Lisa's Semester in Spain Blog

My last week!

lisainspain — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:39:18 +0000

So, I realized I haven´t written in a while and since I´m leaving in a week I figured I had better write something at least one more time. It is definately a bitter-sweet feeling. I have decided to think of the experience as a wonderful experience and then look forward to the “next chapter” in my life as something just as exciting. One cannot regret finishing a chapter because then the next chapter will not be enjoyed to the fullest. One thing I really appreciate about the Spanish culture is that it has taught be to be a little more laid-back. I always end up filling my days with as many classes I can fit in my schedule, a lot of hours of work, etc. until I don´t have any time to spend time with family and friends. I am thinking about adding another semester at Cornerstone so that I will no longer be taking 20-22 credit hours per semester…in the long run, an extra four months is not bad. It´s something to think about anyway.

Well, these last two weekends have been really fun because I have been to a few flamenco shows, a Betis (soccer) game, gone on many walks with great friends, and completed all my compositions for the end of the semester. I have really had some good conversation with my senora and I have gotten to know two other girls from this program better. The two girls and I have a break at the same time and we have lately been going to a local coffee shop frequently to discuss things and it has been a great experience!

I am going to start packing this week and I am so excited to give my friends and family the Spanish Christmas gifts! I will be flying home December 19, leaving Sevilla at 7am (1am MI time) and arriving in Grand Rapids around 9pm.

A little cultural note…

lisainspain — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:24:10 +0000

So this is just a quick little note on something that occured at lunch today. My senora was telling me that she didn’t feel very well and I asked if she was getting a cold. She replied with something along the lines of: “Well, this morning I got up to go to the bathroom and I accidentally forgot to put on my sandals, so I’m probably getting sick.” Yes, the people here always wear “zapatillas” on their feet AT ALL TIMES…this could be just simple flip flops or it could be boots, sandals, tennis shoes, slippers, whatever as long as there is some form of shoe on your feet. I think it is so funny because I walk around bare-footed in the States all the time…and I don’t get sick every time I do it! Here, of course, my feet are always covered with some form of shoe as not to offend the culture, but that doesn’t mean I need to agree with the concept in my mind! So, words to the wise…wear shoes at all times or else you will get sick almost IMMEDIATELY!

Spain is so cold! :-D (well, in my opinion)

lisainspain — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:41:09 +0000

The temperature is in the 60s here…sometimes in the mornings on my way to school it is like 40 or 50! I know everyone in snowy Michigan thinks I´m crazy, but I was so used to warm weather that this temperature feels freezing…not good for my return to Michigan where I am quite sure I will freeze to death! The houses here don´t have heaters so our house has been 60-62 degrees everyday…again not bad, but it does feel really cold after doing homework for a while and not moving around! Also taking showers is not pleasant especially when the pilot light for warm water goes out…which is quite often…needless to say I have resorted to taking VERY quick showers every other day! We have this wonderful little space heater underneath our kitchen table which makes mealtimes all the more merrier. The table has a long blanket over it and then you put the blanket on your legs while eating and feel the warmth from the center of the table…it’s heavenly

Anyway, not much new over here…I’ve been sticking around in Sevilla for the last few weeks because I feel satisfied with the trips I have taken and now I just want to see as much of my “home” as possible before leaving in 19 days. The end of the semester is not as stressful and homework-loaded as in the States, but I am still quite busy with schoolwork, papers, and readings. It does help that I have more time here since I don’t work here I have an extra 20-40 hours per week…plus less classes…which means more time to do homework but also more time to learn and practice Spanish in authentic situations!

