domingo, 30 junio | Madrid

I was up and nervous relatively early and ready at 830 in Plaza Zocodover to meet up with the rest of the going to Madrid group. The group consisted of Alex, Colby, Mariah, Sophie, Emily, Olivia, Natalie, and her friend that her host mom introduced her to, David, who is from Ireland and studying here in Spain in August. Once everyone was there we walked to the bus station. We had to purchase a bus ticket and get onto the bus, and it was rather simple once we knew where to go, but at first I'm sure I looked like a deer in the headlights. The trip from Toledo to Madrid is an hour bus ride and on the bus we were goofy people.

Once we get off of the bus we get to metro station by walking through a door and going down a flight or two of escalators. We needed to buy metro tickets to be able to get through the turn stiles, I split a ticket with Mariah. We then read the map and discovered that we needed to take the metro to the exit of Sol and get a map. Once we had a map we realized that we need to go through the metro again to get to the open market that happens every Saturday. If you've ever been to a farmer's market multiply the amount of vendors to get over 200 stalls, then add in vendors selling items in the span of things you could find in Walmart, and then add in enough people that could populate the entirety of Memorial field shoulder to shoulder with about 6 inches of personal space and that's what the market was like. I got a few souvenirs and presents there and used the spanish that reminded me of our mercado in Spanish 4 at Pius with Maestra Hayes.

Plaxa del Sol

We then went to lunch. I got my current favorite meal: torillas española. They are the quiche with potato combination and ridiculously good. I think I am going to get the recipe from Sandra so I can make it when I'm back in Nebraska. After lunch we met up with Conner who was here the whole weekend exploring the city. In the plaza where we waited there was a mural on the wall that was so realistic that I didn't realize it was painted until I realized there was graffiti where people would 'walk.' Bonus? there was a cat painted about half way up the wall. It might have been in this plaza or the next, but a man was playing the violin so beautifully and so well that you could hear it through out the plaza and it was an amazing sound- definitely one of those moments that if given the option I would go to a concert featuring just him playing the violin.

The mural.
Find the Cat, where's Waldo style

We then went to the Royal Palace 'Palacio Real de Madrid' and I was in heaven. If I was an art history major, this is the era I'd want to study. The rooms that were open to the public were absolutely gorgeous. My favorite room was an orientally designed smoking room. The tiles on the wall were in my favorite shade of blue and the animals and plants painted were so realistic yet they were overly colorful. There were turtles, butterflies, cats, flowers, and a dozen or more different animals on the different sections of the room. I wasn't allowed to take photos, but I did get a post card because it was my absolute favorite. Since I can't replicate the palace in my own home I can at least attempt to recreate some parts of it using chandeliers and porcelain urns, and if I had the perfect house, ceiling, and landlord, I'd also paint the ceiling. I'm going to need very high ceilings and very wide walls to fit chandeliers the size of a baby pool in diameter in my house; and amazing curtains to block the sun from hitting the hundred or so dangling crystals and blinding everyone in a two mile radius. I could, however, attempt to bring a little of the palace into my home by using chest high porcelain urns. The urns in the palace were extremely ornate and most were just stuck in a corner and often over looked. There was one urn as you left the dining hall that had purples, blues, and grey flower decoration around the lid and there was still 2.5 feet of decoration that was insanely ornate. What is even crazier is that the ceilings were painted just as ornate. The ceiling in the royal chapel had the coronation of Mary in heaven and if you looked straight up at it your eye was naturally drawn to Mary. There was another ceiling that had a man holding a pendant and it looked as if the pendant should be hanging straight down and not painted along the ceiling. Conner is a music major so the Spanish Quartet violins inside were very cool to see from his point of view, because it gave it more depth other than just 'oh look a violin.' The Stradivarius violins are worth about 100 million Euros! My mind was blown. After the rooms we headed towards the armory and saw more knights' armor than I'd ever seen before. I never realized how much detail when into each and every single piece of metal. There was one breastplate that had tiny flowers pressed into it. And the armor for the horses was just as impressive, and there was gold thread details on any fabric. The last thing we toured was the pharmacy and that had all of these apothecary jars and porcelain jars and had a lot of interesting labels.

In front of Palacio Real

The Cathedral next door.

Side view of Palacio Real 

Gardens behind Palacio Real

After Palacio Real we started watching the people in various plazas on our way back to the metro. We made our way through the metro with minimal complications and got to the bus deport with about 5 minutes to spare and got on last minute and I spent the hour of the bus ride sleeping. After we got off of the buses I got home without getting lost in new city. I found that I had the house to myself and drank lots and lots of water to make up for the lack of water during the day and walking around so much. I was definitely thankful that I walked so much during the school year and my Chacos because although I was a bit sore I wasn't in pain from walking all day.

I then began researching Barcelona vs. Valencia for the three day weekend and wanting Momma and Gramma's advice, so I started sending emails and googling everything. I'm currently torn between Barcelona and Valencia and would love suggestions and opinions. For dinner we had hamburgers which reminded me of home but then I ate the tomatoes and realized I'm alright with being here for three more weeks. We were waiting to watch the Brazil vs. Spain fútbol game at midnight so we began watching "La Nana Mágico" (Nanny McPhee).

