The Real Post: How I'm Doing, What I Miss, Some Things I Should Be Saying

Apparently a large number of people from our group now have el gripe, the flu. Everyone is apparently sick. Me, my allergies are out of control today, but I don't feel like puking, so I'm a hundred paces ahead of everyone else. And I still don't have pinkeye, though itchy allergy eyes started my heart racing the other morning. I'm doing really well, I guess. Cross your fingers for tomato and onion salad for la cena and if a miracle occurs, tortilla española too.

So, I leave for Barcelona on Friday. How fantastic is that? It'll be a great time, I know, except that the forecast calls for rain all Saturday, which is our principle day because there is 6 hours of traveling on Friday and Sunday. No worries though. 

I'm doing well in school so far, I'm starting to have at least 1.5 sided conversations with mi madre, y it was greater than 60˚F here today. What a beautiful day! I'll take walking to and from school for 2 full hours in one day over a snow day any day. Even if I did only have 4.5 hours of sleep last night. I was up late doing homework because I'm a procrastinator. Like right now. Instead of doing homework... well, I have all day tomorrow, right? I'll probably stay up late doing it tonight too, although I tried that Monday night and didn't end up waking up until 12:30 on Tuesday and ended up embarrassing myself. My roommate is up every day before 10am, so there are expectations, I guess.

Let's see, what's been going on? I've been a bit down here and there about being in Spain and failing at Spanish, but some people have been saying that it took them the full four months before they felt comfortable speaking and could understand. I guess I'm okay with that. I just want to do well in my classes. I've been trying really hard, like much harder than I every have in United States school, to participate and I think I'm doing a good job. I hope I don't seem pompous or anything, but I feel as though I should try. It's a different story in Civilization because there are so many people in that class and it's very intimidating to stutter out something that doesn't make much sense in front of all of those people. However, after a little chat with my teacher, I think she likes me and that makes me feel a lot better about trying.

I've also been a bit down about the food. I am so sick of bean soup. I hate beans. I mean, I can eat them and on occasion, they are pretty good, but every other day is too much. Beans aren't that good, I promise. And the fact that the Spanish have two courses basically. The first is usually a vegetable dish, and the second is a meat dish. Like last night, mi madre set down a giant bowl of mashed potatoes in front of me. Just mashed potatoes. No gravy, no salt. I can't eat an entire plateful of mashed potatoes (unless they are my mother's mashed potatoes) just by themselves. So I pushed them around a bit until she brought out a plate of fried chicken breasts. Just fried chicken breasts, which isn't as weird as just mashed potatoes, but I still prefer a bit of ketchup or barbecue sauce to give it some flavor. I ended up dumping my bowl of mashed potatoes over the chicken, much to the confusion of mi madre, and ate them together. It wasn't bad that way, but I'm missing my foods. Peanut butter and jelly and tomato soup sounds fantastic right now. Chocolate chip cookies and brownies. We have "postre" every day after la comida and la cena, but it is limited to jello, pudding, flan, rice pudding, yogurt, or fruit. Outside of the pudding, nothing too exciting there. 

Carla and I booked our tickets to Valencia the other day. It's especially exciting because we are going on the night of the festival of Las Fallas. A falla is a monument made of word, cardboard and other combustible materials. They are a variety of heights, up to 30 meters. The monument is about a real-life subject and is satirical in tone (last year they had one of Bush). The celebration with marching bands, fireworks, partying, etc. begins on the 15th of March. At about midnight on the 19th of March, all of the fallas are burned. We will arrive in Valencia on the 19th of March, where we are going to sprint around the city seeing as many fallas as we can and then we'll stick by one to watch it burn. I'll post so many pictures when I get back so you can all be amazed too. If you have time, I suggest looking up images of las fallas just to get an idea of how cool these things are. Maybe I'll steal a picture from the internet and post it.

Well, that's enough for now, I guess, but I feel like I should be going into more detail about things everyone experiences. Like how disappointing it was to find out that we aren't attending "The University of Alcala", we are attending a puny, out of the way satellite campus where they stick the foreign students so the Spanish students don't have to deal with them. I forget the name of the school. I need to get a picture of it at some point. Like how my books were only 11 euro total (did I mention that already?) which is amazing considering I spent over $500 on one class one semester at BGSU (although I totally got screwed with having to buy a brand new OChem book). Like how even though they tell you that you should expect to see wine everywhere, including at lunch and dinner, almost no one has had wine with any of their meals at their houses. Like how, even though there may be a few people that you can't decide how you feel about, there is a real bond between everyone in your group as you work through this experience together. Like how, if you're just coming out of 202, you're more screwed with the language than the program tells you. Like how, if you've only have professors that speak with a South American or Central American accent, you're even more screwed than the rest of the kids just coming out of 202. 

Anyway, I'm done for now. Really. I'll write again when I feel like procrastinating. Maybe tomorrow because I'll be really busy Friday through Sunday in Barcelona.

In Progress...

I'm going to write more later, but for now, as I have to go to class in 3 minutes, I'm going to use the really fast internet of the school to upload these pictures. They are the ones from Madrid that I couldn't take because my camera was dying.

This is me and the Matador Vaca. Some people taking pictures put their fingers up like bull-horns, but I thought that looked silly.

This is me petting the Vaca stretched up the Madroño tree. In the Puerta del Sol there is a statue of a bear stretched up a madroño tree. This is the heraldic symbol of Madrid. I didn't realize that the Policia were behind me. I wasn't supposed to be touching the statue, but they didn't stop, so it's all good.

