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Tuesday was an early morning because I wanted to get some tarea done before I headed to my internship at la revista RELIEVE. (It’s an online journal, their link is http://www.uv.es/RELIEVE/) There are four of us working for them from the center, but on Tuesday morning it’s just me and one other girl. Dr. Francisco, our supervisor, showed us the website, where almost everything is side-by-side in both Spanish and English. He also gave us a short introduction on how to use the translation software before he showed us what we would be doing on a daily basis.

Basically we are given a word document of an article that was originally in Spanish and has been translated into English, and a printed copy of the original Spanish article. We need to correct the translation so that it’s readable and grammatically and colloquially correct. Other times, we will be given things like summaries of articles that they display at the beginning of the article. I was given a copy of a letter that they wanted to send out to authors asking for opinions, and they needed it translated into English. After 2 hours I had managed to get the letter done, as well as both article overviews that Dr. Francisco gave me. We generally will only be working for 2-3 hours each week, so me and Katie, the other girl working with me headed out to a pastelería (it’s like a bakery) to get a snack afterward.

Katie had a neopolitana chocolate (it’s like a chocolate-filled pastry, I think we have them in the US too) and I had a barca de manzanas (apple tart) and we sat and talked for a while. We ran into Chrysten at the pastelería and we all chatted for a little while about our different casas (houses) and madres (host mothers). In Spain it’s extremely uncommon to have friends over to your house unless you know them really well, so we don’t generally see anyone else’s casa except our own.

After our almuerzo (I learned that in Spain they call a snack that’s between breakfast and lunch almuerzo, and lunch is actually called comida, which is different from in Latin America. So it goes breakfast=desayuno, morning snack=almuerzo, lunch=comida, afternoon snack=merienda, dinner=la cena) I headed back to the center to attend the taller de teatro (a taller is an extracurricular activity, teatro is theater). It’s a group of students, who want to do some sort of theatrical act, or other similar things are coached by the professors and then we’ll all present our acts at the end of the semester in a “talent show.” I’m going to be doing a skit with Megan and Heather called “Mulletillas” which is a word that comes from the Spanish word “muletas” which means crutches. Mulletillas are a figure of speech that you use to introduce a sentence, or other unnecessary words that we put into our vocabulary. Some examples in English are “like” or “well.” Anyway, there are a montón (whole bunch) of them in Spanish, and we’re basically making fun of them with this skit. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

After teatro I checked my email on the school computers and then started my tarea. I have a LOT to do before next week because of midterms, and then the week after will be the week that Laura, Melinda, and Rachel are coming to Europe on their Spring Break (I am PSYCHED!!! We are going to have sooooo much fun!) So I want to work ahead on my homework so that I don’t have to worry about it too much while they are here.

For la cena we had turkey burgers (most burgers here are made of chicken or turkey, not beef) and ensalada con arroz (salad with rice, a really good combination). Alicia and I both did tarea after dinner since we are really trying to do well on midterms.

In case it went unnoticed I would like to point out that I skipped a part in my account of Spain, about Sunday in Madrid. Part 20 is now posted.

This is the time of the semester when you think to yourself, “where has this half gone and how can it possibly be time for midterms?” Now is the time for essays, hours of studying and all that lovely stuff that goes with it. It is a shame that this weekend will be lost to essay writing, but I guess that is part of the whole going to school in another country thing.

End of complaining, I am here to learn after all. The essays for the most part sound like fun to write. For Spanish lit we’re comparing two texts by the same author and pointing out the specific characteristics of the literary style, and for grammar we’re writing a description about a moment in time. Economics is pretty basic, just the usual summary of what we’ve learned in class, but Latin American lit is the class that’s going to be difficult. We get to write an 8-10 page paper on pretty much whatever subject of whatever piece of literature we choose as long as it is by a Latin American author and we haven’t studied that particular text extensively in class, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s 8-10 pages. It should be interesting to see how that goes.

Other than the realization that exams are only a week away it was a typical Monday of classes, a bocadillo for almuerzo, lots of tarea assigned etc. In Mass Media we watched an episode of “Yo Soy Bea” which is the Spanish (from Spain) version of the originally Latin American show “Béti la Fea” which was adapted into the US show “Ugly Betty.” The Bea in the Spanish show is very VERY different from Betty in the US show, much more mild, trying to fade into the background personality instead of the vivid person that Betty is in the other shows.

After class, there was a movie showing as usual at school, and I decided to watch it this week. This was unfortunately a bad decision because the movie was disturbing and I didn’t really like it. Basically, this guy doesn’t work, lives off of borrowed money from his friends, family, what his wife’s family gave him when they were married, and all that sort of thing, but everyone thinks that he works in a bank. Long story short, he meets a girl who wants to work in the bank who is obviously a lot younger than him and proceeds to lead a double life, one with his wife and son, and another with this girl. At the end it all blows up in his face and he kills himself and his family and girlfriend. Not what you’d call uplifting, but it wasn’t even fun to watch, more along the lines of sickening.

I walked home in the wet streets, since it’s still raining in the mornings. The sidewalks are often half-flooded because they aren’t used to having rain this often here. La cena de sopa de verduras (vegetable soup) and pollo con papas fritas (chicken and French fries) was very good as usual, and I did my tarea afterward until it was time for bed.

I woke up on Sunday just in time to watch mass on TV with Lucía. Claudia was back in action, requiring attention 24/7 as usual, I don’t think Lucía sat for more than five minutes at a time because she had to keep getting Claudia different toys, or a different color pen, or something to eat, or something to drink or whatever else she wanted at that moment. When Mass was over Tía Mónica (Aunt Mónica) came to pick Claudia up and take her out to the competición that was going on across the street in the sports complex down in the río.

I got cracking on my tarea, but unfortunately I didn’t make much headway because Lucía asked me for help cleaning up after the mess that Claudia had left in her wake. She doesn’t tend to pick up after herself, so we spent the morning putting toys away, cleaning pastellina (play dough) off the carpet, trying to get ink out of the tablecloth and all that sort of thing. For almuerzo we had some paella with pollo and verduras (chicken and vegetables in rice) that Mónica had bought for us earlier, and ensalada. We watched the celebrations in the newly independent Kosovo on the telediario, and Lucía launched into a long explanation of the history of communist politics, which I didn’t understand very well, but nodded and smiled all the same.