The Confederations Cup Final of Brazil vs Spain fútbol game started with Brazil scoring in the first three minutes and then Spain getting some close calls and then Brazil scored again and now I think its half time and I'm about to fall asleep at the table. It's interesting to watch a game that is so entrenched in a culture that parallels the Husker culture, but yet it is still decidedly different. As I'm typing this Brazil just scored their third goal, and it might be a sign that I should go to bed.

Love y'all!

sábado, 29 junio | Segovia

Today was the first excursion put on by ESTO, the program I belong to. We were supposed to meet the Nebraskans at 8:00a to get to this plaza by 8:15a. We didn't realize that the escalators don't start working until 8:00a and there was three or four bus loads of people also lining up to get up the escalators. Luckily we realized the plaza and the bus was at the bottom of the stairs and we were a few hundred feet away from our bus and there were no hills involved. We piled into the bus and alternated between talking and napping for the 2 hour bus ride.

The first thing we did after getting off of the bus was going to see the aqueducts. The aqueduct of Segovia is very, very impressive and it has been around for about 2000 to 1600 years- the beginning of construction isn't determinable. Regardless, the fact that it's been around for more than a millennia isn't something my American cultured mind can comprehend. After taking a lot of pictures from the ground we climbed up some stairs for a view from the top.

One side of the aqueducts, with some cyclists (for scale and for Daddy)

Mariah and I halfway up the stairs overlooking the aqueducts.

Next we went to the Segovia Cathedral. It was very pretty from the outside and the inside was even better, but there were no pictures allowed inside. When we were inside the church a lot of my classmates didn't quite get the whole concept of a Catholic church and kept asking about traditions of the Church. I tried to explain the best I could with my 13 years of Catholic education, but I was way to distracted by the million different things to see inside to be able to give more than just a 30 second explanation. If I got special permission return there and take three photos, there are three things I'm going to make a beeline for: the books from the 13th century hand-written (obviously) by monks and illustrated using gold ink; one of the chapels dedicated to Mary or the chapel that had this gorgeous precious medal artwork (but that might have been in the exterior wings); and the priests' vestments (from I think the 13th century) that were hand weaved (again obviously) with spots of gold thread. When we went to the exterior wings there was a room full of vestments, chalices, coins, crosses, and my personal favorite: a relatively simple Monstrance unless you saw the ornate carvings and the precious gem inlaid in it.

In front of Segovia Cathedral. 

We then had a small amount of free time before lunch so we hung out in la Playa Mayor and saw this float and band come down a side street decorated for San Andrés and when they stopped the tractor, served some sausage and bread. It was ridiculously crazy and loud, but so much fun! We then went to the the restaurant for lunch. I had a salad (because I knew it'd have the amazing tomatoes...) and stuffed red peppers with sangria (I am my parents' daughter...). Then for dessert we had a tarta, which is basically cake, and helado and for post dessert we had café con leche and it was decided that I'm a little too used to coffee because I was able to drink the whole cup without needing to add a million packets of sugar and still think it was too bitter.

San Andrés float without a million people crowding around yet.
On the front there is the phrase "San Andrés" with the crown you can see in the bottom right corner. 

After eating we went to Alcázar de Segovia, which was this massive castle that inspired Walt Disney. The outside was massive and had a moat that could easily fit several cars across bumper to bumper and maybe a 50 foot drop; and the inside was impressive, especially were a succession of royals renovated a section of the castle. I have a slight obsession with stained glass so I was easily fascinated. And even when there wasn't stained glass, the view was magnificent! There was one room with lifesized statues  There were also quite a few sections that pertained to the military, such as armor, but by then there were way too many people informally added to our tour group that I could no longer see or hear. I did wander off to see a scale model of a cannon tester and it made me wonder what the phrase "technological advances" is based on if that was invented a couple hundred years ago. At the very end of the tour we were given the option to climb up a seemingly never ending stair case to go to the top of the castle. The view was ten times better than from any window, and you could see completely around the castle without having to move to a different room.

Posing in front of Alcázar

Stained glass with more detail than this picture can show. 

A model of a cannon tester. 

The view of the Cathedral from the very top of Alcázar.

By then it was 7 or so in the evening and I was worn out. We trekked back to the bus and headed back to Toledo. When I finally got back to the casa I was so ready to just sit and eat some potatoes, chicken, boiled eggs, and peppers salad and just research Madrid in preparation for tomorrow.

(I might end up coming back to this post (which I did) and adding things as I remember, but as I am finishing this at 1am I think I am doing alright at remembering things)

Love y'all!

viernes, 28 junio

This morning I turned my alarm off instead of snoozing so I woke up at the time I normally eat breakfast. I still made it to class on time and we were in the other building (madre de dios) where we'll be for the rest of our classes. In class we talked about Gerundio, which I haven't reviewed since high school, and it made much more sense when Natalia explained it. It's like saying "I am reading" "Estoy leyendo" or using -ing words. We played mimicas- which is a combination of charades and Simon Says.  At the end of the morning class we wrote a short essay about ourselves, our habits and hobbies our likes and dislikes, and what we do in our free time. During our 11 o'clock break I decided to get café con leche which I thought was going to be ridiculously strong, but it wasn't super strong. Julia and Erinn (from Toledo, Ohio) had some at the other building yesterday and said it was really strong so I don't know if I'm just used to coffee or it is made different at the two buildings.

