, so I didn't stress about anything. I feel like many things in the United States now are going to be a breeze, there's nothing that's going to be too hard to do. 

And now as promised, pictures of my Spanish family!

Felix, me, and Lidia (my host parents)

Me and Juan my host brother

More Opinions from Lidia on Franco and the Catholic Church

My history class this semester concentrated on the ancient history of Spain, from the Pre-Romanic tribes up through the end of the Hapsburg kings. There were people in my class who were a little disappointed that we didn't study modern history since we would have learned about Franco's dictatorship and life in Spain under his rule. Luckily I have Lidia here at home who was born right at the beginning and has lots of stories and opinions to share about it. Today after lunch, I got an interesting lesson about the involvement of the Catholic church in the dictatorship, and the suppression of women under it.

Lidia is Catholic and goes to mass almost every Sunday, but she still has a lot of criticisms of the church, specifically bout the hypocrisy of the higher officials regarding the money it rakes in while defying Jesus's message to give away all your possessions to the poor. I didn't really know that much about the Franco dictatorship before coming to Spain (or really anything about Spain) but the church was an ardent supporter of his regime and allowed his power to continue until his death, despite the fact that he killed and imprisoned thousands of people. Lidia was saying that she has a friend who is a priest, and that he became a priest since his parents wanted a layer of protections from the regime, and that's exactly what you got when there was a priest in the family. Additionally, Franco extended his power through the priests of the smaller towns. Lidia said that back in the day, the pueblos basically did what the priests told them to do, including spying on each other. A while ago, I saw a really great movie called La Voz Dormida that you should really watch if you get a chance, that also dealt with church's involvement in the running of the prisons that held the political prisoners. It's very well done, but also incredibly sad, I cried for almost the entire movie. It just came out in Spain last month, but I'm sure eventually it will be available in the US.

Other aspects of life were also strictly controlled by the regime, including the treatment of women in society. It sounded a lot to me like how places in the Middle East are today. Apparently, women basically had no rights: they couldn't open a bank account, they couldn't travel without their husband or father, their passport was in the name of their husbands, etc. Also, they had to take the last name of their husband. This was interesting to me, for I don't really agree with the default taking of the husband's last name that is typical to our American culture. In my opinion, it should be just as easy for the husband to take the wife's last name. But as Lidia was saying, everyone has two last names, and the norm in Spain is for every to keep their family names. The children then take the first part of each parent's last names, first the father's then the mother's. Here's an interesting link that explains it better: http://perez.cs.vt.edu/twolastnames. But under the Franco regime, women had to give up their family name, which is an integral part of their identity. This treatment of women partially stemmed from the very patriarchal church system and partially from Franco's opinions. Additionally, the first name of every girl had to be Maria followed by their actual name. That's why you see a lot of women from a certain generation that are Maria Angeles or Maria Jose, etc., of course named after Maria in the Bible.

It's very interesting to see how a society that was so repressed just forty years ago rebounded so quickly and today it totally modern in all aspects. It gives me hope that all the revolutions that occurred in the Middle East this Spring, will have a positive outcome and result in a more open society like Spain did. The circumstances of the changes were different, but there are some similarities so I guess we'll see.

Spanish Familia

As I embark on my last week here in Salamanca, something that I'm actually trying to block from my mind since I don't want to leave, I thought I'd finally write a blog post describing my family here now that I've gotten to know them over the course of a few months. It took a while to feel comfortable around them, since it takes longer to get to know people when there's a language barrier. However they've have always been very welcoming and I wish I could stay longer now that I've finally gotten to know them well.

The youngest member of the family here is Juan my host brother. I'm guessing he's in his mid-40s and is a police officer here in Salamanca. He doesn't live in the apartment with the rest of us, but eats lunch and dinner here everyday, and is generally around a lot of the time. Juan is much more up on pop culture than Lidia and Felix since he's younger, so we can talk about movies, books, singers, etc. that Lidia and Felix might not know. He's also very good at explaining things to me when he can tell from my expression that I'm confused, and also sometimes clarifies things that I am saying to Lidia when either 1) I'm saying something wrong in Spanish or 2) she just doesn't get what I'm saying. He's a nice guy to have around.

The next member of my Spanish family is Felix. He's in his late 70s and is pretty funny. He really likes toros and so sometimes when he puts the tablecloth on the table for our meals, he waves it around like it's a cape. In the past few weeks I've finally been able to understand what he's saying most of the time. He has a very gravely voice and speaks kind of mumbly, so I'm thinking I would have a hard time understanding him in English too. Most of our conversations consist of him pointing out random celebrities on the TV to me and explaining why they are famous in España. Also we confer about the weather a lot, whether it's cold or rainy or what. He's very sweet.

