sábado, 20 julio

This is taken nearly verbatim from the notes I took on my phone during all of our travels on Saturday. 

Saturday
- Finished packing
- Walked to bus and said goodbye. Nostalgic
- "say goodbye to our workout DVD!" Brady
- stretched out and sang songs: home bound
- got into the line for Iberia/our flight; had a long wait but got both tickets easily
- went through security and didn't have to take off my shoes.
- cramped metro style shuttle
- fought through passport line. Crazy lady. Split group. Slow people made real life Tetris.
- on plane. Aisle seat.
- lunch: oj; salad; pasta with corn, mushrooms, fake cheese; coffee cake; pan; cafe
- café didn't work. Slept. Woke up to guy behind me turning on the spotlight, I mean I know I'm the princess on this flight but we try to keep it on the downlow
- sleepy. Oj.
- dumb light again. Flew over Canada
- 2nd lunch: turkey and cheese sandwich; croissant; yogurt; chunky Kit Kat; café and té
- de plane. Scan passport, take photo. Get luggage. Through checkpoint with receipt. Gave luggage back. Tram. Security.
- chili at chiles
- found gate. And electricity and nap
- Starbucks and convo with Midwestern man
- board. weather. delay.
-Taking off. Heading north and looping around weather
- talked with Katie about fams and sororities and culture
- family! Talked on car ride. Fell asleep.
- scrapbooking planned for Sunday

viernes, 19 julio

Today we didn't have class but my friends and I were meeting for breakfast so I was able to sleep in a little bit, but not waste the whole day. Alex, Colby, Emily, Sophie, Natalie, Conner, Martín and I all met at Zocodover before heading to a restaurant to get breakfast. we got churros and everyone either got chocolate (that was similar to pudding) or café con leche. I got café and finished Natalie's chocolate. Martín is from China and part of their culture is to give gifts before saying goodbye and I received a postcard which he wrote his name in Chinese on the back, we also learned how to pronounce it but I'm not that good at it. We also compared the Chinese money with Euros, which have more similarity with each other than American dollars. We took a group photo and Colby got 'attacked' by a falling bird's egg. We decided that animals in España don't like Americans since we've been 'attacked' multiple times. After breakfast we finished getting all of our presents for people back home. We are finally able to take short-cuts with out being afraid of getting lost. At one point I was approached by someone wanting signatures for a petition who thought I was an Española which made me a lot happier than being confused for German or French. At one point we were in one of the very narrow streets and had to get really close to the wall when cars past by and Emily got a photo of everyone lined against the wall. 

I headed back home to eat lunch as well as pack and I decided that I am a horrible packer and don't want to leave. I'm not quite sure how everything is going to fit into my suitcase. For almuerzo we had huevos fritas, cuban rice (white rice with tomato sauce) and chizos (hot dogs). After lunch I gave Sandra the presents I brought from Nebraska and attempted to explain what Kool-Aid is and why it's a Nebraska tradition. She asked about other traditions and places in Nebraska. I showed her pictures online and told her about game days and Husker traditions, the stadium and it being the 3rd largest 'city', the Omaha Zoo, and Hastings' Kool-Aid. She wanted what Lincoln looked like so I utilized Google images and maps. I then googled my addresses and compared the architecture and style of houses. After Sandra took Lara to the doctor because she wasn't feeling very good, I caught up on blogging and went back to packing. 

After packing and a shower I headed up to Zocodover to wait for everyone else and get rid of some of my coins. I ran into Colby in the bus and we went shopping together. He was looking for a gift that would represent either the 3 cultures or a sword. We spent about 5 minutes sitting on the floor deciding between two swords- it was hilarious. I then found a mosaic turtle that captured my attention. We then started to run into ESTO people. We ran into Alex, Emily and Sophie, and got some helado. I got frescas, mini Lacasitos and dulce de leche on top of mine- it was delicious and the best combo of everything available. We then got our group of nine (adding Conner, Martín, Natalie, and Mariah) and went for pizza. The man told us that 2 people could share one pizza but that wasn't true once he brought the pizza to the table. It was about the size of two pieces of sliced bread put together. 

After dinner I went back to my casa because I really wanted to spend my last night in Spain with my family. Either before or after dinner my plan is to go see the Luz Greco somewhere in Casco. Lara still isn't feeling well so I don't if they'll come with me. We watched an episode of a t.v. that was a police drama that I was able to follow along with and understand about 75% of it. Lara was then feeling well enough to go home so we said our goodbyes. For cena we had fried ham and cheese sandwiches, ensalada con tomatoes- I was excited! and for dessert we had the same fruit that we've been eating lately and I finally had the guts to ask exactly what kind of peach it was: paraguaya, a saturn peach. 

After cena I went to see Lux Greco. It is a light show with pictures on the buildings of Toledo accompanied by sounds. I first went to Puerta de Cambron and was close to the front. It was absolutely amazing! I really liked when they had a silhouette of El Greco projected on the building. I then went to Puerta de Bisagra. When the performance started it was extremely loud and I was sitting really close to the front and the speakers so I jumped a little, okay I eeped and jumped while sitting f that's even possible. This one was loud and scary at times, for example when the eagle crest was projected and then fought its way off of the wall, and then in the next 30 the show was very calm and tranquil. It was totally worth it though.

This is my last night in Spain and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm ready to go home and see everyone, but at the same time I could stay here for another month.  I will see you all later "today" since it is a little after midnight here in Spain. Oh timezones and I are not going to get along very well. 
Love you all! 
       

jueves, 18 julio

This morning was a struggle to wake up. I got about 4 or so hours of sleep and was super tired in the morning. In class we got our exams back and our final grade. I got a 10, 10, 9.5, & 9 all out of 10; I'm hoping that converts to an A back home. We went over the entire test and explained what we did wrong. I have problems with accents and the listening comprehension section, which is what I thought would happen, but I did better on the listening section than I predicted yesterday. We took a break after reviewing our tests and I got a tomate y queso empanada and some junk food to attempt to wake me up. After our break we started to work on our dance for tonight's fiesta. We all had different mini groups that kept transforming into a different idea to the point where our final dance is nothing like the original. My job is to hold up the 'sad' sign during a couple of verses of the song "La Vida Te Da." We do a lot of spinning and snapping, hopefully it'll turn out alright. If everything goes horribly wrong it'll still be fun, right?

When I was in casa I also made my list of things I still need to do before going home. I still need to go to the Cathedral and take a tour; see the Lux Greco tomorrow night; pack; and take in everything I can about this city. It's so weird to think that I only have two more nights here before I'll be home in Nebraska. I read through some of my first posts and reflected over the last few weeks. I realized I made a lot of new habits, for example: siestas, saying 'Vale' instead of 'Okay', eating everything with bread in my left hand, actually using vosotros in conversation, as well as a million things I've probably picked up subconsciously. It will be interesting to see what habits I maintain back home, as well as the habits I didn't realize I acquired. I think my eating schedule is going to be the most difficult to get back into an Nebraska norm, since I'll be home for a few days and then on vacation with the Carlsons and I'm always eating at weird times on vacations. I do think that I'll end up 'attempting' to make some of the food Sandra makes but it still won't be the same; on my list is tortilla española since that was one of my favorite foods. For almuerzo today we had turkey leg and legume soup. It was alright but I would've liked to put some cheese on mine and for dessert we had grapes. I thought I was going to be really tired but I couldn't siesta so I decided to go to the Cathedral. At the Cathedral they give you an audioguide to follow along while walking through the Cathedral. It was really impressive and I kept pressing the 'hear more' options. My favorite part was obviously the stained glass everywhere, and a monstrance they carry through the streets once a year made from some of the first gold from America.