Mi primer café con leche. 

After the break we began a unit on clothing and the different types, styles, and prices, as well as the different places to but things. We then did sort of a Guess Who type game where we all stood up and then with a partner answered yes/no questions to reveal who we are describing. Jessica and I were partners so she asked me questions about my person (Are they wearing shorts? Are they wearing a white shirt? etc.) and then I asked her questions and then realized that she was describing me, which was pretty funny. When then transitioned into Direct Object Pronouns (it) so we could ask and answer questions like "Where can I buy a scarf?" "You can buy it at a speciality store." We then made up a bunch of examples and practiced with each other before leaving for the day. Although the class seems like a lot of review, Chris said last night that as long as I get a B in the class I'll get credit for 303/304 which is totally fine with me.

For lunch today we had Paella, the traditional Spanish rice and seafood meal. I was super excited and then I saw the crayfish shrimp creatures that still had eyes and that was the end of that. I ate the shellfish insides which were alright, but not my favorite. And for dessert we had a citrus fruit that was similar to a peach but the size of a plum and the color orange. During siesta time I decided to get the photos onto my computer before going to Segovia and Madrid this weekend, so y'all should scroll through the blog to see some of the pictures. I will only add my favorites since it takes to long to upload anything. Once I'm home in Nebraska, I'll upload everything to Flickr (if I can figure it out...)

After siesta we met at Plaza Padilla walked the rest of the river from where we left off yesterday. We stopped in this place that is famous for its figurines and the smallest was an ornament for 55€! They are really detailed and pretty though. Once we got down to the river we took a million photos and wandered from the spot we left to the bridge from a few days ago with the key hole arches. There were a ton of people fishing, three adorable black kittens that I could have easily picked up and put in my messenger bag, and a lot of really talented graffiti- I was quite jealous of the talent. There was a point where I was looking over the side of the trail on a hill and saw a cat just laying on a rock by the river. We also did some adventuring up some rocks and taking some extremely touristy photos. Once we got back to Plaza Zocodover we sat and cooled down for 30 minutes and people watched until it was time for people to head home for cena. We also planned for Mazapan later in the night.

This is their graffiti. Crazy talent here in Toledo!

Today's feet picture: through a pump near a dam. The white area in the middle is rushing water.

Two of the three adorable kittens! 

Photo from back on top of the wall. 

Cat laying by the river.
Also the photo where I discovered my camera has amazing zoom power. 

On my way home I heard this noise coming from behind me but it wasn't words and I didn't want to be rude and stare. That was a mistake. All of a sudden I hear ¡Oye! and then a swarm of maybe 30 or so runners come on either side of me and its just a swarm of sweaty runners all in red. And then 10 seconds later they were a block away and I don't feel the need anymore to go to the Running of the Bulls while I am here!

When I got home I was the only one in the apartment and didn't realize that cena was sitting in the kitchen for me until I read the note that was in my room on my computer. So for dinner, I figured out the microndas and had spaghetti with chicken and red peppers, cherries, and lemon yogurt, and of course bread. As soon as I was finishing my meal and putting dishes in the sink Sandra and Alfonso came home. I explained that I was going out to meet with some of my friends in Casco, and they warned me that the escalators close at midnight. By the time that I got to Plaza Zocodover, the mazapan place had been closed for a while so some people got helado next door. Since Sandra insists on helping me gain 10 pounds even while walking everywhere, I was extremely full and didn't get any. On my way back to the group of Nebraskans, a group of teenage Spaniards held hands and circled the rest and sang Mulan's "I'll make a man out of you"- in Spanish. It was amazing and so much fun! I was able to get a video of some of it on my phone (which I'll upload at some point in the future.) After that fiesta, it was close to the time that I needed to leave in order to get through the escalators before they closed so we said our goodbyes and started towards home and made it to the end of the escalators and out of the gate with five minutes to spare.

Lots of Love!

jueves, 27 junio

Today started the same way as yesterday, but when we got to Plaza Padilla it was warmer inside the university than outside. In class we talked about the different cultural activities in Spain. We talked about the different types of popular t.v. shows and what was popular in different countries. Next we did a listening exercise to begin the section on being able to make plans with someone and politely decline and make new plans. We were spilt up into groups based on our native language and I was paired with Diego from China. Our conversation presentation was one of the best and the T.A. gave us both compliments when we were done. The next activity was to talk through making plans with two full schedules. We did fairly well, and I'm getting more confident with my asking questions skills. We then took our 11 o'clock break and I ran into a couple people from clase de baile. I brought a snack with me this morning so I didn't get any café con leche but apparently it's really strong. After our break we started the conversation part of class. The plan was to listen to a book on tape, called "Excurcion con españoles y alemanes" or 'The Excursion with the Spaniards and the Germans.' The first time we listened we were supposed to take notes. I was able to understand the main ideas, but not the particular details. The second time we listened to it, we had a sheet with the story printed on it, and then we re-read it and answered some questions the third time through. In the story the germans were on time and plan ahead, and the spaniards were a little late and make plans on the fly, which caused problems when they took a trip. After several times reading and listening to the story, I understood the story much better than before.

