June 30, 2010
10:14 PM España time
Right now I’m sitting in my house in León without internet and with nothing going on until tomorrow morning. I wrote my essay that is due tomorrow, cleaned out my suitcase completely, organized my room, and was about to just go to bed (which is kind of ridiculous at this time of night in Spain) when I had the brilliant idea to WRITE a blog now and POST it tomorrow. I’ll try to make this one nice and long since my others have been pretty short. Sorry for anyone who doesn’t want to read about the minutae of my life; feel free to skip around or stop whenever!
I think the last time I wrote was when I was in Madrid, but I’m going to just start at the beginning and go from there, because I definitely didn’t include much detail in my earlier blogs!
June 20th, 2010
Was supposed to leave my house for the airport at 5 AM. Ended up leaving more like 5:15-5:20, because all the last-minute stuff I had to put in my suitcase made it a tad overweight and more full than I would have liked. Sans one sweatshirt, a curling iron, and a Spanish verb book later, I was ready to go. Turns out my worries were totally unnecessary – I am one of the lightest travelers here! (among the girls at least) It was nice throughout the trip to be able to pack easily and pull my suitcase without having a heart attack though – I won’t name names, but each morning leaving the hotel was an ordeal for many girls, consisting of much stuffing, sitting on suitcases (yes, sometimes multiple), and trying to fit everything in the elevator (if you’re reading this and it applies to you, don’t worry, I love you, and I have been in that situation before! ☺).
But I digress. My trip to New York was largely uneventful and I fortunately got a little sleep in (which was good, because I was up late the night before since my friend from middle school got in around 11 PM and I HAD to see her before I left). New York Kennedy airport is not my favorite though, I have to say! Confusing signs, masses and masses of people, many speaking different languages at high volumes and smelling strongly of body odor, and practically no electrical outlets. There are about 4 per each 3 gates, situated on a tiny pole around which everyone is crowded trying to charge cellphones and computers. I know the airport was made in a pre-electrical age (okay, no, but when handheld devices were not so common), but it seems like other airports have figured out a way to make it work… Anyway, after about an hour of wandering around trying to figure out which shuttle I had to take and looking for an outlet, I ended up with about 3 hours to kill. After buying an hour’s worth of internet (I spent a fortune on internet that day!) and working frantically on a summer assignment for a club that I’m in at school that I was supposed to have finished before I left (still not done), I unplugged my still-not-fully-charged-computer and left for my gate. There I began to panic, because it seemed like EVERYONE was speaking in Spanish. I was not mentally prepared for that in the United States! Eight more hours of English, por favor! I also didn’t immediately recognize anyone from my program at the gate, leading me to obsessively check and recheck the number on my ticket and compare with the number listed on the display. I wasn’t sure I was on the right flight until we boarded to be honest, but this happens to me often. ☺
After an hour delay and many panicky texts from my friend whose plane was late getting to New York (he made it), we were in the air. I had already found one other guy in my program on the flight and had heard there were at least two others… for the flight, however, I was next to two Spanish speakers who definitely made the most of their language abilities. After maybe six hours of trying to work up the courage to talk to them, I finally was able to ask them if they lived in Spain (good question, right? haha). I think they were extremely surprised that a) I could talk at all and b) I could speak Spanish, but they recovered and were actually very nice. One of them gave me his business card and made me promise to call if I ever had any problems or had any questions. The other it turns out was actually from Colombia, meaning that I could understand almost nothing of what she was saying no matter how hard either of us tried. I was assured, however, that this was normal and not to worry.
