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.

Carnaval del Toro--And Lauren Comes to Town!

Decked out in our 10 euro gypsy costumes for Carnaval

Ciudad Rodrigo decorated for the festivities

Kristen, Lauren, and me watching the running of the bulls


Silly people taunting the bull

Plaza Mayor, before the bull fight

The good torero and the bull

Bring it on, Bull.

Final staredown between torero #4 and the bull

the completely packed Plaza Mayor

children in absurd cigarette lighter costumes


Here it is, Sunday night, and after another fun weekend I can’t bring myself to do the reading that I’ve already gotten so behind on (Spain has made me very lazy), so instead I’ll let you all know about my friend Lauren’s visit to Salamanca and our Carnaval adventure! Lauren is Kristen’s and my friend from Georgetown, and she is studying in Madrid this semester. She arrived in Salamanca Friday evening to stay for the weekend. Kristen, Mary Kathryn, and I went to the train station to pick her up and walked back to my apartment to drop off her things. Fortunately my host mother was perfectly happy to let Lauren stay with me—my Georgia roommates left that afternoon, so Lauren got their room and didn’t have to get a hostel. We all came up to the apartment together and had a chance to chat with my host mom. It was nice to be able to introduce my friend to the legendary Mari, and I think she really enjoyed talking to all of us girls. The other girls said they could tell how much Mari likes me, so that made me feel special! I really lucked out with my host family, they’re so amazing, and Mari always helps me with my Spanish. At dinner tonight she told me my Spanish is much improved from when I arrived, which was VERY nice to hear. Anyway, after our stop at the apartment we went out for pinchos and had a nice time catching up with Lauren.

Saturday was Carnaval! (Carnaval technically runs through Tuesday, but we only went Saturday.) Ciudad Rodrigo, which is about an hour outside of Salamanca, apparently has one of the best Carnavales in the area, so Kristen, Lauren, and I spent Saturday at the town’s Carnaval del Toro. We took a bus to Ciudad Rodrigo with a bunch of other Salamanca university students Saturday morning. Carnaval is kind of like Mardi Gras combined with Halloween because costumes are a huge part of it, so we went all out in full gypsy costumes that we bought for 10 euros. People were in costumes all weekend long in Salamanca. Ciudad Rodrigo’s Carnaval consists of a fair, a running of the bulls, a bull fight, and general merry-making. When we arrived we roamed around the fair for a while, checked out all the ridiculous costumes and drunken revelers, and then camped out on top of the old city wall to eat our picnic lunch and watch the running of the bulls. The running of the bulls, or encierro, was not really what I expected. All the images I’ve ever seen have been of a herd of people running down a street followed by a herd of stampeding bulls. What we saw was more like one bull at a time would come running down the street, chase people around for a while, and then continue to run down the street. It was really nerve-wracking to watch people climb up the walls along the streets to escape the bulls; one guy was actually picked up by the bull and thrown against the wall. Fortunately he was ok, but it was still scary, and I was very glad to be watching from far above. I saw on the news that at the Sunday running of the bulls a guy was actually gored by the bull and taken to the hospital. I’m happy I didn’t see anything that bad on Saturday! It was fun to watch, but it seemed like a really stupid thing to participate in. To each his own, I guess.