After class I double checked with everyone in our group to make sure they knew that I'm meeting at 5 in Plaza Padilla to go to the Museo de El Greco before getting tapas with the whole group at 8:30. I then walked back to the casa with some people in my neighborhood. For lunch today we had this carne that was impossible to cut with a butter knife and even harder to chew and then this weird boiled cabbage salad with raisins that reminded me of the pit hearth cabbage from field school. I guess I can't have amazing food every day, but at least it wasn't completely awful, since there was also bread and I had a yogurt for dessert.

After siesta it took too long to collect all 7 people and get to the museo that we decided to go to the Iglesia de San Tomín and good golly was it pretty. If I get a chance, I'd want to go there for misa. It was ridiculously beautiful and everything was so detailed- and its not even the catedral! In Lincoln, it would be the cathedral for sure, but here it's just a parish.

Inglesia de San Tomín

After the iglesia, we went to see the river from this side of Casco, and it had some of the greatest cliffs. There was a group rock climbing and the Ropes Staff in me wanted to go rock climbing but the chicken part of me didn't want to fall into the river. We then went to as small park and I embraced my inner child and played on the swings, and watched everyone play on the structure. We then began a walk towards the river. There is a small path that has an entrance at each of the two bridges and then one at the playground we where at, so we followed that all of the way down and saw the baths that were about half way down. When we made it to the bottom we all sat and stared at the river, and the wonderful scenery. I saw a group of swans and watched them pass down the river and just enjoyed being in Spain. At the very bottom of the path down to the riverside path that connects the two bridges there is a water pump with very good cold water and a flowering bush that smells like sugar cookies with almond extract. We decided that American plants are poopy and we should smuggle seeds through customs- if we knew how to get the seeds. We then decided to begin the uphill walk to Lizzardin, for tapas with the group. We made it to Plaza de Zocodover early so we decided to get helado. By now our group of 7 was a group of 4 and two girls got their helado, and then this little old lady line cut and got the same thing I wanted so I was really confused, thinking the ice cream man read my mind. We then headed up to the tapas bar and I got two tapas and a sangria. And then we made it back to Plaza Padilla without getting lost so I was rather excited.

At the cliffs! It is a drop down into the rio behind me. 

19 years, 11 months, and 6 days old and I will still swing every chance I get. 

Heading down to the riverside, with old baths to the right of this photo. 

At home, I thought I was late, but Lara came over for cena so I was right on time we had torillas espanola- like quiche (discovering that I love quiche this summer) but with potatoes- and pan dulce. And, for our drink with the meal, we had SunnyD. I have never been more excited to see SunnyD in my life- I was getting tired of agua. During cena, the fútbol game of España vs Italia was playing and after going into double overtime they had a penalty shoot out. Each team gets five shoots and Italia missed the last one, but España made theirs, winning the game. It was very exciting. The window was open and we could hear people cheering in the streets, just like Husker game days. I had to explain how Nebraskans are the same, only a whole lot louder.

Love you all!

miercoles, 26 junio

My morning routine is pretty much the same as it was yesterday. Today was the second day of class and we were in a different classroom than yesterday, but thankfully it was in the building that is in Plaza Padilla and we met up with our maestra, Natalia. We started the day with reviewing our homework, and I only had a couple mix-ups so I was rather excited. Afterwards we reviewed presente de indicativo especially the irregulars and the reflexive. We then played a game and I understood all of the instructions so I was starting to think that I was a class below my level. We then spilt into groups and worked on creating questions based on a particular theme. My group's theme was movies. Once we made a list of questions we interviewed our classmates and then summarized the data. We all shared our summarizations and talked about the different errors we made in our questions, responses, or summarizations. I was able to pick out the mistakes in 4 of the 5 incorrect sample questions which is an improvement over yesterday's confusion.

After class we met with the rest of the group to make sure that everyone remembered that tonight there is a clase de baile at 19:00 so we'll meet at 6:45. Almost everyone else was getting lost in their classes so I'm thinking that I'm in the perfect class.

I then walked home for lunch. We ate spaghetti and meat sauce with fresas (strawberries) for dessert. It was just like at home but I took a siesta afterwards. It was a weird siesta because I slept for exactly one hour. I went to see if there was anyone home or if I should go to Casco to people watch and instead I got to meet Sandra's madre, but we had some problems communication at first because I don't think she realized that I'm not a fluent speaker yet, but she was really nice. I watched the telenovela with Sandra and her mom and I understood more today than yesterday.