After the Cathedral ESTO put on a farewell fiesta. We were given leis and carnations; and afterwards we got a copy of the group photo. At the party each class performed a dance. Ours was a mess and Martín accidentally fell off the back of the stage into the banner behind. The whole thing was mildly embarrassing. After all of the dances were done we headed to the bus stop to take a bus to the discoteca. We did a lot of waiting for the bus and for everyone to arrive at the discoteca so I had time to talk with people from other Nebraskans' classes and we all had to use Spanish. Once we got into the discoteca we were served paella and tapas and I talked with someone from China and someone originally from Africa but now lives in Brazil. We compared all five cultures we were familiar with and ate paella and drank sangria. It wad really rewarding to be able to communicate with people with such diverse backgrounds. After everyone had inhaled their food we watched a video of all of the photos from the past month and I got really sentimental. After awhile my friend group decided to take shots and I had my very first shot of rum; apparently my expression was priceless. After that we all started to dance and I was tipsy enough to not care too much about dancing like crazy people. I definitely still had some camp counselor tendencies and tried to convince everyone else that they needed to dance or at least come and hang out with everyone. My group of co-dancers had a representatives from a lot of different countries so we were all speaking spanish to each other and I discovered that I'm more comfortable speaking Spanish when I'm a little tipsy because I'm not embarrassed by my mistakes and there isn't pressure to make 100% sense. We had a lot of fun dancing to different song from different countries. Towards the end of the night Alex, Colby and I took a shot of tequila; I was naive and had no idea what I was doing so my face was priceless again. I decided that I like the sweetness of rum over tequila, so someone remember that in a year when I turn 21 and I'm legally allowed to drink again.

Lots of Love!

miércoles, 17 julio

Exam day! We started at 9 with the writing section and I was fairly confident with everything but accents and one of the listening sections. The verb section was way easier than I anticipated and the writing section is one I've written many times: "When I was a child...." I wrote about living in Nebraska and playing ténis since it was a vocab word and we did examples using all of the verb tenses. It made me miss playing tennis. I was done a little after 10 am and had to wait until 12:30 to do my oral exam with a partner. My partner was Duria and she is from China. We were still able to commincate fairly well even though the only language we had in common was Spanish. I was so nervous for the oral exam but Natalia said I have good pronunciation, vocabulary skills, and the ability to correct my mistakes, but since I'm soft-spoken it can be hard for me to put the right inflictions on words sometimes. One way to help is to watch comedies in Spanish, which is going to be a good excuse to watch t.v. and movies in Spanish. 

When I got back to the casa Sandra's mom and brother were there so I got to met them and they asked a million questions about my time here and what Nebraska is like. It was hard to explain that Nebraska is in the middle of the country and that makes it a 24+ car ride to a beach. For lunch we had pumpkin soup which was amazing and then chicken breasts and fries. I think this is day 2 of eating my entire plateful of food. I didn't siesta today, instead I went to El Grecco museo.

I was supposed to meet Natalie at 4 but since the Jewish Quarter is very confusing and there are a million museums and a million places with "El Grecco" on it, we never did catch up with each other. I made it into the museo by myself and wandered around. I think my favorite part about a museum dedicated to one person is that there was a room dedicated to other people, like his students, attempting to replicate El Grecco's paintings. I also liked his map of Toledo since they had a modern map available from a similar location for comparison. After El Grecco, I wandered back through all of the streets to pick out presents and souvenirs. I got mistaken for German in a store. I'm okay with being identified as American but getting confused for German here and French in Madrid really confuses me. 

On my way home I helped two very lost girls find their way in the Casco. They were from Guatemala and spoke no English, so I was forced to use Spanish. On the way one girl asked me how long I'd lived in Toledo, and when I answered 3 1/2 weeks her eyes got really big. Her friend then asked where I was from originally, when I answered the US, they didn't believe me and said I spoke fairly good Spanish for not being a native speaker. Excuse me as I apply for dual citizenship...

I came back to the casa and put everything away and then Lara and Sandra came home. Lara showed her mom a new way of applying makeup and so I got to attempt to learn the words for different types of makeup. It was definitely interesting. I ate dinner earlier than normal since we were finishing going to go out to celebrate the end of classes and exams. I had cheesy lasagna and bread. It was good but there was so much cheese! I also had plain yogurt that is really good with some fruit or sugar. This is just another example of what foods I discovered I liked while here. I've also gotten really good at cleaning my plate- quite literally! You use the bread crusts to get all of the goodness left on the plate. 

I then headed to Zocodover and Enebro's. I drank a sangria as our table grew and grew. At the peak of people we had 19 people sitting around 5 or 6 tables. Sophie got a strawberry mojito and I tasted a sip of it; it was sweet and minty. After everyone had consumed all of their sangria/cerveza/mojito/other drinks we headed over to O'Brien's which is an Irish pub down the road a little ways. I wasn't quite sure what to get to drink since my usual drink in Toledo is sangria, but I ended up getting a Toledo Made cerveza called Domus. I'm not a huge fan of beer but it had enough spices to make it drinkable.  After we finished at O'Brien's we walked back to Zocodover to make plans to either go to a discoteca or a park. Because it was too far to walk to the discoteca we decided to go to the park. I was easily amused by the gatos everywhere and we were all a little squirrelly. By the time we walked home it was about 3 am and I fell asleep almost instantly. 

Love you all! 

martes, 16 julio

Today in class we finished talking about pronouns and using both direct (what?) and indirect (to whom?) object pronouns. About halfway through the morning a couple office assistants came into our class to give us class evaluation forms and photo releases. I was able to remember my passport number, but completely spaced on how to spell "University of Nebraska-Lincoln." We then played a game where we had to spilt our inheritance from our Aunt Pepa, and practice using pronouns. I got tennis rackets, trees, surfboards, and a dog. It was an hilarious adventure; Diego got a collection of high heels and a piggy bank. We were a mix of native English and Chinese speakers so explaining piggy bank was an adventure in talking in circles. During our break an elderly man came up to Emily, Sophie and I and talked to us while standing rather close, and then gave us the customary cheek kisses before he left. I know its part of the Spanish culture but it made me super uncomfortable since I had no idea who this man was. After the break we talked about our exam tomorrow and played a vocabulary review game using a game show format. First we had a couple of words that we had to define in teams, and then we went around the room telling the first letter of the word and then giving the definition. The rest of the teams had to race to say the correct vocab word first. Our team won with 11.5 points; I remembered more vocab than I realized I knew. And finally, we quickly reviewed the grammar we talked about in class; and I remembered most of what we learned. 

For lunch today we had spaghetti and I actually cleaned my entire plate for the very first time! Sandra was so proud of me! At 3pm the daily news comes onto the TV and today it was very political. Since I have my exam tomorrow I decided to study during siesta time. However, I quickly fell into a warm room food coma and took a little siesta. I eventually woke up and began the process of going through all of my notes from the past month or so. I started by going through all of the vocabulary we learned and when I couldn't remember what it was, I'd type it into Google Images so I'd associate the spanish word with the object rather than the english which apparently helps to learn the words. I spent most of the evening studying and getting distracted by finding Max Ernst's painting on Pinterest. I drank a really good cold (not iced) tea that I thought was some sort of alcohol when Sandra first brought me a glass; as well as fresh orange juice and bread. I worked through most of the evening and through my solo dinner of fried cheese sticks and fries, peach, yogurt and bread. While watching the end of today's Tour stage, I got really excited thinking I understood what the cyclist was saying in Spanish... turns out the stage 16 yellow jersey winner is from Great Britain. This is what happens when you study spanish all night long! 