Upon arrival in Málaga, I had my next trial of nerves at the baggage claim. I am always terrified of getting somewhere without luggage and as it had actually happened on two of my last three trips (the exception being one for which I didn’t have to check anything), I think I was rightfully nervous. It didn’t help that the same twenty bags kept circulating around, none of which were mine. Spanish baggage claims are almost as slow as Bozeman ones however, so it only took time for my bag to appear. At baggage claim I met up with the other kids from my program. There were six on my flight, including two others from Harvard. We got to know each other very well very fast, as we had six hours to wait in the airport before we were to leave. We considered leaving the airport but it was really impossible, so we spent the whole time in an American-esque restaurant in the main terminal, where we took up progressively more and more room as people arrived, until I think the waitresses legitimately hated us for blocking everything with our luggage. We took these last six hours before the program “officially” started to try to speak as much English as possible. Turns out quite a bit has been spoken since, despite the contracts we signed to the contrary, but that has all been contraband of course.
Unfortunately, we all began to crash about an hour before our bus was to arrive, and it looked probable for a while that the program directors were going to find us all asleep at the table, but most of us managed to stay awake until the bus, although we were slightly delirious. From the airport, we had a quick bus ride to Nerja, our first stop.
Nerja is a tiny and very touristy town on the coast of southern Spain. It is gorgeous, and we stayed in an amazing hotel right on the beach. We had two days of not much more than touring the city, swimming in the ocean, tanning, watching soccer and eating paella in plentiful amounts before we started our tour of Spain for real. The days were idyllic, and many of the pictures on Facebook prove it (I actually didn’t take any pictures, but I will try to rob one from someone and upload it).
From Nerja, we traveled to Frigiliana (tiny, all white city – we hiked to the top of a mountain and saw some of the prettiest views of my life) and then Granada. In Granada, we only had time to tour the old Muslim part of the city, Alhambra. It was beautiful and hot – a recurring theme in this week of travel! From there we went to Sevilla.
Sevilla was probably my least favorite part of the trip. The mass of buildings and cars were good difference in my mind to the quaintness of Nerja, and I was scared to walk around without a group of people. We found some very nice people and bars that night though and I discovered the magic of Spanish “chupitos” (shots). One bar we went to had a two page menu of mixed chupitos, something I have heard is not found in the United States (I guess I can’t verify that as I’ve never been to a US bar!). The bartender was very nice to us with our halting Spanish, and I enjoyed a couple of highly delicious and only slightly alcoholic chupitos. I enjoyed the next morning in Sevilla as well, as we toured the old part of the city. For those of you who I sent postcards to, this is where they’re from. Everything was huge and gorgeous, especially the main cathedral that we visited. Our professor told us that it is a verifiable fact that the people who planned the cathedral made it so enormous in part simply to make those who came after wonder how people could be so crazy… I also had my first conversation with native Spanish speakers at this point in the trip. It consisted of a couple women asking me to take their picture, me messing up several times (jiggling the camera, finger on the lenses, etc. – I was nervous!), and finally running away in embarrassment after taking an acceptable picture.
From Sevilla, we traveled to Córdoba, after a slight delay due to accidentally leaving two members of our group at the cathedral and not noticing until over an hour later (really their fault, but they were a little freaked out when we eventually found them). I honestly don’t remember a whole lot from Córdoba, except that we had to walk about a mile to our hotel in the boiling heat with our suitcases because our tour bus couldn’t fit through the streets of the city. In Córdoba we saw a Flamenco show, which was not nearly as cool as I had thought it would be. I think this mostly had to due with the fact that it was over two hours long (starting at 10:30 pm) and I was exhausted, but I was not highly impressed. I think prior to Córdoba we stopped by the windmills attributed to Don Quixote as well, but this could have been the next day. For pictures of our group there and in other locations press
HERE. (or copy and paste this link: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Leon-Spain/Summer-Institute-of-Hispanic-Studies-SIHS/118621101500778 into a new tab if you don’t want to leave my blog quite yet!)
By the way, we our now up to the fifth official day of the trip, on June 25th. It is currently the 30th, so I’m halfway there! I have a feeling the rest will be a bit shorter though, because I’m starting to get a little tired of typing… Anyway, on the fifth day we left for Madrid, with a stop in Toledo on the way. In Toledo, we visited some more old places and had lots of fun. In case you’re wondering, I’m being intentionally vague due to the fact that I can’t quite keep everything quite separate in my mind! But like everywhere, the places we visited were beautiful, ancient, and HOT. We arrived in Madrid that night and ate in the hotel while watching the Spain vs. someone game. I think my table had four bottles of wine that night with dinner, so it was a fun night! Haha. There we met the daughter of the director of our program who was beautiful and very Spanish and made us all feel inadequate and American.
