Feb 28th – Day to Leave for Prague

Today I missed my first class but figured my birthday was a good time to take an excused absence. Funny. I took a shower, got dressed, ate and went to school. First, I took my paper to my professor and apologized for not coming to class (which we didn’t do much in class that day anyway). Then I waited for my art class where we got back our exams. I did really well! Which he was very pleased with how we all did overall. After that, I had to go back to my host home to get the baby suitcase to meet up with Rachel for our trip to Prague. My uncle lives there so and we wanted to visit so he said we would be able to stay with him! What luck! And when I had checked my email earlier, I found out that my present from my parents was a new camera that Geoff (my uncle) would help me pick out since he’s really great at photography! Yay! Now I would be able to see what I was taking pictures of instead of guessing! (Story here is that I took it to Granada and it worked one minute and then the screen went out. The rest of the camera was fine but I couldn’t see what I was taking pics of so I would just guess. Good thing I’ve had it so long so my aim was really good.) Awesome! Plus Geoff had a puppy and I had been having a really hard time not being around my dogs so it would definitely put my in a good place to at least play with one! Rachel and I met at the bus station excited for our weekend and caught the bus to the airport. It was really easy and fast and no crowding! We had gotten to the airport 2 hours before to check our luggage and get some food. The woman that checked our bags had asked the funny question of whether I wanted my luggage to come to Prague with me. We had a lay-over in Frankfurt and had she been a native English speaker I would have sassed her saying, ‘No, my bag and I are having some issues so I’m going to Prague and it’s going to stay in Frankfurt.’ But I was afraid she would take it literally, so I smiled and said yes, all the way to Prague. Then Rachel and I walked towards our terminal and stopped at a café to get some food since I was hungry again (go figure, haha). And guess what I saw there? Kiwi! I haven’t seen or even heard of anyone talk about having kiwis here and I love eating them…they remind me of being in high school where my friends would make fun of the way I would eat them at lunch time. Rachel had never had a kiwi, so I figured this would be a good time to try. I also got some yogurt (which tasted like yogurt back home), white grape juice (which I’ve been missing terribly here, since I’m such a juice fiend), and a water. Well, I brought a water, but the Nazis who are running security are way cool until they see water, then they take it and toss it without even a flinch. Dang. We were sitting at the café eating, which Rachel found that she loves kiwis, when a dad-aged man at the table next to us said, ”You don’t hear many American accents around here” and smiled at us. We both looked at him with a kind of worried look because we thought he would be another Spanish creeper. Trust me, age isn’t an issue…creeper in Spain is ageless. Haha. Then he said, “I’m from the states”…oh, and a sigh of relief. We didn’t catch his name, but I think he was very happy to speak to someone from his own culture. But what we did learn was that he was from Ohio, living in England with his family, loved it there, but missed home and was thinking about moving them all back in 5 or 10 years. Plus he was getting worried about his kids because they were really picking up on the accent, and he was hoping that they wouldn’t especially when they move back. Then before we had met him, he left to catch his flight to England. But wished us the best of luck and really admired us for coming to study here in college. From the café we went to our terminal and we boarded the plane. It was from Madrid to Frankfurt and would be about 2 hours so we were watching a movie…cool. It was ‘Waiting’ with Keri Russell and it was the most bizarre, heart-breakingly depressed movie/plot I’ve ever seen! She works as a waitress in a pie shop in a very small town on a rarely frequented interstate. She gets pregnant from her controlling husband who hits her, controls her thoughts and actions. Oh, and of course he is insanely jealous. She had planned to get away from him by stashing money to use for her get away until she got pregnant. Now she had to figure out how to hide it. She also narrates her life by the pies she creates which are amazingly good. Like ‘Earl is Gonna Kill Me When He Finds Out I’m Having His Baby’ pie. Then she ends up having an affair with her baby doctor who is, of course insanely good-looking, and married as well. To give an example of how crazy, dumb and jealous the husband is, when she tells him, he gets jealous that she will love the baby more than him. And will only let her have it, if she promises to make an effort everyday to love him more than the baby. Earl first, baby second. When we landed in Frankfurt, it was pouring rain and very cold. The way they run their airport is that every flight has a shuttle that takes them to their plane regardless of size. So once we took the shuttle to the gate, hustled to the next gate and had the shuttle take us to the next plane, we were relieved that we were about to be in Prague. Our flight had a mix of everything, German, English, Russian and Czech. The man sitting next to me was Russian and had attempted to be social and make small talk but my incredibly confused look told him everything he needed to know! The flight was only an 1 hour or 45 mins (I can’t remember) but I slept most of the way. Awakened by my stomach telling me to grab my paper bag in the seat, I felt sick. But I didn’t know why….and no it’s not because of the night before, believe me…that was all cleared out. I felt funny after I had the sandwich given as our airplane snack, but thought it was nothing until now. I’ve never had problems with my stomach on a plane and never once thought about grabbing the ‘bag’. Once the plane landed, I needed to make a run to the bathroom but no one spoke English and they were all older people, so they were going extremely slow. In order to get out quickest to get to the bathroom, I made motions to people in front of me like I was going to throw up…and wouldn’t you know it, they moved out of the way! I had to go through customs in order to get to the bathroom, and I don’t even remember it because I breezed through so quickly. Finally, I found a bathroom…but now my stomach wouldn’t do anything. I learned a trick to use in this case from a friend to take away the nausea: put cold compresses behind the ears and just below the nape of the neck on the chest. I’m not sure why, but it actually does help, and it seemed to calm my body down. When I came out, Rachel was waiting for me and we walked over to baggage claim. The two of us were laughing at an electric purple bag that a very masculine man grabbed, with his toy dog, while looking for our bags. Then my hot pink suitcase came barreling out, and me in my baby pink scarf, cute matching gloves, and a bow in my hair reached for it, but not before a group of older men laughed at me. Of course she would have that bag, funny. Rachel’s bag soon came out, less girly of course, and we then came out to meet Geoff; funny sight to see my huge step-uncle, as big and tall as he is, with an adorably anxious 4-month-old chocolate lab. His puppy’s name is Nixon and he’s the cutest puppy I’ve seen this side of the ocean, obviously since my two are the cutest my side of the ocean. He’s also teething, so caution with fingers and his baby teeth! Once we arrived at Geoff’s apartment, we went up the stairs, which Nixon gleefully led the way, and in the door. Side note, Geoff’s apartment is awesome, and huge! It’s probably the coolest apartment I’ve ever seen, and has enough room to host five people at once with two bathrooms. Our room had two beds in it with our own terrace, bed-side table, couch and access to the bathroom downstairs. There are two terraces total, once outside of our room, and once outside Geoff’s room/the upstairs living room, with roof access so you can see the total panoramic view of Prague. Like I said, it was awesome! Plus it was nice to stay in someone’s home instead of a hostel, so we kinda got to see more of the native living side of Prague. And it’s pretty cool. After getting settled, and silently doing the excited dance together (because of the cool apartment and that we were in Prague), we went to bed awaiting to see the city the next day.

Feb 27th – Day of My Birthday!