After some more strolling through the fairgrounds we made our way to the Plaza Mayor for the bull fight. I had very mixed feelings about seeing the bull fight. Up until about last November, I had always thought that a bull fight consisted of just the dance between the bull fighter (torero) and the bull. But in my Spanish class last semester, I learned that the whole point of the fight is to kill the bull—I don’t really know how I didn’t know this before. When I came to Spain, part of me really wanted to go to a fight since it’s such a big part of Spanish tradition and culture, but the animal rights activist in me couldn’t stand the thought of it. Despite our misgivings, we decided to go—I’m sure my sister, and probably others of you, will be appalled that I did. We sat next to a really nice guy from Peru who is also studying in Salamanca, and he explained to us everything that was going on. So, the way the bull fight works, with all the gory details: a group of toreros stand around the plaza when the bull comes out, and they all wave bright colored scarves at the bull to agitate it. Then a guy on horseback comes out and sticks a spear into the bull’s back; I don’t know if this is to make it mad or to make it less dangerous or what. Then the main torero comes out with his red scarf and dances with the bull for awhile. Another torero comes out and sticks long frilly spear/baton things into the bull’s back. Then the dance with the bull continues until the torero sticks a sword into the bull’s back to kill it. Yeah, it’s really pleasant. And we had to sit through four separate fights. The first one was really hard to watch, and I spent a good bit of it with my face behind my hands. The second one was better: the torero was really talented (and really good-looking), and it was fascinating to watch how close he would get to the bull without getting attacked, just by twisting and swaying his red scarf thing around and making the bull follow it. The killing part, of course, was not fun to watch. After the second fight was done, everyone stood up and started waving hats and scarves at the torero—the more people that wave, the better the torero is. He walked around the plaza to do the traditional acknowledgement of the crowd; they would throw their hats and scarves into the plaza and he would throw them back. People were having him kiss their babies, and one girl even ran down into the plaza to get a kiss. It was kind of funny how enthusiastic everyone was. Oh yes, and as a prize the torero gets the bull’s ears. Nice. The third fight was definitely the worst because it took the torero five tries to kill the bull. No one waved for him because he had made the bull suffer—because all the initial stabbing and prodding doesn’t cause suffering, clearly. The point is to make the bull die “honorably,” and I guess as long as it’s quick it doesn’t matter if you die with spears in your back. The fourth fight was better. All in all, it was a very interesting cultural experience, and the actual dance between the bull and the torero was amazing to watch. I’m glad I did it, but I will not be going to another bull fight in the near future—one is enough for me.

After the bull fight there was a costume parade through the plaza. There were all types of costumes, including some bizarre cigarette lighter costumes, and a family dressed up as a slave master, children, and a slave—in blackface and a mammy costume. We were really shocked by that one, considering how a costume like that would be viewed in the US. We also saw a group of guys dressed up as Arabs and heard a Spanish guy call an Asian girl “China.” America may have cross-cultural problems and stereotypes, but we do have a certain standard of appropriate behavior, and it’s very interesting to see how those standards are different in other cultures. That’s not to say that Spanish people are intolerant of other cultures; they just seem to have a more blunt attitude towards people that are different and are less concerned about political correctness.

We strolled through the fair one more time before heading back to Salamanca. Once we got back and changed out of our costumes, Lauren, Kristen and I went to dinner at an adorable café. I always enjoy eating out in Salamanca since I do it so rarely. We had the menu of the day, which included dessert, so I ordered the seasonal fruit. When dessert came, I got an orange—not prepared at all, just a whole orange on a plate. It was kind of funny, I guess because I can’t imagine an American restaurant ever giving me a plain orange for dessert, but here that’s completely normal. After dinner we went to a discoteca, which was really fun. Sunday we went to Mass at the university, which was nice, and I actually understood a lot more then I thought I would. We took Lauren on a tour of Salamanca and had lunch at one of our favorite cafes. After lunch we got some dessert and sat in the Plaza Mayor to enjoy the beautiful weather. Then we took Lauren to the train station—it was sad to see her go, but we’re hopefully going to visit her in Madrid in a few weeks!

Funny sidenote that has nothing to do with this weekend: last week, my American history professor was talking about all the different cultures of the foreigners in our class—Mexicans are this, French are that, etc. When she got to Americans, she told everyone that we are the most loyal, steadfast, and best friends a person can have. The Americans in the class got a big kick out of that, and it was nice to know that at least one Spaniard appreciates us!

A Magical Land Called Switzerland

Zurich, Switzerland!

church with stained glass by Marc Chagall

boats on the lake


Heidiland!!

The town of Rapperswil

being silly at the castle in Rapperswil

view from the top of the castle

the Alps!

Posing in front of the train station

Extremely blonde Europeans...I found them amusing


I’m back in warm and sunny Salamanca, basking in the beautiful weather we’re having after weeks of cold winter rain. The Plaza Mayor is packed every day with people enjoying the spring weather, which will hopefully stick around. The other day I was sitting in my poetry class and the sound of someone playing a guitar outside wafted through the open windows—I felt like I was back at Georgetown, listening to people out on the lawn playing music and talking to their friends. Switzerland, on the other hand, was a winter wonderland the entire time I was there this weekend, and I loved it! I haven’t seen snow like that since I went skiing in Colorado four years ago, and I had forgotten how much I love it (when I don’t have to shovel it or drive in it, of course). Unlike in Georgia, where “snow” is one or two inches of slushy white rain that sticks to the ground in the early morning hours and melts almost completely by noon, but is still reason enough to call off school (which I’m never opposed to), the Swiss snow was several inches of soft, fluffy, powdery snow that coated the trees and stuck to the streets, and I couldn’t help but smile every time I stepped outside. I know now why people love to go skiing in the Alps!