Last Thursday we had a little Thanksgiving feast with the school at a local restaurant. It was really nice that the school tried to continue our American traditions even over here. The recipes were given to the chefs of the Spanish restaurant and they did their best…everything was delicious, but not the same as the spices and foods used in America. We had turkey (which tasted good, but tasted like pork), ‘potato puree’ as mashed potatoes (very watery, but good), mashed pumpkin, Spanish style green beans (sauteed with garlic and olive oil), corn, and a square of stuffing (since I don’t really like stuffing in the states, I can’t say much except that it was very dense as it was literally stuffed into a cake pan and served in heavy squares.) For dessert we had carrot cake and flan. We also did a ‘secret santa’ idea except for Thanksgiving and everyone had to get their ‘secret friend’ a gift for three euros or under. Lastly, a few days prior to the dinner all the students and professors wrote something nice about everyone else and then the director of the program compiled all the annonymous compliments into a list for each person. During the dinner we received our compliment list and it was really nice to hear what people thought of us as well as to be able to let people know how we were thankful for them. All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving even if it did not include visiting with family!

lisainspain — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:38:39 +0000

Hi everyone! I have 33 more days left in Spain! I have five exams, two presentations, and one trabajo (a long comentary-type thing over a book we are reading in literature class) left until the end of the semester! I am really excited to see my family for Christmas and be able to spend time with my all my family and friends in the United States, but I am also a little sad that I will probably never see these people I have met over here ever again. It is a sort of bitter-sweet tug that tells me I only have one more month…should I be happy? sad? apprehensive? excited? I´m not really sure

While I am over here I am trying to decide where I want to live next semester. I think I would like to live in a small studio or one-bedroom apartment near Cornerstone because I want to experience living on my own, but at the same time, I don´t want to spend too much when I know I could spend less by living with a bunch of other girls in an apartment or with my dad and stepmom in NE Grand Rapids. If any of you know of anyone renting out a decent studio apartment or something along those lines for a good price (preferably $400 or lower per month), please let me know! Thanks!

Now on to things here in Spain! I have been going to a church here and, although I don´t feel like I fit into the church family, I still feel welcomed into their fellowship. I enjoy being able to understand the message from a native pastor speaking at a normal rate rather than the altered rate we sometimes receive from our professors. The service is two hours long, so it takes some concentration to focus on the message the last hour…we sing and participate in communion for the first hour and then the message is the second hour. I have started taking notes because otherwise I find my mind wandering from the message. There are probably about 30-40 people in a room the size of a small classroom…it´s a bit of a tight squeeze, but it works well enough. The majority of the attendees are older adults aged 50-80 or so, but there are a few younger people in the church.

Yesterday three plastic grocery bags full of oranges appeared in our house (I´m sure our senora knows where they came from, but it´s a mystery to Katie and I.) I was really excited at first to have real Spanish oranges during orange season until Katie attempted to eat two different oranges each with a ton of tiny, disgusting worms in them. Needless to say, I lost my appetite for oranges and did not try one…we have three huge bags full to eat, so I really hope the rest are not worm-infested. I will try a couple more, but if those have worms in them too, I don´t know how apt I will be to trying others. Luckily Katie saw the worms before she actually ate them, but it´s still a gross thought! (Update: I have since eaten two delicious oranges successfully )

Well, I have grammar class in two minutes, so I must go! Thanks again for reading!

(Update: I just reread this message (11-18-09) and realized there were many grammatical and spelling mistakes! Sorry about that! Anyway, that goes to show that you really should proofread what you write before posting it for the world to see I haven’t reread my previous posts, but those probably have grammatical errors also…I will blame it on the fact that I am speaking, reading, writing, hearing, and dreaming in Spanish 24/7 rather than English!)

Barcelona and Ireland!

lisainspain — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:30:37 +0000

I am back from nine days of traveling! I had a great time and I wanted to tell you all about it. I decided to try and remember what I did each day, but I’m sure I’ve left out a thing or two on accident. I will try to upload pictures of the trip to facebook sometime this week…although I don’t have a lot of pictures because my batteries were dying…I may need to “steel” some of Katie’s pictures I am very proud of the fact that instead of going to restaurants we bought food at grocery stores and saved a ton of money. For example for the four days in Killarney, I bought a loaf of soda bread, four bananas, a carrot, a soup seasoning packet, some cheese, a packet of ramen noodles, a box of capuccino, and some chicken for about 15 euros. I made a large pot of soup with the soup packet, noodles, carrot, and chicken which I ate almost every lunch and dinner with a slice of soda bread. Fortunately, I don’t tire of foods very easily and enjoyed my soup every time I ate it! For breakfast I would eat a banana and a slice of soda bread with either sugar, foam from my capuccino, or plain. Now these were not the most healthy meals by all means, but they contained fruts, vegetables, proteins, and carbohydrates for a very cheap price. Let’s see…that works out to be one euro per meal! :O