Today when I woke up, I looked out my window to see that the crappy weather had passed and it was a beautiful spring-like morning! Goodie! After I got ready, put on a cute outfit and ate breakfast, I left for school. I only have one class on Wednesdays so I was excited that today would be pretty relaxed. Once I got to school, all my friends would come up saying happy birthday and going into civ class I was a pretty happy camper. Olvido started out saying that today we were going to learn a song based on the lecture, which we all groaned thinking it was an old war song. The first slide pulled up on the PowerPoint was of a cute little mouse with a piece of birthday cake and it said ‘Happy Birthday Adelaide!’…I didn’t know she knew! Then Kary said, hey it looks like you!, and started to laugh, thanks Kary. Then Olvido clicked to the next slide, and it was Happy Birthday in Spanish since we had forgotten the words! So my whole class sang to me! Then Olvido asked about what I was doing tonight, which I said going to dinner with some friends and going out to the bars. Obviously I couldn’t stay out and get too crazy since I was leaving the next day for Prague and I had 9am class. She then asked about what we normally do back home and versus what they do there. She didn’t really like the idea of our custom of doing 21 shots, and she shares that opinion with mom too. Then we started class after she wished me a great birthday. Then after class, my other teachers were looking for me in the hallway to wish me a happy birthday too. After class, I decided to try the shoe hunt on a street off the main plaza to at least try all the stores I knew. I don’t know if it was my luck or because of my birthday but I ended up buying four pairs of shoes for only 40 Euros! It was awesome! And I finally found cute boots, which I got a black and brown pair, and then two pairs of flats. Man this day was just getting better as it went along! Then I walked back toward campus to talk to my parents and James and on the way, I ran into a very excited Ana. She smiled big and said Happy Birthday!! Then she saw my bags and said, ‘You’ve been shopping today!’ I told her about the awesome deal I got and she said, ‘No way!’. I know, it was crazy, and then I told her where I had gone and she said she may check it out before she goes home to see if she finds anything! Two kisses on the cheek and she was off. I had gotten a boat load of ecards which made me really happy even though I couldn’t be around my family, that they were still there. And dad went a little ecard happy and sent a lot and I loved everyone of them! Even the puppies sent an ecard! After talking on Skype, I went to my host home for lunch which she made lasagna! When I went up to my room, I found a wrapped present on my bed from my host family saying happy birthday! It was a cute shirt with Alcala written on it, and Ana said it was just a little something to remember them by when I went home. Adrian learned how to sing Happy Birthday in English but he forgot some of the words but it was cute nonetheless. He sang ‘Happy Bear-day a You’, he’s so funny and then sang it in Spanish and danced. Aww. Then I needed to have my composition revised and the tutor had to switch today so I was out the door again. My professor said I was getting better as revising it myself but I still needed to work on it. When I went to the tutor he made minor changes and even said I was getting better. Baby steps he said. Then I went to the computer lab to revise the paper and print it out for class tomorrow. Then I met up with my film class to go to an exhibit from the civil war that was one of our activities. It was pretty cool, and then after I was supposed to meet up with friends to go have birthday kebabs in an hour and then go out for a bit. At some point at the exhibit I had gotten a call from someone saying they were at my house and needed to deliver something to a person. I told them I didn’t know who they were talking about and they said my address and said, you are Adelaide Hobbs, right? Oh my gosh, they know who I am! I asked if they had anything for me and she said yes, I have your flowers! Oh! I love flowers! So I called Ana who had just left the house and circled back to take them to my room. I was so excited about my flowers (I love flowers, they instantly make me happy about anything) so when I got back to my host home I tried to find them. I could smell them everywhere in my room but had to use my nose to find them. I turned around to my little patio table with chairs and there it was! It was beautiful and HUGE and I loved them! I looked at the card and they were from mom and dad! Then Adrian raced up to tell me that he brought them up and thanked the lady. He also brought me a little gift, which was really not little, it was a sofa cushion that is about twice his size! I thanked him and told him it’d probably be best if it was back on the couch, which he gladly took it back down. Once I got ready and met up with my friends only a few of them could make it since some had midterms first thing tomorrow and others were sick. I told them it was okay and they offered to take me out next week when I got back from Prague. No worries. I was lucky that mine were almost over! So we went to go have kebabs which were awesome and then went to Whelan’s for drinks. I was fine with the jack and cokes my friends were ordering until my friend Elliot walked up carrying 5 shots. My eyes got big and then he said, three for you and two for me…don’t worry I’m not trying to send you to the hospital. Thanks Elliot. We all watched the Barcelona game against I think Valencia but I don’t remember. The game was awesome, they were about to lose and then before the game was over, they scored a goal and won! It was so tight! Then at that point it was 2am, and I needed to get sleep and so did my friends. Sadly I made the classic mistake that I always warn my friends about on their 21sts. I sat down while drinking so when I stood up it all hit me at once. Dang it! We made it outside the door and I stopped Elliot and asked if he could give me a piggy-back ride. He said, ‘Are you serious?’, yes. ‘Alright, but only because it’s your birthday!’. Once we got to the cab I was fine to stand and told the cab driver where I needed to go. I got home safe and was quiet getting in my host home and to my room. By then it had been long enough for my stomach to decide that whiskey, tequila and kebabs don’t mix. Ugh, but then I guess it wouldn’t be quite the 21^st with out your stomach making a protest in the end. Haha. Fortunately it didn’t last long and once it was all out, I could sleep. Great birthday and I liked that it was so relaxed. No pressure of making it amazing, not that I wouldn’t go to town the next weekend with my friends though…

Feb 26th – Day of Huge Relief

Today in my comp class, since the weather was nice, we had to do our interviews with natives on the street. Dang! We were given questions to ask, mainly over the different holidays and how they felt about them, and we could work in groups of two to three. So Victoria, Trevor and I decided to be in a group. For the interviews, we had to talk to two elderly people, two students, and two people that could be of any age. Victoria went to go talk to the first student, while Trevor and I decided to work together with talking to and elderly man; which really turned out to be Trevor taking notes and me doing the talking. Surprisingly the man was really nice and thought I was a native because he said that my speaking was really good! I was really excited and when I said I was an exchange student, he said that I was doing very well with learning and my accent. Then at some point he turned to Trevor and said, do you understand me? Trevor nodded and said yes, but the man simply snickered a little. Then we thanked him and went to talk to another elderly man who was a little more vague to me but started to warm up after awhile. Victoria went to talk to the police man who ended up hitting on her, haha. As we finished with the older man, Victoria had found the second student and we looked for a woman to talk to. As we started to walk up I said, ‘Okay Trevor, you are talking this time!’, I guess she had been interviewed several times because the minute I asked if we could talk to her (since Trevor froze again walking up to her) she wrote us off saying ‘I don’t like any festivals!’ Then we met up with Victoria and walked back to class. That was a lot easier than I thought it would be and I did really well speaking and understanding. However it would have been nice if Trevor has actually done some talking since he boasts about being so good at it…yea right. After class I went over my flashcards for art and before I knew it, it was time for the exam. Carlos said, ‘Why do you guys look so fearful?’, ‘Umm, because you have the midterms!’. Then he handed them out and I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about an exam…I knew the answers to every question!! The first part showed a picture of a certain structure and we had to answer questions according to the picture. One of them was what type of architecture was it, and the others were based off the answer to the first one. Then on the second part we had four questions over randomly selected periods of art. Once I finished my exam I left feeling so much better because not only did I do well, but now I had completed three of my four midterms. The last one would be on Tuesday of next week and was over vocabulary. I would definitely be able to enjoy the weekend and my birthday tomorrow. Later I met up with Rachel to go shoe shopping before all the sales were over; they end by next Monday and the deals on shoes, especially boots, are supposed to be great. We went all down the main part of downtown Alcala, and I unfortunately found no shoes but did find a pair of cute skinny jeans. I know I finally got a pair, but here they don’t wear them because it’s the “in” thing to do. It’s just a part of their wardrobe, whereas back home, everyone and their mom wears them so I decided not too because it was too trendy for me. But here since it wasn’t that way, it made me more curious about getting a pair, so I did. They actually look pretty cute with all my flats! But I’m sure you aren’t really interested in all that. After I went to my host home for dinner, and get some good sleep.

Feb 25th – Day of Starting Midterm Week

My first midterm was civ which it wasn’t too bad. The exam was in two parts. We were to read a passage and answer questions at the end and the answers were in the reading. Easy enough! Except for they really weren’t in the reading so I kind of had to pull out what I remembered on that section. I hoped what I answered would end up being okay. The second half were subjects randomly selected from all the themes we’ve covered and it was short answer. So you had to put what you knew about the topic in a clear and concise way, and obviously in Spanish. After my first midterm, I looked over my flashcards for film class and the midterm in that class turned out to be easier too! We had four questions to answer in essay form over the movies comparing them and their demonstration of themes from the war. I knew the answer to three of the four and could give good examples to show my point. The fourth question I was more iffy on but I think I still did pretty well. Two of my four midterms were over and I had another to go tomorrow afternoon in my history of art class. Once I finished I went to my host home where Ana and Danit were waiting for me to see how it went. I told them very well and they said ‘Buena Chica!’ which means good girl. I ate dinner and then went to go study for the rest of the night for art class. I made drawings of structures so I would remember what they were called and of the characteristics to each type of art so I would be able to recognize them. Then I went to sleep a little more anxious because this one would be the hardest of the four.

Feb 24th – Day of Studying

Aside from going downstairs to eat and to tell Ana that I had exams starting tomorrow (so I was apologizing in advance for my lack of being social for the next couple of days, she laughed and said it was okay, and Danit wished me luck with studying), I studied the entire day. For film, I had to re-watch the movies I didn’t quite understand and go over the script and themes. I made flashcards to keep them separate and studied what they had in common, or didn’t. For my civ class, I re-read my notes from class and highlighted the sections I felt were important. Then I looked at the study guide PowerPoint she sent to match up what I thought was important to what she did. They matched! Since I didn’t know how hard the tests would be or what it would be over, I needed to go over everything. I went to sleep that night hoping I was prepared enough!