Kristen and I left Salamanca for Zurich, Switzerland on Thursday evening. We got in late Thursday night and checked into our hostel. It was my first real hostel experience, and I actually really enjoyed it. Friday morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hostel with our Australian roommate. Then we hopped on the tram and headed to the tourism office in the train station downtown. We had seen in a guidebook that we picked up at the hostel that there was a “Heidiland Great Countryside Tour” excursion that went through the Alps and all the little villages that were allegedly the inspiration for the novel Heidi. Kristen and I were REALLY excited for this tour (especially since the adorable Heidi look-alike in our brochure made it look like there was no place in the world better than Heidiland), so we were delighted to find that there were tickets available. As a side note, Kristen and I are kind of obsessed with adorable European children, especially the really fashionable ones. We have a running joke that we’re going to take one home to Georgetown as a pet. Anyway, we didn’t need to worry about tickets for our tour, because there were only 6 people on the bus, including us. Our tour guide, Peter, was this middle-aged Swiss guy with a heavy German accent and a very blunt way of speaking, and he was absolutely hilarious. We started our tour by driving through the city of Zurich, and we had a chance to get off the bus and look around. Then we headed out to the countryside. As we drove through the neighborhoods surrounding Zurich, Peter told us all of their names: the “Gold Coast” was where the very very very rich people lived, the “Silver Coast” was where the just plain rich people lived, the “Copper Coast” was where the poor people lived, and the “Diamond Coast” was where the chicky-mickey people lived—the showy rich people who wanted to see and be seen. Peter really loved the phrase chicky-mickey. After driving for a while we stopped in the town of Rapperswil where we toured a medieval castle that was once inhabited by the Hapsburgs or one of their many royal relatives, and we had traditional Swiss cheese pie for lunch. Then we drove on to Heidiland—there is actually a real Heidiland. The scenery on the way was breathtaking: huge snow-covered mountains, snowy farmland, little villages nestled next to lakes in the foothills of the mountains. When we got to Heidiland we saw the Heidi Fountain, but not Heidi’s village, which is only open in the summer. That was too bad, because I really wanted to see the little Heidi girl, and the goats. Peter told us about the organic wine that is grown in the area and how organically grown animals in Switzerland are called “happy”: happy pigs, happy chickens, happy cows. And I thought happy cows came from California! Ha ha.

After Heidiland we drove to the independent Principality of Liechtenstein. It was a cute little town, but I definitely wouldn’t want to live there—they pretty much survive on tourism and the wealth of their prince/king. In Lichtenstein we bought some souvenirs, had hot chocolate, and roamed around. Then we took the bus back through the Alps to Zurich. As we drove back into Zurich, Peter pointed out the “chicky-mickey” night club in town, but said that nice conservative girls like us would be happier checking out the top-of-the-line sewing machine store across the street. Like I said, he was kind of ridiculous, but in a good way.

For dinner that night we went to a fondue restaurant that Peter suggested. We were originally going to make a reservation for the next night, but since that was Valentine’s Day, there of course weren’t any openings, so we decided to just go ahead and have dinner. We had pear and brandy cheese fondue and a bottle of white wine—which ended up being 40 francs, or a little less than $40. Oops. Not a good price for two college girls on a budget. That will teach us to check the price before we order from now on! But it was all delicious, so in the end it was worth it. After roaming around town a little bit more we headed back to our hostel for the night.

Saturday morning we spent wandering through Zurich. It was snowing when we woke up, and it continued to snow all day. In the morning we went to the Swiss National Museum, which was pretty cool. It was in what I think used to be a palace, and Kristen and I felt like we were in Harry Potter’s Hogwarts as we looked out the windows at the snow. As we were walking around town, I took a picture of this toothbrush ad that I had seen all over the place and found quite hilarious: it’s a guy and a girl, both extremely blonde and blue-eyed and with perfect white teeth. I thought it was funny how very stereotypically northern European they looked. It was actually nice looking like everyone else for a change; in Spain, my blonde hair makes me easily identifiable as a foreigner. Although people almost always speak to me in Spanish, they can tell before I open my mouth that I’m not a native speaker. In Switzerland, however, people would automatically speak to me in German, even though most people there know English as well as a couple other languages. I didn’t realize how out of place I felt in Spain until I went somewhere where I actually looked like I fit in.

