Hola!
Here are the topics for this entry:
1. Snow storm last week
2. Awful internet connection
3. Difficult living situation
4. Going out in Madrid
1. As I promised in the last update, I would talk about the snowstorm. Two Fridays ago (just a few days after I arrived) there was a “serious” snowstorm. It must have been about 5 or 6 inches. Being from Wisconsin, I really didn’t think anything of it until I began to notice everyone else’s reactions. First of all, two days of orientation were canceled. All public transportation was shut down (including taxis) and a few bridges around town were closed. On Monday, I showed up for a class but it turned out that our professor cancelled it because she was at home sick due to the extreme cold weather (about 25 degrees Fahrenheit). Additionally, the students in the Resedencias were going crazy. It looked like a scene from a movie in which a bunch of young people were out in the snow laughing and frolicking, building snow men and having snowball fights. My housemates were especially excited because they either had never seen snow in their lives or just not this much. My roommate from Panama went out and took pictures for hours while my other housemate from Cuba looked out the kitchen window bundled in her winter jacket and hat proclaiming “ ¡Ay mi madre… por dios!”
Everywhere you went, people would be complaining about the weather. “Its just unbearable!” When we would pass one of those LED signs that flashed the time and the weather, there would be people on the bus that would gasp and point to the sign “Negative -2!” like the end of the world was coming. And remember that’s Celsius so it’s only about 25-30 degrees Fahrenheit for us. So overall, it was quite a funny sight.
Now it’s in the 40s and 50s and birds are chirping. This is the Spain I was looking for. Still, people are complaining of the “cold.”
2. In all those culture shock manuals, they tell you that you’re going to go through a phase where you start hating anything “Spanish.” Well I think I’m starting that phase because I HATE THE INTERNET HERE. Any new building you go to (say, the building where we take classes or an internet café), you have to “reconfigure” your internet settings. And in some cafes with wireless, you get a card with a password that lets you connect for 30 minutes. And wireless only works for simple things like checking emails or going on Facebook. I can’t connect to skype, MSN, upload pics or do video chat. ¡QUE COÑO ES ESTO! So much for keeping in touch with all of you on Skype. ☹
3. My living situation is getting difficult. Reason being, I tend to get caught up in conversation, watching TV with my housemates, helping them with English, or just hanging out with them in the living room when I really should be getting some reading done or updating this blog like I’ve been saying I would do for a few days now. I now know what people mean when they say its very distracting to study at home. I never really had distractions in my other living situations, but here, there’s always someone to talk to, listen to (which I’ll explain in a minute) or watch TV with. I’m really glad that I’m not living in a host family because most people who live in host families have just their Señora to chill with.
I don’t know how this happened, but I think I was placed in the perfect Resedencia. If you know me, you know I love to sing and I love music in Spanish. Well, my one of my housemates (Mexico) recently bought a guitar from the flea market in Madrid and will not stop strumming it. This causes another of my housemates to join in singing and then it’s just a domino effect. Cuba joins in with a song from her country then Dominican Republic joins in and then its not like I can just sit there without joining in myself. Last Friday night I was planning on going out to the bars in Alcalá, but when I came out to say bye to everyone, I got sucked in. It turned out that all I did was sit around all night singing, drinking wine, and eating tapas. GOD BLESS LATIN AMERICA!
One a another note, one of my housemates told me last week that he really wants to learn English for his job (computer sciences) so every night M-Th we decided to sit down and do 20 minutes of English for him and 20 minutes of Spanish for me. We’ve only had two “sessions” so far, but they have been really helpful for both of us. Another one if my housemates is also learning English and I’ve been helping him with his homework. I really like to help with English because it helps me with my Spanish too. Just another reason why I’m super lucky to live where I do.
That is to say, I have much more contact with Spanish and Spanish speakers than do a lot of other people on this program. Some people live with other Americans who refuse to speak Spanish or some have roommates who are married couples who mostly keep to themselves.
