Siesta

Tengo un topico nuevo para discutir. I have a new topic to discuss.

SIESTA!!!

Everyone loves a good nap. Especially Spaniards.

Every day, almost every business in the city [with the exception of a few grocery stores and food places] shuts down around 1:30/2:00pm for siesta and don't open again until 4:30/5:00 (i think... I haven't tried going anywhere at this time to know if that's when they actually open.. just what I've heard). This is so people can go home and eat lunch with their families! [remember.. lunch is 2:30pm here as stated in my last post]. It is a time to relax and recharge before finishing the day. Actual naps don't last more than 20 minutes for them. To them, anything beyond that is excessive and unhealthy.

It's strange. I come home around 1:30ish from classes. Waste time. Eat lunch at 2:30. and then think... well, now i have 7 hours until dinner. And nothing is open for 2 hours. It's hard for me to take advantage of the time to rest and sleep a little because at home I never have time for such nonsense. I'm addicted to being busy. I'm finally learning how to relax! I kind of like it. Sometimes I'm just bored :P

Update on other things:

-today was my last Tuesday class

-in 6 days we'll be leaving Salamanca to be cute little tourists in various cities in the north (madrid, barcelona, toledo, bilbao, burgos, and somewhere else....can't remember)

-it has been no cooler than 95 degrees every day. at 11pm the past few nights it's been 80. air-conditioning is a luxury. we don't have that. we live on the 4th floor !Ojala! [i wish!]

-our travel group has shrunk in size because one of the girls in our group is going home because her grandpa is dying. so we will now be traveling with 6 girls, 1 boy. that's small. but good.

-my hair is getting blonde. and longer. i havent used a hair dryer or any other electronic heating device for styling on my hair for 3 weeks. that's good.

-the other day at lunch, my host mom Antonia asked Quinn [one of the boys that also lives here, he's from New Orleans, is 15, and knows hardly any spanish] what he was studying to be [all conversations are in spanish of course]. the only word he understood was "estudias" which means to study, to which he replied "verbos". he basically told her he wanted to be a verb when he grew up :]

-tonight I am going to a spanish movie. hopefully it's better than last week's complicated story line. i wont even try and explain it.

thanks for reading friends! i hope you've been given some insight to the little world i've been trapped in for 3 weeks :]

pictures of the day:

La Catedral Nueva y Vieja - The cathedral (new and old) in Salamanca. I see this beauty every day. There was an original cathedral, then a new portion was added later, hence the name new cathedral/old cathedral. near one of the doors, you can see an astronaut :] i'll have to get a picture of it - when they were doing up-keeping work, it is common for the workers to add something modern as a type of signature. its very funny :]

This is the cathedral in Segovia. Amazing. I'm not exactly sure why I didn't go in... I think this day we went into the castle that was also in the city.

In memory of Joanne... we spent many afternoons in the park reading and trying to get a nice Spanish suntan :] I haven't been to the park to read since this little lady left!

Just because this picture is so awesome... The first week we went to karaoke Juan sang Backstreet Boys. Everyone loved it. The second week he sang It's My Life by U2 [I think...] and a group of girls loved him so much they got up and were his background dancers :] Good times.

Hasta Luego!

Espana es diferente que los Estados Unidos

For anyone who has never experienced the life of a Spaniard has missed out in some areas, but has not missed anything in others. This post is dedicated to opening eyes of a VERY difference culture that I can't say I particularly love... but at the same time I can't hate it :]

La Comida - meals

-Don't be fooled. It's not that great. There are a few "specialties" of Salamanca [one of them is paella [pronounced pie-a-uh]: a dish of rice, various seafood items, and eggs - anyone who's known me for 2 days will know i HATE eggs, so i HATE paella]

-breakfast is small; usually served around 8:00amish for us since we have class at 9:00

-lunch is served at 2:30pm. and is HUGE. [I cannot eat massive meals at once, I prefer five or six smaller meals a day]

-dinner is served at 9:30pm and is typically fairly large. again. I do not want to eat a massive meal and I do not want to eat a massive meal an hour before I go to bed and have food sitting heavy in my stomach all night.

