Every End Presents a New Beginning

Yes, I meant to sound like fortune cookie with that title. Well, I almost feel like I should reintroduce myself because it’s been ages since I’ve written. Oh well, better late than never, I always say. Since my trip to Portugal a while back, a dump truck load of stuff has happened. A few days before finals, we did our usual weekly visit to a cool site in Sevilla. This time, we went to Real Alcázar, an old Moorish palace (which Christian additions, of course). It was beautiful. The designs of the tiles were so incredibly intricate that I couldn’t even believe human beings constructed this place. I guess they really have a knack for interior decorating. There was also a giant garden that smelled wonderfully of jasmine. I basically liked everything about it. I can definitely say that my classmates liked one part in particular of the Alcázar. The underground part, of course. As usual, the weather was being a tad disagreeable, and being down there felt like stepping into an air-conditioned building. Que maravilloso!

Okay, so let’s skip to the best part of the week. After taking the dreaded final exam, I was finally free. (Well, not really because I still had to go back for another round, AKA term #2.) So, that night we ended up going to get tapas with a few of the professors. It was really great. We tried several different kinds. We all got to try patatas bravas, which a sliced up taters with some spicy sauce on them. They were great! I was trying to be adventurous because I’m a foody like that, and I kept asking for random tapas. The waiter kept telling me I wouldn’t like this because it was super deep-fried, or that I wouldn’t like that because la la la. Whatever. He finally let me order something called iberico secreto. It was quite delicious, and secret, too. Unfortunately, one of my amigas got some octopus. You could see its legs just chilling on the plate, and it’s body actually looked like a whoopee cushion. I was scared for her.

After that, we all went to the goodbye party. The majority of the people in our program were signed on for the next term, but some people had to leave. As I enjoy making a fool of myself in front of others, I found a hoola hoop. I really should put being able to hoola on my bucket list because it would be a true accomplishment for me to actually do it for more than -2 seconds. Yes, it’s in negative because I’m that bad. Well, that was still fun. I even roped a few others into giving it a go. We also practiced our flamenco moves from class. I’m sure we looked like quite the circus act. Free drinks, peanuts, and entertainment. What more could you ask for? Well, besides a new house or something. Anyway, I had a lot of fun at the party, and we all ended up checking out some bars later. It was a super late night, to say in the least. I feel that no matter how hard I try, I’m never going to sleep more than six hours a night here. The sad thing was that I had to get up early. Why would I do that if I have a weeklong break before the next term? I’ll tell you why. Several friends and I were going to take the week to hit some major tourist traps around Spain. Yeah, you guessed it: Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia. Whew, and what a vacation it was. I’m going to leave you all in suspense now. Stay tuned for the next entry… 

Vamos a Portugal!

As promised, here is the second half of my earlier post that I'm sure y'all are dying to see. We left for Portugal on Friday morning ready for some serious vacation time (a bit of an oxymoron). Since the drive takes several hours (we crossed a time zone), we stopped for a short break in order to prevent the spread of the insidious condition known as cabin fever. A few friends and I went into a cafe to check out the digs. A big window full of strange pastries caught our eye. The only problem we had we deciding which ones to buy. Such a dilemma. Finally, we chose a creamy sandwichy thing, and at my insistence, a strange white lump of something. Well, both were yummy. I don't know what the former was, but the latter was definitely coconut.

We finally reached our first destination in Portugal, and had to take a short boat ride to the an island/beach of Tavira where we'd be frying for the next several hours. (The boat resembled the one from the Micky cartoon "Steamboat Willy".) Well, it wasn't very subtle, but I was using a bit of foreshadow with the word frying. I burned again on the beach. I put on sunscreen, but didn't reapply it when I should have. Apparently I never learn. Oh, but I do have some advice for y'all: don't wear shades when your face is burning. The reverse raccoon tends to cramp your style, haha. I loved the beach though. The sand in Portugal is surprisingly coarse, and there are tons of pretty shells along the shore. I hunted them like a demon, and I think I can claim to have a pretty sweet collection. The water was an incredibly beautiful color of blue and green. I could have stared at it all day (but not in the way Narcissus did in the pool). The beach became a part of me. I actually don't mean this in a metaphoric way, but quite literally (when I ingested sand). While I was feeding my face, I dropped a cookie on the sand. I ate it. And what's more, I liked it. The funny thing is that later I bought a donut that was to meet the same fate as the unfortunate cookie. Yeah, it hit the sand as well. I ate it too. I couldn't tell what was sugar on the donut and what was sand. I wasn't a big fan of the gritty texture, but that's life. 

