The lovely land of Andalucia

Barrio Santa Cruz of Sevilla

Sevilla's cathedral, the biggest Gothic cathedral in the world

the Alcázar, a 10th century Moorish palace

Sevilla's Plaza España

Flamenco dancing!

Barrio Santa Cruz again

Beautiful Granada

The Alhambra!

Generalife Gardens of the Alhambra

Me and Kristen with Granada in the background

Last weekend Kristen and I visited Andalucia, Spain’s southernmost region. We didn’t have class last Thursday because it was Spanish father’s day, so we spent our four day weekend touring Sevilla and Granada. I now know why, according to the vintage postcard I bought, Spain is “the country of sunshine and joy.” Andalucia is full of palm trees, orange trees, sun, and happy tourists, and is quintessentially Spanish. We left for Sevilla after class on Wednesday and got into our hostel around 2am. After a nice breakfast on the roof Thursday morning, we set out to see the sites of Sevilla. We started by wandering through the Barrio Santa Cruz, the old Jewish quarter of the city. It was full of whitewashed buildings, flowers, wrought-iron gates, and shady narrow lanes dubbed “kissing lanes.” Then we toured the Alcázar, a 10th century Moorish palace that still functions as a royal palace, which was beautiful. We had lunch around 12:30, extremely early for Spanish standards, at an outdoor table at a café. I got some authentic Andalucian gazpacho, and Kristen and I split a liter of sangria. It didn’t take us long to realize how strong it actually was! After lunch, we headed over to Sevilla’s cathedral, and as we walked through the cathedral we kept giggling to each other about how tipsy we were—in the middle of the afternoon. The cathedral was very impressive; it’s the third largest church in Europe, and the largest Gothic-style church in the world. It was originally a mosque, but the Catholics tore it down in the 1400s and built the cathedral instead. The only thing that remains of the mosque is the bell tower, which has a ramp going up instead of stairs because back in the day a horseman would ride up five times a day for the Muslim call to prayer. Well, we were hiking up this ramp when all of a sudden a horde or rowdy schoolchildren came down the other way, and Kristen tripped on a brick and smacked her head against the brick wall. She fortunately wasn’t in so much pain that she couldn’t laugh about it, and I’m pretty sure the sangria had more to do with her tripping than the annoying kids did. We finally made it to the top and got to see a great view of Sevilla. Before we left the cathedral, we also got to see Columbus’s tomb, which was pretty cool. After the cathedral we bought some picnic supplies at the Corte Inglés grocery store and had a nice coffee break at a café. Then we meandered over to Plaza España, stopping to take a peak at Sevilla’s bullring. The plaza was stunning; it was originally constructed for the 1929 World’s Fair and was massive. It was completely different from any other Spanish plaza I’ve seen. We had a picnic dinner there of bread, cheese, jam, and strawberries, our go-to picnic foods. After dinner we got to see a flamenco show! It was really really cool, and it was incredible how the dancers, musicians, and singers all stayed in such perfect rhythm.

Friday morning we did some more wandering in Barrio Santa Cruz then visited an old 18th century mansion with lots of antiques, which was frankly really lame. It took us forever to find, cost 4 euros, and there was really nothing to see. We had some time to kill before heading out, so we checked our email at the hostel, got sandwiches at the bus station, then spent the rest of the afternoon in transit to Granada. I absolutely loved Granada; it’s definitely now one of my favorite cities. It used to be a Moorish stronghold, and there is still a lot of Middle Eastern influence there. It kind of made up for the fact that I’m not going to get to go to Morocco this semester, like I had hoped to do. I also really wish I could make it back to Sevilla at the end of April for the April Fair, which is the traditional festival the city puts on every year. They set up tents—the most exclusive tents, for the really rich people in town, have bouncers—and the entire city eats, drinks, dances, and sings nonstop for the entire week. It sounds so fun.