Love y'all! 

lunes, 15 julio

Today in class we talked about children's stories/fairytales. Katrina and I wrote an amazing and hilarious story about Juan running through Amsterdam and tripping through a magical window, being in a coma, and then the princess, Elena, kissed him and he woke up. They obviously lived happily ever after. It's really hard to write stories in Spanish because you are limited by the amount of vocabulary and grammar you know, but it is definitely a lesson in talking in circles to get your idea across. During our break we headed over to get empanadas which were delicious, and a good snack to hold me over to lunch. After the break we reviewed the different accent/tilde categories. I remembered the lesson from Yoanna's class last semester so it was mostly a review for me, but it's nice to hear more explanations of grammar forms and rules. We then started a lesson on direct and indirect object pronouns, which are annoying to listen and discern, but wonderful when writing.

For lunch today we had paella and salad. I'm kind of getting sick of paella because we had it Saturday for dinner in Valencia, Sunday for lunch in Candeleda, and today for lunch. But since it is a traditional spanish meal, I guess it is to be expected. I enjoyed a little siesta that wasn't long enough to help me catch up on my sleep deficit from this weekend.

(We lost internet again last night so this is from memory more or less)
At 5 I went to Madre de Dios to study with some friends. We made a couple trips to a mercado to get snack food and listened to different types of music. I did get my homework done, but I wasn't extremely productive as time wore on. At about 830 we decided to go get tapas at Lizzaran and realized we'd been locked into M de D. We had to call Chris and then a security guard to let us out of the building. It was a little embarrassing, but still fun. When we got to Lizzaran I got a couple of very good tapas and spilt a fries, egg and ham plate with Mariah, and drink a sangria. The evening was fun even though we were locked into the building for a while; and I was able to fall asleep before midnight which was wonderful.

Love you all!

Valencia and Candeleda! viernes, 12 julio to domingo, 14 julio

(I'm exhausted and have an entire weekend to type so this post will be bullet points for now.)

[Friday, July 12]

- Breakfast with Alfonso, we watched San Fermín
- I gave a presentation speech in class about my weekend in Madrid
- We worked on pronunciation in class
- We went at 11 to Plaza Zocodover to meet our Valencia group: Colby, Alex, Mariah, Olivia, Emily, Sophie, Conner, Zach, and I.
- I got a tomato and queso empanada.
- We then got a bus to Madrid; Colby and I talked about families on the way.
- On the Metro in Madrid, the line we needed was stopped for some reason and it was very crowded and hot, and there was a baby in a stroller right in front of me.
- When we got to the train station we literally had to sprint through security, and down the terminal. We were in coche 29 which was one of the farthest cars from the stairs. We took a photo of everyone finally in their seat as the train started to move. Bones was on the TV so I listened to it in Spanish.
- In the train station we got a map and then walked to the Metro.
- We checked into the Red Nest Hostel, and then went around the corner to Alfonso el Magnánimo. I split a Margarita pizza with Alex.
- We then headed to the beach via metro. It was absolutely gorgeous! The Mediterranean Sea is bath water temperature and the sand is almost creamy. I floated with everyone and just enjoyed the relaxing experience.
-We spilt into two groups at some point and one group swam out farther. And the they split up again because two people wanted to swim to the dock halfway down the beach. I definitely dropped into camp counselor mode and inner panicked but was still a little pissed. After that I wasn't too interested in going too far out to sea and collected sea shells on the beach.
- There was an impressive sand castle right off the board walk.
- We went to the hostel to change out of our wet clothes.
- We wandered into the city and eventually found a chicken place for dinner. I was so hungry I didn't even care about the bones. And for dessert we found a helado shop.
- We then spent the next hour looking for a place to hang out but everywhere was closed.

[Saturday, July 13]

- "Slept in" to 9:30! We then went over to Starbucks a few doors down to wait for the rest of the group. I had a chai tea latte in a ceramic mug- things we don't have back in Lincoln. While we were sitting there, a parade of Mr. Bean cars drove down the street in a parade. It was hilarious to see all of these little cars with dinky honks.
-We then went to a Nike store because we were hoping the rebajas would be helpful in adding to our Nike collections, but they weren't all that great.
- We stopped for cupcakes and I got Dulce con Leche.
- We stopped at El Corte Ingles for food. The grocery store is located in the basement and the upper levels are a department store. We found a water jug that was 6.5 liters and weighed as much as a baby- his name was Joaquin because it was the name on the label. We also got pan, chips, and cookies.
- We finally made it to the beach about 2 or so. We put on sunscreen before heading out to the waves and laying out but we all got really burnt. I took a 30 minute nap at one point so that didn't help the not-getting-sunburnt cause.

This is my expression right after getting shocked by a wave...

Our group... minus Colby the photographer

- At 6:30 we found a restaurant with paella that had a view of the beach and ordered three paellas and sangria. We had lobster, veggie/chicken, and seafood. I tried a couple of the shellfish and the chicken but mostly appreciated the rice and veggie mix.
- At 7:30 (on time for once) we headed back to the hostal for our luggage and then headed to the train station.
- We ended up in the wrong station, but we did have time to change into dry clothes. We got to the correct train station with about 15 minutes to spare. We were in coche 5 this time which was closer to the ticket checking station and security. I had a row to myself and fell asleep with headphones connected to the train's "radio" and was woken up to Hedwig's Theme.
- In Madrid we took the Metro back to the bus station but missed the directo so we had to take the midnight pueblo bus- which stopped at smaller towns on the way to Toledo. By this time I was exhausted. We still had Joaquin the water jug and his name became Joaquin Javier José Juan Jiménez. It was the result of a long day.
- We got back to Toledo at about 2am on Sunday and had been in Valencia for 26 or so hours (not counting travel). When I got back to the casa I had the place to myself and realized how burned I'd gotten at the beach.

[Sunday, July 14]

- I woke up after about 4.5 hours of sleep to go to Candeleda with the group excursion. I got a seat to myself and added an extra 1.5 hours to my sleep bank. I have perfected the sleeping-on-a-bus position so only one small fraction of my body is uncomfortable- it's all in how you brace your legs against the seat in front of you and the wall.
- We stopped at the Cuevas de Águila and toured the caves. It was cold inside and the stalagmites and stalactites were amazing. If you used your imagination you could see toros, people, hands, corn, and a whole lot of different things.
- We then took a small break at a natural pool before lunch. Since we didn't have a whole lot of time we just walked the rocks upstream. I was extremely thankful for my Chacos and their ability to be worn everywhere.

This could be a Chaco advertisement right?

- We ate lunch not far from the piscina natural. I had paella, and then this weird chicken concoction. We made some of our own sangria using the wine and the bubbly water they gave us to drink. And for dessert we had helado and café con leche. When they poured the café it was really thick and almost pitch black but really good.
- We then went back to the lagoon to swim and it took a while for me to adjust to the cold water but it did feel good on my sunburn! It was fun just sitting and relaxing in a natural pool of super clear water that was clean and it's anything like the streams in Nebraska.

Our Candeleda group- from all over the world! 

- On the way back to Toledo I slept again and then went back to my casa where I curled up with my computer to type this post. I turned the TV on and cat napped.
- For dinner I had a hamburger, salad with amazing tomatoes, pan, and plain yogurt.

