Sunday, February 21, 2010

Carnival!

So here is a quick update with pictures. Last weekend, we went to Carnival in Cadiz. It is supposedly the second largest Carnival in the world after Rio. The logistics were as follows: we met these people after school and gave them 15 Euro. They told us where to meet them. We got on a bus at 6pm on saturday night. We drove to Cadiz and got off the bus. Then we met the bus at the same spot at 6 am. Then drove home to Cordoba and got home at about 9:30. Along with the freezing temperature and the amount of urine on the streets, its hard to believe that this was a great time, but it was so much fun! Did I mention it involved costumes?


History among all the craziness


Atlantic Ocean
Zorro! (and Andrew)
"If my music makes you feel bad, you can vomit here."

They had different lights on every street. I think these were my favorite.
Two of the boys from my program who dressed up like a Matador and a Torro!

Before we got off the bus, I was dressed as Alice in Wonderland but it was so cold I didn't really take off my jacket and you couldn't really tell.


It was a great time and we all slept all of Sunday after we got back!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

A day in the life...

So in this post I will tell you about my typical school day here in Spain.

Thus far every day has started with me waking up before my alarm. I think its because of jet lag and I'm expecting it to stop soon but for now I am mostly enjoying it because if I wake up 6:30 Spain time then it is only 9:30 pm California time and I get to talk to my friends that are living in the past. Then I get out of bed and I have to make sure the hot water heater is on so that I am able to have a warm shower. I shower in my super duper pink bathroom. Then I eat a breakfast of toast with strawberry jam and coffee with my Senora, Trini. We eat a lot of fruit after every meal which is totally cool with me. I told Trini that where I come from we have very good Fuji apples and she went to the market and bought some Spanish Fuji apples. They are good but out of season so it is difficult to judge them.

It takes me about 35-40 min to walk to the university from my house which I think is the longest commute of all the students but is definitely worth it. I live in the old part of the town so I get to walk through narrow cobblestone streets with really cool old architecture on my way to class.

At school we start at 9 with 2 hours of language class. Then at 11 some of us have a break so we go sit in the cafeteria and drink a coffee or something. Then at 12 I have a Communication class which is a supplemental language class and is very helpful already. Then we have history of Spain at 1. I took a history of Spain class at Cal last spring and I think it will be very useful because I won't have to worry too much about translating the Spanish so I can pass my tests. I am looking forward to that class though because we are living in one of the oldest cities in all of Europe.

Then after school I walk home because it is almost lunch time. Lunch here is around 2:30-3 and is the big meal of the day. The whole family gets together and you have a lot of really delicious food and sit around and talk for a long time. I am lucky to have the daughter of my Senora live upstairs with her 2 kids so i get to eat with a 4 year old girl, Julia, and an 8 year old boy, Enrique, as well as the other 2 women. So far the food has been really good although most of the time I have no idea what I'm eating. I do know I like Patatas which are french fries.

After lunch and talking it is time for siesta! This is the best spanish tradition ever. All the stores close here for siesta so you can't go buy some shampoo or some pens or anything. In fact, in our safety warnings they said not to go out by yourself during siesta because there are no people on the streets and you could get into trouble. Siesta lasts for as long as you need it to and then I have kind of just hung out with the family or by myself. Julia and I bonded yesterday over silly faces and a discussion of our favorite disney characters. I also showed her my iphone and she played piano on it for a while and then spent a really long taking pictures of me and her Abuela on my phone. It was all very entertaining.

We eat dinner around 9 and then watch a little tv and go to bed. I have had good conversations with Trini about spanish politics, Don Quixote, and how much she likes Obama over dinner. The other night I was supposed to meet up with people but Trini and I both fell asleep watching a Novela at like 9 so I decided that going out was a no go. Apparently the teenagers like to stay out until 5 or 6 in the morning here. I don't know if I can handle that. I prefer the couch and Hannah Montana en espanol. jaja (that means haha in spanish)

Last night most of us (american students) met up and we went to a tapas bar. There were 2 spanish guys that went with us who live next door to someone in our program? I'm not quite sure how we met them but they are very nice and we got to practice our spanish and they got to practice their english. So we went to the bar and they ordered for us so we got some typical Coroba food. They ordered pitchers of a drink that is red wine mixed with lemonade. It was really delicious. Then we had a dip that was cheese and tomatoy with eggs and bacon in it. I think. And then Fried Eggplant, like tempora eggplant, Fried fish bits, and this thing that looked like a sushi roll but was bascially pork wrapped in turkey and then fried. It was weird but really good. And they use mayo as a dip. They fry a lot of foods here in Olive Oil and they tell us it is healthy. I'm not quite sure how true that is, but for now I'm going to go with it.