Jesús está en tí

I went to a Spanish Catholic Mass today in La Iglesia Magistral with my roommate. We thought the service started at 11:30, when in reality, it started at 11, so we arrived almost 35 minutes late. Mass in such a huge church was interesting, but more interesting is seeing mass in Spanish. Even though we only caught the last twenty minutes, I noticed some similarities and differences between this and the Catholic Mass of my childhood. There was a lot of standing, the Our Father was said (in Spanish!), and we shook hands with our neighbors and wished them peace (La Paz). The differences included people talking in the church a lot, no choir, no hymnals, and the priest led us all in what seemed to be a children's song about Jesus, including hand motions.

Jesus... está en tí, está en mí, está en todos mis hermanos...

Also, even though there is this giant, three story practically, beautiful organ, no one was playing it at any point. I was kind of disappointed with that. I'd like to go back at the correct time and sit through the whole thing someday because it was a really interesting experience. The Spaniards are supposed to be serious about Catholicism, even though the majority don't feel that it is necessary to attend church every week or pray before dinner or anything. 

The door to the church. This is only the top 1/3 of it. It's a huge door.

Yesterday was an okay day. I didn't really do much. I meant to do a lot of homework, but didn't really get around to it. I talked with my parents a bit on Skype and it was really nice. Last night, I went out with a couple of people. We went to what seemed to be a Mexican restaurant (in Spain) and I had a glass of wine. I hate that all there is to do here really is spend money. Every day I throw money somewhere or another. It's only really a euro here and a euro there, but it adds up and I try to never spend unnecessary money if I can help it. But the night was fun. We hung out in a small plaza near the church with what appeared to be 15 and 16 year olds getting very drunk, empty bottles strewn everywhere, until they began throwing fireworks, which was really more annoying than anything. But I had a lot of fun with the people I was with. All the group members are really nice and as far as I know, no one has been fighting or anything.

Today, I guess I'm a little depressed. I'm mostly sick of the food. It's not bad food, but it's not flavorful, it's not enjoyable to eat. Typically, I'm not gagging on it, but being forced to stuff yourself with food that isn't wonderfully delicious gets old pretty fast. I miss home food. And I miss Tom. I can't remember the last time our schedules corresponded so that we could talk for any length of time. The time difference is hard. 

Well, I should probably work on my homework, although I might just take a nap. It's raining here and that always makes me sleepy.  

Madrid! Again...

Okay. So yesterday I went to Madrid. We caught the bus from Alcala (about a 10-12 minute walk from my piso to the bus station) at 11:00am. The bus tickets are 2.20 euro, which seems amazing to me. It's so cheap to travel to Madrid. After a 45 minute bus ride, we entered the creepy bus station again under Madrid and began our adventure. It began at the metro station, which is pretty simple although a complete maze. You find which station you are in, then which station you need to go to. Then find which lines will connect the two. Each line can has trains going in both directions, so you look at the end of the line that is towards the direction you want to go. The name of the last station is the name of the train you get on. The ticket machine wouldn't take my credit card, but I had enough cash on me to buy a 10 ticket deal. Finding the proper platform wasn't difficult, but time consuming. We knew which platform we needed and everything was clearly labeled at every intersection, but this place is huge. We had to have walked for a good 5-10 minutes until we got there. After changing trains once, we arrived at the Retiro park near the Plaza de Indepencia and the Puerta de Alcala (Door to Alcala, which is where I live and apparently these arches were built on the road that would take you to Alcala long ago). 

Me at the Puerta de Alcala. So, it was raining a lot of the day, but it was mostly a light rain. I was so glad to have an umbrella. Walking around in wet wool would have been terrible.

Then we visited the park again. Rather than have to follow Javier around and spend limited time at each place, we wandered at leisure and found the best places to take pictures. Especially a straight on shot of the Monument to King Alfonso XII from across the lake. 

Monument to King Alfonso XII. It's very impressive.

We walked around taking pictures and made our way to the monument itself for some close up pictures. The good thing about the rain was that we pretty much had the entire park to ourselves. So, when no one is watching, why not have a little fun? I was too afraid to climb up anything, like onto the lions around the monument, but the naked women sitting on sea animals were readily accessible from the steps.

Me sitting on the back of a turtle. The woman is tastefully shielding her nudity.

We continued around the park, seeing the Monument to General Arsenio Martínez-Campos, the Crystal Palace and the Royal Botanical Garden. All sights were very beautiful and lots of pictures were taken. This park will be gorgeous come late April when everything is in bloom.

From the park we walked towards the Puerta del Sol. On the way is the Plaza de Cibeles with the Cibeles fountain and the Madrid City Hall. We walked back past the clock museum, the store that contains it is called Grassy and has a big Rolex sign at the top of the building. The Jeweler that I mentioned before, but couldn't remember his name is Anthony Caro. Also on the way to the Puerta del Sol, is the Kid's Cow and I totally made sure to have a picture this time.

Check this out! Is this not one of the coolest things you ever seen? The information plaque lists the artist as a seven year old, though I doubt he put together or painted the cow... probably just drew it and others did the rest.

