El Camino de Santiago

July 18, 2010
10:06 PM
Five days and 112 kilometers down. I have successfully completed El Camino de Santiago!

Contrary to what I previously wrote, I’m not sure my sins are actually erased, even though I did walk the minimum 100 km to receive a certificate of completion. I didn’t, however, specify that I walked the Camino for religious reasons, so apparently I might still be culpable for anything I’ve done… oh well… ☺

Some brief history on the Camino: the Camino is a pilgrimage to the remains of St. James (Santiago) that are purportedly buried near the western coast of Spain in Galicia. That the remains are actually St. James is obviously extremely unlikely, but according to my professor the remains are human and from the right time period (1st century AD), so that’s something at least! Pilgrims (“peregrinos”) have been making the journey since the 9th (?) century AD when the remains of St. James were “found” with the help of falling stars (the place is now called Santiago de Compostela – Campo + Estrella = country, star). Originally the pilgrimage was encouraged in order to fund the Reconquista efforts to drive the Muslims out of southern Spain and also in order to repopulate the largely barren region of northern Spain. Towns already located along the Camino thrived and grew, and many pueblos sprung into existence alongside the Camino to provide shelter, food, and protection for the peregrinos. “Albergues” were created for the peregrinos to stay in free of charge, and peregrinos were given every protection possible to make their journeys safe and comfortable. If you’re interested in finding out more, the Wikipedia article is here. I wrote all of the above from my understanding from the class I took though, so if there are discrepancies, lo siento.

Although the Camino is probably much more comfortable nowadays, the general idea is the same. Peregrinos walk along the same Camino that has been in place for a thousand years and stay in albergues that cost only 5€ a night. In order to stay in an albergue, you must provide proof of peregrino status (a pamphlet that documents every place you have been and proves that you intend to complete the Camino) and be on foot. After all peregrinos walking the camino have been accommodated, some albergues will then accept bikers and those going on horse, but peregrinos on foot always have precedence.

The albergues are actually very nice, and all the ones that we stayed in were pretty much the same. They open at 1 PM, and in order to have a spot assured you have to be there at least half an hour ahead of time, with an hour being better. Each peregrino receives a one-use pillowcase and one-use mattress cover and is assigned a bed in a room of anywhere from four to 20 or more bunkbeds. There are showers and bathrooms, and also generally shared kitchens and tables available for use. The albergues are locked at 10 PM (if you’re not inside, bad luck for you), and everyone must be gone by 8 AM the next morning. There are also private albergues where rooms can be reserved and meals are sometimes provided, but they are obviously more expensive. We stayed in private albergues two nights and public albergues the other two nights, and all were completely acceptable – plus it was really cool to meet so many other peregrinos!

Our trip was very fun and rewarding, but actually much more difficult than I had expected. Each morning we woke up around 5:30-6, ate breakfast (much too small, as usual), and were on the road by 6:30-7 AM. We would walk straight until we arrived at the next albergue, usually around 12-12:30, only stopping for bathroom breaks and to stamp our credentials – every bar/restaurant/albergue along the way provides stamps which are used to create a record of the trip. Technically they are supposed to prove that you are indeed walking the Camino and not just driving from albergue to albergue or something, but mostly they just make a really cool souvenir. There are 40 spots available for stamps on the credentials, and some people in my group managed to fill them all. I only got 28, partly because I forgot to get many the first day, and partly because sometimes you just don’t feel like stopping… Once we got into the albergue, which sometimes took up to an hour after the albergue opened because they are SO SLOW – they have to fill out everything by hand, including pretty much any number anywhere on your passport – we would shower, eat lunch, and then sleep for two or three or four hours. Get up, write in our diaries (our assignment for grammar class), eat dinner at 7:30 or 8 (early!! Yay!), and be in bed by 11-ish.