At 5:30 I left for Casco because I thought our clase de baile started at 6, but I stink at military time so we were over an hour early. Olivia and I met up with the rest of our group at a café called Malquerida. I got a strawberry daiquiri and I'm not quite sure if I like rum (I'm not quite sure what the alcohol is in different drinks, so we googled it... silly underage americans!) At 6:45 we went to meet the rest of our class and we walked to the girls' dorm for dance class. Our instructor was very good and went slow enough that I actually learned the Flamenco dance- granted I might not remember it in a few days, but I was pretty good when I was in class. It had 3 parts and was done with a partner. We learned that it's acceptable for two girls to dance with each other, but not for two boys. The instructor was hilarious when she explained it to us. When dancing you don't start the dance until after the singer finishes the first line of the song, which makes it easy for the group to stay together on beat. I will definitely be going to the rest of the dance classes if they are all this fun!

After class, we walked around the jewish quarter for a while before we left some people at a café for cena and then the rest of us headed back to our respective houses. I was the only one that had to leave Casco to get home and I am proud to say that, after getting some instructions from a classmate, I made it all the way home without getting lost, and in time for cena.

For cena tonight we had ham and cheese sandwiches but instead of bread, they were more like corn dogs that were fried and really good. We also had salad with some of the best tomatoes I've ever had. I want you to look at the nearest tomato and feel bad that yours won't be half as delicious as the ones here in Spain. During dinner, the tele was set to a show that was very similar to SNL and they used clothing irons to make pancakes, and we couldn't stop laughing at one that was supposed to be a dog, but when they tried to flip it over, it turned to a blob that looked like a spider that got squished. I actually understood most of the show since they were basically explaining what they were doing and there were pop-ups on the screen, and it's easier for me to read than it is to listen and comprehend. **post edit: the show is called 'El Hormiguero' which is spanish for 'the anthill' and wikipedia labels it as a talk show comedy**

Buenas noche y'all!

Uphill Both Ways y Huevos Fritos

My plan after siesta changed to meeting up with some of my group members to go and cross the Casco walls and the bridge, but on my way to meet them in Plaza de Zocodover I got extremely lost. I realized on my way home I took a right instead of a left, or vice versa- I was a little turned around. I explored the the roundabout way to get to Plaza de Zocodover and made several circles for about 45 minutes of what should take about 20 minutes. I definitely looked like a tourist. But I didn't freak out or end up in any sketchy neighborhoods.

Once all 6 of us were in the plaza we made the decision to go to get gelato at a tienda that Mariah had found. I got tirrón which was like cheesecake- we wanted to know what it tasted like so I asked the ice cream man, in my semi-decent spanish, for a sample and he gave me one so I became the group's semi-official translator. I know my palabras for helado! And then once we all paid, the ice cream man told me that he went to high school in California, and my spanish wasn't horrible. I was so excited, I even pulled a tourist move and took a picture in front of the store.

Tirrón gelato and I in front of the store

We then began the uphill both ways route to the wall where you can cross the river. We made it about 200 yards and realized that unless we wanted to free fall for 50 feet we should use a different road. In the other direction there was a scenic overlook where I attempted to make a panoramic shot and we took several half-group shots to get all of the angles. On our way down to the road perpendicular to the bridge and parallel to the river we found the coolest arch ways- they looked like key holes and one had vines growing artistically next to it.

One of the key holes, as seen from the wall above.

We were all super jealous that Nebraska isn't old enough to have architecture like that. Once we crossed the road and got onto the bridge we could smell the river- and it wasn't all that pleasant. Someone's host mom said that if you swim in it, you'll grow a third eye and it made Holmes Lake in Lincoln look like a swimming pool.

El río.

On our way back across the street, through the archway, up the hill with steps every few metres and up the quadruple flights of stairs we decided that we needed a 'sit down and breathe' break.

Shoes and stairs during a break. 

After about 5 or 10 minutes we walked back up to Plaza de Zocodover and met some more of the group at McD's because it has A/C and wifi, and we made our official facebook group and made plans to go to el clase de baile tomorrow con our classmates.

Plaza de Zocodover.

After McD's Olivia and I walked together back home. We stopped into a little shop and the owner sort of followed us as to make sure that we didn't steal anything, which made it hard to look at things so we left. We eventually made it to one side of the cathedral and took some touristy photos before getting a tad bit lost uphill until we eventually found the back door of the Dios Madre University building where my class is at, and I was able to get home correctly from there.

After today I completely understand why there is the phrase "Uphill both ways!"

For cena tonight we had huevos fritos con papas fritas y ketchup. I wasn't too sure if I was going to like the fried egg because I am extremely picky con mis huevos, pero cuando yo comí la runny parte con pan, me gusta el huevo fritos. Y por postre yo comí yogur. (Es possible que tú determinas que yo hablé con mi familia por dos y media horas porque todas de mis frases son en español- la grammatica es un poco loco.)  Momma, si tú quieres que me probar nuevas comidas, espere hasta que yo tenga hambre o yo esté en un país diferente. ¿Vale? ¡Vale! ('Vale', en España, es la misma idea de 'okay' en ingles. And I'm going to switch back to English because it's getting hard to explain and I want to sleep.)

