Alcalá Week 4

Jean and me in Toledo

• First and foremost I should probably mention the bar here on campus called Nivola, because it is a very popular hangout for all the students and features calimocho- a mix of wine, Coke and a splash of blueberry syrup. Spanish students, including my roommates, finished exams on Wednesday, February 3 and coincidentally Wednesday is the big going out night here at CRUSA dorms. I got to hang out and dance with my roommates all night and met some of their friends too, it was a lot of fun. I also have three other American students living with me in the dorm, and I have met and hung out with all of their roommates- it is proving to be a good method to get to know Spaniards.

Miriam, Ines, Sandra, me and Sara! Out of their pajamas and dressed to impress

• My criminology class at La escuela de derecho (law school) of the Universidad de Alcalá was supposed to start Wednesday, but my professor did not show up two days in a row. Luckily the Spanish students were also waiting outside the room so it was not like I did not know what was going on because I was American. It was that no one knew what was going on.
  

• Friday February 5 was a class trip to Toledo. We took a bus and I got to see the Spanish highway system- turns out it is ugly. Toledo, however, could not have been more beautiful. Its windy streets run between ancient looking buildings nestled into the hillside. We looked inside La Iglesia San Juan, which had 2 parts- a big lofty cathedral and a square of elaborate statues surrounding a courtyard of orange trees. To give you a better idea:

The entire square had statues just like this

The big cathedral

• Toledo is famous for its sword making, I believe the Lord of the Rings swords were made here. Even if that's not true, all the tourist stores were full of knives ranging from letter openers to full blown swords that could probably kill a person.

• Surprise! Toledo also had a trademark dessert (I think I could get used to this), which I both tasted and photographed:

Marzipan

• A river surrounds 3/4 of Toledo- this city used to be the capital of the Kingdom of Castile until its growth was contained by the river and King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel united their kingdoms by moving the capital of Spain to Madrid.
  

Hola!

• Saturday there was a party hosted by Javi, one of my American friend's roommates. Interestingly, all the Spaniards really like to play beer pong and quarters (the great American past times) so it is pretty easy to fit in.

• Finally, SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! I went with a group of friends to an Irish pub in Madrid to watch the game, which did not start until 1am here. We ordered a full table of chicken wings and nachos and got to watch on a big projector screen. Let me tell you if there's one thing I miss about America, it is chicken wings (also, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups)- they were delicious. Unfortunately we were watching a broadcast out of the UK, so all the announcers had British accents and there were no commercials :( That does not cheapen the experience, however, since the game was great. All sorts of people were there to watch; a man from New Orleans sitting behind us was explaining the sport of football to his French friend and we got to help a little!
  

Delicious.

Please note that I wore my Jared Allen shirt to the game and indeed have been wearing my AP jersey to bed every night since the Vikings lost. I cheered for the Saints anyhow, NFC loyalty?

Alcalá Week 3

Jackie wanted to see a photo of the storks, so here they are! I actually climbed to the top of one of the towers of the school for this shot.

Yes I know this post is 3 weeks late, but it will only cover the dates between January 26 and February 1. I promise tomorrow I will do the subsequent week and then the one after that...

• On Friday the 29th I traveled to Segovia with some American friends, a city about 30 minutes north of Madrid by "AVE" a high speed train. The train station was about a 35 minute walk from the actual city, and on the journey in we stopped to feed a horse that was hanging out on the roadside. He rejected all of the food we offered.

Our trip to Segovia, as dictated by Rick Steves

• My absolute favorite part of Segovia was an ancient Roman aqueduct- we started at the beginning where it was only about waist high, but the further along we traveled, the bigger it got until finally we got to the old city walls where it was 3 stories high! It was much more impressive and magnificent than any of us could have ever imagined, and we spent at least 2 hours photographing it from every angle possible. Here is only a sampling of our group's many many photos:

It starts out small...

Then gets larger...

Omg!!

• It would be remiss not to mention ponche, the city's trademark dessert. It is a sort of layered cake with burnt sugar, sponge cake, pudding and cinnamon wrapped in a sort of uncooked dough. Very rich and very delicious.
  

I'm pretty excited to eat this ponche

• That night I went to the Mexican restaurant Burrito, which featured a live mariachi band! I am obsessed with their guacamole.

• Saturday I ventured into Madrid to check out Kapitol, a famous 7 story nightclub. Every floor featured different types of music but the 7th floor was this serene lounge with white couches and fountains of trickling water. When the club kicked us out at 6am we headed across the street to a diner filled with all the club goers. I had coffee, orange juice and a tapa- the perfect end to a fun night!

• Finally, I spent Sunday trying to explain Groundhog's Day to my Spanish roommates, which when I thought about it is a pretty weird holiday. First, they didn't know what a groundhog IS, so my description was something like "well, a beaver-like animal comes out of his home, and if he sees his shadow we have 6 more weeks of winter. But if he doesn't see his shadow, spring will come early." This holiday plus the fact that I eat peanut butter straight out of the jar all the time probably has my roommates thinking that Americans are crazy.