So, here’s the jist of what we did…

Friday (Oct 30): We started our journey with a taxi ride to the Sevilla airport around 6pm. We took a plane from Sevilla to the Girona airport (near Barcelona) then took a bus from Girona to Barcelona. We finally arrived in our one-star hotel at around 1:30am and went to sleep in our tiny, but adequate hotel room.
Saturday (Oct 31): We went to La Sagrada Familia, a religious monument/cathedral thing designed by Gaudi. It was gorgeous on the outside, but the inside (for which we wasted 11 Euros to see) was nothing but construction and we couldn´t even go to the top to see the view of the city because the stairs were, of course, under construction and the elevator had a two-hour wait time. After this we decided not to pay to go into places anymore and rather just go into free museums or look at the outsides of things. Next we went shopping a bit and enjoyed wandering around. That night we walked around a mall and some other areas of the city.
Sunday (Nov 1): We went to the heart of Barcelona in the Barrio Gótico where there were a ton of fun things to see and do for free! We spent at least an hour strolling the main road where there were a ton of street performers and human statues. (Very neat!) Later we sat by a port overlooking the beautiful harbor with sailboats…very relaxing and fun. Next we wandered a mall to warm up and then we went out to dinner by the beach.
Monday (Nov 2): We took a bus back to Girona and boarded the plane for Dublin Ireland. We got to Dublin without problems and found our hostel. We explored the city a bit then since it was really cold so we went to a cafe and ate pumpkin soup and hot chocolate and later went to a store and bought some warm garments for fairly cheap. I believe our average temperature in Ireland was around 40 degrees or maybe a little warmer, but it felt so cold since we were used to our nice Sevilla weather!
Tuesday (Nov 3): We had a beautiful mile or two walk from our hostel to the Dublin train station in the morning then took a train from Dublin to Killarney Ireland. We got to Killarney and realized our hostel was six kilometers from the city center so we took a bus then got off at the wrong stop and ended up walking for about a half an hour to the hostel…although the scenery was very beautiful so it wasn’t so bad. Next we went on a search for food at the nearest grocery store (five minute walk)…it turned out to be a German butcher shop with all the essentials but since everything was in German we didn’t buy anything there. Sarah, one of the girls on the trip, is very allergic to peanuts, and therefore, we couldn’t read the ingredients and didn’t want to risk it. We then headed to the next grocery store (about 1.5 or 2 miles away) which was like a gas station shop and we were able to buy some cheap and healthy food there. Then we made our dinner when we finally got back to the hostel cold and wet and snuggled up by the television and watched a movie with our soup and various warm drinks.
Wednesday (Nov 4): It was raining (as expected) when we awoke but realized if we waited for the rain to stop we would never get anywhere. We hiked through the national park (6km) to the town center. The hike was absolutely gorgeous with small mountains, vines, and very green vegetation. We went to a shopping center in the town to warm up and dry off a little then took the bus back to the hostel (making sure to get off at the correct stop.) Then we continued our tradition from the night before and cuddled up with our warm soup and hot chocolate and watched a movie. It’s funny because I never watch so many movies at home, but it was very relaxing and since it got dark around 5:30pm we figured that was a safe choice.
Thursday (Nov 5): We woke up to sunshine for about two minutes, and then it started raining The other two girls didn’t want to go out that day because they didn’t want to be cold and wet again, but I wanted to explore the national park a bit more. I bundled up and went to the national park and hiked about 15 km and had a great time. I really enjoyed the time alone in God’s magnificent creation and it was really good time of rejuvenation and solitude. It’s always great to be with friends, but for me, I need time alone for introspection and relaxation as well. I returned and found Sarah working on a puzzle and Katie reading a book. I grabbed a good book from the community shelf at the hostel and we had a good time reading and doing puzzles together. Later that night, you guessed it; we made our dinner and watched a movie with our warm drinks.
Friday (Nov 6): Our train left the Killarney station around 9am this morning so we got up very early and made the 6km trek into town to catch our train. On the train ride, we were seated with a very nice man in his 50′s and we talked to Patrick the entire 3 hour trip. I loved getting to know him because we were able to ask all sorts of questions about the Irish education system, government, Gaelic language, traditions and customs, etcetera…all sorts of things really. He, in turn, was very interested in the United State’s government, education system, beliefs, etcetera. The trip seemed to take only 20 minutes! We also talked about how short life is and how we must enjoy every day we are given because we never know when we will no longer be able to do so. This came up because he explained he wasn’t at work (he is a secondary teacher and it was Friday morning) due to the fact that the week before he had a heart attack. This attack was very unexpected because he was always very healthy, never smoked, enjoyed being active, etc. All in all, I really enjoyed getting to know this kind man and it made me realize how important relationships are in life. When we got to Dublin we found our hostel and then visited some sites such as the Guinness factory (we didn’t go inside since we didn’t want to pay ), Trinity College (oldest college in Ireland), O’Connell Street, and just wandered around for a little while. Later we went to an authentic Irish restaurant and enjoyed some live Irish music.
Saturday (Nov 7): We got up really early and went to the airport for our flight back to Girona, Spain. Since we only had one day we stayed in Girona because taking a bus into Barcelona would not have been worth the money for a few hours more of exploring. We basically found our hostel and took a nap then went to the terrace and hung out. Later that night we met our roommates (this was a five bed mixed dorm) who happened to be two guys about our age from the Czech Republic. They didn’t know Spanish, but they were able to communicate more or less in broken English. We didn’t really talk to them much, but it was weird to share a room with men. It is very possible that they were more than good friends, so we really had nothing to worry about especially since we were taller than them! New experiences are always very interesting!
Sunday (Nov 8): We went to the Jewish quarter (best-preserved Jewish quarters of the world) and enjoyed the small streets and cute brick buildings and passageways. We visited a cathedral there and also an art museum which was free entrance. We later headed back to the airport and landed in Sevilla around 9pm.

