News: - I got a job teaching an 8 year old boy English a few hours a week. - The trash people were on a serious strike and it finally ended - back to beautiful clean streets in Alicante and better wages for the workers. - I officially booked my flight to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day! I've been in Alicante for 4 weeks...I can't decide if that sounds short or long, but I know I feel like I've known this city my whole life. I've gone from asking random people for directions when I'm a block away from my apartment to some people actually asking me. Everything is becoming second nature - the bus ride to school, the tram ride home, trecking across the city to get from place to place, and speaking Spanish from the second I wake up each day. I've found comfort in running on the beach or through the parks, browsing through my favorite stores (Zara, Sfera, Bershka...) and trying wine or coffee or both at every place possible with Sami and Lauren. Other than that, a lot of my time is spent at the apartment with Pedro and Asuncion eating delicious food and chatting with them. My favorite food so far is Asuncion's seafood paella, made with rice and several kinds of fresh fish...shrimp, calamari, mussels, clams, tuna, and some others I've tried to ask about and she's tried to explain, but it's just not translating so I eat in anyway. I love everything she makes...pasta with churrizo, chicken cooked every way possible, lentil soup, some sort of awesome chili-like stuff that I forget the Spanish word for, eggs (for dinner), turrón for dessert (traditional almond/honey Christmas candy), hamburger patties because she thinks they make me feel at home....I could go on forever. The only thing I'm really missing is condiments. I had breaded chicken and fries the other night with no condiments, and I started to get really nostalgic about honey mustard, but I think I'll live. Asuncion is finally letting me clean my own plate and help her a little bit in the kitchen, which is a nice start. The culture here is just different. At the beginning I still felt like a guest and it didn't phase me too much that she refused to let me help out, but eventually it got ridiculous. I haven't sat at the table and waited for my mom to serve me without even offering help since I was a little kid, and even then I helped with the dishes or something at least. She has explained to me that it's very normal here, and if I was her real 21 year old daughter it would be the same way. She washes and folds my clothes, makes my bed, makes my coffee in the morning and sets out my lunch for me to take to school. I'm almost embarrassed to put all this in my blog. I've told her how strange this is for me, and that I'm sorry but I'm going to have to help out or I'll lose my mind. With that aside, I'm getting along great with Asuncion and Pedro. They are honestly some of the nicest people I have ever met. They're simply passionate about meeting international students and giving them the best experience possible; I'm pretty lucky. And they think I'm a hoot with my quick Spanish responses that only make sense half the time. When we're not joking around, we get in pretty deep conversations about everything from government, laws, and current events, to the Spanish reality TV show Pedro and I always watch, to our social lives. They're incredibly interested in everything about the United States, so I try to make us sound a little better than all French fries and Hollywood. So January is coming to an end, and that means my month-long Spanish intensive course is wrapping up and my schedule for the rest of the semester is about to start. I have an oral presentation tomorrow and my final exam the next day, so naturally I'm using this time to write a blog post (hence the URL). I have definitely learned a lot in my class this month, probably more than I've learned in any one Spanish class in my life; partially because we focus on actual "Spain" Spanish and phrases I need to use every day, and partially because I've never cared about the language this much in my life. My schedule for February and on is about to be minimal...I only have classes on Monday and Tuesday, and they're taught in English, which I'm actually not happy about. Including my month-long class, my museum-based class that's only a few weekends, and another traveling class that's in May, I'm getting 15 credits to transfer back to Mizzou and actually am not allowed to take any more. It's great that I have time to travel, but I'm also trying to challenge myself and keep up with my Spanish as much as possible. I'm going to participate in "intercambios," which is a program through the university to set international students up with each other to practice speaking different languages. It's more or less blind dates on campus with random students to chat in Spanish. If you enjoy chatting with someone, you can meet up with them another time. I haven't tried it yet but I'll let you know how it goes. Also, as I mentioned before I'm going to teach a Spanish boy a few times a week starting in February, so that will be a nice way to use my free time, get some experience and bring in some euros. I definitely need to find more useful activities to fill my time, whether it's volunteer work or salsa lessons (I actually think I'm about to sign up...) or anything else. I'm determined to make the most of this semester, and as much as I enjoy sitting around eating "dulces" with Asuncion and Pedro, I have a whole world to see.
