Week 2 - Orenitation, Food & Laundry

On Monday, Yaya showed me how to separate laundry, so I figured that she would wash them separately. I had washed a load of darks and hung them out to dry earlier in the day. I left a bag of whites by the dryer and Yaya came into our room before we left for class and grabbed our clothes for another load. At dinner our host mom was asking us about the laundry and how it went today, and she said there was another load in the machine. After dinner I happened to look in the washer and I could see our whites had been mixed in with our reds. So I told Pete he now had two pink shirts, and I had pink socks and he explained to her that its not a good thing to mix reds and whites. So she got our some bleach and bleached our whites, while we hung up all of our reds on the clothesline. That was a funny and interesting experience, I figured they would have washed alike colors separately since Yaya showed me to put all like colors together.

Meals have been good lately. When we got home last Sunday we had paella, and for dinner we had paella, and for lunch on Monday we had more paella, and then for dinner the rest of the left over paella was thrown into a soup. So we had paella for at least two days straight. We thought the food was great so we weren’t going to complain. Since I’m on the topic of food, I don’t understand how people are so skinny and healthy here, granted they walk practically everywhere. Every meal has bread and most of our meals have been a lot of carbs and starches, either being potatoes or rice. Even though we get a fruit after lunch and dinner, it still feels like that we don’t get enough fruits and vegetables.

The process in eating lunch here is opposite of the states. The main course of the meal is first (with bread), then a smaller second item, like empanadas, then salad, and finally a fruit. I would prefer to do it the other way around, starting with fruit or a salad and then combining the two courses, but I guess that’s just how I am so used to things back home. Also dairy is almost nonexistent because they do not drink much milk here, except for in coffee. Cheese and yogurt is like the main sources of dairy products, and they eat a ton of ham and cheese here. And ham is not an extremely great source of protein, so it just seems weird how it all works out. And after the biggest meal of the day, lunch, many people take a nap before going back to work or classes.

(This is where I attend classes - El Centro de Lenguas Modernas)

Another thing I’m not used to is a tiny breakfast, either a piece of fruit or bread. I feel like I need something more to make it through my day. Its kind of funny because Pete and I both had a croissant with a small muffin and I asked for fruit instead, so every morning, I have two slices of melon or watermelon on my plate, so we swap so we get a little fruit and carbs to start our days. This will just take time to get used to, even though I have been in Spain for two weeks now, and living with a host family for a week and a half.

Also I learned that when they say tortilla, it is not the tortilla that we are used to in the states like when we think of Mexican or Hispanic food. Tortilla here is an omelet, usually with cheese, ham, and some vegetables, and we have had it for dinner a couple times now. I like it but Pete hates eggs, so he struggles through dinner. Pete also doesn’t like tomatoes, so now we just get salads with just lettuce and onion. It’s interesting that when one of us says we don’t like something, then neither of us get it. Our host brother Galdreg thinks that we are weird since we do not put vinegar olive oil, or salt on our salads.

I have made some friends who live in Granada, and they invited us to play soccer with them last week. It has been rainy so they haven’t Also I have made friends from all over the states. Our program covers 11 different states and then I have met a group from Delaware and Claifornia. Also the other day I was walking to a group meeting wearing an Iowa shirt – looking like a complete tourist – a girl stopped me and asked me if I was from Iowa. And I thought for a second, should I say yes, or not but I like Iowa. Its seems like anyone outside of Iowa actually likes Iowa, so I said yes, and this girl attends Grinnell (Iowa) so a small world. I also met someone who went to Pella Christian and goes to Drake, so another small world experience. Earlier this week we went to a park near by and they have some of the coolest play ground equipment, a zipline, a teeter-totter that spins 360 degrees, trampolines built into the ground, and just a bunch of other stuff to climb around on. It’s nice that we found that place because its FREE and something completely random to go do and hang out.

Tonight is our placement test and we have a meeting after that to see our class schedules. Depending on what level I test into, I could start classes next Thursday or not until the following Tuesday. We leave tomorrow for Madrid for four days. So depending on my level I also might go to another country with my time off. Some people are going to Amsterdam, Octoberfest (but no Hotel accommodations), London, Paris, but they know that they won’t have class next week. I think I need to create a photo album because I already have over 300 pictures, and I am sure I will have a ton more after this trip.

Once I get the pictures from the beach, I will post that soon.

I Never Thought Watching TV Would Be So Hard...

Lately our internet has been not working as well so I haven’t had a chance to update the blog so here’s the latest update from the past week (Some you may have gotten from the last email). Last Sunday, we met our host families for the semester and got our itineraries for the next two weeks. I have a roommate named Peter who is from Wheaton, Illinois. Our host family is a single parent family. Our senora has a son named Galdreg, who lives at home who is 26 and attends the University of Granada and her mother, Yaya, lives in the apartment who is 86 years old.

I can’t believe I would ever say this but… “Watching TV is horrible”. Everything here is so fast and dubbed over so you can’t ever read lips to get a general idea. Peter and I ended up watching an episode of Family Guy “Padre de la Familia” with our host family during our siesta last week. They also watch the Simpsons here and the voice-overs aren’t too bad when comparing them to the voices in English.