Sandra y yo talked about her youngest daughter being a rebel, the biblioteca in Toledo, y my día en clase and my afternoon. She made a wonderful tea and we watched a cooking show, called Master Chef- same as in the States, where they were in a competition to plate a caramelized sugar apple out of what looked like laffy or solid jello that they had to make by blowing air into it and shaping it. It was a wonderful choice because I understood the words they were using and only one person spoke at a time and they showed things as they went. I'm starting to see a trend that I might need to become a Spanish chef because those are the words that I know!

¡Buenas noches!

Primer día de clase

This morning I opened my blog to write about Tuesday morning and I realized that I wrote in Spanlish- English and Spanish- yesterday. Because it is more than likely to happen again, I'm going to refer you to wordreference.com to help translate any palabras that you don't know. I don't think google translate will help all that much because the sentence will be in both leguas. If you have any questions about what the heck I'm saying, there is a comment section at the bottom that sends me an email so I will be able to reply.

This morning I woke up at 7:15 again. I had a similar routine as yesterday: got ready, ate corn flakes by myself, and dashed off to the plaza to meet the Nebraska group. Once we all got there we walked up to Dio Madre, the other University building. We were there a little before 9 waiting for the list to be posted on the doors of our classes. At 9:10 we called Chris, our leader, to ask if he knew anything about the list, and after a lot of asking around and confused conversations we discovered that the original list was incorrect and that it'd be posted closer to the printer. My maestra, however, had a list of her students so we were able to start class right away. We started with introductions using a star with few words describing us and our likes and dislikes on the star points. I was fun to learn about my classmates and we learned the different levels of "to like" which was really helpful to be able to say "I love it, I like it a lot, I like it, I like it a little, I don't like it, I don't like it at all, and I hate it." "Me encanta, me gusta mucho, me gusta, me gusta poco, no me gusta, no me gusta nada, y oldo." We then talked about some of the grammatical mistakes we made while interviewing our classmates, and then took a bathroom break. I found the bathroom in the building and located the much needed water. After our break we came back to the classroom and broke into groups to have mini conversations about different themes and topics. One of the girls in my group was from Jordanía and said that I have an American accent even when I speak Spanish. I was a little confused at first but then I thought it was hilarious since I'm not used to being someone with an accent. After another short break, we returned to work on pronunciation of the alphabet. It seemed very basic but extremely helpful, especially with the k, c, and qu letters. We got our first tarea (assignment) for tomorrow which will be interesting to see how I much I actually understood today's lesson.

On my way back to mi casa, I ran into my group of people and there were plans made to go to a pool at 4pm since there isn't anything planned through the program. I'm not too keen on wanting to go to the pool since I'm not a huge fan of them in the States and I'd much rather go to a museum or explore the city. When I got back to the casa, it was nearly time for lunch and we had legume vegetable soup, with salad and bread. It was really delicious, but I wasn't a huge fan of the sausage in the soup. After I'm done with this post I'm going to look up the post-siesta opening times for some of the museums in Casco (the old, walled in part of the city) especially those about El Greco and then do my homework followed by a siesta before going to the museums.

Love y'all!

La tarde y noche de lunes

After my nap and showing photos to Sandra, I uploaded the blog post and then we watched telenovelas which are similar to soap operas. I would start to understand the conversations and then it would switch scenes, and I'd be confused.  At 6pm I walked to the plaza, and didn't get lost! I was so excited! I was early so I went inside to look around and found a poster describing an archeology trip and had an Anthropology major freak out. If it hadn't already started I would look into signing up. 

I then met up with the group before walking to Iglesia de San Pedro. We all described our siestas and our families on the way. Together we attended the welcome orientation complete with a flag presentation and diplomatic speeches. The flag presentation was very cool because after each flag was presented the representative student would say a sentence in Spanish and then in their native language. Then the diplomats spoke. I understood about 60% of one speech, about 45% of the next and only about 30% of the last. I was behind a pillar so it was hard to watch expressions and gestures which ususally help me understand what's being said. 

The program for the welcome orientation party

We then went to the Centro de Arte Toledo for bebidas y tapas (drinks and appetizers). They also had a sword fighting demonstration and interaction. Mariah, our fourth degree black belt, went on stage to pretend sword fight and did very well and it was exciting to watch her. Since it is legal to drink alcohol at 18 in España, I drank about 2/3rds of a sangria and ate my way through a plate of tapas. I needed to get back to the casa for cena so a classmate and I walked back to the escalators with each other and parted ways at the round about. I only had four blocks left to walk, and even though it was about 9:30 it was a bright outside, sort of how it looks about 7 or so back in Nebraska now. 

Sword fighting

Olivia and I with our first legal sangrias

When I went back home to the casa we ate dinner of rice, fish sticks, uvas (grapes), and this tomato soup type drink that I can't spell or find online **post edit: it's gazpacho** but its really common especially in verano. During the summer they eat later, about 930 or 10, and in the winter around 830 or 9, because it is so hot during the summer.  During dinner we watched a television show with Will Smith and his son, it was in spanish but Will spoke some spanish and the english was dubbed over so it was a delayed reaction between the english and spanish so that was interesting. Después de cena, mi mamá anfitriona and I watched  "Corazón de tinta" which is Inkheart with spanish dubbed over. I think that this might be a good way to learn Spanish because we talk durante the commercials and I understand what should be happening durante la pelicula. During the commercials we talked about birthdays and my allergies to every kind of plant that grows, and her mother's pueblo that has an intact castle that was a royal's summer home that wasn't impacted by bombs during the wars. 