It's crazy to think that in a week I'll be 20 years old and back in Nebraska!
Love you all!

jueves, 11 julio

Today when I woke up, Alfonso was in the living room watching San Fermín and the running of the bulls so that made breakfast a lot more interesting. In class today we did more work with imperfect and read some urban legends. Some of the stories really didn't make sense at first, but then we realized you had to match the imperfecto sentences with their spot in the story and then the stories made sense. We then had conversations with our partners about an event in our life that was either happy, sad, embarrassing or otherwise relevant. After that we did a pass-the-story game. My favorite story created by my group was about a gato that was found outside and then brought home and given food and a bath. During the bath, the kitty fell asleep so when she woke up she was super fluffy, and then got the name Fluffy. After the 11am break we finished our stories and then began to talk about professions in preparation for tomorrow's class. We played a matching game that had weird instructions so we ended up making up new rules. And the last 45 minutes or so of class revolved around the song and dance for the final fiesta.

During lunch today the conversation continued along the lines of Alba wanting a tattoo, although it quickly transitioned into Sandra saying how no matter what she says, Alba will do the opposite. Alfonso then said that Sandra was like that as a child so karma is coming back around. For lunch today we had rice with spaghetti sauce, hot dog-like sausages, and fried eggs. I'm really starting to like fried eggs- which is ridiculously weird since I'm normally very picky about eggs. During siesta I listened to a spanish music playlist on youtube and worked on memorizing my speech for tomorrow.

I needed a break from repeating my speech about my weekend in Madrid so I decided to meet the group of studiers at Malquerida. We got a little distracted and started talking about classes here and the T.A.s and differences between UNL and UCLM (Uni. of Castilla-La Mancha). We also talked about the good, and the not-so-good classes, at UNL. Since Chris and Heather, our UNL faculty here to help us if needed, were also at Malquerida they were able to give us insights into the teachers' side of UNL and UCLM. I thought it was really interesting when we started to talk about host families, because we began to compare families in the different Hispanic cultures we are familiar with: Spain, Mexico, immigrants to the US, and Chris's three year experience in Panama. We talked about how it is rude to ask a guest "what do you want (to drink)" in some cultures and how us Nebraskans have a hard time being rude. For example, I instinctually make eye contact and smile when I walk down the street, but here it instantly labels me as an American. [So to everyone back home: when I return to the States, I'm not being rude, it's just going to be a reverse culture shock adjustment period.] Also, when at restaurants, the Nebraska instinct is to say "Could I have café? or I would like café" with a couple pleases and thank yous every other sentence but here you just "Café... or give me (as a command) café"  


At home I had lasagna that had just the right amount of creamy cheese, also known as a plate full of creamy cheese with a couple lasagna noodles. I also had somewhat good plain yogurt but I put (what I think is) a peach into it so that made it better. When I was biting my peach it sprayed everywhere and there was more juice on my hands and the table than into my yogurt cup. Thank goodness for washcloths! During and after cena we watched two movies- "Apunta, dispara y corre" (Running Scared; 1986) with really bad dubbed voice and moving mouths compatibility; and "Abierto hasta al amanecer" (From Dawn until Dust; 1996), where George Clooney's dub over voice was hilarious. I will definitely still want to watch dubbed over movies in the future since they are super funny to try to lip read. I also made the not-thought-through decision to sit by the light and got attacked by a couple of bugs- the first time it happened I "eep'd" which is basically the crazy sound I make when freaked out; but thankfully the scared expression and motions of getting bugs out of your personal space is not constrained by language. 

Tomorrow I will be getting sunburned in Valencia, so I won't be posting anything until Saturday night Spain time. 

Love y'all! 

miércoles. 10 julio

This morning we talked about going to the mercado ayer. We talked about what we saw and what we could buy there. We then moved into talking about mercados versus supermercados. We listened to a CD and followed along with different exercises. It was similar to the exercise we did about the Spaniards and Germans taking a trip. We listened to it, then we read along and then finally we read the story slowly out loud. At 11am we took an all group photo and then an Estados Unidos photo; in our U.S. photo we tried to organize ourselves using Spanish and then someone said that we all speak English. We got organized a lot faster after that! While waiting for the other countries to get their photos taken before we could start classes again I ate some Lacasitos chocolate- it was similar to M&Ms but flatter. In the afternoon we talked about pretérito vs. imperfecto and since I understand the differences on paper I was sort of bored, and the room was warms so I was also getting sleepy. My sleepiness didn't last very long because we started to practice our song/dance for the final fiesta. We all have no ideas so we all looked ridiculous but tomorrow we'll have more time to plan and make up a dance.

For lunch today we had spaghetti with hot dog sauce, it was interesting but good. For dessert we had strawberries- also very good. During lunch the discussion was centered around Alba, my younger host sister, wanting a tattoo on her arm and her parents wanting her to think about future employment options. It was very interesting to see how similar arguments can be in both English and Spanish.I then siesta'd until about 6 before I met up with some people to get dinner and go on a sunset hike. I got some of the twizzler-like cream filled dulce while waiting at the university and then helado while everyone else got pizza since I planned on returning to the casa for dinner. Colby also got a waffle covered in Nutella and the piece I tried was very good. Our group consisted of Alex, Emily, Olivia, David, Mariah, Colby, Sophie, myself, and Connor ate with us, but didn't hike. 

After everyone was finished we began our walk to the vista point outside of the walls. It was about 8:30 at this time and the sun was just beginning to set. The higher we got up the hill, the better the view became. We finally got to the highest you can (safely) get and watched the sun set. It was the most amazing experience I've had here in Toledo. Words can't even begin to describe the view of Toledo tonight at sunset; I'm not even sure if photos could either. It was a breathtaking, spectacular, heart-stopping view of a marvelous city filled to the brim with history and stories. You could see the Cathedral and the castle; and the sun illuminated everything with sunshine and happiness. There was a breeze and a band playing on the other side of the valley echoing up to us. It was a perfect night. I climbed up and around various rocks and wished I had real climbing gear to get to the less-safe looking rocks. I mostly just sat and stared at Toledo. It was breath-taking and hard to pull your gaze away. We took a lot of photos but none on them even came close to doing it justice. We probably spent close to an hour on the rocks on the hill, and I still want to go back again; hopefully with more water and possibly a picnic. I completely lost track of time and forgot how long it takes to walk back to Casco and the bus stop that I ended up being late to dinner. Sandra had been worried but understood how hard it is to leave the amazing view. I had a sandwich, fries and strawberries for dinner as well as 3 or 4 glasses of water.

Toledo at sunset; and the photo doesn't do it justice.   

Love you all! 

martes, 9 julio

Today in class we learned how to describe people and their personalities and then segueway'd into learning about imperfect. I've had pretérito and imperfect taught to me so many times and in so many ways, I understand it really well, even if it takes me awhile to think through it. We got homework for tonight, but that's only because we... went to el mercadillo! It's a market every Tuesday in Toledo. I roamed around with Jessica for about 20 minutes before we started to buy things. I got a few gifts, two children's fairytale books (which is really helpful to learn the grammar structures), some dulces (cream filled twizzler-like and a sugared gummy), and horchata. There were so many different types of venders and everything you could think of was sold there- jewelry, clothes (all kinds), kitchen ware, music, libros, dulces, bebidas, and a lot more. We were looking at some jewelry at a stall with about half of the girls from our class when all of a sudden they started to cover all of the jewelry with clothes. I was super confused because there were about 6 or 7 girls looking. We then all kind of looked at each other confused and when we turned around to move to the next stall we saw a pair of policemen coming around to all of the venders. We then speculated that the vendors either need a permit to sell particular things or that the items were either stolen or knockoffs. After that I was a little more particular about what I would buy. The vendors would shout out the prices to things and call the passer-bys 'guapo/a' which is approximately like saying either 'handsome man' or 'pretty women' to get attention. It was helpful when I didn't want to ask the price because then they assume you are going to buy it. For homework tonight we have to fill out a questionnaire about our time in the market, and finish the imperfecto worksheet; and if we want feedback on our speeches we also can turn in rough drafts tomorrow.