One the way to the Puerta del Sol, we stopped at a McDonalds. This McDonalds had two stories and a marble staircase. Very fancy. I just had some chicken nuggets, the only food I can really stomach from McDonalds and they were pretty good. I asked, all by myself, if they had any honey ("¿Tienes miel?") for my nuggets, but they did not. So I ate them with salsa barbocoa instead. Then we went to the Puerta del Sol. The Puerta del Sol is a great place. Within the Puerta del Sol is the very center of Spain. I stood on it and got my picture taken. Within the Puerta del Sol is the office of the governor, a statue of Charles III, and a statue of a bear stretching up a madroño tree, a symbol of the city. The very best part of this statue is that there is a similar statue near the Hard Rock Cafe in Madrid of a cow stretching up a tree. I had to get my picture taken with it, but my battery was almost dead at this point and so I have to get it from someone else before I can post it.

After the Puerta del Sol, we stopped at the Corte Ingles, a multiple story shopping mall, kind of like a Kohls and Meijer combination on a grander scale. It was very large and confusing, not very well labeled at all, but the staff was friendly and helpful enough. After the Corte Ingles, we headed to the Plaza Mayor again. Unfortunately, due to the rain, there was only one or two estatuas humanas (human statues) around the Plaza, but there were quite a few people out selling paintings and painting pictures within the Plaza. Also in the Plaza, I sneakily snuck and shot this picture just for Tom. 

You'll have to tell me what you think of the uniforms, okay? These uniforms are pretty much identical to the police in Alcala.

In the Plaza Mayor we ran into a few Americans. They wanted us to take a group photo, and we obliged. One of them was from Indiana, so pretty close really. It was nice to have someone come up to me and saying in my accent of English "Someone who speaks English!". I miss English, despite the fact that everyone in my group only speaks to one another in English. I guess I'm just too used to them and I've become frustrated with strangers because I can't communicate with any of them.

After the plaza, we took a side street and ate some Bocadillos de Calamares. The Rick Steve's book that I was following indicated a different place than we stopped, but we didn't see it right away and figured any place was good enough. Well, it wasn't quite fried long enough and it was a bit chewy although it tasted okay. It was just literally fried squid rings on a roll and nothing else. The biggest thing is that everything here is so bland. I could have really used some mustard or hot sauce or something. I was really expecting some real spice. Like Spanish rice is spicy, but I'm sure that Spanish rice is not real Spanish rice, but I was just thinking there would be lots of spices for some reason. Spanish food is blander than American food and everyone knows how bland a hotdog would be without loading it with condiments. I miss spices. Maybe I should go to the Carrefour (pretty much a Walmart only on a lesser scale) and look for some chili powder and hot sauce to add to some of the dishes.

Anyway, Bocadillos de Calamares. Fantastic picture! Check out my fingernails! I talked about nail polish in my last entry.

From the Plaza we headed towards the Cathedral. On the way we passed the Statue of Don Bazán in the Plaza de la Villa, where City Hall is located. Many pictures were taken of the Cathedral. It is really a beautiful and extensive church. It's easy to pull up a picture of it on the internet (Cathedral of Almudena), but this part was one of my favorites.

These statues are very high up and it's just gorgeous. Why don't we have millions of statues all around and sculpted out of buildings?

At the cathedral, we went in and took pictures. You know how the catholics light candles for some reason, to pray for something, I think. Well, in this church they don't have real candles that you can light. It's probably too dangerous (fire hazard) and with all of the tourists that go through, they'd probably go through candles really fast. So in order to make some money off the deal (as the Catholic church would) and save on the expense and eliminate the fire hazard, they have these boxes set up all over with maybe 50 or so fake candles in them. If you put 20 euro cents into the slot, the bulb of a candle will light up. I paid the 20 cents just to say that I did, but I was more interested in taking a picture of the whole thing than to remember to pray for something.

Next to the Cathedral is the Royal Palace. It's beautiful, but you cant get close without paying 8 euro to enter. I took lots of pictures, but we didn't go in. Someday I would like to. There is a beautiful view of the valley below on one side of the Palace, that we couldn't get a good view of where we were due to construction and traffic. One day, I'll go. There's plenty of time let on this trip and it's less than 5 euro total to round trip to Madrid. 

Anyway, after the palace, we went back towards the Puerta del Sol. Near here there is a pastry shop recommended by Rick Steves. We stopped there and ate a pastry called a Napolitana, a cream-filled pastry. I figured I would try one filled with chocolate because it look so delicious, but it was way too rich and I had couldn't finish it. My determination was that it wasn't good enough to justify the sugar/calories/fried-ness of the pastry. 

One more stop at the Corte Ingles for a bathroom break (really one would expect a bathroom on every floor, but they would be wrong. One bathroom was all I counted). Then it was to the Prado, where the museum is free Tue-Sat from 6-8pm. We weren't allowed to bring cameras into the museum, but it was still worth it. The paintings are beautiful and the best Spanish artists are in this museum: Goya, El Greco, and Velázquez. I bought two prints from the gift shop, one of a painting by El Greco and Las Meninas by Velázquez. I'm so excited to bring them home, get them framed and hang them up somewhere. I love Velázquez and El Greco. 

From the Prado, we headed all of the way down the Paseo del Prado, the very busy main street. Along this road, you find the Hard Rock Cafe of Madrid. We stopped in for dinner. I had a pepsi, a salad (with ranch and cranberries) and a side of spicy macaroni. It was the best meal I've had in such a long time. I might have to go back regularly just to get some spices and some pepsi and it was so amazing. I was so full and happy and I can't stop going on about how great this macaroni and salad were. It ended up costing a little over 12 euro, which is much more than I like to pay for a meal, but considering it was a Hard Rock and they tend to run expensive anyway, it really wasn't a bad price for such a good meal.