Saturday morning we woke up and hiked up to the Alhambra, the last great Moorish palace in Europe before the Crusaders kicked all the Moors out, and Granada’s main attraction. Celia, our program director in Salamanca, has a brother who works at the Alhambra, and he was going to get us tickets since it can be a kind of tricky process. So we got there at 9am Saturday morning, and he wasn’t there, and neither were out tickets. We were pretty mad, and spent the next hour or so frantically trying to figure out if we could still get tickets for that day. Fortunately we were able to get some for the afternoon, and Celia called us later telling us that her brother had gotten the dates mixed up and felt really bad. But everything worked out just fine in the end. We hiked back down the mountain and hiked up another mountain across town to San Nicolás church, which has the best view in town of the Alhambra. Back in town we did some souvenir shopping in all the little Middle Eastern shops, and I bought some really cool gifts. Then we saw the cathedral of Granada, which was possibly one of the most beautiful churches I’ve been in. We were planning on also going to the Royal Chapel (Capilla Real), which is where Ferdinand and Isabel are buried. We thought it was included in our entrance fee to the cathedral, but it wasn’t, plus we weren’t sure if we would have time to see it and still make our assigned time for the Alhambra, so we decided to skip it. Well, apparently it’s one of Granada’s top sites and really incredible. Darn. If I had known it was so worthwhile, I would have made more of an effort to see it. Instead, we dodged the ever-present Granada gypsy women (they try to give you a sprig of rosemary, read your palm, and demand 5 euros for payment. We knew this in advance and knew to avoid them!), grabbed some yummy falafel sandwiches for lunch, and hiked up the mountain—again—to the Alhambra. The palace and gardens were breathtaking, and it took us about 2 ½ hours to see everything. The architecture was amazing, and it made me really want to travel to the Middle East! Once we got back into town, we had tea and crepes at a cute little tetería, then relaxed for a while at the hostel. We had delicious Moroccan food for dinner—Kristen and I have become quite tired of Spanish food and rebel whenever possible—went to a couple of bars, then headed home. We spent Sunday on the bus back home, transferring in Madrid, and by that point I had gotten really cranky. I was tired of being on the bus, didn’t want to go to class the next day, was exhausted after two consecutive weekends of traveling, and just wanted to be home in bed. As much as I love traveling, and as sad as I get every time a trip comes to an end, it really wears me out! I’m glad I’ll be home this weekend. I also really wish we could have made it to Córdoba, the city in Andalucia where the beautiful Muslim Mezquita—with a cathedral right in the middle—is located, but there just wasn’t time.

More roommates came while I was gone—three little French girls, 13 and 14. They were definitely better at Spanish then the last batch of 14-year-old French girls! Plus they knew some English, so I was able to help them say things in Spanish. They left yesterday, and three French boys came right after, all 13. Tuesday was Kristen’s 21st birthday, and we celebrated by going out to eat with Mary Kathryn and having cake in the Plaza Mayor. That’s one of the annoying things about living with a host family: you can’t exactly invite your friends over whenever you want. But it was fun, and we’re going to be celebrating more, American-style, this weekend!

Madrileño Weekend

Madrid's Plaza Mayor

Palacio Real--the Royal Palace

man playing water glasses. People actually do this!

Retiro Park

Lauren, Kristen, and I spending Sunday afternoon in the park

I have a few brief days at home before I head out on my next adventure—Thursday is St. Joseph’s Day, aka Father’s Day in Spain, so we get the day off from school! We only discovered this last week, but since that means we have a four day weekend, Kristen and I are heading out for Andalucia tomorrow afternoon. Also, one of my classes last week was cancelled because of a huge strike against the Bolonia Process. I don’t understand all of the details, but essentially the Bolonia Process/Resolution/I don’t know its real title is an attempt to unify and standardize Europe’s university system rather than have such a wide variety of systems for the various countries. Many (most?) Spanish university students and professors are adamantly and vocally opposed to these changes because they believe it will diminish the value of a Spanish university education and make getting a university degree more like a business endeavor than a learning experience. There are a lot more political complexities that I don’t really understand, but I just thought this was worth mentioning because the resistance against Bolonia is a HUGE part of student culture here; anti-Bolonia graffiti covers the bathroom walls, students pass out anti-Bolonia literature on street corners, and strikes get my classes cancelled. It’s by far the biggest student issue on campus. Anyway, now back to how we spent this past weekend in Madrid!