We had a great time traveling together, but as always, I was glad to be back “home.” I am realizing that I only have about 40 more days here…it is bittersweet because I really want to see my family, but I also know this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and will probably never be able to do this again. I’m sorry this is SOOO long; sometimes I have difficulties deciding what is important and what are unnecessary details. :/

Toledo, Madrid, and some other little tidbits

lisainspain — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:37:33 +0000

Last Thursday I went to Toledo with the school to see a cathedral that we are studying in art. It was a good time and the mountainous area was gorgeous. Seeing Madrid is only an hour away from Toledo, seven other girls from the school and I went to Madrid on Friday until Sunday. We stayed in a hostel…my first hostel experience…and and a grand ole´ time! Friday night we went to the largest park in Madrid and just hung out. It was really great because I got to know some of the girls a bit more. Besides the fact that it was freezing (the whole weekend actualy) it was a great couple hours in the park. Later we went to a restaurant that we thought served tipical SPAIN food, but it actually served tipical CUBAN food…which was really good, just not what I expected. Saturday we went to a palace called El Palacio Real and later we went to a the Reina Sofia art museum. I really like that museum because it had a lot of abstract art, which i´ve decided is my favorite. Saturday night we walked around Madrid for awhile and saw some musicians that we listened to for awhile and then just explored the city. Sunday we went to the Prado museum (I´m told it is the second largest art museum, to the Louve in Paris, in the world) and then left on the bus at 2pm and arrived back in Sevilla at 8:30pm. It was altogether a very good, and cheap weekend. Most meals we just bought large .30 cent loaves of bread and sometimes bread topings, fruit, coffee, etc. The bus ride home was only 19 euros and the hostel was 17 euros per night which included linens and breakfast.

I just got done with an art exam and yesterday I had a grammar exam. I feel pretty good about both, so we shall see. School is going well and I feel like I am learning a lot. I also feel like I could be learning a lot more though because sometimes I speak in English with my friends and later scold myself because I did not come here to speak English and have a good time…I came for the experience yes, but the main reason was to learn Spanish as well as possilble. I guess I´m writing this to keep myself accountable to all you in the U.S. right now!