Last but definitely not least is Lidia, my host mom here. I think I'm going to try to back Lidia up in my suitcase and bring her back to the States with me. Lidia likes to show her affection by giving me lots of food. Her newest thing is feeding my tons of clementines while I'm studying and giving me some to take to class in case I need a snack in the middle of my exam. Every time I've gone traveling, she's packed me a huge meal that sometimes lasts me the whole weekend with a bocadillo (sub sandwich), fruit, juice boxes, chips, and in a couple of instances galletas (cookie-biscuit things) in case I get hungry while "walking around." After dinner every night, we have yogurt for desert, and she's noticed that whenever there was a choice, I asked for the lemon yogurt which is my favorite flavor, so now that's always in the house. On Sundays, we always have a special lunch (lunch is the main meal of the day) with calimocho and ice cream, but on Thanksgiving since it was a "fiesta en tu pueblo" I got ice cream for desert too even though it was a Thursday. It turns out Lidia and I have very similar political views, so we've had a couple good conversations raging about Bush/the amount of the budget that goes toward the military and not, por ejemplo, education/the death penalty/the heavy prevalence of guns. They're always fun. Lidia also has interesting stories from the Franco regime that she likes to tell since she was born right at the beginning of the dictatorship, like how they all had to salute Franco in their schools, and how the Americans sent powdered milk since there was a lot of poverty back then. Lidia also has a good sense of humor; one of the tablecloths we use is a map of Spain, and one day when she was wiping it off she said "Look at how quickly I can clean up Spain, much faster than the politicians, look at me cleaning it all up!" I'm going to really miss her.

Pictures of all my family here are to follow once I get around to taking them, but here are some from around Salamanca that I've taken recently. My friends and I have been playing at being tourists here in order to fit in everything we've been meaning to do in Salamanca before we leave.

The Plaza all lit up with different colors at night

The church and cloister at San Esteben 

Rio Tormes with the cathedral in the background

Casa Lis - an art deco museum with the most gorgeous stain glass windows

Rachel and Hayley pretending to be Lazaro and El Ciego 

Ice skating near the Corte Ingles

Justine watching the Barca-Real Madrid game

You Know You're in Spain When...

You know you've been in Spain for a long time (not too long since you can never be in Spain too long) when:

1) You can no longer write in English since trying to spell it out phonetically doesn't work at all.

2) You read a bilingual Spanish/English sign and wonder briefly why the exact same thing is written twice.

3) While getting a coffee in the afternoon at a cafe, you see people eating dinner and wonder why they're eating so early. Then you realize it's 6:30 and they're tourists.

4) When getting ready to go out at night, you pack a wad of toilet paper since there is NEVER EVER any in the stalls at bars.

5) You start to appreciate the jamón on your pizza.

6) You know enough Spanish to argue politics.

7) You know a puente is more than just a bridge, but not quite as nice as an acueducto.

8) While watching the news on TV, you can hear accents from different parts of Spain. Stop dropping your S's Andalucians!

Do I really have to leave soon?

A Quick History/Political/Geography Lesson

While I may not be learning all that much in my actual classes here in Salamanca, I have gained a much greater understanding of the country of Spain in general: the politics, the economy, the geography, etc. Historically, at the end of the Middle Ages, Spain was composed of several different kingdoms, which were remnants from an even earlier history. These kingdoms still have a presence in present day Spain in the form of the Autonomous Communities. Spain has 17 of these communities, which could be compared to the 50 states that compose America. However, even after over 500 years of unity, the desire of several of these communities to be separate has never really gone away and manifests itself in several ways.

The most marked difference is language. While most of Spain speaks Castellano, known to us as Spanish, three communities in particular, Cataluna, Pais Vasco, y Gallecia, all have their own languages, Catalan, Euskera, y Gallego respectively. I was in Barcelona this past weekend, and I have to say I was surprised by the heavy prevalence of Catalan, as in all the signs were in Catalan, and the menus, and I was addressed in Catalan. It was almost if I was back in Portugal, as I could pretty much reads the signs and understand what was said to me since all three languages are very similar, but I couldn't speak it since I don't actually know the language. I guess I was thinking that while they had pride in their language, Castellano would still be the most prevalent language, but it was very much the other way around. Several people from my group said they could see themselves living in Barcelona in the future, but I couldn't as it would require me to learn another language to use at restaurants and stores etc., and since I've just spent the past 10 years of my life studying Spanish, if I was to live in Spain, I'd want to live somewhere I could actually use it.

At least I could vaguely understand Catalan. I didn't make it the north of Spain this visit (which is too bad, but just means I have to visit again :)) but a couple of my friends went up to Bilbao and San Sebastian in Pais Vasco and came back saying the language is absolutely crazy up there. In fact Euskera has no relation to any current language, and linguistic experts have no idea where it originated from, though several theories have been put out there. It is a very old language, predating the Roman occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. However, while there is no way I would understand Euskera, there is a heavy prevalence of Spanish up there since during Franco's regime, the teaching of languages other than Castellano in school was banned and there are a couple generations of people who never learned Euskera formally.

A sign written in Euskera

Those are just the language differences. Earlier this month the terrorist seperatist group ETA, from Pais Vasco, formally declared it would stop fighting. It originated as a movement against Franco, but even after his death it continued blowing up people. With the militant separatist movement at an end, the separatist political party was allowed to run for the first time in the elections last week and won a good portion of the votes in the community. The Cataluna separatist party also always wins in that province too.