Tomorrow we get our class placement and learn what level we placed at. I'm hoping that I know enough Spanish to be placed in a level that I understand but can still get credit for 303/304. 

I'll post again tomorrow! 
Love you all! 

Primer Dia Completo [First Full Day]

Monday, June 24

I woke up this morning about 15 minutes before my alarm was set to go off and I lay in bed listening to the sounds of the city in the morning until my alarm went off. It was similar to the sounds of Nebraska, with cars and birds, but then all of a sudden there was a burst of Spanish and then I remembered I was in Spain. It was another weird feeling. I got up and got dressed, and then went to the bathroom to finish getting ready and I was the only one awake. I waited until 8am when I thought we were all going to have breakfast together, but in the kitchen there was some corn flakes on the counter and I found a bowl in the cupboard and milk in the fridge and ate breakfast before dashing off to Casco and the Plaza de Padilla where I met with my group before heading to the other university building.

life on the escalators! 

Once we were there we were funneled into an auditorium for orientation and we got backpacks. In our backpacks were a notebook, map, pen, and student information packet. Then the leaders of the program gave an introduction that I didn’t completely understand- I prefer to be able to read lips and ask for clarification rather than a lecture in an overflowing auditorium. At the beginning they announced where all of the students were from: China, Germany, United States (UNL, Chicago State, and Uni. of Tennessee, and Toledo, Ohio) and maybe a half a dozen more countries represented. After the orientation was completed they posted up the groups that would become classes after an oral exam. I was in the Templarios group, which was 5^th out of 11; with 11 being the highest, so I think I’m in the class I need to be in. Once we got into our class groups we went to a classroom to take an oral test. We were spilt into partners and I paired with a fellow Nebraskan, who I’ve had classes with so it was easy to take the test and not feel too nervous. In our class group we had 5 from Nebraska, 1 from Toledo, Ohio, 1 from Tennessee, 2 from Germany, and 1 from China. But those counts could change as people get moved around after the oral test finalizes placements. Before my test I talked with the girl from Germany and the only common language we had was Spanish so that was an interesting adventure. We both had to think through our sentences and rethink them to explain everything in multiple ways because neither of us was speaking our native language.

After our tests were done we met up with some other Nebraskans to search for the cell phone store. We ran into Chris and Heather on our way to the other building and told us that the company raised their prices, but it was still cheaper to all have the same company- Movistar. I’m not sure yet if I want to get a phone, but I probably will so I have it for emergencies and for contacting my host family. The line at the Movistar store was way too long to wait at especially since I was thirsty and wanted to explore more than buy a phone. We wandered around for a while; found a group of people at the Tapas restaurant, and then re-split up to explore some more. Eventually we stopped at a restaurant and ordered off of the daily menu, which is cheaper than individual meals. I had no idea what any of the options were so I ended up ordering a tuna salad and then my second plate was a type of fish and fries. I wasn’t too excited about the fish but it wasn’t that bad tasting. I will just have to remember to ask for a clarification before ordering next time.

Today's Lunch

We then headed back to the Plaza de Padilla to go to our respective houses for siestas. I found my way back to the casa and used the correct key to open the doors. I then needed to take a nap, but because I’m not used to the time zone change and siesta taking I couldn’t fall asleep so I decided to write about the morning. 

After finishing a small nap I went into the living room and got the wifi password and talked about my day with Sandra and she wanted to see photos of my family so I showed her pictures on my computer of Momma, Daddy, and Shadow. Seeing the photos of Momma, Daddy and kitty made me a little homesick but not anymore than seeing the photos while I was in the dorms. I think the thing I miss the most is being able to text or call either parent whenever I want, but I can always email them right? 

Love you all!

Time Zones

Sorry that I'm going to post twice in a row but I just got the password to the Wifi. Interesting story: the home page for Blogger is in Spanish.

Saturday June 22, 2013 to Sunday, June 23, 2013

I spent the night with Momma, Daddy, and Shadow and then spent the morning running last minute errands. We ate lunch at Applebee’s with Papa and Gramma. And then after final packing, snuggling with the kitty again, rechecking the list again, snuggling the kitty, and getting Caribou Coffee on our way out of Lincoln, we made it to Omaha. I think I stopped at every typical stopping place to hug Momma and Daddy one more time. (I may have cried a little.) But then I pulled my Big Girl Pants on and showed the TSA officer my boarding pass and passport. Her daughter is also named Whitney, which is sort of the coolest. When I got to the security checkpoint I recognized a fellow Husker, Colby, which made the transition to flying without Momma and Daddy or a formalized group much easier. I got to gate A7 where I joined the 15 other members of my group. We were really concerned that we would miss our flight in Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow because there was only a 45-minute delay and O’Hare is notorious for delays. But we took a group photo and boarded the plane to Chicago.

