The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly on the... Mountains?

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Well, howdy, ya’ll! Long time, no post! I haven’t updated in two weeks because I haven’t had enough blog-ish material for separate entries, so I’m lumping it all into one long one. Happy reading!

Last weekend (the 11th), just about everyone left for various individual trips… Thursday was some holiday in the region of Valencia (although no matter how many times it was explained to me, I still don’t understand it), so everything was closed for the day, and most people took a long weekend. I stayed here, though, as Saturday was the Volvo Ocean Race! Daman and I went down at around 10, and the line to get in was enormous! It was really rainy and windy, but the crowds poured in. The boats took off around 11, but, like the weekend before, just sailed around for three hours before the race began, and, like the weekend before, I left before it actually started. A bit of a bummer, but I did get to see them “leave” at least, so it all turned out alright. After lunch, though, I went back down and just hung out on the port, watching as clean-up crews started tearing everything down. It was so windy that I could barely walk straight down the pier, and had to hold on to the railing to not fall over. The waves crashed onto the pier, which is about 10 feet off the water, so yeah, it was a bit crazy. Fun, but crazy.

This past weekend Daman, Adam, and I met up with Katie and Eva, who go to IC and are studying in Madrid, for a day trip to Ávila! We left Alicante on a midnight bus to Madrid, getting there at around 6 in the morning. Katie and Eva met us there and we took a 9:30 bus to Ávila, arriving at around 11. Ávila, for those who don’t know (which, I’m guessing, is most of you, but don’t worry, few Spaniards know much about it either), is one of the oldest cities in Spain. It’s quite small, and is most well known for the fortress walls that surround the entire city. The walls were built in the 11th century as a protective measure against the Moors, and the coolest thing about them is that they’re still perfectly intact! They’re so perfect, in fact, that they seem almost fake… an impressive bit of architecture. There’s a walkway around the top of the walls, which was pretty cool and had some amazing views of the city. It had some treacherous stairs (my legs are still sore), but for me was well worth the trip.

It drizzled for most of the day, and was pretty cold (especially in comparison to the 70 degree weather that we still have here), but for me that only added to the quiet quaintness of the city. Another reason Ávila is so popular: it was the birthplace of Saint Teresa, who is the female patron saint of Spain! This past Wednesday was her Saint’s day, so it was a pretty popular weekend to visit. There’s a statue of her just outside of the walls, and it was covered in bouquets of flowers and wreaths, almost like a memorial.

There wasn’t a whole lot to do activity-wise, but plenty of ancient churches and buildings to check out. The Cathedral was built as part of the walls and once served as a military base, which I thought was interesting, and we took a tour… gorgeous! We’ve seen a lot of churches in Spain so far, but I still love seeing every one. Each is in some way unique, and I give the Spaniards a lot of credit for that. Yes, they’re all similar in structure, but the bricks or tiles or paintings or gold leafing or sculptures are different in each one. Pretty sweet. Since we didn’t have an official guide, though, we made up our own history as we walked around (a museum is attached), and that ended up being a lot of fun, although I’m sure many historians were turning over in their graves at our lame attempts to explain the symbolism of various carvings and paintings.

We also made a hike to the far outskirts of the city, outside of the walls. There was a giant stone cross on a hill, but zero signs to explain its significance, so I still don’t know why it’s important. However, it was totally worth the trek, as it had an amazing view of the entire outside of the city walls. Inside the city and on the walls, it was easy to appreciate their strength, sure, but outside made them appear even more grand and intense. It’s crazy to think that they’ve endured for three times as long as America has even been a country!

We had lunch in town and stopped in a few too many bakeries (oops!), but got to try Yemas, which is a native dessert of Ávila. It was super weird… it had a play-dough texture, and tasted mostly like a lump of sugar, but hey, it was part of the culture! Also, it has a cool name, so it’s all good 😊

We left Ávila at around 6 and got back into Madrid at 8. Katie and Eva showed us around the city for a bit… we hit la Plaza Mayor, la Catedral, el Palacio Real (the royal palace), and la Ópera. Holy gorgeous, Batman! It was so cool to see everything lit up at night, and the city was bustling and active… I seriously fell in love and I can’t wait to go back. After just a few short hours, I loved the atmosphere, the chaos, the grandness of it all—I think I really am a city girl, after all! I’ve decided, though, that it’s unfair to see a city at night for the first time… it’s the same thing that happened with Athens. With everything lit up and beautiful, it’s almost impossible to notice the graffiti and trash on the streets, and everything seems almost magical... somewhat of a letdown for the next day. I know it’ll be different in the day, but it was such a nice change from Alicante, which, though a big city, is nowhere near the scale of Madrid. It’s almost like comparing Chicago to Grand Rapids (or Springfield, if you will)… just not quite the same. We’re going back next month for a long weekend, and I’m already really excited!