4. Last Saturday, I went out in Madrid with some girls on the program. I was finally able to meet up with my friend Sam Sandifer who just recently arrived in Spain. We went to a popular club in Madrid called Teatro Kapital with SEVEN FLOORS. The main floor is house music, then there was R&B and a Salsa/Reggaeton/Spanish pop floor. TOO MUCH FUN. But I am glad that I live in Alcala because going out in Madrid is superrrr expensive. First the ride there takes about an hour, and then we paid 15 Euros just to get in the club. Luckily we got a deal because someone had these discount cards which allowed us to get two free drinks and a discounted entry. So it was a good experience for one night, but I think I’ll have to limit these Madrid escapades to one night a month. Plus, we either have to leave at 1:30 (when the party hasn’t even started), or wait until 6:10 am when the commuter train back to Alcalá starts running. Probably not the most producting thing sleeping til 3:30 pm the next day…
HAPPY OBAMA INAUGURATION DAY! My roommates and I are going to throw a mini-party tonight and watch the ceremony. There will, of course, be wine and tapas.
Hasta luego!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
dilemma
Hey everyone! Sorry for taking such a long time to post an update. It's been a busy week as you can imagine. Since I had some complaints that my blog was too long last time (haters...), I'll divide it into sections this time and you can pick and choose what you want to read:
1. Las Resedencias
2. Latin American vs. Spain Spanish
3. A Language Oops
4. Sweet Public Transportation
5. Classes
6. My name
7. Message exclusively for Joe Ramirez
8. Salsa version of Gangsters Paradise
9. My Dilemma
1. A week ago I was at home in Waukesha getting ready to go to Spain. Now I'm here and I feel like I've already experienced a lot. My summer in Egypt taught me that no matter if its bad or good, its always a new experience that you have to make the best of and take lessons from. I already feel
2. I just moved into the resedencias (dorms) last Friday. And oh man, am I loving it. The program didn't tell us how the resedencias are set up, nor did they promise that we would live with spanish speakers. So I didn't get my hopes up. But all the better, because now instead of being just happy with my living situation, I can be SUPER HAPPY. First of all, the resedencias are NOTHING like the dorms in Madison. They're more like apartments. In my resedencia, there are 4 bedrooms (each with its own bathroom), a big kitchen, a living room and then two common half-baths. I live with 8 people, 4 guys and 4 girls (including me). First of all, I never knew I would be living with guys. (But for all my male relatives out there: not to worry, our rooms are well separated.) Second of all, I shouldn't even call them guys and girls. They range in age from 24-30 or so. Most are masters students studying subjects ranging from industrial engineering to hydrology (hidrología) and one woman is a pharmacy professor from Cuba getting some continuing education credits (or whatever they're called). Despite the age difference, everyone is really nice. When I leave for class or for wherever, they remind me that I can call them if I have any question or problem. Also, they don't treat me any different than each other even though I appear to be retarted due to my limited spanish (excuse my political incorrectness) and even though I am younger. In fact, last night two roommates took me to the grocery store and then we cooked dinner together. ☺ They all told me they would teach me how to cook dishes from their respective countries.
Which brings me to another exciting point, that they're all from Latin America! Que suerte tengo yo! I'm here studying in Spain, but I get the best of both Hispanic worlds!! I can learn about Spain in my classes (which I’ll talk about later), but I can learn about cooking, music and culture from Latin America. I really feel at home with them. My direct roommate is from Panama, then there are 4 Dominicans, the woman from Cuba, a guy from Nicaragua, and guy from Mexico.
All these cultures definitely makes for a different environment than my last living situation. Last semester, I lived with 2 girls who I didn’t know previously. We got along great, but we didn’t talk too much and we didn’t go out together either. I’ve been here in the resedencias for less than 4 days and I already went out with my roommates, cooked dinner with them, and had long (but choppy) conversations with them. And there’s always SOMEONE singing!! I woke up Sunday to singing coming from the kitchen, and they told me that since they didn’t have a radio to listen to while doing cleaning and chores, they had no choice but to sing!! I love that I live in a place that FEELS lived in. Always people shouting at each other or singing or laughing or making fun of one another.
2. So this mix of cultures brings me to my next point: difference between Latin American Spanish and Spanish Spanish. First of all I’ll say that I’m glad that I do live with Latin Americans because I don’t have to try to do the whole “th” pronunciation at home. (Because as you may or may not know, there’s a big difference between Latin American and Spanish pronunciation. One word where you can really note the difference is “civilizacion.” In Spain, it would be pronounced something like “thivilithathion” and in Latin American, the “c’s” are just as we would say them in Englush.) Also I can learn Spanish that will be most useful for me in the US. I will say that my roommates are hard to understand! But they are very understanding that I’m learning “poco a poco” and have no problem repeating things mil veces (a million times!) if necessary. Also some are learning English and are glad that they can ask me about phrases and words in Spanish. I was stupid enough to teach two of my roommates “Holy Fuck” last night and now they won’t stop saying it.