A poor image but the dark blue and the turquoise are the separatist parties 

All in all it's an interesting situation and the nerd in me loves have you can trace the present day situation back to its historical roots :)

Policeman and Prostitutes and Lesbians Oh My!

 So I've just returned from Madrid where I had a roaring good time with one of my best friends Jillian. It was a weekend full of in-your-face real life situations. Por ejemplo...

Numero 1 - Getting Lost on the Way to the Hostel and Totally Flummoxing a Policeman 
After meeting up in la Estacion Sur de Autobuses in Madrid, which in itself was quite interesting since we decided to wait for each other in two different places, Jillian's phone didn't have any minutes left on it for me to contact her with, and we weren't even sure we were in the same bus station to start out with, we hopped on the metro following the directions I had scrawled down in my notebook that morning. We got off at the indicated metro stop and wandered around in the pouring rain until we happened upon the first street in my series of directions. We checked off each step without any problems until we came to the last step: finding the actual street the hostel was on. My instructions informed me that we were supposed to make a right turn off the street we were on, but as we walked and walked, and kept on walking, we began to suspect that either we or the directions had messed up at some point. We stopped at a busier looking street to find someone to ask for directions when a cop car pulled to the side of the road. Perfect! In elementary school they teach you that cops are there to help you when you are lost! How lucky were we! We scurried over and motioned the cop to roll down his window. He obliged and I explained (in Spanish) that we were looking for our hostel but couldn't find the street it was on. He pulled out a little book of maps that I guess cops carry in their pockets and started rather half-heartily looking through it. He was browsing through the index and taking his own sweet time, when his cop buddy came on over too. I explained the problem to him and he whipped out his little map book, found the street we were looking for in about two seconds, and told us it was right there. I guess the other cop wasn't really trying that hard. Anyway, it turned out that the street we needed to turn down was to the left, not the right. Problem solved, we ducked into the hostel and checked in sure everything would be super smooth from that point on. In fact immediately we were confronted by problema numero dos...

Numero 2 - Finding a Movie Theater Using the Method of Wandering Around
After checking in, we dumped our sheets on the beds that (we thought) were free and headed back down to front desk to ask where we could find a (preferably English language) movie theater in order to see Amanecer (Breaking Dawn to you none Spaniards out there) which was kinda the point of the trip. However, the front desk man informed us that there was no extra laptops for us to use and he was too busy checking people in to look it up for us since he wasn't even from Madrid either and didn't know where the movie theaters were. Undaunted, we set out anyway and stopped at a bar to get some tapas and cañas to fortify ourselves for the search. I asked the bar tender where we could find movie theaters, and he told us that there were some on Grand Vía, the next street over. Long story short, after walking in the wrong direction on Grand Vía and stopping at a theater that wasn't showing the movie, we achieved our goal of buying tickets to watch Breaking Dawn opening night in Spain! Now all that was missing was the candy, and the search for it directly leads to real life situation number three...


Numero 3 - Walking Down a Street Full of Prostitutes 
Now they all could have been a group of perfectly normal ladies just out for the evening in thigh high boots, short skirts, and extremely low cut tops... but the more likely scenario is that they were a bunch of prostitutes. 


Candy bought and movie seen (absolutely hysterical btw), Jillian and I were tired and ready for bed. We headed back to the hostel with visions of sheets and individual beds dancing in our heads. These wouldn't seem like things that were out of reach, yet this weekend that's pretty much what they ended up being, leading us to real life situation number four...


Numero 4 - Being Mistaken for a Lesbian Couple for the Whole Weekend
Opening the door to our room, we noticed immediately that there were people sleeping in the beds we had placed the sheets on. This was not a good development. Searching with the light from my cellphone we found two beds without people, however, one of which had a suitcase and other crap piled on top of it. That left one bed for the two of us, but where did our sheets go? We thought we saw them sitting on one of the occupied beds, so with the stealth of a ninja, we took them out from under the sleeping girl and made the bed with them. Jillian and I are used to sharing beds from our riding team days so it didn't really faze us, but it probably did lead the rest of our roommates to the wrong conclusion when they noticed us sharing the bed. Jillian told me that at one point during the night, one of the guys came back (probably drunk) stumbled into our bed, did a double take and started for a few minutes, before going and passing out into his own bed. Sometimes you just have to roll with it. 


Though it may not seem that way, Jillian and I had a super-duper fantastic weekend and took all the problems as just amusing bumps in the road. It was so much fun to see her, since it turned out we hadn't seen each other since the previous December. We did the whole touristy thing and went to the Prado, Natural History museums to see some dinosaurs, Reina Sofia, etc. All in all it was a great time and it was very sad to say goodbye at the bus station on Sunday. Next time we see each other it will be stateside! 

AMANECER!!!

A much needed breakfast at Dunkin Coffee (not Donut here in Spain)

Jillian and I outside of Reina Sofia

Round 2

I've gathered up enough observations that it´s time once more for another fun and exciting round of "Things That are Different in Spain."