We had lunch that day at a restaurant near the university called the Crazy Cow where we had some yummy Swiss macaroni and cheese. In our wanderings that afternoon, we also hit a Starbucks, a Swiss chocolate shop, and a popular Swiss bakery called Sprüngli. Basically, we stuffed ourselves with food all day. Apparently Starbucks and McDonald’s, both of which are all over the place in Switzerland, are big competitors there, which I found amusing since no one would consider them competitors at home. Just from peaking in the window, I could tell that the Swiss McDonald’s is way more sophisticated than the ones in the States. We really wanted to watch them make chocolate at the chocolate shop, but unfortunately we missed it. But we got some cute Valentine’s pastries at the bakery. On the way back to the hostel that afternoon, I got roasted chestnuts (marroni) from a street vendor. They were delicious, and with all the snow falling around me, I felt like I was living a Christmas carol.

That night we had dinner at an Italian restaurant where we had managed to get a reservation—we didn’t know what would be available on Valentine’s Day, so we were glad to find an opening. As soon as we walked in the door, we realized that it was not the place for two single college girls: it was a moderately upscale place, and practically every party there was a middle-aged couple. The food was good, but the service was slow; we think our waiter was punishing us for only ordering soup and salad rather than one of the very pricy entrées. We did get some incredible tiramisu for dessert, but I really missed my mom’s traditional Valentine’s “cherry berries in a cloud” dessert! Afterwards we went in search of the Zurich nightlife and bumped into our two new Australian roommates at a bar. After a round of margaritas, the four of us tried to find a club that was in our guidebook. Our map was not very helpful, and there were no crowds of partiers in the streets that we could follow (another way Switzerland is very different from Spain—Kristen and I were shocked at the lack of people in the streets on Friday and Saturday night). We concluded that Zurich either didn’t have much night life or it was just incredibly difficult to find, so we went home.

We headed back to Salamanca on Sunday morning. I rode a European train for the first time for all of five minutes to get to the airport. I was sad to leave; Switzerland is an amazing country. It’s so clean and beautiful and peaceful, and being there made me want to learn German just so I can live there someday. But the trip home was not pleasant. After our 2 hour flight, we had to take the 3 hour bus ride from Madrid to Salamanca. I’ve now made that bus ride 3 times, and every time it’s been miserable. It’s so difficult to travel to the rest of Europe from Spain, and from Salamanca specifically, because it’s so far away from everything! But I was happy to be back, and my host parents seemed happy to see me when they greeted me with the standard air kisses on each cheek. Also when I came home, my new roommates had just arrived—they’re from Georgia of all places! Like the French girls that were here last week, these girls are only here for a week. As nice as it was to get out of Salamanca for a change, I did miss it, and I felt so at home when I walked through the Plaza Mayor on my way to class on Monday. Still, I wish I could not take classes and just travel this entire semester. My classes are slowly getting easier, but it would be so much more fun if I could just trek around Europe for 5 months!

Penafiel and Kate’s visit!

The medieval square in Penafiel

Tower of the Castillo de Penafiel

View of Valladolid from the top of the castle

The town of Penafiel

Kristen, Me, and Kate at the wine tasting

Georgetown group and friends at the wine tasting

Castillo de Penafiel

This weekend was fantastic! I really enjoyed getting out of Salamanca and seeing a new part of Spain, and of course I had a blast with Kate. She arrived on Friday afternoon, and Kristen and I took her out for hot chocolate at one of our favorite cafes. For dinner we went to a place called Erasmus; it’s a popular hang-out for international students, named for the international study abroad program in Europe. We met a couple of the other Georgetown girls there and had cerveza y pinchos (beer and tapas) for dinner. One of the pinchos was really delicious—a toasted slice of a baguette topped with caramelized onions and goat cheese and raisins. It was a fun, relaxing night, and it was great to catch up with Kate after not seeing her for so long.