3. another oopsies of mine: I was talking to a friend of my roommate before going out on Saturday. He told me that he wanted to practice English with me. So I told him, “Sure! I’d love to. Just tell me whenever you want to talk with me!” So I told him, “solo dime cuando quieras hablar con yo!” I said “ with I” instead of “ with me” and in Spanish “conyo” (although its not spelled like that) means like something like motherfucker. So basically what I told this guy was, “just tell me when you want to talk, motherfucker!” Luckily I realized right away what I had just said, and he knew what I wanted to say so we just laughed.
4. Transporte Público: CALLING MADISON METRO PLANNERS. TAKE A CLUE FROM PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION HERE. The program manual said that one of the downsides of living in the dorms was having to take the bus to class. But it on Monday-Friday, it comes past the resedencias every 4-6 minutes. AND in some bus stops there are LED panels that say the number of the next bus that will arrive and in how many minutes it will arrive. Get with the program America!
5. Clases: I started classes today and seems like they will be sweet. The building in which we take classes just happens to be a 17th century monastery. Not bad. Also, I can understand all my professors which is a plus and I’m even starting to like their Spanish accent! What’s more important, one of my professors is hot. Like not even just for being a professor, for being a regular dude. That’s all I gotta say about that.
6. Mi nombre: I am no longer Mareeya Ramairaz (note the Wisconsin pronunciation). Here I am María Ramírez. Everyone is super relieved when I say that my name is Maria. Since it’s noticeable that I don’t speak Spanish fluently, they think my name will be something like Kelly Smith which is both hard to pronounce and remember. But one funny thing that that when I have to tell someone my name (as I have had to for forms or applications or whatever), I say María Ramírez, then they wait for a second, then look at me for a second, then ask, “second last name?” Then I have to tell them that I don’t have one. And I only have one first name. This is somewhat confusing for them that someone with a Latino sounding name would not have two first names and two last names. Also, a lot of my roommates after meeting me and finding out that that I was from the US were like, “that’s funny, because your face looks Latina!” Unfortunately I didn’t know how to say in Spanish at that time, “Well, that’s cuz it is.”
7. Un mensaje exclusivamente para mi hermano: When I was at the grocery store the other day, I bought some pasta noodles. Here they’re called maccarón. I have yet to figure out what chakkaron means. I’ll let you know when I do though.
8. I went to a salsa/bachata/merengue club on Saturday night and when we walked in a salsa version of "Gangster's Paradise" was playing. Wierrrrd.
9. So overall, I have a dilemma. Before coming, I thought I would want to travel every single weekend and see Europe and the rest of Spain. And I still do want to travel, but if the rest of the semester goes as well as the last week, then I also want to stay around here in Alcalá! Decisions, decisions.
I have to get to doing some actual work now, but tune in next time to hear about the grand (5 inch) snowstorm that shut down the whole town last weekend. And of course other exciting things about the life of yours truely.
Love yall and miss yall!
1. Las Resedencias
2. Latin American vs. Spain Spanish
3. A Language Oops
4. Sweet Public Transportation
5. Classes
6. My name
7. Message exclusively for Joe Ramirez
8. Salsa version of Gangsters Paradise
9. My Dilemma
1. A week ago I was at home in Waukesha getting ready to go to Spain. Now I'm here and I feel like I've already experienced a lot. My summer in Egypt taught me that no matter if its bad or good, its always a new experience that you have to make the best of and take lessons from. I already feel
2. I just moved into the resedencias (dorms) last Friday. And oh man, am I loving it. The program didn't tell us how the resedencias are set up, nor did they promise that we would live with spanish speakers. So I didn't get my hopes up. But all the better, because now instead of being just happy with my living situation, I can be SUPER HAPPY. First of all, the resedencias are NOTHING like the dorms in Madison. They're more like apartments. In my resedencia, there are 4 bedrooms (each with its own bathroom), a big kitchen, a living room and then two common half-baths. I live with 8 people, 4 guys and 4 girls (including me). First of all, I never knew I would be living with guys. (But for all my male relatives out there: not to worry, our rooms are well separated.) Second of all, I shouldn't even call them guys and girls. They range in age from 24-30 or so. Most are masters students studying subjects ranging from industrial engineering to hydrology (hidrología) and one woman is a pharmacy professor from Cuba getting some continuing education credits (or whatever they're called). Despite the age difference, everyone is really nice. When I leave for class or for wherever, they remind me that I can call them if I have any question or problem. Also, they don't treat me any different than each other even though I appear to be retarted due to my limited spanish (excuse my political incorrectness) and even though I am younger. In fact, last night two roommates took me to the grocery store and then we cooked dinner together. ☺ They all told me they would teach me how to cook dishes from their respective countries.