-between lunch and dinner, between 4-6pm [after siesta, nap, which is 2-4ish] there is "tapas". this is a famous part of Spanish culture. its basically a snack. you can eat tapas any time. you can go to any food place/bar [and dont worry Christian friends, bars here are not where people go to get smashed, you can get more than alcohol at these places :P] and order tapas. you get a beverage of your choice and a small food item that fits in your hand basically. i got a deep fried chicken nugget looking thing that actually had cheese and ham inside - AMAZING. I do love tapas. a lot.

-meals usually only have one main item served. there is also bread to eat, like a baguette. there are no 'sides' as we like to have at home. for example, the other night for dinner we had a cheeseburger. it was massive. but it was the only thing prepared. maybe it's just my host mom but the only side we've had was a salad. and that's only happened twice in three weeks :] :P

En las calles - In the streets

-walking is life. and public transportation. but Salamanca is a small city so it's not unreasonable. coming from a city like Battle Creek, and probably many other cities around the US [with the exception of Chicago and places similar to that] it was quite a shocker when I had to walk 20 minutes to class every day. I have some toned legs :]

-People are NOT very polite in the street if they don't know you. Which here, nobody knows me, so to me they're all rude. When two people are walking towards each other on a crowded sidewalk, they expect the other person to move out of their way, so shoulders are often bumped. They don't say excuse me too often. It's strange

-Dogs 'use the bathroom' wherever they want. Like the sidewalk.

-Kids 'use the bathroom' wherever they want. Like the sidewalk.

-Old men in parks 'use the bathroom' wherever they want, like the bushes at the park.

-PDA [public displays of affection] are common. and beyond what would be acceptable in the US. I won't go into details, but it is pretty intimate ;] I'm used to it now - and by that I mean seeing it, not doing it :P

I'll keep it to just those two topics for today. Leave some suspense for the future.

I'll leave you with a couple pictures :]

The second weekend here we took an excursion to Segovia. This is the main thing we saw - one of the biggest and most impressive aqueduct systems made by the Romans ages ago that delivered water from a mountain down to the city as there are many valleys and dips between the water site and where the water was needed. It's about 20 miles long :] and VERY impressive!
In honor Joanne leaving to go work in a hotel in south Spain tonight, she gets a shout-out in the blog. We are dancing together while our friend Juan [not his real name but he is from Singapore and it's impossible to pronounce] sang Backstreet Boys at karaoke night :]
Our first weekend here we had an excursion to Avila [emphasis on the first 'A'] and say the "muralla" - the wall. it surrounds the city and was built after many battles between the arabs and christians to be in control of the city. There are even areas where massive doors once were that were closed at night to keep people from getting in to the city. we were able to walk along the top of the muralla and see BEAUTIFUL scenery both inside and outside the city.

This was also the first weekend, but before we stopped in Avila we made a quick visit to Alba de Tormes. This is most of the group up on "la castilla de Tormes" the Tormes castle. It's whole Bethel group plus Scott and Maria and their 3 kids. the two on the outside are Juan and Joanne, we adopted them into our group :]

que tengas un buen dia!

hasta luego <3

I have a charger. And smaller waist.

Por fin! i have a new laptop charger, thanks to the generosity of my mother, and can be more consistent with posts :]

as the title suggests not only do i have a new charger, i have a smaller waist. i'm sure this is from all the walking i do [20 to class every day, 20 mins home, plus going places at night, so at least 2 hours of walking every day, not including our excursion trips and tours]. but also, the eating schedule is soooo odd here. plus im doing workouts. so. anyone looking to shave off some weight... spain is the place for you :]

anyways -

Spain is better. Estoy aprendido mucho and tengo mas confianza en mi abilidad a entender espanol. [i am learning a lot and have more confidence in my ability to understand spanish].

Class and meals are 95% spanish. the 5% english is when i cheat and talk with other english speakers :P i can speak more fluidly and with a larger vocabulary. i can understand much easier when someone speaks to me. even my writing is getting better. Dad, the money was worth it :]

i've made a really good friend with a girl name Joanne from Scotland. she is in my class and we hang out every day. Sadly, she'll be leaving Friday to go to the south of spain and work in a hotel :/ i'm not sure how i'll carry on the last 3 weeks without my little pal :P

speaking of 3 weeks. i cannot believe my 6 weeks here is nearly half over. i have seen two beautiful cities other than Salamanca [where i live] called Avila and Segovia. both have 'trademarks' in the city. i'll make a 'pictures only' post soon and show you what i mean. one has a massive wall that looks like its from a fairy tale, the other has one of the largest and most successful/impressive aqueduct systems in the world, built by the romans.

this weekend we have no trips planned through the school so it will be a good opportunity to catch up on all the papers i have to write in spanish for my credits at Bethel [now that i can charge up my computer!!]

next post, i'll try and remember to post all the quirky cultural differences.

hasta luego! dios te bendiga!