Saturday morning we got up really early to go on our excursion to Penafiel with the entire Georgetown group. After the 2 hour bus ride to the town of Penafiel in the province of Valladolid, north of Madrid, we went on a tour of a wine factory/bodega. We went through the building and learned about all the different steps in the process of making wine. The tour was in Spanish and was a little difficult to understand, but it was interesting nonetheless. After the tour we had a wine tasting. We learned about looking at the color of the wine, smelling it, watching it drip down the inside of the glass. Then we got to sample the wine and some traditional Spanish snacks: sheep milk cheese and Iberian ham. It was really fun, especially because, since we’re a bunch of 20- and 21-year-olds, we felt very grown up having wine and cheese at a Spanish vineyard. And I was very impressed with Kate’s ability to understand Spanish; she only knows a little Spanish, but her knowledge of Italian made it easier for her to know what was going on, and she was actually able to communicate quite well with us in Spanish.

After the wine tasting we went to a rustic restaurant called Lagar de San Vicente. It was at the base of the hill where the Castillo de Penafiel is located. We had wine, bread, salad, whole little roasted chickens (which were quite the adventure to eat, at least for me) and patatas fritas for lunch, with café con leche (espresso with a lot of milk—the coffee drink of choice here) and some sort of creamy, flaky pastry for dessert. We were all very full and happy afterwards. When we were done eating we went downstairs to check out the restaurant’s bodega, which was located in an ancient cave in the basement. When we were done at the restaurant, we took the bus up to the castle (castillo) of Penafiel, which was built in the late 9th/early 10th century and overlooks what seemed like the entire region of Valladolid. The whole area is known for its wine, and we went through the castle’s wine museum before touring the castle itself. I unfortunately didn’t pay much attention to the tour of the castle; we were at the very top of the castle, outside, on top of a mountain, and the cold and wind made it hard to pay attention. It even snowed a little! But there was a gorgeous view of the town and the surrounding vineyards and farmland and the snow-covered mountains in the distance. The castle itself was really cool too, and I enjoyed walking through it. When we finished at the castle we stopped to check out the medieval town square, which looks exactly like what you would think a medieval square would look like. I believe my program director said that they still hold bullfights there.

Our Penafiel excursion was very fun, and it was nice to get out of Salamanca for the day. Once we returned to Salamanca, Kristen and I took Kate out to dinner at the restaurant we went to with our program on our first night in Salamanca. We had a nice leisurely dinner (and late, like true Spaniards—we finished around midnight!), and Kate got to try Spanish tortilla, which is one of my favorite foods here. After dinner we went out to the clubs and bars. We ended the night at this bar that was apparently having oldies night; they were playing a bunch of American oldies, and there were very few people there under the age of 40. It was a little awkward for us, but we had fun dancing, and I think it’s pretty cool that it’s so acceptable here for people up through their 60s to go out to clubs late into the night. I also found it amusing how surprised Kate was to see the number of people out in the streets at 3am. It’s absolutely true that Spaniards party till all hours of the morning. When we headed out Saturday morning at 7:30am for our Penafiel trip, we saw numerous people just ending their night and heading home. I guess that’s why they invented siesta.

Sunday morning Kate, Kristen, Mary Kathryn, and I went out for chocolate and churros—you can’t come to Spain and not have churros! Then we showed Kate the sites of Salamanca and hung out in a café until she had to catch her bus to Madrid. I’m so glad she was able to come visit us, and I had so much fun showing off Salamanca to a visitor! That evening, the Georgetown group went to see the musical Jesucristo Superstar. I was familiar enough with the music, and obviously with the story of Jesus, to understand what was going on, but it was pretty impossible to understand the actual Spanish words they were singing. But the singers were fantastic, and I always enjoy musicals; this one was no exception. It was a very fun-filled weekend, and next weekend I’m going to Switzerland!

Becoming a Salmantina

I’ve just completed my second week of classes and, after about a million changes, finally have a set class schedule. I ended up dropping my art history class for another Spanish history class—the art history was just way too hard for a foreigner. I’m struggling with having all of my classes in Spanish, but I know it will be worth it in the end. As the only person in my Georgetown group who has never taken Spanish at the academic level (I’ve only taken grammar classes, although I should have been in a writing class this past semester but chose not to take it), I feel kind of behind all the other Georgetown kids. It takes a lot of energy to pay attention enough to understand what is going on, especially because lectures can be up to 2 hours, but it’s slowly getting easier every day. I just keep reminding myself that as long as I pass my classes I’ll be ok; since my classes are in a foreign language, Georgetown doesn’t factor the grade I receive into my GPA, I just get class credit. Also, all my professors seem really understanding and accepting of having foreigners in their classes, so that will be helpful!