Other than that, I have walked around the city a bit taking pictures and it is very old and pretty. There is a lot of arabic influence in the city (which makes sense because the Arabs took control of Iberia for a while and they allowed for other religions to stay when they were in control so it makes for a neat combination of all different religions and their influences). I definitely live in the prettiest part of town and I get to literally live right in the middle of history. It is pretty neat.

Here are some pictures of my life:

La Mezquia at nightLa Mezquita across the river and the Roman Bridge
My super pink bathroom
I gave my Senora that apple hot pad and she thought it was the coolest thing ever because it had silicone on one side.
The view out the living room windows
The living room
So they have tables in the living room because they put lots of tablecloths on it and a space heater underneath, so when you sit down you lift up the tablecloth and put it on your lap and it is a nice little warm area for you legs.
Kitchen
My bedroom is right off of the kitchen.
The sign that Enrique and Julia made for me
The most important part of my room
My room! My bed and book shelf.
I am super lucky to have internet at my house. I thank God every day for it.
The Mezquita during the day
My family. Elena, Trini, Julia, Enrique, and friends Sarah and ____ who I forget her name but she studies English with Trini.
Besos!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Hola From Spain!

Hola a todo! Bienvenidos a mi blog! I will be using this blog as a place to share my travels and observations while in Spain and traveling around Europe. This is especially for those of you who aren't on Facebook and want to know what is going on here. I hope you enjoy it!

For the first 4 days of my journey I was in Madrid. I decided to go to Spain a few days early to:
- get over jet lag
- get used to spanish culture
- get used to spanish language
- have something to do because I was bored at home and everyone else was in school already

I accomplished none of these things while I was in Madrid. I did very little sight seeing until the last day there. I also only got about 4 hours of sleep each night due to jet lag and limited my siestas (in vain) in hopes of sleeping through the night. Needless to say I didn't really enjoy my time in Madrid because I was jet lagged, lonely, and homesick. My hotels were right in between Plaza Mayor
and Plaza del Sol.


Both of which were very beautiful. I spent some time walking around both of those. I also go to spend some time in El Corte Ingles which is a big department store (it seriously has everything) because my computer cord stopped working. Eek! Fortunately, they had ones that worked for which I was very grateful.

The day I went out sightseeing I took the Metro (only 1 Euro per ride and so much nicer than BART!) to El Retiro which is this big park (think Central Park) that one of the Kings built.

I walked around for about 2 hours mostly people watching. There were lots of street performer type things going on as well as a ton of cute kids, dogs, and old people.

My people watching observations in El Retiro:
-Full length fur coats are a must for any mature woman

-Not pants are just as popular here as they are in the US
-People do but should not wear multiple articles of leather clothing that are touching each other.
ex. pants + boots = malo
jacket + boots = bueno
pants + jacket + boots + gloves + purse = too intense
-All of the super cute kids clothes are put to good use here (on super cute kids)
-If you have 2+ children who are close in age it is fashionable to dress them the same. (also applicable for dogs.)
-People touch each other a lot.

So during my not quite so fun stay in Madrid, I hopped on a train to Cordoba. The train played Slumdog Millionaire en Espanol! We had our orientation in a hotel in Cordoba and then our host families picked us up. I am very lucky and I get to live right next to La Mezquita which is a Mosque turned Cathedral after the Moors got kicked out of Spain. It is very beautiful.

Here are a few other funny pictures from Madrid such as
El Museo Jamon


Fat Spanish Dogs
A Rose Garden without any roses.


The Crystal Palace
Hasta Luego!