Feb 23rd – Day of Fun Lunches and Dinners

When I woke up and came down to lunch, we had a new guest with us (I know…a lot this week!). It was Ana’s younger sister who came to visit for the day and lives in Guadalajara. Today we actually were having a big sit-down lunch in the dining room where normally we eat in the kitchen. We all helped set up the table for lunch, we had spaghetti, while the boys were finishing eating their lunch in the kitchen. It was weird seeing that both Ana’s sisters looked like each other here and there and they all had the same strawberry-brown color hair. Once we sat down to eat, Pepe had asked if I had fun out last night and what time I got in. I told him about 5:30-6am, but we had to walk our friend home. After making sure I was safe coming home by having my friends walk me, they asked ‘did you go to Can-Can?’ ‘No…’, they we shocked and said, ‘no?! You didn’t go to Can-Can? Are you sure?’, ‘Yes, I’m sure!’. ‘Where did you go then? Did you have a good time?’, umm, well yes I did have a good time, but no I don’t know where I went. They laughed for probably a good solid 5 mins. Haha, thanks Spain family. What was it called? Or what did it look like? Did you know where-abouts it was in Alcala or wait, was it even in Alcala? Hmm, no to all the above, we were in a big group of all girls and guys we were friends with and we didn’t pay attention. But I do remember that I didn’t know where I was in Alcala until we decided to go to Cabana. We were walking, I don’t know how long, and then poof!, we were on the main street in downtown Alcala and I knew where I was. They laughed at me again, which I then reassured them I was safe, traveled with my friends, and not alone. I think they think I’m funny. Then Ana said, well we went out last night and we went by Can-Can to see if you would be there and you weren’t! In my head I breathed a sigh of relief because had I seen her yesterday, I would’ve embarrassed myself because I was pretty buzzed and would’ve never lived it down. Funny timing. Then Pepe and Ana’s sister were discussing the main running candidates for president in Spain and their views over each one. Then somehow her sister got onto the topic of Paris Hilton and her antics and how they view her from Spain. Seems that no matter where you go, everyone has the same opinion about Paris; she is a pampered poodle who doesn’t know much of anything except for how to waste money on a lot of nothing. Then talking about the Harry Potter movies and why Pepe and Ana like them and why Ana’s sister doesn’t and the book versus the movie. The best part to the conversation was that I understood almost all of it! After lunch, I took another siesta and came to meet Rachel in the plaza for some ice cream. She was feeling down and I thought it would help. When I was waiting to meet up with Rachel, Olivia had called saying that Sarah decided to do her birthday dinner tonight instead of tomorrow because we start midterms on Monday. So after I met up with Rach, I need to run home and change to be back in the plaza to go to the Chinese place she was craving. Rachel was doing much better than the night before, but still down and feeling out of place. Sarah had called her a little earlier to tell her to come tonight but hadn’t said what time. I was glad she was coming since the best thing to do is to be around friends. I went back to my host home to get dressed and made it on time to meet up in the plaza. And I realized that so far, I have done really well with Lent! I haven’t stressed out, or packed things too close so that I am rushed and I feel like I’m getting some patience. But then again, I’m not the best at patience so I think I’m getting better at it, haha. Once the birthday girl arrived, we all walked down to the Chinese restaurant which there was about 14 of us total, so when we walked in to see how long it would be to get a table, the Chinese woman’s eyes got really big. Then she said umm, 15-20 mins. She actually set us up a big table downstairs so that we could have more privacy especially for the birthday girl and because we were a loud group. They actually had sushi here so I ended up trying some. It wasn’t the best I’ve had but it was okay, plus the group of friends I was around were really a fun, light-hearted group. We joked around and laughed the entire time, which would normally be great, but we didn’t realize that we had been at the restaurant for 3 hours and it was 1am. The actual restaurant was closed and they wanted us to hustle. For looking so rude, we started to clear up or at least consolidate the mess of plates and wine glasses. We figured it was the least we could do. Then to treat the birthday girl, they brought the table a bottle of China Plum, which is an apple flavored wine, I think. It was on the house! So after a couple of birthday toasts, we finally left. Even though we had stayed so late, they still liked us and hoped we would come back again soon. Then the birthday crew was on their way to take Sarah out for more drinks but I needed to be more productive tomorrow since midterms were starting Monday and I had two. So I told them to party hard and I went to go wait for the bus. Rachel was nice enough to wait with me. Once I got to my host home, I realized it was the earliest I had come back on a Saturday! It was about 2am, and normally I wouldn’t even think of the faintest idea of returning yet since the night would just get going. Weird. Going back to the states will probably be a little difficult at first to get used to the earlier schedule since back home, the bars close by 2am and the night is most definitely over by 3am unless you are at a party; even then it starts to wind down by then.

Feb 22nd – Day of Trip to Toledo

Ugh, I don’t like getting up in the morning for anything and it’s hard to get motivated but I have to go on these trips since it’s a part of our grade. Dang. I slept for a bit on the trip to Toledo to catch some extra sleep. Toledo I have learned is a city of rollercoasters. Which I don’t mean this literally, there’s no such thing, or not that I have found yet. But the city is a series of huge inclines and descents so it feels like you are walking a rollercoaster. The city itself though is beautiful and very picturesque. Toledo is built on a mountain so it has great overlooks and interesting architecture. The first place we walked to was a cathedral with a very famous painting in Spain (and sadly I can’t remember the name) but the painter of this is buried beneath it, literally! You can see his tomb and everything! How crazy huh?! From there, we started to walk toward a monastery to look at the arches, the rector and the décor. It was very simple but I knew the features that were of interest since Carlos (who was our guide) is my professor for history of art. Then we walked over to another cathedral to look at the aspects from the conquerors who had influenced its architecture. While Carlos was talking about this, I could see on the opposite side of the group my friend Leah, who happens to make the most awkward faces. And Olivia and I were cracking up laughing the whole time because every time she would look over at us to see what was so funny, she would make another awkward face and it would start us all up again. That day we were all giddy from laughing so much and it helped that the weather was so great. After this, our group waited while others were taking pictures, and we were talking to our civ professor Olvido. We were telling her about Leah making us laugh and Leah was telling us what she was talking about that made her make the gestures. Olvido was laughing the entire time and then stopped me to say that she loved my laugh. It was a very contagious laugh and really came from the heart, she liked it a lot…I didn’t know what to say since I was put on the spot so I opted to laugh awkwardly. Which then Olivia said, yea unlike mine which sounds weird and laughed funny…Olvido looked at her and said your laugh isn’t contagious, haha. Then we walked back to the main plaza where we started and had our break for an hour and a half for lunch. By then it was much warmer and we decided to post up in the plaza to people watch and eat our lunches. After we all got ice cream and went for a little shopping in the streets. We walked by the store that had cool jewelry so we all stopped in to take a look. I picked up two cool sets of earrings while the other girls in my group were getting either necklaces or sunglasses. Beth wanted to find a cute outfit for when we went out tonight and wanted to look for something to match. After we walked towards the grand cathedral to our meeting point for the rest of our class and the professors to people watch. And no, my professors weren’t late from our lunch break and they didn’t get drunk! Thank goodness! Once we all met up, Carlos went over the architecture of the cathedral and then said that unfortunately we didn’t have a reservation to enter but if we wanted to, we could pay for entrance or have more free time before we head back to Alcala. My friends and I decided to hang out in front of the cathedral and take in the atmosphere of Toledo and take advantage of the nice weather. Once our entire group met up again, we started to walk through the rollercoaster streets to our bus to go back. At this point we were close to meeting up with our bus and we saw something that put a huge smile on my face. Two, full grown, and very fierce-looking chow chows. One was an tan-blonde color, almost like the mane of a lion and the second was all black…their fur was fully fluffed out and they looked like lions from far away. They were so cute and knew it. But had no owners so they were sunbathing and paying no attention to the massive group of students walking by. Once we got on the bus, my friend Elise decided to start the ‘slow clap’ (prank in younger American culture, featured in movies and does actually work, hence why it’s a joke) thinking that no one would catch on. But it worked perfectly!! She started clapping slowly increasing the pace and eventually everyone caught on and they were even cheering!! Haha, we couldn’t believe it worked! Carlos was obviously confused because he came back shortly after and asked why we applauded. I said, because of you! But he knew better, because he then said, no really, why? Explaining the slow clap in our culture wouldn’t make much sense in translation so we just laughed it off. Funny. After, we all napped on the bus going back to Alcala. Once we got back, we all headed to our host homes to have dinner and then get ready to go out tonight. Beth was having a party at her apartment and we were all going over and then going out to the discothèque. When I arrived back at my host home, I found Adrian had a new playmate over and it was only the two of them and Pepe…where was Ana and Danit? Pepe made my dinner for me and I had a feeling something was up. He asked if I was going out tonight which I said yea, and he replied, oh yea Ana did too! Haha, that’s where she is! Later we all met up at Beth’s place and all hung out with the Spaniards and other friends we knew there. Then after quite a few drinks, we walked to a discothèque nearby. It was loads of fun and we danced a lot and after we walked to Cabana, a bar that we have a lot of bartender friends at. Cabana was packed and after a few drinks, something was wrong with Rachel. Her boyfriend, long story short, broke it off and cheated. Ugh. What a classy guy. She was hammered and now completely inconsolable. So Elise, Sarah and I walked her home and tried to calm her down and console her. Once we finally got to her apartment, it took some time but we got her calmed down and she wanted to go sleep. We told her to call us tomorrow and that we’d be there if she needed anything. Now that she went inside and to her apartment, we started walking away. Crap, the buses stopped running awhile ago and I was way to close to catch a cab, so Sarah and Elise offered to walk me. My host home is a long walk (45 min to be exact) so I usually take the bus, and at this moment we were about half way there. It was a pretty safe walk, obviously not safe enough to walk alone but with two other girls, plenty safe. Once we got to my host home, I let the girls in to warm up for a min while I got flip flops for Elise since she had worn heels and her feet were hurting. After they left, I went to sleep.