Quick Post. No Pic.

My macbook is dead. My roomie Chelsea has been nice enough to share her computer with me.

I am sick. but doing better.

I am homesick.

I don't love the people of Spain. They're a little rude.

The city is beautiful.

I slept 3 hours yesterday afternoon.

Lunch time is 2:30pm. Dinner at 9:30pm. I'm always hungry in the morning. & in the normal time for dinner - I might come back too thin. Shoot.

People don't workout outside here.

I have yet to have seen a gym for working out.

I get stared at when I run. again, people are rude.

School is good, I'm learning a lot. And really really like the professors. They're the only nice Spaniards I have encountered.

This might be the longest 5 weeks of my life. Please pray.

I miss my family. I miss my boyfriend. I miss my friends. I miss American food. I miss American eating times. I just miss America. For once in my life I am admitting that America > Spain... and that's saying a lot coming from me :] :P

[and since i don't have my computer - i can't upload pics, but mom is working like a saint to get me a new one sent here. bless that woman]
Today is the last day of my first week of class.
Tomorrow we have an excursion to somewhere. should be good.


hasta luego amigos.

First Post, Second Day

Hola a todos :] Estoy en España!

I am SO tired! Jet-lag :/

Pero... me encanta la ciudad!

It was quite the journey, but here I am.

The other eight Bethel students left Chicago last Wednesday, arriving in Spain Thursday.

Due to Alyssa's amaaaazing wedding on Friday, and having maid of honor duties to attend to, i had to [as jason derulo would say...] 'ride solo'

We [my dad and I] left Battle Creek at 10:30am Saturday morning, my flight left Chicago at 4:40pm Chicago time and I arrived in Madrid, Spain at 8am Sunday Madrid time [8 hour flight]. I then had to find my luggage in the massive airport, find a taxi, and tell the driver [who spoke NO english] the right train station to go to. So my full immersion to the language started the minute I landed, not necessarily bad, just not necessarily easy! I'm thankful he drove like a maniac, making my trip quicker, making my bill smaller ;], once at the train station I had to buy a ticket, not as easy of a task as I thought, and then wait until my train left at 11:40am Madrid time [5:40am Battle Creek time; I was exhausted by this point but forced myself to stay awake until I got on the train, not wanting to miss it!]. The train arrived at 1:54pm Sunday afternoon and I was greeting by my professor Scott DeVries with a big hug. I was more than relieved to see a familiar friendly face.

Here's some math for you. 3 hour drive + 2 hour wait + 8 hour flight + 15 minute taxi + 2 hour 30 minute wait + 2 hour 30 minute train ride = 20 hours and 15 minutes of traveling. yikes.

I live with a host mom, Antonia, and her daughter Julia who is 16. They try their best to talk to us [Chelsea my roommate and me - and she speaks very very little Spanish] and I can 90% of the time understand and 50% of the time know how to reply back :P It's been ok though, with Chelsea having a hard time understanding/speaking I have been her translator, giving me even MORE Spanish practice! This will be a great experience in gaining confidence, vocabulary, and general improvement in my Spanish!

Today was the first day of class. I have an hour of writing class, hour of conversation class, hour of listening/responding class [we listened to music today and tried to translate/interpret], and an hour of grammar. Today was rough. I still feel like I'm in Michigan time sometimes, and this morning I for SURE felt it! So for the next couple days, class will feel like 3am-7am :] There are only 5 other people in class, one from Bethel, two from Scotland, one from China, and one from Germany. It's quite the experience when the common language is Spanish :]

A few "pics of the day" for Alyssa Allen [when i first started typing your name I started to write Eubank - but now you're married, a wife, with a new last name!!]

The room Chelsea and I share - very small, but it does the job!

This is my view when i stick my head out our apartment bedroom window :]