Diving Into Spain

My apologies for the lack of posts recently. Spain has sucked me in head first and finally I've gotten a bit of time to breath.

Jared left last Monday and his trip went really well. We had an awesome time exploring Madrid together, spent an afternoon in El Parque del Buen Retiro, and went out to the bars together at night. It was great to see him; it made me miss home quite a bit, but I feel like now that I've gotten some refreshment from him I'm ready to forge ahead with my time here in Spain! Below is a picture of us at Círculo de Bellas Artes (Circle of Fine Arts) where you can pay two euros to go to the top of the building and catch an awesome view of Spain. This picture doesn't do the beauty of the city much justice, but Jared and I are lookin' pretty good.

This week we had midterms which were beastly and I'm still reeling a bit from the last one. The worst of all was Spanish Culture and Civilization. It covered 300 years of Spanish history and when we asked our teacher what, specifically, the 5-question test would cover, he said "todo" (or everything.) Of course five questions did not nearly cover everything in 300 years of Spanish history, but I did my best and we'll see what comes of it next week.

Until then, I'm going to enjoy myself. Tonight Jenn, Parker, Jessica (a girl from CSU) and I head to Barcelona for the weekend. We're staying at HostelOne Sants, which has very good reviews on hostelworld.com so I have high hopes for this one. I'm really hoping to check out Ingenio while we're there. It's a sort-of mask shop that makes giant heads of celebrities, politcal figures and weird looking creatures. You can check it out here: http://www.el-ingenio.com/ Click on Catálogo to see what they have to offer. I doubt I'll come back with a giant head as a souvenir, but you never know...

Marrakech, Morocco: The City of Fabulous Mayhem

Twelve hours ago I left Marrakech, Morocco and my head is still spinning. Granted, that could just be my extreme exhaustion. It turns out Jared and I had the wrong time throughout the entire weekend. A very friendly Moroccan Spanish man who sat by us on the plane ride there said that Marrakech was only one hour behind Madrid, when it is in fact two hours behind. This didn't matter much at all Thursday, Friday, or Saturday since I didn't see another clock the entire time, so I never doubted it. Then this morning, when Jared and I had to be up to catch our taxi at 6am, we sat in the lobby an hour early before one of the hostel's few employees came out and pointed out our mistake. Without enough time to go back to sleep, we spent the hour writing postcards and listening to the first day's prayer which was being broadcast from all of the mosques throughout the city.

There is so much to say about our visit to Marrakech that I feel overwhelmed when even considering where to start in this post. I suppose the best place to begin is with the most basic fact about our trip: Visiting Morocco was absolutely one of the best things I have ever done in my entire life. Despite the brevity of our visit, it was everything I could want out of a trip. This is not to say that it was always comfortable, relaxing, or easy. It's actually quite the opposite. Marrakech is an incredibly vivid and overwhelming place. Our hostel was located a two-minute walk away from the center square, which is the center of this giant market. At every corner, there was someone trying to pull us into their shop to buy their trinkets. Every time we even glanced in the general direction of a street vendor, he'd try to rope us in with his limited English vocabulary.

Our first afternoon there we met a particularly friendly local named Abdul who gave us an impromptu tour of the old market. Jared warned him that we didn't have much money to give up at the beginning, but Abdul insisted he did it only to practice his English. While our host was a bit too aggressive for my taste, (that seemed to be a common characteristic of Moroccan men), he did show us a part of the city we wouldn't have found on our own. He showed us where all of the little trinkets and shoes and purses are made to be sold in the market-- the tanneries, the giant vats of dye, the artisans workshops. We walked with him for an hour or so before deciding to turn back, at which point he seemed to forget how much he only wanted to practice English and asked for a "little gift" in exchange for his time.

Before embarking for Morocco, we had been warned that food poisoning was basically inevitable. This warning had come only twenty-four hours before we took off and left me feeling pretty freaked out. Somehow, our intestines survived, though, and neither of us got sick despite drinking the tap water (don't worry-- we checked online and with our concierge first) and eating a wide variety of rich Moroccan food. The smells and flavors of the kebabs, tangine dishes, and exotic fruits and vegetables were intoxicating. There was one restaurant in particular we visited every day, mainly for their awesome juices. We sampled every one they had to offer, but my favorites were definitely the banana and the avocado.

The in-flight magazine I read on the way to Marrakech described the city as a place of "fabulous mayhem" and I don't think any other description could be more accurate. Every street provided a new set of sights, sounds, smells, and characters I know I'll never forget.