Have you ever thought that riding a bike was really difficult? Well, I recently got a Sevici card (the bike system in Sevilla…there are stations with about 20 bikes all over the city and you can use your card to use the bike for a half hour and then you return it to any station throughout the city) and have riden the bike a few times. The first time was a little humiliating, but I´m sure it will be very funny as I retell my experience. So, I walk up to the station, stare blankly at the machine, try to shove my card in a couple different slots, and finally figure how to get my card read so I can get a bike. I choose a bike and think I am on my way, when I get the bike I realize it has only one peddle and the chain is missing. I return the bike, go back to the machine, check which bike I want before getting it, and finally get the next bike. I didn´t realize I should adjust the seat before riding so I am riding with my knees going up to the handle bars and I feel like I am sitting really close to the ground…it may have looked just a little bit strange Next I realize that the bike´s steering is completely off and it pulls to the left really hard the entire time I ride it which makes me swerve all over and look like a drunk person riding a bike…not to mention the many people (and children) I almost hit! I finally return it to the station and all is well! I guess what I learned is, before getting a bike, check the tires, seat, chain, and steering wheel. After getting the bike, adjust the seat, make sure the bell and breaks work, and be on my way! It is really convenient and fun, but I just needed a little practice!

Okay, class starts in less than 2 minutes…so thanks for reading!

Sierra Norte-Cazalla

lisainspain — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:34:44 +0000

We had a long weekend this weekend with no school Monday due to Columbus (hispanic heritage) day. I went with two friends to the Sierra Norte de Cazalla…small mountainous area of a little pueblo (village) outside the city of Seville. I am very happy to announce that I have been proved wrong in regards to the mentality of rudeness in Spain. I realized that this mentality of worry only about oneself and don´t greet people with smiles is only a city thing. When I went to this little village for the day on Saturday all the people were extremely generous and helpful. We asked people directions, ate at a cafe, etc. without once being asked for money or being looked down upon due to our lack of Spanish proficiency. We even met an elderly man that talked to us for about a half hour about the Spanish civil war and told us countless jokes…most of which we understood the whole thing until it came to the punchline

We hiked the mountains (I hesitate to call them mountains, because they aren´t mountains but by no means are they hills either…feel free to look at the pictures on facebook even though they don´t nearly do justice to the beauty and splendor of it all) for the first half of the day and were able to walk alongside goats, sheep, cows, and pigs…without a fence! It was a wonderful escape since I am usually surrounded by city all day, every day in Sevilla. We calculated our walking for the day to be at least 12 miles! Definately worth the sore leg muscles the next day!

Thursday and Friday of this week we will be going to Toledo to visit a cathedral and some other sites. From Toledo I will be going with a few friends to Madrid to spend the rest of the weekend! I am excited, but time is just flying here! I can´t believe I am almost half-way done!

Cultural assimilation

lisainspain — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:34:29 +0000

Hola!

I feel like I am starting to become a part of Spain. I have a few “spots” for studying and drinking coffee. I enjoy doing homework in el parque de los principes (park), and my friends and I freqent a café that is called pans & companía. This café is amazing because you get a fairly large cup of coffee (small according to American standard, but at least double what Spaniards consider normal) and two large, delicious cookies for 1.75 Euro…yum!!! I feel like I have a schedule, friends, and the whole experience is starting to feel “normal.” I don´t mean to say I am not amazed by living in Spain, but it is starting to feel more and more like home.

Exams. I did pretty well on my first two, but the one I took for literature yesterday may have been very bad. The professor of this class walked in today and said he didn´t grade them yet, but he did look at them. He then started on a 20 minute speech on how we need to study and not just not care…give some sort of effort. I felt horrible for two reasons. The first reason is that he was right–I could have studied harder. The second reason was that I thought I did study intensly and I thought I knew the information, but I actually studied the information that did not appear on the exam and the topics that did appear on the exam I reviewed, but did not memorize as I did with the other information. He says we need to come to him before the exam for help, but the problem is, that I thought I understood the material very well and I thought I was very ready to take the exam! This experience has definately given my more empathy for my future students who are learning English as a second language…many times, they don´t know what they don´t know! On the bright side, I haven´t received my exam back yet and I know I got at least a C (from the parts on which I believe I did well) and we still have two more exams to prove ourselves.