I really needed to get moving on my tarea, so I shut myself in the sala de estudios (study room) after almuerzo and worked until it was time for pasapalabra. Alicia got home soon after it started, and she was hungry so we prepared for la cena as soon as it ended. Alicia had leftover paella and ensalada and I had sandwiches de chorizo y pavo con lechuga y tomate (turkey and chorizo sandwiches with lettuce and tomato).

Lucía continued to talk politics after dinner so it was difficult to get back to my tarea, but I got there eventually, still with a montón to do. I didn’t go to bed until very late.

Current Mood: groggy

The title is important to this entry because the world of Lucía and her daughters revolves around this child, and my day did as well.

In the morning I got up and went to the store to buy some champú (shampoo) because I was almost out. When I got back Claudia was already there, and extremely happy to see me. We played with pastellina (play dough) making tartas (cakes) which is Claudia’s favorite thing to make. I made some flores (flowers) and a bunch of grapes. Claudia asked me to teach her how to make a flor but was too impatient and gave up after about 30 seconds. Instead, she took about 5 different colors of pastellina and squished them all together with the bottom of the container. She continued to do this until the mix looked brown and disgusting, and then wanted to add more. I tried to explain to her that we would not be able to separate the colors later, but I don’t think she believed me. She wasn’t happy when we had to throw her glob away.

We had Arroz Cubano for el almuerzo. For an explanation of what that is, see Spain Part 24. It’s one of Claudia’s favorite dishes as well apparently. We watched the movie Thumbelina while we ate, which is called Pulgarcita in Spanish. I tried to follow the whole thing but I had a hard time with the high squeaky voice of the little girl. I took a short siesta before Claudia woke me up. Lucía had me run an errand to the mall for her to return a pair of pants, and when I got back Claudia was watching the Emperor’s New Groove. This movie was much easier to follow in Spanish since I know it practically by heart in English. However, Claudia got bored of it very quickly and we played instead with a pelota de fútbol (soccer ball) rolling it back and forth across the floor. We had switched to a game with the muñeca (doll) in which we were putting it to bed everywhere around the house by the time pasapalabra came on. We watched the show and ate bocadillos de atún con tomate (tuna and tomato) for la cena while we watched and then I headed to the Locutorio to call Laura on skype.

Laura and I had not talked in about a month other than emails and aim, so needless to say we didn’t have a lack of things to say. I got to see tiki on the webcam, though that just made me miss my pets more than ever. We talked a little bit about when she Rachel and Melinda are coming to Spain for Spring Break, and unfortunately our chat was cut short because the Locutorio was closing early. Boo. It was nice to hear from someone back home anyway though.

I went back to the casa where Claudia’s parents were dropping off her things so that she could spend the night with her Abu (it’s a nickname for abuela, which means grandmother) because her bedroom is being remodeled. (Claudia asked for a new bed, and since the one she wanted won’t match the paint in her room they’re repainting the whole thing and buying her matching furniture. I wasn’t kidding when I said this child was spoiled.) With much encouragement, including some bribery of sweets, Claudia sang the song that her English teacher taught her for me, ring around the rosy. Of course then they asked me what the words meant in English and I had to explain that it was figuratively about the black plague, which really isn’t as easy as it sounds. We understood each other in the end.

Claudia’s parents left, and ten minutes later Claudia was supposed to go to bed, but for apparently no good reason (at least no reason that Lucía or I could comprehend) she threw a fit and screamed and cried for 40 minutes straight. We spent the first 20 trying to calm her down, then the next 20 in another room waiting for her to cry herself to sleep or decide that the fit wasn’t worth it. She decided it wasn’t worth it after awhile and let me rock her for a little bit before Lucía read her a story.

Since it was only midnight, (the clubs in Spain don’t generally get busy until about 3 am) Chrysten, Catherine and I met up and headed out to a bar en calle Turia where they usually have live music. There was no one playing that night, but we still had fun people watching and such. On our way there however, we had a bit of an adventure meeting up with some chicos who were out for their amigo’s cumpleaños. We hung out in the park talking to them for a while, and they wanted us to head over to the Barrio del Carmen with them, but we decided heading somewhere closer to home would be a better idea because we didn’t want to stay out too late. We parted ways about 3,30 and everyone made it home safe.

Current Mood: confused

Alicia left for Granada early on Friday morning, but I slept in for a little bit. I got up and desayné (ate breakfast) and chilled out reading my book for a little while. My book is pretty interesting, I bought it at a librería (bookstore) in the Plaza de la Virgen, and it’s basically a book about at the reading level of a teenager, but I’m having fun learning from it. Unfortunately it took me the entire morning to get through half the book because I had to keep looking up words or asking Lucía for help translating phrases. Lucía is so helpful, but she does tend to explain herself using about 5 or 6 very interesting stories. I have to make sure I have an hour or so to kill before asking her a question.

For almuerzo we had a sopa con chorizo with some ensalada and watched the telediario (news). There’s a lot going on here environmentally, the winds in the south are really bad right now and the hotel owners are worried that not as many tourists will come for the festival de Fallas which is in less than a month. I don’t know whether that will be good or bad for around here, I’m guessing we might end up with more people here if they don’t want to go to the south so the streets will be even more crowded.

I spent the better part of the afternoon finishing my book, which ended sadly like every piece of Spanish literature I’ve ever read, but I did finally get around to doing some homework before pasapalabra y la cena. I had a bocadillo, with super fresh bread. I am seriously going to miss the bread here when I get back to the US. I’m sure there are similar things, but even the fresh baguettes that I’ve had in the states isn’t the same as this bread. It’s impossible to explain.

On the subject of food, I actually do miss something from the US that is hard to find here. They don’t use peanut butter. In fact, the next time someone asks you for an example of authentic American food tell them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because that’s something that I’ve yet to see here, even in any of the “American” food places. Which reminds me, apparently the bread that McDonalds uses for burgers in most of the world did not go over well in Spain, so they switched to using bocatas. McDonalds conquered the burguesa de pollo y pavo (most of the burgers here are made of chicken and/or turkey) with the Big Mac but they couldn’t mess with the pan (bread). Españoles know their pan.