Feb 21st – Day of Not Much

In my art class we went over our visit and I hung out with some of my friends for a bit but not for long since I needed to do my homework so I would have to worry over the weekend. We had another class trip planned for early tmr, the last one for my civ class, so I needed to get some rest. And yea, not much happened but Skype decided to like me again and it was the first day this week that I got to see and talk to my parents and James. Definitely helped.

Feb 20th – Day of Going to the Prado

Today, even though I don’t have history of art class, we had a class trip to go to the Prado Art Museum. I was excited because I had been wanting to go but decided to wait until we went for our class since our trips were free. It was a gorgeous day outside, which my friends decided to describe as delicious (good term), and it put me in a better mood. My friends in my class are some of my favorites to hang around because they are so relaxed and interested in taking in the culture. While we were waiting for our professor to arrive, my guy friends Nate and Nick were telling me about the cool lunar eclipse tonight. The weather was supposed to be crystal clear tonight and perfect to view it. Cool. At that moment, Carlos walked up and it was time to get the train into Madrid to go. Hanging out with my friends and joking around on the way was making me feel loads better and I really started to take in what Rachel said about me having more good friends and that I shouldn’t let them weight out the one bad. By that time we were at our stop and were walking toward the Prado. The actual location of the Prado is straight across from the botanical gardens so the area is really beautiful and the sunset was a great accent. As we were walking towards the museum, we saw parts of the body separated in giant sculptures; we took a picture with a set of lips, but there was a head, torso, legs, etc. Once we entered the museum we went to the first and most famous part of the Prado, the exhibit of Goya’s most famous works. You’ve seen most of them before, and if I could’ve remembered a name of any painting I would say one but I can’t. The museum is like a maze and they were very strict on everything…how loud you talked, how long you were there, etc. I think it was due to the theft (mom told me about) in Paris where the thief ran off with countless works that were very valuable to the louver. After the museum, we walked through the maze that was trying to leave the museum and ran into the guards who wanted to flirt with Olivia and I. One of the guards said, excuse me but were you painting in there? I pointed at myself and said me?! Yes, you what were you painting? Oh, Me? Nothing….we’ll see if it’s nothing and decided to take a look through my notebook for art history class; which is filled with sketches and drawings of definitions and buildings we see in class so that I can remember and understand what we are talking about. Well, with the exception of one day, all I could think about was food since I was really hungry so I had drawn pictures of food in my notes. The guards were flipping through and stopping on the page where I had drawn a heart with a decorated bow and arrow shooting through it for Valentine’s Day. They smiled and said aww, how cute! Then they gave me my notebook back and hoped I had a good time. I swear, older Spanish men act like the same as they did when they were younger and think that hitting on girls that are (way!) younger is cool and suave. Ahh, the Spaniards. Oh well, you get used to it. After we all met up outside, we got back on the train to head back to Alcala. Once we were there, Carlos also wanted to remind us to see the eclipse tonight if we could, it would be at 2am if we were to stay awake or wake up for it and last two hours. I headed back to my host home for some dinner and to meet an new guest staying with us! A friend of Ana and Pepe’s when they lived in Cuba way back named Danit. She was younger, I think in her late 20s early 30s, very friendly and very eager to talk to me since I was so new at speaking. Which made me a little nervous at first, but I got used to her. Then I went upstairs to do homework for a bit and go to sleep.

Feb 19th – Day of Having Some Who Could Relate

My friend Rachel after our art history class could tell I was upset and knew I needed to talk. We went out into the plaza to sit and chat a bit about random stuff until she asked what was going on. Without saying who, because I didn’t want to pull that type of move, we talked about it. Rachel was not only nice, but she made me feel better and understood me. I was homesick for people back home who knew and understood me and who wouldn’t do things like that because they know I wouldn’t put up with it. I don’t hang around those people and unfortunately I just made a bad judgment in character of a person, but it was okay. Rachel really helped me feel better and helped me realize that it was only one person and that I had a lot of more friends here that out weighed that one bad person. Plus we had a lot of great trips coming up, so to just let it go. She helped me not feel as down, and understood why I didn’t want to say who. After hanging out with Rachel, I went back to my host home, ate lunch and took a siesta. The rest was a blur.

Feb 18th – Day of Feeling Most Homesick

I still felt horribly down from Saturday and just wanted to be home. I wanted my family, I wanted my friends and I wanted my boyfriend. I felt hurt most I guess because I had hoped that people coming to study abroad wouldn’t be so mean and tactless…but I guess I should learn now that those people will be everywhere you go. Just in this instance, there aren’t as many I guess. Ugh. It didn’t help that all I wanted to do was to see and talk to my family and boyfriend on skype and today Skype was in a foul mood. It didn’t want to connect, didn’t like my webcam, or anything. I couldn’t make calls or receive them and I wouldn’t get to see people from home when I needed it most. I was so upset and poor James wanted to fix it but didn’t know how and mom and dad weren’t on that day (don’t worry, it’s okay…it was the day you had off, I wasn’t mad). I didn’t know what to do and the fact that I was homesick and upset made it worse. I grabbed my things and went outside to the gardens so no one would see me upset. I guess James knew that he needed to call to see what was the matter and why I wanted to go home so bad. Even talking to him on the phone I was still upset but at least it was nice to hear someone’s voice from home. I had to go to my film class so I needed to get off the phone…it was not a good day to be Addy. After class I went to my host home, had dinner, and went to sleep. I didn’t know what to do and I felt really alone.

Feb 17th – Day of Spain Family Time

Today I woke up and was glad that I was there. When I came down to have lunch Ana asked how my trip was and I told her very good. It was then that I asked her about all the oranges I saw in Granada…she first asked if I tried to eat them, which I said no, a sigh of relief from Ana. She said that the oranges, they aren’t poisonous but that they are very bad tasting and solely for usage in cooking and not for eating. Good thing, I was tempted to since I do like oranges and they looked like Clementines. Then I went up towards my room but not before I saw Adrian who was dressed up like a pirate (drawn on beard and all) with a new playmate over. Her name was Allison and she was Ecuadorian and about 5 years old. It seemed I was replaced for the time being so I went to my room to hang and watch a movie (Shrek). Obviously no one could replace his big playmate as he and Allison came to investigate me more soon after. They found that the stairs in my room and the huge crawl space where I put my luggage were like a new playground and were soon running like mad through it. They were funny to watch and made sure I didn’t miss anything by saying ‘Lela, are you watching? or, Lela Look!’ Then Allison seeing a fellow new playmate came to see what I was doing on my laptop. I was watching Shrek and she started to watch too asking what was happening since it was in English and she spoke none. Then Adrian noticed that he was playing alone and had to investigate too. Seemed they liked watching it and me translating. After 10 mins, it seemed like they wanted to actually watch it, so when I made the suggestion to watch it on the tv downstairs, they both yelled ‘Si!!’ and hurried down the stairs. But not before they waited on me to make sure I was coming with right now. Ana and Pepe had fallen asleep watching a movie on tv so I popped the dvd in and started to set it to dub over in Spanish. By then Ana woke up and wanted to watch, Pepe was still asleep, and Allison and Adrian made a little bed on the floor with their blankets and pillows. Once the movie started, Pepe woke up and laughed because he recognized it was Mexican dialect, but he wanted to watch too. Even before Pepe had said it though, the weird thing is that I recognized it too! I guess my Spanish is getting better since I can tell dialects better now! I used to only know that the person was speaking Spanish but now I can start to tell what dialect it is or at least the region. Weird! Then there was a part in the movie where in English, the donkey says ‘in the morning, I’m making waffles!’ well in the dubbed version he says ‘and in the morning, I’m making tamales!’ Ana, Pepe and I started laughing just because it was a regional dialect difference where as in Spain, they would say that he was going to make chorizo or churros or paella. Funny. After the movie was over, Adrian and Allison were dancing to the music from the credits and had a little dance party. Weird how in a different culture, little kids know the dance of their culture even though they aren’t old enough to understand it yet. While Adrian pretended to play the instruments in the music, Allison was dancing a little of flamenco! Then a little salsa and her footwork was at moments reminiscent of pasadoble. She was only 5 and already knew light-years more than I did, and already knew that hip and butt movements were very essential for the girl. Weird huh?! After dinner I was in a better mood and went to sleep early.