For lunch today we had cauliflower with spaghetti-style sauce. I'm not a huge fan of cauliflower but my host parents and younger sister were in the middle of an argument so I thought it would be better to keep my eyes on my plate and not make a sound. And following the Spanish tradition, you can never have enough food so for our second course we had chicken and then fruit for dessert. I then really needed my siesta. After siesta I headed to Plaza Zocodover to meet with some people to get tickets for Valencia. Olivia and I took the bus to the train station to get our tickets and the only train available leaves from Madrid at 2:10 which means we'll need to take the noon bus from Toledo. I will be voluntarily skipping a class (granted it's only the afternoon class) for the first time in my collegiate career- such a rebel. I will need to talk to Natalia, my professor, tomorrow to let her know.

In the evening I sat and did my homework. I pulled up youTube and listened to a playlist full of spanish songs and had a blast searching for new songs. I was able to do my worksheet on imperfecto fairly quickly and understood everything I was doing. The next worksheet I had to do was about the mercado this morning and I had to look up some definitions of a type of food that I still don't quite know what they are so I'll have to ask in the morning. It was fun to look back at everything we did and saw at the mercado this morning. For dinner I had another fried egg and fries and then went back to doing homework. I forgot how awful it is to write a speech regardless of the language.

Love you all!

lunes, 8 julio

I got up earlier than usual today so I could get to the wifi at the University to tell everyone that I made it home safe. I also posted about Madrid. In class today we did a small review session. After our review session we worked with a comic that was about a love story similar to a soap opera: two people fall in love at first sight, he's in an accident and a coma for 2 years, she falls in love with his doctor, and when he wakes up he falls in love with her friend. We then had to write an ending to the story. Julia, Erin, and I decided that I should write for soap operas because I planned a double wedding and then 20 years later their kids get married. We listened to a couple of songs by Lola Flores and read her biography. And then we made up our biographies as if it was the year 2070. I said that I was a professor for 30 years and then wrote a book, but one kid in my class said he moved to Jupiter, which was hilarious. We then got an assignment; on Friday we have another speech and this one is about a past event in our lives. We finished the day by listening to some songs in preparation for the final fiesta during our last week in Spain.

For lunch today we had two courses plus dessert! For our first course we had potato, pepper, onion, and hard boiled egg salad which was really good and then for our second course we had fish and chips, I mean, fries. I'm not a huge fan of fish but it was alright. And then finally we had dessert- fruit! This fruit tasted like a peach and was shaped like a mini pumpkin. I took a little siesta before meeting Olivia on the bus. We stopped at McD's for McFlurries since we were so hot and they have different types of ice cream and add-ins here; my was with what they called Smarties, but were really a candy-coated sweet, and caramel drizzle. We then headed over to the University to finish planning Valencia for this weekend. We looked for a hostel for 9 people and transportation to and from Valencia. After making some tentative plans, Colby needed to go to the store called "Taste of America" to get some things to make dinner for his host mom. I started to crave peanut butter and frosting. After Taste of America we stopped and got Mazapan- my favorite! our group spilt up because it was nearing some people's dinner time and the rest of us when on a wandering adventure and stopped in a few shops to look at leather bags and other souvenirs. I've gotten to the point where I can wander through the streets without getting too turned around which is amazing seeing how I can get lost in Lincoln.

For dinner I had the fried mozzarella sticks that I've had before with the amazing tomatoes on a salad. I also was a little dehydrated so I downed an entire CamelBak bottle and two glasses of off-brand-coke-soda-pop-drink; I really son't know what it is- it's carbonated and brown and delicious. After eating I dashed off to meet some friends at Enebro for sangria and tapas.

Love y'all!

Madrid! viernes, 5 julio to sábado, 7 julio

MADRID!

[Friday July 5, 2013]

I woke up at the same time that I did everyday this week; the only difference was that I was going to be sitting on a bus for an hour instead of in a classroom today. I finished packing up all of my things and putting them into Daddy’s Houdini bag since there are no zippers on the sides not facing your back and I could put everything into one easy-to-carry bag. I then double checked the map and headed towards the bus station. I made it to the station with about 10 minutes to spare, and then on the bus in the front row with 5 minutes to spare. In the row behind me there were 2 Uni. of Minnesota students and 1 Penn State student who slept through their alarm and missed their group excursion. I felt bad for them at first but then I learned that they had been out partying until 4am when they knew they had to leave at 6:30. It will definitely be a learning experience for them. They had a dozen questions on how to get off the bus and into the Metro, how to ride and navigate the Metro, and all of the things they’d need to know to be able to catch a connecting train to their group. I only knew a little from visiting Madrid last Sunday and the things I had read online in preparation for traveling this weekend, but they knew next to nothing. I guess one good thing about going off on my own is that I have to become self reliant and figuring things out and not just depending on my tour guide to hold my hand.

When we got off the bus I wished them luck and then realized that I needed some too. I knew I needed to get off the Metro at the Atocha station, but I couldn’t see it on the map I had. I eventually saw it on Line 1 and just had to take the circular Line 6 to Pacifico station (thank goodness for family living in similar named towns!) and switch to Line 1. Once on Line 1 I had to ride for 4 stops and then I was done with the Metro. I got up onto the street and referred to the screenshot on my phone I took of the map of the Atocha station in relation to my hotel. I looked up from my phone and realized the station and the hotel are nearly in eyesight of each other. I laughed at my earlier fear of being lost in a neighborhood and walked into the reception area.

This was the true test of my Spanish abilities. I went to the desk and said that I have a reservation for this weekend. He asked for my name and I pulled the American move by spelling it with English pronunciation of the letters instead of the Spanish pronunciation. The receptionist said I didn’t have a reservation, but asked for my ID to be sure. When he had the actually letters of my name he was able to find my reservation. I am in room 404 and the room is roughly as square as my dorm room in Neihardt was wide, the bathroom in huge compared to the one as my host family’s, and the view is four stories above an inner courtyard. I’m too nervous to stick my head too far out of the window to look all of the way down. I then unpacked, sent out an “I made it to Madrid safely” email, double checked the way to Museo del Prado and headed out of the door.

Room key! 

My hostal room. 