I’ve been enduring some mild culture shock the past couple of weeks. I always imagined that culture shock would come from something actually shocking: the way people interact with each other, how they go about their daily lives, etc. Instead, my culture shock has mostly come from practical annoyances. For example, I went to buy my text books on Saturday afternoon and had to wait an hour for the store to reopen after lunch. And on Sunday, I tried to go to the library to do some homework, only to discover that the library isn’t open on Sundays, and closes early on Saturdays. That was pretty frustrating, considering Georgetown’s library is open 24 hours. So then I went to an internet café so I could use the internet to do my homework, and proceeded to surf the net rather than study. Working out a class schedule was also really annoying because practically every class I wanted to take overlapped with something else. But now that I know how things work here, I’m hoping I’m over the culture shock (for now) and will know how to deal with it in the future. It was just a little difficult to adjust at first. Also, the Georgetown group met with a psychologist today to talk about culture shock. It was a really interesting session, and I know that what I’m going through is completely normal. She gave us a lot of good advice on how to get over culture shock and adjust to Spanish life, which will hopefully help me make the most out of this semester.

I joined a gym here and went for the first time Wednesday. It’s a really nice gym, and I love being able to work off all the food my host mom feeds me! Also on Wednesday, my new roommates from France finally arrived. They were supposed to arrive on Sunday but couldn’t get here because of all the snow in France. It’s snowing like crazy all over Europe except in Salamanca—it just rains all the time here. They’re 2 18-year-old girls, both very sweet, and they’re here for a week. Tonight at dinner they told me that they are Gossip Girl fans, and it made me laugh to see, once again, how American culture has taken over the world.

A funny anecdote: Kristen, Mary Kathryn, and I were planning on going to Barcelona for the second part of our spring break to see the Coldplay concert there on 4/9/09. Mary Kathryn ordered the tickets, and as soon as the confirmation page popped up, we realized that 4/9 is not April 9, as we thought, but September 4! Of course we should have known that, being in Europe and all, but I still don’t understand why they wouldn’t have written the date out on the web page. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to return the tickets because the show is now sold out, so if anyone is going to be in Barcelona on September 4, 2009 and wants to see Coldplay, let me know!

Another cool anecdote: I met a girl from Omaha yesterday in one of my classes!! She’s actually from Denver, but she goes to Creighton University in Omaha. And she even lives kind of close to where I used to live! It always makes me happy to meet a fellow Nebraskan/Midwesterner, and who knew I would meet one in Spain?

A few more observations I’ve had about life in Spain:
-You know how people in the States will stand on street corners and hand out literature or ask for donations to a charity? Well, they do that here too, but I have never been approached by one of these people. I don’t know if they’re just not as aggressive as they are in the US or if they avoid me because I’m American or what.
-I really don’t know how people know I’m American. Of course I’m clearly not Spanish, (the blonde hair, white skin, and 5’9” height kind of gives me away) but why do they always assume I’m American rather than some other nationality? Maybe America is just the safest bet since it represents pretty much every nationality, or maybe I just really don’t look European at all.
-A lot of the public bathrooms are semi-unisex; there will be men’s and women’s stalls but shared sinks, or two rooms but no gender labels on the door. It’s still weird to me to wash my hands with a guy at the sink next to me.
-There are churrerías, or churro venders, everywhere. They have these little stands on the street corners that are just like the hot dog/pretzel/popcorn stands that you see in big American cities. Spaniards certainly love their churros!

As much as I like Salamanca, after 3 weekends here I’m ready to get out. I also really want to meet some Spanish people! This weekend should be really fun, though, because my Georgetown friend Kate, who is studying in Florence, Italy this year, is coming for a visit! I’m really excited to see her because I haven’t seen her since August, and I’m looking forward to showing her the city. She arrives in a couple of hours, and on Saturday the Georgetown group (Kate included) is taking a day trip to the castle of Penafiel for a wine tasting. It will be nice to go somewhere new, and it should be a really great weekend. And next weekend Kristen and I are going to Switzerland, which I’m very excited for. We’re busily making preparations for lots more trips this semester!