After the Hard Rock, we navigated the metro another time. By the way, don't ever put a metro ticket in your pocket with your cell phone because it clears the little strip and voids the ticket. I learned this in DC, so I didn't have problems, but I didn't think to tell anyone else. Although later that night, when I was emptying my coat of valuables, I stuffed my phone in my pocket with my ticket, forgetting the ticket was even there, so let's hope it's okay. I'll find out next time I go to Madrid. We caught the 10:00pm bus home, after some initial confusion about which side of the bus station was unloading and which side was loading. It only took about half an hour because there wasn't much traffic. 

We left the bus station and went to the Plaza de Cervantes where we met up with more people ready to go for the night. I ran home to drop off my things and came back by 11. Our first stop was a dance club (the name escapes me) where they were giving out free beer and free sangria and 50¢ shots. Holy crap, right? I was all over that. Then we went to the Can Can where they were giving out free beer until 1am. Because we were the only people in the place, the bartender gave us a free mixed drink, and free shots. I didn't spend more than 2 euro total. It was amazing. No one give out free alcohol in the states, they know the college students would never be able to handle themselves. The dancing was even fun too although it got very crowded around 3am. I left not long after that with most of the rest of my group. It was a very fun time.

Today, I slept quite a bit, which felt very nice. I hadn't been sleeping very well, but I got some good sleep today. My roommate found out that she has pinkeye, which I'm horrified to get. I really hope I'm lucky and don't get it. I took out my contacts and have been washing my hands constantly. We went out for churros today. They are like fried doughnut sticks that you dip in chocolate and eat. They sound really good, but there were very rich. My stomach doesn't handle that much sugar well anymore. I felt the same way about them as I did about the Napolitana... good, but not good enough to justify how bad it is for your body.

My entire body aches. We must have walked many miles yesterday and dancing really works the muscles. I'm feeling much healthier since I've been here. I might even start running again, if my shoes can handle it. I didn't think to bring my workout shoes. 

Anyway... I should probably work on some homework, I have quite a bit. So far, no plans tonight other than homework. That should be fun... or not.

Exhaustion (You Might See This Title A Lot)

Short post tonight because I am exhausted. I haven't been sleeping well at all the last three nights. I've been having very vivid dreams and my mind is just in overdrive while I'm supposed to be trying to sleep. 

I'm going back to Madrid tomorrow, which should be a blast. I'm not going to forget my camera this time, or I will come back to get it. Speaking of, I should probably charge my battery now, just in case. 

Yesterday was a relatively uneventful day. I did lots of homework, too much. I take a lot longer to do my homework than I think is intended and therefore am constantly working. My host mom called me a "trabajadora", a hard worker, even though I didn't complete nearly as much as I wanted. 

I stopped at a Chinos today and bought some ties for my hair (because it's getting very long, I'm wondering if I shouldn't go get it cut... maybe when it gets a little warmer), some nail polish, and nail polish remover. I went all out and spent a total of 4 euro. I'm such a miser, but I'm saving my money just in case I want to travel more than I think. However, my nails look pretty good now, which is practically a first. The nail polish was a bit pinker than I intended, but I didn't like any of the other colors. I might go back and get a pearl color. I didn't buy it because it was so transparent, but I think three coats might look nice. The nail polish is like 0,75 cents, and it's not bad either. I love the Chinos.

At some point, I'm really going to splurge and go to the pastry shop. That will be a fantastic day, but I feel a little like a closet eater sneaking off to the pastry shop by myself. Maybe I can convince someone else to go with me.

So, most people call me Nicky. Here though, everyone pretty much calls me Nicole, which is absolutely fine and it's easier than having to tell people over and over to call me Nicky when they can barely pick up Nicole (I was trying to be a bit more extroverted on this trip, as one of my goals, but I still heard someone say, "That's Nicole. She's quiet."). Anyway, I'm not that used to being called Nicole, just here and there by random people, and so I don't always realize that someone is talking to me when they say it. I know it sounds weird to not automatically respond to your own name, but more than a few times on this trip, I block out my own name like it's background noise. I've been telling people here and there why, but I still look the fool.

I ate arroz con leche today for the first time. Rice with milk sounds like one of the most disgusting combinations of food actually made, but it was surprisingly good. I think there was a ton of sugar in it and lots of cinnamon. It tasted a bit like pumpkin pie mix.

Okay. I stole a few more pictures from people today from the Madrid trip, including the pirate. If I can get them to load on slow, stolen internet, I'll load them now, but if not, I'll give up and try again later. 

I'm so tired.

Feed the birds! Arrg!

My Weekend, in too much detail

It is already Monday again. I have been in Spain for 9 days now. It feels like a lot longer than that though. It feels like I should be more acquainted with the language than I am. I learn new words everyday and I am much better than 9 days ago, but I still feel really far behind everyone else. I think I might go talk to the director of our program here in Spain tomorrow about how difficult the language is for me. I really don't expect anything to come of it... probably not even any worthwhile suggestions ("talk with your friends in Spanish", they don't seem to understand that talking in Spanish is slow, difficult, and frustrating... I talk with friends because I enjoy talking with friends... If we only talked in Spanish, I would not want to talk to them and isolating myself is probably not a good idea right now). Hopefully, though, talking to the director about my difficulties might cause her to pass on this information to my teachers, who will then be very lenient. We took a placement test at the beginning of the semester and it didn't affect what classes we are taking. I hope that means that the professors will assign grades by comparing our work to our placement test and not to the other people in the class, because I really think I must be the worst in the class. Anyway, those are my difficulties so far. I understand no one. Well, I understand my professors here and there, or some of my professors here and there, especially in my Comp and Conversation I class, which is the most basic class available. 