Kristen, Mary Kathryn, and I headed out for Madrid last Friday afternoon, MK to visit some friends who were going to be in Madrid for the weekend, and Kristen and I to see Lauren, who is studying there this semester. After our train got in, we parted ways with Mary Kathryn and went to our hostel. As soon as I stepped off the metro, I was in love with Madrid. The more cities I go to, the more convinced I am that I belong in one; I just love all the diversity and the excitement—and the metro system! We headed to our hostel and were surprised at check-in. The hostel seemed like it was an apartment that had been converted to a hostel: there were a few bedrooms with bunks, a communal living room and kitchen, and the “lobby” was a desk in the front room where the youngish guy who ran the place sat at a computer. It didn’t seem all that legitimate, and we were a little concerned about the situation. We were especially surprised by the fact that we were rooming with boys, which we did not expect when we reserved our bunks online. But we reminded ourselves that the hostel got good reviews and decided not to worry about it. It ended up being just fine; it was well run, and it kind of had a cozy feel to it. Two nights was definitely enough for me, though. After dropping our things at the hostel, Kristen and I spent the remainder of the afternoon at El Corte Inglés, a huge Madrid department store that has practically everything you could ever want to buy. We shopped for some books in English and some groceries, and then plopped down outside in Puerta del Sol to have a snack and people watch and wait for Lauren to get out of class. She met us there, and the three of us decided to see a movie before dinner. We went to a theater that shows films in their original language (somewhat difficult to find in Spain, which as a whole is more prone than other countries to dub films as opposed to using subtitles because dubbing films into Spanish was required under Franco) and saw Slumdog Millionaire, which was an absolutely incredible movie. Then we went out for a delicious Indian dinner (we had a theme going that night, with our Indian dinner and movie) in the Lavapiés district of Madrid, which is the bohemian/immigrant section of the city, like DC’s Adams Morgan. At dinner, we got to meet Lauren’s friend Maria, who goes to Loyola University in Chicago and is also studying in Madrid this semester. She was really nice and joined us for some of our adventures during the weekend.

I didn’t get much sleep that night because my stuffed-up nose had worsened and turned into a cough, making it impossible to breathe, and all the street noise didn’t help. I definitely still heard people partying at 6am, and was not surprised in the least, considering Madrid is supposedly the party capital of Europe. And it’s Spain—no one sleeps here. Saturday morning we bought some groceries and Kristen, Lauren, and I had a picnic breakfast in the Plaza Mayor. Since we didn’t have any utensils, we ended up dipping our bread into our jar of jam and getting incredibly sticky. It was fun. I must say, I like Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor better than Madrid’s; it’s more architecturally interesting with all of its stone arches, but Madrid’s was nice too. We enjoyed watching all the ridiculously and elaborately costumed street performers roaming around the Plaza—they pop up all over the city to amuse the tourists—and listening to the itinerant musicians. After breakfast we walked to the Royal Palace, which according to my guidebook (or, as Kristen and Lauren know, my frequently-referenced Bible of Spain) is the third-greatest palace in Europe, after Versailles and Vienna’s Schonbrunn. After touring the palace, we walked to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which has paintings by famous and not-so-famous artists. We had a snack in the museum café and then spent a couple of hours touring the museum. The paintings were arranged chronologically and followed more or less the same progression that we followed in my Renaissance to Modern Art history class last fall, so I enjoyed being able to identify all the various styles and some of the artists as well. After the museum we had a late lunch (even by Spanish standards—4pm) at a Thai restaurant. I knew I was tired of Spanish food, but I didn’t realize how tired until I was able to have so many other types of cuisine. It was so nice to be able to choose any kind of food I wanted for the weekend! Salamanca just doesn’t have that kind of ethnic diversity; other than Spanish, all we have, more or less, are pizza places and cheap Mexican and Chinese restaurants. After lunch we hit the Prado, which I was really excited for. As I said in my last post, a lot of really famous paintings by really famous artists, many of which I studied in art history, are housed in the Prado, the most notable of which is probably Velázquez’s Las Meninas. I had fun roaming around looking at more art, and we stayed until closing time. Unfortunately we didn’t make it to the Reina Sofia museum, where Picasso’s Guernica is, but we’re planning on squeezing in a couple more days in Madrid before we come home in June, so we can always see it then. After our museums we did a bit more shopping—Kristen and I stocked up on guidebooks for our upcoming trips—and went out for an Italian dinner at a cute little mom-and-pop Italian restaurant. On the way home we got to take a peak at Lauren’s host family’s apartment, which is beautiful and way nicer than my apartment! We had wanted to go out to the clubs on Saturday night, but I was still feeling sick and we were exhausted from all of our walking and touring, so we called it a night (but seeing as we finished dinner around 11:30 or so, then had to get home, it certainly wasn’t all that early). We’re planning on taking advantage of the Madrid club scene when we go back in June.