We meet as an entire group to start the day from 10 – 12 and then either have an excursion to the neighborhoods around the Granada area or we get to have some free time. Lunch is anytime from 2 – 3, and then back to class from 4 – 7. Then at night we try to find a new place to go since most of us live fairly close to each other. One of the best places so far is Café Drago or (The Tubo Bar) because we can get a 3 liter tube of sangria, tinto verano, or beer for 15 Euro, which also includes a ham pizza (Tapas). It’s a nice place to meet everyone because it’s in the middle of all of our apartments and a nice and relaxed place where we all can hang out, grab a drink and something to eat for fairly cheap. Another place is La Chupiteria 69 (The Shot Bar), this place has a list of 120 different shots all for 1 Euro. The other place we found was Café-Pub Batan, they have glasses of beer or sangria for 1 Euro. This pub plays a lot of American music and it also has a foosball table, and the bartenders actually have conversations with you unlike most places around here and they do magic tricks, mostly when he returns your change and with cards. Lately we have made it a tradition to stay up late, about till 3 A.M. and start walking people home so Pete and I get back at usually around 3:30 or close to 4 and we get about 5 hours of sleep each night.

The lack of sleep has finally caught up with me, I have caught a small cold, which started Friday, so hopefully I can get rid of it soon. The classes this week have gone well but are kind of slow and boring. We met everyday at 10 and we got more information about the Morocco trip, I will be going in November…hopefully. I am excited about this trip, even though it is very expensive, I heard it is a must see trip if you come to Spain and well worth the money. Once I get more information I will let you know. For those of you coming to Spain next semester, the Morocco trip is included with the tuition, so they plan when you go, so that will be one less trip you have to plan for.

We also met some locals and we are planning on playing soccer with them this week. I have never played soccer before, so this will be an interesting experience. I was hoping to play some basketball here, so we might try to get a team formed through school, I think that’s the only way people play since they really don’t have a rec center or public areas to play pick up games.

We went to the beach this weekend, so I will fill you all in about that trip very soon…

Pictures:
(1 & 2 -Views of the Alahambra from our excursions. The tour of that will be in October.)
(3 - Part of the fountain in the Plaza del Isabel Catolica)
(4 - A cathedral on one of our excursions)
(5 - A view of the sunset from my room... Aren't you all jealous???)

Goodbye USA...Hola Espana

Sorry for the late post but I haven't had a chance to actually sit down at a computer without paying by the hour. I’ve been in Spain for almost a week now, and it has been a great trip so far.

The flights seemed short but the layovers were long. The flight from Chicago to London was 7 hours and I managed to watch three movies (What Happens in Vegas, Kung Fu Panda, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and an episode of The Office and an episode of Two and Half Men plus managing to get about an hour of sleep. The layover in London was about six hours but we (Maggie, Jill, Kayla, and I) passed the time by having lunch and walking around...a lot.

The flight from London to Malaga was a two and a half hour flight. I sat next to a guy from the London area who could tell I was an American just by my conversation on the plane with Maggie. We talked practically the whole way to Malaga about the widest variety of topics: What our home towns/countries are like which lead to politics (and I'm not a person to really talk about politics but it was quite interesting) which lead to the war, which lead to athletics, and then to the best part of our conversation. He asked me, “What’s the deal with American football? You guys look like a bunch of pussies with all of those pads on…look at those rugby players, they only wear shin guards.” I found this hilarious just by the way he phrased the question and the cultural differences between such similar countries. So I tried to explain American football to him and he responded, “So it’s like rugby and soccer combined but using your hands plus a little too much extra padding?” I laughed and told him that’s basically it, because there was no way to explain it with out actual film of a game.

The weather in Malaga was beautiful. It was about 7:30 and the sun was still out and around 28 degrees (near 80 Fahrenheit). We waited for our luggage and realized after about 15 minutes our luggage was at a different claim since we weren’t from the EU. So right after we got there all four of us had got our bags. Thankfully, we all got our luggage because we had heard horror stories about students other students having their bags lost.

The weather in Malaga was beautiful. It was about 7:30 and the sun was still out and around 28 degrees (near 80 Fahrenheit). We waited for our luggage and realized after about 15 minutes our luggage was at a different claim since we weren’t from the EU. So right after we got there all four of us had got our bags. Thankfully, we all got our luggage because we had heard horror stories about students other students having their bags lost.

We got to our hotel which was one of the coolest hotel rooms I had ever been in. The shower had four heads all enclosed in glass, and we had a queen size bed and a bunk bed (Pictures on page). We also had an LCD TV and wireless internet came with the room.

So after a short email to our families telling them that we had arrived safely. We walked around the downtown area. We found a place that had Kababs (Similar to a chicken sandwich / wrap / pita) which one of my favorite foods from my trip to Peru almost two years ago. We ended up going to bed around 12:30 and not waking up until 11. And the next morning we went to the bus station for Granada. The streets and sidewalks in Spain are amazing, they are all stone or marble bricks or tiles.

More to come soon...