On Saturday, we had a tour of Alcala. Our Civilization professor led the tour in Spanish, so I have no idea what we saw or the significance of it, but this is what I picked up. The Plaza Cervantes is a major meeting place where people go to gather, shop, and otherwise enjoy themselves. Near the Plaza Cervantes is the Calle Mayor, a major street of just shops and commercial businesses, on which only commercial vehicles are allowed to drive. After the Plaza and the Calle Mayor, we went to the house where Cervantes was born. Cervantes wrote Don Quixote and is a very big name in Spain, but especially in Alcala. The house is a museum of how a house would have look during the time when Cervantes was born and next door is the somewhat preserved hospital where his father worked as a doctor (I think that's what she said). In the house was kind of like a doctors office with all kinds of bottles and a crazy scary chair. I wanted to take pictures, but we weren't allowed to take pictures of anything not in the courtyard. I loved the courtyard. It had a beautiful skylight and a well and they had a bunch of plants out there. I want a courtyard in my house. I got a picture of me sitting with the Don Quixote and Sancho statues that are outside of the house (see profile pic). Of course, Don Quixote has special meaning for me. I've been singing the songs to the musical since I was in grade school, I saw the musical at the Stranahan (the only show I've paid to see there), and I was the stage manager of the musical when we performed it at our high school (although that was really more bad memories than anything else).

Then we visited the Iglesia Magistral, a giant cathedral in Alcala. There was a whole story about the church, when it was built, what happened there, and there were some pictures of people getting their heads chopped off in some form of crypt area, but I did not catch the significance of any of it. The cathedral was pretty though. There was this gigantic organ that was emitting music, but I didn't realize that someone was actually playing it until we were walking out. They must just sit there and play nonstop all day, everyday? I'm not sure I would like that job.

We visited a few more buildings near the University (Colegio del Rey maybe?), and we passed the Archeological Museum, but we didn't go inside. There wasn't much of this part of the tour that I caught, but it ended with a trip to Iglesia y Colegio de la Cía de Jesús (I think that was the one anyway). We went inside and bought these sugar coated almonds from the nuns that are not supposed to be seen. You ring the bell and then tell the nun what you want, she puts it in this kind of revolving door window and turns it until you can take your almonds. Then you put your money in the revolving door-window, she turns it again and you leave. It was pretty interesting and the almonds tasted fantastic. I was the last one to eat them, so I got to keep the box as a souvenir. I haven't decided what exactly to do with it yet, but it's sitting on my shelf as a reminder to go get more almonds at some point.

It was a pretty good tour, although it would have been many many times better if I had understood what was being said to me. If I get ambitious, I'll look up the history of these things myself, but for now... Maybe when I get better at Spanish, I'll ask her to repeat most of it for me.

Saturday during the day, I went out with Carla and we went shopping. She wanted to buy some shoes, but couldn't find any that she liked at a price that she was willing to pay. It was okay though because I was introduced to a lot of new stores, including Carrefour, which is the closest thing they have to a Meijer around here. While we were there, I bought some Cheerios and some Spanish frosted corn flakes because I just couldn't take another day of toast. I was literally getting ill eating the toast every morning. Then we stopped at Calzedonia, a small shop that sells nylons of every color and pattern. I realized that I had forgotten to bring mine, although I specifically remember thinking to myself "Don't forget those." So I bought some regular nylons. 

We then went to The Phone House, which is a shop that sells cell phones. I had gone earlier in the day and bought myself a cheap phone in order to keep in contact with my group members here. It was a horrible experience. There is no such thing as customer service in Spain, especially when you don't know the language well enough to make your wishes clear. Suffice it to say, there was a very long line, a very unpleasant employee slamming things around, and after she took my information, she ignored me while she waited on other people. So I had to go back with Carla and deal with the same woman in order to put more minutes on Carla's phone. After waiting behind 1 person for almost 20 minutes and a line of 10 more people forming behind us in this small shop, it was our turn. Carla only needed 10 euro worth of minutes, but only had a 50 euro bill. The lady refused to take the bill saying that Carla needed to leave to go get change and then come back (and wait in the line again...). Carla and I were counting out euro cents at the counter until we reached 10 euro rather than leave and come back. What a horrible experience in Spanish customer service! At the very least, that woman should find a different job that doesn't involve interacting with people.

That night, we dressed up and went to a tapas bar. I only had a glass of wine (2 euro) and some kind of bagel/ham sandwich. I wish we could have had some Sangria, but they only sold it by the liter. After the bar we went to a salsa club where people actually danced salsa. I, however, cannot dance salsa, cannot even come close (I tried) and I would much rather learn to swing dance than salsa dance. It was a good time though, but I was very paranoid about leaving my coat (and my money) in a pile against the wall. 

Sunday was sleeping in, doing some homework, taking a nap, finishing my homework. Nothing exciting. And today I just went to school. Nothing more, although the weather was nice (in the 40s!).

I do think I'm going to have to spend some more money here soon, just to entertain myself. There really isn't that much to do here, except spend money (spend money drinking - the wine is usually cheap, but beer and especially liquor are outrageously overpriced; spend money shopping; spend money visiting Madrid). It's hard when you even have difficulty watching TV. I need something more to occupy my time. I don't have any video games, a DVD player, books, nothing. I would try my hand at some Spanish cooking, maybe even add a bit of spice to the dishes, but my host mom seems really possessive of the kitchen and it's always so cold in there with the window open all of the time.