Sunday morning we went to El Rastro, which is apparently Europe’s biggest flea market. There were rows and rows of stalls lining multiple streets, lined with everything from typical market goods like scarves, jewelry, and bags to random things like army gas masks. Yes, you can buy a gas mask at El Rastro. I stuck to just buying a couple of pretty Spanish fans. After the fair we bought some pastries and coffee and had brunch in the Plaza Mayor. The best thing to do on a warm Sunday in Spain is to sit in the Plaza and watch all the people stroll by, and it was so nice to sit in the shade with my friends and do just that. After checking out of our hostel, we whiled away the end of our time in Madrid in Retiro Park, a huge grassy park that was filled with Madrileños enjoying the sunny weather. We eventually had to tear ourselves away from the sun, and Lauren took us to the train station to head home to Salamanca. I didn’t want to think about coming home and returning to class, but I only have three days between Madrid and Andalucia, so it’s not that bad.

I had a couple of French roommates last weekend, two 14 year old girls. They were the epitome of silly little girls: they didn’t speak Spanish very well, so they mostly just giggled in French a lot. They were sweet girls, though. This week’s roommates are two boys from Italy, about 17 years old. They speak Spanish better than any of my previous roommates, and I think maybe better than me too!

La Vida Salmantina

This past weekend was the first weekend in several weeks that I didn’t go on some sort of excursion, and I actually really enjoyed just staying in Salamanca. Last Wednesday Mary Kathryn, Kristen, and I went out for lunch after class. It was nice to eat out on a normal school day, and I didn’t even have the excuse of having out-of-town visitors. I eat out so rarely here (although I go to cafes all the time), and I like to have a change of pace once in a while. Wednesday night Kristen and I went out for coffee with our friend Jimmy, the Peruvian guy we met at the bull fight and who is also a student in Salamanca. He asked us to go out with him and his friends on Thursday night, which we did, and it was really fun. There we a couple people from Peru, some French people, a Japanese woman, and some other Europeans. I usually only hang out with Americans (namely, the Georgetown people and Mary Kathryn), so it was nice to be with an international crowd. After going to a couple of bars, we went to the salsa club Savor, which I had heard about but hadn’t gone to yet. Jimmy danced with me, which was fun because he actually knew how to dance! It’s very rare that I meet a guy who can dance, and of course I never pass up an opportunity to dance. It was a really fun night, and Kristen and I were excited that we made some new friends.

Friday morning I met with my history tutor Isaac for the first time. Georgetown pays for tutors for us for any classes we may need them, so I got one for my History of Modern Spain class, and I think I’m going to get one for my Indigenous History of America class, too. I was really, really nervous to call him to arrange our meeting; I had never made a phone call in Spanish before, and I don’t even like making phone calls in English. I had asked my professor if he had any suggestions for a tutor for the class, and he told me to call Isaac, who took the class last year and apparently is the go-to guy for tutoring and such. After procrastinating for several days, I finally called him, after writing down verbatim what I wanted to say. Of course, I had no reason to be nervous. He was really nice, and we arranged to meet on Friday. The session on Friday went very well, too. He was very clear in all of his explanations and willing to answer all of my questions. So that was a big relief, because not only do I now have help for the class, but I also have someone to help me through the Spanish academic system.

I took a 2-hour siesta Friday afternoon because I went home around 4:30am Thursday night/Friday morning, and had to get up somewhat early for tutoring, so I needed sleep! That night, Kristen and I went to a botellón—essentially, a house party. I learned about botellones in my Spanish tutoring class at Georgetown last semester. I had to take 10 hours of tutoring because I didn’t do well enough on my study abroad placement exam, but I’m so glad I had to because I learned so much about Spanish culture in that class. I’m constantly referring back to it and saying, “oh yeah, I learned about that in tutoring.” My tutor described botellones as a party where everybody brings liquor and you hang out in a park or at someone’s house and drink. I think the really intense botellones are popular mostly with rebellious Spanish teenagers. The one we went to was pretty low-key and more or less the same as parties I’ve been to at Georgetown, only there was no keg and everyone was foreign. It was at the apartment of a French girl who Kristen and I have class with. We also encountered some other girls from our classes and their friends, who were from Belgium and Luxembourg. They were really nice girls, and we ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the evening. Kristen and I had been lamenting recently that we haven’t really found our niche in the social scene yet, so it was nice to feel like part of a group and meet some new people. We made lots of new friends this weekend!