Soria, Escorial, and Bonos

We are only eight days into October and things are already starting to move much more quickly. You may have noticed this since my blog posts have sort of dropped off since the last one in October. Partly this is because of the field trips that are beginning to spring up in our school schedules. For every class there are two required field trips; most of mine overlap, so I have something like 5 or 6, instead of 8, that I have to attend. I'll probably end up going along on all of them, though, since they're an easy and free source of travel once a week. Last weekend's trip was not required for me, but it's been one of my favorite Spain experiences yet. We visited Soria, a small town about 2.5 hours drive away from Alcalá. The town is absolutely gorgeous, and extremely hilly. (I swear the entire time we were walking up hill-- I have no idea how we got back to the bus.) The day was spent walking, talking with other students and teachers, and visiting architectural sites, some of which date back to the 8th century! Near the end of the day we walked to a castle that's built into the side of a cliff (see the picture below) which had one of the most breathtaking churches I have ever seen.

Well, at least it was the most breathtaking church until our field trip to Escorial yesterday (just outside of Madrid. It's a monastery where Felipe II lived during his reign, and also the burial site of former kings and queens.) Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures, and my camera had died anyway, so you'll just have to google that one (or come to Spain and see it in person!) Walking into the church was like being punched in the chest by the fist of beauty. I couldn't breath, couldn't speak, couldn't comprehend how something so beautiful could actually exist in the real world. I am starting to realize that this feeling is going to happen a lot while I'm in Spain.

Today, Jenn and I are going to Madrid to pick up our tickets from tomorrow's bull fight. We recently got our "bonos" (not to be confused with Sonny or the lead singer from U2) which are one-time-payment passes for all the buses, train, and metros in Alcalá and Madrid. Needless to say, gratuitous trips to Madrid are happening more and more frequently. Then it's back to Alcalá for lunch, then to the Festival de Cervantes which started yesterday! I'll try to blog again soon, but my wonderful boyfriend Jared will be here in less than 40 hours (!!!!!!!) so we'll see how that goes.

Small Moments

Lately, I've been experiencing a lot of these small moments where I'll be talking to my host-mom or sitting in class and everything is going along smoothly... then it hits me: Holy crap. They're speaking Spanish. And I'm speaking Spanish! This is another language that is not English and I understand it. How did this happen? Don't I speak English? Spanish? What? ¿Qué?

Then I snap out of it and realize the conversation has moved on and I no longer understand what we're talking about anymore. I don't know whether or not to take this as a good sign...

Plans for October

The pace in Spain has been hard to get used to. The moments range from gone-in-the-blink-of-an-eye to lingering-and-staggering-last-forever kind of moments. I've been here more than three weeks, and it feels like three months, but at the same time I feel like I could never have enough time here and it's constantly slipping through my grasp. Am I making any sense? Time is a funny thing.

I guess what I'm trying to say is better explained by some of the advice I got before I left: "The first three weeks will feel like three months, the last three months will feel like three weeks." This means that most of my lingering-and-staggering-last-forever kind of moments are behind me, and from here on out it's a water slide back to Colorado. No matter how hard I try to slow things down, it'll only keep going faster. So in an attempt to prepare for this, my friends here and I have been planning.

The month of October will be a busy one, that's for sure. Next weekend (Sept30-Oct2) we don't have specific plans, but Jenn, Parker, and I will have our bonos by then, which are a one-time payment pass that allows us to use the buses, trains, and metros in Alcalá and Madrid unlimitedly. So the chances of going to Madrid every day that weekend are pretty likely.

The next weekend (Oct7-9) I'll be working like crazy to get all my homework done for the week before my boyfriend, Jared, comes to visit on the 10th. (So excited!!!) But in addition to the studying (and counting the seconds until he gets here), we bought some cheap tickets to a bull fight for the 9th. I'm having mixed feelings about bull fights, to say the least, but it's a big part of the culture, and I know I'll be asked if I went a million times once I get back. I figure if it gets to be too much to handle, I can always just leave.

Classes are canceled for the 10th of October, so I'll be heading down to the airport to fetch Jared. Once he gets here, we'll check out Festival Cervantes (which has been described to me as a sort of Spanish renaissance festival) and I'll show him around. Three days later, he and I fly out to Marrakech, Morocco, which is sure to be an adventure every second of the way. When we get back, Jared goes to stay in Madrid, I'll have to resume school, and we'll try to find a way to make our two schedules line up as often as possible.