We caught dinner in the city at a restaurant that served American food (Yes, we caved… the first time since I’ve been here though, so cut me some slack), and then Daman, Adam, and I caught our midnight bus back to Alicante. It was almost impossible to sleep, so I crashed when I got home Sunday morning and slept until 1. All in all, though tired and a tad sore, I had a fantastic time! The Madrid girls are coming down to visit Halloween weekend, which should be fun too!

As of yesterday, I officially had two months left (well, until the semester is over and my Christmas trip begins)… Crazy! I’m currently in my eighth week, and we have nine to go. Time is seriously flying!

Oh, I started my internship (kind of) last week. It’s not much of an actual job that I have to go to… I’m going to be writing an article once a week (in English) for the university paper. They’ve decided that they have enough Spanish articles, so they want me to write in English to help the students who are learning English. I get to pretty much choose the topics (mostly about my experiences here, differences in culture, etc.), but this week I’m working on interviewing students about the election. They then want me to write about the Spanish reaction when the election is over… kinda fun! Though it won’t do a whole lot for my Spanish skills, I think it’ll be a good experience overall, and it’ll force me to practice being concise and simple, rather than ramble like I tend to do in blogs and emails 😊

Speaking of the election, I voted! Yay! That was super exciting!

Oh! Last week I went to this program that the university has to help the Spanish students learn English and help the American students learn Spanish. It’s basically a conversation partner deal, and they put me in a group with four Spaniards. We basically just talked for an hour… I started out talking to them in English, but it was hard, as occasionally the seemed like they didn’t get what I was saying, and I wasn’t sure which phrases were colloquial and which weren’t, so I eventually switched into Spanish. It was weird, though, them talking in English and me in Spanish, but ultimately much more comfortable. They could feel free to make mistakes without comparing to my English speaking, and I could make mistakes since they understood how hard it is to speak another language. Make sense? I hope so. Anywho, we’re getting together about once a week, so it should be a lot of fun, and I’m really looking forward to it! It’s a great way to meet new people and learn more about the culture from someone my age, rather than Ana or my professors.

Alrighty, now for some random anecdotal observations (and I mean random… I apologize in advance for how completely scattered it is):

You know what’s weird? In English, we borrow words from other languages all the time for which we have no translation. Champagne, cognac, coup d’etat, espresso, tortilla… we may pronounce them with an American accent, but their spellings are unchanged from their original languages. In Spanish, however, they have their own translations for every one of those words, and they rarely ever use another language’s word (“topless” and “missing” are rare exceptions)… champán, coñac, golpe de estado, exprés, tortilla (well, that’s already Spanish). I never thought about it much, but in one of my classes someone mentioned a coup d’etat and the professor had no idea what that meant. Isn’t that kinda crazy?

I just realized that when I get home in January, I’m only going to have 3 days before moving back to IC (I get home late on the 7th and move back in on the 11th)! Crazy! In those two days, I have to fit in celebrating Christmas, visiting with the fam, seeing Twilight, and packing to move back. All of that on top of fighting jet-lag is going to be hecka loco.

So I’ve just recently begun to truly grasp what an incredible influence the U.S. has on the rest of the world. Over the past few years, Spain’s economy has been struggling (much like the U.S.). Shortly after the crisis in the U.S. began a few weeks ago, I started to hear a lot about “la crisis” on the news here. The Spaniards have truly been in a tizzy, and until about two weeks ago, I thought the whole thing was about the U.S. economic crisis, but then I realized that Spain is now in their own crisis! My host mom didn’t even really realize that it was all that bad in the U.S. (although, she’s a tad clueless on anything non-Spain related), and neither did my professors, but I guess once the U.S. economy plummeted, so did Spain’s. Crazy, eh?