I know when I read people´s blogs I enjoy learning about cultural stuff…so I´ll try to dedicate parts of my posts to cultural things. Whenever we watch T.V. (during every lunch and every dinner), Katie and I are unpleasently suprised by the amount of nudity is shown on normal news broadcastings. If they are talking about prostitutes, they will show a prostitute engaging in sexual activity with a man…only sometimes minimally blurring nudity. It is such a normal part of television that the Spaniards just watch it as if they were watching a comercial for white paper or something…while Katie and I look at it with disgust and suprise!

Portugal, the land of beautiful beaches!

lisainspain — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:35:19 +0000

I got back from Portugal Sunday night and I had a really good time! We went to a few different beaches and had a very relaxing time. Friday we went to an island beach which we needed to take a short ferry ride to access. It was a beautiful beach and I tried something new…I didn´t want to pay to use the bathroom in order to change into my bathing suit so my friend held a towel around me and I changed on the beach! It was actually very difficult because I kept worrying my friend would drop the towel and the most inconvenient time, but luckily, all went well. Saturday was rainy so we hung around town then later when the rain stopped two other girls and I took a two-hour walk along a beach into the town of Lagos. Saturday night we went out to dinner and all tried something we had never had before. Katie and Amy had squid and I tried grilled salmon as well as olives. I think I need a lesson on how to eat salmon because I kept getting tiny bones in my mouth, but other than that it was pretty tasty. The olives were DISGUSTING! It was like I was chewing a cube of salt and olive oil…that description doesn´t do justice to how gross it really was, but it will have to suffice. Saturday night we walked around town a bit more, watched a part of a free concert, and enjoyed the night life by the ocean. Sunday was a beautiful day and we went to a cove beach which was the most gorgeous beach I have ever visited! Apart from the terrible fish\rotten smell that came with every gust of wind, it was absolutely amazing! Feel free to look at the pictures posted on facebook.

I have officially completed my first two exams in Spain. They went alright, but it is a little depressing that after six years of studying the Spanish language, I still have so much to learn! But, that´s why I´m here! I have one more ´first´exam next week for my literature class then the whole process will start again in about two weeks. I have learned that I need to study a little every day for every class because that is the only way I can really know the information and not just know it for the exam. I really do want to learn as much as possible in terms of the Spanish language and culture!

I have class in three minutes..thanks for reading! God bless,

Lisa

lisainspain — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:18:26 +0000

Hey Everyone!

It´s been about a month that I´ve ben in Spain and I can´t believe I am 1\4 of the way done already! It is certainly going too fast! I am pretty busy now too with school, extracurricular stuff, homework, trips, etc. Here is my typical schedule:

7:30am- Alarm goes off
7:45am- Wake up, get ready, make bed, make breakfast (toast with jam and hot chocolate or coffee), eat breakfast
8:25am- Leave the apartment building and walk to school with Katie
9:00am-9:50am- Latin American Literature class
9:50-10:50- No class: homework, write emails and blog posts, study, sometimes go out and buy stamps or a snack, etc
10:50-11:40- Spanish Art History class
11:40-12:40-No class: same as the previous break
12:40-1:30pm-Advanced Grammar and Communication class
1:30pm- Walk home from school with Katie
2:30pm- Lunch
Homework
4:00-4:40ishpm-SIESTA…best aspect of the Spanish culture!
5pm-10pm- Depending on the day: volunteer at the convent with the children, flamenco classes, prayer group, youth group, intercambio (Seville university student wanting to practice english while i practice my spanish), shopping, siteseeing, homework, group projects, ice cream, etc.
8:30pm- If time permits…runn a few miles around the park close to our apartment
10:00pm- Dinner
10:30-12:00- Homework, set clothes out for the next day, shower
12:00am- Bed…on most weekdays…obviously weekends vary quite a bit

Well, I need to study for art class before the class starts, buy batteries for my camera, and buy some stamps…Thanks for keeping up to date on my blog!

God Bless!