Now you can understand why this entry is so long. Well, at least I'll have an in depth account of my time here. No regrets there.

So a pirate gave me chocolate...

Today, I went to Madrid with my group. I realized halfway to the the plaza that I had forgotten my camera and could have kicked myself, but it was too late to go back for it. I missed a lot of great pictures, but Madrid is only about thirty minutes away by bus or train and I've already made plans to return next week and I will not forget my camera this time. In the meantime, I'm going to steal the group pictures from people who put them up on Facebook... Thank goodness for Facebook, eh?

We took the bus to Madrid. I realize after  we got to the bus station that I had not been paying any attention to how to get there. Not a big deal though, I can look that up later. The bus ride wasn't bad. We were kind of packed in, but I had a nice comfy seat and only a few people had to stand. The entrance to the bus station was probably the creepiest thing of the trip so far. The bus literally drove down into this underground tunnel where the walls practically touched the bus on each side. On my side, at least, if the bus had broken down right there, I would not have been able to crawl out the window because I wouldn't have fit between the wall and the bus. It gave me this really creepy vibe, because there would be no way a bus could back out that tunnel and if we couldn't go forward, we couldn't go back and we'd get stuck. It was very Resident Evil-ish. Thankfully, the walls opened up into this underground bus station (too cool). 

We took the metro, one level below the bus station. I was completely lost with the metro. I know we took number 9 and then changed trains at one point, but it was mostly just making sure that you didn't get separated from the group ("¡Chicos! ¡Aquí!"). The first place we went was to some arches. Now, remember that I don't know Spanish very well, so I had a lot of trouble understanding what he was saying, but after some later research and some help from friends, I know that we began our tour in La Plaza de la Indepencia near the arch called Puerta de Alcalá. The really great thing, is that Madrid has cow statues everywhere. It's like in Toledo, where we have all of those frog statues, they have some crazy cow statues. My favorites were the pegasus cow and the kid's cow. The pegasus cow is exactly as it sounds, the kid's cow looked like a 3-D version of what a kid would draw when you asked him to draw a cow. The four legs were spaced evenly under the body, one after the other, so when I originally saw it, I thought it was a caterpillar cow with a smily face and no nose. I'll definitely get a picture of it later. I hope they remain up until my parents and my brother and his girlfriend come. I think they would all love the cows.

We stopped at the park, Parque del Buen Retiro, which contains the Real Jardín Botánico (Royal Botanical Garden). The entire park was gorgeous and I know it will be even better in the spring when the trees are in bloom. There was a beautiful lake where you can rent paddle boats and there were all kinds of sculptures. There was a beautiful greenhouse looking building where they used to grow plants from the Philippines, but it now holds crystal. We saw teachers giving little kids tours of the park, including one holding up a book with a picture of a bunch of different birds and she was pointing out the ducks in the park. There was even a man playing a saxophone.

In the Park. I'm the only one with a winter hat on. Apparently, no one else's ears get cold like mine do. If I don't wear a hat, my ears hurt all of the way into my jaw.

We walked past a couple of major buildings, like the Prado and a really important school, where it is such an honor to teach there that the faculty is not paid. I have a really hard time remembering what other buildings he showed us between there (I meant to bring a pen and notebook, but I forgot that too...). The buildings were all gorgeous though. We don't have architecture like that in the states. Then we stopped at this jewelry shop, which I really couldn't understand why we were all piling into this really really expensive shop. It turns out, it has a museum in it. It houses the collection of a really famous jewelry maker/artist in Spain, whose name escapes me right now. He used odd objects to make his jewelry, like one of the handles of scissors. I was trying to explain that one of the pieces used "wing nuts" to the tour guide of the museum and our tour guide, but neither had ever heard of that before and I didn't make myself clear (windmill...? no, wing nut). In the basement was a museum of clocks, old antique clocks from all over the world. Some of them were really beautiful, like the one that also had a model of the sun, earth and moon and what they all look like in relation to one another during the year. It was amazing.

Then we made our way to the puerta del sol near the Tio Pepe sign. Our guide explained how it is kind of like Times Square on the New Year, jam-packed with people watching the clock count down. He said that at 12:00, everyone eats 12 grapes, one at each gong of the clock. 

Near the puerta del sol is the Plaza Mayor. I love the Plaza Mayor. It is one of my most favorite places in the entire world. It was filled with people today, including street performers either dressed up or playing. A man was playing a Chinese violin, which sounded beautiful, but looked weird. The street performers were dressed up as a toy soldier from Toy Story, Don Quixote, a pirate, one of the characters from Alice in Wonderland, a rock??, and more. Anyway, we had our lunch in the Plaza Mayor. I ran to the McDonalds to get a sundae because I haven't had ice cream since I left. It was a really bad idea because the sudden influx of that much sugar gave me a horrible headache, that I still have even though I napped for almost three hours. My head is killing me. Anyway, I gave the pirate 20 cents. It was fantastic. He pretended to look around with his hand over eyes until he spotted me. Then he bowed and handed me a gold coin out of his treasure chest that he was holding (it was a piece of chocolate wrapped in gold foil). Also in the Plaza, I fed the birds. There were pigeons, but there were more of the tiny birds and one of them ate out of my hand and it was such a fantastic moment in my life. I have to live somewhere where I can feed the birds every day. 