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Friday was a funny morning. I had gone out for "guac night" at Austin's the night before, where we have officially become regulars and on a first-name basis with all the bartenders. Austin's (Aw-steens) is definitely the American students' meeting spot, but we meet people from all over the place. I'd say it's mostly a haven for English speakers...I've chatted with Scottish, German, Irish, English, and Norwegian people - a nice break from Spanish conversation. Anyway, I guess we had a little too much guacamole because from Austin's we went to a Spanish bar and then to an underground night club where we danced our hearts out until about 5 a.m. So Friday I had to rush and pack for my trip to Madrid before heading to class, got to the bus stop just as it was pulling away, and also forgot my bus card. It was one of those days. Once on the bus, I sat next to a Spanish woman with hot pink lipstick and a gold tooth who started rapidly joking/gossiping about someone else on the bus to me. It's always hardest to understand Spanish in the mornings, especially with strangers. Eventually we got on the same page and started talking about how I'm a student here, and she guessed from my appearance and accent that I was French. Score! For once, I'm not blatantly American...And I'm working on the accent. It was my first time being late to class, so of course I wanted to make a discreet entrance. Our class was moved to a different location due to construction, so I was surprised by the layout of the new room. The door squeaked and swung directly into someone's desk when I opened it, everyone laughed, and there was also not a single spot available. Before I could politely respond to the situation, the two big Russian guys in my class immediately got up, lifted a table from the back of the classroom over the heads of other students and swung it around (with heads ducking, teacher gasping) to make a spot for me. People literally applauded...not so discreet. After class, I joined the group on the charter bus and took off for Madrid to participate in my first of three trips for the Survey of Spanish Art class. The five-hour ride was long but beautiful. Just as we got out of the city of Alicante, it was all rural Spain for hours on end with views of little old towns and endless mountains - I've never seen anything like it. In Madrid, the views changed drastically. The city is enormous compared to Alicante, with ancient government buildings, amazing architecture, art plastered over random buildings, and huge plazas, including the famous Plaza Mayor. On Saturday it felt like we walked through the whole city, but it wasn't even close. We toured the Palacio Real, the royal palace where the kings and queens had hosted events since the 16th Century. The palace was probably my favorite; each room was breathtakingly unique and intricate, from the chandeliers to the ceilings to the rugs to the doorknobs. We went to Museo Prado and Museo de Reina Sofia, both with seemingly endless rooms of impressive art. Prado is considered one of the best art museums in the world and the single best collection of Spanish art, and I don't doubt it for a second. It has endless collections of paintings that were created for royalty by important Spanish artists. Main things I learned: Catholicism, breasts, and death are the three main themes, and Spanish painter Francisco de Goya obviously never took a siesta. We went to a small restaurant for tapas (Spanish appetizers) and got a little more creative than usual. I tried cooked snail just to say I did it, but can't say I went in for seconds. Along with that I had blood sausage, fried anchovies (with eyeballs), churrizo (another kind of sausage), and some good ole' French fries to wash it down. Bon appetit! Wrong language? Anyway, later that night we took the advice of every random person we had talked to about Madrid and decided to check out the infamous Kapital. I had heard the nightclub was fun, huge...somehow I didn't expect it to be like this. It was a seven-story club, each floor completely unique and filled with people raging from all over the world. The bottom floor was essentially a giant concert of DJs and performers with the other six balconies overlooking the massive crowd. Boring, right? We thought so too. After that tranquil night we got up bright and early to head to Toledo, about an hour out of Madrid. I had no idea what to expect, and I loved it. It's so culturally and ascetically different...it's a mixture of Spanish Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim influences. I hadn't seen anything other than Catholicism in Europe, so it was cool to tour the historic synagogue-turned-museum. The day was cloudy and a little rainy while we went through Toledo, but it went along well with the stillness of the town and in my opinion made the historic architecture look beautiful. I'll show rather than tell with the slideshow below. If you've made it this far in the post, I'm impressed, and your Facebook news feed must be quite uninteresting. Here's some other random things on my mind before we part: - Running on the beach at sunrise is my new favorite before-school activity - The aforementioned Russian guys in my class asked me for a detailed description about the meaning of the English word "a**hole" today. I tried my best. - My host parents asked me what the word "like" means this morning, because I randomly slip it into my Spanish when I'm trying to figure out what to say. I should probably break that habit when I'm not even speaking my own language! - As cool as Madrid was, it made me appreciate Alicante even more. I am in love with every inch (oops, European centimeter) of this city. Hasta la próxima! MadridToledo1. They give kisses, not handshakes.