Feb 16th – Day of Wanting to Go Back

Drama…bad drama in the morning. I was way upset and wanted to go home. Pretty much you don’t need to know anything more except for that person and I aren’t friends anymore and I learned my lesson with trusting that person as a friend. When we left the hostel, we all (the whole group together) walked down to the main plaza before to hang out before we had to catch the bus to go back to Madrid. The day was very pretty, but I longed to be anywhere but there. Or at least for one person to not be there. I would try to make the best of it, and keep going until I was in the safety of my room. We all went by a pastry shop to get breakfast and people watch. Then we walked the streets going by and seeing the shops. Walking down a narrow street, we all saw a street vendor with beautiful Arabic poetry that was done like a painting on old stylized paper. Sophia and I decided to buy one for each of us, without knowing the message on it but purely by how it aesthetically appealed to us. And wouldn’t you know it, the poems had meanings that were important to us individually. Mine, the man said, meant pure love and Sophia’s meant luck. Weird how in a different culture certain themes still appeal to you naturally without you knowing their meaning in advance. Then we heard beautiful guitars serenading the bystanders in the street and decided to listen in. It was coming from three guitarist who were incredibly talented playing in the street and one of the men sang occasionally. Weird how talented they were and they were playing in the streets when they should be so much more…Sophia and I saw that they were selling their cds of their stuff, and it was the first time I was compelled to buy one. I can’t even describe how great they were, but I guess it was good that I bought one because flamenco guitarist playing originates in the southern part of Spain. So I figured I should take them up on the opportunity, I mean where would I ever be able to hear their sound?! I could have sat there all day to listen and half of me wanted to, it made me forget and feel like I was back home laying in the grass at Woodward Park in the spring when everything is in bloom. My favorite time of year. After staying for a bit, the rest of the group was getting anxious to move on, so we walked down to explore the other shops. Then we came upon the main plaza in Granada, which looked different but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Then I realized what it was, there is a fountain in the center surrounded by beautiful full rosy pink flowers and a huge statue sits in the middle. But there were clouds of soapy bubbles overflowing into the streets…how did it get here? My eyes move up toward the fountain and there it was. A prank pulled by most likely students where they put a massive amount of what looked like detergent or bubble bath solution. Well you can imagine a giant waterfall with constant circulation of the water plus enough soap…the fountain was overflowing with soap bubbles everywhere! In the streets, making bubble mountains in the fountains, spilling out onto the sidewalks surrounding the plaza…what fun Spaniards have here! Some of the girls went to go play in the suds but I was caught up in watching the little kids try to catch mounds of it to throw at their parents or marvel the bubbles. What a mess and what fun at the same time. After, we caught the bus and went to the train station. We had an hour to wait and it made me wish I had caught the earlier bus so that I could be away. But only a little longer…soon enough, but not too soon, it was time for us to board and we were on our way. I slept most of the way except for when I woke once we had just arrived in Madrid. We caught the next bus going into Alcala and once we got there I said goodbye and went to my host home. Falling asleep to Finding Nemo, I was still upset but at least I was in the safety of my room.

Feb 15th – Day of Perfect Time in Granada

So we wake up for the day at about 9am to get ready and be ready for the day. We leave the hostel and walk just down the hill towards the Alhambra to get our tickets. Fortunately we had ordered them in advance online, so we just had to pick them up. Then we stopped at the café right there to get some breakfast before taking on the Alhambra. My friends from Colorado State went the weekend before and told me that I really needed to be prepared for the walking and the hiking up long hills and steep steps. There was a tiny stray dog walking around the café and I knew his game a mile away. Having puppies at home who do it makes you recognize it when others do it…he was playing the cute, cocking his head to the side with perked ears and big eyes game. No way mister…I’m too smart for that, but try the old man over there. I think for some reason the dog understood me, because he stopped asking me and never came to me! Then we finished our food, and started walking down further to the entrance. But we didn’t quite know where it was, so we followed a group. The morning was beautifully clear and bright, the weather was nice enough for someone like me, who overheats a lot, to wear only a cute long-sleeve shirt…I mean I wanted to look fashionable even if we were walking a lot. As we started walking further and taking pictures, we noticed that a group of older women were saying (in English) that you can’t enter this way. They were Scottish! So we walked back up with them while they asked us if we were first, Spanish, and since we weren’t but flattered either way, second, what we were doing here. Were we studying?! Really? What were we studying? Did we know each other before? They were really nice, and commented on how they were impressed with us studying abroad and made comments about how Americanized-English has influenced Scottish words. Really, what words?! They said, gross, cool and awesome were the only ones they could think of. Hmm…I never thought of those being American words but okay. Then they needed to take a break from hiking back up the hill so we said goodbye. Then we followed behind another group, which led us to the right way to the Alhambra. Entering in, I can’t begin to describe the marvels of Arabic culture’s influence on Spain’s. It was unreal the amount of dedication and detail that was devoted to creating this beautiful masterpiece which took total 4 to 5 hours for us to finish walking through while taking pictures everywhere we went. I marveled over and over about how amazing it was that someone actually thought all of this up. They created this design in their head…it seemed like it just couldn’t be. I mean the amount of time and work that was made in not only making in but designing it. There was meticulous detail of ornate décor from the floors of the palace to the walls to the ceiling and even the crease that connects the two. The garden paths even had designs made in them by stones carefully placed and water was everywhere. My history of art class was going over Muslim culture and the influence on Spain and water is an essential part of it. Water is what light is to Gothic architecture…it is the way of life for that culture, so it is incorporated as much as possible. fountains and ravines, small canals for water to run down staircases, through rooms and connecting everything to one great fountain. Every fountain was different and added its own unique touch to each room and garden. It was spectacular. Oranges naturally grow in Granada and they were everywhere as well as palm trees. However when I returned I asked Ana about them and they are not for eating, only for cooking to add flavor as they are very harsh tasting. And to add to the wonderful ambiance the Alhambra sits on top of a mountain overlooking all of Granada and the surrounding mountains. To think that people who live here see this everyday and never know the marvel that they get to see everyday is so valuable and unique to anything else. I’m sure they will never know what treasure they have. The whole experience was calming and by time we left, there wasn’t much to say. We walked out to a pretty park area and sat on a bench to take everything in. Then I noticed someone was approaching us…oh no. A gypsy woman…crap. No, I don’t want anything. She said no, no, I want you to have this and placed rosemary in our hands. I tried to give it back but she said now I will tell you your fortune. To which Teresa said, no we don’t want our fortune you’ll make us pay. She said, no, they fortune is free and grabbed my hand. Blondie, you are beautiful and your eyes are beautiful given from the gods. And all the meanwhile we have stealth grips on our purses and cameras. You have a man who has brown hair and is madly in love with you and you will get married and have 3 kids. Two will be boys and one girl and they will have your beautiful eyes and will look like you. They will be (kiss her hands and look at the sky) beautiful. Then she takes Teresa’s hand and tells her fortune. I guess she figured us for dumb Americans who didn’t know our Spanish because she gave her the exact (word for word) fortune but said a blonde man was in love with her. Then she finished with saying we will be blessed and then, now you pay me. What?! I looked at Teresa to make sure I heard right and she was confused. I said no, and grabbed our rosemary. She said, I gave you your fortune, now pay me. Yea, okay. I took the rosemary in my hand, put it in hers, and said “but I didn’t want my fortune”. Apparently, me being a smart ass made her upset, so she got mad and cursed us then spat on the ground and stormed off. Apparently, not the right dumb Americans she thought she was talking to. Since she was still in viewing distance, we thought it’d be best if we high-tailed it. We walked back to our hostel to rest our feet a bit and we would start to make our way down to the main plaza to see Granada more. Once we felt better, we made our way down and saw a great amount of graffiti which I have to say I think they would blow American graffiti out of the water. So detailed and life-like…almost like drawings; people (made up and real), places, statements, philosophies on life, and even old school Nintendo (pixilated and all!). Then we caught the bus down the rest of the way to the plaza. A beautiful sunset was cascading over the buildings in the plaza and it only made me love this place more. The shops were filled with Arabic goods and crafts, shoes, clothes, tunics and hookahs. After we shopped a little, we were hungry and wanted some kebabs. Kebabs are an Arabic version of gyros and have the same mass-appeal like gyros do in the states. We picked one that had outside seating so that we could watch the gypsies who were playing the violin and guitar and see the people of Granada. Tea is a big deal down in southern Spain and so we ordered apple tea for me and some Arabian tea for Teresa. It was really tasty and the kebab was awesome. Minus the awkward waiter who tried to sneak in our order, (one order of a kiss for the waiter, no joke!) it was a really nice evening and a little on the romantic side. Funny because Teresa then said that this was a pretty nice belated Valentine’s Day date. After we wanted to check out the tea cafes and see about the hookah bars. We went into one that someone had recommended called the Oriental. It had ornate Arabian décor, bright colors but a calming atmosphere. I had ordered a tea I can’t pronounce but it was described as suave and aromatic, and Teresa order the fruity and enveloping tea. They were a little muted in flavor until Teresa taught me a trick. In order to bring out the flavor of the teas in Spain, you add sugar (which doesn’t make it sweet, since I like bitter teas) which really makes the tea completely different. Suddenly a little sugar made my tea the suave and aromatic tea I was promised. Then we ordered our shisha (the tobacco for the hookah) which was strawberry and the guy rushed off to set up our hookah. The actual hookah pipe and all was so pretty and was painted with gold and blue in Arabic. I really loved how everything here was influenced or had been marked by the Arabian culture. I never even knew I would love it so much, but I really did. After we finished with our tea and hookah, a guy poked his head in the door and called my name. I looked over and it was Max!!! I haven’t seen Max since high school when he and I used to hang out all the time and were really close. When he found out I was here in Spain he wanted to meet up and I told him I would be in Granada this weekend where he was studying. He said he knew where we were so he would come to meet us. However I haven’t seen him in 3 years, so when I got up to hug him the first thing I said was “oh my gosh you are so tall!” because he picked me up off the ground when he hugged me! “and your voice sounds so different!” he just sat there laughing at me. His friends ordered some tea and they asked how our day was going and what we’ve done so far. After they finished, we left and went to have tapas at this place that they normally go to which was a tiny bar with cozy pub-like benches posted around all the walls with tables. I didn’t pay much attention to what all tapas we ate as Max and I were catching up with latest news and memories of high school. From there we went over to Max’s apartment with his roommates. Everyone was meeting up to go out and since we were going out with all of them, we were tagging along. His roommates were fun and from ever corner of the states and the world. He actually has twelve roommates, which take up two complete floors in this apartment building, and they all share a kitchen and bathrooms. Some were Dutch (i.e. the Dutch girls which they called the Dutchies), English, German, and all areas of the states. They were fun and it reminded me of being in a sorority house but with guys and girls. They decided to initiate us by Max’s roommate, Tom, playing the guitar and Max playing the drums while beat-boxing on the harmonica. It was funny and we were having a great time. Then once all the girls were ready, we all took the cab down to boteón. Boteón is basically like a huge house party outside in a parking lot that is packed with Spaniards. They have even put bathrooms there because it is such a regular for natives. Drumming, drinking, and hanging with tons of people, mostly talking in Spanish. It was awesome and actually reminded me of parties in high school. Weird. Which Max took on pulling old pranks on me the entire night, like tripping me, making jokes to me, and pulling my chain whenever possible. Thanks. Then we decided it was time to go to the discothèque, which by this time it was 5am. Boteón was still hopping, but we wanted to go dance so we left. Walking up the street with everyone Max stopped everyone at a discothèque because they usually do break dancing. Tight! I’m down. Unfortunately not this night, but we danced to rock music and hung out with Spanish natives the rest of the night until we left at 6:15am. Teresa and I took the cab to the hostel, snuck in our room while the rest of our group was sleeping, and went to sleep.