Which brings me to another exciting point, that they're all from Latin America! Que suerte tengo yo! I'm here studying in Spain, but I get the best of both Hispanic worlds!! I can learn about Spain in my classes (which I’ll talk about later), but I can learn about cooking, music and culture from Latin America. I really feel at home with them. My direct roommate is from Panama, then there are 4 Dominicans, the woman from Cuba, a guy from Nicaragua, and guy from Mexico.
All these cultures definitely makes for a different environment than my last living situation. Last semester, I lived with 2 girls who I didn’t know previously. We got along great, but we didn’t talk too much and we didn’t go out together either. I’ve been here in the resedencias for less than 4 days and I already went out with my roommates, cooked dinner with them, and had long (but choppy) conversations with them. And there’s always SOMEONE singing!! I woke up Sunday to singing coming from the kitchen, and they told me that since they didn’t have a radio to listen to while doing cleaning and chores, they had no choice but to sing!! I love that I live in a place that FEELS lived in. Always people shouting at each other or singing or laughing or making fun of one another.
2. So this mix of cultures brings me to my next point: difference between Latin American Spanish and Spanish Spanish. First of all I’ll say that I’m glad that I do live with Latin Americans because I don’t have to try to do the whole “th” pronunciation at home. (Because as you may or may not know, there’s a big difference between Latin American and Spanish pronunciation. One word where you can really note the difference is “civilizacion.” In Spain, it would be pronounced something like “thivilithathion” and in Latin American, the “c’s” are just as we would say them in Englush.) Also I can learn Spanish that will be most useful for me in the US. I will say that my roommates are hard to understand! But they are very understanding that I’m learning “poco a poco” and have no problem repeating things mil veces (a million times!) if necessary. Also some are learning English and are glad that they can ask me about phrases and words in Spanish. I was stupid enough to teach two of my roommates “Holy Fuck” last night and now they won’t stop saying it.
3. another oopsies of mine: I was talking to a friend of my roommate before going out on Saturday. He told me that he wanted to practice English with me. So I told him, “Sure! I’d love to. Just tell me whenever you want to talk with me!” So I told him, “solo dime cuando quieras hablar con yo!” I said “ with I” instead of “ with me” and in Spanish “conyo” (although its not spelled like that) means like something like motherfucker. So basically what I told this guy was, “just tell me when you want to talk, motherfucker!” Luckily I realized right away what I had just said, and he knew what I wanted to say so we just laughed.
4. Transporte Público: CALLING MADISON METRO PLANNERS. TAKE A CLUE FROM PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION HERE. The program manual said that one of the downsides of living in the dorms was having to take the bus to class. But it on Monday-Friday, it comes past the resedencias every 4-6 minutes. AND in some bus stops there are LED panels that say the number of the next bus that will arrive and in how many minutes it will arrive. Get with the program America!
5. Clases: I started classes today and seems like they will be sweet. The building in which we take classes just happens to be a 17th century monastery. Not bad. Also, I can understand all my professors which is a plus and I’m even starting to like their Spanish accent! What’s more important, one of my professors is hot. Like not even just for being a professor, for being a regular dude. That’s all I gotta say about that.
6. Mi nombre: I am no longer Mareeya Ramairaz (note the Wisconsin pronunciation). Here I am María Ramírez. Everyone is super relieved when I say that my name is Maria. Since it’s noticeable that I don’t speak Spanish fluently, they think my name will be something like Kelly Smith which is both hard to pronounce and remember. But one funny thing that that when I have to tell someone my name (as I have had to for forms or applications or whatever), I say María Ramírez, then they wait for a second, then look at me for a second, then ask, “second last name?” Then I have to tell them that I don’t have one. And I only have one first name. This is somewhat confusing for them that someone with a Latino sounding name would not have two first names and two last names. Also, a lot of my roommates after meeting me and finding out that that I was from the US were like, “that’s funny, because your face looks Latina!” Unfortunately I didn’t know how to say in Spanish at that time, “Well, that’s cuz it is.”