Also, we spoke in Spanish the entire night (what? Spanish in Spain? No way!) which was great. That’s a big difference between Americans in Spain and other foreigners in Spain: the other foreigners are much better about speaking in Spanish all the time, plus they’re more fluent in Spanish in general. I think part of it is because other countries, at least European countries, are just better about language instruction, and students are used to speaking multiple languages. Another major factor is that the vast majority of Americans here aren’t enrolled directly in the university with Spanish professors and other Spanish students. Instead, they take classes at Cursos Internacionales, which is the branch of the university that is specifically for foreign students. Some of the students in Cursos know Spanish well and take their classes in Spanish (which is what Mary Kathryn does), but others are still learning the language. As frustrating as it can sometimes be, there’s definitely something to be said for being enrolled in the university itself (Georgetown is one of the few American universities with programs here that requires that we enroll directly). I may not speak in Spanish all the time, but having class with foreigners as well as Spaniards, and taking classes designed for Spanish students, really pushes me to practice more. While there are of course other nationalities that take classes in Cursos, a greater proportion of students from other countries are enrolled in the university instead of Cursos. This is especially true for European students, who can study abroad in European universities through the Erasmus program. What all of this means is that people in Salamanca are used to hearing Americans speak English. So at the party Friday night, which consisted mostly of Erasmus students with a few Spanish students too, people were shocked and amazed when Kristen and I introduced ourselves as Americans and proceeded to speak in Spanish. It was kind of funny that people were so surprised, but also kind of sad. I’m in Spain, people should expect me to speak in Spanish! (And I should be better about speaking Spanish too…) Hopefully I can help change people’s opinion that Americans just expect everyone to speak in English to them.

Saturday was a really relaxed day. Kristen and I spent the afternoon studying in one of our favorite cafes, and that night I started reading in my Spain guidebook about Madrid. We’re going to Madrid next weekend to see our friend Lauren, and I’m so excited, it seems like such a fun city. I’m especially excited to see the Prado museum, which houses some of the world’s most famous paintings by the most famous artists. My guidebook mentioned several of the artists with works there, and I studied many of them in art history last semester—El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, Titian, Rubens. I can’t wait to see all of their paintings in person! Sunday was another lazy day; my Italian roommates left, and Kristen and I went to Mass. It was a gorgeous day and there were people out everywhere enjoying the spring weather. We really wanted to go sightseeing, and it was a perfect day for it, but we had to get homework done for a change. We still took advantage of the perfect weather by going to a park to study in the afternoon, and later going back to our café. And for dinner last night, my host mom served me some delicious homemade bread and wine from her hometown, which she returns to once a week or so to check on the old family farm. All in all, a lovely weekend!

Extremadura Excursion

The Roman Arch in Merida

Merida's Plaza Mayor/Plaza Espana (the name depends on the region you're in)

Gladiator ring

Georgetown group in front of the ancient Roman Theater in Merida

Roman aqueducts outside the city

Castle of Trujillo

Spain pretending to be Ireland

Our rooms at Finca Santa Marta

Finca Santa Marta

Plaza Mayor of Caceres

My past month of weekly trips has earned me the nickname Molly the Tourist from my host father. This weekend the Georgetown program planned a trip to Extremadura, a region in western Spain on the Portugal border. We—the seven Georgetown students in Salamanca and our program director Celia—left Salamanca on Friday afternoon and arrived in the town of Mérida in Extremadura that evening. We stayed at a beautiful hotel that used to be a monastery. The architecture was very Spanish, and it had orange trees outside! We saw lots of orange and lemon trees during our trip. Friday evening we explored Mérida on our own; Kristen and I got a take-out pizza and claras (a Spanish cocktail of beer mixed with lemony soda) to eat in the Plaza Mayor. We were very excited about our claras, because we’ve tried to order them a few times before and always somehow ended up with plain beer. On Saturday morning our group set out to explore the history of Mérida. Our tour guide Marcos, who was our guide in all three cities we visited, was hilarious; he spoke to us in a mix of Spanish and very British-accented English, which was funny to hear. He was also a big fan of breaking out into American songs. In Mérida we saw tons of Roman ruins, which was really cool. I’ve never seen Roman ruins before, and I love how they were so integrated into the rest of the city. I feel like most historical sites in the States are somehow set apart and distinct from everyday life. Maybe the Roman ruins struck me because they are SO old, and we just don’t have history like that at home. In any case, it was interesting to see ancient Roman columns standing next to a modern café, or a Roman arch reaching across a heavily trafficked street. The highlights of the tour were the Roman theater and antitheater. Plays are still performed in the ancient theater, and the antitheater was a big arena where gladiator fights took place. It was called “antiteatro” in our brochure, so I assume that translates to antitheater in English, but I’m not really sure. We also saw the National Museum of Roman Art, which had tons of cool Roman artwork and artifacts. On the drive out we got to see the aqueducts. It was amazing to see visual proof of how truly far-flung the Roman Empire was; they were literally everywhere in Europe.