The next day, we took our placement tests and visited two very cool art museums, and then had the rest of the day and night off. We went to the Museo del Prado and another modern art museum (something like the Museo de la Reina Sofia, but I can’t quite remember). At the Prado I bought a print for only one euro, which I think was pretty much my buy of the trip. I’m not an art person, but I was very impressed to see many of the famous, famous, super-famous paintings that I’ve studied throughout school in all my history and Spanish classes. Picasso’s “Guernica” and Velazquez’ (?) “Las Meninas” stand out especially. The rest of the day was fun too, as we got to practice our Spanish at restaurants and stores all around Madrid. That night, we all went to “El Capital,” a seven-story dance club. Several of us met up with friends studying in Madrid and I was happily surprised to be able to meet up with a friend of a friend who was visiting with her mom.
The next day was the longest of the trip. We passed through Segovia, Salamanca and Ávila, and eventually arrived in León around nine thirty. I especially liked Salamanca – I recognized the main plaza from a movie I had watched in my Spanish cinema class this year, and I had delicious green apple ice cream (a side note: Spanish ice cream is much, much different from US ice cream and I’m pretty much in love with it!) By the time we got to León, however, we were all exhausted and nervous. I was especially nervous, as I was the only girl put in a family without another member of the group. Apparently I had put something on my housing form about not caring, I don’t remember…
So far, it has all worked out very well however. My Señora is named Nieves (snow) and she lives alone in a fairly small apartment (I think it’s pretty normal by Spanish standards). She has one daughter that lives in León as well, with a three-year-old son (I can’t wait to meet him!). I can understand her fairly well, although she has more of an accent than my professors and other adults that I talk to on the trip, and I have to ask her to repeat things or explain words quite a bit. I think that living alone has definitely improved my Spanish though, because I can’t rely on anyone else to talk or interpret for me! She is very nice and lets me do whatever I want, although she will often give me advice on where or where not to go in the city. I have keys to the apartment which is good, except about half the time she gets to the door before I am able to open it (most of you who are reading this probably know how bad I am with doors, and hers is especially hard because the doorknob is in the middle of the door and I cannot figure out how to work all the locks). She told me that I can never be a robber, which is probably very true! I have my own room and bathroom, and she insists on making my bed every day for me. I eat desayuno with her each morning, which generally consists of rolls and jam with hot chocolate, which is good but not very filling! I’m always starving throughout the morning. She was recently asking me what I normally eat in America for breakfast and I told her cereal. She knows that I also like chocolate, so she came back with chocolate cereal for me. Very sweet of her, although chocolate cereal is definitely not my favorite! I don’t think she understands how cereal works either, because she didn’t give me a bowl or milk or anything. I put some in my hot chocolate and ate it there, which probably gave her the wrong impression, but oh well. After classes, which end at two, I come back for “comida,” which is the lunch meal and the largest meal of the day. She serves dinner at 9:15 or whenever I want, and it’s typically a bit smaller. All of the food that she has made has been very good, but she luckily doesn’t expect me to eat everything like some of the other students’ señoras. People regularly come to excursions groaning and complaining of not even being able to walk because they are so full… and actually, I am a bit afraid that my señora will start to make me eat more as well, because today I was forced into eating a banana after dinner because I “hadn’t had enough fruit that day.” We have been told that it is very rude to refuse food however, so we do our best. I also hope to take advantage of the free gym membership we were given for our time here…
But really, I doubt I have to worry because I have estimated that I walk at least five miles each day, if not significantly more. My house is about a mile from the school: a mile there in the morning, a mile back for lunch, a mile back most days for a group excursion, walking around there, a mile back to my house, and whatever walking I do at night when I go out, which is probably more like two or three in itself! So this should keep me in shape.