I realized that I’m using the word “crazy” a lot in this post, so why not continue? Another crazy tidbit… at the Volvo race last Saturday, Daman and I were standing in line to enter at the security checkpoint when swarms of people started pulling out their cameras and running. They were surrounding someone, but we weren’t sure what was going on, when a man behind us shouted, “¡El Rey, El Rey!”, which means, “The King, The King!” I knew he was going to be in town for the race, but we had no idea it was him at first because the dude just walked off of a bus… no police escorts, no fancy cars, just a bus! He was entering a few rows down from us, so we were only about 100 feet away, and though I never got a good glimpse, I may have seen the top of his head once! Exciting!!! And I’m not being sarcastic, I was seriously excited beyond belief.

So I’ve kind of been really homesick for fall lately… not homesick homesick, but I really miss fall! It’s so weird here—it’s cooler, but still humid, there’s no crispness in the air, no leaves changing color. I was writing the date on an essay the other day, and I had to stop and remind myself that it’s actually October, because it really doesn’t feel much different than last month. To use the word of the day, CRAZY! I went for a walk last weekend, and while strolling through a park in the city (one of the few with real trees, not palms), I caught a whiff of a pile of wet leaves. I kind of stopped, realizing that that’s the first time that I’ve actually “smelled” fall here! And then I had an apple shortly thereafter, and my fallsickness continued. There aren’t any autumn decorations, no pumpkins… the city is virtually the exact same since my arrival. I know Halloween is a very American thing, but it’s weird not having any recognition that fall has even arrived. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Last Sunday, Ana had dinner for her family: 3 of her kids came, along with her daughter’s boyfriend, her son’s girlfriend, her granddaughter, and her son’s dog. It was the loudest and most chaotic that the house has been… it reminded me a bit of family get-togethers back home, actually. Dinner was quite a treat: Ana spent most of the meal screaming at the dog to stop eating her plants (random note: I still think it’s weird that dogs here answer to Spanish commands…), her granddaughter spent most of the meal standing on her chair and singing songs from Mamma Mia! at the top of her lungs, her kids all spent most of the meal trying to talk over the noise, and I spent most of the meal feeling as though I had never learned a word of Spanish in my life. I’ve gotta say, nothing makes you go from feeling good about your speaking ability to feeling awful about it like sitting with the host mom’s fam! I seriously sat there for close to 2 hours, hardly understanding a word and hoping that they wouldn’t ask me anything for fear that I’d look like a dear in headlights. And whenever they would all start laughing, I was never sure if I should join in or not for fear that it might be an inside joke and then they would KNOW that I had no clue what was going on, so I usually did some awkward half-smiles and jumped at every opportunity to help Ana clear the table or carry out more food. Oh well, I’ll catch on at some point, right? Right?!?! 😊

Another little thing that I don’t think I’ve talked much about is the Spanish people as a whole. Spaniards are generally abrupt and rarely say “excuse me” when pushing by like you generally see in the U.S. That’s not to say they’re rude, because they’re actually quite friendly and good-natured overall, they just don’t waste their time trying to spare anyone’s feelings. Case in point: Before everyone arrived on Sunday, Ana had me run to the bakery right next to our building for a specific type of bread. When I went in and asked for it, the woman behind the counter barked, “NO!” Not, “I’m sorry, we’re all out, but we have another kind that’s similar; would you like that?”, but a short “no.” She then stared me down momentarily, while I replied, “no?” Eventually, she grabbed a different loaf off of the counter and rattled off something really fast which I took to mean that that was the only kind she had. I bought the loaf and everything turned out fine, but I realized that that’s not the first time something like that has happened to me. That’s just about how everyone answers you in a store, restaurant, bakery… it’s occasionally a bit much to handle for a Midwestern girl such as myself!

Okay, TV in Spain is beyond weird. First of all, I can never figure out when anything starts, since most shows start on the quarter-hour instead of the hour or half-hour like in the U.S. Then, some shows only last for 45 minutes, others an hour, and others seem to go on for two or three hours, and I can never figure out if a new episode has started or if they’re still on the same one. THEN, some shows have commercials throughout, and others don’t but then have a five to ten minute break at the end before coming back to finish the last scene of the show. It’s so crazy, and it’s a good thing I don’t have any scheduled shows to watch here, because I wouldn’t know where to start!