I spent the night experimenting with internet signal in the casa. There’s a network that we seem to be able to pick up here, but only in the comedor. It isn’t a strong signal so the internet is kind of slow, but it works. We have to be careful about using it I think because I don’t think that Lucía would approve.

Current Mood: relaxed

Valentine’s Day this year was lovingly christened by Amanda as “Singles Awareness Day” since none of us really have significant others. We had planned on having a party later in the day to celebrate before the poetry reading, though it was mostly because Amanda still had a bottle of wine from Madrid that needed opening.

First thing in the morning however my práctica (informal internship) group met our boss for the first time. The place is about a five minute walk from school, so it’ll be easy to remember where it is at least. Sadly I still have a forty minute walk on Tuesday mornings, which is when I’m scheduled. I’ll be working with articles about educational research that have been translated into English and need to be corrected. The newsletter that they put out in English is for the people in Germany (I don’t know why they don’t translate it into German) the UK and such. I’m excited to start next week.

After my práctica I headed to the Locutorio and called my mom and dad. I told them all about my práctica and such, and got some news from home. Mom will be traveling next week for Kaley’s spring break, so I won’t get to talk to her on skype for a while, which is sad. I received a Valentine e-card from my dad, a funny one of the hoops and yoyo variety. After that I went shopping for some cheese to have with our wine at our fiesta. I found a cheese sampler thing, with swiss, cheddar, goat cheese, a cheese with peppers, and some we couldn’t identify, which was perfect. I also bought some chocolate bonbons as a Valentine’s treat for everyone. I headed back home and spent some time doing tarea until it was time to meet at school. Alicia, Heather, Amanda and I met and went to the Jardín de Bellas Artes and ate our cheese and chocolate and drank our wine on a bench outside. Alicia had bought us all chocolate bars as a Valentine’s gift, and decorated them with Happy Valentine’s Day index cards. All in all, it was a good singles awareness fiesta.

We went back to school at quarter to seven for the poetry reading, which of course ran on Spanish time and ended up starting at about twenty minutes after seven instead of at seven. It was informal, just a microphone set up by a podium and some music playing in the background, and those of us who were reading poems seated in the first few rows of seats. Professor Valle, the principal at the center, read first, then Cindy read the poem that the Professor's daughter was supposed to read, then Jennifer and I read our poems. Professor Jesus read a poem in Valenciano and Professor Mabel read a poem in Catalán, which was really interesting to hear. Valenciano and Catalán are extremely similar languages, kind of like British and American English, but neither of them is really like Spanish except for the grammatical structure.

Professor Augustín read the final poem of the night, un Rayo de Luna, from the story of the same name that we had read in his class last week. Half the girls at the center here have a crush on him, so it was fun to listen to the reactions afterward. It’s a shame for them, but he’s engaged to be married this Fall. Augustín, Professor Pilar, and Barranco all complimented me on my poem, which made me really happy since I was afraid it wasn’t exactly colloquially sound.

Alicia and I headed home to eat la cena, even though we weren’t exactly hungry after all the chocolate and cheese we had eaten earlier. We had ensalada and Arroz Cubano which is the dish where Lucía makes a mountain of rice on the plate using a bowl and then covers it in tomato sauce and serves it with fried eggs. It’s one of my favorite dishes, so even not being hungry I had no trouble eating everything.

Alicia packed everything for Granada and then Chrysten called to ask if we wanted to go out. We went to a bar en la calle Turia called Sala de Valencia. It’s decorated in a middle-eastern style, which didn’t really fit with the 90s music (mostly in English) that they were playing, but it was still a nice atmosphere. We got a jug of Agua de Valencia which is champagne, jugo de naranja y piña (orange and pineapple juice) vodka and some other liquor. It was pretty good, but a little too sweet for me, and there was a good amount of sugar gathered at the bottom of the jug as well. The sala wasn’t busy, so we just chilled for a few hours chatting and then went home to get some sleep.

Current Mood: loved

It actually rained on Wednesday, of course it chose the time while we were walking to school to rain, and then cleared up into sunshine the rest of the day. Sin embargo, classes went alright, we were reminded in every class that there would be a poetry reading the next day in honor of el día de San Valentín (Valentine’s Day). Almost all of the professors had picked out a piece to read, the daughter of one of the professors was going to read her favorite poem, and two students from the center (including me) had written poems to recite.

After class there was the taller Danzas del Mundo. This week we learned a very authentic Canadian dance game (Leah, please ask Taylor if he ever played it) that you play to the tune of Pop Goes the Weasel. We had a fun time trying to figure out what the heck the animal was called when Nacho (which is short for Ignacio) was first explaining it to us. All he could say was that it was bigger than a squirrel, smaller than a raccoon, was like a fox, but not the same animal. Finally, he was teaching us the steps and humming the tune under his breath when the girl standing next to him said “it’s a weasel! You’re singing Pop Goes the Weasel.” Nacho wanted to learn what the words meant but we told him that they’re just nonsense.

After that we learned a wedding dance from Israel and repeated the Greek and Scottish dances from last week. Next week we’re going to do the Charleston. Nacho told us that he would like to do something for the talent show at the end of the semester, so we should think about what kind of a dance we want to do. We told him that we would like to do some of the partner dances, but it was hard because we are all girls (all 8 of us). He said that he would bring 7 friends to class next week. We don’t know if he was joking or not, but he definitely said that it should be easy to get a group of Spanish guys to come and dance with 8 American girls.

Current Mood: artistic

Tuesday I got up and started my tarea, but I had to keep changing rooms because Lucia and Antonia were cleaning, like they do every Tuesday. They do a very thorough job, including dusting and disinfecting everything, lifting up the carpets to sweep and vacuum, laundering the curtains, and everything. It’s nice coming home on Tuesday night because the room smells clean and all my laundry is done. I know it’s a cultural thing, but I still feel like I should be helping her more than I do.

I headed to the Locutorio (the internet café) and called my Mom on skype. The camera on my end wasn’t working unfortunately but I could see Mom and Kendra. Kendra got contacts, and was very happy about it. I told them a little about Madrid and then they left to go to school. I called my Dad and told him about Madrid too, and got to see Kipster a little bit. I miss my pets, I hope that I can get skype set up with Laura soon so that I can see Tiki.