The weekend after Jared leaves (Oct28-30) I've planned a trip to Barcelona with Jenn and Parker and one of the girls who came here from CSU with me. We'll fly out late that night after classes, stay in a hostel for the weekend, do some sightseeing, and be back in Alcalá for Halloween. Not that they celebrate it here, but I plan on creating a celebration of my own.

Somewhere in there I'll do homework. I swear.

(p.s. I've gone back through and added some photos to a couple old posts. So check those out, or see all of the album on my facebook page!)

A "Real" Spanish Night Out

Last Friday night was what I'm deeming my first "real Spanish night out." Around 8:30pm I hopped on a train to Madrid to meet up with my friend Graham, who lives there and teaches history at a bilingual school. By the time I arrived at his apartment, it was already packed with people from all over the world. I met a Germans, Italians, Mexicans, Spaniards (of course,) and a whole group of people from France! The French people were the best since a lot of them weren't that much better at Spanish then I was, so they spoke slowly and had a vocabulary I understood, for the most part. We ate dinner there as a huge group-- risotto and some sort of salad with apples in it-- then hung around the apartment until about half past midnight. In Spain, when they go out for the night, they mean the entire night. We didn't get back to Graham's until around 5am.

I expected to bar hop a lot, but instead we stayed the entire night at this awesome bar called Super Sonic. They played the best music, mostly American stuff but I'm okay with that :) I danced for something like four hours straight! And the best part was, since I was one of only two Americans there, everyone assumed I knew the dance moves that went along with the songs they were playing! I think it was the first time ever that someone assumed I knew what I was doing in terms of dancing.

I got a bit of sleep at Graham's before boarding another train back to Alcalá. Needless to say, the early morning/late night train ride was not a lot fun, but I made it through and back home where I slept most of the day. I'm not convinced that this is the lifestyle I want back home, but I can say that I'll definitely be back at Graham's place before too long!

Three Day Weekends and I Guess Some Classes, Too

Photo of Instituto Franklin where all of my classes are held

My first week of classes ended last Thursday, and I know I promised a blog, but the weekend came and went before I even realized! So you're getting it now.

You may have noticed that I said "last Thursday" not "last Friday" in the first sentence of my post. That is not a typo, but rather a very important detail, and constituted a decent part of my decision in which school to attend. Students of El Instituto de Franklin a la Universidad de Alcala don't have class on Fridays! This means every weekend is a three-day weekend and perfect for traveling around the country, and hopefully a bit around Europe, too! That's only four days of classes each week, although classes last longer here than they would at CSU.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I attend my Cervantes class at 10:30 in morning. (This is my earliest class, too! Awesome!) This is by far the hardest class I'm taking in terms of both work load and content. So far we're only reading about 10-15 pages for each class, but keep in mind that it's all in Spanish so it takes me just about as long as 50 English pages would. The content is a little slow right now, but we're still doing background and haven't even gotten to Cervantes yet.

On Mondays I also have a Spanish film class! This class is three hours long, but meets only once a week. Last week we watched La Lengua de Las Mariposas, which I would highly recommend. It takes place just before the Spanish Civil War, and sympathizes with the Republicans who were in power at the time. It's a sad one, though, and I'll be honest-- I teared a little up at the end. This week was a very different film, La Raza, which I wouldn't recommend as highly, although it is pretty interesting. You can basically sum the film up as a piece of propaganda for the Nationals (who were against the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War.) It was even written by Francisco Franco (Spanish dictator) under a pseudonym. The film's in black and white and has a lot of ridiculous scenes with the Republicans breaking into churches to kill crippled children and things like that.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays is my Spanish Culture and Civilization class. There's not much to say about this one so far. I really like my teacher, but for the first week we only discussed some basic geography of Spain, nothing too interesting. Based on the reading we had to do tonight, I think we're moving onto ancient Spain tomorrow!

On Tuesday afternoons (this is another 3 hour/once a week class) I have a theater class. This one should be very interesting and I don't quite know what to think yet. I thought it was going to be a literature class, reading plays and going to see them and such, but it turns out to be more of the practice of theater than I originally imagined. So this means I'm not quite done with theater like I thought; our final exam for the class is to put on a play for our peers. We haven't been told which play yet, but I'm sure the results will be interesting at least!

At lot happened this weekend, too, but this post is already long enough as it is, so I'm going to sum it up as quickly as possible: Friday to buy books and take pictures, Saturday to the "Parque de Atracciones" (amusement park), Sunday to El Rastro (giant downtown flea market) in Madrid! Okay, that's all you get for now! I'll write again soon!