Also, they have their own versions of American shows… “Gran Hermano,” which is “Big Brother” is one of the two or three hour ones, but NOTHING ever happens! It’s worse than our version, as there aren’t any fights or anything! I’m not being dramatic either… NOTHING happens. I don’t get it. Then they have an “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” here, with a host who tries to be Ty Pennington and is always running around screaming into a megaphone (he also has crazy-spiked hair!). They take ten days to build the house, though, and the rooms are a lot simpler—they don’t go over-the-top on kids’ rooms like our version. The amount of crying is about the same, though. 😊 There’s also a Spanish version of “Dancing With the Stars,” which, since dance is pretty common in Spain, one might think that it would be amazing. False. The dances last for all of about a minute, they’re really simple moves, they have a choreographer, and the FIVE judges spend roughly 70% of the show talking. Also, they cut out an elimination episode by eliminating voting and the judges just decide who’s going to get the boot. This is another show that lasts for at least two hours, and I truly don’t understand it. Ca-razy.

Oh, and they have actual American shows dubbed in Spanish too, but they air about six months behind our schedule, so, for example, last season of LOST is just now playing. Ana usually skips these shows in preference of Spanish ones, but last week she was flipping through and landed on LOST (or PERDIDOS here) just as the episode was beginning, and, not knowing what it was, decided to watch. I told her that it’s an American program that I watch, and she asked me to explain it. For anyone who watches the show, you know that it’s almost impossible to explain in English, let alone Spanish. I got as far as, “They’re on an island because their plane…” and I couldn’t remember the word for “crashed,” so I finished with, “it’s complicated.” Lame-ist description ever! She kept turning to me throughout the entire episode to ask questions, and I really couldn’t give her much outside of “it’s difficult to explain.” Oh well. I also had to explain “Sleepless in Seattle” last week and even that was hard.

Ooh, another random word trivia tidbit! So we’re reviewing the subjunctive form in our grammar classes, and therefore learning ways to express desire or hope. Well, there’s a Spanish word, “ojalá,” with the “j” pronounced with a throaty, spitty, “h” kind of sound, which means “I hope” or “I wish.” Here’s the cool part: so the Spanish have a lot of Arabic influence in their heritage (the ruling of the Moors before the 15th century)… this explains their darker hair/eyes/complexion. It also explains the origin of that word—originally, Spaniards would have said it as “Oh, Allah” (or “Oh, God”) as a form of quick prayer. Like most languages, however, Spaniards tend to blend their words together, and that became “Ojalá.” Cool, huh?! I thought so!

So I have days where I feel as though I’ll never come even close to being fluent in Spanish… these are usually the days when I need to say some casual phrase like “never mind” and I realize that I don’t know how to say it in Spanish! Simple word translations are easy enough, but a lot of time phrases either don’t translate or are completely different, and it just feels like a lot to learn (with the “never mind” thing, I usually just end up muttering something incoherent while waving my hands… lame, but it’s the best I have). These are also the days when people shorten words in Spanish. Example: the other day Ana was on the phone and needed a pen to write something down. There was one sitting next to me and she looked at me, asking for the “boli.” She kept repeating the word, and I had NO clue what she was talking about. Well, “boli” is short for “bolígrafo,” which is pen, but since abbreviations are something entirely new in the language for me, I randomly started grabbing things and holding them up until I finally got it right. Urgh. It’s amazing how much goes into a language… amazing and incredibly frustrating!

Alrighty, well, for now I think that’s about all I have! I don’t really know what’s up for this coming weekend, so I can’t guarantee an update (especially if I have nothing to update on), but I’ll have another in no more than two weeks!

Thanks so much for reading! I miss you all LOADS and I can’t wait to share even more stories and pictures soon!!!!

Laura

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Photos

And They're Off!
The release of balloons to celebrate the start of the Volvo Race.

La Entrada
The entrance to Avila.

A Rainy Day
A rainy side street.

Las Murallas
The walls around the city from the giant stone cross.

The Hills Are Alive...
My best impression of Maria in The Sound of Music :)

Made Up Facts
Eva demonstrating our made-up fact #1: You know why the print is so big? Because they didn't have glasses back then!

Las Murallas Again
Another view of the walls from the front of the city.

Statue of Santa Teresa
Pretty self-explanatory... the flowers covering the statue.

Yemas!!!
Me, Adam, Katie, and Eva enjoying our Yemas!

El Palacio Real
The royal palace lit up at night :)

Comments

[Javier]

Hey, try "no importa" or "da igual" for "nevermind" ;-) .

[Freya]

I knew Avila sounded familiar. St. Teresa...duh Freya. The pictures of the wall kind of remind of Carcassonne in France. I so totally understand the random TV times! In France, I think most of the shows, at least the primetime ones started at something-50...such a weird and random time! I MISS YOU LOTS LAURA!!!!!!!!