I walked in the direction of school after that, but stopped in the jardín near the Museo de Bellas Artes to almorzar (eat lunch). It was cooler because of the wind, about 50 degrees or so, and sadly around about 14,30 it began to rain, and by rain I mean for the next half hour I felt a slight mist on my face from time to time and the sky was a little cloudy. No worries though, the sol came back out about 15,00. That’s pretty typical of the weather here, on those few days when it does rain. People make a huge deal about it too, umbrellas and the whole nine yards, but there’s rarely more than ten minutes of rain. I wonder how some of them react when they visit places like London.

I ended up at school around 15,30 and went on the computadoras to update my blog, though there wasn’t enough time to go through the whole weekend before I had to go the reunion de teatro. I had thought that the teatro taller was going to be more like a formal theatre group but apparently it’s more like a talent show. They said that they are looking into renting instruments, so I might get to play a violin this semester after all! Otherwise, there are lots of other things I can do, and hopefully I can find people who want to be in a group and perform something fun like a musical piece. We’re allowed to sing in English, but I think it might be fun to translate it into Spanish.

Back at home Alicia and I had an amazing cena of sopa de verduras (vegetable soup) and pescado made kind of like chicken cordon bleu. Alicia went to her first práctica today, she’s working with community service in a retirement home, but unfortunately they didn’t do anything, just met to discuss availability. The place is apparently pretty close to our home so that’s nice for her. I have my own first práctica this Thursday at 9,40, which is very exciting. All I know so far is that we will be correcting the translations that have already been done from Spanish to English. I think it will be really interesting, and will definitely help me to learn some colloquial phrases and such.

Anyway, I have some tarea to finish for mañana so I should probably do that before it gets too late.

Current Mood: cheerful

I was exhausted when I got up on Monday. I definitely had a great weekend, but it was a little light on sleep. I went into school early to print out my trabajos (essays) and I read the news that I had missed all weekend. Apparently Zapatero (the president of Spain) had made a lot of campaign promises over the weekend, so I had to research all of those before class because I knew we would talk about it in Mass Media. Classes went pretty well, I got pretty good grades on everything that I got back, and it was fun reading poetry in Latin American Lit. We watched a movie that was actually really interesting in economics but I couldn’t focus because I was so tired. Luckily it was a repeat of information we had already learned so it wasn’t vital.

After class I went home and took a nap until la cena. We had sopa, made with chicken and vegetables and ensalada. Afterward, Zapatero was interviewing on channel 4 so we watched it for awhile. A lot of the issues that were brought up were typical, reduction of terrorism, how to deal with the current state of the economy, homelessness, city violence, police etc. but there were some issues that are unique to Spain that I don’t really know that much about. Lucia began explaining to me about the Vasco separatists, the people who want Cataluña (the province where Barcelona is) to be its own country. The reasoning is that it is economically stable enough and the Catalán language would be able to be the national language instead of Spanish. The terrorist group ETA is made up of these separatists, and they have been particularly active lately, and a lot of them have been put behind bars. I wish I knew more about the conflict but unfortunately my vocabulary is still somewhat limited so I ended up doing the nod and smile for a little while because Lucia went off on a rant and I understood about 10% of what she said.

I had a hard time going to sleep that night, which was surprising because I was so tired and had practically fallen asleep in economics.

Current Mood: tired

All good things come to an end, so we had to make the best of it while we were still there. We awoke, breakfasted, and headed to the Palacio Real to tour the inside. (The Palace was built by the Bourbon line, the French royals that drove the Muslims out of

Spain

. The French do have a few military victories, who knew?)

This was actually my favorite day, because the Palacio Real was incredible. Spanish architecture is traditionally “catholic” according to our tour guide, which means that it’s unimpressive on the outside and incredibly impressive on the inside. I didn’t really understand what they meant by that at first because everything I saw looked pretty darn impressive, you know, detailed sculpture covering every inch of the outside of a 10 story pure white stone palace. Once I went inside, I got the picture however.

As impressive as the outside is, the inside certainly did put it to shame. Not only was there a mural on every ceiling (most of them religiously oriented but there were a few sky and/or nature oriented) but the moldings were all hand carved, either painted gold or made of mahogany. Where there was original carpet it was woven and colorful, usually deep blues, purples, greens, and reds with off-white trimming. There were curtains on every window to block the sunlight to keep it from fading the paintings, wallpaper, carpet etc. and the lights inside were dim as well. The rooms we saw were a dining hall, the rooms that the king used as a bedroom and a dressing room (the dressing room was bigger than my own bedroom) and a small hallway that was so lavishly decorated it was hard to believe that they didn’t use it for anything more than passing through.

All of this sounds incredible of course, but what could possibly have been on display in the music room to make this the best part of my trip?

Stradivarius instruments, five of them, one cello and four violins.

I was so happy, you have no idea. These are original beautiful instruments that have been played by amazing musicians and were there for me to see. It was inspirational, and incredibly encouraging to not only know that these exist, but to see them up close with my own eyes, to look inside the cello and see the name “Antonio Stradivari” written on the label. What I wouldn’t give to hear one of those instruments played.

We left the palace and headed straight to el Museo Reina Sofía where most of Picassos works are, and where Guernica was being displayed. We got there an hour before it was supposed to close, but we still made it around to most of Picasso’s 4 floor exhibit. It was really interesting to see how much work he put into Guernica, there were rooms full of his drafts. It would be so cool to see the world the way that Picasso painted it.

Outside the museum there were a whole bunch of street vendors selling jewelry, fans, paintings, and other such things. Amanda bought a poster of a Flamenco dancer, and the vendor stamped her name across the bottom so that the poster announces that Amanda Prince will be performing the dance. There was a jewelry vendor from South America who we kept running into outside the museo as well (he had been set up in the street where our hostel is Friday night). Half of our group had bought jewelry from him, he made really unique pieces with precious stones and twisted wire and metal. I asked him if he had one piece with a different color stone, and he proceeded to remove the stone with his tools, took out a bag of the same size stones and asked me which one I preferred. I picked and it took him about two more minutes to finish putting the stone back into the jewelry, and it looked just as it had before. It was fun to watch.

