Thoughts...

Some things that I have noticed while being in Spain

1. There are police officers EVERYWHERE. I guess their purpose is to keep people safe, but it is so different from being home. Sure, there are police cars at home checking to see if you are speeding, but it always seems like that is their job. I've never felt like the police were just standing on the street (in bright green vests, mind you) watching to see...I don't know what they are watching to see.

2. In the same vain, everyone here seems to be kind of obessed with being Spanish. I get it, it's a great country, but I feel like the patriotism is everywhere. Again, this is hard to describe, but it seems more like a...required and expected patriotism. The police seem to be much more a part of the government than they do at home. This is a picture that I took in the medieval city of Toledo that captures both of these sentiments very well.

It means "Everything for the homeland."

3. Here, the Olympics actually feature athletes from countries other than Spain! It's amazing! My internet wasn't working yesterday morning, so I turned on the TV while eating breakfast. I love the Olympics, so I tuned in to see the Spanish athletes, and lo and behold I didn't see a single one! Haha. Apparently they just show the sports in real time, regardless of what countries the athletes are from. Such a foreign concept to me. It's the same with the news, though. They talk about things happening all around the world all night. At home I feel like we don't care. At all.

4. People here are so much more direct and forward. They will actually tell you what they think, talk to you when they want to, and skip what I think of as the formalities (of course they have a MILLION hidden formalities that I am still trying to learn). One funny thing is that when you are on the sidewalk, no one moves to the side or says "excuse me" when they pass you. Spanish people literally do not move. So, you know what I've started doing? Not moving either. I refuse to step off the sidewalk and I refuse to stop walking. We take a Spanish language class that is more about customs than about language, and our teacher tells us that Americans say "I'm sorry" too much. So, I don't say it here. I've become a lean, mean, running into people machine. Go figure. How am I ever going to be a lady when I return home?

5. Spanish is such a romantic language. We learned the other day in my Spanish language class that although you use the normal rules for "come" and "go" a person ALWAYS says that they are going to come to their country or to their home, even if they are somewhere else, because the thought is that their hearts and souls are always there. ¡Que romantico! There are a million more examples, but I can't think of them right now.

So. There you go. A little taste of what it's really like!

One month later!

Well, after a month, I think I have finally gotten settled in here in Spain. The past week has been full of me going to classes, the same classes, thankfully, and trying to meet some new people. I finally have a daily routine down. I have class Monday through Thursday until 4, everyday except Wednesday when I have my WashU Culture class that is from 5-7 at night. Basically my days consist of waking up, eating breakfast (I eat a bowl, or three, of Corn Flakes every day), and going to class. Fridays are special because we get to eat lunch on our own, away from school. My friend Patricia and I have been trying out new places. Last week, however, we went to--drum roll please--the Hard Rock Cafe: Madrid.

All I can say is that it was literally one of the best experiences that I have had in Spain. Patricia and I spent an hour getting there (because we took a really convoluted route via Metro), had to wait an hour to be seated, and were then bothered by some creepy European guys at the table next to us, but my burger was...amazing. It tasted just like they do in the States. I wanted to buy a Hard Rock t-shirt to add to my collection, but unfortunately, the prices at the Hard Rock are exactly as they would be in dollars, just with a euro sign in front of them. That means that I would have had to pay 23 euro for a t-shirt-not happening. Still, it was an experience that I won't need a t-shirt to remember.

The cafe was in a really nice area, in one of the more ritzy barrios (neighborhoods) of Madrid, called Salamanca. There is supposedly a Chanel, Tiffany's, etc...in that area. There is also the BEAUTIFUL Biblioteca Nacional (National Library), which I visited for my journalism class to see an exhibit on the most father of Spanish journalism. Funny story--while we were sitting in the Hard Rock Cafe, we noticed that these two guys kept trying to get our attention. Since we were two girls eating alone, we tried not to take the bait, but finally we noticed that one of them had pulled out his camera and was blatantly taking pictures of us. I turned around and thought that they wanted me to take a picture OF them, but no, of course they wanted a picture WITH us. Upon a little more conversation (that we did not want to have), they asked us where we were from. When we said the U.S., one of the guys replied in his broken English, "Ohhhhh, United States...if all the girls there look like you, next time we will have to go THERE on vacation."

Oh, Madrid.

Tomorrow our group is going to the medieval city of Toledo. While I am excited to see another city in Spain, I have a sneaking suspicion that our day will consist of seeing lots of cathedrals and talking about architecture. At this point, when you've seen one, you've seen them all. Oh well. Also, I just booked my flight to Paris for spring break. I am so excited!! So, travels await! As always, more to come!

Logistics...Ugh

Over the past week I have been trying desperately to get classes taken care of. I know that the whole process of picking classes, trying to schedule them, and then registering seems difficult anywhere, but bring it over here and it goes to a whole new level. Since I am an American student, the program that I am in requires me to take a certain number of classes with other Americans, and my university requires that I take at least one with Spaniards. I knew two of the classes that I had to take, and one is taught by my WashU director and set in stone, so I really only had to pick one class. Simple, right?

Unfortunately, the way things work here is that all of the students in all of the majors are split up into different groups. If you are a sociology major in group 33, for example, you take all of your classes with the people in your group, and the administration makes it so that the timing doesn't conflict and you have what you need. Unfortunately, almost ALL of the regular classes conflict with our American classes. On top of that, each regular class can only accept a certain number of American students. To make a long story short, it has been a constant headache, but I think I've finally gotten my schedule down.

Spanish Theater

Spanish Language course

WashU Culture and Civilization course

History of Journalism in Spain

Current International Conflicts/The Revolutionary Decades of the 60's and 70's

Sounds like a pretty cool schedule! The last line of classes are mini classes, meaning that I take the first one until March, and the second one until May. I am taking the journalism class and the mini classes in the regular Spanish curriculum, in Spain, with Spaniards. So we shall see how that goes!

Last weekend was amazing in terms of food, something that always makes me excited. I had both a real bacon cheeseburger (usually the burgers here are made out of pork and not beef. They seem to consider 'carne' -meat- to be any kind of animal other than chicken), and I also had chicken fingers and pizza. It was a little party in my mouth. I need to start bringing my camera with me so that I can take pictures of everything that I see. Last weekend I also went to El Parque del Retiro, Madrid's version of Central Park. It was absolutely beauuuutiful. I think it was less wooded than Central Park is, but it had more fountains and interesting things to look at. Unfortunately, I got sick on Saturday and have been fighting off a nasty cold ever since, but food wise, things have been good.

I know this is a picture-less post, but the most accurate picture to describe my past week would be a screenshot of the Carlos III class schedule, and a photo of me about to pull my hair out. I didn't think I should grace you all with that. Also, it seems that some things never change as I am blogging and about to watch American Idol on Ninjavideo instead of doing my work. Oh well. C'est la vie.

More to come!