1) Spanish News
The news in Spain is a lot more graphic. I´m guessing maybe it´s for the ratings, but I can´t be sure. For example in the United States when they cover a car crash, they never show the bodies, just the clean up of the damaged cars. Not here in Spain however. I´ve yet to go through a news watching segment without them showing bodies lying on the side of the road. Most of the time they are cover with a sheet or in a body bag but other times they´re not. My host family never seems shocked by it, but it seems to me as a gross invastion of privacy after death, and I would be very upset if it was my mother/father/sister/friend, etc. that was shown on TV. In addition to car crashes, they´re also a fan of showing other graphic things, such as torreros getting gouged by bulls, bulls dying in los Correros, clips from abroad such as the Chinese toddler being repeatedly run over, and Gaddafi being beaten. There are no "Warning this clip contains graphic content," advisories, they are just straight up played. I´m not a fan.

2) Dread Mullets
Now supposedly mullets went out of style at the end of the 80s but I guess no one informed a lot of people in Spain. Not only are mullets a regular occurance, but a high percentage of the mullet wearers have upped the anty and DREADED the long part of the mullet. I´m not really sure how they think that it looks good in any sort of way, and I´m guessing they´re going to wake up one day several years from now, look in the mirror, and think,"What the hell is happening on my head?! Did a small animal die up there? Oh wait, it´s just my dread mullet." In my opinion, it's pretty hideous.

An example of a dread mullet (photo courtesy of Google)

3) Nuns
There are nuns everywhere. I guess it makes sense when you think about how large a percentage of Spaniards identify as Catholic (around 80%, though a smaller number are actually practicing Catholics) but it still throws me a little whenever I see one, since I could have probably counted my nun spottings back in the United States on my hands with fingers left over. The most amusing nun spotting was a month or so ago when some of my friends and I went hiking in Bejar. We went to use the tiny bathroom in the bus station, but before we could get in, THREE nuns came out, one after the other. It was a little like clowns leaving a small car. I see them all over town, and I'm pretty sure there's actually a monastery somewhere in Salamanca. 

That's all I can think of right now. However, there's probably more things that I've noticed, so eventually there may be a round three! Hasta luego!

I Probably Shouldn't Become a Cave-Dwelling Hippie

I've reached the two month point in my stay in Europe, which means that I'm now over half-way done and have received my cue to be sad that my departure is now getting closer and closer. What I'm going to miss most of all is the ability to hop on a train or plane and get off a couple hours later in a totally different country with a different language, culture, history, the whole shebang. I can totally see how the hippies I hung out with at my hostel in Granada last weekend ended up just not going back to their country of origin. That's not to say I think I could travel like they do, just ending up in places, finding jobs, and semi-living in caves (though apparently they're nice in Granada, more like houses) but I definitely could spend more time abroad, perhaps teaching for a year or something along those lines like some of the other Americans I met were doing. I'll have to see, I have lots of time ahead of me, but I'm sure not counting down the days until I leave like some people are doing! 

New dog friend named Poker

La Alhambra viewed from the hostel

Granada and Paco's cactuses (Seriously, there was a sign that said "Please don't throw trash into Paco's cactuses.")

One of the girls we met at the hostel told us about this street near a graffiti artist's house that was really cool. It was murals and drawings and not just someone's initials scrawled with spray paint. 

Patio de los Arrayanes inside el Palacio Nazari in La Alhambra

Overview of Granada and the mountains from one of the towers of Alcazaba at La Alhambra

If there are no pumpkins to carve for Halloween, pineapples are almost as good!

In Which I Butcher the French Language Yet Again

One of the many perks of living in Spain is that I can do things like take weekend trips to Paris. A bus ride to the Madrid airport and a short two hour flight later had me landing in the City of Lights last Thursday along with my study abroad group. I proceeded to have an absolutely wonderful time, cementing my choice of Paris as my favorite European city. It's so hard to capture Paris with just photos, so for this city you get videos! There is a special feeling in Paris that you don't get anywhere else, something magical and exciting, which is exactly what I squeal in almost every video on this post. Just a heads up.

Last time I was in Paris, I climbed the Eiffel Tower in the daytime, so to switch it up I wanted to go at night this time. After dropping by the hotel long enough to throw our bags into our rooms, some of my friends and I rode the metro over to the Tower. Even though we couldn't go the whole way to the top since it was too late, we could still ride the elevator up to the second level and look out over the city that way. It was gorgeous and in my opinion a lot cooler than climbing it during the daytime. It's not for nothing that Paris is called the "City of Lights."

Since I had been to Paris before, I tried not to do all the exact same things. Therefore, instead of just going inside Notre Dame (for free) I also paid to climb up it. Similar to how I preferred the Eiffel Tower at night, I preferred the outside of Notre Dame to the inside. Sure the inside is grand and the stain glass is fantastic, but I've seen so many grand cathedrals in Europe, and the stain glass of Sainte Chapelle can't be topped. However, no other cathedral I've seen has such an interesting exterior. The gargoyles add a lot of character to the outside, they're all different and some are carved so it looks like they are gazing out at the city. I ended up with about twenty pictures of gargoyles on my camera since each one was unique. As an added bonus, you also get to go inside one of the bell towers to look at one of the massive bells hanging there. 