Alcalá Week 2

Claire and Nicole standing in front of hanging laundry- people don't really use dryers here

Guess who's updating on time this week?!?

• Things around the residencia have been a little slow, considering I moved in right as Spanish University are giving exams. Spaniards don't really have midterms so they study all day every day for the two week finals period, since this one exam determines almost their entire grade! My suitemates promise me things will pick up in a week or so, and that one day soon I will see them not in their pajamas 24/7.

• I have been trying to pay attention to what my suitemates eat, and there seems to be a lot of frying of food in olive oil. The residencia doesn't have an oven so everything gets cooked on the stove top- lots of ham, rice, chorizo (sausage links?) and eggs, plus a lot of other things I cannot name. Tuna and mayo on french bread is also a crowd pleaser. Every meal usually includes cigarettes too (one of my suitemates, Miriam, smokes indoors ALL THE TIME. I have accepted that my entire wardrobe will eventually reek of second hand smoke).

• Alcalá de Henares is more or less a series of roundabouts, each with a distinct statue. I know to get off the bus when I see this:

Peace sign with a shell on the bottom?

• School is going well, nothing too hard yet and all of my teachers and kind and patient. I think my phonetics class will help me loose at least a little of my American accent!

El Instituto Benjamin Franklin, housed inside El Colegio Trinitarios

• On Sunday I ventured into Madrid to look around the Reina Sofia, a contemporary art museum. There were paintings by Miró, Dalí and Picasso, the most famous being his 'La Guernica'- it takes up an entire wall of an exhibit!

'La Guernica' by Pablo Picassso

Outside La Reina Sofia

• Most days I walk home from school and wander a bit, trying to orient myself and discover new places to eat. I think I could try a different café/bar/pastry shop every day and still not get to them all. I also sit in the living room with my suitemates and try to figure out what they are talking about. They seem to surf Tuenti.com (the Spanish facebook- I made an account!) a lot and make fun of people? According to them, everyone falls into two categories- fea (ugly) or guapa (pretty). They are nice to me so I'm not drawing any conclusions regarding cattiness just yet.

Alcalá Week 1

Sorry for the delay, it took me forever to figure out how to configure my laptop for wireless!

• I started classes last Thursday at el Instituto Benjamin Franklin. It is a special school for North Americans, however all my classes are in Spanish and all of my teachers are Spanish too. I'm taking Phonetics, Contemporary Spain and a grammar class, plus one more "real" class at the Universidad de Alcalá that will not start until February.
• I also moved into my apartment! I have all female suitemates; 5 are Spanish- Inés, Sonia, Sara, Miriam and Sandra (my roommmate) and 1 is Portuguese- Sofia. They are all very nice but talk to each other really quickly, so it's been hard for me to participate in group conversations. I can hold one-on-one conversations just fine though.

• I have already visited Madrid twice, because is only 35 minutes away by train. First I visited my friend Luis, who was nice enough to give me a walking tour, and the next day I went with my American group and got another walking tour. I will definitely be back to I can shop and explore places like El Prado.

Luis and me at La Plaza Mayor, a historical site used for many things, including executing people during the Inquisition

The Royal Palace

• There are HUGE storks in downtown Alcalá that nest on pretty much every rooftop. As far as I know they never swoop down and attack citizens, but I'm keeping an eye on them none the less.
• We've been to some pretty sweet bars here so far. Most Spaniards don't even head out until about 1am, and hence get home about 6am. My favorite place so far was El Casco Antiguo, where everybody was dancing salsa the whole night. There were some amazing dancers that were fun to watch. I only danced one song where you had to keep switching dance partners and felt pretty dumb, maybe sometime in the future I can at least learn the steps!
• Tapas bars are amazing, and delicious. All you have to do is order a drink and they bring you a free appetizer of your choice!
• The Coke here is made with real sugar. My father would love it haha
• I promise that I will update ON TIME next Monday! I might head to Madrid this weekend to watch the Vikings beat the Saints!!

The Plaza de Cervantes, the heart of Alcalá

Orientation

For some reason my last blog will not let me back, so I created this (similar) blog instead! Today is day 2 of my orientation, I'm here with 19 other American students, assimilating to the culture, talking about classes, safety issues, etc. Some highlights:

• I arrived early and alone on Sunday morning, and I slept most of the day. I went to dinner by myself and pointed to something on the menu (it turns out it was tuna salad)
• It also snowed my first night here! A rare occurrence in Alcalá

• We are staying at the Hotel Campanile, and eating lots of good food. Tonight I felt like being adventurous and ordered calamari, but it was gross. Most of the other things I've eaten I don't know the names of.

• Tomorrow I move into the "residencias" which are considered dorms but are more like apartments. I will be living with 5 other Spaniards, maybe girls, maybe co-ed, and sharing a room with one of them. My Spanish isn't terrible so far but tomorrow will be the real test.
• I plan on updating this every Monday
  
• OH! and "vale" means "ok"- a valuable discovery