When I finally got to the side of El Prado with the ticket office I had to wait in line for about five or so minutes. While I was in line I saw that students got into the Museo for free and figured it wouldn’t hurt to say that I was a student. I showed my NCard and my Nebraska ID and got my free ticket. I was so excited. That was around 11:30 am. I then went through security and picked up a map. I then wandered through every single room on all four floors (the top and bottom are a lot smaller with only one or two exhibits) for the next 6 hours. I did take a break to eat in the café where I got tortilla española- my absolute favorite food here. I love the paintings by El Grecco and can’t wait to go to the Museo de El Grecco in Toledo next week. There were a lot of exhibits and they were all organized by region, era, style, or some other unifying feature. My favorite moment was turning around and seeing the ‘The Second of May 1808’ and ‘The Third of May 1808’ which are two paintings of Francisco Goya that are in all of my Spanish culture books over the years. I loved seeing all of Goya’s pieces in Prado and all of the paintings that are talked about when learning about the Spanish culture. I do have to admit that my favorite painting was “Head of a sleeping cat” by Francisco Domingo Marqués [http://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/galeria-on-line/galeria-on-line/obra/gato-circulo/] On the bottom floor there is a vault with the Tesoro del Dauphin, which was a collection of very intricate vases, glasses, and cups; as well as landscapes made out of stone pieces shaped together in an extremely detailed puzzle. All of the exhibits were worthy of going back and seeing again, but there is just so much to see and even 6 hours isn’t enough!

Outside of El Prado

I headed back to my hotel room to lay down for a bit but I’m to jazzed up from the Museo to sleep so I typed up my day until I started to feel tired. I guess I was really tired because I slept from 7pm to 8:30am only waking up a few times because of noise in the hall way.

[Saturday, July 6, 2013]

Once I woke up I set a few emails and then decided it was time to get ready for the day and eat dinner and breakfast since I’m super hungry now. I found a little diner called ‘El Brillante’ and had café con leche and churros for breakfast. It was a good life choice up until the point that the fried churros made my stomach squeamish- why don’t I eat more fried food so this won’t happen? I sat at the bar and listened to all of the conversations going on between the waiters, the bartenders, and the cooks behind me. It was a good experience in understanding fast paced speech.

I then headed out the door to Centro del Arte Reina Sofia. Once there I utilized my student ID again and got a free ticket to everything but Dali’s exhibit in which you needed tickets in advance. Centro del Arte is known for it’s modern exhibits. I went through the special exhibits first before heading over to the main building. There is a lot of so-called ‘art’ that honestly looks like something stuck on our fridge when I was younger but there was one room that had a single installment that sort of made me home sick. The title of the installment was “Threads” and it was a 7-foot or so high stack of hay. I walked around it a couple of times giggling to myself since it didn’t smell like hay at all- so no Nebraska smell. I was really confused at first to how they consider hay as art but then I read the artist information plaque and realized that by calling it ‘Threads” there was more to this hay than scarecrow stuffing. The next thing I really liked was an exhibit room titled “Vibrations” with the theme of optical illusions that give the impression of vibrating artwork. It was fun to walk circles around artworks and see the different views of the same piece that was stationary but appeared to be vibrating. I didn’t have a map at this point so I began wandering rather aimlessly through the museum, seeing different influential artists’ work. I eventually got up the floors to room 206 that showcases Picasso’s Guernica. I fought my way through hordes of tourists staring at their guidebooks to get a closer view. I then moved to different viewpoints to see all of the angles you can get in one room. Along one wall is a series of eight photographs depicting the mural at different stages and seeing the progress made the final mural seem all the more impressive. I spent about 3 hours in Reina Sofia.

In front of the Reina Sofia sign. 

I then headed back to the hotel to find a place to eat. I ended up at El Rincón de las Tapas and was handed a menu in French. I was so confused! I thought my Spanish had gotten really bad until I saw the French flag in the corner. I then had to get my waitress’ attention and ask for a menu in Spanish or English- she apologized and said that I looked French. I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not… Once I got my menu I still ordered tortilla Española and café con leche. I’m too weird about meat to try any at anyplace but with my host family where I know it’s cooked correctly. Since it was around 3 when I ate lunch, the news was on the tele and I watched a clip of Pamplona and the running of the bulls. 

Pan, tortilla, y café con leche

 I then went back to my hotel to make my plans for the evening. I decided that I had three places left I’d still like to visit: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Plaza Mayor, and Parque de Retiro. Out of the seven places within a safe distance from my hotel out of the Top 10 book, I’d been to four: Palacio Real and El Rastro (last Sunday), Museo del Prado, and Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. I decided that since museums can take a lot of time to get through everything (for example, 6 hours in El Prado) to go to Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Once I got to Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza I went to the ticket counter to get my ticket, and my student ID got me a reduced ticket for only 6€. I started from the ground floor and worked my way up to the 2^nd level (although I realized later that chronologically you start from the top and work your way down.) I was about ten rooms into the museum when I man asked if I could take his picture (which is allowed near about 90% of the artwork) in front of a painting, Composición de colores 1, by Piet Mondrian. He was surprised that I understood him when he spoke English and that’s when I said I was from Nebraska. He got really excited and looked like I just told him I was Santa, and explained that he was born in Nebraska. We talked for a little bit and then he introduced me as his ‘fellow Husker’ to his partner, whose name I can’t remember. It was an interesting interaction that definitely made me smile.

Still on the ground floor in room 45 for future reference, I turned and saw Max Ernst’s “33 Girls Chasing Butterflies”/ “33 muchachas en busca de la mariposa blanca” out of the corner of my eye and was instantly enthralled. My first reaction was similar to Nicholas Cage in National Treasure “I’m going to steal the Declaration of Independence.” I spent a solid five minutes looking at it. I then pulled myself away from it and saw several other favorites like Georgia O’Keefe, Picasso, and Van Gogh. After I finished my tour I headed back downstairs to look at Ernst’s painting again. If it hadn’t been too tacky I would’ve sat on the floor in front of it, but instead I sat on the bench in the middle of the room. On my way out of the museum I looked through everything to see if there was anything with Ernst’s painting on it but there wasn’t, so it is now near the top on my ‘when I get back to the states, I need to do this’ list. I don’t think I’ve ever been this enthralled by a painting before but I definitely don’t mind. Out of the 3 or so hours I spent at the museo, I probably spent 15 looking at it.

I absolutely love this painting.
"33 muchachas en busca de la mariposa blanca" Max Ernst

On my way back to the hotel I had to walk down Paseo del Prado, and I completely forgot that this weekend is Gay Pride weekend so the Paseo is packed with people celebrating. I accidentally walked in front of a group of people with water guns and when I got in the crosshairs they all apologized profusely but it was so warm outside that I really didn’t mind. There were a lot of parade goers wearing not much more than the closest to illegal swimsuit you can wear in public or dressed in drag or a combination of the two, as well as people wearing their everyday clothes. I am not all that familiar with the LGBT culture, since Lincoln isn’t exactly the most liberal of places, so it was shock at first. Since the streets were closed down to traffic there were a lot of police officers patrolling, which made me feel a little safer. Once I was back in my hotel room I double checked my Top 10 book and realized I only had Plaza Mayor and Parque del Retiro left. I decided to stop at a supermercado for dinner food and then sit and wander through Parque del Retiro before dark. Not necessarily one of my better ideas. In the half hour I was in my room the amount of people in Paseo del Prado had doubled if not tripled. I decided that instead of panicking my way through the crowd to get to the Parque del Retiro on the other side, I’d head in the opposite direction to find a supermarcado.  I found one and got a sandwich with queso and nuez (cheese and walnut), orange Fanta (since I never drink pop at home, its still a new experience; and the parade goers had cleared most of the shelves already), and this twizzler type treat. I ate my treat on the way back to Reina Sofia, which is within a stone’s throw of my hotel and I people-watched from a bench in front of Reina Sofia. A pigeon sat next to me on the bench and freaked me out, which in turn freaked it out. I couldn’t stop laughing as I ate my sandwich. There were a group of 3 men who were obviously drunk that made me uncomfortable so I decided that I could walk and drink Fanta at the same time since my sandwich was gone. I headed towards the café I’d eaten breakfast in since I knew there were enough tables to get in the way, as well as an exit on the other side. Once I got through the restaurant I double-checked to make sure they weren’t following me and then circled around the block to get back to my hotel.