7. Un mensaje exclusivamente para mi hermano: When I was at the grocery store the other day, I bought some pasta noodles. Here they’re called maccarón. I have yet to figure out what chakkaron means. I’ll let you know when I do though.
8. I went to a salsa/bachata/merengue club on Saturday night and when we walked in a salsa version of "Gangster's Paradise" was playing. Wierrrrd.
9. So overall, I have a dilemma. Before coming, I thought I would want to travel every single weekend and see Europe and the rest of Spain. And I still do want to travel, but if the rest of the semester goes as well as the last week, then I also want to stay around here in Alcalá! Decisions, decisions.
I have to get to doing some actual work now, but tune in next time to hear about the grand (5 inch) snowstorm that shut down the whole town last weekend. And of course other exciting things about the life of yours truely.
Love yall and miss yall!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
a mi no me gusta el pescado aqui
Another great end to a great day. Unfortunately my adventures are not as exciting as Alana’s in Kenya and all those other African countries that she’s been to, but I am enjoying myself here.
So far I am really impressed with the program. We’ve been taken on various tours of the city and campus. Not only were they tours that helped us orient ourselves with directions, but our tour guide also told us how to send and receive letters and the post office, how to buy a bus pass, etc. Very very helpful!
The hotel that we’re staying in is very nice, and every meal that we’ve eaten is covered by the program. (And may I mention that we’ve eaten at some pretty sweet restaurants.) The only unfortunate thing is that we can’t order alcoholic beverages (aka wine) on the program’s bill. I guess I’ll have to wait a few days more to start my adventures in Spanish wineland. But anyhoo, this brings me to the food here. All I can say is good thing I eat meat. I do understand that we’ve been having very nice meals lately, but all the lunches (almuerzos) and dinners (cenas) have meat in every option. And a lot of pork. Usually I’m not a swine eater, but when in Spain…
Today I had an interesting experience at the restaurant were we went for lunch. There always has been two plates and then desert. And we can choose from three options for each plato (plate). So of course when I heard paella, I had to try it. I did and that wasn’t bad, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out how to get the meat out of the un-shelled shrimp. I ripped the head off of one and tried to suck the meat out. No dice. Then I tried to peel the shell off another but the dang shrimp just kept slipping around in my hands. So I just gave up and crunched one in my mouth hoping some meat would squeeze out. I think I did get a little…
THEN, for the second plate, there was a option of either pork, salchichas (basically hotdogs) or fish. I decided to go for the lesser of all evils, the fish. But before ordering, I asked the waiter if the fish came with bones. He said yes, but they’re really thin and if you swallow them, they wont do you any harm. Since the majority of fish here is not deboned and in fact comes with head, eyes, mouth and all, I thought I was scoring big with this fish. But ah, to the contrary. What the waiter brought to me was a plate full of these little fried guys. The whole dang fish. Scales and all. MmmMmMmmMM. I was about to go for my neighbor’s salchicas, but then I remembered that my dad told me to try some sort of small fried fish. Which may have been this. Unfortunately, It was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever had. It was 1) fried, 2) a fish, 3) had scales, 4) had a head, 5) had a tail, 6) had little skinny bones that despite what the waiter said, do not digest easily!
Now as for my Spanish skillz. I’m already feeling a little better about them. ¡Y ESCUCHAN ESTO! Today as the group was waiting for the bus, the program coordinator and I started talking about our day tomorrow. In the evening, were going to take a placement exam for Spanish. She assumed that I would test into the class “Spanish for Spanish Speakers.” She thought since I speak Spanish at home I would make the same grammatical errors as would a native Spanish speaker. Then I of course had to explain to her that no, my family doesn’t speak Spanish (sorry Joe, Dad and Mom but let’s be real with ourselves), that instead I learned in school. But then she said, whatever, you’ll probably be part of that group anyway. So moral of the story, I can speak Spanish! WOOT WOOT.