The Catacombs were also new to me this trip. According the the cute French man who tried to flirt with my friend and me in the catacombs gift shop, there are over 6 million skeletons down there. Apparently back in the day, there was a large graveyard in Paris with so many bodies that it was causing the neighbors to fall ill. The bodies were dug up and moved to an old quarry that was at the time outside of the city. The highlight of the visit to the catacombs was when I tripped and caught myself against the skeletons. It was rather alarming and I'm sure my face was hilarious. 

This is the cemetery in the neighborhood on Montemarte. I was here on my last visit to Paris, but liked it so much I returned. The crows calling added to the graveyard atmosphere this visit and I tried to capture the sounds in the video though I'm not sure you're able to hear it very well. 

I'd have loved to spend more time in Paris, really the Louvre itself requires about a month to go through. Maybe sometime when I have zillions of dollars I'll go live there and spend all my time eating crepes and sitting on the Seine. Something to aspire to for sure. Hasta luego!

Class? What's class?

So believe it or not, I'm actually attending class here in Spain in addition to traveling around and generally goofing off. However class in Spain is much different than class in the United States. I don't know whether it's because I'm not taking any science classes and am experiencing what you could refer to as a "liberal arts" education this semester, or whether it's because Spaniards in general don't take university as seriously, but whatever it is, I'm unnaturally relaxed and not-stressed about my classes this semester. It's a nice change.

I'm taking four classes: literatura española, arte español, historia de España, and el mundo árabe en el mundo hispánico. All of them are taught in Spanish, but are classes specifically for international students so all the teachers know not to get too crazy with their Spanish. However, I've understood the teachers perfectly from the get-go so a language barrier hasn't been a problem at all. I only have the classes twice each week and each class is two hours long with a 10 minute break in the middle because God forbid we learn for more than one hour straight. The majority of my grade for each class is going to depend on a mid-term and a final, which composes about 80% of the grade, then depending on the class, attendance/participation is taken into account, and I think I might have a couple presentations. So far no homework or papers yet. 


My literature class was probably the one I was looking forward to the least going in, but the only one I HAVE to take for my minor at home. It's probably still my least favorite class but it's growing on me and I really like the professor. We always seems to go into side discussions about different words or actions that are rude here in Spain (stretching in public? whoops!) which is very helpful to know. We're currently working on analyzing short stories and poems which isn't my favorite in English and still isn't my favorite in Spanish, but every once in a while must be done in the name of being well-rounded. 


I've never taken an Art History class before, but I also need one for UVM (general requirement) so I figured I might as well get it out of the way here in Spain! The class is different than I thought it would be. Apparently the fall semester does art up until the Renaissance, and spring semester does the Renaissance on. That means I don't get to study Velazquez or Goya like I wanted, since they are both post-Renaissance artists. However the class has been more interesting than I thought, and we spent the past week learning about the different characteristics of Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals. This was pretty awesome since I've seen approximately 4 billion cathedrals in Europe, and now I'll be able to pick out different features in them! Of course I only know the terms in Spanish now (I had to go look up the term Romanesque to see what románico translated to in English) but it's still pretty exciting. Also apparently we get to take a field trip tomorrow to Salamanca's two cathedrals (one románica and one gótica) and field trips are always fun. 


My favorite class is my history class. I love history and wish I had time to take more classes in college. This class also started back in prehistory like my art class and we're slowly making our way forward. I say slowly since this is another class that often gets off track. We spent a large portion of class on Friday listening to Spanish music. We also are talking a lot about current politics since Spain is having a general election in November and it is widely expected that the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) is going to lose to the PP (Partido Popular) since the economic crisis has hit Spain pretty hard and the people aren't very happy with the current government. However a lot of people I know here aren't too happy about the predicted change since the PP is a more conservative party and is expected to cut a lot of the benefits that Spaniards enjoy. 


Finally mi árabe clase. I still feel like I don't have a good grasp of whether or not I like this class since I've really only had it three times. The semester officially started at 4 on Monday the first week, so any classes I had before then (like this one) didn't meet. That first week the professor was out of town or something so we had a sub on the Wednesday of that week. Then last week we had a holiday on Wednesday so I missed this class again. So after three weeks I still can't really judge whether I like it or not. All I know is that our exams are take home so I don't have to worry too much about memorizing random things which is nice. 


All in all, I'm enjoying my classes here. They're interesting for the most part and give my days some structure. However, that doesn't mean I'm not super excited to miss my Thursday and Friday classes this week to go to Paris!!! Better break my French back out so I'm prepared to deal with some Parisians! Au revoir! 

