Intensive Course - Done!

Yesterday, I officially finished my intensive Spanish course!  This included two hours of grammar and two hours of conversation everyday for the month of September. I loved both my professors (Nuria and Mariaje) and classes where actually a lot fun. We often chatted about anything at all, just to get us speaking. As I mentioned before, Spain loves weddings and in one of my conversation classes we spent the whole two hours talking about "bodas" (weddings). Yesterday, we even received diplomas from Acalingua and had a small ceremony to honor all of us. We have a few days off and start up classes again on October 5th. We will be taking a writing course, more grammar and conversation and a history/culture course, on top of culture course with Maria Jose (our director)! In the mean time, seven of my friends and I are heading to Munich, Germany tomorrow for Oktoberfest! We will be there until Sunday and I think we are in for quite an adventure (I will be sure to report when I get back!)

Yesterday, was also "una huelga general" (a general strike) in Spain. I barely noticed a difference here in Alcalá but after seeing Madrid and Barcelona on the news, I realized how important this day was. There have been less than 10 general strikes in Spain's history and basically everyone protested yesterday. In Alcalá the buses, taxis, and trains ran on a less frequent basis, but in the cities there were riots and most everything was closed (including major cancellations and delays at airports). The Spanish government definitely had their hands full! Many of you probably know even more details than me, since I heard it was on American news, and the news here is a bit more difficult for me to understand. That's all I have to report for now, it was a pretty routine week and I am now just enjoying having some free time!

I can't believe how fast this adventure is flying by (less than 3 months left!) Muchos Besos!

La Vida Española

I don't have much to report this week, so I figured I would share some of my observations about life in Spain. This week I both started and ended a 19th century literature class at the actual university. About half of us have decided to drop the class, since we do not need it to graduate and it is definitely above our Spanish level. In our class we have Spaniards (including some dads and grandpas!) and our professor does not speak a word of English. I am also convinced she talks without breathing or pausing, which I have been coming across quite often Spain. A lot of the time I feel as though I am just hearing one very long word rather than the intended sentences. Our intensive grammar and conversation courses are finishing up and we have our finals on Monday, I can't believe how fast this first month went by!

Other than talking fast...the Spanish drive fast, aggressively, and with no mercy. If you have one foot onto the street there is a good chance a car speeding around the bend could run it over and they wouldn't even look back! There does not seem to be a pedestrian right-of-way law here, and if there is, like the drinking age, it is not followed.

Spain loves graffiti! Almost every wall is full of names and drawings. What I love about the graffiti here in Spain is that once a section is "graffitied," no one draws or writes over it. It is your section and there to stay. This allows for the graffiti to actually look like art, rather than the jumbled messes often found on bridges or walls in the United States.

Graffiti in Alcalá

Along with graffiti, Spain loves bodas (weddings). On more than every corner a bridal shop can be found with displays of gorgeous white dresses. As much as Spain loves weddings, there is no push to get married early here. Sons and daughters often live in their parents house or apartment until they are 30 years old and move out once they are married. They also don't have engagements or a proposal, it just happens and a wedding starts being planned. There is no diamond ring or getting down on one knee in Spain, the whole process is much more relaxed, reflecting the Spanish culture in general.

We are truly an American spectacle here in Spain. I often travel in a pack of seven girls and the attention we receive is more than I could have ever imagined. The Spaniards have no shame in coming up to us or shouting "guapas" (beauties) from cars or street corners! While in restaurants we often manage to cause quite a scene and this past weekend in Valencia we were actually all given hats and were asked to take a picture with the owner! We are almost entertainment to these Spaniards, who have no problem sharing it by chatting "U.S.A" or copying various phrases we use, such as "oh my god!" Those are just a few things I have noticed about this new culture, I really have no complaints though, Spain has been more than good to me!

An American Spectacle - Valencia

Valencia

What a fabulous weekend away! Our first trip without Maria Jose was to Valencia, Spain. Located in the center of Spain on the east coast, this was the perfect get-a-way! I experienced a hostel for the first time, got to swim in the Mediterranean, went to the largest aquarium in Europe, and climbed to the top of medieval towers. We began our trip to Valencia with a four hour bus ride in large comfy first-class-like seats. After arriving we successfully found our hostel, Indigo. With a cartoon-like character as the logo we knew we were in for a treat. Each wall is painted a different bright color and basically everything was in English! We stayed in large room with 4 sets of bunk beds and one single and had no problems throughout the weekend with the hostel. Our first night out we got caught in quite a large thunder storm, but still managed to enjoy ourselves in a new city. Thankfully, the next day was a perfect beach day. We spent the morning swimming, tanning and walking the beach!