We headed into the city to find a place for almuerzo and ended up at a little bar, where the owner went out and bought bottled water for us after we ordered. He was obviously owner, chef, etc. all in one, and our adventure there lasted 3 hours because of that. We had Spanish tortillas, which are basically omelets with lots of potato and verduras (vegetables). Mine, called tortilla verde had champiñones (mushrooms) peas, green olives and some other green vegetables, and was delicious.

We shopped for a little bit after that, grabbed our stuff from the hostel and headed out to the bus station. The ride home was uneventful, which is a good thing, and we made it back to Valencia. It’s funny, but I kind of missed it while we were in Madrid, it’s definitely far less touristy.

Current Mood: indescribable

We began the next morning with breakfast courtesy of the hostel. There was toast, butter, strawberry jelly, cornflakes, milk, orange juice, coffee and cola cao (which is like our hot chocolate mix, they put it in milk, coffee and over their cereal). The shower situation was interesting, the showerheads were broken so that the water came out in a little stream and they were the kind that you had to push and then would stay on for about 10 seconds. It reminded me of being back at the Village, where we used to take turns showering with one person holding the shower button down and the other washing and then switching. We headed out around 10am to meet the tour group (it was free! sponsored by our hostel) in the Puente del Sol. We passed through the Plaza Mayor on the way there, which I was able to recognize from my textbooks before we confirmed that it was, in fact the Plaza Mayor from the sign. It was incredible to see something that is so representative of Spain that you've been learning about since Freshman year of high school.

We found the Puente del Sol and met our tour group around the Oso (bear) statue, which is also representative of Madrid. The bear in the statue is eating a fruit from the madroño árbol, which at the time used to be all over Madrid. The fruit actually ferments on the tree, so the bears would eat a bunch of the fruit and then fall asleep beneath the trees, as the story goes. From there we headed over to the west end of the city, passing by a man drawing a replica of Picasso's Guernica painting in chalk (the Guernica is on exhibit in Madrid right now in the Reina Sofía). We saw the teatro real, which was built for Queen Isabel II who could actually see the theatre from her window of the Palacio Real. Isabel was also responsible for the statues of past kings being taken off the roof of the Palacio Real and placed around the courtyard because she had a nightmare one night that they had fallen over onto the Palacio and crushed her.

From there we passed a famous chocolatería that was popular with the theatergoers, and that the lady on the discovery channel had visited. We headed toward the town hall building, heard some interesting stories about how the black plague spread through the lack of sanitary conditions, and the lack of plumbing. We passed by the oldest restaurant in the world, where the last king of Spain, the man responsible for handing his power off to a democracy, Rey Juan Carlos II, likes to make an occasional stop. Apparently he's an extremely humble and popular person, and if you met him on the street and didn't realize who he was, he would just seem like another nice person. We passed next by an old convent, where some nuns who are very good cocineras (chefs) will sell you sweets if you knock on the door and say "Y yo os digo: Pedid, y se os dará; buscad, y hallaréis; llamad, y os será abierto" (Lucas 11:9, or Luke 11:9 for those of you who want to look up the translation).

We were about to stop at a museo de jamón (museum of ham, i know, weird name, but they're all over Madrid) for some refreshment when Alicia realized that she had become the victim of a petty theft. She and I ran around the city, but we couldn't find a bancaja. She called her mom who was able to cancel her credit card and after numerous tries and a half an hour of frustrated phone calls her bank card was also canceled, and her account was declared intact, and on hold until she got back to Valencia. Except for her cash and wallet, the crisis was averted.

We met back up with the group at the puente de neptuno where there's a big fountain of Neptune (the god, not the planet) north of the prado. We headed to a bar called "el Tigre" which the tour guide had told us was a local favorite. It was an amazingly cultural experience, to say the least, we were served tapas, cervezas, and soft drinks in a room absolutely packed with people, most of whom were standing clustered around tables and the bar. We ate patatas bravas, croquetas, pan con jamón y queso, calamari, and paella de mariscos which is a rice and seafood plate with some vegetables as well. Everything was delicious and it was nice to experience the completely non-touristy atmosphere of the place.

After leaving el Tigre we headed toward the Palacio Real, but the tours inside it had closed until the next day so we headed instead to the famous chocolatería and got some chocolate and churros. That was a treat. Just like the lady on the discovery channel did, we could lay our spoons on top of the cups of chocolate, and it was so thick that the spoon just sat on top. We dipped the churros into the chocolate and savored the amazing goodness of Spanish tradition. To add to our cultural experience, we sat at the café for a long time, just chatting and in no particular hurry. We left finally, dwadling back to the hostel, stopping in several stores searching for souveniers, gifts, cheap clothing and whatnot. When we finally did get back we sat around in the room and talked with Paula and the other group of girls (we had split after the end of the tour) to see how their day had went. They had gone to the Palacio, and recomended that we head there the next day. We pondered over where to go for la cena for a long time before heading out to find a place. We ended up at the café y té which is kind of like their version of a caribou or starbuck's except with more food here in Spain. We ate small amounts of food, since most of us were still full from the chocolate, and then headed back to the hostel. A few of the girls went out but most of us went to bed because we wanted to hit the Palacio and Museo de Reina Sofia before we left.

Current Mood: full

We woke up at six on Friday and scrambled to get ourselves ready to leave. Lucia had indeed made us lunches, each lunch with 2 bocadillas, 2 naranjas (oranges) a manzana (apple) and un paquete de galletas (cookies)! So, we had a good amount of food to begin our trip. We got to the bus station about 20 minutes before 7, and met everyone in the front. We were missing 2 girls, but they were on their way so we headed back to the bus and got on board. The four hour drive was uneventful, which is a good thing. Halfway through we stopped at a station to toilet and get something to eat if we wanted. When we arrived in Madrid we had to somehow find our way from the bus station to the hostel. We took the metro, according to directions from the hostel's website, but after we got off we still managed to get lost. We asked a nice lady handing out Starbuck's samples for directions, and got on track. We passed the Prado on our way to the hostal, which caused a good amount of excitement among the group.

We found the hostal and checked in. Our key cards were like watches, you pressed them to the knob which would flicker a green light and then you could turn it. The knobs were kind of funny, so it took us a minute to get it right. Once we had dropped our stuff off, we took our lunches and headed into the big park in the middle of the city, about a fifteen minute walk away. We ate lunch on some benches near the stream, got counted by a little old man walking through with his wife who told us (in french, which we only partially understood) that he couldn't believe there were 9 pretty girls all together.