Flight: Omaha to O’Hare

            - I sat next to Robert, a pilot, and he probably hated that I asked a million questions for a job that is “sort of like an oversized bus driver.” I got a complementary snack because of my proximity to Robert, which was pretty awesome. 

            - I sat in the aisle seat of 7B which I was very thankful for because it was a tiny plane of only 1 seat on one side and 2 seats on the other. 

O’Hare

            - We came into gate G1 and had to book it to H15

            - I turned into counselor mode and kept counting to 16

            - I pulled my backpack out of Daddy’s Houdini bag and everyone was amazed at how much the Houdini bag could hold

            - And not surprisingly our plane was delayed in O’Hare for 50 minutes so we didn’t need to book it as much as we did.

Flight: O’Hare to London

            - I watched ‘Jack the Giant Slayer’ which was good and a fuzzy NCIS before turning it to Circus Olay and it’s calm music and took a Benadryl and a nap.

            - During the first hour we were served dinner and I didn’t trust the chicken so I got pasta and that had more cheese in it than a cheese factory. But my tomatoes on my salad were yummy and I drank my weight in orange juice, which required me to climb over Anne later in the flight.

            - I was 44F next to Anne from my group and an older couple who played cards and napped on the same pillow. We were in the second to last row in the middle that had 2 seats, aisle, 4/5 seats, aisle, 2 seats.

            - About 3 hours away from landing and solidly into a good nap when that one person has to open their window shade and let the morning light into the cabin. Rotating the other way and pulling the complementary blanket over my head easily solved that dilemma. I must have looked like a big, blood red caterpillar.

            -We were also fed breakfast, but I only ate the yogurt because my stomach was felling topsy-turvy. 

London Heathrow Airport

            - Did you know that if you transfer terminals- like we did- you have to go through security again? It’s only more fun after taking a bus, thinking you’ve lost two people, having to show your passport, take out every single liquid in your carry-on that you’ve been using all day, and then getting “chosen” to a random pat down like the little aliens and the claw in Toy Story. I felt like Daddy’s security-screening karma had seeped into his bag and helped me get chosen.

            - We finally got our entire group through security, located our gate a floor below, fought/ran through a crowded staircase to get onto the airplane to Madrid.

Flight: London Heathrow to Madrid

My view out of the window of a plane of our size.

            - I sat in the window seat of 25A and this plane was so empty I had an open seat next to me. I asked the man in the aisle seat if he would mind if I curled up on both and he didn’t so I slept nearly the entire flight. I was woken up by the captain announcing that we would have to circle to wait for the landing strip and gate to open up. And circling in a plane makes me nauseous, and I hadn’t been eating much on earlier flights so I was pretty miserable.

            - Once we landed we headed to the baggage claim and my luggage was maybe the second one off of the plane and then maybe 6 or 7 bags out of the 16 of us came in the first batch. Then there was a lull in baggage appearance and we hoped that we didn’t lose half of our bags. I thought it was sort of ironic that I got my luggage when I packed not anticipating receiving it. I was also the second smallest in terms of square footage of luggage space- so Momma, I could’ve packed more clothes! One girl did end up losing her luggage so hopefully that will turn up in a few days.

Madrid/ Madrid to Toledo

            -We found Chris outside waiting for our group one hour after we were supposed to be there thanks to all of our delays. We then got on a bus to take us to the terminal with the bus that would take us to Toledo.

            - My stomach was up in arms and couldn’t decide if it needed to burp or throw up but eventually it decided I needed to hiccup twice and window watch.

Toledo

            -We arrive at the Law School part of the Universidad de Castilla- La Mancha (similar to the East and City campus set up at UNL) and meet our families. I was so nervous, but my family is wonderful. My host mom is Sandra, host dad is Alfonso and they have two daughters: Lara and Alba. (I think that’s how you spell them, I’m horrible at spelling in English let alone Spanish.) I talked with Sandra, Alfonso/Alfredo and Lara until 7pm when it was time to walk over to the Casco (the walled in, older part of city) to begin our walking tour. It takes about 15-20 minutes to walk from the casa to la Universidad and the entrance point is the escalators.

            - The rule of thumb is if you are inside of the walls don’t cross any rivers or walls and if you are lost walk uphill to the castle which is the high point and then work your way from there. It’s maybe 20 minutes to get from one side of the walls to the other. And the streets are so stretchy and narrow and winding that it could be easy to get lost, but hopefully after a few days I’ll gain an inner map.

            - For cena (dinner) I had spinach and tomato salad, mozzarella stick bites, pan, and caramello pudding. It was very yummy and we looked up Nebraska on the computer, which was hard to explain that we only have one team we ALL follow (futbol was on TV), and we grow corn for fuel or feed not human food.

            - I took a shower since I felt so gross from traveling all day and walking a bunch and as I was brushing and braiding my hair afterwards it sort of hit me that even thought the shower was similar in size to a camp shower, I had in fact just showered in Spain. I wanted to call Momma to tell her all about my revelation but then I remembered the whole ‘not having access to phones’ thing but remembered my blog so I’ve typed 2 ½ pages on word since I don’t have the wifi password yet and typed it all out.

            - I’ll add more about my room later if I remember to do so. 

Love you all!