La Playa - Mediterranean Sea

After enjoying a lovely day at the beach and having delicious paella (with rabbit!) we did some shopping and I made a few more Spanish purchases! While shopping we got to see some magnificent buildings, including la plaza de toros (where the bull fighting happens) and even the post office was photo-worthy! Near our hostel was one of the medieval towers. Three of us decided we had a little more energy and climbed to the top! I am so glad we did! We got to see all of Valencia, which was truly spectacular! That night we went on a pub crawl set up by the hostel and managed to get wrapped up in an British stag party!

Top of the tower - Jocelyn and me

Sunday was spent at the largest aquarium in Europe, which is part of el museo de artes y ciencias. The buildings themselves are breath-taking. The architecture is extremely modern and all the buildings are white and blue (hopefully the pictures will help my lackluster description). The aquarium itself was incredible, my favorite part was seeing the baby sea lions "rough-housing" with each other! We went through two tunnels of fish and entered a dome full of birds! An absolutely wonderful experience!

Baby Sea Lions

El Museo de Artes y Ciencias

La Catedral

In the last few days I have been to some of the "must sees" when visiting Alcalá de Henares. These include the Cathedral, the Convent of San Domingo, and the University of Alcalá itself. As always, everything is beautiful. My host mom, Cris, and sister, Laura, took me to the Cathedral, but when we arrived mass was in session. It was a weekday night and the place was packed. I really haven't noticed Spain being as religious as I had anticipated, but seeing how filled the Cathedral was I started to re-access my observations.
We went out for drinks (and tapas of course!) while we waited for mass to finish. The Cathedral is simply stunning. Not the ornate, covered in gold, type of beautiful, but the pure white marble and the simple lighting surrounding the enormous organ was truly breath-taking. We went to bring flowers to a statue of a Mary in extremely simple attire, Cris feels she has more of a connection with this type of Mary than one decorated in golds and silvers. While waiting for Cris to get a vase for the flowers, Laura and I were approached by one of the priests. He began conversation with the two of us asking our names, which is always a struggle for me, since A-man-da is not easily pronounced in Spain (it is more like A-mon-da). After a quick conversation he looks directly at me and calls me out on chewing gum in Church (oops!) Laura had some too and the two of us quickly put our hands to our mouths and apologized, the priest began laughing and informing us that gum is always put under the pews (good thing he wasn't actually serious!) Cris saved us and we proceeded to the statue of Mary and left the flowers for her asking for good health and happiness. We walked around for a few more minutes and viewed the tombs of two young martyr saints from Alcalá. What a absolutely beautiful place, I now understand why its always so crowded!

Organ in the Cathedral - It doesn't do it justice though!

La Noche en Blanco y El Rastro

Both Saturday night and Sunday were spent in Madrid. Madrid holds an annual event called La Noche en Blanco (The Night in White) where all museums, cathedrals, etc in the city are free to enter and open from 8pm to 8am. We were all told this was a must-go-to event, which includes music in the streets and in general just a good time. So we boarded the train and off we went! So so many people, everywhere. The lines for the museums curved around blocks and each plaza was filled to capacity. The streets were all closed, so there are no cars but there are enough people that no matter what street we were on the street was packed. Every restaurant, bar, and discoteca were also filled to the brim! Definitely a sight to see! After wondering the streets for a few hours, listening to some live music, and dancing to American music at a discoteca, we decided to try out the bus system home. The train does not start running again until 6 am, but there is one bus that leaves the city every hour on the hour. We did not do our research though and the bus station was quite a hike from the discoteca. Getting home was an absolute nightmare. Usually, it would be easy to take the metro there or a taxi but because of this special evening neither of these was possible. After walking for around an hour we found a place where the streets were open and ended up taking a very expensive taxi back to Alcalá! Lesson learned for sure!

La Noche en Blanco

The following morning I ventured into Madrid alone! I was meeting a friend from high school who is also studying in Madrid to go to el Rastro. El Rastro is an enormous flee market held in Madrid every Sunday morning. After looking at my calendar and realizing it was my only free Sunday until November, I figured I should probably get out of bed and go (definitely not an easy task after strolling in around 4:30am)! No regrets though! I have successfully figured out the metro system (after getting lost a few times), which is much easier, cleaner and safer than any metro system I have ever been on. El Rastro is quite overwhelming at first, with what seems to be never ending lines of tents all full to the brim with anything you can imagine. Lots of Spanish being yelled out and major bargaining taking place! At el Rastro I made my first two real purchases of Spain, a pair of black flats and a beige fall jacket. I was told I should bargain but with my limited Spanish I just paid the price given to me (maybe next time)! After returning to Alcalá I was definitely in need of a siesta, but overall quite a successful day!
Muchos Besos!

Mi Familia Española

My room!