Once in my hotel I coordinated a Skyping date with Momma, Daddy, Papa and Gramma. It’s been two weeks since I was home and two weeks from returning- nearly exactly halfway! It weird how fast the time has flown, yet at the same time it’s gone super slow. I then took a shower in a shower that is bigger than the one with my host family. I didn’t bump my elbows against a wall at all! I made the mistake of completely shutting the windows instead of just obstructing the view since the hotel room got really hot, humid and stuffy. There is a fan which helps move air around by doesn’t bring new air into the room. At nearly midnight Spain time I got to Skype with my family, which made for a pretty good end of the first half of my time here in Spain. I love technology and being able to see everyone even though there is several thousand miles, and 7 time zones dividing us. It was good to see everyone’s face and hear their voices and talk with everyone.

[Sunday, July 7, 2013]

Today was my last day in Madrid, so I had to pack up all of my things. I didn’t realize how many things I had brought with me until I started cleaning up my room. I finally had the nerve to look down out of the window and saw that it’s a four story drop to a little patio. Once I finally had all of my things put together I returned my key to the front desk and headed towards Parque del Retiro. Once I was in the parque I saw, not necessarily in this order: Puerta de la Indepencia, Estanque, Monument to Alfonso XII, Fuente de la Alcachofa, Palacio de Cristal, and Rosaleda. I ate my breakfast of fruit I’d brought with me at Estanque (the lake near the Monument to Alfonso XII) and Palacio de Cristal. I was carrying all of my things with me so I took a lot of my-bag-is-cumbersome breaks. I always strategically planned these breaks near the musicians that play everywhere, or by a pretty fountain or flora. There were pigeons everywhere, and they were really aggressive towards each other if food was present. There were also a lot of people walking their dogs, sunbathing, riding bikes and running, or just sitting and enjoying the view. I definitely would have blended in with the locals if I wasn’t carrying my backpack. On my way towards Puerta de la Indepencia the street market was just getting started and I had to utilize my “no, gracias” many times because the sellers are very pushy. Once I was out of the parque I headed into the metro station Retiro and headed towards Sol, which is close to Plaza Mayor.

Fuente de la Alcachofa- artichoke fountain. 

Monument to Alfonso XII

Palacio de Cristal

Once I got to Plaza del Sol I needed to get my barring before heading towards Plaza Mayor. I eventually discovered I was going the right direction when I literally stumbled into Plaza Mayor. I took a couple photos of the statue of Felipe III and then ate lunch at Los Arcos. Can you guess what I ordered? A hint is that this is the same meal three lunches in a row. That’s right! I had bocallio tortilla y zumo de naranja. While I was sitting I saw mounted police officers and took a semi-discrete photo of them. After paying my 5€ bill I started to make the loop of coin and stamp vendors since I was fortunate enough to be there on a Sunday. There was a vendor selling old antique looking rings and one caught my eye so I asked how much it was and then bought it. It’s an O shaped ring with three diamonds on the top and three on the bottom with a pearl in the center. Once I get back to the States I’ll have it cleaned and appraised, although I doubt the diamonds are real, it does need a little polishing.

Finally in Plaza Mayor! 

I then made my way back to Plaza del Sol to get back on the metro and head towards the bus station. I saw a meat store called Museo de Jamón that was filled to capacity with different meats. I didn’t go inside, but I did look. I reminded me of why I could be a vegetarian. Once I was through the metro and at the bus station I got my bus ticket and began the 45-minute wait for the next direct bus to Toledo. I am definitely still from the millennial generation because I pulled my computer out of my bag and began typing up my day. I’m telling myself its so I don’t forget anything, but in reality I don’t have anything else to do. 

On the bus ride to Toledo every seat was filled but I was lucky enough to get a window seat so I could use it as a pillow. Unfortunately the A/C couldn’t handle a full bus so it was really warm in the bus. By the time we got done with the 50 minute bus ride I felt sick from a combination of warm bus, an hour of motion, and not drinking enough water; and I still had to walk back home in the middle of the hot afternoon. When I finally got back to the casa I had it to myself, which is a blessing because I wanted to drink a couple bottles of water, take a shower, and then finish the afternoon with a nap. I woke up still feeling sick yet I had just taken a nap in a cool room and had drank a lot of water, so I wasn’t sure why I was still feeling gross. I got up to get more water since I was feeling light headed, but didn’t even make it to the kitchen before having to hug the toilet and revisit lunch. I was really thankful at this point that I had the casa to myself. After that I decided to curl up on the couch with a huge water bottle and watch TV. After figuring out the remote, I watched the end of “El Secreto de Clarissa” and then watched a mystery movie called “Mystery Book Women: asesinato al amanecer.” I keep nodding off during the movies, and along with the language barrier, make it hard to understand what is happening. After about 2 hours I felt well enough to attempt to eat something and was able to keep it down, which leads me to think that whatever made me sick wasn’t a virus or a bug.

At about 10 Sandra and Alfonso came home and we ate dinner. I had the same noodles and chicken as last week and then we watched Smurfs with NPH in Spanish. I put the subtitles on because I was getting confused with names of the Smurfs. Subtitles really help me understand what’s being said and putting the spelling of a word with its pronunciation.  But unfortunately I fell asleep before the end so I'll have to watch it again!

Love you all! 

P.S. I never got lost while in Madrid which is practically a miracle! If you've ever attempted to give me directions or have driven with me, you know I get lost in the town I've lived in since I was born. 

jueves, 4 julio

Happy Fourth of July! This morning I made sure to remember to wear clothes to properly represent America- red, white, and/or blue! This morning in class the T.A. gave her lesson and with a combination of a warm room, not completely understanding the lesson about movies I've never even heard of, and the T.A.'s less than understandable quiet voice, I didn't understand most of the morning. We then transitioned into learning about pretérito perfecto and pretérito indicativo. We learned about the Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and did a lot of exercises to work on figuring out the differences between the similar grammar tenses. I had no idea who this director was until I came home and looked at the movie posters of his movies and realized he directed 'Volver.' I really liked how the worksheet was set up and how it taught the material, the only downside was the staple was on the right instead of the left so I spent a lot of time trying to figure out which way to turn the page and we all must have looked ridiculous. During the break we took a group photo of the Nebraskan's with classes in Madre de Dios.

Nebraskan's Fourth of July photo! 

For lunch today we had paella again and then for dessert we had this amazing fruit. I still don't know how to spell it but it tasted like a plum but was way juicier! After all of the food we had at lunch and the fact that it was around 100 degrees outside, I was super okay with listening to some quieter music and resting during siesta. I also packed up some things for this weekend's adventure to Madrid.

After siesta I went to Casco to find some mazapan and go visit the Cathedral. I found mazapan fruitella sin relleno at a tienda called San Tomé which apparently has some of the oldest recipes. It was really good and tasted like sweet bread.

My first piece of Mazapan! 

