Spain Part 8 - Al Empezar

And so it begins, the homework, the studying etc.

(Leah: when I was walking home from school I noticed 2 different shops that sold kebabs, exactly the way you described them.  I think this calls for immediate action - you need to come and visit ;0))

Yesterday afternoon I alternated homework and sudoku until la cena.  We had salad, tomatoes with soft white goat cheese on top, more of the caulliflower dish, and some sopa de champiñones (cream of mushroom soup).  The soup was really good with bread.  (Side note, instead of serving bread with butter, they use olive oil and salt here.  I don't know if it's really that much better for you, but it tastes close to the same to me.)  Alicia and I ate A LOT of chocolate for "dessert."

After dinner Lucia told us all about the Fallas, which are a very important festival in Spain, and something almost completely unique to the country.  It's a parade where the floats are made out of styrofoam, and people work extremely hard on them all year (sort of like the rose bowl parade) and then after the week of displaying them they burn them all except the one that wins the competition.  The air is aparently thick and hard to breath for a week afterward.

She talked about the running of the bulls as well, which will happen in June about a month after we leave.  It's sad, I think that would be a fun thing to witness.  I guess I'll just have to come back.  

This morning I slept a little later than usual, until about 10,30, then after breakfast I started homework.  So far I've been given a lot of reading, but it is all interesting.  Some of the reading is fables, and most of them are familiar, so once you figure out what's going on and which fable you're reading it's easier to pick things out in context.  Other fables are more obscure, they'll be similar to the ones in english but they'll change the animal that the character is or they'll put in some other twist to make it fit better into the culture of Spain.  I'm guessing that the fables I've read in English also do this, since it makes them easier to understand if they're put into your own cultural context.

A lot of my homework would take me about half the time if it was in English but because it is in Spanish I am constantly writing down new vocab words.  I need to get some note cards so that I can study new words because it's difficult to remember them even after I've looked them up.

I decided it was a beautiful enough day (67 F, a little breezy, very sunny) to eat lunch outside, so I took what Lucia packed for me and headed out.  For lunch I had a bocadillo of tortilla española while sitting in the middle of what they call "the river" here.  The river has been gone for a long time, but it's an area in the middle below the ground of the rest of the city that has more or less remained a park.  There are a lot of rugby fields and tracks and such in it, and little playgrounds and fountains and benches here and there.  The pigeon population demanded the crumbs from my food but I decided they were fat enough and refused to feed them.

I headed toward school after lunch and passed through my favorite part of the city, this huge park near the museo de bellas artes.  In the middle there's a small bird sanctuary and they have a lot of beautifully colored birds, some of which people have as pets in the US like cockatiels.

I got to school, handed in my service learning application, in which I asked to do translation or business work, and started on some more homework.  I ran into Amanda, and we talked for awhile about classes and such, and made plans to go out around Plaza Ayuntamiento tonight.  Alicia and Heather want to go too, so we'll have a nice group to go with.  We are excited to finally go out and be in an actual Spanish bar, as opposed to one riddled with UVA students.

If there's something that I'm not including in these updates that you'd like to know about, please let me know.  I'll update again soon, nos vemos.

Spain Part 9 - ¡Al Aire!

Alicia and I walked home after her classes on Friday and stopped by the librería to buy our Spanish Lit books.  When llegamos a casa a las siete y media (we arrived home at 7,30) Lucía was making an early cena so that we could eat with Claudia.  Claudia pronounced that she did not like verduras (vegetables) and so she had chicken broth with noodles and papas fritas (french fries).  Alicia and I had the same sopa, but we also had artichokes, zucchini, green peppers, and chicken prepared fajita style (though we just ate them as they were, tortillas like those in latinoamerica don't exist here!).  Alicia and I thought the chicken was fine, but Claudia ate one bite and then wouldn't touch the rest because it was demasiado seco (too dry).

After cena, Alicia, Claudia and I played a counting game with una pelota de futbol (a soccer ball).  We would count to dos, then the person to whom we were throwing has to say tres.  Alicia and I were not so good at this game, we kept saying siete, cinco, or some other number, and Claudia would laugh until we said tres.  Later in the cocina (kitchen) Claudia had fun throwing her ratoncito (stuffed animal mouse) while yelling ¡al aire! (up) and we would catch it and repeat ¡al aire! as we threw it for her to catch.  Half the time the ratoncito was headed al suelo (to the floor) as Lucía put it.  It was all fun and games until we had to stop, and then Claudia threw a tantrum worthy of a three-year-old only child.  She ran screaming through the casa naked, and no one could calm her down.  Her mom and dad finally showed up, got her dressed and took her home.

Alicia and I went out later with Heather and Amanda.  We met in calle Xátiva and headed to a wine bar north of Plaza Ayuntamiento.  We sat and chatted with the Italian owner, who made several of the wines in the shop, and who gave us promotional discounts to two clubs in the area.  The Italian merlot that I ordered was delicious, (3,30€ a glass) and Heather and Amanda tried one of the Spanish white wines.

On the way home Alicia and I stopped by a 7-11 type place and bought a large bag of chips (of which we devoured before bed!) and some dried fruit.  We got a little lost on the way home, but we hit the rio by heading due north and were able to follow it home pretty easily.