After lunch in Mérida we drove to Trujillo, which was a more medieval town. I honestly felt like I was in Ireland there. Surrounding the city, there were sprawling green fields strewn with huge stone fences and ancient rock piles. We climbed to the top of the castle in the town and looked out at all the beautiful scenery. After roaming around Trujillo for a while we drove to a farm, or finca, a little ways outside the city, where we would be spending the night. The finca was beautiful, and we had these adorable rustic rooms with Dutch doors, which I love! After we settled into our rooms we had wine and appetizers with the man who established the resort at the finca. He used to be a diplomat from Holland, and he told us all about Finca Santa Marta and its history. Apparently it’s a really popular site for bird watchers. The bird we saw the most of was cegüenas: huge stork-like birds that build enormous nests in church steeples, on tops of trees, everywhere. We saw them all over the place in Extremadura, and we have them in Salamanca too. The finca also produces wine and olives, and we got to see the old wine vats and olive presses and the pits where they used to stomp the grapes. And there were groves of cherry trees and almond trees outside. Our host, Henry, spoke to us in English (even though he was fluent in Spanish), and it was the first time most of us had ever heard our program director Celia speak in English. She usually makes us speak in Spanish all the time, but she kind of gave up on that this weekend. At dinner, our conversations kept bouncing between English and Spanish, which I really enjoyed. It’s fun to talk to a group of bilingual people, especially when their Spanish skills are more or less on par with mine! We had zucchini soup and a lightly curried chicken for dinner—not very Spanish, but delicious. The next morning we had free time to roam around the finca and wander through the fields. When I got home, I told my host mother about the finca, and apparently she grew up on one that was very similar. She talked about how she had a wine press and how her house had a lot of the same architectural features (I showed her pictures in my brochure). It’s nice that we got to see something that is apparently a very traditional part of Spanish culture.

From the finca we drove to our final stop, the town of Cáceres. There we toured all the old churches and Roman and medieval buildings. I honestly don’t remember much of the historical significance of anything there, even though I know there was plenty, but at least I enjoyed looking at the architecture. We wanted to try the local cheese dish for lunch, which was basically a melted cheese wheel that you dip bread into. We failed at finding a restaurant that could bring it to us fast enough for us to get back to the bus on time, so we ended up having sandwiches in the Plaza instead. After lunch we headed home to Salamanca. It was a really lovely weekend, and I enjoyed seeing a new region of Spain. I’m still always surprised at how big Spain actually is, and there’s always something new and different in every region!

And a little bit about life as usual in Salamanca: this past week my housemates were two little Italian boys who came last Monday and left sometime this weekend. They were both 15, which seems pretty young, but I guess American kids travel abroad when they are that young, too. They didn’t speak Spanish very well, but I liked their Italian accents. One thing they did understand was soccer, which they would watch with my host father. It’s a universal obsession, at least in Europe. My new Italian roommates arrived today: three girls, two 17 and one 19.

Last week we had a writing tutorial with our professor from orientation. We talked a little bit about academics in Spain, which I’m still finding it hard to adjust to. Our professor is from Chile and, like us, when she first came to Salamanca she was surprised at how different the university system is. Students here take notes in paragraph form, copying down virtually everything the professor says, which is really intimidating when I’m struggling to write down any word or phrase I understand. And it’s sad because I take such good notes at Georgetown! But, while they may take incredible notes, they don’t really learn how to think critically or research or analyze; their goal is to memorize facts and spit them back out. I can get away with not doing reading here (which I definitely need to be better about!) because I’m not expected to participate. At home, if there’s a day when I go to class without doing the reading, I’m nervous throughout the entire class that I’ll be called on to give my opinion; we’re expected to think and analyze and form our own opinions. I guess that difference kind of reflects the Spanish way of life, which is essentially based on enjoying yourself. Talking with your friends over coffee, being with your family during your 2-hour lunch break, strolling around the Plaza at night are more important than killing yourself over working out an answer to some complex question. Which is why our professor repeatedly emphasized to us to not stress and to enjoy the laid-back lifestyle while we can. Basically, we’re not supposed to let our classes get in the way of our education while we are abroad. I like that philosophy. But I must admit, it will be nice to go back to Georgetown and not only understand what’s going on and understand the educational system but actually be able and expected to participate.