After eating my mazapan I wandered towards the cathedral. I somehow found the north side and the Portal of the Clock door which is next to the Chapel of St. Peter which serves as a parish church. The chapel is also dedicated to Our Lady of the Tabernacle. Next to the door was a list of all of the misas during the day, and the next one started in 20 minutes. I wasn't sure which chapel was the chapel with mass but using my Catholic-school-since-kindergarten reasoning skills I deduced that because of the red candle burning by the tabernacle, the chapel I was in was indeed a chapel for mass. Although had I waited a few minutes the stream of people would have been a great clue. I've definitely gone to enough masses in the last 2 decades that I knew when to sit and stand and all of those things, but I was really forced to pay attention when the priest was talking so I could actually know what was going on.

After mass I wandered back towards Plaza Zocodover so I could find my way home. I saw out of the corner of my eye a royal blue lace covered dress and I decided to try it on. I went in grabbed the hanger and found the dressing room. It was the only blue one left so I was really excited when it fit me, and then I bought it. I realize that I own way too many dresses, but that's alright with me!

After I got home I put away all of my things and then put my head on the pillow for 30 minutes before heading into the living room to watch telenovelas with Sandra. After one show was over, we switched the channel over to El Hormiguero, the SNL-like show. It was the last episode of the season so they recapped the highlights of the past season and I was able to understand most of what was going on. One thing I really miss about being home is being able to multitask while watching t.v. or while having a conversation. For dinner we had hamburgesas again and I had another one of those delicious fruits for dessert. After Sandra, Alba, and I had finished dinner Alfonso walked into the door, which seems to be the trend. The t.v. was then changed to a documentary about the Tour de France and it's history, I think, I'm telling you I stink at multitasking.

Just a heads up: I will be in Madrid Friday morning until Sunday night so if I don't blog everyday that is why!
¡Hasta luego! 

miércoles, 3 julio

This morning we only had class until 11 because of a presentation in the afternoon. During class we gave our speeches and reviewed each other's speeches, There were a lot of speeches about family members, one of Michael Jackson, and one of Tyra Banks. I did alright but I could've memorized more of it. During our break I got café con leche because I was so tired. After the mini-break we started talking about películas and different genres of movies. We then read a small essay about movies and answered questions. And by then it was finally 11. I went with some of the girls from Ohio to the café and got this treat called "Kinder Bueno" and it was white chocolate candy, sort of similar to a kit-kat.

Kinder Bueno!

We then met everyone in our building and walked over to the building where the mayor would give us a welcoming presentation. When we got there most of the Nebraskans were on the sides in front and had a really good view of the presentation. It started by representatives of Jordan, China, U.S., and Brazil giving presentations about their experiences and thanking everyone for the opportunity to learn here. And then two other government officials spoke for a few minutes and then the mayor finally spoke. I understood almost all of his speech. He welcomed us and then told us about the universality of coming here to learn not only the language, but the culture as well. I was really surprised that the event only lasted 30 minutes because typically presentations like this can take a lot longer than needed here in Spain. we then received goody-bags with a poster of Toledo, a booklet about Toledo, a map, a bookmark, and a notepad. I'm going to have so many things to scrapbook when I get home!

Erik, I, Sonja, Brittney, and Katie at the welcome party.

For almuerzo we had ham with carrots and broccoli. I adore the vegetables here- they are super fresh and very delicious. We also had pan and salad, and for dessert we had melon. I couldn't fall asleep during siesta so I set up youtube to some of my favorite spanish artists and organized all of the scraps of souvenir papers, business cards, post cards, receipts and anything else that in theory could make their way into a scrap book into a pile on my desk. I will definitely be making a scrapbook and I'm thanking past-Whitney for starting this blog so I have all of my experiences in words in one legible spot.

After my pretend siesta, I headed up to Plaza de Zocodover to meet with some people to go to the centro comercial- the mall. Olivia, Sophie, Emily, and I waited until the rest (Colby, Alex, Natalie, Mariah) were Spanish late- more than 20 minutes- before sending them a text and learned they were still on a tour. But since they were okay with us leaving for the mall we hopped on the bus and headed out of the city. We realized that we weren't going to pull right up to the door of the mall but there was an American teenager from University of Minnesota on the bus and we befriended him and followed him to the mall. When we were in the mall we enjoyed the A/C (it hit nearly 40C or 104F here this afternoon) and waited until Colby scared the daylights out of Emily. We then wandered around splitting up and rejoining as we shopped. I didn't find anything that I liked but it was fun just walking around and comparing the centro comerical to malls I've been to. On our way home we stopped through what is equivalent of a Wal-Mart in a shopping mall and Mariah bought a kinder-egg. When we got to the bus stop it took the five of us who were left at that point to put the prize toy together- lots and lots of team work. We got onto bus 92 and made it back to Toledo and weaved through the streets and then realized that we had taken the wrong bus. We got off at the next stop, crossed the street and caught a bus that would take us to Zocodover. Once we were in Zocodover Olivia and I caught another bus that would take us to our neighborhood.

Kinder egg shenanigans. 

I got home at 9:58- two minutes before dinner. We had three types of pizza tonight and all were delicious! Alba was out for dinner with friends, and Alfonso had to work late, so it was just me and Sandra. We ended up sitting at the table for over 2 and a half hours talking about everything under the sun, especially about Independence Day in America, my crazy family (I love you all, but y'all still crazy) and differences between my family and American stereotypes, and the differences between stereotypical Americans vs stereotypical Spaniard, and the differences between their family and stereotypical Spaniards. It was a great night but I started losing my ability to think in Spanish a little after 12 30, which meant my spoken words were basically gibberish, so I decided it'd be a good idea to go to bed.

¡Buenas noches!

martes, 2 julio

This morning I didn't want to wake up but then I remembered I bought a new dress and my inner girly-girl got really excited. When I got to class this morning we started with a memory game. We looked for two minutes at a photo of a family getting ready for a trip and Natalia took away the photocopies and gave us a second sheet which we then used the pretérito perfecto to tell if the family had done something or still hadn't done something. There were 12 statements and my group won by getting all but one correct. We then transitioned into playing bingo where we had to form the proper grammar structure (using tú/you) and then question our classmates and be questioned ourselves with answers in (yo/I)  and then write in the correct form (él/he ella/she). It was fun learning about people's different experiences and having to think on your feet. After someone bingo'd we took our 11 o'clock break and I got café con leche from a vending machine and it was surprisingly good. When we got back to class we listened to this song and then talked about the song and did related activities. After the fourth or fifth time hearing it the song got stuck into my head. I really like Spanish music and was really disappointed that a lot of the music on the radio is in English. We then talked about using 'quedarse' vs 'quedar' which is still confusing. And then we finished class with more interviews that tied everything together. For most of the day I was partnered with José who is from Brazil so I was forced to use more spanish which was fun and we had both dictionaries on hand if we needed to translate things back and forth.

For lunch today we had white rice covered it what I thought was marinara sauce, but blander. We also had fried eggs and mini-saugages with coke, and fruit for dessert. After lunch, I ended up taking a two and a half hour nap, it was totally worth it. I then started to work on my speech for tomorrow and decided that it'd be easier to talk about Momma because- hey I can talk about Momma for five minutes without stopping. I then made the not-so-smart decision to sit under the A/C unit and after about an hour I was actually cold for the first time in this 90 degree weather. I spent most of my non-napping evening either working on my homework or watching Spanish game shows with Lara. But then at 9:30 I headed off to Casco for sangria with some friends- which turned into the entirety of he Nebraska group over the course of the evening- at Enebro. The sangria comes in a glass that reminds me of a beer pint, and it's really good especially if you sip one over the course of the evening.

Sorry this post is so short, I guess that's what happens when you nap for 2.5 hours and work on homework- nothing to fun happens.
Love you all!