After lunch we walked toward the Prado Museo and after taking some pictures at the statues we bought tickets and went inside. The Velázquez exhibit was on display temporarily so we went through that first, taking our time even though we were determined to see everything. Four hours and many many many paintings/sculptures/tapestries later we exited the Museo and went back to the hostel to get our jackets. When we got there, we met our roommate for the weekend (it was a 10 person room, and there were 9 of us from Valencia). Paula is a teacher from Venezuela who is working in Barcelona right now, she's 25 so right around our age. It was really cool to hear all about why she was here and everything. She told us a lot about the economy in Venezuela, and how she had ended up in the program to teach literature here in Spain. Her English was good but she prefered to speak to us in Spanish since we were here to practice. This became a theme this weekend, with her speaking in Spanish and the rest of us attempting to follow her lead.

We headed out to find a place for dinner and ended up in a café near the hostel where we had Sangría and a lot of different types of tapas. We started with some olives, then we had little pieces of pollo (chicken) with a tangy sauce on them, then came the patatas bravas, which are fried potatoes with a spicy sauce on them, then calamari rings, and pan con queso de goat (bread with goat cheese) and a few other things that I don't remember. The queso was a little strong for me but everything else was delicious. We devoured it and then headed back to the hostel to get ready to go out. We went to a bar and danced for a few hours, there were a few people doing flamenco in a group by us, and EVERYONE would yell and scream the words to certain songs that were obviously popular. We couldn't quite make out the words so we just did our best to follow along, and sometimes moved our mouths without saying anything hoping that people wouldn't notice. We got back to the hostel around 2 pm and went to bed so that we could get some rest and hopefully be awake all day the next day.

Current Mood: bouncy

Thursday was a TAREA day. I had lots of it to finish and I needed to do so before the weekend so that I could enjoy Madrid unhindered. The first biblioteca (library) that I went to wouldn't let me use the computers because I didn't have a tarjeta (card) so I left since it was time for almuerzo anyway. I sat in a park for a long time reading, eating, and watching people pass through. It was really sunny out, and the park has a lot of random arches and stones to sit and climb on that used to be parts of buildings. The pigeons are in mating season, and it was funny to watch the male birds ruffle their feathers and dance for the females. I sat near this neat tree for a while that has its roots growing above the ground. It's pusing up a part of the stone wall, and for some reason every dog that passed through the park went to that spot and peed on it. I wonder if there used to be something that lived in there that left a smell and the dogs feel the need to investigate. Anyway...

I went to another biblioteca and used my laptop to finish my tarea and chatted for awhile online with Rachel and a few other friends. The library was about to close so I left and headed home, accidentaly taking a wrong turn outside the biblioteca and consequently lengthening my journey by about 15 minutes. I made it home eventually anyway, and Alicia and I started packing for Madrid. We decided to bring just our backpacks so that we didn't have to deal with a lot of luggage. We weren't sure what to pack, though we had been told that it was going to be colder in Madrid than in Valencia so we made sure to bring long sleeved shirts.

For la cena we had baked potatos with olive oil and red pepper, and a baked onion as well, which Lucia told us to eat with the potato. She also made some amazing pescado (fish) fresh from the market that day of course. She told Alicia and I that she would make us lunches to take to Madrid so that we wouldn't have to buy anything the first day (she's so sweet!). We went to bed early because we had to wake up at 6 to catch our bus, but we stayed awake talking for a little bit because we were too excited to sleep.

Current Mood: excited

Well, I made it through clases on Wednesday, and even though I felt like going straight home after, I stuck around because there was a weekly activity called Danzas del Mundo. Heather and Amanda had gone the week before and told me that it was really fun so I thought I would check it out.

Our instructor is named Nacho, (that's a completely legitimate Spanish name in case you're wondering) and he started off the class by telling us to sit down and close our eyes and dance only with our arms. The reason our eyes were closed was so that we didn't feel silly. After that we got up and had to dance only with our feet, which was a little more difficult since we didn't have that great of balance. Finally we could dance however we wanted, and it was awesome because everyone actually got into it and moved around the room and jumped and wasn't worried about how they looked or who was watching. I loved the music that he was playing, at first we listened to African music, then he switched it up going from techno to classical to rock, and encouraged us to change our dance style as each song played.

When we were done with that warm-up we started off with a greek dance in which we're all in a circle holding hands, except that the circle is left open. The opening is there because of the myth of the Labyrinth, so that there's always a way out. Interesting to learn that. The dance was pretty simple, and it was fun because we got to yell "hey" at some points too. The second dance, a Swiss dance was MUCH harder. It involved high fives, changing partners, spinning and all that sort of stuff. It was hilarious because when we were done Nacho told us that it was a disaster. At least we had fun right?

They reviewed the French wedding dance that they had done the week before, and it wasn't too hard to catch on to. It was basically a line dance, but the spinning threw a few people off. We were all nice and sweaty when the class was over, but it was refreshing.

We had spaghetti with sauce for la cena when we got home. The sauce was really interesting, it was made with ground chicken, which is something I've never come across in the US, but apparently it's popular here. I'm not a big fan to be honest, but I don't mind having it once in a while. Heather told me that her madre had made them polloguesas, or chicken burgers with the meat, which she didn't like at all. After la cena Alicia and I talked about getting packed for Madrid, but decided we could do that Thursday night, so we went to bed instead.

I spent the morning doing homework, which hardly depleted the montón that I had, but at 12 it was time to head to the internet café to talk to my parents. I got to talk to Mom, Bill, Dad, and of course, Pickford and Kip. I think the owner of the café (who lived in Texas and speaks perfect English) had a good time laughing at me talking to my cat. It was interesting though, because later when I was sitting in a park reading for class, and thinking about how I missed my pets a dog came up to me randomly, and I got to pet him. His owners (a couple) were nice, and didn’t comment or laugh at my imperfect Spanish, so it was refreshing.