The schedule sounds very do-able, and it was, but we also covered some serious distance. I am definitely not used to walking 25 kilometers (~16 miles) a day, even if the terrain isn’t that difficult, and our pace was pretty fast the whole time. I have learned a few key lessons from this trip:
1) Running shoes are not acceptable to walk long distances!
2) Cotton socks = bad idea
3) If you are going to use running shoes and cotton socks, bring TONS AND TONS of bandaids
4) And a needle to drain all the blisters that you will get.
5) And antiseptic to clean out the pussy, bleeding sores that you will develop.

In addition to these feet issues that most of us encountered during the trip, we also got to experience the effects of the Camino on leg muscles. I have done a lot of hiking, and I have NEVER had so much pain in my legs. The main reason we only stopped for stamps and bathroom breaks, and never to eat or rest during the morning, besides the fact that we had to make the albergue in time? If we stopped for any more than five minutes, it was almost impossible to go on. One day we had to eat en route as there was nowhere close to the albergue, and those last 1.5 kilometers after lunch were the longest, most painful, kilometers of my life. It was actually really hilarious to see everyone at the albergues each afternoon, because everyone was in equal amounts of pain, hobbling around and avoiding any sort of steps or inclines. After a shower and a couple hours of sleep my legs would be back to normal, but until then, PAIN!

I found it incredibly interesting, the difference between distance and difficulty. I guess I’ve generally avoided super long hikes by backpacking in to places so I only have to go one way in a day, and I really don’t do more than eight miles in a day. The miles are hard though, and it’s always more than enough of a workout. The Camino, on the other hand, was not difficult. The path was very well maintained and the hardest parts were really only semi-steep hills. Nothing was technically hard. But the distance definitely made up for it! Apparently you get used to walking that much daily in about a week, which I could definitely see, but I never really got to that point in the five days we walked. Definitely a new experience – I never even had to breath hard on the Camino, whereas I have felt like I was about to die many times in my life climbing up mountains, but the Camino ended up being just as much of a workout as anything I’ve done in my life.

Anyway. The Camino class became really close during those five days and it was actually strange to meet up with the rest of our group at the end. Santiago de Compostela was very cool though. We stayed in a really old seminary school that is also now a hotel (but there are still priests-in-training everywhere), and went to mass this morning at the church. I think that was my first mass ever? It was very cool, although I only slept four hours the night before so I may or may not have drifted off a couple times… ☺ The incense-spreader was sweet though, it was this huge thing that needed to be operated by like four people and it swung over the heads of everyone (I was so scared it was going to kill someone). Kind of like the one at Grandpa’s funeral, only about 500 times bigger! Haha

Oh and funny story – there is this one shirt company in Spain that makes really awesome shirts, but I didn’t have time to buy one in Santiago. On our way back to León today we stopped by an albergue/pueblo about 160 km away from Santiago, and I was trying to buy a shirt from that company there. Unfortunately it’s an año de Xacobeo (the year of the saint) and so there are tons and tons of pilgrims who are apparently all buying all the smalls and mediums of the shirts that I want. The owner of the store was trying to help me find a shirt in my size and eventually ended up trying to sell me this shirt that said, translated: “I didn’t walk the Camino de Santiago, but at least I bought this shirt!” and I really think he didn’t believe me when I tried to tell him that no, I HAD actually just walked the Camino, and the shirt didn’t apply to me. I did end up with one pretty cool shirt though, that says: “El dolor es algo temporal. La gloria es para siempre. Camino de Santiago.” (“The pain is temporary, the glory is forever.”)

Well, not only am I done with the Camino, but I’m now also almost completely finished with my classes here. Our exams are on Wednesday, and those people not doing the internships leave for Madrid on Saturday. I am going to be so sad to see them go… I’m going to miss everybody! I can’t believe how fast these four weeks have gone by. On the other hand, I am also really excited to start my internship. I made the decision today to work at an archeological dig outside of León, which should definitely be an experience! It might be a tad hot, and I’m not excited that we have to wear long pants the whole time, but I’ll get the chance to meet more Spanish university students and probably improve my Spanish a lot more! Plus, one other girl from my program is going to be doing it with me, so I’ll at least know someone. And I’m hoping to get some traveling in during the weekends, maybe to Barcelona, Paris, Zurich, Italy… but we’ll see ☺

OH ONE LAST THING. I tried “pulpo” on the trip. Pulpo = octopus. I was only able to make myself eat one of the pieces that wasn’t obviously a curled up tentacle, but I did it, and it was actually pretty good. Much better than calamari, in my opinion, although others disagree with me.