Country Clothes Wearing

As a nice break from visiting cathedrals and ruins and other such things (though I do enjoy it, don't get me wrong), I've been checking out the Spanish countryside to get a more complete view of the country, and also to get my nature fix since I'm not used to living in a city, even one as small as Salamanca. Last weekend my study abroad group took a day-trip out to a winery near the city of Villadolid, and yesterday since it was a national holiday (El Día de la Hispanidad), a couple of my friends and I went to the nearby town of Bejar to hike and enjoy the still summer-like weather. Both places were lovely, though it still sometimes surprises me just how dry the region of Spain that I'm in, Castilla y León, is. The hot, dry weather that the region is still experiencing is apparently out of the norm though. According to my host mother, after the festivals in Salamanca in the middle of September, the weather is supposed to get cooler and it rains a bit. It is indeed cool at night, but it still reaches the 80s during the day meaning that of course I got sunburned yesterday hiking. Sunscreen really isn't on my radar in the middle of October but I guess it should be. It was also nice to see some mountains again yesterday in Bejar, the flatness is just too flat compared with Vermont! 

In a slightly abrupt change of subject and jumping back in time to last Saturday, visiting the winery in Vallodolid was like being in a movie, specifically The Parent Trap. We frolicked in vineyards...

Saw wine being made...

And tasted it. (Ok maybe that's not like The Parent Trap). 

Lunch is being made and smelling delicious, so I'm going to end this blog post and write a more coherent one soon about my classes here in Spain, now that I've had them for three weeks and have gotten a feel for them. Hasta luego!

Living in a Strange and Foreign Land (except not really)

As of today I have officially been in Europe for exactly one month. And I have 867 photos to prove it. In honor of this occasion, I thought I'd share some of the differences I've noticed between Europe and the United States - mostly it's the little things that just drive the point in that I'm on a different continent. Por ejemplo...

1) Crutches 
All the crutches I've seen here are different than the crutches we have back in the US. Ours are meant to be held under the arm pits, making it easier to support your weight. You don't really have to be in shape to use them, unlike here where you're actually required to have arm muscles if you're on crutches and want to get around.

For example this lady whose image I pulled off of Google

Note that all her weight it held up by her wrists and forearms. I would not be able to do this. This actually proved a problem for one of the girls in my group who got a hairline fracture in her foot the first weekend here. Luckily she only had to have plaster on and use crutches for a week before she got a walking boot, but for that week she was basically housebound as it was too hard for her to get around.

2) Showers

I'm still trying to figure out the reasoning behind the different shower designs I've encountered in my travels. A couple of the hostels I staid in had showers that worked like those sinks in public restrooms where you push the tap and water goes for about half the time it takes you to wash your hands therefore making it necessary to push the button AGAIN after you've already started washing, transferring germs back onto your hands that you had already washed off. It is even more annoying when it's the shower that constantly turns off. I'm guessing the policy behind this is to save water? Though I don't really think people forget to turn off the shower when they're done. I mean it's kinda noisy and wet, and trying to dry off when the shower is still running is pretty counterproductive. Maybe it's designed to make people hurry their showers up since after the water shuts off for the sixth time most people are pretty ready to be done - at least I know I was. 

Another interesting variation on the shower I've encountered is the type where there's no actual shower head mounted on the wall, just some tubing with a nozzle attached to it. This makes it necessary to use one hand to hold it and leaving only one hand for actually washing. This is the kind that I have in my apartment here in Salamanca. The only thing I can think of is that maybe baths are more typical in some countries and showers are kind of an afterthought? This too can also serve the purpose of hurrying up showers as you can't really stand and soak in hot water without your arm getting tired from holding the nozzle. Actually now that I think about it, maybe this is where Europeans get their arm strength to be able to use their crutches. Hmmm...

3) Trains

In a less "that's bizarre" and a more "I wish we had this in the United States" note, I love the public transportation system here! It's not at all necessary to use a car to travel. Trains go to every big or even medium sized city and it's super easy to bop all around the continent with minimal effort. This is quite different from my experience with American trains, most notably when it took me 13 hours by train to get from D.C. back to Vermont after another form of transportation (airplanes) utterly failed me. Another advantage trains have are that you don't have to pay a gazillion bucks for a ticket (like airplanes) or be basically stripped searched down to your quart sized plastic bag of possibly explosive toiletries (also like airplanes). As you can tell,  I'm a fan. 

4) The Attitude Towards Alcohol 

Last but not least, alcohol. As every under 21 college student is aware of, the drinking age is a lot lower in Europe. However that doesn't mean that there's four times the amount of drinking and partying here than at home. In my view, since people grow up without alcohol being this horrible, forbidden substance, it is treated a lot more responsibly here, ie: a glass of wine with lunch, or some beers out at night with friends, than it is treated in the United States where people drink until they black-out because a lot of them aren't taught that alcohol has a place outside of raging parties or a purpose other than using it to get drunk. In my opinion, the treatment of alcohol is a lot more sane and safer here, but it's such an issue at home that there's no way any of the laws are changing any time soon. 

On that slightly more serious note, since this post has been a lot of words with not a lot of pretty pictures to look at, I'll leave you with these totally non-related, but lovely pictures of places I've been/things I've seen. Until next time! 