We then walked to the Cathedral. It was huge and very beautiful. It sits right next to the royal palace, which we didn't go very near, but looked at through the gates. Then we made our way back to the metro to make our way to the train station. I wasn't feeling very well by this time and it was a very long ride home, especially because we had to pack ourselves into the train and it kept stopping and going and making me even more sick. Finally, we returned. I sat in the Plaza Cervantes for awhile because it was so beautiful outside. The sun was out and it was almost warm enough to just have a coat or just have a hoodie on, instead of both. 

When I got home, I pass out for almost three hours, but when I woke up, I still had my headache and I felt really sick. For dinner, I ate a little bit of pasta, my mom made me some chamomile tea, and I took some Tylenol and a pill that my mom gave me, although I don't know what it was. I feel like one hundred percent better, although I'm very tired all of the sudden. Maybe it was the tea. I might nap until I call my brother to wish him happy birthday. He's 25 today.

Some odd things...

Yesterday was a long day, but I got through it without too much difficulty. Tuesday, however, I managed to get myself lost. I've been walking to and from school and I have a pretty straight-foward path to follow. Walk to the plaza, take the street on the north side right until you reach a large intersection with a statue in the middle, then take a left. Stay basically straight at the next circular intersection (huge!) and this road will take you to the train station. Use the pedestrian walkway to cross the tracks and take a right after the parking lot. Take your first left at the next circular intersection and this road will take you all of the way to the fountain (uphill). 

Go kind of left at the fountain (not a hard left) and then take the first right. This street ends at the school. Unfortunately, on Tuesday, on my way home, I turned one intersection too early and ended up walking all of the way around the plaza in a giant circle. I didn't want to pull out a map and look like a fool, so I just kept trying to spot something familiar. Finally, I did, but I was pretty tired and cold by that time.

I have it down now. No worries, but on Monday and Wednesdays I have three classes in the morning and then come home for lunch and then go back for another class. That means I'm walking that path four times in one day, if I don't take the bus, which would get expensive. Apparently, the bus hit a car the other day. You wouldn't believe how these people park their cars. The driving is a little crazy, but the parking is worse. They don't enforce parking rules, so you can just park anywhere. Observe.

Can't find a place to park? No problem. Create a space on a corner in the pedestrian walkway.

I haven't taken any sight-seeing pictures yet. I'm waiting until Saturday when we do our "historic tour of Alcala". I'll have to convince people to take pictures of me so I can post them. The great thing about Alcala is that Cervantes was born here, so they are obsessed with him. There are statues of him everywhere and the plaza is called "Plaza Cervantes". His most famous work was Don Quixote, so there are also statues of the main character all around too. 

Some interesting things about the language. Did I mention that everyone here lisps? Apparently, a famous royal had a lisp and everyone just kind of picked it up like it was something only proper people did. It's probably what I found the hardest to cope with. I can usually understand the accent of Mexico (ll's are pronounced like a hard j), but this lisp is killing me. I've never had any practice with it because all of my teachers taught us the very clear, sounds like it looks central American accent. Here, words like plaza are "platha" and Galicia is "Galithia". They even lisp d's at the end of words like "verdath" (verdad means truth, or true). It's driving me crazy. Not only are there so many words I don't know, but more than half the words I do know I can't make out enough to understand them. I'm slowly getting use to it. Picking up more and more. Now when my host mom asks me what I want for dessert (postre) I can understand.

Also interesting about the language. They say "vale" over and over and over. I had never heard that word before in my classes so it kind of throws you off. It apparently means "okay", but they say it over and over. Every sentence ends with "vale" and every question is or starts with "vale". And often it is said repeatedly: "¿Vale? Vale." or "Oh! Vale, vale." It makes sense when you know it means okay, but you hear it everywhere! Much more often than we say okay. And they understand okay, but you have to be careful. You have to say O-kay where the kay is barely audible, otherwise they hear "o-QUE", and "¿Qué?" is "what?", so then they repeat themselves. 

School was fine yesterday. My teachers are mostly following along a powerpoint or a printed paper, and using that as a guide I can almost understand them really well with only picking up half the words. After school yesterday, I stopped at a Chinos, which is a lot like a dollar store, but it's run by Chinese people and hence people call them the Chinos. Everything was amazingly priced. I bought a mirror (7" circular with two sides) for my room, a notebook to begin my dictionary, and index cards for 3,65 euro. Not bad at all! I'm so excited about my mirror... it was 2 euro and it's perfect! I felt so bad taking up the bathroom and I can leave it here when I go for the next person.

 I really want to do some more exploring. The Calle Mayor is the street with the most shops and things, so I want to head over that way. Maybe tonight. I found this fantastic shop with the coolest looking things. I wanted everything in there. There was a carved giraffe with really long legs and neck, and it was about as tall as I am. Then there was this teapot, shaped like an elephant where the trunk was the spout. It was beautiful. I'm trying not to spend any money though. There are a lot of side trips that I want to take and I can't be spending my money on all kinds of things that I will have trouble finding room to bring back. 

Other interesting things so far. The toilets. The flush is on the top and it's a literal button that you have to depress into the toilet. And all of the water is at the bottom and then a huge gush flushes it down, rather than swirling. Also, we have a bidet in our bathroom. I don't touch it.

The elevators are so small. Max four people. It's really uncomfortable to shove yourself in one with someone you don't know who is saying things to you that you don't understand. I usually take the stairs down the six floors, but the other day, the police were in the stairwell with some guy who may have been dying. He was passed out pretty much and I couldn't get by. Really creepy. I guess he had been there for awhile because my roommate left an hour earlier than I did and she said that he was just laying there when she left. I want to take a picture of the police, but I'm afraid they'll get angry and I don't want to try to ask without knowing how to give a good explanation.