That night, we finally arrived at our hotel in the town of Lagos. The hotel was situated right next to a beach, so we were all happy. After we got settled, mis amigas and I went to a restaurant. We met a friendly little kitty there whom I named Tiago (or Tiaga if female). The next day, we hung out on the gorgeous nearby beach, but in the shade, mind you. That night we traveled to a place along the Atlantic called Cabo San Vincente. When the majority of the world believed the world was flat, this place was referred to as the "end of the world." There are tall cliffs that kind of remind me of the Cliffs of Moher. We stood atop the cliffs and could gaze across the ocean into the fading horizon. From that point, we watched the sun set, and it was sublime. I understand why it could be¨called the "end of the world." I would definitely go to Portugal again just to see that. 

Anyway, we left the hotel the next day to hit one more beach before leaving Portugal. This one was in a place called Albufeira. It was really touristy, but pretty nonetheless. While there, we saw a woman and a man sculpting figures from a pile of sand. They were super detailed and amazing. After a few hours, we finally left for Spain. I noticed something strange about Portugal: they really didn't like when we spoke Spanish. So we just went with English there. Anyway, the trip was pretty exhausting, but I came back feeling great. I really like Portugal, and want to go back some day. If anybody wants to go there and needs a travel buddy, you know who to call!

Ruins, museums, and markets, oh my!

All right, I’d intended to write at least once last week, but I got a too tied up in my work. Anyway, I’m writing two separate posts for today. One will focus more on Spain, and the other on my trip to Portugal this weekend.

I went to a place called La Itálica last Tuesday for one of the weekly trips we do through the program. It was burning hot, so of course we walked around outside for about an hour. Despite feeling like a sweat monster, I thought La Itálica was a very interesting place to visit. What’s the big deal with this place? Well, it was an important ancient Roman city in Spain. We walked through ruins of houses of the people who lived there and saw the colosseum too. The professor told us more about how things worked there. Apparently gladiators had managers that set up fights for them and told them which weapons to use. When there were bleeding bodies on the boards in the colosseum, the Romans allowed the blood to drip through the cracks to some hungry lions beneath. Call me a little old fashioned, but the Romans seemed to overdo it a bit.

Other than that, we visited the ruins of the Castle of San Jorge, which was an important place during the Inquisition. It was extremely disturbing. We also went to a market in an area of Sevilla called Triana. It was crazy with all the variety of food there. The markets (and stores in general) in Spain are really specific. In the market, there were stores dedicated completely to cheese, meat, or my favorite, candy and pastries. Giant chunks of meat like pig legs were just hanging from the top of kiosks.

As far as daily life goes, I’m enjoying seeing all the fallen oranges in the streets and sidewalks. Yes, that sounds strange, but I like to kick them around like soccer balls. I’ve heard that it’s not a good idea to eat them, but I’m seriously considering trying one anyway. I really like the desserts here. The ice cream is really creamy and there are so many types to choose from. One day, I ate ice cream three times and at three different places. I thought that was bad, but yesterday a friend of mine told me she had ice cream every day for four days straight. We’re addicts. My host mom introduced me to flan. It has a very intriguing taste. It contains a lot of egg, which sounds kind of gross, but I liked it a lot. That’s more than I can say for my roommate, however, haha. Speaking of desserts, I learned a new idiomatic phrase from my intercambio. We were talking about men who worked out a lot and had really defined abs. I told her that we said they had six packs. She also told me that the Spanish called men like that barras de chocolate (chocolate bars). I cracked up for a bit while she looked at me like I was a nut. What can I say? If the shoe fits…

Finally in Spain, finally posting a blog

Yeah, I’ve been in Spain for nearly two weeks and am just starting to write in this blog… Don’t judge.  Anyway, I thought it might be cool to write several times a week about my experiences in Sevilla, Spain for the next two months. I’ll probably put some pictures up eventually too.

A disclaimer: This post is long. I don’t plan on writing even close to this much in later posts. If you’re an insomniac, I’m sure reading this first one will cure you J. 

Anyway, I’ll start from what I’d call the beginning. I cut it close on my flight out of the country. This was my extremely basic itinerary: fly from NY to Boston, from Boston to Madrid, and then finally from Madrid to Sevilla. I was running late getting to LaGuardia Airport in NY, but it all turned out okay. After all the of my fellow passengers and I boarded the plane going to Boston, the captain told us that we’d be delayed in taking off. The reason: traffic jam with a bunch of planes. This was a new one for me. We peered out of our tiny windows to see rows of planes waiting in line to take off. Time dragged on and on… and on. Finally, we took off. However, I knew that once I landed, I’d have to check in with an international airline, go through security again, then reach my gate in half an hour or I wouldn’t be going anywhere. I was, to say in the least, mildly freaking out. The lines were super long, and I honestly didn’t know what was going to happen. Well, y’all know that I made it to Spain, so I guess this story automatically loses its suspense. By some miracle, I boarded not long before our departure. Whew! At the airport in Madrid, I met up with other students in my program, and a few hours later, we were off to the hotel for orientation (on Wed., June 1^st).