2. They take naps and close down all stores for official nap time. 3. They don't use leashes for their dogs; the dogs just follow them because they're that cool. 4. They always wear cute outfits. If you're not wearing a cute outfit, you're clearly foreign and thus uncool. 5. They eat gourmet food every day and are somehow smaller than all of us. 6. They say what they mean without adding pointless words to be polite or vague. 7. More dogs exist here than children. 8. Their version of "Black Friday" is an entire month (right now). 9. It's cheaper for them buy a bottle of wine than a glass. 10. They prefer all elbows to be on the table. If your hands are under the table, you're sketchy, foreign, and uncool. As hard as it was to leave Mizzou (hence my obsessive love letter a few posts down), I have to admit the University of Alicante is not a bad substitute. Actually, it's amazing. I traded the Columns for palm trees and familiar people for new ones from all over the world. Oh, and I traded Mizzou squirrels for for Alicante cats. This is real: wild, adorable, fluffy Spanish cats walk around everywhere. If you know me at all, you know this is hilariously perfect. I'm about to start the second week of my month-long Spanish intensive course, so right now I only have one pretty challenging Spanish class from 12-3 every day. In February, regular classes begin and more of the Spanish kids will be around rather than solely international students. There's about 15 students in my classroom, with about five of us from the United States. I have found myself sitting with the "cool Asian clique" on one side of the classroom (cue Mean Girls), with a girl from Japan, a guy from China, and a girl from Korea, who all don't speak each others' languages (or mine) except Spanish. It's pretty funny doing partner activities when you can't "cheat" and talk in English because that's not even an option. But we can communicate. We have a small lunch break around 1:30 so we get a lot of chatting in then. We've talked about differences among our home countries, stereotypes, the difficulty of learning a new language, places we've traveled, plans for the future...with plenty of moments of busting out in laughter because we aren't making sense in Spanish. Before coming to Spain, one of my worries was that I was going to lose my personality talking in Spanish since I wouldn't be able to talk how I normally do with my host parents or other Spanish-speaking people...I specifically said that there's no way I could be funny in Spanish. I was completely wrong - what's funnier than sounding ridiculous in another language? Or having street phrases roll out of your mouth that you didn't even know you knew? I've got my host parents rolling on the floor. On that same topic, one day in class we had to partner up and complete a list of riddles and questions. One of them said to tell a "chiste" to your partner, and it even had the word "joke" in English in parentheses. My Chinese friend had never heard either word, and I found myself trying to explain what a joke was in Spanish and completely failing. Trying to land on a specific word with my host parents or Asian friends is like a game of Taboo, and it's hilarious. When we finally figured it out, I then tried to say, "Why did the chicken cross the road?"...but I used the word "pollo" which means chicken that you eat as food, not the live bird. Long story short: Xiao Yao did not think my joke was funny, but we were dying laughing nonetheless. I have so much more I need to write about (Spanish guy friends, new American friends, getting lost, amazing food, night life....) but I'm trying to take it one story at a time. Stay tuned. Campus photos from the day before class started: It's my sixth day in Alicante, but it feels like I've been here for weeks! Where do I even begin? I'm actually having trouble forming sentences in English, first of all. I've never come close to speaking this much Spanish in my life, and now it's constant and unavoidable. The assumption that everyone speaks English is a very American assumption. The students at my university, people on the street that I ask for directions, waiters, bartenders, my host parents - no one's trying to speak English to an American, and when they do it usually comes out worse than my Spanish. So my host parents were included in there....I'm just going to call them my padres from now on. They don't speak a lick of English, which is perfect because I'm learning and improving in Spanish like crazy. And I love them! They're an older couple and don't have any kids they call me their "hija" for the semester. Whenever I'm at home I'm hanging out and having great conversations with my madre, Asuncion, and my padre, Pedro. We live in a small apartment in "El Centro" in downtown Alicante, about a 10 minute walk from the beach, or less if I actually know where I'm going (I get lost at least once a day, sometimes for the hell of it). My new home is a skinny hallway with rooms branching out on each side: Pedro and Asuncion's room, a kitchen, two bathrooms, another little sitting room, my room, and our living/dining room area with a balcony. I think our apartment is on the nicer side...We have dark wood everywhere, antique-looking furniture, Spanish art on the walls - it's pretty cute to tell you the truth, but not exactly like an apartment in the States. Each room has a separate door that must be closed at all times to conserve heating/cooling, and all lights are off unless necessary. To take a shower, I have to turn on the gas and take a lighter to the hot water heater to start the flame, and then turn it back off when I'm