The snow is basically gone here. It snowed a bit on Tuesday, and the whole place flipped out. They cancelled classes at the university and people had to pick up their kids from school. The snow didn't even stick. What did stick was melted by that evening. I was in shock. It's just snow... I saw the other day, two guys outside. One had like a hammer thing and was smashing up the ice in the sidewalk and the other had a push broom clearing it away. Crazy... I almost took a picture, but I didn't want to get yelled at.

Anyway, Madrid tomorrow. I'm excited. I'll write again soon.

My first day of school.

I had originally signed up for classes M,W from 9am to 12pm and then 4 to 5:30pm and then one class T,R from 10:30am to 12pm. For some reason, the schedule (horario) changed and I now have classes only M,W from 9am to 1:30pm (straight through, only 2 or 3 minute breaks every half an hour) and then 4 to 5:30pm. I'm so excited about this, despite that it's a lot in one morning. I now have no classes on T,R and therefore have four day weekends, every weekend. Two of my classmates also set up their schedules this way, so we plan on hanging out late every Monday and Wednesday night. It also extends my Spring break by two whole days, which is really time to visit another city.

The morning started out with toast and milk, like it always does. I found my own way to the bus stop (I had to tell my madre three times I could make it) and got to school with only a few minutes to spare. Composición y Conversación I is my first class from 9 to 10:30am. I followed what she was saying mostly. I wasn't entirely lost anyway, but I have a lot of trouble understanding everything and sometimes that is a problem. I introduced myself, told about my major, etc. I had to do this every class and it got pretty old pretty quickly because the classes consist only of the AYA Spain kids, which means most of us have the same classes together. We also discussed how we feel about Spain and the differences that we've noticed. Every class. I am glad that we didn't just jump right in to learning though...

In Composición y Conversación I, I need to write a paper for each trip that I take, describing the city, the food, the sights, etc. I have to buy a postcard in each city to attach to the paper. I also have to keep a dictionary of Spanish words, defined in Spanish. I need over 300 words by the end of the semester. I've already started this with words my host mom has said to me that I didn't know. I didn't know "vegetable", for some reason, but I learned cabbage pretty quickly as we eat it a lot (repollo or col). The teacher was really nice. She seemed a bit eccentric, which always makes for a fun and interesting class. And she speaks English, so if we are really lost, she can help us.

The next class is Civilización y Cultura. The teacher was soft-spoken (odd for Spain) and very nice. It seems like we will have a lot of presentations in the class, which I'm not too excited about, but it'll be good for my Spanish. She told us (all teachers told us to always use pen) that in Spain, only little children used pencils. I'm glad I asked Tom for a good supply before I left. She also wants us to write about our trips, but she wants more of the history and culture of the cities. These need to be 300 words or more, in Spanish, of course. 

The last class of my four and a half hour block is Composición y Conversación II. This teacher talked really fast and my brain was so fried by the time this class began that I picked up almost nothing that she said. Even the simple questions that she asked us, I was completely lost. I zoned out a lot, which is not good. Apparently, we have a small project due tomorrow that will be a presentation about a region of Spain. Thank goodness my partner knows Spanish pretty well. The only thing I understood was that she pointed at us and said "Galicia". In this class, we have an essay, or maybe more than one, that is 3-4 pages long. Let's hope only one. There is also an individual oral presentation about a subject that she picks, and then a collective oral presentation with another student about a subject that she picks. 

Then I go home for la comida. I took the bus back and found my way just fine. Lunch was cabbage and a piece of hamburger. I was so excited that she brought out the ketchup to eat the hamburger with. It was probably the best hamburger I've ever had considering it had no bun, toppings, or anything.

Back at school I began my last class of the day at 4pm: Traducción or Translation, which was probably my most favorite class of the day. She spoke a lot of English and a lot of half English half Spanish sentences because that is what we are going to be doing, translating. She was really nice and smiled a lot. She had studied for many years in Salt Lake City, so she was the least odd of all of my teachers. We are going to have written essays and a major translation project. We get to choose a source in Spanish and then we have to translate it to English. It can be a song, a section of a novel, or anything really. It sounds like fun. I also have to do a Power Point presentation over something.

Today for lunch, we had fish. Only it was the actual fish... the whole fish with its tail wrapped around and stuck in its mouth. I was like "¡Tiene sus ojos!" (It has its eyes!) I tried it. You just had to pull the meat off from around the spine (la espina). It wasn't bad but I refused to touch the head. "No quiero comer la cabaza" (I don't want to eat the head). It wasn't that bad and it tasted just like fish, so no problem. Just shrug it off, right? Relax. Really though, I'm never relaxed. I have no idea why I'm not flipping out.

The language issue is no better (after a day), but I figured out why I'm not very upset about it. It's like if you have a really bad head-cold and you can't hear clearly enough to make out what anyone is saying and you just shrug it off because you can't help it and you can't change it. You just wait until your head clears and not worry about. I studied enough Spanish to be able to express myself just fine and practicing with Tom gave me the ability to get around not knowing exactly how to say what I want to say. For example, my host mom told me that it was very cold outside and I wanted to say "I will dress warmly", but I couldn't remember the word for warmly, so I said "I will dress a lot" with some hand gestures indicating many layers on my arm. She understood perfectly. 

Anyway, when I finally get some homework or something else to do, I will stop writing novels, but for now....