The last few days have been pretty routine; class, homework, and meals. Thursday we were in class from 9:00 - 11:00, 11:30 - 1:30, and 3:00 - 5:00. The breaks are not long enough to go back to my house so usually we end up eating in the Plaza and after our last class, we booked our trip to Valencia, Spain for next weekend! Quite a long day but I can't wait to swim in the Mediterranean!
The best part of this new routine is the time I get to spend with my host family. I know I keep raving about them, but they truly are the best. Wednesday night, Laura, Cris and I went out for drinks (and tapas of course!) with one of Laura's friend (also happened to be name Laura) and her mom, Carmen. Carmen grew up in the United States and on a U.S. military base in Spain so speaks English perfectly. After living in Spain for so many years and marrying a Spanish man her Spanish is also perfect! I was given permission to talk to her in English, which was definitely a breath of fresh air. Instead of just getting the overall concepts of what my family is talking about I finally was able to understand the details! Carmen and Laura are both extremely kind and leave for a trip to New York City next week, but hopefully I will see more of them when they return.
Over the last two days I have for some reason decided to try and explain and describe concepts that are difficult to understand in English, let alone in my broken Spanish. Describing Rosemary Pool took over 30 minutes and when I explained how it is in a lake and only has three walls Laura and Cris were sure I was either getting my words mixed up or lying. I ended up needing a picture to help me, but they finally got the general idea. After that fiasco on Wednesday night, I set myself up again last night trying to describe how I was called up on stage at Blue Man Group. My stories in English are sub-par to say the least, so I am sure you can imagine how great my story sounded when it was missing words. After showing them a video of the twinkie scene which I participated in, they were all very entertained and I think I slightly redeemed myself. Thank God for the internet!
I am glad to be spending the weekend in Alcalá after the first week of classes, it is nice not to have to worry about packing for a trip. On Sunday there is a huge flee-market in Madrid we are planning on going to, hopefully I will be able to find some good gifts!

Muchos Besos!

La Plaza de Cervantes

Me Encanta Tapas

Me encanta tapas (I love tapas). Other than siesta, my favorite thing about Spain so far is that anytime you order a drink you also receive tapas. Tapas can basically be anything...tortilla, hamburger, french fries, nuts, bread and dip. Tonight, Laura (my host sister) and I met Cris (my host mom) after she got off work. Although, siesta seems great for me it also means that a 9-5 job in the States is really a 9-1:30 and 4:30-7:30 job in Spain! A long day to say the least! As we walked around the very crowded streets of Alcalá I tried explaining how in Needham...there is only about one night a year when the streets are this crowded (July 3rd)! I think they understood my broken Spanish, but were very surprised because it being a Tuesday, this was calm night for them! We stopped in a famous restaurant/bar just off the main plaza and each ordered a soda. Along with my soda I got to choose my own tapa (usually they just bring one to you) and went something I knew I liked, tortilla. Tortilla looks like a pie and tastes like home fries, usually I eat it as is but tonight I received between french bread like a sandwich! Laura got fried calamari and Cris some sort of fish. All of this is free with the price of a coca-cola! Me encanta españa.

Tortilla Española

In class today we were given a worksheet with numerous cartoon drawings. With a partner we had to make up sentences about each of the drawings. I was paired with a student from China. He does not speak any English, I do not speak any Chinese, and both of our Spanish definitely needs improving. I now fully appreciate the idea of a language barrier. With many, many hand motions and the use of his Chinese-Spanish dictionary and my English-Spanish dictionary we eventually came up with a few basic sentences. I still have no idea if he had any idea what I was talking about though. I am incredibly thankful I am mostly using my Spanish with my host family, who are able to fill in the words I am missing!

Adiós amores!

Tourists for the Day!

Government buildings

Although we refer to Spain as home now, we are still most definitely tourists. Sunday, we spent our first full day in Madrid. What an absolutely beautiful city! Every building is made of white stone and there are fountains, plazas and statues at every turn. We spent the morning walking around the city. Maria Jose pointed out numerous important tourist locations, which of course are already all jumbled in my head (guess I will have to do some more exploring). This included a walk through of the Mercado de San Miguel. With every type of food and drink imaginable inside, the smell immediately draws you in. With people pushing in all directions, it definitely was a struggle to stay together following Maria Jose. Everything looked absolutely amazing, I could have stayed for hours.
Our tourist status came out in full bloom when we boarded a bright red sight seeing bus with our cameras ready to go! The bus was a great way to see the whole city and definitely confirmed our want to live in one of the beautiful apartments with a balcony overlooking an even more beautiful street. It seems as though we have been saying that quite a lot though!

Who wouldn't want to live here?

