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Published: February 16th 2009
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I was hanging out in my plain little yellow room about a week ago. I was trying to clean up a little bit (Somehow I made a mess of my room in one day) when my cell phone rang. I looked at it and knew that it was my old host mom calling even though it was just a phone number appearing on the caller ID. She was calling to tell me that I didn’t have to worry about anything and that if I ever needed anything to come to them. It was very sweet of her. I feel bad about leaving, but I am so much happier with my new host family. Long story short, my old host brother’s girlfriend was weird, didn’t talk to me, and started taking my stuff and going into my room..Weird things that made me not want to put up with it for a couple more months.
My room here at the new house is cute. I love that the walls are yellow (the color of my walls at home in my bedroom.) I have a view of the concrete courtyard of the apartment buildings…which also means I am looking at a pool!
Yay pool-ness. I hope it gets warm enough to swim while I am here (I’m a Minnesotan though, so I KNOW it will =)
My intercambios are very nice. There are two guys that I hang out with when I do the intercambio. They are in their 20’s. One is from the Canary Islands and the other one is from a town close to Toledo. They have both been friends with each other for a few years now… So far one of the most useful things they have taught me is bad words to use here =)
The other day, one of the intercambios (Alvaro) and I went to a small bar and had milkshakes. I love that there are so many hole-in-the-wall bars here in Toledo. Just the other night a few friends and I went to a new bar. As you walked into it from the street, it looked like you were walking into a really nice restaurant-there were even bouncer guys dressed in nice suits-but then you went down the stairs and it was a really cool, dark wooded room. A bunch of us girls hung out and talked for a few hours
until some guys we know from the school came and drug us somewhere else (less fun). Being able to drink legally here makes me wonder why the drinking age in the States isn’t 18. I mean, I know that there are the car accident reasons, but I honestly think college students would be more responsible if they could legally go drink in a bar instead of binge drink on the weekends in houses… O gosh. Controversial topic.
We had the option this last Friday to take a day trip to El Escorial. It was built in the 1500´s as one of the four homes for the king. We were able to tour half of it (the other half is still a monastery) and see a bunch of the kings old stuff. I also got to see a bunch of Greco´s paintings!! That was a huge surprise. I am really getting into the art here. I love my art class and I so enjoy just looking at the paintings and knowing the stories behind them. Anyway, I didn’t know that these paintings were housed at El Escorial and as we were walking into one of the first rooms, all
El Escorial
The sun was blinding I could see ahead of me was one of Greco´s very famous, large paintings in front of me… O what a wonderful moment It also made up for the fact that my toes and pinkies went numb while touring the place. I stupidly left my jacket on the bus, not knowing that the entire palace was made of stone and would therefore be absolutely freeeezing. Funfun.
Things are going really great. Classes aren’t too hard but I am still learning a lot. I love love love that I am able to concentrate on Spanish for all of my classes.
Went to another of my host brother’s soccer games. That was fun. Something interesting is the racism that goes on here. It’s not so much a hatred for other races, but…a complete naivety?. It absolutely boggles my mind. On the team that my host brother was playing against was a black kid-the only one out of both teams. From the beginning of the game I could hear parents mentioning “negro” here and there. That was already just bumming me out. Throughout the game there were a lot of faults-players intentionally tripping/grabbing other players. Toward the end one
of our players very obviously tripped the black kid and the ref called a fault. One of the parents around us said “It’s not a fault since he’s black!” and then all the parents started laughing…
I have a lot of other stories pertaining to the racist comments, but this one just blew my mind. He’s a KID! The players are around 14-16 years old. My goal is to understand where the native Spanish people are coming from with all of their racist comments. It’s very different from the things we hear in the states. I just can’t wrap my head around it. I’m learning a lot in my history class and my other class that is specifically about immigrants in Spain. I’ll let you know when I have a breakthrough. One thing to know-that is very intriguing to me- is that immigration TO Spain only began about 40 years ago- just after Franco’s reign. Until that point, Spain had always been a country of EMmigration. Until the early 1900´s a ton of Spanish people emigrated to Latin America to better their lives. Funny how it’s the complete opposite now…
On to happier topics:
Took one
of the dogs for a walk today! I don’t think he gets out much. He was super interested in all the sounds around us. It’s getting really nice out here. I went out in capris flip flops and a t-shirt. It was a little chilly, but the sun felt good. The Spaniards think us Americans are crazy-they are all still wearing their winter jackets!
In two weeks a couple girls and I are heading to Sevilla for the weekend. After that, Mom and Lois (My aunt) will be here! I’m excited for that and I know they are too! I’m working on making my list of stuff for my mom to bring to me. One thing that you cannot find here is Peanut Butter. That is definitely on my list…=)
Almost forgot,Saturday night for Valentine’s day, a bunch of us girls got all dressed up and went out for pizza and Sangria (wine, sugar, fruit, and some sort of juice-different with everyone who makes it). It was absolutely wonderful. The pizza was almost as good as in the US. It was a great way to celebrate the day without our boyfriends =)
Talk to
DSC01209
This is a guy who works at the school I go to. He just happens to know the owners at one of the bars we go to:) you guys soon I have midterms next week, so I don’t know when I will get another blog up. Maybe after Sevilla?? I’ll have a lot of pics to share then!
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Lisa
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Pictures
Ok, my students went crazy over the picture! You know which one :)