I suppose I’ll stop now because I may be boring all you readers out there. If you’ve made it to this point, thanks for stickin it out while I pour my heart out to yall.
Y una cosita mas: I GOT A PHONE TODAY! My # is 618648243. to call from the US, you have to dial 011 + 34 +the number above.
So far I am really impressed with the program. We’ve been taken on various tours of the city and campus. Not only were they tours that helped us orient ourselves with directions, but our tour guide also told us how to send and receive letters and the post office, how to buy a bus pass, etc. Very very helpful!
The hotel that we’re staying in is very nice, and every meal that we’ve eaten is covered by the program. (And may I mention that we’ve eaten at some pretty sweet restaurants.) The only unfortunate thing is that we can’t order alcoholic beverages (aka wine) on the program’s bill. I guess I’ll have to wait a few days more to start my adventures in Spanish wineland. But anyhoo, this brings me to the food here. All I can say is good thing I eat meat. I do understand that we’ve been having very nice meals lately, but all the lunches (almuerzos) and dinners (cenas) have meat in every option. And a lot of pork. Usually I’m not a swine eater, but when in Spain…
Today I had an interesting experience at the restaurant were we went for lunch. There always has been two plates and then desert. And we can choose from three options for each plato (plate). So of course when I heard paella, I had to try it. I did and that wasn’t bad, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out how to get the meat out of the un-shelled shrimp. I ripped the head off of one and tried to suck the meat out. No dice. Then I tried to peel the shell off another but the dang shrimp just kept slipping around in my hands. So I just gave up and crunched one in my mouth hoping some meat would squeeze out. I think I did get a little…
THEN, for the second plate, there was a option of either pork, salchichas (basically hotdogs) or fish. I decided to go for the lesser of all evils, the fish. But before ordering, I asked the waiter if the fish came with bones. He said yes, but they’re really thin and if you swallow them, they wont do you any harm. Since the majority of fish here is not deboned and in fact comes with head, eyes, mouth and all, I thought I was scoring big with this fish. But ah, to the contrary. What the waiter brought to me was a plate full of these little fried guys. The whole dang fish. Scales and all. MmmMmMmmMM. I was about to go for my neighbor’s salchicas, but then I remembered that my dad told me to try some sort of small fried fish. Which may have been this. Unfortunately, It was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever had. It was 1) fried, 2) a fish, 3) had scales, 4) had a head, 5) had a tail, 6) had little skinny bones that despite what the waiter said, do not digest easily!
Now as for my Spanish skillz. I’m already feeling a little better about them. ¡Y ESCUCHAN ESTO! Today as the group was waiting for the bus, the program coordinator and I started talking about our day tomorrow. In the evening, were going to take a placement exam for Spanish. She assumed that I would test into the class “Spanish for Spanish Speakers.” She thought since I speak Spanish at home I would make the same grammatical errors as would a native Spanish speaker. Then I of course had to explain to her that no, my family doesn’t speak Spanish (sorry Joe, Dad and Mom but let’s be real with ourselves), that instead I learned in school. But then she said, whatever, you’ll probably be part of that group anyway. So moral of the story, I can speak Spanish! WOOT WOOT.
I suppose I’ll stop now because I may be boring all you readers out there. If you’ve made it to this point, thanks for stickin it out while I pour my heart out to yall.
Y una cosita mas: I GOT A PHONE TODAY! My # is 618648243. to call from the US, you have to dial 011 + 34 +the number above.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
I'm here!
Hola a todos!
Welcome to me very first post from Spain. Right now I'm in a hotel called Hotel Campanile in Alcalá de Henares. On the way here, both flights were delayed but luckily it was BOTH so that I had time to catch the second one out of Amsterdam. And I had a very plesant surprise when I ran into my friend Al from UW Madison in Chigao. Turns out she and her friend were taking the same flight to Amsterdam...what a small world!!
Last night I stayed with a family friend of my friend Federico (also from Waukesha/UW Madison). For being a total stranger to her, she was really kind and welcoming! She picked me up from the airport in her SmartCar and we headed to her house right outside of the city. Last night I slept from 7-9 pm, then from 11 pm-10 am. Hopefully that wont mess up my sleeping patterns too much!