Feb 14th – Day of Valentines

Finally, today’s the day! I get to open my cards and presents! My parents sent me valentine cards and also stickers that looked like the heart message candies. Normally they would also get me chocolates, but not when it needs to go through customs. I swear, they have the strangest rules about what goes through and what doesn’t. Any who, I read James’ card, which was really sweet, and open my present. In the card he said that they reminded him of me, so I was curious to see what it was. I loved it! The first was a chunky red bracelet that literally looked like something I would’ve picked out, and the second was a silver and crystal peace-sign necklace. Very me indeed. Now on Valentine’s Day I always have to give out valentines and wear red or pink. However in Spain, it’s not as huge as it is in the states…so I couldn’t find any valentines. But I did give out some of my candy stickers to friends and I wore my pink scarf with a red tank under a black top. Close enough. After both my classes I had to go to the library to print off my papers. I left the copy of one back at my host home, and still needed to print the other. Figures. But oh well, I just needed to have them reprinted and then turn them in. No big. After this I talked with my parents and James on Skype and then went to have lunch and pack for the trip to Granada with Teresa. We leave today at 4pm from Alcala by bus to Madrid then from Madrid to Granada. However I made it on time to meet at the bus station to meet Teresa. Teresa is one of those girls who is always fashionably late, but this wasn’t the time. By time she got there, we were going to be late for our bus leaving Madrid. Which I wasn’t happy with, but then we were able to make it on the next bus leaving Madrid at 6pm. Oh well, as long as we were still going and either way it was going to be a fun weekend. We both slept most of the bus ride to Granada and woke just in time to pull into the bus station. The local buses there stopped running at 10pm so we would need to take a cab. At the bus station though, you have to wait your turn to catch the taxis. So we waited in line, and at one point it became a free for all. So I decided fine, then I’ll catch the next taxi for us so we can get a move on. Well this was a mistake because the next people up were definitely sticklers about the line rule and weren’t going to let someone get in front of them. These two girls came up saying they were in line and making a fuss…I threw up my hands and said it was no big deal, and she could have it…I mean it’s only a taxi, and several more are coming. Not that important enough to fuss over. Then we had another group behind us that thought they could cut in front of these girls, and oh my gosh…I almost thought there was going to be a fight! How dumb, over one cab when they are pouring in?! Seems that you find dumb guys looking to fight in any culture. But the guys who tried to jump the gun we actually not the kind who could actually fight, but liked to pretend they could. Whatever. And they say that Americans are rude. We finally catch a cab and off we go. Granada is beautiful and filled with palm trees, Arabic on buildings and Muslim-influenced architecture. I loved it. Then making our way up the hill towards our hostel, we see the Alhambra. It looks beautiful in the night light with its hint of red in the stone reflecting against the light. The name actually comes from the word alambre which means tint of red, and this red fortress visually attracted attention from far away because of it’s color. Hence why it’s called Alhambra. I couldn’t wait to see it tomorrow on our tour. The streets here though are winding and extremely narrow; so much that the buses here are half the size and narrowed to cut the corners. Geez. Once we got to the hostel, checked in and got to our room, we all felt better. 4 more girls tagged along to go to Granada so we were in a room for 6. The room was nicer than Barcelona hostel with one bunk and 3 beds (two had to share the biggest bed), a bigger bathroom, heater and a balcony with table and chairs. It overlooked the view of the mountains. After putting on pajamas we went to bed anxiously waiting for the next day.

Feb 13th – Day of Cuban Food

After my only class for the day, I started finishing the last page and a half of my composition for Thursday. I had corrected the mistakes from the first one, and now I needed to just finish writing this one and type it up. Then I can print it and have it ready for tomorrow. The latest revision was already printed and stapled. This comp was no problem since it was purely informative so I had no worries about it. So far, I have been doing extremely well with Lent and haven’t stressed or rushed and I have been slowly gaining patience with taking the time to do things. I was feeling pretty good about it, but still about this time I was feeling homesick for my family and culture. Here in Spain guys give new meaning to ‘giving it the old college try’ and you can literally have a staring contest with every male stranger and lose every time. Staring is not rude here or creepy, and being sleazy is actually completely okay. Every guy is a huge, open and don’t care who sees or knows, sleaze. No wonder the girls here in Spain are so standoffish to every guy…I would be too if that were my culture. And right now I really am in the midst of my 2nd stage of studying abroad. To the point where on Skype I tell my mom that I wish I was fugly. She says she’s sorry, tells me that I just need to realize what stage I’m in with studying abroad and that it’ll get better for her pretty baby swan. And that she only makes pretty babies, so she doesn’t know what to tell me. This makes me crack a smile to hear my mom’s sass. Thanks mom. After I left school I went to my host home to have lunch and take my siesta. Surprise, another dish I fall in love with! Ana tells me that she has prepared a Cuban lunch for me and hopes I’ll like it. (Before Adrian was born, Pepe was transferred for work to Cuban for 5 years and Ana really took to the culture while they lived there…so did he) it was black beans, with tan rice. But the beans were like a soup and had squash (I think yam) and meat of some sort. Then she made me fried plantains. It was awesome in just the first bite…Ana, seeing my pleased face, made me a bigger plate. I ate to my heart’s content, and then took my nap. When I woke up, I finished writing my paper and started typing it up. After I had dinner, and we went to the post office. When we got there, Ana told me to go in while she found a parking spot. I went in and sent off my valentine for James. It was surprisingly easy and much cheaper than sending it from the states to here. When she came in, she gave my message from the mailman to the guy at the desk. After checking my passport and me signing a paper saying I received it, we left. Ana started to back the car up and the car hit something. Looking back I couldn’t see it, but I thought it was a pot hole. Eek! Then the front two wheels went over and we were over it…it was a curb that was half blended with the dirt so you couldn’t see it. Oops. Then we came back to my host home and pulled into the garage. Going up the stairs into the house, Ana and I laughed and she said, “Nothing happened” and winked at me. I winked back and said okay. I finished typing the rest of my paper and then went to sleep.