After seeing every important landmark in Madrid, we were left in la Puerta del Sol (the exact center of Madrid) to find something to eat and shop! We found a Italian restaurant with a "menu del día" (menu of the day). The menu of the day is extremely common throughout Spain for lunch time. It is a three course meal with a drink and bread for usually under 15 euros (quite a deal!). After a delicious meal of bruschetta, salmon ravioli, and ice cream we were ready to take on the stores! As always, everything seems better in Europe and it took a lot of strength not to purchase everything in sight. Our feet began to hurt and the 90 degree weather was getting to us so we headed back home to Alcalá. I can't wait to go back to explore the museums, plazas, and parks more...good thing I have four months!

Puerta de Alcalá (stay straight and it takes us home!)

Today, was our second day of classes and the majority of my conversation class was spent discussing differences between the many countries that the students in our class represent. This included the different costs of college across the world. In Denmark, not only does it not cost anything to go to school, but you are actually given $10,000 a year to learn! That sounds like a pretty good deal to me! I am still really enjoying my teachers and my host family is still amazing! I am being completely spoiled and definitely could get use to living like this!

Muchos Besos!

Kapital

On our first night out in Madrid I once again found myself in awe of this new culture. After experiencing our first Spanish train ride we arrived in the city of Madrid! It took asking a few strangers on the street in jumbled Spanish to finally receive directions to the discoteca (club) we knew we wanted to end the night at. We planned on finding a place for dinner, meeting up with our visitors, finding a small bar and ending the night at La Kapital. All went basically according to plan but we definitely got some interesting looks walking around early in the evening in "club attire." Kapital is one of the most famous clubs in Madrid. I had no idea what I was getting into when I agreed to go! This is not just your average dance club. This is a seven floor, 18 euro entrance fee, 12 euro price of a mixed drink and 8 euro beer type of club, where you need a ticket to purchase just about anything.
Each of the SEVEN (and yes I had to walk up them all in heels multiple times...) floors plays a different type of music. The top is a open roof deck which was a great place to relax. On the bottom floor, where we spent the majority of the evening, house (techno-ish) music was being played. This also included moments where a fog/cold mist would come shooting out from all directions with the intention of cooling everyone down. At one point we had confetti falling from the upper levels and throughout the whole night two professional dancers were on a stage. All seven floors were packed and it was definitely quite an experience.
We took at 6:00am train back to Alcalá and went to bed just as the sun was rising! I don't think we will make a habit of this, but I am very glad we got the full experience!

Kapital (from the internet though...mine did not come out very well!)

El Primer Día de Clases

View from my bedroom

Today was my first day of classes! Yesterday, we took a placement test so they could place us in the correct level for our grammar and conversation classes. For the month of September I will be taking two hours of grammar and two hours of conversation everyday! My class has five other Loyola students (which I was very happy about!), four students from China, one from Japan, one from Korea, and one from Denmark! Both my professors seem great and the courses do not seem too difficult but it was just the first day!
We spent most of the day getting to know each other. We were asked simple questions such as our favorite color and things we liked about Spain. I am incredibly impressed with the ability of the students from Asian countries to learn Spanish, since their language is so different. With English and Spanish there are many words that sound similar, but with Japanese, Korean or Chinese, all the words and letters are completely different! Us Americans finally started to speak to each other in Spanish and not our go-to English, which is definitely a little weird now since our sentences are jumbled and not always complete but in the long run I think its for the best!
My host family, especially Victor, have been testing me on different words they have been teaching me! They make me repeat them over and over and a few hours later will quiz me, it is all in good fun though! My biggest accomplishment so far is learning that when someone sneezes I am suppose to respond with "Jesús." I am also finally starting to learn to joke around with the family and understand when they are being sarcastic or funny!
Some other Loyola students studying in other countries are in Madrid tonight, so we are going to try and figure out the train system and have dinner and go out in the city! From what I hear it is going to be a very, very late night, or should I say an early morning because the train we will take back leaves Madrid around 5:30am!! I am going to need more than just a siesta tomorrow!

 Adiós!

Casa de Cervantas

My first thunder storm in Spain! After a night out at La Media Pinta (the bars here close a 3:00am!) and sleeping until just before noon we began to here rumbles and the sky opened up! I am usually not a fan of thunderstorms to say the least but after confirming with my host mom it would lower the temperature I could not have been more excited! It has been sunny and 90 here and I have yet to find a place with air conditioning or even more than one fan!
After the thunderstorm Rosie and I figured we should explore this wonderful city we now call home! We went to La Casa de Cervantes, which is a museum showing the house where Cervantes lived and wrote Don Quijote. It is extremely small but it is free and a must see when visiting Alcalá. They had tons of copies of Don Quijote in every language and Rosie and I agreed we wished we knew the story better to fully appreciate museum.
More thunderstorms right now! Hopefully tomorrow will be a nice cool walk to my placement exam for classes! Definitely nervous about full days of only Spanish!

La Casa de Cervantes