Brianna



love this picture.











some of the camino class. second day?













typical landscape...














almost there!














all of us, at the iglesia in Santiago de Compostela :)

Picos de Europa

July 5, 2010
8:50 PM
Ten things I have learned so far in Spain that I did not know before hand:
1) Do not use the word “criada” when referring to the housekeeper in a hotel, even though you may have read the word in past Spanish classes. This word has the connotation of slavery.
2) Bring any and all medicine you could possibly need during your visit, not just the medicine you most commonly use. Pharmacies will NOT have what you need, and you WILL likely get sick.
3) Pay attention to symbols on doors. Even though “H” and “M” may not mean anything to you at first glance, walking into the guys’ locker room is usually not what you intended.
4) Your hair will always look bad.
5) You will gain weight, because it is almost impossible (and rude) to refuse food when given to you. On a related note, you will spend your days alternately starving or full to the point of bursting, because food can only be consumed in brief bursts six hours apart.
6) Even if you aren’t a big breakfast person, pancakes, waffles, bacon, eggs, cereal, and cold milk can be powerful cravings.
7) Internet is not ubiquitous.
8) Pretty shoes are a necessity. They are also very expensive.
9) Despite what you may have previously found, extremely hot weather and air conditioning indoors do not always go together.
10) Cars do not always stop, even when you have a “walk” signal.

Since I last wrote, the coolest experience I have had was this past weekend, when my group took a trip to Los Picos de Europa. We hiked 12 kilometers (~8 miles?) through some of the most gorgeous mountains I have ever seen, and spent the night in the tiny and adorable town of Caín. The pictures I took do not do the area justice, and I’m pretty sure that every one of us has the intent to visit again in the future.

The next day, we toured a cheese factory, something I have no desire to ever repeat (even though my experience was significantly more enjoyable than those of the rest of my group due to my not being able to smell very well with a cold).

And later that day, we went white water rafting! We were separated into groups and each had one guide with us, telling us what to do and instigating battles between the boats when there weren’t too many rapids. The guides were mostly young, funny, and gorgeous – a good combination. The water was about the same as the water in Montana, however, so we had to wear wet suits, jackets, and boots (and I was still cold). We spent a good amount of time in the water too, as a result of the rapids, falling out of the rafts, swimming, jumping off rocks into the river (so high! scary!), intense splash wars, and being pulled or pushed into the water by guides in other boats, who had a running competition of how many people they could hook with their paddles and pull into the water. A lot of time was spent throwing people into adjoining rafts to cause chaos as well. All in all, a very fun experience! Oh, and my guide visited Montana a couple months ago, which made me extremely excited (think I’m homesick!). He spent most of his time in Billings, but traveled through Bozeman at one point. He told me I was very lucky to live in such a beautiful place ☺.

Unfortunately, my enjoyment of much of the trip to Picos and my time in general lately has been hindered by me being sick… I haven’t gone out in days and have been sleeping 8-9 hours a night plus a couple hours during the day, and I’m still not 100%. I’m hoping I’ll be good again in a day or two more, because it’s getting really old and I’ve missed out on some fun stuff – including a game of “Cierto o Hazlo” which was our version of “Truth or Dare” (literally “True or Do It”).
I have to be better by this weekend at the latest, as we have another adventure in store: La Festival de San Fermines (sp?) in Pamplona. We technically have the weekend free and it isn’t a sanctioned group trip, but every year Pamplona is the most common destination. This year, all but one of us are going. We rented a bus to take us there and are also going to visit the beach in San Sebastian (sp?). I haven’t read much about Pamplona, but from what I have heard, it’s CRAZY. This is the place where you can run with the bulls (we are highly advised against doing that particular stunt), drink all day and night (we are advised against that as well), and witness a city in complete chaos for a weekend. Should be fun… I hope!