Feb 12th – Day of Not Hearing

My allergies are becoming quite the nuisance for me now, and I’m constantly reminded that I have them. During the winter just like bears do, my allergies go into hibernation for the season until reawakened in spring and continue through fall. However, since the winter season here really isn’t winter, my allergies have been woken up too early. It’s funny how up north in the states they laugh at us in Oklahoma when we complain about our winter. Now I feel like one of the northerners here when they complain about their winter, which is really fall. The people here walk around with winter coats and scarves all bundled up, and I haven’t even worn a sweater here yet. The max I need is a fleece and scarf…no gloves, no hat. Almost every hour on the hour here I can’t breathe so I spend 10 mins clearing my nose so that I can breathe with ease for maybe 5 mins. Ugh, oh well. I’m getting used to it so it’s not bad enough anymore where it’s keeping me from doing things as to being a nuisance. However today is a little different since my sinuses have clogged up my ears. So I feel like everyone has been turned down way to low on volume or on mute. Which fortunately in Spain, my professors are very animated and loud so I can hear okay. That is until I get to history of Spanish art because we are going to walk over to the cathedral down the street to analyze the Gothic aspects to the architecture. With the slight wind and my professor’s hushed voice, I can’t hear him at all. So when he looks to me, I just smile and give the look of “oh, really?!” Then at one point he was asking us about why one of the building here was shorter and my friend Dean said it was because the people were shorter. Then Carlos asked why they were shorter. It was a picture perfect moment of college students with no clue. Poor Carlos…he then said it was because of the malnutrition. When peoples or cultures are well nourished, they are taller and when they aren’t they are shorter. At this moment, I see Dean look at me, and then look at my friend Carrie. Carrie is probably 5’ and one of my good friends here and at that moment we were standing next to each other in front of Carlos and the class. She suddenly realized what he said and then looked up at me. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. Dean and Nick saw it and burst out laughing and so did we…when Carlos asked what’s going on, we just told him nothing. Funny. Then standing at the cathedral with my friend Rachel, I feel a tug on my jacket…I got confused since she was standing next to me, and when I looked at her she looked confused too, then motioned behind me. It was Ana my host mom! (And no mom, she’s not my real mom…I only have one mom and that’s you. She just takes care of me while I’m here.) I said hi and she smiled excitedly saying she would see me when I got done with class. Class finished for the day and I went to my host home for lunch. Boy was I hungry. Today in my comp class, we had gotten our compositions back to revise again and write a new one, both due Thursday. Geez. Well, the writing tutor was going to be available today at 5pm, so I needed to be back then to go over the first one with him. I started getting my topic and information for the second composition (which is over folkloric holidays in Spain…your choice of which one to compare to another culture). When I came back to school to meet with the tutor, wouldn’t you know it, it was my assistant professor for my film class! And he was way helpful and patient with me, and I didn’t feel pressured at all. He even gave examples of how to understand when to use certain phrasing or verbs if I didn’t understand. After I felt much better about my paper and told him I would meet him again next week once I got my latest composition back about the holidays. After when I came back to my host home, Ana was going to take me to the post office to pick up my mail from the note left by the mailman. However after I finished, I ran into Teresa who told me she needed to vent about her roommate here in her host home. Yea, okay I got time. However I didn’t think about the fact that when girls get together, they can talk for hours and not even notice it. I looked at the clock and it was 9pm…I left the house at 4:30pm and Ana was going to take me when Pepe got home at 8-8:30pm. Oh no! I didn’t want to look rude and she was trying to help me by taking me. Teresa felt better after talking and I told her I had to run. When I first got to my host home, I went to find Ana but she was showering so Pepe put my dinner out for me at the table while he finished his. Then he went to go tuck Adrian in bed while I finished eating and Ana came down. I apologized profusely and told her what happened. She laughed and said it’s no big, Pepe actually came back later than she thought because there was bad traffic coming from Madrid to Alcala. So it actually was okay that I didn’t come earlier and we could go tomorrow. Oh, okay. Suddenly I realized that I stumbled upon another interesting dish that I was eating that I really liked. When I told Ana, she smiled…I had fried squid rings, just like fried onion rings but instead with calamari. They actually look the exact same, and I thought they were fried onions until I bit into one. Squid? Pretty good, but I would have never thought of eating them this way. Then I also had what seemed like potatoes with citrus fruits. I think a pink grapefruit and oranges. It was great! When I asked her what was in it and told her I liked the grapefruit, she looked at me funny and laughed. What?! There’s no grapefruit in that, it’s salmon. Really?! Oh…well, I like it a lot. It was really light and refreshing.

Feb 11th – Day of Filling in the Blanks

So today, I found out what happened with my friend Elliot. When Trevor walked him home, suddenly Elliot snapped and shoved Trevor, telling him he didn’t need his (blank-ing) help. Trevor got pissed off so he said, “Fine, walk yourself home!” Sometime in between the last bit of the walk he had to get to his host home, he got pick-pocketed and has no memory of how it happened. Thankfully his hand wasn’t broken and the swelling was gone. Although he had two scratch marks on his head, there were no other marks indicating any bad injuries. Poor Elliot. Now it seems that all our guy friends have a curse upon them of getting their wallets pick-pocketed. First Trevor, second Elliot, now it looks like Scott is up next (he’s also from Arizona). As much as I love my guy friends, I swear they make the dumbest decisions and have the most ridiculous things happen to them. But then again, guys have to make the dumb mistake or shenanigan in order to learn right? I just wish they could sometimes learn by us telling them…but I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. J today in my film class we watched a movie called ‘La Vaquilla’ which the title means the mother bull. The movie mainly talks about how and why the republicans lost the Civil War in Spain. Technically if you look at the resources and advantages they had, they should have won. However we know that this obviously didn’t happen as Franco, the leader of the franquista side, took over Spain for 14 years until his death. The movie our professor told us is probably the most well known movie in Spain and most of the people even today know and love the movie. And even though the theme sounds serious, the movie was really silly and funny. But there was a lot of symbolism towards Spain in the movie, so afterwards we had lots of questions as to what certain things meant. After class, I went to my host home to finally eat dinner and do my homework. Adrian greeted me excitedly and said something about showing me something upstairs that came today. But I didn’t quite get what he meant until Ana said that a package came in the mail today. For me?! Really? I ran upstairs to my room to find a Fed-Ex envelope on my bed. From the states! From James! I opened the envelope to find a card and present wrapped inside. Aww…wait, I can’t open it until Thursday since it’s my Valentine’s Day present. No! Dang…so I put the present on my desk and went to tell Ana what it was. She was excited too, and laughed when I told her I had to wait to open it…you better wait and not open it early!! I made a mini-pout because she was right and I knew I would have to be good and not open it. Poo.

Feb 10th – Day of Not Much

Today I woke up not too late, 1pm, and ate my lunch. Catching up on writing my blogs and doing homework, it was a pretty hum-drum day. Not too much going on, but it was okay. After this week being so poo-like and the crazy stuff that happened the night before, it’s nice to have days where nothing happens. It feels like it helps me to catch up so I’m not behind for the next week.

Feb 9th – Day of Crazy Shenanigans

Sleeping most of the day, once I finally woke up and got dressed it was 3pm. Victoria and I were meeting to go by the post office (which was closed the rest of the day) and to get gelato. We mainly walked around the streets and hung out…then we left and went to go have siesta and dinner at our host homes. After getting ready, I met up with Victoria, Teresa and Dominique to go out that night. We went to a restaurant to have tapas, which we found out that this was one that doesn’t serve tapas. Then we walked toward Mazo’s but ran into some of our other friends Beth and Tiffany, who always have funny stories to tell from that day. Then Teresa’s Spanish boyfriend called and asked if we wanted to come by to say hello and have a couple of drinks. We didn’t want her to go alone so we went along with it. Tiffany and Beth said they would meet us later at Can-Can. The boyfriend’s name is Cesar and his roommate is Alex. They were nice but it was still awkward and after an hour we wanted to leave. But since they were canoodling, we didn’t want to be party-poopers. Finally we got everyone out the door and we walked back down to the Can-Can. By time we got there, it was 3am and there were tons of people in and out of the discothèques. Tiffany and Beth ran up to us as well as our friends from other schools to fill us in on the shenanigans that occurred before we came. One of our friends Jenny, from Auburn, was hammered again and the jefe (the owner) told them that she needed to go home. They tried to wait with her at the bus stop and she was getting obnoxious and puking everywhere. The cops came by and picked her up…uh oh. Not good. The police in Spain will leave you alone unless you attract too much attention or they feel that they need to intervene. Meanwhile, Tiffany and Beth came to Can-Can and see this big American guy pushing one of the bouncers around. The bouncer punched him in the face so then the American started throwing punches and knocked the bouncer down. He kept on wailing on the bouncer until the other bouncers came and held him back telling him to calm down. Then the beat-up bouncer stood back up and started wailing on the American. Tiffany got in between the two and told them to stop. She grabbed the American and told them that he was calm and they need to tell the other bouncer to cool out. She pointed out who the guy was…oh my gosh, it’s Elliot from Arizona! I asked him if he was okay, and he was too drunk to really answer but he knew it was me talking to him. His hand was swollen and he had a couple of marks on his face where he got hit. Geez. We aren’t here for like two seconds and everyone looses their minds! Trevor helped sit him up and walked him home. By about 4:35am, I wanted to go home and I would be able to make the bus. But the bus never came, and I was by myself. Ugh…so I got a taxi (again!!) and went home. Sometimes I wish I didn’t live so far away where I cannot walk home.