Finally, a bit about classes. I’m taking two classes, one advanced Spanish class and one class on the Camino de Santiago, an extremely famous pilgrimage in Spain. I love both of them, and my professor for Spanish is pretty much the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. She is in her twenties, very short, and is hilarious. We have a lot of homework for the language class and the grammar is much more intricate and difficult than it is at school (which is funny, because I won’t be receiving credit for this class due to it’s being “at the same level” as the last class I took – NOT TRUE). I also am really enjoying the class on the Camino. Right now we’re learning about ancient Spanish history, which I love, and later we are going to walk a portion of the Camino itself. We are walking a little over 100 kilometers (66 miles), which is the minimum length to receive a certificate for successfully completing the trip. I don’t have my backpacking stuff or my hiking boots with me, but I think I’ll be fine. I’m looking forward to having all my sins erased! Haha.
Finally, we have “charlas” daily, which are informal meetings with Spanish students assigned to work with us. The student assigned to my group is named Gustavo and is a student at the University here. We spend 45 minutes each day talking about pop culture, the United States, Spain, music, people, everything. It’s great, and he’s an awesome guy. He is studying English, and it’s funny to hear him try to pronounce words like “Shakespeare” and “Canterbury Tales” – which makes me realize how hard it must be for him to understand us!
Well, that’s about it. The only thing that I think I haven’t covered in exhaustive detail is the people on my trip. I’ll write a bit now just so you don’t think I’m being a complete recluse! There are 24 of us here, all from Harvard, Princeton, and Yale (with the exception of two at Columbia and one at Brandeis). We’ve all become really good friends, which is good but occasionally problematic when we all go out together because it’s hard to find somewhere that will fit so many people! We all recently got cellphones, which is making communication much easier between us in León, and we hang out quite a bit between classes and at night. Having this be an all “Ivy League” trip is really nice, and while we have daily fights about which school is better, we also often forget who goes where. Plus, people genuinely want to be here to learn, etc. I can’t say how much better Spanish classes are when everyone is constantly speaking up and asking questions instead of scrambling for the right words when the professor asks something. I was guilty of it too – it’s definitely much easier to talk when you have to do it all day than when you have class a couple hours a week!
Despite all that, I’m not quite happy with where my Spanish is right now. I improved a lot in the first couple of days, and I can say what I need to say, but I want more advanced grammar and a faster mouth! I guess it will come with time – after all, I’ll be here for almost two more months and I’ve only been gone 10 days – but Spanish is a little like tennis in terms of my frustration with lacking immediate success. I hate how retelling a simple story turns into a ten minute ordeal of working out the words and the tenses and the people, and then eventually retelling in English because the person didn’t understand you or forgot the beginning! But I’m really trying very hard, and I THINK I will get past this plateau soon. Wish me luck.
Last thing – I also have to say, I have been homesick a couple times the last couple days. Being home is just so much easier! One day I had to wear the ring Spencer gave me, the necklace Mom gave me (“live the life you have imagined” – I’m trying!) and the bracelet Papa gave me in order to make my day a little easier. And only having internet for an hour or so (if not less) a day is obviously a little hard on me! But I am so glad I am here, and I know it’s good for me. I’ll try to write here again soon (although I don’t think I’ll have anything to say, I’ve written so much this time), and hope everyone is doing well!
Hasta luego,
Brianna
PS I just reread everything and I feel like I ended on a bit of a bad note. I honestly am really enjoying myself here! Also I don’t think I emphasized soccer enough in this post – it’s been CRAZY. We watched the Spain/Portugal game in the Plaza Mayor in León and afterwards the city was literally ridiculous. Plus the last couple days have been a major festival here, so basically everyone in the city is just on celebration mode. I’m looking forward to watching the rest of the World Cup and cross your fingers that Spain wins! My dad told me today that Spain or Brazil are favored… ¡Viva España! Ciao.