finished (which is supposed to be 5 minutes later...I'm trying). Also, I have giant keys that look like they belong to the Chamber of Secrets, but it's just for the front door. My madre cooks all my meals, about 4 a day. Breakfast is small, like a piece of toast or a croissant and a banana with coffee. Then she gives me an orange and an "empanadilla" to take to school for lunch, which kind of looks like a homemade Uncrustable but it's baked and filled with tuna and tomato. Yes, I do feel like I'm in Spanish kindergarten. Then if I come home right after school I get "comida," the large meal of the day that Spanish people usually eat around 3. It's a ridiculous amount of food. You don't even know how many different ways I can say "I'm sorry but I'm full" in Spanish. My first "comida" was mussels, salad, tortilla (an egg and potato pie-like thing, not a Mexican tortilla), nuts, ham, chicken, and lamb meat all in one sitting. I politely told my madre I physically could not do it. But the food is amazing. The ham especially is nothing like you'll ever see or taste in the United States, but I did tell my padres they should really try bacon. Around 10 p.m. we have "cena," which is like dinner but very small. And then there's always "sobremesa," which is more or less "table talk." It's the time where we sit around after we're done eating a meal and drink coffee and eat homemade sweets. Long story short, don't be surprised when I return as a whale. Asuncion and Pedro are definitely the reason behind my Spanish improving every day. If I say a word in English they just stare at me and repeat it in a thick accent and laugh, but they're so incredibly patient. We're able to have extensive conversations and learn about each others' lives. I honestly could not be happier that I have them. Of course, I can do whatever I want and stay out however late I want...I just have a couple padres who would worry if something bad happened, which is just like home :). I am not complaining! Also, my real parents met my padres yesterday over Skype, which was awesome and hilarious. I acted as translator while both couples smiled at each other and rattled off how happy they were with the situation. I had side conversations with my host padres the whole time and my real parents' faces were priceless. I've been sitting here half-conversing with Pedro this whole time and am having a hard time remembering English words so that's my cue to stop. Hasta la próxima! "Where's the Sun?" That was my first thought landed at the Madrid airport, in the country that I would be living in for the next five months. Next, "Why is everyone staring at us?" The first one can be answered with the sunrise in Spain occurring at about 8:40 a.m. around this time of year. Never knew that. The Sun rises later, people rise later, eat later, stay out later...the nature of Spain fits my preferred lifestyle. The second question is just plain obvious. Or we were. During our travels we formed a group of study-abroaders that had a snowball effect from Chicago to Madrid to Alicante, and it didn't take us long to figure out we stuck out like a sore thumb. And also Spanish people generally don't consider it rude or unusual to stare at others out of pure observation. So they freely observed the weird-looking, English-yelling Americans. The arrival in Alicante and the entire first day were kind of a blur, mostly from jet lag and pure deliriousness but also because it was hard to comprehend that I am actually living here for five months. Our group of about 30 students stayed in a gorgeous hotel right on the beach for the first two nights...we were really roughing it. Those first days consisted of getting to know our group (I'm obsessed), exploring the city (also obsessed), and taking in a heck of a lot of information about what was about to come. Saturday was our first night out on the town and "Dios mio" this place is insanely cool. I'll go into more detail about the night scene later, but to sum it up - whoever said New York is the city that never sleeps has definitely never been to Europe. "El barrio" in Alicante is pure enjoyment for people from all over the world literally all night and morning long...We could only imagine what would happen if Big 12 stayed open past 1 a.m. back home. So with that long crazy night pictured in your head, imagine waking up a couple hours later to our group leader Armando telling us to hurry and pack up and be ready to meet the host families - but we're climbing a mountain first. Lo siento...que?! But it was definitely worth it. We climbed up to "El Castillo de Santa Bárbara," an ancient castle that was used as a fortress during war in the 1800s. From there, we could see over all of Alicante - the churches, the houses, the bullfighting arena, the ocean, and the mountains....it was nothing short of breathtaking. Seeing all of Alicante at once like that was quite the reality check. Yes, I am actually here...and I could not be more excited to discover more and more every day - about Alicante, Spain, Europe, the world, and myself. We returned to the hotel and waited for our host families to arrive and call our name. I felt like a kid waiting to be picked for dodgeball, if that dodgeball game determined your life for the next five months and no one on either team speaks English. Okay, bad analogy. But I was nervous. My name was eventually called and I left with two wonderful Spanish strangers to live with them...but I will talk about them and life in my new home in my next post. Hasta la próxima! |
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June 2016
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