This morning was somewhat of a fiasco, as I got a taste of the relaxed concept of time that the Spanish seem to have. Federico told Tula (the woman we were staying with) that we needed to be out of the house at 10:30. We left at 11:30. And since we couldnt all fit in her SmartCar, she drove us one by one to the train staion and we were going to take the train. But then we missed the train. So we took a cab to the airport. But by the time we arrived at the airport, we missed the group pickup. So, we had to take the metro to the Cercanías (commuter train) station, and then take a train to Alcalá de Henares.
Luckily, I always know that nothing is going to turn out as planned when traveling so I didn't mind spending way too much money and way too much time for a trip that should have only taken 1 hour max. (well to be honest I did care about the money, but as they say in Egypt ma3lish!). Of course I was chuckling to myself as Federico was pouting. :P I think this is due to my disorder which makes me laugh when I really shouldn't...
Federico and I arrived at the hotel just in time for the orientation. We went to eat at a nearby restuarant and now we have a time for a "siesta." If you know me, you know I love naps. Thus, I already love Spain. But to be honest, I'm not going to sleep now because I want to try to get used to the time change.
Anyhoo, the whole group here seems really nice and Cristina Blanco (the program director) is also great. It seems to be a diverse group from all over the US.
I'm really happy that I'm already speaking Spanish a majority of the time. I try to speak it all the time unless I want to make a joke or say something witty. I suppose I'll KNOW that i can really speak spanish when I can say those kinds of things.
It was most difficult at Tula's house because she would talk to me and I understood what she was saying but I didnt respond how I wanted so I usually would just say okay or sounds good or "oh really?" Which kind of made me look like an idiot. But whatever, I suppose its part of the learning process!
Tonight we're going for a walk around downtown Alcalá. Then tomorrow is another day of orientation! We're moving into the dorms and homestays (dorms for me) on Friday morn.
Well thanks for tuning in! Until next time...
Welcome to me very first post from Spain. Right now I'm in a hotel called Hotel Campanile in Alcalá de Henares. On the way here, both flights were delayed but luckily it was BOTH so that I had time to catch the second one out of Amsterdam. And I had a very plesant surprise when I ran into my friend Al from UW Madison in Chigao. Turns out she and her friend were taking the same flight to Amsterdam...what a small world!!
Last night I stayed with a family friend of my friend Federico (also from Waukesha/UW Madison). For being a total stranger to her, she was really kind and welcoming! She picked me up from the airport in her SmartCar and we headed to her house right outside of the city. Last night I slept from 7-9 pm, then from 11 pm-10 am. Hopefully that wont mess up my sleeping patterns too much!
This morning was somewhat of a fiasco, as I got a taste of the relaxed concept of time that the Spanish seem to have. Federico told Tula (the woman we were staying with) that we needed to be out of the house at 10:30. We left at 11:30. And since we couldnt all fit in her SmartCar, she drove us one by one to the train staion and we were going to take the train. But then we missed the train. So we took a cab to the airport. But by the time we arrived at the airport, we missed the group pickup. So, we had to take the metro to the Cercanías (commuter train) station, and then take a train to Alcalá de Henares.
Luckily, I always know that nothing is going to turn out as planned when traveling so I didn't mind spending way too much money and way too much time for a trip that should have only taken 1 hour max. (well to be honest I did care about the money, but as they say in Egypt ma3lish!). Of course I was chuckling to myself as Federico was pouting. :P I think this is due to my disorder which makes me laugh when I really shouldn't...
Federico and I arrived at the hotel just in time for the orientation. We went to eat at a nearby restuarant and now we have a time for a "siesta." If you know me, you know I love naps. Thus, I already love Spain. But to be honest, I'm not going to sleep now because I want to try to get used to the time change.
Anyhoo, the whole group here seems really nice and Cristina Blanco (the program director) is also great. It seems to be a diverse group from all over the US.
I'm really happy that I'm already speaking Spanish a majority of the time. I try to speak it all the time unless I want to make a joke or say something witty. I suppose I'll KNOW that i can really speak spanish when I can say those kinds of things.
It was most difficult at Tula's house because she would talk to me and I understood what she was saying but I didnt respond how I wanted so I usually would just say okay or sounds good or "oh really?" Which kind of made me look like an idiot. But whatever, I suppose its part of the learning process!
Tonight we're going for a walk around downtown Alcalá. Then tomorrow is another day of orientation! We're moving into the dorms and homestays (dorms for me) on Friday morn.
Well thanks for tuning in! Until next time...
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