Brianna

My Trip, Thus Far (beware, LONG)

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.

In Madrid

So much to do, so little time to write on here! And we have an essay due tomorrow too... So this is going to have to be short. Sorry! Since I last wrote, we've traveled through a ton of places. From Nerja, we went to Frigiliana, Granada, Sevilla, Toledo, and now we're in Madrid.

My favorites so far have been Frigiliana (I don't have pictures, but very pretty white city on a mountain), the old part of Sevilla and Toledo. But I think Madrid might be my favorite now!

Some pictures:


the city of Granada












overlooking Granada












another Granada...












Alhambra, the old Muslim part of Granada












Alhambra












a mosque-turned-cathedral in Córdoba












the head of the trip, Santi, with a bunch of birds :)












a huge cathedral in Sevilla












Alhambra again.. sorry, these are out of order!












me, with some other kids in the group :)









More later!!

- B

In Spain!

June 20, 2010

8:45 PM EST, who knows what time where I am at the moment, which is somewhere over the Atlantic ocean…

It’s a weird feeling to travel away from the sun. One minute you are traveling in, if not broad daylight, then definitely daylight, twenty minutes later you are contemplating a sunset, and not long after that it’s pitch black. So strange.

Besides the darkness, I had worried a lot about surviving the trip to Spain. After all, I almost die every time I have to make the trip from Boston to Salt Lake or Denver, and this trip is significantly longer (6:36 if you believe the pilot, 8:10 if you believe my dad – I have no sense of time, so no idea what the actual is). And it didn’t help that we sat on the runway for a full hour after the scheduled departure. But I think it will be good, and I hope to eventually work up the courage to talk to the two Spanish speakers chatting away next to me!

June 22, 2010

5:57 PM Spanish time

In Nerja, Spain. Just got back from swimming in the Mediterranean. I even jumped off some rocks into the sea, go me… It was amazing…

My time here has been great so far. Awesome people in my group, super nice hotel right on the beach, great food, and Spain won their game last night! Can’t write more now because we’re about to go on a walk, but I have definitely been enjoying my time here and my Spanish is getting better by the minute.

Oh, and I was right – I hardly felt the jet lag at all. I was tired last night, but just from getting about 6 hours of sleep over the last 3-ish days, and I woke up fine and rested this morning, at what would have been 1 AM Montana time! Haha

More later,

Brianna

Counting the days til departure...

¡Hola!

I never thought I would be the type to have a "blog." But I enjoy reading other peoples' travel blogs, so I figured I might as well set one up for myself to record my time in Spain this summer! I'm SUPER excited, as I don't feel like half an hour in Tijuana a couple years ago really gave me a good feel for Hispanic culture...

Starting June 20th, I will be doing a study abroad and internship in Spain through the Summer Institute of Hispanic Studies (SIHS). I will start off in southern Spain (Málaga) and make my way up to León, in northwestern Spain, where I will be staying for the majority of my time. I will be taking classes at the Universidad de León and living with a host family there. The last four weeks of my trip will be an internship (with what company being something I have yet to discover...), most likely in León as well. Should be fun, right? For those of you who are interested, more information about SIHS can be found here.

I leave for Spain in 3 weeks and 1 day. Can you tell I'm in full-on countdown mode? I've already added all the other SIHS participants as friends, created a group on Facebook, and have to keep myself from starting to pack already. I think if the weather in Bozeman were a little nicer I would be a tad less anxious to get going. May and June are never good months for hiking and backpacking, but this year seems to be particularly bad. I'm attempting to get some good trips in before I leave though, even if I have to snowshoe...

Anyway, until my next post!

Besos,

Brianna