Puente Romano with Salamanca in the background

El Aqueducto en Segovia (another Roman construction that's stood the test of time)

La Plaza Mayor en Salamanca lit up at night

The Honeymoon

I am here in Salamanca and absolutely LOVING it. According to this chart, I am experiencing what is called the "Honeymoon Stage" of my study abroad experience. 

Also according to the chart, I should eventually progress on to the terrifyingly named DISINTEGRATION stage where, I assume from the name, I crumple like a pile of sand as my cells no longer hold together. Hopefully that won't happen. 

Our bus got into Salamanca Friday evening and I met my host family, which, so far, was the most nerve-wracking part of this entire trip. There is no non-awkward way to meet random strangers that you're going to be living with for three months. However they are super nice and everything is going fine. My Spanish family consists of a married couple, Lidia and Felix, that are in their 70's, and their grown son Juan. Juan doesn't live in the apartment, but he comes over for lunch and dinner so I see a lot of him. My biggest fear was that I wasn't going to be able to communicate with them but it's not so bad. I understand Lidia very well, and while I have a harder time with Felix and Juan, even over the course of this weekend I've found that I can understand them better. I guess it's just getting used to the way they talk. I think they're pleased by how well I can understand them and speak, since they've hosted many students before and I'm sure they've had people who've come with a lot less Spanish than me. 

My room is actually set up to hold two students, but Lidia told me that something happened and the girl I was supposed to be sharing the room with couldn't come to Spain. Therefore I have a bedroom and a bathroom all to myself! It might have been nice to have a roommate for kind of a moral support, but on the other hand, the lack of one forces me to only speak/listen to Spanish in the apartment which will be very beneficial. 

I am slowly adjusting to the Spanish schedule which is quite different from America's especially in terms of meals. The big meal of the day is served for lunch, which is at two in this apartment. Dinner is a smaller affair and is served later around nine. Lidia likes to serve me a lot of food so I can actually hold out that long pretty well. If I get hungry in the evening I can also meet some of my friends for tapas or ice cream en La Plaza Mayor, the central hub of the city. 

La Plaza Mayor

In addition to meals being later, Spaniards party much later too. Much later as in they don't go out until one and stay out until six in the morning. No wonder we have a siesta time during the day :) All in all I'm having a great time so far. I'm taking my placement test in the morning and my first class is in the afternoon. That of course means that I should get off the internet and go to sleep so I'll leave you with this lovely picture of Salamanca from across the Rio Tormes. Hasta luego! 

Note the reflection in the water. Que bonita!

Finally in Spain!

Hola from España!

Yes I am finally in the country that I will be spending the remainder of the year in! However, I still haven't reached Salamanca, that's not until tomorrow. I've been orientating in Madrid with some of my group since Tuesday, though we've also been making day trips - such as to Toledo today. There are seven other people here in Madrid, the rest came early for intensive Spanish language classes and are already in Salamanca. However, I've liked having a smaller group. It's made touring easier and we've gotten to know each other better than we would have with a larger group. Everyone seems pretty nice and will be good company for the semester.

I've been using my Spanish a bit, probably not as much as I'll be using it in Salamanca when I have classes and am speaking with my host parents, but I've been talking to the shop keepers and some of the students in my program. I've been finding that I understand a lot more than I did when I visited Spain for a week two years ago after Senior year in High School which is reassuring. People here, just like everyone else I've met in my travels, has been very helpful in giving directions and communicating with the Spanish I know and the bits of English they know. For example, my purse is falling apart and I needed safety pins to fix it. I was in an office supply store to buy a notebook, and thinking they also might have safety pins was looking around for them. A man asked if he could help and I managed to communicate what I needed, and he drew me a map to a store that sold them. I also learned the word for safety pin in the process - imperdible. I can see how my Spanish is going to improve rapidly by being surrounded by it all the time; I also think I'm starting to pick up the Spanish lisp eek!

In other news the weather has been gorgeous here - sunny and warm; it's been a return to summer after three rainy fall-like weeks. The sites we've seen have been pretty interesting too, especially El Prado Museum. I could have spent several days going around - so much great art! We had a really awesome tour guide too; she had just the right mix of fun facts and information without dragging it out long past when it was interesting. Once again it was really cool to see things I've read about in real life, like the Vasquez painting Las Meninas and the Goya painting The Third of May 1808. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum so unfortunately I can't post any, but if you look them up online they will definitely be familiar.

I'm not sure of my internet situation in Salamanca - whether I'll have internet at the house I'll be staying in or not, so I'm not sure when the next post will be up. However by that time I'll have met my host parents and maybe even started classes so I'm sure I'll have a lot to say.

Hasta luego!