After I had eaten almuerzo of a bocadilla de atún y tomates (tuna and tomato) I left the park and headed toward the Plaza de la Reina, where the cathedral is. I sat in the sun outside the cathedral and read some more for class, listening to conversations around me, noticing that there was a group of French girls on a school trip, and also a pair of Aussies hanging around taking pictures. A guy came up and spoke to me in French, and I understood that he was asking me for money, so I told him in Spanish that I didn’t speak French. Unfortunately, he then translated for me, so I told him I didn’t have any money. He and his buddy who had gotten a Euro from the lady near me moved on to the next group of people.

Later, when I was done reading, I walked over to the Plaza de la Virgen where there’s a fountain in the middle and sat down just watching and listening to the people around me. There were groups of Germans and Asians that took pictures of the fountain, and of course tons of Spaniards eating tapas in the taperías around the plaza. I found a librería with rebajas (sales) and bought a book for a Euro. I also bought some potato chips, a Spanish brand that is really good. I hope I’ll be able to find some when I get back to the US. I headed home to do more tarea before pasapalabra, which Geni almost won, but missed out by two words. She’ll probably beat it tomorrow. We had baked cauliflower (yummy!) and chorizo for la cena, and then returned to studying. I didn’t go to bed until late due to the large amount of tarea. I suppose I could have done more during the day, but I liked being outside and enjoying people watching and listening and such. I’ll just take a siesta during clase (kidding!).

Current Mood: mellow

I spent Sunday, for the most part, in my cama (bed) with a cold and a migraña (migraine). I finished my tarea, claro (of course) before almuerzo. We had the spaghetti dish with carrots and other vegetables in the sauce, one of my favorites, along with a lot of tostadas because apparently the bocatas were no longer good for bocadillas, because we’ve had them for 2 days now. They’re super particular about their bread here, I’m pretty sure just about anyone who didn’t eat fresh bread everyday would have thought it was just fine. I took a larga siesta after to try and rid myself of my migraña, and didn’t get up until 20,30 in time to catch the last of pasapalabra before la cena. I started eating my pizza, ensalada and papas fritas before Alicia got home from the internet café where she was skyping her family. We stayed in the cocina for awhile watching the telediario de las noticias (daily televised news) and then went to bed.

I saw a lot of interesting things on the way to school on Monday, for instance a mattress beneath a bush in el jardín del turia where a homeless person was sleeping, and a dog and a cat having a stare-off in el rio. My classes went just fine, though the reading for my Spanish lit class was so confusing it was hard for us to keep discussion going in class. The poem he assigned us for tarea is much easier to understand. I have a montón de tarea from my other classes as well, including a LONG reading for Latin American lit and papers for Mass Media and Econ. I ate an entire bar of chocolate after school, because I was hungry and la cena wasn’t for another 2 hours, and because the chocolate here is so darn good. When we finally did eat la cena it was ensalada y sopa de pollo, a homemade soup with chicken legs (the whole things!) artichokes and pea pods. Lucia launched herself into a long explanation of the phrase “esconder la cabeza dentro de la ala” including a story about a friend with a pregnant 15-year-old and another one about her daughter having a friend that tried marijuana once upon a time. The point of the stories (I’m assuming) was really to tell us that the phrase means the same thing as hiding your head in the sand like an ostrich in English. Regardless, they were very long stories, and though they were very interesting, I was glad when it was time for bed, because I needed a break from concentrating.

Current Mood: tired

Thanks to Trestin, my mom and I talked on skype on Thursday morning. My webcam was working, but the one that Mom bought needed to be rebooted. We still got to chat for a bit though, which was refreshing for me. I miss everyone at home. After I left the internet café I headed toward the jardines to find someplace to eat lunch. The jardín botánico was open so I walked around there for a bit before sitting down to eat my turkey and chorizo sandwich for almuerzo. The jardín is basically for orange trees, and it was really cool to see the baby orange trees that produce fruit, even though it’s too small to eat and would be extremely acidic. Plenty of pigeons hang around eating the oranges that have fallen off the trees. After almuerzo I walked around the town some more, enjoying the sunshine even though it was cooler outside than it has been in about the high 40s. I went to one of the local public libraries to get some tarea finished, and left there when it closed at 14,30 to go home. I kept plugging away at my tarea (I had 4 papers!) until pasapalabra, which Gloria won, again. She’s been on the show for about a week and a half now. We had ensalada and paella for la cena, which was really good. It was made with arroz al horno, which is yellow rice that you cook in the oven, and a lot of different vegetables, some like tomatoes and leeks that I recognized, and some, a black bean-tasting sort of vegetable, that I did not recognize. Alicia made our turkey and chorizo bocadillas for the next day while I finished my homework, and we went to bed after that.

On Friday I had classes again, which isn’t typical, but they have classes on Fridays when we miss a Monday or Tuesday for a holiday to catch up. Profesor Valle taught my economics class instead of Profesor Barranco because he and his wife just had a baby. Profesor Jesús is also about to have a baby, so he will be out for a while as well, though I have no idea who will teach our classes (I have two with him, a lit class and mass media) while he’s away. I got home just in time to watch pasapalabra after school, and then we had Grandpa soup (which is just chicken broth and noodles for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about) and chicken and papas fritas. I really wanted some ketchup to go with my cena, but I didn’t know the word for ketchup. Alicia and I looked it up after la cena and apparently it’s just ketchup. We told Lucia that we would like it if she makes that dinner again so she went out and bought some for us on Saturday! She’s such a sweet lady.

On Saturday morning Alicia and I did tarea for a while before almuerzo, bocadillas again. We were planning on making it to the Plaza Ayuntamiento by 14,00 so that we could see the mascletá, which is basically a band playing and shooting off fireworks, but we got there a little late, so we fought the swarms of people, including the band members, heading away from the plaza. We met Amanda and Heather near the fountain, and then headed to la Plaza de la Reina to find a place where we could have chocolate caliente (not like our hot chocolate, it’s thicker, almost like fondue) and churros. The chocolotería did not make churros until after 16,00 so we ordered buñadas instead, which is like a big cinnamon roll bun thing (not really like a cinnamon roll, just the same shape) with powdered sugar on top and ate that with our chocolate instead. It was absolutely divine. I left the group for a bit and headed to the internet café to chat with Mom, and to my surprise G&G West were on the webcam too! It was really great to talk to all of them, and tell them firsthand about my time in Valencia. Mom said she’ll bring over different people from time to time to talk to me, which will be really great and definitely help to keep me from missing everyone so much.