The next day, we headed off to meet our host families and move in. We all wanted to crash from all of the traveling, major time change (I’m 9 hrs ahead of home, and 6 hrs ahead of the east coast!). My roommate and I met our host mom, Rosario. I could tell as soon as I met her that she was a very caring and nice person. After dragging our stuff up the stairs to our room, we looked around a bit. The house is nice- there’s an outside area on the roof where you can sit if you’re courageous enough to brave the heat, and there’s a small patio near the kitchen. The only difficult part about where we live is it’s distance from the place we take classes at (the Center). We can walk, which takes a little under an hour, or we can take the bus, train, or metro. We’ve tried all of them so far, but we’ve walked more than anything. The streets here are narrow, and bicyclists are constantly racing past. You really have to be on your toes dodging them! Another thing I discovered about walking around here: it’s easy to get lost. The streets are not labeled with signs on each block. Instead, the names are posted on the sides of buildings. I’m no master navigator, so I found myself wandering aimlessly at points.

Let’s see… The schedule in Spain is really different in terms of eating and hanging out at night with friends. We have class every Monday to Friday from 9 am to 1pm, and that’s not that irregular. The siesta part of the day starts around 1:30 pm and goes until about 5:30 pm. Stores are closed during that time. It’s around this time that Spaniards eat their most important meal of the day: lunch. The funny thing is that it’s not until about 2:30 or 3:00 pm! If you think that’s late, consider eating dinner at 10:30 pm or later. How do people survive in between meals? Well, with the help of a little thing called tapas. Tapas are different types of food, but they’re all kind of like appetizers. People here often eat them between lunch and dinner with friends or family. With these late meals, meeting up with friends for a night on the town is also much later. In Sevilla (and Spain in general), friends meet up at bars and clubs around 2 am! Sometimes they stay there all night until it’s time for breakfast. I thought I was a night owl, but the locals put me to shame.

All right, now for other stuff. In the short time I’ve been here, there have been a lot of activities and a few day trips through our program. The first Saturday (last weekend), we traveled a few hours from Sevilla by bus to a place called Huelva. While there, we toured a Monastery called La Rábida, which is famous because Christopher Columbus stayed there for a while. Oh yeah, and there’s treasure in there. No big deal. We also went to place where we could see and walk on board reconstructions of good ol’ Columbo’s ships: Niña, Pinta, and Santa María. After that, we went to a nearby beach. It was beautiful! I’d heard a word of caution about European beaches: they can be a little topless sometimes. Sure enough, some women didn’t have a complete outfit on. Anyway, we played a little Frisbee, swam, burned in the sun… the usual. We were all a bit surprised when we discovered a gigantic beached jellyfish. The funny thing is that when we were swimming a bit, I’d been joking around with my new friends that jellyfish were going to get them. I guess karma caught up with me, leaving me with an impressive sunburn.

Okay, other than that, I’ve toured a few cathedrals. One was in Sevilla, and is one of the largest in the world. It started off as a mosque built by the Muslims that used to rule Southern Spain, but was changed by Christians later. The architecture was unbelievably detailed. We climbed the tower called La Giralda, and saw a fantastic view of the entire city. The other one I saw was in Córdoba, a few hours from Sevilla. It was originally a church, later turned into a mosque by conquering muslims, and then finally became a church again when the area was reconquered. The Muslim and Gothic designs in it are really unique and pretty. While in Córdoba (yesterday), we also visited al Alcázar, a place that had been constructed by the Romans (it had beautiful gardens and mosaics!), as well as the area of the town where the Jewish community lived in ancient times.

Okay, the only other things I can think of mentioning are that I’m taking a flamenco dancing class, explaining what s’mores are is more difficult than you’d think, and that I have a Spanish intercambio (speaking partner) who’s probably seen more American films than I have. You’re probably laughing about the first thing if you know me well. A rock has more rhythm than I do. But I will come back and bust some insane moves for y’all to see (or as Emily and Patti would say, “cut the rug”). The s’mores thing was interesting. My roommate and I were trying to explain to our host mom what they are. We said they had crackers and chocolate. Okay, easy enough. But then we tried to describe marshmallows, and how you have to roast them over a fire. She looked at us like we were weirdos when we said we attached a fluffy, sugary thing to the end of a stick and roasted it over a fire. Finally, each student was assigned an intercambio. These intercambios are learning English, much like the way we are learning Spanish. I finally met mine, Marta, on Friday. She’s really cool, and we talked for probably three hours, and mainly about films. Yeah, it was insane.

Okay, this post is finally over. I will leave you with a few conclusions I’ve come to so far: culture shock can hit really hard, kissing as a method of greeting isn’t too bad, Spaniards are nice about giving directions, it’s hot, it’s easy to get lost, Spain is awesome, and did I mention that it’s hot?