My group at the train station in Madrid waiting to go to Toledo

A Lovely Weekend Avec Mon Amie

Since I've been madly traveling for the past couple weeks, its been nice to spend this weekend just relaxing and hanging around with my friend Katherine in Chambery, the town in France where she's studying abroad. I've also been able to delegate my foreign language speaking duties to her since she's here to study French making her language skills vastly superior to mine. That's not to say I can't make myself understood when needed. At the train station in Lyon it turned out that the ticket agent didn't (or wouldn't) speak English, but I managed to have enough vocab to buy a ticket, and I ended up in the correct town so I guess I was understood!

While a large part of my weekend has been lounging around, Katherine and I have gone out and seen some of the sights in Chambery. There's a big fair going on this week so we went to check it out. A large portion of it seemed to be people selling mattresses or hot tubs, two things we weren't necessarily in the market for, but there was a cool exhibit about King Tut. Going through it, neither of us had enough French to figure out whether it was actually the relics from the tomb since they looked pretty legitimate, but a county fair would be a really bizarre place for them to be exhibited. When it came down to it, we weren't really sure how impressed we were supposed to be. Coming back to Katherine's apartment, we googled it and determined that it was just replicas of everything, so while the exhibition was neat, it definitely was not as cool as it would have been if the relics had been real.

Entry to the (not real) King Tut exhibit

We also went to the local chateau that used to belong to the Dukes of Savoie. The region of Savoie, where Chambery is located, actually has a very interesting history. It was an independent territory for a long time and was swapped back and forth between Italy and France before ending up in France as it is today. At one point the capital of the Savoie region was actually Turin which is presently a city in Italy. It's pretty interesting to think about. The chateau was very nice; there were some older parts that have been preserved in a historic state, but some parts are still used today, like they were in the past, by the governing body of the region. Of course this information is somewhat of a conjecture on my part as the signs and tours were in French and I didn't totally get what was going on. We did get to climb to the top of one of the towers though which had a very nice view of the town and surrounding Alps.

While I've had a lot of fun traveling around, I'm definitely ready to stop living out of my backpack and get into a routine again, so I'm glad to be heading to Spain on Tuesday. I'll get orientated in Madrid and do some sight-seeing there with my group before heading to Salamanca for the remainder of the semester. I'm excited to learn about my class schedule for the fall and start practicing my Spanish, the real reason I'm in Europe in the first place. Next time I update, it will be an hola de España!

Here, There, and Everywhere

So since I have last updated this blog I've been to three more places: Kinderdijk in the Netherlands, Brussels, and Lyon. What this translates to is A LOT of train riding for the past few days. Tiring, but a lot of fun and I've gotten to see some pretty spectacular sights.

Kinderdijk
It was difficult, to put it mildly, to get here. Difficult as in my guidebook, despite being published this year, was out of date and compounding the problem, I don't read or speak Dutch, which is unfortunate when trying to decipher signs and train schedules. However even if I had understood and perfectly followed all directions, I would have still needed to take two trains and two buses. In the end, after probably doubling the supposed traveling time I finally reached the most typically Dutch thing out there after wooden shoes. And it was pretty spectacular.

Brussels
I hadn't planned on going to Brussels, but after three days in Amsterdam, I felt like I had seen the city and had one extra day to play with. Since I had to connect in Brussels anyway on my way to Lyon, I decided to go a day early and check out the city. I'd give Brussels the title of "Typical European City," in fact I actually did say that when stopped by a student taking a survey of tourists. It has it's old cobblestoney parts where the buildings are grand and ornately decorated, and it's modern parts where the skyscrapers look like skyscrapers from anywhere. Nice but pretty average.

One thing that Brussels does have that no other city has is a famous statue of a small peeing boy. Manneken Pis is it's name and that statue and copies of it have been in the city for hundreds of years. To add to the silliness is that fact that the statue has outfits that it wears - over 750 outfits in fact. Apparently a new outfit for the statue is a pretty common diplomatic gift to Belgium. His outfits are stored in one of the city's museums and you can so see them, which I did. It's a pretty fun concept especially for a leaders of nations to be apparently pretty enthusiastic about.

Unfortunately, not wearing an outfit the day I visited

Lyon

Lyon is a lovely city, and I'm having a good time wandering around it and badly mangling the bits of French I remember whenever I'm spoken to. One thing though, my hostel and the sites I wanted to see are all located on Fouviere hill. You wouldn't think this would be a problem since I live in Burlington and pretty much have to walk uphill wherever I go, but this hill is A LOT STEEPER than the hills in Burlington. So much so, that some of the roads are actually just steps. 

Pictured: A street

At the very top of Fouviere hill is a gorgeous church built around the same time as Sacre Coeur in Paris and for the same purpose: to give thanks that the Prussians didn't sack the city in whatever war they were fighting back then. While I find Sacre Coeur lovely on the outside but not that spectacular on the inside, Notre Dame de Fouviere hill is both gorgeous outside and in. The walls and floor inside are almost totally done in mosaic, the ceiling is painting, and gilt and turquoise seem to be the overarching decorating scheme for the detailing making the inside glisten. Stunning and not something that cameras can capture very well, but never the less I tried. 

One day without trains it all I'm getting, I'm back on them tomorrow, but not for long. I'm just heading over to Chambery to visit my lovely friend Katherine!