I met up with the group again after that, and we headed over to the bus station to buy billetes (tickets) to Madrid for the next weekend. Yes friends, I will be spending the next weekend in Madrid, I cannot tell you how excited I am. Apparently Madrid is famous for their churros, but in other areas of Spain they don’t serve them as much, Alicia and I learned from our madre, which explained why we were unable to buy them in the Valor chocolatería. After comprando (buying) our billetes we headed to the Torres de Serrano to see a desfile (parade). The parade was in honor of the conquest of Valencia by San Jaime, so there were a lot of marching bands playing traditional Spanish war songs with drums and bugles. The people in the bands were of all ages, from niños barely old enough to play instruments all the way up to ancianos. After the marching bands came the chicas and chicos in traditional Spanish clothing, playing castenetas and dancing, then the men and women of the court (just dressed up people in royal clothing) and then the ganadora (winner) of their pageant. The last to come through was a young man playing San Jaime riding a horse. When the desfile was over Alicia and I headed home for pasapalabra and la cena. Gloria finally lost at pasapalabra, so we’ll get to see someone new playing for a change. We had leftover paella and ensalada for la cena, and Alicia and I went to bed muy temprano (very early) because we’d had a long day and our sickness was starting to kick back in.

Current Mood: excited

For those of you who don't know, when we students are in the Centro at school, we are NOT allowed to use English, it is strictly forbidden. Usually this isn't that big of a deal because we've always used Spanish in class and if you really need to explain something to your friend or to take a call in English you can just step outside the door. However, there were two instances yesterday in which people started speaking to me in English. The first one I think she just forgot because she was concentrating on her homework and then needed to ask me a question, and the other because I startled her, plus she was typing (and therefore thinking) in English. I'm hoping that those sorts of sitations happen less as time goes on, I'm still waiting for the first time someone sneaks up on me and I yell "¡dios mio!" instead of "oh my goodness!"

When Alicia and I were walking home from class we decided that we need to talk in Spanish more outside the Centro because we should be practicing it ALL THE TIME otherwise we aren't going to become fluent. We got home and did some reading and tarea (and in my case, napping) before la cena, which we had paella that Lucia bought on her way home because she doesn't want to cook while she's sick. I liked the paella, it had beans, rice, and a few other vegetables in it, but it also included some chicken, bones and all, of which I was not a fan.

I wrote out some emails after cena and then went to bed because I was still feeling a little sick, but I had a hard time falling asleep. I hope that I got enough rest to keep me going today.

So this morning I had a nice time taking my walk through the rio, and then through the jardín near the Museo de Bellas Artes, which is the one that has the bird sanctuary. This morning there were four birds of more or less the same species, but one was yellow, one green, one blue and one white, and they were all sitting in a row! It was funny to see them chirping at each other.

Well, I have a revista and some poemas to read before classes start, so hasta mañana.

Current Mood: content

There is a church near school called the International Church of Valencia, with a misa (mass) in English, at 10,30 which attracts people of Valencia who are from Britain, Australia, the USA, Canada, etc.

And so since Alicia's friend had liked it there when she was studying abroad we went to check it out this domingo. We met a lot of very friendly people, an Aussie named Matt who greeted us at the door, two French-speaking British girls, one of whom taught French in England for years and is now teaching English to Spanish speakers, the other of whom is going to France this week to begin teaching English, among other students from the US, some of whom had graduated from the University of Valencia, others who were still attending, and so on. As much as I loved the people there, the message that the preacher gave was not really my style at all. I don't think I'll go back, and it's a shame, because it was a lot of fun meeting people from all over the world.

So we walked back home and remembered when we got there that Lucia would not be eating almuerzo with us today because she was at a cumpleaños celebration for Claudia. No worries, she left us a tapa and some of Claudia's cake. As I was taking the tapa, which was a nice seafood pasta dish out of the container, I realized that there was something VERY different about this dish.

Me: Hey Alicia?
Alicia: Yeah?
Me: How are you about trying new foods?
Alicia: Um, what is it?
Me: I think it has tentacles.

Yes my friends, there were octopus tentacles in our tapa. A traditional mariscos tapa, suction cups and all.

Well, it wasn't bad. The flavor, in fact, was just fine, but it was a chewy, tough sort of meat. Not my favorite, but I would try it again. The CAKE on the other hand, was just as different, but far more delicious. It had two very small layers of actual cake, the rest being that creamy filling sort of stuff that they put in costco cakes, except that there were 3 layers of cream. It wasn't extremely sweet, but it was very light and creamy and just about melted in your mouth. I've never had cake like that before.

It was time to start homework after that, so Alicia and I plugged away at it. When she had finished, she went out to the internet café to talk to her family. Lucia came home shortly after, and told me all about Claudia's party. Apparently, Claudia is a bit spoiled, and continued to ask for more gifts for hours after they were done opening presents. I suppose it's inevitable to be a little spoiled not only being an only child, but an only grandchild, which goes to say only niece as well.

Lucia was not feeling very well and had a sore throat, so we had ensalada and pizza and she went to bed right after. Alicia and I were also pretty tired, so we went to bed pretty early as well.

I woke up on Monday with...a sore throat. I was not happy. However, I attended classes regardless, all of which were very interesting, and it's even becoming easier to understand what the professors are saying. Throughout my first two classes, I understood close to 98% of what was said, and probably 80% of the next two. The last one was about 70%, which is an improvement, though I obviously have a long way to go.

On the way home I stopped and bought a pair of black shoes (finally!) flats, easy to walk in, and stopped by the farmacy for some cough drops. It took me a minute to find them because they're packaged like pills, and they don't have halls or other sorts of similar brands here.

I got home just in time for pasapalabra and la cena, which was a potato carrot and onion soup, very delicious, and very nice to my throat. I went to bed right after, and slept right through until about 8am this morning. the rest was nice, and my throat feels better today, but Lucia is worse, and she's going to the doctor. I sincerely hope that I don't have to do that.

I had a chorizo and turkey sandwich today for almuerzo, which is an interesting combination. Lucia makes sandwiches with a layer of bread in between, so that it's more filling. Now I have a little more tarea to finish, and then I'm heading home for la cena.

I think that's all I have to report, hasta luego.