Feb 8th – Day of Resting

Today I slept most of the day except for waking at noon to make something to eat while Ana was still at classes. My allergies were knocking me out. At about 6pm, I finally got up, dressed and later had dinner. Victoria and I were meeting up at 11pm to go check out the local cafés and just relax. We met up with Teresa and we all walked down to check out a hookah bar that is supposed to have great teas. The café was called Café Continental and to get to where you could have hookah our directions sounded like something out of a mafia movie for where you can meet the Don. We had to walk through the restaurant to the back enclosed patio area to a tent. We all looked at each other with the same thought running through…is this for real?! The tent was pretty big with pretty designs on the tents outer side. Walking in, it was like we walked into a different world outside of Spain. There were huge Persian rugs on the floor, and deep red fabric on the walls of the tent’s inside. The table tops were engraved with patterns in the metal and we sat on tiny wicker stools. Along the longest side of the tent they had a long bench that they added soft pillows and fabrics to make it more aesthetic and welcoming. Each table had a single tea candle in the middle and in the middle of the two small wooden bars (one for setting up the hookah and the other for tea) there was a small chimenea-like fireplace…it looks like one of those stoves used back in the old cabin days before ovens and stoves were invented. Two daschunds (one very long haired pregnant mommy and the short-haired dad) were curled up close to their master, who was a wiz at making tea by the way, near the fire. We each ordered a cup of tea and the tea maker wanted us to try a new tea he just found. It was a sweet, black tea with mint and he said it was called Pashmin I think. Once we got settled we had the hookah set up for us with strawberry tobacco and a little rum in the water. With the ambiance of the tent, smells of incense and the pleasant taste of the hookah, we decided we wanted to become regulars here. It was really relaxing and nice because it took you out of all the busy chaos in Spain. And with my allergies I realized that my allergy isn’t to the tobacco in cigarettes but the chemicals in them. Because in the hookah bar I had no problems and didn’t feel bad until someone in the tent struck up a cigarette. I never knew that. Finally at about 3:30am we left then bar (which was still bustling with people in the tent and in the restaurant) and decided to check out Can-Can before we went home. Since there weren’t that many people there yet, we decided to leave. I realized I needed to run if I was going to make the bus since after midnight it only comes every hour. And it was 5 ‘til 4am. As I got in eyeshot of the bus stop, I saw it pulling away. No! Unfortunately, I was too far away to even flag him down. I would have to wait another hour by myself if I wanted to catch the next one at 5am. Not a good idea, so I just took the taxi home.

Feb 7th – Day of Bad Allergies and Bad Moods

When we got to the school, I had just sent the paper in the message to myself and couldn’t wait to print it off. We had put the paper in the printer and told it to print. ‘Error with printing.’ What?! We tried on another, and got the same response. Really?! I just want this to be done with! Since we couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working and class had just started, we just went to class. I told Antonio that I was having problems printing the paper and he said it was fine just to bring it later. Too bad he doesn’t have an email address or I would just send it. Oh well. Today in comp we have been learning about the festivals in Spain and today we were learning about the running of the bulls. Antonio our professor after showing us a video of the running, told us he had done it before. What! Why? It’s ridiculous and dangerous! He says I don’t know, I just wanted to and he just laughed about it. He also thought it was funny when we were so concerned about it. There is also bullfighting where the matador is on a horse in the bullfighting arena. Which we at first thought he said that it’s a fight with horses, oxen and bulls…so it’s a battle royale of animals?! That doesn’t seem quite right. Then he showed us a video of it, which then we understood…oh, man on horse fighting a bull. Antonio even laughed when we were concerned about the horse getting hurt. He said ‘it’s just an animal, and the rider is in just as much danger as the horse’…um, I don’t think so. Even if the horse was gored or tossed by the bull, the rider has a better chance because he would be able to jump off. Antonio thinks it’s funny what we think about their festivals and how we couldn’t have them because of safety regulations and laws. After class, I went to the computer lab again to try to print my paper…error with printing. What?! Again?! Then one of my friends told me that I can just go the library here and print it, I just need to pay for printing it there. Ugh, fine as long as I can turn it in. Once I finally turned it in to Antonio, I felt much better. Sadly today in art it was a boring day and I was ready to go have lunch and take a siesta. Today on Skype (or I’m pretty sure it was today) I got to see the puppies for the first time since I’ve been gone! Since this week was not so great, I really needed to see and talk to my family. And seeing the puppies was like the icing on the cake. I almost started to get teary-eyed because I missed them so much. I didn’t even think I would get that way, but I guess since here the dogs are so different, I just miss having and seeing big puppies. The dogs here are either fluffy little toy dogs, lap dogs, or small terriers. I rarely see big dogs anywhere here. It’s just not common. I’ve maybe seen one German Sheppard and he was a little shorter and not quite as big. Labs are the same…smaller and not as stocky. I mean they are but not as much. Then I came back to my host home, ate and took my siesta. Half an hour into my nap, my friends called and wanted to book our spring break plans since everyone was free right now. Dang! I got dressed and went back. After we booked, we hung out for a bit just girl-talking and then we all had to get back to our homes for dinner. Later we met Victoria and I met up to go have tapas at a place called Indalos where we found our waiter is a winker. I mean he’s either a compulsive winker or it’s a tick and he doesn’t know. That’s how often he winks. Which we thought was funny. Teresa (who is from St. Mary’s in Houston) met up with us and we walked to Mazo’s which is a discothèque where most of our friends were at. Another zero euro night for drinks and my friends from Arizona and Auburn have taken to calling me Yoda since I seem to have the gift when it comes to getting free drinks (Even if they are for friends and myself.) Funny. Then we walked just down the street into Can-Can. All our bartender friends were there so still at zero! We had so much fun dancing and talking to our Spanish friends, then at about 5am it got crazy packed! There were people coming out of the ying yang! Then by 5:30 I was ready to go home, but there were a lot of crazy drunks about the streets so one of the bartenders we know (who is harmless and is Spanish and English) offered to take us home. Danny (the bartender) said it wasn’t safe for us to even really walk to our bus stop since there are still so many people out and he said it was no trouble to take us. Sure! So at 6am when the bar closed, we waited at the entrance while all the bartenders cleaned up the bar so they could close. Then Danny took Teresa and I home (which by the way, we live no where close to each other) and I took a shower and went to sleep.

Feb 6th – Day of Stressing

After meeting with Antonio to go over my paper, I understand what mistakes I was making. Which I guess the good thing is that they were things we didn’t go over more than once in Spanish classes back home. So at least it was stuff I didn’t know well or never came up before. Now I need to write that last paragraph, type it up and print it off. Printing here is such a pain for so many reason: to use the printer in the comp lab, you need to bring your own paper, and it’s free but it’s always broken or not working properly. You can go to an internet café, but the connection is so slow that it takes twice the time just to get it uploaded and print it off. There you have to pay to print it off. You can go to the libraries in the school but they prefer you not do it and get very testy about it. Plus they can charge what they want to have you print it off. Victoria said that the printers were working and we were going to split buying a pack of paper. So I just needed to email it to her and she would print it off which I had to finish the story and send it before I went to my host home to have lunch. I don’t get internet so this was my only chance to do it. I just wanted to be done with this story and it was taking so long. Finally I finished my paper and sent it off. Ahh, now I could go eat and take a nap. When I woke up Victoria called and told me that she couldn’t open up my attachment with my paper because the computers in the lab don’t open any attachment. Great, now what am I going to do? We decided we would meet before class and try then and I would just paste it in the message. I would’ve gone to meet her and do it then but by that time, the school was about to close for the night. At dinner, Ana was at the market so Pepe made my dinner. Which I usually get so nervous to speak with him as he speaks so fast and he knows no English, so if I don’t know how to say something he doesn’t understand me. He told me that he was making fajitas which let me remind you that, tex-mex isn’t a known concept to them…and that includes this moment as well. The fajitas were barbequed chicken (or at least tasted like it) with Italian parmesan cheese sprinkled in it on a tortilla. It so funny how they try to make our food and I realized now that they probably think the same of us. Then we talked about my classes and I told him what we were learning about in class this week. He explained to me the art of bullfighting because I was confused why getting the ear of a bull was such a big deal. Pepe said that it’s a way of showing how well they did in the bullfight. So if you are wondering about how good a bullfighter is, you would ask what he got. So if he got both ears and the tail, then he’s a pretty big deal…Pepe said it’s really impressive if that happens. Hmm, interesting…I would’ve never know that it was a status symbol, guess I learn something new everyday. After dinner, I did my homework for that day and went to bed.